CH 46

Chapter 46 – We Went to the Hot Spring!

Three days had passed since we discovered the quarry dungeon.

I had spent my time building a wall that surrounded the village, and crafting weapons, armor, and tools.

At this point there were already enough spears and crossbows for everyone in the village.

As for the lamellar armor, I had been able to prepare a hundred sets.

The Kijin who wore them were assigned hunting and guarding duties.

But upon seeing the Kijins, the werewolves and Ents started to say that they wanted armor as well.

Even the Mopes were bleating, ‘We want armor!’

But the Armor Boar scales were limited, and resupplies were not steady.

So I would have to make them iron plate mail instead.

Well, crafting armor like this was no longer a pressing matter.

Because during this past week, the village had been peace itself.

The slave hunters were gone, and now that we had weapons and armor, the Armor Boars and Hell Alligators were no longer a threat.

And so I had time to think about the village’s facilities.

What was most on my mind was the demihumans who busily carried buckets of water in front of me.

Up until now, they had been keeping river water in barrels that I had made. But that was not efficient.

The sound of splashing water rang in my ears.

“Ah!”

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!”

“I-I’m sorry…”

One of the Kijins must have slipped, and they had spilled the water everywhere.

“It must be tough for them… I must draw water after all.”

I muttered. And then Iria, who was next to me, looked at me oddly.

“Draw…water?”

“Aye. To put it simply, I’m going to make a river inside of the village.”

“R-river…you can do such a thing? You can create water too, Sir Joshua?”

Iria asked with great astonishment.

“N-no, I misspoke. While I can use water magic, I cannot make a whole river. Simply put, we will have to dig towards the village from the river. And then we will place stone materials inside. From the village, all of the way to the river.”

“I see! But, that seems like an immense amount of work.”

“No, it is not necessarily the case. Thanks to your recent work, Iria, I was able to make a lot of Golems, which means a lot of stone materials.”

Thanks to Iria, we had acquired eighteen Doll Stones.

I made one of them into an Iron Golem, for dungeon exploration, but the remaining seventeen were made into normal Golems, and I had them carry stone materials from Cobis’s castle. The two original Golems were also with them.

“In fact, I have already asked Ecleshia for help, and she had her Ents dig a waterline. We should be able to lay down the stone materials by tomorrow.”

I had decided to leave the digging to the Ents. Just like when making the field, they could easily move the dirt with their roots.

As for the waterway, it would be drawn from up river to the north of the village, and we would split it in two near the village.

One would be for drinking water, and the other for sewage, and would connect to the down current in the south.

In order to prevent the invasion of beasts and vermin, arches would be made over both water lines, so that they would be sealed with stone. It would also keep away the smell of the sewers.

Iria looked very impressed.

“I see… You really can do anything, Sir Joshua.”

“Well, you have me beat when it comes to fighting. Besides, I have some experience when it comes to making such things.”

I had done it in Chevalburg, for instance.

While I wasn’t the one digging, I had made the stone materials and laid them down.

“I’m sure that there is nothing that you cannot make, Sir Joshua! …Now that I think about it, Sir Joshua. If you can make water flow through the village, there is one thing that I would like to ask.”

It was unusual for Iria to ask me to make something.

The last time was when she wanted me to make the sword that now hung at her waist.

“Aye, if it’s within my ability, I will make anything for you.”

“Thank you! In fact, to the south of here, near the mines, there is a spring where the water is hot.”

“Oh, a hot spring!”

I couldn’t help but say aloud.

Iria looked at me with a smile.

“So you know about them too, Sir Joshua! They are called hot springs then. We used to go there all of the time, before the Armor Boars appeared.”

“I see. I’ve been to them several times as well.”

To the north of the continent, there were a lot of rivers with hot water, and there were bath houses that made use of them.

We stopped by them several times while exterminating bandits

They were very refreshing, and they took away your fatigue.

Iria continued with a slight embarrassed look.

“I just thought that it would be nice for such a hot spring to exist in this village as well. We can clean ourselves and…ah! But I suppose we could just go there directly… I shouldn’t be asking you for such luxuries!”

“No, I agree. It would be nice to have one close by.”

In this village, the only way to wash yourselves was to go to the river.

Of course, you could also use a bucket of water and cloth. And it will be even easier once we have the waterways.

But, it will still be cold.

With hot water, you could stay warm.

…In that case, maybe I should make a hot spring or public bathhouse in this village.

“Draw water out and heat it… That seems a little inefficient. It would be best to draw the water directly from a hot spring. You said that it was close to the mines?”

“Yes! I can take you there if you’d like!”

“I see. All right, let’s go then.”

And so Iria and I rode on horses and headed to the south.

Iria was holding some hemp cloth as well. I suppose it was for when she got wet.

Perhaps she had smelled something interesting, as on the way, I noticed that Melk was following us in her wolf form.

Not only that, but an armored Mette was pursuing us on horseback as well.

Iria looked back at them with a slightly annoyed expression.

“You two… Why are you here?”

“Because I saw you and Joshua talking happily. I knew you were going somewhere interesting.”

Replied Melk. But Mette had a more serious expression.

“Last time, you two went to that dangerous dungeon. I cannot allow something similar to happen again.”

“You just made that up… As if you weren’t listening to the conversation.”

“I-I’m not here because I want to go to the hot spring or anything!”

Apparently, Mette wanted to go to the hot spring. She too was clutching some cloth.

But we were just going to investigate. No one had said anything about going inside…

Regardless, we eventually arrived at the steamy spring that was just southwest of the mines.

“Oh! So here it is! It’s so pretty…”

The spring was surrounded by a high mountain on the north and west sides.

And from the mountain ran a waterfall, which created the spring.

And to the south, there was a river that likely led to the sea.

“But, it looks quite hot… It’s even bubbling towards the back. I wonder what it’s like?”

I put my hand in the water to check the temperature.

“It’s hot!?”

However, it was so hot that I had to pull my hand out immediately. There was no way that I would go in there.

“You used to bathe here, Iria?”

“Yes! Why don’t you try it, Sir Joshua!? I can wash your back!”

“No, princess. That is my role. You must leave it to me!”

Mette said, but Iria shook her head and replied with an ‘Absolutely not.’

Uh, clearly it was way too hot for me to enter… And yet the two seemed like they were ready to jump in.

Melk also dipped one paw in but removed it immediately. So it was too hot for even a werewolf.

Perhaps it was only fine for Kijins. But if other demihumans were going to use it, we would have to cool off the water a little.

Well, if it is this hot, then it wouldn’t cool down too much by the time it reached the village.

However, that’s when it happened.

Thanks to Search, I was able to notice the strangely thick magic energy that was approaching. From the sky.

Melk noticed it too and looked up.

“Something is falling… Is that…”

From the sky, a humanoid creature with wings was plunging towards the ground.