Chapter 49
#49. An Orc Is Skinning a Person!!
A contest staking the pride of men. Enduring the fire sauna.
What would be the outcome?
It was none other than Mithril-rank adventurer Hans's victory.
Cedric, drenched in sweat, staggered out of the fire sauna.
Hans, meanwhile, merely sat cross-legged with a relaxed smile still on his face.
Cheers erupted from those who had bet on Hans.
“Yes! Five silver!”
“H-How could this happen…”
Aria's shoulders slumped.
The fact that Cedric had lost stung even more than the ten silver she had lost.
Age… was something no one could hide!
As she slowly left, Lumiela followed excitedly behind her, giggling.
"I told you, didn't I? I said Hans would win. Hehe."
"Hmph. Aren't you pleased with yourself."
Lumiela poked the sulking Aria in the side.
"Ms. Aria! They say lots of adventurers have ranked up through fire-sauna training! We're mages too, in name at least, so shall we train together?"
"I'll pass. It sounds dubious, too……."
Aria looked down at Sir Walter, being carried away by orc employees.
It didn't particularly look like imitating him would make her healthier.
"It's true."
Just then, an orc with a fierce expression suddenly cut in.
The former chieftain of the Twin Axes Tribe.
It was Karak.
"Rick trained in the fire sauna and became Gold rank, too."
"Who is Rick…?"
"Anyway, there's a guy like that. Soak in the bath to relieve fatigue, cleanse your body with a scrub, then train your mana control in the fire sauna, and enlightenment will come."
Hearing that, Lumiela grabbed Aria and dragged her toward the fire sauna.
She had zero resistance to sales pitches.
Aria was also weak to this sort of forceful pushing.
In the end, the two women only emerged from the fire sauna after sweating everything out.
Their legs were trembling, and their faces had been cooked bright red.
"I think… it did… count as training…?"
"Hehe… But it's so… hot, isn't it…? Next, where should we…."
The two women walked down the hallway with dazed expressions.
Various room names floated in and out of their blurred vision.
Salt room, loess room…
And…… an ice room?
"I-Ice room…? Why would His Highness build… a place like this…? It's cold enough… if you just go a little outside the new city……."
"Oh, well… let's go… just once…! Since we're here… we should try everything…!"
Lumiela, already recovered, led Aria along.
The inside of the ice room was filled entirely with frost and ice.
Just looking at it gave her goosebumps, and she hesitated to step inside, but…
Ssssss.
"Grrrrrrrr……!!!"
The two women simultaneously let out cries of pleasure.
The moment cold air touched their hot bodies, an indescribably thrilling pleasure swept through them from head to toe.
Their bodies, heated through, cooled in an instant.
It felt as if even their minds had cleared.
"Who knew cold wind could feel this good…! Even though I live in the North, this is my first time experiencing it!"
"It's not bad, is it?"
"......Right?"
The two women sat there for a long while, savoring the cold air.
However.
Their happiness was short-lived.
The pleasure gradually faded…. Then the chill seeped into their bones.
"But now I think…… I'm too cold……!"
"Already? Then shall we go back to the fire sauna?"
They hurried out of the ice room and opened the fire sauna door again.
Their frozen skin melted softly in the surging heat.
"Haaah…… I feel alive again……."
Aria flopped down onto the wooden floor and sprawled out.
"Hehe. You're enjoying yourself too, right, sis?"
"Ah, I haven't even told you my age yet…"
Fire. Ice. Fire. Ice.
Once they had tasted that pleasure, the two women simply could not stop.
When their bodies were heated in the fire sauna, they longed for the ice room, and when they cooled off in the ice room, they longed for the fire sauna again.
The women, who had enjoyed the jjimjilbang without end, did not return to their lodgings until evening.
The two women, having bought eggs and banana milk, slumped into chairs.
Lumiela peeled an egg and took a bite.
Then she took a long sip of banana milk.
Gulp. Gulp.
"……!! You really do live and learn. I never thought I'd eat food like this in the North!"
"Huh? Don't they sell lots of delicious food in the new city?"
"Hehe. Since I hole up in my workshop, I just eat whatever's convenient."
Aria nodded as if she understood.
One was the Green Tower Master. The other was a genius developer who it would not be an exaggeration to call the most famous person in Winterwald after Kylan and Eleanor.
When either of them became absorbed in work, neither had time to worry about trivial things like food.
"Sob! It's such a relief that someone like the Grand Duke is the lord of Winterwald. He gives the workshop plenty of funding, and he gives us fun ideas, too……."
"Exactly. How in the world does His Highness know all those things?"
Aria seriously racked her brain as she peeled an egg.
She found no answer.
***
The lord's castle, office.
As always, Eleanor approached Kylan with a radiant smile.
And, as always, she had good news with her.
"Your Highness! Here is last month's sales report."
"Hmm."
"The jjimjilbang's sales far exceeded expectations, and every new product sells out as soon as it arrives. And……."
Eleanor smiled with satisfaction.
"The mascot merchandise is also receiving a very positive response. Next week, we're scheduled to launch our Yongyongi capes as well."
"Impressive. It is all thanks to you and the retainers' hard work."
"Hehe. I hardly know what to do with myself."
Kylan flipped through the report he had received, one page at a time.
'……The response isn't bad.'
Yongyongi was catching on.
Although for now, its popularity was limited to the North.
'I can't be satisfied with just this much.'
To capture everyone's hearts….
In other words, to sell Yongyongi merchandise across the entire continent, he needed the proper groundwork.
Yongyongi being cute alone was not enough.
A star needed a proper story.
A pleased smile spread across Kylan's lips.
"Your Highness……? Was there something you wished to say?"
"No. It is nothing."
Yongyongi's full-fledged debut was only beginning.
***
The snowy mountains on the outskirts of Winterwald New City.
A huge shadow landed on the snowfield.
Kuwaaaaang-!
It was a wyvern.
A man lightly jumped down from its back, his black cloak billowing.
Armor made from wyvern scales. A mithril sword at his waist, too.
Galad of the Blue Sky, a Mithril-rank adventurer from the South.
He was also sometimes called an orc slayer, owing to his past feat of single-handedly subjugating an orc settlement.
"……Hehe. This is truly exciting."
Galad pulled a crumpled commission notice from inside his coat.
It was a commission notice distributed simultaneously to major guilds throughout the Empire.
[Client: Kylan Winterwald.]
[Requirement: Mithril rank or higher.]
[Details: A detailed commission will be issued later if the interview is passed.]
[Reward: Negotiated separately — successful candidates will be paid generously]
The contents themselves were downright unhelpful.
It did not even say what work they wanted him to do, and the only mention of compensation was that it would be generous.
Galad, however, raised the corners of his mouth.
'……Well, I can make a guess.'
The minimum qualification for accepting the commission was Mithril rank, of all things.
There might not even be forty of these superhumans across the entire continent.
Commissions entrusted to Mithril ranks were not common by any means, either.
'……Neither the work nor the reward will be ordinary.'
On top of that, there was even an interview.
'An interview.'
Since reaching Mithril rank, he had been treated with reverence everywhere he went in the South.
Being tested by someone was a feeling he had long since forgotten.
But he did not feel bad about it. If anything, his blood was boiling.
‘How long had it been since I'd been tested?’
Galad's gaze turned toward the spire of Winterwald Grand Ducal Castle, rising in the distance.
‘Kylan Winterwald…….’
Swordmaster.
Monster Grand Duke.
A living legend who had single-handedly halted a monster wave.
'I'd always wanted to meet him at least once.'
"Ahem. Ahem."
Galad cleared his throat and settled his excited heart.
Among swordsmen, there would be no one who did not admire that man.
‘Hehe. Naturally, there is no way I'll fail the interview…….’
Galad confidently put the commission notice back inside his coat, then stroked the wyvern's massive neck as it lay quietly beside him.
"I'll be gone for a little while, so wait quietly in this cave."
Rumble…….
The wyvern lowered its head with a low growl.
A lifelong partner whose soul he had intertwined with through a mana contract years ago.
Their mana was connected, so if one of them was in danger, the other would instinctively notice.
“I'll be back before mealtime."
Rumble─.
The wyvern obediently closed its eyes as if it understood.
He stroked the wyvern's head, then left the cave.
A short while later.
Galad stopped walking as he entered the hot-spring town.
"……Hmm?"
He sensed something off.
Even when flying over the mountain range on his wyvern, bitter cold had been blowing hard enough to cut the tip of his nose.
It was typical Northern weather, with breath freezing and blizzards obscuring his vision.
Yet the moment he stepped into town, beads of sweat began forming.
'Why has the weather suddenly become so warm?'
Galad looked up at the sky in bewilderment.
"……?!"
Galad's mouth fell open.
"……W-What is that?!"
In the sky.
There were two suns.
As a Mithril-rank adventurer who had challenged countless unexplored regions, Galad had seen many things, but today was the first time he had ever seen a sky with two suns.
It was just then, while Galad stood frozen with his mouth agape.
An adventurer wearing a silver identification tag happened to whistle as he passed by.
Galad hurriedly grabbed him.
"E-Excuse me. You there, adventurer."
"Huh? Me?"
The Silver-rank adventurer pulling a luggage cart stopped and turned to look at Galad.
"There are…… two suns in the sky. Do you know what on earth is going on?"
At Galad's grave question, the Silver-rank adventurer glanced up at the sky and let out a snort of laughter.
"Hoho. You look like an adventurer too, but how do you expect to make money when you're this poorly informed? It's been ages since Her Highness the Grand Duchess married into the North, and you're still asking about that."
"What do you mean? What on earth does Her Highness the Grand Duchess have to do with the sun?"
Galad spent most of his time adventuring with his partner, the wyvern Zephar.
As a result, he had little interest in what was going on in the world.
Besides, this was his first time in the North.
"Work as an adventurer here for a few days, and you'll naturally find out."
The Silver-rank adventurer coolly went on his way.
"……."
Mithril-rank adventurer Galad was left standing alone in the middle of the road.
'Two suns…… As expected, there are still so many places in the world for me to explore.'
He forced himself to calm down.
Being shocked by something like this would not preserve a Mithril adventurer's dignity. He had to remain composed.
"They said there was a hot spring somewhere around here."
Galad fastened his collar and quickened his pace.
When he had decided to come here, he had happened to see a flyer on a bulletin board.
A flyer depicting a hot spring in the North.
A steaming bath, with eggs and milk neatly placed beside it.
‘Getting myself in shape before the interview is a must.’
Galad walked through the hot-spring town with an excited stride.
Before long, a huge steelwood sign with a bluish sheen entered Galad's view.
[Winterwald Hot-Spring Resort]
Seeing the steaming entrance, Galad smiled in satisfaction.
"……Oh, this is quite impressive, just as I'd heard."
It was the moment he opened the inn's sliding door and entered.
"I've come to take over the shift, big brother!"
"Krrk. Good work. Keep an eye on the counter."
A huge shadow slipped into the employee lounge in the corner of Galad's vision.
"……Huh?"
Galad rubbed his eyes.
Had he seen incorrectly?
Hadn't this employee just traded shifts with an orc?
Surely not.
'It's probably just someone who looks like an orc.'
Galad shook his head repeatedly.
He must have been tired from flying all the way to the North.
"Welcome, guest!"
A human youth sat at the counter, smiling brightly.
Of course.
A human should be sitting at the counter.
An orc sitting there would be strange.
Galad cleared his throat and put on airs.
It was time to show the bearing of the South's greatest adventurer.
"One night's lodging. And…… before I unpack, I'd like to use the bath first."
"Ah! Is this your first time staying at our inn? Would you like me to explain our first-time guide and courses?"
"No need. Hot springs are all more or less the same. I'll figure it out, so just give me a key."
The clerk handed him a key with a pleasant smile.
"Yes! Then I hope you have a comfortable stay!"
Galad snorted and headed confidently toward the men's bath area.
After throwing off his clothes in the changing room, Galad headed to the large bath wearing only a light bathing towel.
A wave of searing steam rushed over him.
An open-air bath wreathed in warm steam.
A sulfurous smell stung his nose.
Once he lowered himself into the bath, a sigh escaped him.
‘……Excellent. This is the best.’
He felt the fatigue accumulated from flying to the North melting away.
‘If I sleep for a while and wake up like this, I can go to the interview in peak condition.’
A smile naturally formed at the corners of his mouth.
It was just then, as Galad stretched contentedly in the bath.
Woooooong─!
"……!"
From one corner shrouded in thick steam.
Beyond a wooden partition labeled [Body Scrub Room].
An intensely powerful aura, enough to take his breath away, burst forth.
‘W-What is this enormous aura……!’
Through the slightly open gap in the door, he caught sight of the scene inside.
On a bed.
A man lay sprawled facedown, not wearing a single thread.
And standing in front of him was.
A gigantic orc, well over two meters tall, green muscles rippling.
Moreover.
A red aura was ominously flickering around both hands of the orc!
"What the… fuck!"
This was right in the heart of Winterwald.
Inside the most peaceful inn in the Grand Duke's domain, no less!
And yet a monster had brazenly invaded and was butchering a human in broad daylight!
Shraaak─!
Galad hurriedly leaped out of the bath and charged toward the orc.
"You filthy monster baaaastard!!"