Proofreader: Xemul
It was the next day, and their group were at the south gate of the city of Karlovy.
“So Loren decided to accept the commission, is that correct?”
Leila, fully armed, asked Loren with her arms folded in front of her chest, and he nodded, albeit slowly.
“May I ask why you took it?”
“The main reason is, how should I put it? It was your leader who first said he would take it.”
Loren reminded her, and Leila turned her steely gaze toward Klaus. Klaus, who for some reason was carrying a large luggage on his back, noticed her gaze, started and shivered, then began to sneakily move away from her line of sight.
“The Lord is a woman, right?”
“That’s the main reason. I could have left him to it, but… Well, maybe I felt it was too late to turn back, or maybe I was feeling responsible for being there and couldn’t stop that guy…”
The question of whether or not he should have stopped Klaus even if he had to beat him up kept coming back to Loren’s mind, unanswered even now.
It was somehow strange to accept a job offer at a place they had traveled to for a vacation. However, the fact that half of the appeal of the place was unserviceable meant that they couldn’t enjoy their vacation to the bottom of their hearts, so he believed it was not a bad idea to work a little to eliminate the cause for concern.
“You say the hot springs are no longer available, but what is actually happening?”
Leila asked as she led the group through the south gate. Behind her was Loren and Lapis, who walked side by side with Loren, followed by Gula, Ange, and Laure. Klaus walked at the end of the line.
“Originally, the hot spring water here was opaque, but it has turned a reddish-brown color and began to smell like rusty iron and decay.”
“Could it have been blood?”
“Don’t know. It seems like it, though. But how much blood is there to make all the hot springs in the city become like that?”
If just a small amount of blood got mixed into the source of the hot springs, it would not have been discernible to the entire city, and while it was a creepy story, it would not have been enough to cause a fuss.
However, as all the hot springs in the city were in such a state, one would have to assume that the amount of whatever got mixed in was also quite large. And if it was in fact blood, it would mean that an unthinkable amount of blood was mixed into the hot springs’ source or somewhere else.
“That’s hard to imagine.”
And if it was blood, then it had to flow out endlessly. Otherwise, as soon as the hot water with the blood in it finished its flow, the original clean water would have to flow back in.
“It’ll be a different story if there is a wounded dragon plunged into the source. If not, then blood is probably not the most likely explanation.”
“Then what do you think, Loren?”
Loren shrugged at the question.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m going to check it out.”
“I see. That’s fair enough, but, you know,…”
Leila didn’t stop talking while leading their group. While thinking that she was surprisingly talkative, Loren had no intention of stopping her, since the questions Leila asked also help in explaining the situation to Ange and Laure, who were walking behind them.
“If she is a Lord, doesn’t she have at least a few trusted soldiers?”
“Not sure. But those trusted soldiers should also be beastmen, right?”
The answer Loren gave was not clear to Leila, and she frowned as if asking for some additional explanation. Loren had no choice but to continue.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but… I’ve heard that investigation is a difficult task for beastmen.”
“Oh… I see.”
The beastman race was generally considered not suited for detailed work, although there were a few exceptions. It was something recognized by both beastmen and others; the beastmen do seem to be aware of this.
“If she lets the soldiers under her command do the investigation, it will probably only make things worse.”
“She is a splendid Lord in that she is aware of the situation and does think of countermeasures.”
Lapis said as if she was impressed, but Loren and Leila could only smile vaguely when hearing this, not knowing whether to be impressed or not.
“I don’t think it’s very commendable to give a commission to an adventurer you’ve just met for the first time, is it? Especially when it’s directly from the Lord herself.”
“The information is the lifeblood of the city, but it’s not as confidential as military secrets. If you delay in dealing with it, it will eventually become known.”
“The reason why the Lord directly commissioned us is that, she was just in the middle of looking for someone good when she met Klaus, and it just clicked.”
“Klaus?”
Lapis looked back at Leila, who looked surprised, with an equally surprised look on her face. Loren could somewhat understand both their feelings.
Lapis probably thought that between him and Klaus, Klaus was obviously the one easier to deal with, and she found it natural that the Lord had her eyes on Klaus.
Leila, on the other hand, probably thought that Loren would be more easily noticed than Klaus, who was too soft on women despite being under ‘familial punishment’. And thus she was surprised to hear that the Lord had her attention on Klaus instead.
But after a while, Leila was the first to show the look of understanding on her face.
“She sensed that Klaus is a womanizer…”
“Not directly so, but…”
Lord Minuet told Loren and Klaus that she chose them was very likely because her intuition told her that Klaus wouldn’t refuse her.
At the same time, however, Minuet knew that she would not be able to finalize the discussion if she dealt directly with Klaus, and as a result, she made her request to Klaus through Lorén.
“Is that idiot so obvious that even a complete stranger can see through him?”
Leila glared at Klaus, who was walking at the end of the group. Klaus tried to look for a place to escape from her gaze, but he could not find it and had no choice but to turn around to use the luggage on his back as a shield.
“Be it wild intuition or beastly intuition, Lord-sama does have a good instinct.”
“The commission was accepted, so it can’t be helped. It’s unfortunate for you, but you’ll just have to live with the misfortune of being here.”
“I’m rather willing to do it, though.”
Leila called the commission a misfortune, but Lapis responded with surprising words.
Not expecting Lapis to be interested, Loren and Leila looked at each other with a blank expression, but she continued.
“This is about the hot springs we went through so much trouble to visit? I am looking forward to a big bath, and I’d hate it if I can’t use the hot springs. We should investigate the cause and restore the hot springs’ service as soon as possible.
“I see.”
Leila nodded, as if the explanation Lapis gave with all her might was understandable.
“The reward she offers us is not bad. If we can remove the cause of the problem and make the hot springs available, she will give us a bonus.”
“So from what I understand, the commission is just to investigate the cause, right?”
Investigating the cause and removing the cause were on different levels of difficulty; that was why Leila wanted to confirm the commission’s details. Loren nodded.
“Yes. The main purpose is to investigate first. We were told that there is no need to forcibly solve the problem.”
“Of course she wants us to do it if we can, and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
Leila could see that there seemed to be a big difference in enthusiasm between Loren and Lapis regarding this commission. Leila wondered if it was the difference between those who liked baths and those who did not care for it. If asked which side she was on, she thought it would be Lapis, who would like to be able to use the hot springs.
“So, we’re heading south, but what’s the actual plan?”
“I’ve heard that the canal that brings the hot springs to the city is underground.”
Lapis kicked at the ground with her heel. The canal was built underground to prevent any kind of filth from getting into the hot springs that run to the city, but this had the disadvantage that it made things difficult to investigate if something went wrong.
“It is difficult to investigate a canal buried underground, so we will go to the warm water lake at the other end of the canal and investigate there.”
If there was no problem at the end of the canal, then the canal was the problem. The Lord asked them to conduct an investigation to determine that first, but before that, Leila wanted to make sure of something.
“A warm water lake?”
Leila asked about the unfamiliar words, and Lapis continued to politely explain.
“There is a lake at the end of the canal where the hot spring temporarily gathers. Although I said ‘warm water’, the lake is actually filled with boiling water, so it may be quite dangerous to go near it.”
“The lake is about half a day’s walk to the south.”
The road leading to the place was a gentle uphill. The difference in elevation was utilized to send the hot water to the town.
“The thing that bothers me is that the Lord said that the lake is surrounded by a forest.”
“What’s bothering you about that?”
Leila thought there was nothing strange about the fact that there was a forest around the lake, but Lapis shook her head to disagree.
“A forest surrounding a lake full of boiling water? It’s not the proper environment. It is strange that there is a forest there. Also, hot springs are usually formed when groundwater boils due to geothermal heat, which is often near volcanoes, but there are no volcanoes at all in the vicinity of the hot water lake.”
In addition, places where hot springs welled up often have some kind of gas emanating from them, so it was not an easy place for living creatures to live. Yet there was no such environment at the place of the hot spring lake, and that fact bothered Lapis.
However, she did not raise these questions to the Lord because she believed that even if she did, she would only be told that it was just an exception, or that it was nothing to be concerned about.
“There are exceptions to everything. If we go there, maybe we’ll know?”
In any case, if they didn’t examine the actual place, they wouldn’t make any progress. Thinking so, Lapis called out to the others, then walked a little faster along the road leading to the warm water lake.