The Fervent Sand Baths

by Nagaharu Hibihana

  “Isn’t that a good thing, though? Come on, don’t be scared.”

  Her voice, on the brink of tears, sounded out from behind me. Maybe she’d scared herself into thinking there were monsters. I kept giving her words of encouragement as I opened the door to the hallway.

  I briefly looked around and noticed that the building was built like an enclosure. There was a large courtyard, encompassed by the rest of the building. Several doors faced the courtyard, with a stone-paved corridor in between. It looked like the temple ran deeper across the front gate, probably housing important rooms such as the elder’s office, but that had to wait. We needed to reconvene with everyone outside, so we headed for the front gate first.

  “A latch, huh? It looks pretty sturdy.”

  “With this latch and this gate, we wouldn’t have been able to break in unless we had a battering ram.”

  The gate we arrived at was barricaded shut with a latch. I surmised that the trespassers hadn’t been able to break down this gate, so they were forced to destroy the windows instead. We needed to get our carriage in, though, so Roni and I removed the barricade and opened the doors.

  “Okay! All clear!”

  Rulitora immediately took over the reins of the horse-drawn carriage, leading it inside. Fortunately, it looked like no monsters attacked while we were gone.

  “What a gloomy courtyard...”

  I responded to Rulitora by scouting the area, realizing the dreariness of our surroundings.

  “And it used to be such a splendid garden, too...” Goldfish mumbled nostalgically.

  “Were there flowers here, even though it’s all indoors?”

  “There are spells ye can use to bring in the light of the moon or the stars. Wanna see?”

  “Oh no. We’re not letting you use any magic.”

  “Dirty rotten...”

  I bet a moonlit garden would have been quite the sight, but right now not a single blade of grass was growing in the barren dirt. There was a pungent smell in the air with the place having been blocked from the sunlight for so long.

  I sent light spirits to illuminate our surroundings and saw an altar made of marble in the center of the courtyard. Between the altar and walls opposite the main gate was a pond. I took a closer look at it, but the water was awfully murky. This was probably the source of the smell.

  “What was this pond used for?”

  “...Decoration I reckon? The altar’s the only thing of use here anyway.” Goldfish answered bluntly.

  So it was just something to gussy up the garden. There wasn’t a trace of it left now, but I bet the garden and pond used to be stunning.

  “Looks like I need to ventilate this place.” Clena stepped down from the carriage after noticing the smell. She would probably be using wind spirits to replace the air inside with fresh, outside air.

  “Will you be okay?”

  “There’s air flowing from outside right now thanks to the sand, so it’ll be easier than when we were in the tunnel.”

  Her complexion had improved after resting in the carriage for a bit. She looked like she could handle it now.

  We parked the carriage in the courtyard, closed the gates, and replaced the latch. Considering how the windows were destroyed, the sturdiest thing in this temple was likely these gates. It would offer us protection, while we needed windows for ventilation.

  “Rulitora and I are gonna size up the temple. The gate won’t serve much of a purpose if all the windows are open.”

  “Are you going to restore all the windows?”

  “I’ll seal them off.” I raised my palm toward Rulitora. It was doable with the help of my earth spirit summoning.

  We needed to leave a window open for ventilation, even a small one would do the job. And even if there wasn’t, we should be okay leaving just one window open.

  “We’ll be checking out the rooms farther inside too, so we’re bringing Goldfish.”

  “We’d better replace his water soon.”

  I nodded in response to Rium. He couldn’t make any moves right now because he was in water made using my MP. The magic faded as time passed, so the time had come to switch out the water. I quickly changed the water, left ten light spirits in the courtyard, and summoned five more for Rulitora, Goldfish, and I to survey the inside of the temple.

  Every window on the first floor had been demolished, so I summoned earth spirits to alter the shape of the holes left behind and seal off all the gaps. While doing that, we found a hole we could use for ventilation. Only a few of the windows on the second floor were broken, so it really did seem like it was done deliberately.

  “Phew...” I breathed a sigh of relief. Seems like I used too much MP.

  “Are you alright, Sir Touya?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” I wasn’t at my limit just yet. There weren’t many windows that needed sealing on the second floor, so we should be able to finish this up.

  “Hey, d’you think they’ve got food reserves stored here?”

  “If there are they’d probably be in the storage room.”

  “I bet all the windows were broken from people trying to get to those reserves.”

  “...Blast their hides.”

  I had picked up on it some time ago, but this self-proclaimed sage seemed particularly devoted to the Goddess of Darkness. It became even more obvious now that we had entered the desert kingdom.

  As we explored the temple, we picked up every book or document that seemed important. Goldfish sneered at me like he wanted to say it was useless since I couldn’t read them anyway, but the joke was on him. The Goddess of Light let me read pretty much any language from this world.

  I picked up one book, flipped through it, and was able to figure out what it was about immediately. I had no intentions of letting Goldfish on about this, though, so I ignored his looks and continued collecting books. I thought for sure Goldfish would be cursing at us for taking things from the temple, but he didn’t say a word. Maybe he thought it was better than leaving them here to rot.

  “There’s nothing here but books.”

  We had entered what looked like a private room, but there was only a dresser with all of its drawers emptied out. Some of the rooms didn’t even have dressers.

  “I think we were right in thinking that the survivors of the battle between the sacred king and the demon lord looted everything.”

  “So those skeletons... Were they what remained of those people?” I asked, to which Rulitora gently nodded. It was the only explanation that made sense. Goldfish, however, spoke up in a sour tone.

  “Infidels... So ya honestly believe the sacred king wasn’t behind this? Sure, sure, the people of Hades pillaged their own temple... Bah!”

  “I guess we can’t completely dismiss the notion that the sacred king’s party did it, but...”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Rulitora entertained Goldfish’s idea, but I interrupted him.

  “Oh? So yer on the sacred king’s side, ey?”

  “Not exactly. As far as I can tell, the battle between the sacred king and the demon lord was partly religious, right?”

  “...I’m not sayin’ it ain’t.”

  “If the sacred king wanted to destroy this temple, then he wouldn’t have done it so halfheartedly like this. He probably would have blown it all to smithereens.”

  “Hmm...” Goldfish sank into silence, unable to deny my suggestion.

  If the remaining citizens broke into the temple looking for things that would help them survive, then that would explain why only books were left. In a life-or-death situation, books would only be useful to build a fire. The only explanation in support of Goldfish’s theory would be that the looters couldn’t bring themselves to use the temple’s books for fuel, and thus left them behind.

  “The survivors wouldn’t have had a way to get out, since the underground tunnel got blocked off. They were completely trapped.”

  “......”

  Going along with Goldfish’s
argument wouldn’t sit right with me, so I tried arguing in favor of the residents of Hades instead, but Goldfish remained silent.

  We had completed our round on the second floor, and came across a room directly above the front gate. It gave us a view on the outside of the temple. I asked Goldfish about it, and sure enough, this used to be a lookout station for temple knights.

  “If we stay here we can keep an eye on the outside. Let’s sleep here for tonight and take turns on guard duty.”

  “What should we do about the carriage?”

  “The courtyard is no different from a stable right now. We should be fine leaving it there for tonight.”

  “I understand.”

  We would need to leave food and water for the horse, but other than that, it should be fine for one night. Rulitora found no issues with my suggestion.

  Clena had finished ventilating the area by the time we returned to the courtyard, and the smell was nearly gone. She had overexerted herself again though, and was sitting down due to fatigue.

  “Clena, are you alright?”

  “You’re not looking so hot yourself, Touya...”

  We gave each other a wry smile. Seems like she wasn’t the only one who looked worn out right now.

  “We found a room upstairs that the temple knights used as a lookout. Let’s rest there for the night.”

  “Oh okay, let me take out the horse feed then. Could you open the Unlimited Bath?”

  “I’ll take care of that! Please sit down and rest, Lady Clena, Sir Touya.” Clena attempted to stand up, but Roni pushed her back down.

  Rulitora had his arms crossed, looking like he had something to tell me, too. He probably wanted me to take a break as well. Looks like I had no say in the matter here. I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath, then sat myself down next to Clena.

  “Rium, you come help too!”

  “Okay.” Rium shuffled into the Unlimited Bath behind Roni.

  Roni looked like an older sister now, even though we always saw her as a little sister. Clena and I watched over this peaceful scene with a smile. The two girls were spent as well, but I could tell that they were smiling.

  As for dinner, since the smell from the pond hadn’t completely subsided, we made a fire in what used to be a kitchen to cook our food. Of course, we used our own pots and pans. There was still a table left in the kitchen, so we ate our dinner there.

  As I bit down on a piece of roasted meat, I asked Roni about something that was on my mind.

  “How much longer do you think our food supply will sustain us for?”

  Even though we had found a place to rest inside this temple, we couldn’t stay here forever without any food. We were able to carry a lot more cargo thanks to my Unlimited Bath, but our supply was still limited.

  “Considering the time it would take to get back to Ceres... We have enough to stay here for another ten days.”

  “Actually make that one week, just to stay on the safe side... That might not be enough time to explore the city.”

  The Hadesopolis city center was smaller than Jupiteropolis or Ceresopolis, but from what I could tell since we emerged from the tunnel, it was still comparable in size to a neighborhood in a large city.

  “We’ll just need to limit ourselves to whatever seems important.”

  “So mainly the demon lord’s castle, then?”

  Rulitora and Clena voiced their opinions, then took quick glances at Goldfish.

  “...Well, I’d say there ain’t no places more important here than this temple or the demon lord’s castle,” Goldfish replied to them curtly.

  I wanted to ask him if there were any other important locations here, but he was never our ally in the first place. He wouldn’t just reveal everything he knew to us.

  We could split up and explore, but considering how often we ran into those skeletons, that wasn’t a favorable option. We had no choice but to slowly make our way through.

  That evening, I tried suggesting that we take turns keeping watch, but Rulitora wouldn’t have any of it. He said that Clena and I should rest, since we exhausted our MP. I had no choice but to comply, since he included Clena in his argument as well. Rulitora and Roni would rotate guard duty tonight.

  We took a quick bath, replaced Goldfish’s water, and spread out our futons. I lay down between Clena and Rium. This wasn’t the case anymore, but when we first started traveling together, our cargo left us little room to sleep and we were forced to snuggle up together. Even though we had some more space now, we still continued sleeping like that.

  It was still a little early for bed time, so I flipped over onto my stomach and started reading some of the books we had collected. According to Clena, everything was written in the ancient language of Hades, but thanks to all her research on the desert kingdom she was able to read it, too.

  Rium plopped herself down on top of me and was peering into my book. We probably looked like a parent turtle with its kid riding on top of it right now. She couldn’t read the Hades language, so she was probably just playing around.

  “There’s a cleric’s diary.”

  “This one looks like a history book on Hades. These are really valuable, aren’t they?”

  “What’s this one? There’s pictures of food in it.”

  “...It’s a cookbook.”

  The books we had gathered covered subjects from A to Z. Whether the cookbook itself had any value or not, it was a sign that people once lived here.

  I was pretty interested in the cookbook, personally. I wanted to keep reading it because it seemed important, but our time here was limited. We’d have to save the real studying for after we returned to civilization.

  “Touya, you use MP to keep the lights on, don’t you? Why don’t we go to bed early tonight?”

  “Hmm... you’re right. We can just wake up early tomorrow.”

  I usually left them on without giving it much thought, but it’s true that the lights in the Unlimited Bath were consuming my MP. We should head to bed early today, or else it’d be rude to Rulitora and Roni keeping watch.

  “Alright. It’s a little early, but I’ll turn the lights off.”

  “Oh, let me.”

  Rium got off my back and stood up to turn the lights into a nightlight. She came back, lay down, and wriggled herself close to me again. She kept herself proper and respectable while we were traveling during the day, but she acted like a baby at night. Apparently it was the same when she slept with Haruno’s party. Basically, she was using me as a body pillow right now.

  “You two sure are friendly.”

  “Wanna join, Clena?”

  “I’m fine. I’m not so childish that I need a pillow to hug in order to fall asleep,” she said as she was holding my hand under the sheets. I decided not to embarrass her by mentioning it.

  “Alright then, goodnight.”

  We all gave each other a goodnight kiss on the cheek, and went to bed. I must have been more exhausted than I thought, because it took no time at all for me to fall asleep.

  The first thing I did the next morning was fill a bucket with water and exit the Unlimited Bath.

  I had filled the bucket to replace Goldfish’s water. The MP in the water would keep for about half a day, but changing it out first thing every morning would make keeping track of it much easier.

  I looked at Rulitora, keeping watch beside the window, while Roni lay on the ground wrapped in a blanket. Rulitora immediately noticed that I had woken up and turned around.

  “Good morning, Sir Touya.”

  “Good morning to you too. Were there any attacks during the night?”

  “No, none.”

  “Good.”

  I made my way to the bucket as we conversed. I took a look inside, expecting another one of Goldfish’s tiresome rants, but instead I came to a shocking realization.

  “What the—! Where’d Goldfish go?!”

  “Huh?!”

  “Wh-what?!”

  Rulitora turned around at the sound of
my yell and Roni jumped up, still half-asleep.

  “Goldfish isn’t in the bucket!”

  “What?!”

  Rulitora rushed over and looked inside the empty bucket as well. We had changed the water before sleeping last night, so... the MP inside should still be plenty strong. But nevertheless, Goldfish had suddenly disappeared from the bucket.

  Clena and Rium also woke up upon hearing my voice. We wandered around, looking for Goldfish together, but couldn’t find a trace of the self-proclaimed sage anywhere. The prime suspect was the muddy pond in the courtyard. I found a pole and tried churning through the water, putting up with the rotten smell, but all I could feel was the rugged ground underneath.

  “Should we try filtering the pond with clean water?”

  “Do you think we’ll find him that way?” I folded my arms, contemplating Clena’s suggestion.

  Even though his fins were relatively big, he was still about the size of a goldfish. It was a pretty small pond, but I could tell from swishing the pole around that the bottom was uneven. If he was hiding underneath something, we’d have a hard time finding him even if the water was clear. Not to mention if he was swept away along with the water, there’s no telling where he would end up. Also, I’d rather not deal with rotten water everywhere if we were to clean it out. And so I suggested another plan.

  “Alright, let’s block it up.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’ll put a lid on the pond.”

  Why hadn’t I thought of this yesterday? If done right, you could literally say our problem was “water under the bridge,” and it would keep the smell from spreading, too.

  I went ahead and summoned earth spirits to form a dome. In no time, a semicircle made of dirt covered the pond. It came up to my knees. Was this what they called a burial mound? If Goldfish was really in here, then this would literally become his grave. I kind of wanted to mark it “Rest In Pieces,” though.

  “What was that guy trying to achieve, in the end?”

  “According to legend, that self-proclaimed sage lead the first sacred king to the demon lord’s castle, right?”

  “That’s a famous story. They say that the sage was an ally of the first sacred king.”