SS – ‘Hot Spring – Toranoana/Volume 2 Extra
By the way, if you travel east from the swamplands that the lizardmen live in, you will come out into a mountain district.
There is a great underground cave there that is a natural labyrinth created by active volcanoes. It was packed with endless, twisting passages. So much so that even the Lizardmen could not fully navigate it.
You could go deep down one path and find yourself in the world of an ice cave. Another route might take you to a world of burning heat, called a magma pit.
It was said that there was a demon world there that was hidden because it was too dangerous.
However, the labyrinth was not important now…
It was the active volcano.
If there is a volcano, then there should be a hot spring—it was that thought that started everything.
◇◇◇
“And that is the reason! I’m thinking about going to the hot spring. What do you all think?”
My voice rang through the meeting room.
However, they did not seem to have understood me very well.
“You say that, but isn’t a hot spring just hot water? Why don’t you just go play in the river?”
“Yes, yes. They had water from hot springs in the bath houses of the dwarf kingdom. I didn’t think they were so special.”
As dwarves, Kaijin and Garm were not interested. Dord and Myrd were nodding, so they probably agreed with them.
Hot springs were not particularly unusual, so I could understand their opinion. However, whatI was thinking of was very different from what the dwarves were thinking of.
“A hot spring, huh? What exactly is that?”
“Isn’t it a place where water gathers after being heated from a volcanic mountain?”
Souei answered Benimaru’s question. Surprisingly, Souei knew quite a lot. In any case, as they all weren’t too enthusiastic, I would have to make them listen as I lectured them on the wonders of bathing.
Being thorough about hygiene through bathing would help prevent diseases. But more than anything, as a former Japanese person, I wanted to introduce bath culture to them. Of course, my main motive was my own enjoyment.
“Exactly! Well, there are volcanic mountains without hot springs, but we’ll ignore that for now. Just as Souei said, our current goal is to find water heated by a volcanic mountain. When water is heated underground, various substances are dissolved into it. These substances are supposed to be good for you. So, as you can see, it’s perfect for healing your tired body!”
After I said this, Benimaru seemed interested.
“That sounds good. It might be interesting to give it a try.”
“Quite impressive, Lord Rimuru. You sure know a lot.”
It seemed like they had warmed up to my idea.
Next, I just had to persuade the old dwarves…
“Besides, imagine this. When you play in the river, do you go in while wearing your clothes? If you are just wiping yourself with a bucket, then you wouldn’t take all of your clothes off. But in the bath, it’s normal to take it all off!”
“Well, that may be true, but…”
“But we’re quite satisfied with playing in the water. Aren’t we?”
“…”
Hmph. These old guys were slow to take the bait.
“I don’t care about that. Where’s your imagination? For instance…”
“Huh!?”
When I tried to explain it in detail, Kaiijin seemed to have noticed something.
“…Do you mean! You aren’t suggesting…”
After Kaijin, Garm seemed to realize it as well.
“Hehehe. So you do see. Exactly. Quite the paradise will be waiting. Don’t you agree?”
All of them gulped at this.
Their uncooperative attitude had dissipated. There was now a burning passion in their eyes.
“You see, there is a wonderful thing called ‘mixed baths’…”
“I’ll help you.”
“Say no more. We are friends!!”
“Yes. What he said.”
“…!!”
They all promised their unconditional support.
Benimaru looked a little disgusted, while Souei looked as if it did not concern him.
Like this, the plan to create a hot spring in Tempest began.
◇◇◇
What was wrong with a normal bath?
No, it wasn’t that it was wrong. To put it simply, it would cost too much to make a normal bath house.
You needed a lot of firewood to boil the water. As a lot of buildings were currently being constructed, there was quite a lot of discarded material. However, that would not last for long. You could gather tree branches in the forest, but you also needed to burn fires for food. And so I thought that there would not be any left to use for the bath.
And so the land was inspected, and a water source with the perfect temperature was discovered.
Then it was my turn. I created a pipe out of Demon Steel and then used ‘Shadow Movement’ to connect the source to Tempest.
This was done within the shadow space, but that wasn’t a problem, since I didn’t need to breathe. If anything, the real problem was covering the parts of the pipe that were outside of the shadow space.
I ended up just shoving it all onto ‘Great Sage,’ and it turned out to be a pretty easy problem.
The dwarves carves marble stone and created a wonderful, great bath house. The words ‘mixed bath’ seemed to have worked. And I could tell that they put their backs into it. Even with just a glance, you could see that it was built to look luxurious and gorgeous.
This place would eventually become a tourist attraction that would be renowned around the world, but that was a story for a different time.
Oh, what happened to the ‘mixed bath’ you say?
As if things really worked like that in the world.
“Oh, it’s turned out so wonderful. Dwarf craftsmen really are brilliant. But while it’s nice you made one for us women, you must make one for the men as well.”
Shuna declared with a smile. They were apparently defeated without a word of protest.
Benimaru consoled them and said they should be happy to be able to enter the baths at all. Now they would build the men’s bath without sulking. It was all according to plan.
By the way, as I was a slime, I could enter the women’s bath as much as I wanted. But that had nothing to do with them.
