Daniela was resting her chin on her hand in a blatant display of displeasure as I sat down next to her .

“Ah, sorry, I’ll have what she’s having . ”

The bartender only glanced at me, but I was sure that he had heard . I would be pretty annoyed if I didn’t get my order .

We sat in silence for a while until our wine was served . Clank! The light yellow drinks were placed noisily on the counter . My hand stretched out .

“Daniela, let’s make a toast . ”

“To what?”

“To your beauty . ”

“F-f-f-fool . ”

We clink the wooden mugs against each other and I drain mine in one go . It had a refres.h.i.+ng taste, quite to my liking, actually . Awesome . Daniela’s cheeks were slightly flushed now as she sipped more timidly and glared . Oh, she was easy to pacify . But her stare could bore holes in you all the same .

“Here you go . ”

As we continued to stare at one another, the bartender set out two plates of meat for us . It smelled good . I cut off a piece with a knife and throw it into my mouth . Juicy, and incredibly delicious . Was this boar meat? I’ve had it once before .

“It’s good . ”

I say to the bartender who is noisily was.h.i.+ng his tools . He only offers me a glance before returning to his work . Wasn’t much of a talker it seemed . Was he shy?

“By the way, we are looking for an inn around here . ”

Ohh, it was unusual for Daniela to start a conversation . She was usually much too busy eating… I thought, as I looked at her plate…which was empty . Was she even chewing?

“There is an inn . Here . ”

“I thought that this was a bar?”

“It’s a bar and an inn . ”

“Hmm…”

Daniela folds her arms and thinks . I was busy eating my food . I would leave this one to her . After all, she had more experience traveling, she would know how to handle this . I think .

“How much for one night?”

“Three silvers . ”

“Asagi, I think this might be the place . ”

The price was fine . But I was pretty sure that her only criteria for choosing this place concerned the meat .

“Mmm…yeah, I think so too . Food’s good too…”

“It is settled then . We will take two rooms for the night . ”

“Thank you . ”

I was quite satisfied for my part in pus.h.i.+ng Daniela a little . The barkeeper left and then came back with two keys . He handed them to us and began to explain about the inn .

“The rooms are on the third and fourth floors . The fourth floor is for women . The bathroom is on the first floor . There is no bathhouse . If you wish to bathe, there is a hot spring near the western cliffs . ”

A hot spring! Now that was something I couldn’t miss as someone from j.a.pan . I would go with Daniela later on . We then finished our food, paid, and climbed the stairs together . The sound that the steps made as they creaked under our feet was something frightful . But it would at least alert you if an intruder was coming .

“Daniela, we got to go to that hot spring . ”

“Agreed . We should go as soon as we place our belongings in our rooms . ”

We promised to meet in ten minutes and headed to our rooms . My key had a ‘303’ written on it, so that must be my room . As I walk down the hallway, I can see through the windows that it was already dark outside . There were bonfires lit in different points around the town, illuminating the streets .

Strange . It seemed too early for the sun… But then I thought about it . This town was between two mountains, and those mountains were on the east and west sides, so the town would fall under their shadows quickly . I remember going mountain climbing with a friend a long time ago, and a similar thing had happened, much to our horror . It was the same feeling . But that meant that this town had very little time with sunlight… They would really only see it when it was at its peak .

…Ah, I better get to my room . It wasn’t too far down the hall, and I quickly found room 303 . I push the key in and turn it, before opening the door . The interior of the room was, well, on the nice side . Or it might be more accurate to say that it just wasn’t dirty . And I had been expecting the room to be covered with dust, just because this was a mining town . There were even odd decorations and magical lanterns here like there were at Spiris . And as it was now dark outside, I turned on the lights before entering the room . Woah, it was bright .

I take off all my gear and throw it into the hollow bag and pull out a clean change of clothing . But then I worry .

“Hmmmm…”

It was worrying . A bar inn . Mining town . Mining slaves . Hmmmm . Lining the words up like this suggested a certain kind of danger to me . I’m not sure what I would do if I came back from the hot spring and all of my belongings were gone . Really . All this gear and equipment had taken so much effort on my part to collect, I would cry if they were taken from me . I would cry and cover this town with ice until the culprit was caught .

“I think I’ll bring it with me after all . ”

While I wouldn’t be wearing my equipment, I decided to bring everything as luggage . Once I was carrying the bag, another thing worried me .

“At hot springs, you take your clothes off and…set your belongings aside…”

Naked . Defenseless . And this place wasn’t safe… No, it was not good for me to get so paranoid .

I was acting like a tourist in a foreign country . Well, that was actually kind of true, though .

Hmm, but it’s also those unwary tourists that fall prey to such things… My old friend Yasuda told me as much . And he was always right .

Alright, I just thought of something . As soon as I take my clothes off, I would freeze my bag to the ground . It would be frozen solid, and cold enough to stick to anyone who tries to touch it…yeah, it was brilliant . That was it . I better go now and find Daniela .

And so I put on my normal clothes and carried the bag on my back, before turning the lights off and leaving my room .

We met up in front of the inn and made our way to the hot spring . Daniela asked me why I was carrying my stuff on the way, and so I explained that I thought this place was dangerous . She had a good laugh .

“The rooms have magic security devices . Did you not see them?”

“They did? Oh, you mean those weird looking decorations?”

“Aye . They are for security . If anyone forces their way in without a key, it will activate and bind their movement . ”

“Ahhhh…who would have thought…”

What a waste of effort . She should have told me sooner .

“In that case, I’m putting this back in my room . ”

“I will go on ahead then . ”

“In that case, I’m putting this back in my room . ”

“I will go on ahead then . ”

I waved at Daniela and pushed my AGI to its limits as I rushed back to the inn and then to the hot spring again . I was a sweaty mess when I arrived, but at least I was looking forward to it even more now…I think .

I was now in the changing room . There were separate changing rooms for men and women, and so Daniela and I were no longer together .

It’s not like I had high expectations of it being a mixed bath…

But I was at least able to take comfort in the security of my belongings as I stripped . Ah, it was refres.h.i.+ng . It would be even more refres.h.i.+ng to go outside like this . I think stupidly as I open the door that led to the hot spring . Dense clouds of steam rose from within, and I could barely see anything . This was creepy… I slowly walked forward, moving towards the sounds of splas.h.i.+ng water . And then the hot spring was finally visible . I try dipping my hand in it, and its scalding . Maybe this was near the source, from where it flowed to the rest of the place . As I had an idea of where the hot spring was now, I looked for a place to wash . It took several minutes of wandering around before I found it and cleaned myself . But all of my wanderings had disoriented me, and I had to wander again in order to find the hot spring . The loud splas.h.i.+ng from before was no longer audible, which made my search even more difficult . But wait, did that mean that someone was here? I had barely noticed… Finally, I reach the edge of the hot spring and sink into the water .

“Ahhhhhh…so good…but hot…and I can’t see a thing…”

I stretch my legs and relax . The steam was so thick in here, and as it was supposed to be in the cliffs, I guess this was like cave hot spring . I wish I could actually see what it looked like…but this steam was making it impossible .

“If only I could use her wind magic to blow it away…”

“Ah, that is an idea . Wait a second . ”

Wait . Why can I hear Daniela’s voice? There was no one to answer my questions, instead, a cool wind brushed against my face, pus.h.i.+ng the steam away . As the steam began to move, the scenery came into view . As I had thought, the room was a large cave with magical lanterns on the walls . Though they were quite useless with all of the steam . The water was cloudy and looked like it would do your skin a lot of good . The bath itself was quite large . The exit seemed so far from where I was sitting . And there were two of them .

“Why are there two doors…”

“To separate the changing rooms, I would imagine . ”

“You do realize that it makes no sense to separate the rooms, but not the bathes?”

I tried to explain this to Daniela, as she relaxed in front of me . But there was no reasoning with someone who had lost themselves to the power of hot water .

Daniela was resting her chin on her hand in a blatant display of displeasure as I sat down next to her

 .

“Ah, sorry, I’ll have what she’s having . ”.

 .

The bartender only glanced at me, but I was sure that he had heard . I would be pretty annoyed if I didn’t get my order

 .

We sat in silence for a while until our wine was served . Clank! The light yellow drinks were placed noisily on the counter . My hand stretched out

 .

“Daniela, let’s make a toast . ”.

“To what?”.

“To your beauty . ”.

“F-f-f-fool . ”.

 .

We clink the wooden mugs against each other and I drain mine in one go . It had a refres.h.i.+ng taste, quite to my liking, actually . Awesome . Daniela’s cheeks were slightly flushed now as she sipped more timidly and glared . Oh, she was easy to pacify . But her stare could bore holes in you all the same

 .

“Here you go . ”.

 .

As we continued to stare at one another, the bartender set out two plates of meat for us . It smelled good . I cut off a piece with a knife and throw it into my mouth . Juicy, and incredibly delicious . Was this boar meat? I’ve had it once before

 .

“It’s good . ”.

 .

I say to the bartender who is noisily was.h.i.+ng his tools . He only offers me a glance before returning to his work . Wasn’t much of a talker it seemed . Was he shy?.

 .

“By the way, we are looking for an inn around here . ”.

 .

Ohh, it was unusual for Daniela to start a conversation . She was usually much too busy eating… I thought, as I looked at her plate…which was empty . Was she even chewing?.

 .

“There is an inn . Here . ”.

“I thought that this was a bar?”.

“It’s a bar and an inn . ”.

“Hmm…”.

 .

Daniela folds her arms and thinks . I was busy eating my food . I would leave this one to her . After all, she had more experience traveling, she would know how to handle this . I think

 .

“How much for one night?”.

“Three silvers . ”.

“Asagi, I think this might be the place . ”.

 .

The price was fine . But I was pretty sure that her only criteria for choosing this place concerned the meat

 .

“Mmm…yeah, I think so too . Food’s good too…”.

“It is settled then . We will take two rooms for the night . ”.

“Thank you . ”.

 .

I was quite satisfied for my part in pus.h.i.+ng Daniela a little . The barkeeper left and then came back with two keys . He handed them to us and began to explain about the inn

 .

“The rooms are on the third and fourth floors . The fourth floor is for women . The bathroom is on the first floor . There is no bathhouse . If you wish to bathe, there is a hot spring near the western cliffs . ”.

 .

A hot spring! Now that was something I couldn’t miss as someone from j.a.pan . I would go with Daniela later on . We then finished our food, paid, and climbed the stairs together . The sound that the steps made as they creaked under our feet was something frightful . But it would at least alert you if an intruder was coming

 .

“Daniela, we got to go to that hot spring . ”.

“Agreed . We should go as soon as we place our belongings in our rooms . ”.

 .

We promised to meet in ten minutes and headed to our rooms . My key had a ‘303’ written on it, so that must be my room . As I walk down the hallway, I can see through the windows that it was already dark outside . There were bonfires lit in different points around the town, illuminating the streets

Strange . It seemed too early for the sun… But then I thought about it . This town was between two mountains, and those mountains were on the east and west sides, so the town would fall under their shadows quickly . I remember going mountain climbing with a friend a long time ago, and a similar thing had happened, much to our horror . It was the same feeling . But that meant that this town had very little time with sunlight… They would really only see it when it was at its peak

…Ah, I better get to my room . It wasn’t too far down the hall, and I quickly found room 303 . I push the key in and turn it, before opening the door . The interior of the room was, well, on the nice side . Or it might be more accurate to say that it just wasn’t dirty . And I had been expecting the room to be covered with dust, just because this was a mining town . There were even odd decorations and magical lanterns here like there were at Spiris . And as it was now dark outside, I turned on the lights before entering the room . Woah, it was bright

I take off all my gear and throw it into the hollow bag and pull out a clean change of clothing . But then I worry

 .

“Hmmmm…”.

 .

It was worrying . A bar inn . Mining town . Mining slaves . Hmmmm . Lining the words up like this suggested a certain kind of danger to me . I’m not sure what I would do if I came back from the hot spring and all of my belongings were gone . Really . All this gear and equipment had taken so much effort on my part to collect, I would cry if they were taken from me . I would cry and cover this town with ice until the culprit was caught

 .

“I think I’ll bring it with me after all . ”.

 .

While I wouldn’t be wearing my equipment, I decided to bring everything as luggage . Once I was carrying the bag, another thing worried me

 .

“At hot springs, you take your clothes off and…set your belongings aside…”.

 .

Naked . Defenseless . And this place wasn’t safe… No, it was not good for me to get so paranoid

I was acting like a tourist in a foreign country . Well, that was actually kind of true, though

Hmm, but it’s also those unwary tourists that fall prey to such things… My old friend Yasuda told me as much . And he was always right

Alright, I just thought of something . As soon as I take my clothes off, I would freeze my bag to the ground . It would be frozen solid, and cold enough to stick to anyone who tries to touch it…yeah, it was brilliant . That was it . I better go now and find Daniela

 .

And so I put on my normal clothes and carried the bag on my back, before turning the lights off and leaving my room

 .

□　　　□　　　□　　　□.

 .

We met up in front of the inn and made our way to the hot spring . Daniela asked me why I was carrying my stuff on the way, and so I explained that I thought this place was dangerous . She had a good laugh

 .

“The rooms have magic security devices . Did you not see them?”.

“They did? Oh, you mean those weird looking decorations?”.

“Aye . They are for security . If anyone forces their way in without a key, it will activate and bind their movement . ”.

“Ahhhh…who would have thought…”.

 .

What a waste of effort . She should have told me sooner

 .

“In that case, I’m putting this back in my room . ”.

“I will go on ahead then . ”.

 .

I waved at Daniela and pushed my AGI to its limits as I rushed back to the inn and then to the hot spring again . I was a sweaty mess when I arrived, but at least I was looking forward to it even more now…I think

 .

I was now in the changing room . There were separate changing rooms for men and women, and so Daniela and I were no longer together

It’s not like I had high expectations of it being a mixed bath….

But I was at least able to take comfort in the security of my belongings as I stripped . Ah, it was refres.h.i.+ng . It would be even more refres.h.i.+ng to go outside like this . I think stupidly as I open the door that led to the hot spring . Dense clouds of steam rose from within, and I could barely see anything . This was creepy… I slowly walked forward, moving towards the sounds of splas.h.i.+ng water . And then the hot spring was finally visible . I try dipping my hand in it, and its scalding . Maybe this was near the source, from where it flowed to the rest of the place . As I had an idea of where the hot spring was now, I looked for a place to wash . It took several minutes of wandering around before I found it and cleaned myself . But all of my wanderings had disoriented me, and I had to wander again in order to find the hot spring . The loud splas.h.i.+ng from before was no longer audible, which made my search even more difficult . But wait, did that mean that someone was here? I had barely noticed… Finally, I reach the edge of the hot spring and sink into the water

 .

“Ahhhhhh…so good…but hot…and I can’t see a thing…”.

 .

I stretch my legs and relax . The steam was so thick in here, and as it was supposed to be in the cliffs, I guess this was like cave hot spring . I wish I could actually see what it looked like…but this steam was making it impossible

 .

“If only I could use her wind magic to blow it away…”.

“Ah, that is an idea . Wait a second . ”.

 .

Wait . Why can I hear Daniela’s voice? There was no one to answer my questions, instead, a cool wind brushed against my face, pus.h.i.+ng the steam away . As the steam began to move, the scenery came into view . As I had thought, the room was a large cave with magical lanterns on the walls . Though they were quite useless with all of the steam . The water was cloudy and looked like it would do your skin a lot of good . The bath itself was quite large . The exit seemed so far from where I was sitting . And there were two of them

 .

“Why are there two doors…”.

“To separate the changing rooms, I would imagine . ”.

“You do realize that it makes no sense to separate the rooms, but not the bathes?”.

 .

I tried to explain this to Daniela, as she relaxed in front of me . But there was no reasoning with someone who had lost themselves to the power of hot water