The Chaotic Stone Sauna

by Nagaharu Hibihana

  Finally, my relationship with Rakti was only just beginning. Right now she was the farthest from me. She glanced over every once in a while, but I didn’t want her to keep a distance between us like this. She wasn’t the type to strike up a conversation, so I called out to her, and she waded toward me with a smile.

  Her yuamigi cutely slipped off in the process. But she didn’t show an ounce of shame, standing before me not hiding a thing. Clena and Roni rushed over to put it back on her, but in their hurry, the bottoms of their yuamigi floated up. Clena’s thighs were exposed, as was the bottom half of Roni’s butt, but I kept that a secret from them.

  “...ya! Sir Touya!”

  I came back to my senses as Rulitora called out to me from outside the carriage.

  “The road ahead is blocked. Light is shining in through the cracks, so I believe it leads to the outside.”

  So we were close to the exit. We had progressed quite a bit while I had been lost in my imagination.

  I stepped down from the carriage, summoned earth spirits, and opened a hole within the pile of dirt blocking the road. A dazzling ray of light shone into the tunnel. Beyond was the eastern tip of Hades, the border between it and Hephaestus.

  I looked behind me to see Clena, Roni, and Rium also peering out from the carriage, squinting at the light shining in. We had gone through some tough mishaps in the desert kingdom, the former base of the demon army. But I was sure we’d be fine for the journey ahead.

  Rakti popped her head out last and started talking shyly.

  “Um, I believe the head temple of sister Fire resides in Hephaestus.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes, it will be clear after a single glance in the country.”

  A single glance, huh? I wondered what kind of country it was.

  “Alright, let’s make our way to Hephaestusopolis!”

  Our next destination was the country of fire, Hephaestusopolis. It was the start of a new adventure.

  First Bath – The Fire Country’s Specialty, Hot Tofu

  We arrived in Hephaestusopolis a few days after exiting the underground tunnel.

  Roni sat in the driver’s seat. Clena, Rium, and Rakti were inside the carriage wagon. Rulitora and I were armed, keeping guard from outside the carriage.

  The region was filled with red-tinted mountains as far as the eye could see. The occasional tree dotted the landscape, but despite it barely being the end of summer, they were also coated in a red hue as if it was the middle of autumn. In short, my entire view was colored red. The skies were still cloudy today, so I couldn’t see any blue, either.

  I initially thought the red mountains stood out here, but they were hardly the only thing colored red. According to Clena, nature here was like this year-round. Unlike the deciduous plants in Japan that would change colors every season, the plants here were red due to all the fire spirits.

  I see, so this was what Rakti meant by “a single glance.” The pure red color certainly brought fire to mind.

  Not to mention it was hot. It wasn’t as bad as the void at least, since the sun wasn’t beating down on us. But Rulitora was the only one keeping a straight face right now.

  Hephaestusopolis was located at the foot of a mountain in this scorching weather. Since the country rested along a gentle incline, I could see sprawling white houses beyond the city entrance. Farther in, I saw stacks of smoke coming from certain buildings.

  “What are those? Not a fire, right?”

  “I believe those are workshops. Hephaestusopolis is particularly known for its blacksmiths. There are mines close to Mt. Lemnos in the distance, then blacksmith workshops, then houses closest to where we are.”

  I looked up at the mountain as I listened to Roni’s explanation.

  Hephaestusopolis. This was the location of the head temple of the Goddess of Fire, as well as the go-to place for blacksmiths. The sprawling white city left a distinct impression in the red landscape. The blocky white buildings resting on the slopes reminded me of tofu.

  As we approached the city entrance, we spotted a crowd of people outside. Rulitora was the first once to notice with his sharp eyes.

  “Sir Touya. There is a group of people outside the city entrance.”

  “People? Are they armed?”

  “I can’t tell from here, but I don’t believe they are...”

  I wondered for a moment if they were tourists coming to see the Goddess of Fire’s head temple, but then I remembered that that wouldn’t make sense in this world. Only a few people traveled in this world, since they’d bear the risk of being attacked by monsters. When we drew a little closer, Rulitora noticed something else about the crowd.

  “Hmm... the people in the front of the group are clerics.”

  “What? They’re wearing cleric robes?”

  “Yes. They look slightly different, but they’re similar to the robes we saw at the temples in Jupiter and Ceres.”

  Cleric robes were normally white, but could be decorated differently at the hems depending on the temple. The light temple’s robes were embroidered with gold thread, while the earth temple used a plant-like green.

  As we drew closer, the rest of us could see the group as well. They didn’t look like they were waiting to get access into the country. If they were, they’d be facing away from us and looking toward the city entrance, but they were looking away from the city—at us. They noticed our presence and a group of them at the vanguard came rushing over to us.

  “Three red and one gold.”

  Four people were running up to us, all of them clerics. The red most likely signified that they were from the Goddess of Fire’s temple.

  I had some idea of what was happening. I had contacted Haruno after we defeated the Masked Cleric, one of the demon generals. I also told her that we’d be going to Hephaestusopolis. Haruno was staying with the pilgrims right now, so they must have contacted the temple for us. How did they know I was the hero, though?

  “I see you have a muscular sand lizardman with you... Might you be the Hero of the Goddess, Sir Touya?”

  I looked up toward Rulitora at those words. Of course. He’d be the easiest identifier.

  “Yes, I am. Are you the clerics of this country?”

  “I represent the Goddess of Light’s templ—”

  “We represent the temple of the Goddess of Fire, please let us be of assistance!”

  The cleric from the light temple came up to me first, out of breath. However, the remaining three from the fire temple pushed him aside. The three fire clerics were middle-aged men panting in exhaustion, but the light cleric was particularly young, skinny, and seemed unreliable. I could tell what the power balance was like in this country just from these four.

  I had spread news about the demon general’s defeat to boost my reputation. There was no use in hiding it, so I handed them my status card and confirmed that I was indeed the Hero of the Goddess. They opened their eyes wide at my MP and MEN stats, but that made it all the more clear that I was a hero.

  “I came to receive a blessing from the Goddess of Fire. Guide me to the fire temple.”

  “Ooh!”

  “No...! Are you casting aside your faith toward the Goddess of Light?!”

  Three out of the four responded happily at my proclamation. The fourth let out a cry of despair, though.

  “No, no,” I responded to him. I was barely pious in the first place. “I already have the Goddess of Earth’s blessing, though it’s not from the head temple. I’m planning on getting all of the goddess blessings.”

  “...!” All four of them were speechless at my statement. They were probably reminded of the arch-cleric from the first sacred king’s party, San Pilaca, who had been blessed by five goddesses. I had received the Goddess of Darkness’ blessing as well, but I kept that a secret for now.

  “I-in that case...” The light cleric stepped back. He probably figured that he wasn’t relevant to the situation. I was a bit concerned about Rakti, but I had no reason to be
cold to a cleric from the light temple, so I tried talking to him.

  “Oh, can I ask that you deliver a message to Jupiter’s temple?”

  “Wha... Oh, yes! What is the message?” The cleric was caught off guard for a moment, but then leaned himself forward in curiosity.

  “We defeated the demon general named Masked Cleric at the ruins of the demon lord’s castle. There are six generals remaining, the Five Great Demon Generals and the Beast King.”

  “My goodness, you defeated one too...?”

  “...‘too’?” I couldn’t ignore that one word from the cleric’s mouth. What did he mean, “too”?

  “We received a message the other day. A hero of the sacred king, Natsuki, defeated the Beast King.”

  Natsuki? That was referring to Kannami Natsuki. Back in Jupiteropolis, he had defeated his party candidates one by one, looking for someone to match him in battle. He was the most battle-ready of all the summoned heroes. So he had defeated a general too, huh.

  “Okay then, tell them that only the Five Great Demon Generals remain.”

  “Understood. Right away, sir!”

  In any case, this would give the cleric something important to do. The light cleric ran back to his temple in a hurry, while the fire clerics guided us into the city.

  Once we passed the gates, we met with a group of temple knights and temple ravers. All of us headed for the temple as one large group. There was no way we didn’t stand out like this.

  “Over there is the temple of fire.” The oldest-looking cleric pointed toward a building with chalk-colored walls. I was worried that the temple might be bright red and hurt my eyes, but my fears were unfounded.

  “Is it possible to conduct the blessing ritual right away?”

  “Unfortunately not. It takes a day to prepare, so we can do it tomorrow at the soonest.”

  “Okay, we’d like to repair our equipment first, then. Would you mind introducing us to a skilled blacksmith?”

  “Understood. In that case...” The cleric stopped talking and eyed the other two clerics.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Well, er...”

  The cleric looked at Rulitora, then inside the carriage. I looked back to see Roni in the driver’s seat. They were most likely looking at her.

  “...Um, do you mind if the blacksmith is a demi-human, Sir Hero?”

  “What?”

  “Well, many of the skilled blacksmiths here are demi-human, not human...”

  I cocked my head at the clerics, who were awfully hesitant in speaking further. “I’m sure you know, but I was summoned from another world. I have no idea what you guys are worried about.”

  The clerics looked at each other again. What were they deliberating over?

  “Well... there should be no issues then, if you do not mind.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The problem is usually on the customer’s side, you see.” “...Oh, I get it.”

  I got the gist of it. The issue wasn’t that the blacksmith was a demi-human, but whether or not the customer disliked demi-humans. I was a Hero of the Goddess, but that was short for Hero of the Temple of the Goddess of Light. After Rakti was sealed, the demi-humans had all their power extinguished. Perhaps followers of the Goddess of Light tended to disapprove of demi-humans in the past. The temple elder at Jupiter treated Rulitora perfectly normally, though. The prejudice likely wasn’t as widespread these days and varied based on the individual. If I hadn’t had Rulitora with me, the cleric might have skipped the question altogether and introduced me to a human blacksmith.

  “I’m sure you understand from looking at Rulitora here, but I don’t mind, so just introduce me to someone with skill.”

  “Ohh...!” the temple knights exclaimed in response. What were they so impressed about?

  “Oh, I have one other request. Could you introduce us to someone who deals with magic weapons, or at least is able to analyze them?”

  We had picked up a variety of equipment in Hadesopolis, so this was important.

  “Would you mind if it was someone different from the skilled blacksmith we’d recommend?”

  “Yeah, that’s fine.”

  The clerics breathed a sigh of relief, hands on their chests. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t ask you to find some superhuman for me. What was the image of a “hero” in their minds, anyway?

  In any case, we didn’t want to go straight to the places the clerics recommended. We headed to the temple, dropped off our excess belongings, and separated from the temple knights.

  “Ahh, I can finally breathe in the air outside the carriage.”

  We weren’t attracting as many stares now that our group was smaller. There were still a few people stealing glances at Rulitora, but that couldn’t be avoided. Sand lizardmen were a rare sight in human civilization.

  Roni was in the driver’s seat, while Rium was riding on Rulitora’s shoulders. Clena had stepped out of the carriage and was walking beside me. Rakti remained inside the wagon, perhaps not wanting to attract stares. I left her in Roni’s care.

  We had one young cleric and two temple knights accompany us. The cohort from earlier was them trying to demonstrate their authority over the light temple. Apparently they normally didn’t go to such lengths to greet someone.

  “By the way, what kind of demi-human will we be seeing?”

  “Oh, they’re small, but don’t be condescending about it. Many of them dislike it if you do.”

  “So they’re short?”

  “Yes, you could say that. They’re stronger than they look, though.”

  Blacksmiths who were short yet strong. I could imagine what they looked like.

  “Do they have mustaches?”

  “Of course.”

  “Even the women?”

  The cleric nodded. Clena cocked her head at our exchange.

  “Have you heard of them, Touya?”

  “I guess you could say that?” I gave her a vague reply.

  From the cleric’s description and knowing that they were blacksmiths, the name “dwarf” came to mind. They were a famous race who commonly appeared in fantasy stories. The elf who had joined Cosmos’ party was another famous race I had heard of. I grew excited to meet a race I had only read about in the past. I picked up the pace a little as we made our way to the smithy.

  “Meowcome to my smithy.”

  We arrived at the smithy and the owner greeted us like so. I wanted to make a joke, but I suppressed the urge and kept my mouth shut. The rest of the group looked at me in confusion as I wriggled around in my internal struggle.

  Yes, he was short. He only came up to my waist. He was wielding a large hammer over his shoulder, so he appeared to be strong as well. And I suppose you could say he had a mustache. The one in front of us was male, but I was sure females had them as well. I could tell from his face.

  “So what brings mew here to my smithy?”

  I was staring back at a cat’s face. Yeah, the blacksmith we had been recommended wasn’t a dwarf, but a two-legged cat. Apparently they were a race of demi-humans called ketolts. He didn’t look very muscular, in fact he only seemed heavy-built from the waist down. But he was still waving a large hammer around like it was nothing. He was definitely stronger than he looked.

  Come to think of it, Roni was stronger than she looked as well. Rulitora looked strong, but in reality he was even stronger. Maybe all demi-humans were like that.

  We entered the smithy, and the sooty walls provided a stark contrast to the chalk-white walls outside. Unlike in Jupiter, the workshop and reception desk weren’t separated by any walls here. There was a counter as soon as you entered the door, and then the furnace and work benches with tools scattered around were right beyond that.

  “Purrr, we have some young customers here today.”

  The ketolt blacksmith looked up at me, head tilted to the side. He had white fur, but it was sooty from his blacksmith work. He wore a brown leather vest, trousers, and boots reinforced with metal
at the toes. The trousers had a hole in them for his tail to go through. His tail was sooty too, no longer its original white color.

  He looked adorable, but was actually a middle-aged man in his forties. Honestly, he looked pretty dashing. Was this the vibe an adult man was supposed to give off?

  His name was Pardoe Paul. He was one of the top blacksmiths in Hephaestusopolis. Not only that, he was one of fewer than five blacksmiths who knew how to deal with magic weapons and armor. Apparently having a family name in this country was proof that you were a capable blacksmith as well.

  “Well, standing ameownd won’t get us anywhere, come on in~”

  We were led to another ketolt with pure white fur. She was wearing a skirt and an apron. Her tail peeked out from under her skirt.

  Her name was Crissa Paul, and... she was Pardoe’s daughter. So the women grew mustaches after all. If you counted whiskers as mustaches, that is.

  On that note, Crissa was apparently well known in the neighborhood as a beautiful girl with a kind personality, and everyone wondered how such a good daughter had been born from such a gruff father. Well, I couldn’t tell the difference between them. I could tell the difference between Rulitora and Dokutora, but I could barely tell cats with similar physiques apart. Pardoe was just a little bigger than his daughter.

  Crissa led Clena, the cleric, and me to a table. We had left the other four waiting by the carriage outside. Pardoe sat himself down, arms crossed, and I began talking.

  “We found some armor that had magic cast on it, so we’d like to know what sort of spell it is. And if it’s not anything dangerous, I’d like you to tailor it for me.”

  “Purr... You sure look like you’ve fought through some tough battles,” Pardoe murmured as he looked at the brigandine I was wearing.

  My armor had been thoroughly roughed up by the flying swords Goldfish had sent at me and was now torn all over the place. Since ruins were being scavenged everywhere nowadays, maybe it was normal to get this tattered up to find magic equipment. I had figured it’d be easier to get a new set of armor rather than repair my current one, and Pardoe probably guessed the same as he nodded along.