Volume 2 - CH 5.3

After several minutes passed with them still dumbfounded, someone from the inn finally showed up. It seemed they would like to talk about compensation, apology, and such regarding the sudden accident, so Sandai and Shino decided to go to the inn’s office for the time being.

They were told to wait for a moment when they entered the office, so they obediently waited. And then, without missing a beat, a man claiming to be the inn’s manager showed up. The manager knelt down, and then quickly arched his upper body forward at a perpendicular angle and bowed his head.

“I’m very sorry. I’m very sorry…”

Sandai and Shino looked at each other’s face in front of the manager who was apologizing repeatedly. Then, they showed a dry smile.

The accident was certainly a misfortune.

That was a fact.

However, it wasn’t like they had gotten injured either, so they would try to look past it.

“It just can’t be helped. There’s nothing you can do about a natural disaster.”

“Yep.”

With tears running down, the manager finally raised his face. Somehow, the reaction was slightly exaggerated and seemed strangely like acting, though…

“…I’m truly sorry. And so, I have thought of having another room prepared, and with it, perhaps I should say as a token our apology, one way or another… Thus with such a thought in mind, we will have a room in the special mansion with a private open-air bath prepared, so please wait for an hour, no, please wait for around thirty minutes.”

It seemed as a token of their apology, they would have a most high-class special mansion’s room prepared.

It was a room that had made Sandai and Shino think about what kind of rich people would be staying at a place like this and such when seeing the reference price on the inn map, but who would have thought that they would be staying there… The world was truly an unpredictable place.

“The open-air bath with 24-hour free-flowing hot-spring water is available for use anytime until the time of check-out. Incidentally… Dear Guests are a young man and woman, thus we will make sure to prepare ‘that’ in the drawer of the desk in the room as well. After all, I believe that it is my mission to ensure our guests are always satisfied.”

What could that possibly be?

Sandai couldn’t really tell, but anyhow, he knew that there was an excessive attentiveness.

When Sandai stared questioningly, wondering why going this far, the manager broke out a cold sweat.

“Umm… I would like to ask for a favor, if possible.”

“A favor…?”

“Umm well, it is regarding this time’s accident, but would you be so kind as to not mention it to anyone else?”

The manager who was behaving excessively modestly, and the very excessive apology; Sandai guessed the reason.

Sandai had forgiven it since it was a natural disaster and it couldn’t be helped, but the reality was probably different, and that it was a man-made disaster as a result of neglecting essentially needed repairs found in inspections.

If this accident were to come to light, it would probably cause an uproar, and then the police would come in order to investigate the reason behind the accident.

Under the Hotel Business Act and such, there should be regulations even regarding safety in various aspects, so it could turn into a criminal case depending on the situation.

The reputation of the inn would probably drop as well, and the one who would bear all of the responsibility at that time would be… this manager.

However, if it didn’t come to light, it meant that they would be able to do repair works in private and make it as if it had never happened.

To sum it up, in order to protect himself, the manager was trying to smoothly talk Sandai and Shino into it with his apology and attitude.

Dirty.

So an adult was a surprisingly dirty creature…

Sandai felt speechless, but he didn’t try to point that out. Shino was delighted, going, “There’s an open-air bath he said!” as she didn’t notice anything, and Sandai would hate to throw cold water on her.

The thirty minutes until the room was ready flew by in a flash, and Sandai and Shino would be guided to their new room.

“And now I will guide you to your room. It will take a slight distance to go to the special mansion, so we will have to walk a little. We have already brought your luggage to the new room.”

Once they moved into the special mansion through a connecting corridor that would make a creaking sound on every step and had tasteful woodblock printings, the atmosphere changed immensely.

There were glass lanterns like artistic candy sculptures that were lighting up in orange color. The wall was in silk damask, and the floor was covered with a silk carpet with coloring that seemed brand new.

“Somehow it’s like a castle or palace or something…”

“S-So this is the place where 100,000 yen per night is the lowest, huh…”

Not used to high-class stuff, Sandai and Shino nervously followed behind their guide. After walking for a while, the guide stopped in front of a certain room.

Apparently this room.

Behind the door made of cypress with an aroma of green leaves, first was the entrance. After that, pulling and going through a sliding door further inside, they finally arrived at the room, which was a spacious traditional room of at least 32 square meters.

“So wide~!”

“It’s already like a house, huh.”

No matter how big of the ulterior motive of wanting Sandai and Shino to be silent regarding the accident, this felt going too far as to be expected.

No, it was excessive precisely because they would want to have it as an excuse, going so far and beyond.

If that was the case, Sandai felt that refusing this room would lead to troublesome things if he were to, so he decided to not mind it.

It would be best to honestly accept it.

“Well then, I will now excuse myself.”

Their guide left, leaving behind Sandai and Shino in the room.

For the time being, Sandai remembered that Shino would like to enter the hot spring and warm herself up, but before he could tell her to get in first…

Shino opened the desk’s drawer with a nonchalant look.

“What’re you doing?”

“Well, he said there’s something inside the drawer, right? I was wondering what it was.”

“He did say that, huh. Is something inside?”

“Wait a sec…”

Shino rummaged through the drawer, “Ah,” and raised a voice, apparently having found that something.

“What did you find?”

“This~.”

The that in Shino’s hand was—condom.

It was a contraceptive.

A young man and woman—was what the manager had said, but in short that had meant, “you’re young so you’re going to go at it, right?” apparently…

Having realized the meaning of the words this late, Sandai’s face blushed. Shino as well, as she was fixedly staring at the condom, her cheeks were dyed in a red tinge, apparently feeling embarrassed at the contraceptive she saw for the first time.

“The ‘that’ that was said earlier is this, right? I wonder what this is, do you? I’m dumb so I don’t know, though.”

“Shi—Shi-Shi-Shi-Shino, st-stop joking around.”

“It’s so slippery that I can tell by touching it over the wrapper. Ooh… so it feels like this.”

Sandai was red in the face and acting strange. And then as if finding that amusing, Shino chuckled.

“Do you know what this is, Sandai?”

“T-That is, you know… umm… well you know, how should I put it…”

“So you know? I see, you’re smart so I guess you’d know.”

“It’s not about being smart, dumb or anything like…”

“I’m dumb and don’t know anything, so I think I’m gonna need to ‘study’ what this is. That’s why… help me study?”

Shino was clearly enjoying it.

Knowing that it was a contraceptive, she was teasing Sandai.

“…Okay?”

Shino went on all fours, and then approached Sandai slowly, bit by bit. It seemed to… not be a joke either, and that bewildered Sandai, too.

Sandai’s heart was thumping, and the thumping would not stop. One step back, and another, Sandai was backing off as if losing it, but shortly his back hit against the wall, making him unable to back away anymore.

“P—P-P-Please wait.”

“Not gonnya.”

When was the last time Sandai had gotten so faltered? Probably we would have to go back to around the time he had gotten confessed by Shino.

For the first time after so long, he was fully flustered.

Anyhow, irresistibly wanting to run away from this place, Sandai judged that Shino probably really wouldn’t chase him even all the way to the bath, so he ran into the changing room, threw off his clothes, and immediately got to the open-air bath. He hurriedly washed his body and jumped into the bathtub.