by Funa
Therefore, the only time when they could open the full baths and expect them to be sufficiently profitable was when the Crimson Vow were present.
“Without us, managing the baths is going to be a pain. You can’t hike up the admission price much, so there won’t be much profit. It’ll take a lot of time and effort, and it’ll be a huge burden on you in particular, won’t it, Lenny? Honestly it might be better if I just tore the whole thing down…”
“You can’t!” Lenny cut in, interrupting Mile’s worrying. “We were never struggling in the first place. This is a family business, so there are no general labor costs, after all. But, well, previously we were nothing but your standard tiny inn for commoners. Now, thanks to those baths, and all the work you’ve done attracting customers for us, we’ve got a reputation, and we’re really on the up-and-up. So, if we were to lose both you all and the baths…”
Lenny paused and then continued.
“We are an inn. The people who stay in this inn are people who don’t have homes in this city. Most of them are travelers and outsiders who might stay here only once. We were always prepared for the fact that you all might leave us someday. So I decided a while ago that when the time came, I would do whatever it took to keep those baths running and keep this business thriving. No matter how hard or painful it is for me.”
Lenny’s eyes flashed with determination.
“Just know that this girl’s never gonna give up. No matter what happens!”
***
“Mile. What in the world are you doing?”
Later that evening in their room, the other three watched, as Mile, clad only in her underwear and a cape, practiced some strange motion.
“Oh, well, I figured if I was Etou Ranze, I’d better get ready for my naked cape dance, since the ending is coming up soon…”
“We have no idea what you’re talking about!!”
***
Late that night, Mile softly stepped out of bed and quietly slipped from the room. The other three quietly followed behind her. They remembered to include Pauline this time.
It wasn’t as though they assumed Mile was going to run away. Unlike last time, Mile was still in her pajamas.
Reina thought to herself, What is she going to do if she runs into someone?!
Indeed, a lady should never present herself before a gentleman the way she was dressed.
The others had the forethought to don their own capes, so they were safe. Or so Reina thought, anyway.
Mile didn’t activate her location magic until she was already in a safe place. It was a bother to do so. Besides, having a surprise now and then added spice to life.
Of course, she wouldn’t hesitate to use her skills if it came down to it.
Because of that, Mile didn’t notice the others tailing her as she crept along. As it turned out, the place she was heading to was…
…The baths?
Indeed, it was the bathhouse in the courtyard.
Is she hoping to take one last commemorative bath? Reina wondered, but Mile didn’t enter the structure, instead stopping just outside.
And then, she silently began casting earth magic.
A hole opened in the ground, and an earthen enclosure formed around it. That earth then solidified, transforming into something like rock. Mile summoned a small ball of flame and casually dropped it into the hole.
After peeking into the hole and silently confirming something, Mile turned with a look of satisfaction to head back to the room. And then…
“Wh-what are you all doing here?!”
“You have to stop sneaking off on your own! We’re your allies, aren’t we?! For better or worse, we discuss everything as one, do everything as one, and take responsibility as one!” Reina chastised. Mavis and Pauline nodded emphatically.
“I’m sorry.” Mile hung her head in shame, but somehow, she also seemed rather happy.
***
“Thank you for helping us out all this time!”
“Please, you girls have been such a big help to us, in so many ways! You brought us souvenirs from your jobs, built us the baths, and brought in customers. Thanks to you, our vacancy ratio has gone way down, and out profits have gone up. You’re our saviors, really. I can’t thank you enough for keeping my Lenny company, as well.”
Receiving such lavish praise from the matron of the inn made the girls blush.
And so, with the matron, the owner, Lenny, and all the guests who were staying there to see them off, the Crimson Vow left the inn behind.
“So, they’re gone, then,” said the matron calmly.
“Yeah, looks like they’re really gone…” said her husband in kind.
Meanwhile Lenny, who had been all smiles, suddenly scrunched up her whole face.
“W-we-weeeeeehhhhh…” She clung to her mother, shoving her face against her.
Her mother patted her gently upon the head, but Lenny’s tears didn’t stop flowing.
Several hours later…
The moment Lenny learned of the well that had suddenly appeared near the bathhouse, she was overjoyed.
There was another well rather near here, which meant an underground water vein had to be running through the area. This meant that, if you dug down far enough, there was a strong chance you would hit water. Of course, even knowing that, they had never possessed the financial means to do so.
But, with this new well, the labors of drawing water would decrease immensely.
Well, no, the amount of labor would remain unchanged, but there was almost no distance that it had to be carried. Which meant the amount they would need to pay the orphans would go way down… No, those children were far too pitiful. So instead, maybe they could aim to open the full baths and earn some independent profit from that?
“Aha… Aha ha ha ha ha ha…”
Then Lenny had a thought. Miss Mile, you could have made a cover and a bucket too, while you were at it.
Naturally, Mile hadn’t thought that far ahead.
As she walked along with the others, Mile thought: I really should have attached some useful apparatus for drawing the water out of the well, huh?
However, such mechanisms easily broke down. And until they were repaired, the whole structure would be useless. Plus, if there was a special mechanism at work, then merchants or people in power might set their sights on it.
So, what if it was something unique, impossible to reproduce?
What if she made a golem that could only move its upper half, its lower half fixed in place? Just like a factory robot?
It would be the world’s first ever robot. Naturally, she would have to name it “Robby.”
However, the people of this world had no concept of things like robots. If things went poorly, it would be considered a monster. Less “Robby” and more “Forbidden Robot.”
Sadly, there wasn’t a person alive in this world who would understand her clever wordplay.
Once again, Mile shed a tear over the cruel world she now lived in.
“What are you moping for? Come on, let’s go! This is the start of a new journey! We’re going to grow our reputation even more and seize that B-rank!”
“And after that, we’ll climb right up to A-rank. I can be a knight!”
“I can save up a ton of money and even start my very own company!”
“…Um, all I really want to do is find happiness as a normal, average girl…”
“Let’s do this, everyone!”
“Yeah!!!”
“Um…”
No one appeared to hear a word Mile said.
***
A few days later, Dr. Clairia appeared at the inn’s doorstep.
“Pardon me, but I heard the all-female hunting party, the Crimson Vow, was staying at this inn?”
“Hm? Who might you be? Do you have some business with those young ladies?”
It wasn’t at all strange for people to come barging in, hoping to repay or meddle with the Crimson Vow. This one must be hoping to join their par
ty, Lenny thought to herself, but she handled the visitor just the same as any other.
Which is to say, she masked her faint disdain with polite words and a curt reply.
“Ah, do forgive me. Please let them know that Dr. Clairia stopped by.” With the wisdom that came with age, the scholar knew to use polite phrasing when it came to professional conversation. Even with a child.
However, the response she received was cold and business-like. “The Crimson Vow have left this inn.”
“Wh…”
It hadn’t even been a week since their job had been completed. Dr. Clairia was stunned. Because it had been such a short amount of time, she had assumed they would still be on a break.
“Wh-what sort of job did they take? Where did they go?”
“I don’t know. Even if I did know, I would never give away information about our guests. We take pride in respecting our customers’ privacy.”
Because this was a professional conversation, Dr. Clairia had been concise in her wording. Even so, the fact remained that she had underestimated the girl. So she was stunned at Lenny’s incredibly mature manner.
“Ah… I apologize. In that case, would you at least be able to tell me when you believe they will return?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you sure that there’s nothing…?” The professor was growing desperate, so Lenny decided to tell her only what was safe to tell.
“I said that the Crimson Vow left. I didn’t say they went out. In other words, they departed this inn to go on a journey. They may never even return.”
“Wh…”
Dr. Clairia, shaken to her core, rushed silently from the inn and ran straight to the Hunters’ Guild at full tilt.
“Where did the Crimson Vow go?!” Dr. Clairia screamed as she burst into the guildhall. Her polite speech had flown out the window.
“They left on a journey, just a few days ago…” the receptionist, who was in the middle of assisting another guest, replied to this meddlesome newcomer.
“Wh-where?! Where did they go?!”
The air Dr. Clairia was giving off suggested that she needed this information immediately and didn’t care what else might be happening around her.
“I don’t know. It didn’t seem like they had a destination in mind. I heard they were just going to wander in the pursuit of knowledge.”
“Th-this can’t be…” Dr. Clairia slumped to her knees. “That girl’s secrets! The mystery of her powers! I spent so much time coming up with the perfect jokes to help pass the time!”
The scholar stood, gritting her teeth.
“I won’t let you go… I won’t let you get away from meeeeee!!!”
And so, the Crimson Vow walked on.
In search of a new town, a new adventure, and some new gold.
And of course, “normal happiness.”
Side Story:
Marcela’s Tug-of-War
Once again, the invitations had come. Great heaps of them.
Marcela stared wearily at the letters the dorm matron had brought her.
As the third daughter of a perfectly normal—no, to be honest, a relatively poor and uninfluential—baron, attending not the upper-class Ardleigh Academy but the inferior Eckland Academy, she had relatively decent standing but little worth to her noble family.
Indeed, she was only worth as much as would allow her to marry a middle-class merchant: someone thriving but still common. Or become a count’s mistress, if she was lucky.
…However, that had only been true until two-and-a-half years ago.
Two-and-a-half years ago, not long after she first began at Eckland Academy, her magical talent suddenly manifested out of thin air. Up until that point, she had only been able to produce a small amount of water, but then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, she could use attack spells. Her talent was so abundant she was said to have been “blessed by the Goddess.”
Then, roughly a year ago, there was the mysterious incident that had occurred before the royal family and a number of nobles as well: the Manifestation of the Goddess.
A gag order had been issued, but because there were so many witnesses, the information eventually got out in due time. It was heard that the avatar of the Goddess was a girl with silver hair, wearing an Eckland Academy uniform. With that information, it was easy to narrow suspects down to a single candidate.
Marcela was a girl who was the closest friend of that avatar, who had now disappeared.
She was beautiful and sharp of mind, and had a kind soul admired even by common folk. Even at only twelve years old, she already had the sense of self-awareness all nobles strove for.
Plus, she was a close friend of the avatar and could use powerful magic. There was even a possibility she had had exchanges with the Goddess herself.
There was no way she wouldn’t be coveted as the potential bride of any young heir. Even those of households of higher status than her own: viscounts, counts, marquesses, and even kings.
“I suppose I can decline any invitations from nobles in this country and counts from our neighboring country. There are too many invitations, and I can’t attend all of them. Even choosing some of them to attend would be rude, so I would be better off refusing them all equally…
“As for the ones from other countries, well I can’t simply put aside my studies to travel abroad for days on end. I doubt my father and the academy would even allow me to do so, anyway…”
As she said so, Marcela shoved the bundle onto the bookshelf. Her desk drawer was already full.
Only one invitation remained atop the desk. Marcela regarded it with a troubled expression.
“Now, what do I do about this one?”
This is what was written upon the letter:
“You are cordially invited to the birthday
party of the Second Prince, Vince.”
According to the signature, the invitation had been sent by His Majesty, the King, himself.
Well, even if his name was on it, it was probably written by some secretary of his.
…But how in the world could she refuse this one?
“If I told my father, ‘Oh yes, I received an invitation to the second prince’s birthday party, but I decided to refuse it,’ he would probably faint. That would be inexcusable…”
She probably couldn’t refuse this one.
While the first prince and heir to the throne, Prince Adalbert, had an arrogant, intimidating air about him, Prince Vince was cute, with a warm, cheery aura.
Also, all the girls of upper-ranking noble families—the ones with designs on the throne—would be aiming for Prince Adalbert. So after greeting Prince Vince, all she had to do was not stand out.
That way, she wouldn’t be caught up in anything strange, and Prince Adalbert was unlikely to try to push his brother out of the spotlight at his own party.
The brothers had clashing personalities, but it was rumored that they actually got along rather well.
“I guess I have no other choice. I must accept this invitation.”
The so-called “Wonder Trio” normally came as a set, but naturally, Monika and Aureana, who were commoners, couldn’t be invited as official guests, though it wouldn’t be unusual for them to be invited to a party at the residence of a baron or viscount, as “girls who received the Goddess’s blessing.”
Therefore, it was Marcela alone who would attend this particular function.
And finally, regardless of her careful consideration, the moment her father heard the news, he fainted flat onto the floor.
***
Three weeks later, Marcela stood in the great hall of the palace, dressed to the nines.
Once her father had recovered, he immediately dragged Marcela to a tailor to have a dress made, one that the third daughter of a poor baron would normally be a tad unworthy of. Her mother, meanwhile, brought out a necklace she had inherited from her own mother, passed down through generations of their family. She placed it around Marcela’s neck.
&nbs
p; Normally, the third daughter of a poor baron would never be invited to a party at the palace in the first place. And Marcela was still only twelve years old. She hadn’t made her societal debut yet.
This was an oddity among oddities. Therefore, naturally, she was left with no friends or acquaintances around her. Even her father, who had come along as her plus-one, was so thrilled at the chance to schmooze with intellectual nobles that he spent the whole time moving about the room, leaving Marcela all alone.
By her father’s thinking, going along with Marcela didn’t mean he could make any introductions to the more influential families on her behalf. It would be easier for her to make connections if she spent time on her own, among other children apart from their parents.
Before he went off to make all the necessary greetings, he reminded his daughter to “find a good man and get close to him.”
Even if she had developed combat magic skills, not even her father assumed the third daughter of a baron had any chance of becoming a princess or queen.
With a royal as her partner, at best she would be just another entry in the long line of lovers who would be tossed away the moment that man grew bored of her. Any children she bore wouldn’t be considered part of the line of succession for the throne. It would be better for her to catch the eye of the son of a count or the like.
If she hoped to rise to some power, it would be a better bet for her to curry the Prince’s favor, even if it meant being a disposable lover. However, her father was a kind man who cared for her happiness, even if she was only a third daughter. Even if that weakened his position as the head of a noble household.
It was probably because such softheartedness ran in their blood that their family had remained so poor for so long. But the head of the household and his family were happier that way, so it wasn’t truly a problem.