#43. Fire-Heated Sauna Training

#43. Fire-Heated Sauna Training

Winterwald's Grand Ducal Castle, the lord's office.

In the quiet room, only the quill noisily scratched across the paper.

The more Kylan's nerves frayed, the more violently the quill scraped.

"Haaah……"

Kylan Winterwald, the greatest Sword Master in the Empire and the man known as the ghost of the battlefield.

Dark circles hung heavily beneath his eyes.

He had nearly reached the point where the title of Monster Grand Duke no longer suited him.

He had not even batted an eyelash when facing hundreds of soldiers alone.

But before a mountain of approval documents, he became utterly helpless.

'This is driving me insane.'

For the past several days, Kylan had not even caught a glimpse of his bed.

Putting five thousand orcs to work on a large-scale construction project was no simple matter.

Manpower assignments, adjustments to the meal budget, the hot-spring resort's accounting, and even handling complaints from merchant guilds pouring in from every corner of the continent.

All of that burden rested squarely on the shoulders of Kylan, the lord of the territory.

But something else was driving Kylan crazier than his physical fatigue.

'I can't even remember the last time I spent some quiet time alone with Eleanor…….'

Even with his beloved wife right beside him, he had not had the time to properly look her in the face because of the flood of approval documents.

By nightfall, she was usually too exhausted to do anything but fall asleep, and Kylan's pent-up frustration had already reached its limit.

'Today, I'm getting off work on time no matter what.'

There was only one reason Kylan was processing the paperwork at the speed of light.

For three whole days starting today!

He was going to spend a vacation at the hot-spring inn with his beloved wife, Eleanor!

A private open-air bath of the highest quality, and time alone with no one to disturb them, awaited him.

'At last…… At last, it's over!'

Kylan stamped the final approval document and passed it along.

At last, the top of his desk was clean.

He picked up his coat with trembling hands.

Just then, the sun outside the window began to set.

Though another sun was rising in its place.

'I'm getting off work on time for the first time in ages. Eleanor is waiting for me. Hot springs! Rest! A date! Lovey-dovey time!'

Just as Kylan, his heart swelling with excitement, reached for the doorknob,

Bang!

"M-My lord!! There are additional documents that urgently require your approval……!"

"Your Highness! The Southern Merchants' Alliance has come to discuss an exclusive contract for banana milk……!"

"This is an approval request concerning additional food rations for the training camp. Recently, orcs trying to join the Adventurers' Guild have been……!"

The three vassals—Knight Commander Cedric, Guild Master Walter, and Count Rian, the trade official.

They came rushing in, each carrying a pile of documents.

Their faces were every bit as haggard as Kylan's, and they looked no different from zombies.

Kylan's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

The hand that had been reaching to put on his coat froze stiff in midair.

A resentful glare turned toward his vassals.

"M-My lord. It is so urgent that it absolutely must be dealt with before tonight……"

Just as Cedric held out the documents and continued speaking,

Vrrrrrrr!!

The temperature in the office plummeted.

Kylan's patience had reached its limit.

The Sword Master's aura broke free of his control and filled the office.

A thin layer of frost formed on the windows, and even the solar mana stones prepared for heating lost their light and fell silent.

"Ugh……!?"

"M-My lord……?"

The vassals' breath caught in their throats.

It was a chill even the vassals who had fought alongside him on countless battlefields had never felt before.

"Enough."

Cold air poured from between Kylan's lips.

"Anyone who even utters a syllable of the word 'documents' in front of me right now will be thrown straight into the snow troll pen, so bear that in mind."

"B-But, Your Highness! If the additional food rations do not continue, it will interfere with the training……!"

"Southern merchants are famous for being fickle. We have to sign the contract now……!"

The vassals each offered excuses, trying somehow to push the documents forward.

They did not yield even before the Sword Master's aura. Faced with that zombie-like persistence, Kylan covered his forehead with one hand.

'Whew……. I'm going to die. This is hopeless.'

Now that he looked at them closely, his vassals were in no better shape.

Was it because he had become so obsessed with money that he had worked them too hard? It seemed his workaholism had spread even to the people beneath him.

A holiday was right around the corner starting tomorrow, yet they had not even noticed and were shoving documents at him.

Just look at those dark circles.

Even the amazing effects of the Fountain of Life had not lasted them a full week.

'If I want to rest, I have to force those idiots to rest first.'

Having made up his mind, Kylan pointed toward the door.

"You three. Go to the hot-spring resort right now. I hear the fire-heated sauna has just been completed as well. Do not step out of the inn until sunrise tomorrow. This is an absolute order from your lord."

I'll deal with the documents after your vacation.

Today, I'm going to rest with Eleanor, too.

It was an order for forced leave carrying that very meaning. Kylan left without a second thought, crossing the office threshold and disappearing.

The three vassals left behind stood alone in the bitterly frozen office.

"W-What…… What is going on?"

Count Rian muttered as he trembled.

Sir Walter, too, lowered his head with a grim expression.

"Wasn't our lord the one who kept working through the night no matter how much we tried to stop him?"

"It seems that his unreasonable schedule has finally pushed him to his limit……"

"Even I would have wanted to get off work as soon as possible. His relationship with Her Highness the Grand Duchess is so affectionate, after all."

Silence descended on the office, but only for a moment.

Kylan's confidant, Cedric, the commander of the First Knight Order, lifted his head.

"Look at you hopelessly dense fools! Do you still not understand our lord's intentions?!"

"W-What are you talking about, Commander Cedric?"

Cedric clenched his fist and began passionately expounding.

"Do you really think our lord is the sort of man who would get angry merely because his date was interrupted? A man who sheds blood and tears day and night for his people?!"

Count Rian and Sir Walter looked at Cedric with expressions that seemed to say, Well, that could happen.

"Why do you think our lord specifically ordered us to enter the 'fire-heated sauna' and not come out until morning? Think about it!"

Walter scratched his chin.

"The reason……? Wasn't it simply an expression of his boundless consideration, telling us to relieve our fatigue in a hot place?"

"Isn't the jjimjilbang project our lord is overseeing a core facility that the territory's residents and countless tourists from across the continent will use?! Don't you think he wants us to personally test it, find out whether there are any safety issues, and determine whether it places too much strain on the constitutions of Northerners?!"

"Aah……!!"

Count Rian covered his mouth.

"T-That makes sense……! He wasn't telling us to rest. He was assigning us a safety-inspection mission!"

"Exactly! For the sake of our lord's honor, we must investigate that fire-heated sauna down to its very foundations. Come, let us be off!"

He had only told them to get some rest.

They were hopeless workaholics who somehow had to connect even a single word to work.

***

The fire-heated sauna, Winterwald Hot-Spring Resort's ambitious new attraction.

Three men stood before a gigantic earthen kiln heated by solar mana stones and a specially designed furnace.

Cedric, an old knight with fearsome scars.

Sir Walter, the one-eyed guild master.

And Count Rian, a painfully thin administrator.

Even wearing the ochre-colored sauna clothes provided by the resort, they gave off an unusual presence.

In other words, they stood out far too much.

Towels rolled into round coils on both sides sat atop their heads.

The so-called sheep-head towels had been neatly placed on them as well.

Kylan had issued a strict order, claiming that this was a rule of the place and that they absolutely had to wear them, though of course no such rule existed anywhere.

It was his own small joke.

Gulp.

Count Rian swallowed nervously as he stared at the entrance to the enormous fire-heated sauna.

"I-Is this really…… the place Your Highness was talking about? It looks like nothing more than a gigantic furnace to me…… Are people really allowed to go inside?"

"Indeed. With flames roaring beneath it, it looks just like the entrance to hell."

As Walter and Rian hesitated, several Southern merchants emerged from the fire-heated sauna, drenched in sweat.

"Ahh~ That's refreshing! I feel all my fatigue melting away!"

"I thought we'd freeze to death coming all the way to the North, but now I finally feel alive…… His Highness the Grand Duke must be a genius!"

Watching the merchants, their faces bright red but their expressions as happy as if they owned the world, the three men rubbed their eyes.

"People really do come out alive……"

"L-Let's go in. It is His Highness's order, after all."

Cedric took a deep breath, lifted the tent flap, and led the way inside.

Whoosh—!!

"Guh……!!"

The moment they entered, murderous heat engulfed their entire bodies.

The temperature inside was well over eighty degrees.

For men who had spent their entire lives in the frigid North, it was an extreme environment that made their breath catch and their lungs feel as though they were burning.

Would this be what it felt like to face a Red Dragon's breath?!

"Ngh……! Th-this is……!!"

"My head…… It's spinning……!"

Count Rian staggered and complained of dizziness.

Cedric and Walter were also sweating profusely and breathing heavily. This was no environment in which anyone could sit comfortably and rest.

Then it happened.

Cedric, who had been sweating buckets, suddenly opened his eyes wide.

He was the man with the most overactive imagination about his lord in all of Winterwald.

"I understand now……!!"

"Sir Cedric? What else have you figured out now?!"

With trembling hands, Cedric pointed at the sheep-head towel perched on his head.

"Why our lord sent us here! Why he ordered us to wear these ridiculous towels! I finally understand it perfectly!"

"Really? I thought His Highness was simply playing a cute prank……"

Cedric leaped up as if Walter's suggestion were absurd.

"Think about it! The aura of our Northern knights basically carries the nature of cold and frost, does it not? What do you think will happen if we release our aura while enduring this extreme heat?!"

"Wouldn't that just be a nuisance……?"

"We must control our aura only enough not to inconvenience anyone! So that it does not produce steam! Only enough to endure in this fire-heated sauna for a long time!"

Walter's one eye opened wide.

"I-I see……! Then the amount of aura we can produce will naturally increase……! It will even train us in precise control!!"

Cedric cautiously ran his fingers over the two neatly rolled ends of the sheep-head towel.

"Look at the beautiful shape of this towel! What do you think will happen if we recklessly release aura whenever we feel hot!? It will immediately come undone!"

Stick it on your nose, and it's a nose ring.

Stick it on your ear, and it's an earring, or so they say.

The blinders over Cedric's eyes did not look likely to come off until Kylan ran the North into the ground.

The three men walked toward the center of the fire-heated sauna. Instead of lying down or resting comfortably, they sat cross-legged and upright directly in front of the hottest furnace.

"We must live up to His Highness's intentions! Let us begin at once!!"

"Ooooooh!!"