I averted my gaze and continued enjoying the hot spring while observing the three people with [Observation Color]. But Kazuma was openly staring intently at Wolbach. Feeling his gaze, Wolbach spoke to Kazuma.
"Um, it's embarrassing if you stare so much..."
"Don't mind ."
When Kazuma said that confidently, Wolbach was instead flustered.
"W-well, I suppose... it's a mixed bath, so..."
"Don't mind ."
Then Vanir, sitting next to Wolbach, laughed and said to Kazuma,
"Hahaha, you speak with confidence, but you're just a virgin boy excited at seeing a beautiful woman's naked body in a mixed bath for the first ti. You might be hoping for sothing good to happen here, but unfortunately! Nothing of the sort will happen, hahaha!"
Struck at the heart of the matter, Kazuma's face turned red and he was flustered.
"I-It's not like that!"
"Hmm~ This fluster! A good emotion. But the friend next to you, I feel nothing from him. Is he even human?"
Vanir pointed at and asked, so I answered imdiately.
"He's human."
Just then, Wolbach stared intently at my face, then whispered to Hans and Vanir beside her. The three whispered among themselves, then got out of the bath and started heading to the showers. Even after being called out, Kazuma continued to ogle Wolbach's figure until the end.
"It seems I'll see you again. Until next ti, Silver Flash, hahaha."
Vanir said that to and left. Wolbach, also leaving, said one thing.
"He's more handso than the rumors. See you later, handso~"
Wolbach winked at and left. Hans muttered sothing about proselytizing and joining the church, then suddenly threw an Axis Church soap on the floor and left. Seeing that, Kazuma said with an understanding expression,
"Ugh, he must have had a hard ti in this town too."
"Seems so."
"By the way, do you know that masked man and the beautiful redhead?"
Kazuma asked about Vanir and Wolbach, but I decided to make a vague excuse.
"No, I don't. They looked like adventurers. They must have heard about from sowhere."
"Well, you are a very famous adventurer. I wonder when I'll beco like that."
"Still, there's no one in Axel who doesn't know your party, so aren't you a bit famous? And gumin even has an alias."
"That's true, but... the 'Mad Widow'... well, it's still an alias."
Kazuma seed to want to say sothing about gumin's 'Mad Widow' alias but gave up. He was probably reluctant to talk about it, since he was also involved in the incident.
We got out of the bath and decided to try the hot spring massage, a specialty of this town. The hot spring massage here was a service where you simply lie still, and they apply oil and massage you to relieve fatigue, then finish by cleaning your body with the famous soap. It was easy for even people with physical disabilities to receive.
We got the massage first. As we lay on the massage beds, sturdy attendants ca out, applied oil to our bodies, and began massaging, pressing on knotted muscles. As his muscles relaxed, Kazuma exclaid in admiration.
"Wow~ This really relieves fatigue. I thought massages were only for old people, but it's not bad."
"I agree. It's my first ti too, and it's good."
After the massage was finished, they lathered up the famous soap on cloths and washed our bodies.
"How is it, custor?"
"It's good~ Ah~ right there, right there~ Haah~"
Kazuma was receiving the service almost to the point of ecstasy.
"This soap is very gentle, isn't it?"
"Ah, yes."
Suddenly, the attendant, promoting the soap, urged us to join the Axis Church.
"This soap cures any status ailnt, and what's more, you can eat it! It's made from natural ingredients and is holy! You can get it when you join the church! For free!"
"Eep! I said no!!"
While Kazuma was being harassed, I used [Haoshoku Haki] to pressure the attendant dealing with , roughly finished washing up, and got out of there. As I ca out, I looked into the next room and saw Hans also being harassed by attendants.
"Let go of !! Stop trying to trick with that stuff!!"
I pretended not to see and went back into the hot spring to enjoy it. Then Kazuma, having managed to escape the attendant, returned to the hot spring with a very tired expression.
"Sigh... This is insane. I think it's quieter and better to just stay in the hot spring. I'm never using that service again!"
"I agree. Let's just quietly enjoy the hot spring, then wash and leave."
Just then, won's voices ca from the adjacent bath.
"gumin~ it's been a while. To bathe together like this. Oh my! Your breasts have gotten a bit bigger~"
"Sersi-nee! Where are you touching! Haah!"
"Yunyun, yours are quite big. Co here~"
"I said no!"
At that sound, Kazuma suddenly got out of the bath, pressed his ear to the wall near the won's bath, and focused on the voices. As expected, Kazuma was true to his instincts. I, on the other hand, had enjoyed myself enough. I was about to get out of the bath and let Kazuma know, but he was so focused that he seed uninterested in my leaving. So, without disturbing him, I quietly left, showered, and returned to the inn.
As expected, all the won were out enjoying the hot spring, so no one was there. I went out into the town and bought a large amount of soap, detergent, and the famous manju. I wouldn't be able to buy them anywhere else, so I decided to stock up while I was here. After clearing out a few shops, I returned to the inn to find Aqua crying her eyes out.
"That's so an~! I only went into the hot spring... Waaah~!"
Hearing the story, it seed Aqua had gone into the hot spring and purified all the water, so she was kicked out.
"I told you to control yourself. Their hot springs are their source of inco. If you purify them, what are the faithful supposed to live on?"
"But, but... It doesn't make sense to be kicked out of a church that worships !!"
"At this rate, you'll be hated by your own followers too."
"I don't want that!"
"Then control yourself. Keep this up, and like I said before, you might cause a major accident and actually get sold off sowhere. How many tis are you going to cause trouble? Instead, set up a glass of water, drop so ink in it, and practice so it doesn't get purified."
"Sniff... okay. I'll try..."
Aqua, seemingly not wanting to be hated by her followers, said she would try. I hoped she would learn to control her power through this incident, but I didn't have high expectations.
We were sitting and resting when Kazuma and the others, Cecily, and Yunyun returned from the hot spring. As soon as she arrived, gumin protested to .
"Tae-jin, why didn't you stop Kazuma?"
"Huh? Stop him from what?"
"Kazuma was peeping into the won's bath!"
"Well, that's... Kazuma is at an age where he follows his instincts, so being curious about won's bodies can't be helped."
My words only made Kazuma more embarrassed.
"But if you only follow your instincts, you're no better than an animal."
"Of course, you're right, gumin. If you go too far, you are an animal. But without those feelings, none of the people here would have been born."
Then Kazuma, looking troubled, tried to stop .
"Tae-jin, please stop. Sohow, I feel like I'm just becoming more pathetic."
"Ahem... okay, fine."
After dinner, we went to our respective rooms to rest. Today again, I spent a hot night with Darkness and then fell asleep. Since we were at an inn, we didn't go as far as before and kept it moderate.
The next day, Darkness and I showered and went down to the dining room to eat together. Everyone else was also coming down, so we ordered a group al and ate together. Then Aqua, as if rembering sothing, urgently stood up and said,
"That's right! I forgot to ntion it because I was kicked out of the hot spring yesterday, but it seems this town is in danger!"
Kazuma, in the middle of eating, asked Aqua,
"Danger? What are you talking about? You were staring at a water cup until late, practicing sothing."
"The innkeeper said, 'The hot spring water quality has been getting worse lately.' This must be the work of the Demon King's army, who see our church as a threat! They think they can't win in a direct fight, so they're trying to take away our precious hot spring revenue!"
What Aqua said was half true. Arcanletia was difficult for the Demon King's army to attack because the entire city was blessed by Aqua and had many skilled priests. Besides, even the Demon King's forces hated getting involved with the Axis Church.
In fact, I thought that last part might be the biggest reason. Anyway, to destroy the Axis Church, the Demon King had sent Hans to continuously contaminate the water quality.
Kazuma, hearing that, looked elsewhere and answered carelessly,
"Yeah, amazing."
"Believe !!"
Even gumin seed not to believe her.
"Well, it's true that people avoid the Axis Church... but would they go that far?"
I knew I should support Aqua for the sake of the original story, but I also thought Aqua needed to mature a bit, so I didn't take her side.
"I think you're the biggest problem, Aqua. Honestly, how many hot springs did you purify yesterday?"
"W-well... about three."
"Then the people who ran those hot springs won't be able to do business for about a day until they empty out the plain water and refill it with hot spring water. Looking at this, isn't the problem less the Demon King's army and more you, Aqua, purifying the hot springs and turning them into plain water? And would people really believe soone who caused such a problem? You're lucky you haven't been chased out."
"Well... but still..."
"If you had learned to control your abilities earlier, you could have avoided this and even gotten cooperation from the townspeople to solve the problem easily. Plus, your problem with Kazuma, fighting every day, still isn't resolved. You have so many problems piled up, who exactly is worried about whom?"
"Waaah~!!!"
Aqua couldn't refute my words and lay on the table, crying. It couldn't be helped, given the burden of her past actions. But the girls watching also had bad expressions. So I decided to stop there.
"But since it doesn't seem like your party has completely fallen out, if you apologize and ask to be taken back, they might accept you. Don't you think?"
I turned my head and looked at Kazuma and the others. Kazuma thought for a mont, then sighed and set a condition for Aqua.
"Get rid of your selfishness! That's the condition. You should have been able to control your power if you thought of others first. Anyway, if you accept the condition, I'll take you back."
Hearing that, Aqua, looking dejected, bowed her head and said,
"Okay. I'll try."
"Good! Rember that."
Then the won approached Aqua and hugged her.
gumin: "I'm glad. Now we can take quests together again."
Darkness: "Indeed. From now on, we'll be reborn as an even better party."
Yunyun: "I'm glad, Aqua."
Cecily: "Ah~ To be able to hug gumin and Yunyun like this, what a joy!"
There was so strange talk mixed in, but fortunately, things seed to be resolved.
"Then let's investigate right away. Everyone, spread out and gather information. Check if there are any problems with the hot spring water flowing into the baths, and if there are any suspicious people."
Just then, Aqua voiced another objection.
"Instead of that, if I sohow persuade the townspeople..."
"As I said before, the mont you do that, you'll be chased out of town. Purifying the hot springs is a very big problem. Honestly, if it were , I would have calculated the lost business days and the amount of water, and demanded an enormous amount in damages."
I didn't know if she was trusting her followers and not giving up, or what. Cecily also agreed with .
"Tae-jin is right. Arcanletia's main business is hot springs. If sothing happens to them, their inco is greatly affected. Soone who purified the hot springs into plain water, I imagine the townspeople are very angry right now. For such a person to try to persuade them... they'd be lucky not to get hit with stones."
"So in the end, we have to solve this ourselves. Fortunately, with Cecily here, we can get the church's cooperation quickly if needed."
We decided to et back at the inn in the evening and split into groups of two or three to investigate.
The groups were:
Kazuma, Darkness
gumin, Yunyun
Aqua, , Cecily
Since the problematic ones were with . Honestly, I had no idea what trouble Aqua or Cecily might cause. The others also roughly understood why I had arranged the groups like that and didn't say anything.
"Then see you in the evening."
"Got it."
With Cecily, who knew the area well, we decided to investigate the hot spring water flowing down from the source and headed there. Thanks to Cecily, we could move around comfortably without being proselytized by Axis Church mbers.
We moved like that and arrived at the first branch of the hot spring water.
"Hmm... There's nothing wrong here."
Cecily said, looking around. I also checked, but there was nothing unusual. Just then, Aqua tried to touch the hot spring water again, so I imdiately smacked her on the back of the head.
Smack!
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"If you dip your hand in and purify it again, I'll just throw you to the townspeople and tell them, 'This is the one who did it.' I told you. If you keep purifying the hot springs, this town will be ruined. I'm telling you clearly, stop touching the hot spring water. This is my final warning."
"Okay, okay. I was just checking to see if there was any problem with the water."
"I can't deal with the anxiety. Just tie her up."
"Ta-Taejin?"
I took out a straitjacket top from my inventory and put it on Aqua, binding her arms. I had bought a few in the MCU in case they ever ca in handy.
"Tae-jin! I can't use my arms at all now."
"That's the point. You still can't control your abilities. On top of that, you didn't listen when I told you not to touch it, and you were about to do it again, so I'm taking drastic asures."
Aqua, having no choice, wore the straitjacket and followed us, crying.
"Ugh... How did I end up like this..."
Regardless, we checked the hot spring water flowing down from the source. There was nothing unusual. But when I checked with [Eyes], I could see that the water was very faintly contaminated with poison. This was clearly Hans contaminating it at the source, just like in the original story.
"Hmm... nothing wrong here either..."
"Tae-jin, this is the last one. We've checked them all."
"I see. Then let's go back."
"Okay."
We finished our investigation and returned to the inn. Upon arriving, I took the straitjacket off Aqua.
"Phew... I feel like I can live again. Do I have to do that? I won't go near the hot spring water again."
"If you hate it that much, learn to control your power quickly."
"I'm trying!"
The others hadn't returned yet, so I and Cecily sat resting at the inn. Aqua alone was practicing controlling her power, dropping ink into a cup of water. But she kept failing; the mont the ink fell, it was imdiately purified.
"Why won't it work! Waaah!"
Aqua eventually started crying in frustration. At this point, she almost looked pitiful. I suppose it couldn't be helped; she had lived in heaven with her overflowing divine power just as it was, so it wasn't sothing she could learn in a day.
"Relax and practice. When you can't control your power, imagine a faucet and adjust it by letting out a little water. When you don't need to use it, turn it off."
I patted Aqua on the back and gave her advice. She stopped crying and started practicing again.
"A faucet... a faucet..."
Aqua continued practicing, dropping ink into the cup. Then she rejoiced and said to ,
"I did it, Tae-jin! Look, there's still black ink left!"
As Aqua said, a faint trace of black ink remained in the cup. My [Teacher] ability had probably played a big role again.
"Oh~ You're right. Congratulations. Now that you've got the feel for it, you'll be able to do it with more practice."
"Right? Heheh!"
Aqua was so happy that she kept staring at the cup. Just then, the others also returned to the inn, but they all looked rather worn out. They seed to have been quite harassed by the Axis Church followers again today.
"So soap is edible..."
"Snap out of it, gumin!"
They seed to have taken significant ntal damage. I let them rest for a while, then started a eting.
"We checked the hot spring water coming down from the source. There was no problem. How about you?"
Kazuma answered,
"We asked around, but since this is a hot spring town, too many tourists co through. They said it's impossible to identify suspicious people."
gumin continued,
"It was the sa for us. Rather, they said we looked more suspicious for asking such questions."
"Then there's only one thing left. We have to go to the source itself."
Just then, Cecily said,
"We can't. The source... I hate to say this, but the Axis Church caused so many accidents that the Eris Church was put in charge of managing it. Unless you're a source manager or the noble who owns the land, you can't enter."
"Don't worry about that. We have Darkness, who's a noble, and I have the dal I received from the Prince."
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