The Fervent Sand Baths

by Nagaharu Hibihana

  “Oh, fine. I would never turn you down, Lady Haruno.”

  “Geez, you’re so haphazard...”

  Rin’s attitude did a one-eighty as soon as Haruno stepped in. Sandra sighed as she watched on. At the end of the day, their relationship was one between two girls who were on one hand, carefree and go-with-the-flow, and on the other, worldly and ever-serious. Yet in some mysterious way they were still the closest of friends.

  “Haruno! I’m baaack!” A cheerful voice called out from the front gate.

  There were only two girls in Haruno’s party who didn’t address her by her title, and only one with such liveliness to it.

  “Welcome back, Lumis!”

  Haruno addressed her informally, too. She was the last of the three sisters, Lumis. Since she was the youngest of the pilgrims and the same age as Haruno, she was more of a friend than a bodyguard.

  “Welcome back to you, too, Rium!”

  “I’m back...”

  Behind Lumis stood Rium, holding an elegant old lady’s hand. Rium was the other one who didn’t address Haruno with a title.

  The old woman’s name was Nartha, Rium’s master. When the two were together like that, they looked like grandmother and grandchild. Rium didn’t have any parents, so she really was more of a mother to her.

  Nartha had business in the capital that day, so Rium tagged along, with Lumis following as their guard. They had just returned from their errand.

  “I have a present for you today, Haruno...”

  “For me? What is it?”

  “A message from Touya.”

  The moment she head those words, Haruno jumped straight up without so much as a word. She accepted a single envelope from Rium, her hands quivering, and an unsteady grin on her face.

  A letter from the one she longed so much to see. She paid no mind to the gazes around her.

  Haruno and Sera each gripped one side of the letter, and Rium popped her head out from under them. The remaining three girls surrounded them, and all six ended up reading the letter at once.

  The letter detailed how he managed to save Rulitora’s home tribe, and how he had met two new party members by the names of Clena and Roni. Also that they had safely reached Ceresopolis, but would shortly be setting off again. Lastly, he said that he wanted to meet her soon.

  Haruno rested her hand on her chest in relief, knowing he had found the new party members he had promised to find.

  “Hmm... it’s so bland. It’s his first letter, so he could afford to be a little more interesting.”

  Rin, however, didn’t agree with the letter’s contents.

  “Well, this message went through the temple, you know?”

  “It was sent from the temple in Ceresopolis to the temple here in Athenapolis.”

  “In that case, the message must have been read by the clerics. Even Touya wouldn’t be able to send a love letter like that.”

  Sandra voiced her counter-argument. Her guess was remarkably right.

  I wonder if Haruno is disappointed? Sera thought, and turned toward Haruno.

  “...Looks like I had nothing to worry about.”

  Haruno looked overjoyed as she held the letter, her grin even wider than before. It was an expression she could never show the people in the capital.

  “Isn’t this great, Lady Haruno?”

  “Thank you, Sera.”

  Sera was similarly beaming. She’d also been worried about Touya, praying for him every night, so she was happy knowing he was safe.

  Haruno knew she wouldn’t be able to write a love letter either, so she was satisfied just knowing that Touya was safe and sound.

  Of course, it’s not like she didn’t want to. She had a mountain of feelings she wanted to convey to Touya. But since those feelings were so dear to her, they also embarrassed her, and she definitely didn’t want the clerics knowing about them.

  “What’s wrong, Rium?” Lumis then asked.

  The others stopped talking, wondering what was wrong as they looked down on Rium, who had her arms crossed and her head tilted.

  “Rium?”

  Rium stared back up when Haruno said her name. She had a stoic expression and a delicate, doll-like face.

  But Haruno could tell. A picture was worth a thousand words. Hey eyes, gray as the sea, conveyed many of her thoughts.

  Rium’s eyes were sparkling and brimming with inquisitiveness. She was very curious about something pertaining to the letter.

  “Haruno... something is off with that letter.”

  “Off? What do you mean?”

  “One. They’re leaving from Ceres soon, so that means they’ve already decided on their next destination. But he only says that he ‘wants to see you soon,’ not exactly that he’s coming here next.”

  “In other words, they’re going somewhere else before coming to see Lady Haruno?” Sera proposed as Rium confidently nodded in response.

  Haruno fought back the urge to pat her head as if to say “clever girl,” and allowed the conversation to go on.

  “Two. The party members he gained in Rulitora’s home tribe, Clena and Roni. What were those two trying to do, going all the way to the Torano’o settlement?”

  “Huh? Wasn’t that merely one of the stops on their journey?”

  “No one goes to the void without a specific goal in mind.” Haruno questioned in confusion, but Rium shot her down quickly.

  “There are some rare goods in the void, so maybe they were hunters trying to gather those. I can’t imagine they’d wander so far in, though.”

  “So they must have had some goal in mind...?”

  Nartha pitched in with an explanation of her own. She was a gentle woman, but the way she spoke showed assertiveness, dignity, and had real persuasive power.

  “So Touya aligned himself with that goal, whatever it may be?”

  “That explains why he teamed up with them. It does sound pretty plausible.”

  Based on this discussion, it would appear Touya was hiding something. But Haruno didn’t think so. It made no sense that he would be hiding something from her now, after he’d come clean to wanting to bathe with Sera and Rium, in addition to Haruno.

  If he really was hiding something, it would be from the clerics reading his message. Haruno concluded as such and started wracking her brain, thinking of what it could be that he needed to keep secret.

  “Umm, what’s in the void? I don’t know much about it...”

  “It’s called the void because there’s nothing there. There’s literally nothing. Not even any data on the place.”

  “No data at all?”

  “Yeah, it’s boring.” Rium answered Rin’s question rather matter-of-factly. She had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, so she had no interest in places without any material for her to research.

  Haruno was left with one question after listening to their exchange. The void was hardly an unexplored area. It was close to Jupiter, the head of the Olympus Alliance, and was surrounded by many other nations including Ceres. Yet only the void’s environment was made up of wasteland and desert, which made it feel very unnatural. Not only that, in general there was hardly any data about the place. It really did feel unnatural.

  “Touya must have figured something out about this unnaturalness... Or no, maybe he heard about it from Clena and the rest...”

  “Lady Haruno?”

  “No, it’s nothing.”

  If that’s the case, I want to help— She was about to say, before stopping herself.

  Touya must have had good reason for not mentioning this in his letter at all.

  Assuming the lack of data on the void had a human cause, who exactly was behind it? You’d assume the people in power when the void was created. Perhaps even the Temple of Light had a hand in it.

  And even now, there was a power trying to hide it all. If such wasn’t the case, then Touya would have said something in his message.

  When Haruno came to that conclusion, she cradled her head.

 
; “What?! What’s wrong, Lady Haruno?!” “Are you hurt?! Are you feeling ill?! Cleric! We need a cleric!!” “I’m the cleric here, Sandra!” Haruno ignored Sera and Sandra as they scrambled about, and laid her head down listlessly. She had realized something. Her train of thought had unknowingly shifted to a conspiracy theory.

  But all things considered, she probably wasn’t too far off the mark. As she arrived to that, her eyes inadvertently shifted to Sera and the rest.

  There were Sera and Lumis, squatting next to her. The two of them were so worried about her that they had grown pale. Sandra was in a panic, with nary a trace left of her usually collected self. Rin, on the other hand, looked docile and handed her a glass of cold water, asking if she was okay.

  “Oh...” And finally, with her eyes locked on Haruno, Rium stretched out her small hand and touched her cheek.

  It felt cool and soothing. She was ashamed of herself for doubting her friends even for a second.

  I can trust these girls, at the very least. Haruno decided, and squeezed Rium’s hand. Her expression turned serious as she began to address the others.

  “I have some thoughts I’d like to share on this matter. Will you all hear me out somewhere more private?”

  Haruno paid attention to the gazes around her as they entered Nartha’s room. She made sure the thin lace curtains were properly closed. Rays of sunlight came in through the lace, lighting up the room, but it was difficult enough to tell what was going on from the outside.

  Soft carpet flooring and a large wall-side bookshelf made up the room. They all sat around a large table in the center of the room, and Haruno unabashedly shared her thoughts.

  “So you’re saying there’s something hidden within the void...?”

  “And there’s a chance the temple of the Goddess of Light played a role in hiding it?”

  “No way...”

  Sera and Sandra looked at each other with bewildered expressions. Lumis shook her head in disbelief.

  “Hold on, Lady Haruno. You shouldn’t be saying that. You shouldn’t be saying stuff like that. What if the temple leader hears about it...?” Rin, who was sitting beside her, whispered into her ear with a strained face.

  The four of them were followers of the Goddess of Light. Even though it would’ve happened a long time ago, it was a natural reaction to suggesting their temple had been involved in something suspicious.

  Even so, none of them got mad or left their seats. Haruno was right in putting her trust in them.

  On the other hand, Rium and Nartha had remained silent, only exchanging the odd glance. They didn’t deem her story to be complete hot air.

  “There’s some sense to what Haruno is saying.”

  “Yeah. There’s some hearsay about a ruined kingdom in the middle of the void, though it’s mostly superstition.”

  The two of them had apparently heard of the desert kingdom as well.

  “So the temple may have altered that fact into a rumor?”

  “I can’t say that much.”

  Sera asked timidly, but Nartha slowly shook her head in response.

  “I can’t say for sure, either.” Haruno also spoke up.

  Haruno had concluded that the temple was the only organization capable of exerting its influence over the entire alliance, but it wouldn’t be absurd for another unknown organization to exist just for protecting this secret. More importantly, they didn’t have enough information to determine exactly what that secret was. With the way things were, it was impossible to draw conclusions.

  “Anyway, I don’t think this is something we should talk to anyone else about.”

  “I agree.”

  “Same here. We’re just speculating right now.”

  Rin, Lumis, and Rium spoke in order.

  The pilgrims were followers of the Goddess of Light. As Rin said, they should be wary of spreading word about this as long as it was merely speculation.

  “In that case, I’d rather have been kept in the dark for a while longer...”

  “I-I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to keep any secrets from all of you.”

  “Well, I’m glad you trust us...”

  Sandra and Sera looked a little troubled, but not too annoyed.

  “You two are taking it too seriously. It’s a story from ages ago.”

  Rin was right in the end. It was just an old story, and there was a good chance that the current temple clergy were in the dark, too. That was their one saving grace.

  Rium, who had no particular connections to these matters, tugged Haruno’s sleeve.

  “What’s the matter, Rium?”

  “Haruno, I have a plan.”

  Haruno looked toward Rium, who continued talking with a stoic stare.

  “The tool that the temple uses to send messages is actually made by crystal mages.”

  “Huh, so Nartha can make them?”

  “I made the one here in Athenapolis.” Everyone looked toward Nartha as she stated that as if it were nothing.

  They furthermore learned that this tool was designed for clerical magic, instead of crystal magic, and that there were several other kinds as well.

  Clergymen called them holy tools, but they didn’t actually require the power of a goddess.

  “Sera and Touya can use them, too.”

  “Oh...!” Haruno unwittingly gasped.

  Yes, if the messages were sent using cleric spells, they’d be able to send messages to each other without the use of a temple as a middleman, as long as they had the proper equipment.

  “But we’d have to get one of them to Touya, wouldn’t we?”

  “It’s only a jump away with my flying disc.” Rium gave a thumbs up, looking ever so proud of herself.

  The “flying disc” was big enough to fit a person, and crystal mages could use them to fly through the air. Rium had managed to journey from Athenapolis to Jupiteropolis all thanks to her flying disc.

  “Is that okay?”

  “I’ll ask to use the Unlimited Bath while I’m at it.”

  “Then I... can’t go too, huh.”

  It was the perfect opportunity for Rium, who had been wanting to check out the Unlimited Bath for some time now. Haruno wanted to tag along after hearing that, but unfortunately, the flying disc only had room for one.

  In any case, as long as Sera agreed, they would be able to relay messages to each other without the aid of the temple now. Haruno gave Sera the old puppy eyes. Sera looked back at her for a bit, eventually sighing, and turning toward Nartha with a decision in mind.

  “...I understand. I’m also curious about Sir Touya’s findings. Lady Nartha, could we use those tools?”

  “...I can’t simply hand you one of the temple’s because of regulations, but I can give you a simplified one if you’d like. There shouldn’t be any issues when it’s just the two of you sending messages.”

  “Thank you so much!” Haruno and Sera stood up and bowed deeply at her.

  “Isn’t that great, Haruno?!”

  “Congratulations, now you get to send a love letter!”

  “Ah...”

  Haruno only realized after Rin said it. If they could send messages to each other without the aid of the temple, not only would they be able to exchange secret information, but love letters as well. And even if they couldn’t, she could at least send one through Rium this time.

  With this knowledge, there was no stopping her. That night, Haruno wrote her first ever love letter.

  Her cheeks ran hot, even though Touya wasn’t there. She stuffed every last one of her feelings of wanting to meet Touya in the letter.

  What kind of face will Touya make when he reads this? What will he write in return?

  The more she thought about it, the tighter her chest grew.

  I want to send him all of these feelings.

  Her pen flowed, fueled by her heart.

  “...Let’s not send this.” The next morning, she reread the letter she had written. Her face turned a bright red, all the way back to her
ears, and she tore it up. Maybe it’s because she’d written it in the middle of the night, but there were some bold things in it even she found hard to believe she’d written. Seeing how she had destroyed it right away, no one other than Haruno herself knew what the letter had said.

  But let’s just say that the rewritten version was quite a doozy, too.

  Second Bath – The Moon in the Bath Water

  We completed our preparations and the day to leave Ceresopolis had finally come, but first let me touch on two things that took place before that.

  The first had to do with one of the summoned heroes, Ritsu Nakahana. I remember it like it happened yesterday; one of the labor ravers from the village we’d passed had gone off to join her. She should have arrived before us, but seeing how we hadn’t heard a peep from her I’d assumed she set off again. Yet it seemed she was still here in Ceresopolis.

  I figured she’d gotten into trouble for taking a labor raver along without permission, but apparently she became his official owner after having met with the wealthy landlord who employed him. I’d be impressed by her display of common sense if that’s where the story ended, but that was just the start of it.

  The truth was that she was still living it up at the landlord’s mansion every day. On top of that, the battle ravers in the city had started flocking to her and formed a group called the “Ritsu Troops.”

  When I learned of this, I stopped wondering just how kind and benevolent that landlord was and started wondering if something was up with Ritsu herself.

  Take her gift, for example. She should have had a power similar to my Unlimited Bath, Haruno’s Unlimited Reflection, or Cosmos’ Unlimited Bullet. If her power was something that attracted people to her, then that would’ve explained it.

  She didn’t seem concerned with me at all, but I figured I’d do well to keep an eye out for her as a person of interest. I was hardly one to talk, though, considering how I was trying to uncover the secret history that the Olympus Alliance had put a veil on.

  Another thing was how Clena had asked that we go to the raver market right before setting off. I asked if she wanted a new raver, but that wasn’t the case. When we arrived at the raver market, she inquired about a certain procedure— one that would involve transferring the ownership rights to Roni over to me if anything were to happen to her. It sounded so much like a will that I had to ask her what she was thinking.