“What are Renne and Cecile up to?” Lapis pondered the whereabouts of the two absentees as she poured juice into my glass. I didn’t want her to get mad at them, so I decided I’d have her fall into the same trap that they had succumbed to.
“They’re currently helping me out a bit with my magic. Actually, Lapis, since you’re done here and all... you should head over to my room and see them.”
“Hm...?” Lapis headed back inside with a curious look on her face. I knew that as soon as she laid eyes upon the cartoon, she’d be unable to escape its snare.
“So Touya, what’re you doing today?” Elze cut in, talking to me while sipping her post-meal tea.
“Well, I’ll be heading to Eashen in a bit because Yae’s weapon should be done today. I’ll go and speak to her parents while I’m there, as well. After that, I’ll be going to see your uncle.”
“Oh, you can feel free to put off going to see our family, Touya. If our aunt found out we’d be getting married to the same man as the princess of Belfast she’d have a heart attack.” Elze and Linze hailed from the Refreese Imperium, a country just west of Belfast. They were raised on a farm by their aunt and uncle in the village of Saletto, in the eastern part of Refreese. As I understood it, their real parents died of illness when both of the girls were young...
“Don’t be silly, I’ll have to talk to them eventually. We’ll take some flowers to the grave of your parents while we’re there, too.”
“...Th-Thank you, Touya.” Linze smiled from across the table, apparently feeling both timid and happy.
“Now, shall we check up on our lovely maid trio?” After the meal, I took the others up to the bedroom. As I had expected, all three of the maids were completely engrossed in the cartoon. Kohaku was curled up in Renne’s lap, purring gently as the action unfolded.
Elze and the others became glued to the screen pretty quickly too. I turned it off after the episode finished running. It did have to end sometime, after all.
Everyone started to complain, but I quickly diffused the growing storm by promising to put it back on after dinner that evening. That, thankfully, appeased them.
It became increasingly clear to me that the people of this world were starved for entertainment. Indeed, after one reached adulthood, it was a considerably larger amount of work, and a considerably lesser amount of play. But, in a world like this one, there were a lot of things that needed to be done in order to survive, so it might’ve just been that they simply didn’t have time to enjoy themselves.
After that, I took Yae off with me to Eashen, and we approached the smithy that we’d visited the last time.
“Hey there, we’re here to pick up a katana?”
“Oh, hey there! Yup, as promised, your order’s ready and waitin’.” The smith came out from the back of the store, holding a katana in one hand and a short blade in the other. They were both sheathed in beautiful crimson sheaths.
Yae accepted the weapons, then swiftly unsheathed them. It seemed like she was eager to look them over. The blade shone a brilliant silver, and I could see a finely adorned pattern dancing along it.
“It is extremely light... I suppose that is what you would expect from a mithril weapon, yes.” Yae made a few standard swings with the weapon in order to get a good feel for it, and then she sheathed the blade. She suddenly crouched down, gathering her center of gravity, and drew the blade from her hip with a slash. She’s fast!
“It flows very well. This is a wonderful blade, it is.”
“Thanks a bunch.” The smith smiled a bit at Yae’s compliment. It seemed that he was a very talented man after all.
I cast [Storage] and pulled out a hunk of mithril to pay him with. I pulled out around twice the amount of mithril I had initially given him to forge the weaponry with. As I moved to hand it over to him, the smith looked at me with wide-eyed shock.
“Hey, hey... ain’t this a little much?”
“Don’t worry about it. I might want to use your services again in the future, so just work as hard as you did this time and we’ll get along just fine.”
“...Fair enough. Well, if ya really don’t mind, I’ll be taking it, then.”
The smith let out a jovial laugh, his mithril chunk in hand. Yae and I bid him farewell, then headed off on our way.
Once we got back to the mansion, it was time for dinner. Once we wolfed down our food, it was holo-vision time. The girls all hurried me into my room, but I still had enough willpower to limit them to three hours.
I turned out all the lights so the audience could better see the projection. The show I had chosen this time was an animation, much like before, except this one was about an hour long. I chose a fantasy story rather than a modern-day drama, because it would be easier for the citizens of the other world to identify with.
Elze, Linze, Yae, Yumina, Lapis, Cecile, Renne, Cesca, Julio, Crea, and Leim were all packed into my room. My beastly trio, consisting of Sango, Kokuyou, and Kohaku, had also decided to attend the screening. I found it almost cute, like a little cinema. Sadly, Tom and Huck had to stay on guard duty, so they were unable to attend. I made a mental note to make it up to them both later.
Everyone was completely captivated by what they were watching. I had always figured that this other world had little in the way of entertainment, but I never stopped to think about, really. They probably didn’t even have team sports like soccer or baseball. They certainly didn’t have anything like video games or cartoons, for sure. The knights of Belfast had their mock battles, but that was more for training purposes than entertainment.
Come to think of it... if they don’t have a large sports culture, does that mean they don’t have athletic festivals or sports days, either? The kids in town race each other sometimes, so they at least know stuff like that as a concept... But I wonder if they’ve ever experienced a relay race, or an obstacle course, or a bread-eating contest! They could even do that game where three guys lift up another guy and try to knock down the enemy guy. Like a mock cavalry charge... Actually, the people here could probably organize a real cavalry charge. It’d be pretty nice if the townspeople could arrange something like that, getting everyone involved... We could divide the teams into red and white, too...
Before I knew it, I was absorbed in thought, watching over the captivated audience.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Our economy’s been in a real slump lately, yeah... We’ve lost a lot of visitors and haven’t had many guests to speak of. My dad was trying to get more business drummed up using shogi as an advertising point, but it didn’t really work out.” It had been a while since I last visited Reflet, so I decided to pay the Silver Moon Inn a visit. When I got there, Micah started counting her woes. I hadn’t been there in a while, but I hadn’t expected that they’d fall into financial hardships in such a short amount of time.
In order for an inn to profit, a guest has to stay overnight. In order for a guest to stay overnight, the town has to have some sort of attraction. I guess Reflet just... wasn’t all that interesting, it didn’t really have anything to make it stand out as a tourism hotspot.
Now if this place had a hot spring, that’d be another story entirely.
Maybe we could dig one up...? Nah, pretty sure you need to be in a volcanic area for a hot spring to even be possible...
“Are there no town events going on any time soon? A festival, maybe?”
“... Nope. What kind of festival do you mean?”
“Uhh, well... I can’t really think up a festival on the spot like that. My home country has the Snow Festival, or Tanabata... How about something like that?”
“It doesn’t really snow here... and what’s a tan batter?” Nah, this won’t work either. Even if we put on a festival, it’d be a temporary solution. Sure, the place would be bustling with tourists for a while, but that would only be for one short period a year. The rest of the time the place would be a regular ghost town...
I decided that the best thing to do to attract custome
rs would be to give the Silver Moon something only it could have. Really, installing hot springs would be the ideal in this situation. With that in place, tourists from miles around would surely flock to the Silver Moon.
Can I make an artificial hot spring if I boil water with magic...? Ah, wait... I’d have to boil it every day, so that wouldn’t be very efficient. It wouldn’t really be much of a hot spring, either... Is there anything else I can do here? Wait... I’ve got it! “... A hot spring! I’ll make one for you, Micah.”
“Wh-What?” Yeah, I can make one. It’ll actually be pretty easy to make one! All I’d have to do is go to a natural hot spring, pull some hot water through with a [Gate], let it flow through, then drain it out with another [Gate]. No big deal at all.
“Can you really make one?”
“It should be possible, yeah. It probably won’t take a lot of time, either.”
“If you could make one, it’d be amazing... Uhm, what can I do to help?” Just as Micah started to fire herself up, Dolan wandered in. Dolan raised his brow in excitement upon hearing the mention of a hot spring, and quickly confirmed the story so far.
“So you’re saying you can make us a hot spring by connecting a far-off one to our little Inn?!”
“Well, yeah. Probably. I can definitely give it a shot.” I pulled up my smartphone and ran a search for “hot springs”. There was one on the outskirts of the Melicia Mountains, in a forested area to the south. I asked Micah, just to be sure, but she said she’d never heard of a place like that. Seemed like it was a secluded one that few knew about. That was more than perfect for me.
I used [Gate] to head back to the Garden, taking Cesca along with me. Together, we sailed off in the skies towards the spot on the map.
“Master... you’d really go so far as to take me into a secluded mountain hot spring, just to see me in the nude...? You know that all you have to do is give the order and I’d drop my panties like they’re hot, right?”
“I don’t have any intentions like that! Stop lifting that skirt!” I karate chopped the robo-brat in a vain attempt to end her sexual harassment. That girl had too many lewd scenarios in her head, it was troublesome.
Eventually the Garden arrived at its destination, I disembarked. Oho, I can smell it... This is the smell of a hot spring.
I made my way through the bushes and found the natural spring within a forest glade. The water looked great, it didn’t have any grime or impurities in it at all. I got closer and dipped my hand into the water. Ouch, it’s a little hot... but that’s still better than it being lukewarm.
I took a good look around, confirming multiple water sources for the spring. It seemed that quantity wouldn’t be an issue, either.
I decided to install a pipe enchanted with [Gate] connected to another enchanted set of piping at the Silver Moon. This would allow water to flow from here to there, and back again. The Silver Moon would become the “space” between the two pipes.
I cast [Storage] and pulled out a hunk of mithril. I decided to use that rather than iron, because the mithril wouldn’t rust up. Then I created a few pipes around ten centimeters in diameter, and thirty centimeters in length. Then I set to work installing the piping in various areas. I used [Modeling] to install the pipes, so they seamlessly fit together.
“Alright, everything seems ready.” I used a [Gate] to return to Reflet... before promptly remembering that I’d left Cesca behind again.
Quickly, and thankfully, remembering my mistake, I stepped through another portal and came out in the Garden. I reported back to Cesca on my success.
After I made it back to the Silver Moon, I walked around their backyard looking for a good spot. I dug out a water channel with magic, it was about 30 centimeters long. It was also about one meter long in total. I reinforced the waterway with stone to prevent the water from getting all muddy and gross.
Then, using [Storage] again, I pulled out some mithril and began work on the next pipe. I then crafted an ornate lion’s head and fixed it over one end of the waterway, its mouth serving as the spout. I realized that if I enchanted it with [Gate] right away, then water would come flying out of it uncontrollably.
To counter that, I used [Program] to set the portal to open or close based on whether a nearby person gave the keyword “Open” or “Close”. That way the flow of water could easily be controlled. I kept it closed for the time being, and lodged another mithril pipe slightly higher up on the other side of the little hole I’d made. The hot water would flow into the spring from the lower pipe, and then flow out through the higher pipe, heading through a portal back to where it came from. One would supply the water, the other would work as a drain.
“I think everything should be in order now.” I spoke the keyword “Open”, and hot water began to flow out of the lion’s mouth. Micah and Dolan looked on with amazement. “Whoa!”
“Wow! It’s really a hot water spout?!” The hot water spilled from the ornate lion’s mouth, and began to fill up the little waterway. When the water level reached the hole on the other side, the depth remained level. The hot water that poured into the hole on would flow back into the springs near the mountains, creating an even loop.
I kicked off my footwear and splashed my feet around in the water a bit. Yowch, a little hot, but it actually feels pretty good. “Whoa... that’s amazing...”
“But does our property even have enough space for a big hot springs bath?” Dolan gazed over at the water with a look of sheer awe on his face, while Micah pondered a serious issue. Luckily for her, I’d already pondered that for her.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but that plot of land with the two homes on it is vacant, right? The ones right behind your inn.”
“Er, yes it is... but what does that matter?”
“I’ll buy it, then.”
“What?!” It was the simplest solution, after all. I went off to the estate agency to check how much the properties were going to cost. The agent told me that the homes were eight platinum coins apiece. I paid immediately.
I had sold the broken fragments that I’d taken from the Mithril Golem, and found myself with an absolute wealth of cash as a result. I didn’t need to worry about finances all that much anyway, especially when it was for a good cause.
I purchased the properties, signed the contract, and made my way back to the Silver Moon.
“Didja seriously buy those places?”
“Yup. Now, want me to renovate it all in one go?” Micah was surprised, but I still had work to do. I summoned a [Gate] on the flat of the ground and both homes sank into it. I had just dumped the whole lot back on my floating Garden. With a swoosh, two houses vanished in an instant.
“What?!” The two were stunned. Ignoring their surprise, I continued to take out the wall that was dividing the property from the Silver Moon in the same way.
I prepared the rough outline of a bathing area using Earth magic. I spread it out pretty widely. After that, I applied some of the finer touches using [Modeling].
“So what about a woman’s bath and a men’s bath? Want me to split it into two pools?”
“Hm? Ah, yes! Can you divide it?”
“No problemo!” I divided the bath right into two halves. I surrounded them both with a rock wall, a stone pavement that leads into the washroom, some tatami mats, a roof and set of pillars made of cypress. Then I set up a dividing wall between the two pools. I enchanted the divider with [Paralyze]. That was for a little divine punishment in case any peeping Toms were skulking about.
I finished off the exterior by creating two dressing rooms and erecting long curtains for the entryways as well.
Finally, I enchanted the upper area of the bath with [Mirage], preventing any of the hotel guests from peeking down on it. All they would see was an image of rustling treetops. The people in the baths would see tree canopies as they looked up, as well. Nobody wants to look over and see people walking about as they bathe, after all.
All-in-all, it had become a pretty nice Japan
ese-style bath.
I felt a sense of pride wash over me, nodding in confirmation at my own work. Then I noticed Dolan and Micah out of the corner of my eye, both were slack-jacked and staring.
“G-Goodness... you’re just full of surprises, huh...”
“You built it in no time at all...” Well, maybe I overdid it a little. I thought it’d be a really nice idea, so I just went and did it right away. I made everything right down to the bucket and stool.
“So wait, can we even use this bath as a business? The land and stuff is yours, right?”
“I’ll lend it to you for the foreseeable future. If the place profits well enough, I’ll let you buy the deed from me. It’ll be sixteen platinum coins, though.” I held out the proof of purchase, highlighting the amount the deed was worth. Well, the title deed was for a household property, and I had gone and replaced it with an open-air bath... I didn’t think too hard about it.
“Hmhm... not bad at all. Now I can make a profit from both the lodging and the bath house... I’ll make good use of it, thank you.” In a world where bathing was a luxury for the upper classes and the rich, the poor were lucky to scrub themselves with a wet towel every so often. I was sure that the common folk would be extremely happy to get such a nice bath on the cheap.
“The bath won’t do anything for diseases, but it should treat physical ailments pretty effectively. Bad eyes, back pain, even poison if you soak in it long enough. They should all be taken care of.”
“The water really does that?” The water really did that. I had used another [Program] to imbue the springs with [Recovery]. It would cause too much of a stir if people’s injuries were healed right away, so I made the spell infuse with the water, gradually applying itself over time.
We decided to open up the springs for a test run. I said the “Open” keyword for both baths, and the water began to flow. As I set everything up, Micah and Dolan went to get their friends. Today’s test run would be free of charge for them all, of course.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 3 Page 17