165 Caution with the hot springs temperature, please! part “It’s just school, a place where people go to learn”
“Of course we know what a school is, we just didn’t know there were any in the kingdom”
Luke grunted offended by Hana’s condescending attitude.
“What Luke is trying to say is that we never had the chance to study in school, so we don’t really know about other classes”
Ryu said hurriedly trying to prevent Luke from ruining their chance to get so information.
“Oh, I’m not here to teach you, even if you didn’t go to school you must have had an instructor, or was he so incompetent that he didn’t even teach you about the different skills?”
Hana’s words irked Risa, but she couldn’t say anything to rebuke her words.
“I don’t think we have ti to spare, steam keeps rising as we speak. We can either keep moving or back down”
Anne said after staring at the mist blocked pathway for a full minute.
.....
“That may be so, but there might be a skill that one of us may possess that could be helpful. I don’t want to risk going into a place with almost no visibility”
“Listen, Ryu is it? We hired you because we need to find a solution. If you want to go back you still get the reward for being able to identify this strage phenonon. I know you’re scared of going into the mist but don’t try to stop the stronger adventurers from accomplishing the quest”
“I’m not stopping anyone, I’m simply stating the obvious, if we set foot in there without so much as a plan we’ll be in danger. If there’s sothing you know that can be of help right now it’d be a good ti to share it”
“There’s no skill for seeing in the mist if that’s what you’re asking”
Although Hana did her best to hide the fact that she looked down on Ryu because she deed him the weakest in the party, she wasn’t as polite to him as she was to Luke. The mist kept crawling towards them at a slow yet steady pace, in the few minutes they spent talking the mist almost reached Anne and she backed down a few steps.
“Are you saying we should head back to the inn Ryu?”
Luke asked a bit disappointed, because he wanted to finish the quest as soon as he could to spend a day in the hot springs.
“No, I don’t think that’s a possibility, I don’t feel it’s safe to head in there, but judging by it’s speed if we co back tomorrow it’d be even more difficult to find the source”
Ryu shrugged and then started rummaging into his backpack and took a rope out of it.
“I think we should tie all of our ropes together and tie it to a tree, if we don’t find the source of the steam by the ti we run out of rope we go back to the inn and try again tomorrow, with more rope obviously”
“Now we’re talking!”
Risa said in a loud voice that snapped everyone out of their reverie, now they had found a way to prevent being lost in the mist they would be able to keep advancing. She quickly took the tip of her rope and tied it to the nearest tree, but Luke scolded her because she didn’t take into account that the mist would advance while they explore.
In the end, they asked Risa to tie the rope to a tree that led right into a clearing they’ve been before. It wasn’t that close so they ended up spending one quarter of the length of the rope, but in Ryu’s words it was better to be safe than sorry.
The first thing they noticed when they set foot into the mist was that, even though they couldn’t see that far, everyone was able to see the person in front of them and the one behind them.
“This feels just like a sauna!”
“Tsk! It’s wet and uncomfortable!”
Luke antagonized Anne who was enjoying the soothing sensation of the steam that surrounded them. As a forr influencer she wasn’t a stranger to saunas, she used to go there all the ti to keep a smooth skin and a healthy appearance.
“Why don’t you go back in the line then? you’re taking the best spot”
“You can’t be serious! uff, fine, there’s no need for to be in the front anyways. We haven’t encountered a single beast inside the mist so far”
Luke headed back in the line leaving Anne in the front position followed by Ryu, Hana, Luke, Bob, Sera and Risa in the back.
“So, what’s going on in between you and Sera?”
“I- uhh, well, the thing is”
Ryu, who didn’t expect Anne to ask so blatantly stuttered and even bit his tongue before being able to reply.
“Listen,it’s all good, I have a boyfriend so...”
Hearing that Anne has a boyfriend was the sa as being stabbed through the heart for Ryu. Despite not knowing how he felt exactly, he felt almost as bad as the ti he swallowed the bitter poisonous black berry.
Hiraku’s words resounded in his mind. He told Ryu that it would have been ok to be with both Anne and Helena, and even Rina, as long as they were ok with that. Anne had been so straightforward towards Ryu that he took her for granted, but if she already had a boyfriend it ant that he missed his chance.
“You do?”
“Yeah, he’s back at the sacred empire”
“How is he?”
“I have no way of telling”
Anne tried to dodge the question.
“No, I an, what’s he like”
“Oh, well... he’s tall, handso, he has black hair and he’s kind to everyone”
He didn’t realize the obvious similitude between her alleged boyfriend and himself went completely over his head.
“I’m glad for you”
Those unfelt words did hurt Anne back. Truth of the matter was that she didn’t have a boyfriend or anything of the sorts and the only reason why she told a lie like that was to get an honest answer from him, but she didn’t expect him to be happy for her.
“Well then, what about Sera?”
“We’re just friends but... we’re still trying to figure things out”
Speaking in the mist made it difficult to communicate properly, since they weren’t able to see the each other’s faces. If they were able to, they would have noticed how sour their expression was.
“Don’t you think we’ve walked a bit too much?”
“What do you an Anne?”
“The rope wasn’t that long to begin with, it should have ran out by now”
They stood still for a few seconds so everyone caught up to them.
“What now?”
Hana scoffed impatiently.
“There seems to be an issue, we should have ran out of rope by now but sohow we were able to walk up to this point”
“Oh! don’t worry about that! we ran out of rope a while ago but I fixed it!”
Risa said puffing out her chest.
“Miss Risa, how exactly did you fix it?”
Ryu asked sowhat scared of the possible answer.
“Isn’t it obvious? I simply tucked it and it got free”
Everyone lowered their gaze, Luke even facepald in frustration.
“Do you understand what you just did!?”
“What? If I didn’t do it we wouldn’t have been able to walk so far!”
“That was precisely the point you stupid bitch”
“Who are you calling stupid you blond eunuch!”
“Co on guys, please don’t fight”
Bob said placing himself in between them, his body so huge it was almost the sa as if a wall had been built in a second, thus ending the fight imdiately.
“Yeah, there’s no need to fight, we can still do this. Everyone tie the rope around your waist”
“Why? wouldn’t that put us at a disadvantage if we were to fight sothing?”
“This rope is not so strong as to prevent us from moving, if we encounter sothing all we need to do is cut it. But we can’t afford to get separated”
“How can you be so calm Ryu? this airhead screwed everything”
“Not really, it was just a precaution... besides, I think we already found what we were coming to investigate”
“What!?”
“The source of this steam must be a body of water and I can hear a waterfall in the distance”
“Now that you ntion it, there should be a waterfall sowhere around this place”
“Why didn’t you ntion it before? we wasted the whole morning wandering around. Didn’t you co as a guide?”
Hana simply ignored Anne, who then turned her back towards the group and started sniffing the air.
“What is it Anne?”
“There’s a strange sll in the air”
Anne’s keen sense of sll was able to pick up sothing even inside the dense mist.
“It’s sulfur!”
.....
Anne said after pondering about the sll for a while and everyone understood what it ant. The source of the sll was also most likely located in a body of water connected to the hot springs.
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