“Fuaah… S-so this is a hot spring…!”
Belle was deeply impressed after getting into the hot spring.
Elsa and Belle’s homeland, Shouro empire’s central areas, didn’t really have rain that much so there wasn’t really a custom of entering a bathtub.
“How is it? Does it feel good?”
“Y-Yes. Really good…”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Ohh…”
Barou was stretching out in the men’s section.
He was all alone.
As he relaxed in the hot spring, he felt his piled up fatigue slowly disappeared.
“To think such a facility exists.”
He poured hot water on himself and cleaned his whole body before entering so he was following the etiquette.
And then, a few villagers came in as well.
“Oh, I thought we were the first ones but seems like we got beaten this time.”
“Idiot, didn’t you see the clothes lying in the changing room?”
“Hey, nii-chan, who are you?”
2 men and a kid came in.
Barou panickedly greeted them.
“Ah-N-nice to meet you. I-I am Barou. Umm, I was brought here by Jin-sama and…”
He got really confused there but it seemed that the message he was trying to convey had already been understood.
“Oh, I see. Jin’s guest!”
“So, how are you liking the village?”
“Ah, yes, I just arrived yesterday night and so I don’t really understand but this hot spring is really nice!”
“Right? Jin built it, you know?”
The men said with pride. Barou was surprised to hear it.
“Eh? Jin-sama built this too?”
He wondered what exactly was Jin, giving them a medicine which healed Belle overnight and building this magnificent hot spring.
“So, where did you come from?”
This time the kid asked.
“Eh, ahh, I come from an empire called Shouro… I guess…”
His homeland was the Shouro empire but he had come from Serroa kingdom. It was quite a difficult question for him to answer.
“Shouro empire… That means… You’re from the same place as Elsa-sensei and Mine-sensei!”
“Eh, ah, I see. They did say they were also from Shouro empire, I think.”
“Yep. Now, they are teaching the kids how to read and write in this village.”
“Teach?”
Barou was surprised once again. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the villagers in a normal village do not get the chance to study.
The ones enrolling for apprenticeship to merchants or the ones serving the nobles barely get to study.
“This… is a farm village, isn’t it?”
That was what he thought from what he saw this morning.
“Yea. We pay our taxes with wheat so it’s probably a farm village.”
“But still you people study?”
“Yep. Jin said so, that it is better to start studying from childhood. Well, he has this persuasiveness. And he has a reasonable thinking so nobody opposed it.”
That’s also true. When it comes to needy farm villages, it isn’t unnatural for parents to start making their child also work as soon as they can rather than making them study.
And even the village Barou was in did the same.
Barou and Belle didn’t like that village and so half-forcibly went with a band of merchants who had visited their village. They then luckily found a noble who would hire them.
“This is a nice village…”
Barou thought just a little, that he would have liked to be born in this village.
＊ ＊ ＊
“I am Barbara. Nice to meet you, Belle-san.”
“Y-yes, nice to meet you.”
Elsa and Barbara were of the same age.
“Hey, Belle-san, what is your relation with the boy who is in the men’s bath now?”
“E-eh?! With Barou?!”
Barbara loved these kind of talks.
“Ah, so he is called Barou. Yes, him. You guys came together with Jin-san yesterday, right? I heard from my uncle.”
“Barbara-san’s uncle is…”
“Ah, my uncle’s name is Gibeck and he is the village’s mayor, for what it’s worth. Although, he is the chief now.”
“The chief?”
“Yes. After all, the owner of this village is Jin-san.”
“Eeeeehhhh?!!”
Belle’s voice echoed. It could easily be heard from the men’s bath.
“B-Belle!? What happened?! Are you okay?!”
And because of that, Barou called out with a worried voice.
“I-I’m fine. It’s nothing!”
‘Way to go, kid’, ‘Nii-chan, is that your girlfriend?’ and such voices could be heard from the men’s bath.
Belle pretended to not hear any of those and asked Barbara,
“J-Jin-sama, is he a noble?!”
But Elsa answered to it.
“No, Jin-nii is a commoner. But he’s the world’s best magi craftsman.”
Belle faced towards Elsa and asked her this time,
“Eh, magi craftsman, you say?”
“Yes. Jin-nii was acknowledged as the Honorary magi craftsman of Egelia kingdom and he also did a lot in the Kurain kingdom recently. And reward for that was this village.”
“Eeeeehhhhh?!!”
The second time.
Even though she was just an attendant apprentice, Belle did know that Egelia kingdom and Kurain kingdom weren’t anywhere close to each other.
To be acknowledged by both these far away countries… Belle couldn’t comprehend anymore.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Hmmm, you don’t understand what happened at all?”
“Yes. Just that a group called Nostalgia caught those criminals and handed them over to the soldiers at Toka village. And those criminals don’t remember anything of the past 2 days, for some reason.”
“That was the only thing which was convenient for us… But, this Nostalgia group, eh… I have been hearing their name a lot these days. Annoying bunch. They just destroyed everything. There are no evidence, right?”
“Yes, of course. What should we do next?”
“You returned the enlisted soldiers to the village, right?”
“Yes, they should be reaching Shalulu city by today.”
“That is good. Do you understand? Don’t even do anything that will make me the target of suspicion.”
“I very much understand.”
“Then it’s fine. Next we…”
Nobody there noticed a thing about the Quinta there, listening to the whole story.