After devouring Monstro’s meal with relish, I was relaxing in bed when a knock sounded at my door. “Come in,” I said through the door.
Chestnut opened it and came in. “My apologies for barging in while you are enjoying your downtime. I came to inform you that a bath has been drawn. Will you be taking advantage, Mr. Kaito?”
“A bath, huh? Could be nice...” I said.
Reacting as though my answer was somehow unsatisfactory, Chestnut made a strange face. “Are you...not fond of baths, Mr. Kaito?”
“No, it’s just that I usually use Clean Beam—” I said, then caught myself. “I usually use magic to clean myself.”
“Magic like that exists?”
“Sure,” I said, “like this,” and, since she didn’t seem to know what to picture, I fired Clean Beam in a small burst. I raised my hand up, partially obscuring the sunbeams that shone into the room, and used the beam on my own body. Soap-like bubbles began to spread around me and washed away all the grime and stickiness left on my face from eating.
“It can take care of any dirt or uncleanliness,” I said.
“Quite the convenient bit of magic... Still, the mansion’s bath is awfully splendid as well if you’re interested.”
“It’s that great, huh?”
“It really is,” Chestnut said with a dreamy expression. “Before Mr. Monstro took me on, I’d never seen a bath so huge and immaculate. For me, ‘taking a bath’ was just wiping myself down with a washcloth... It’s been an absolute dream to have access to the mansion’s facilities ever since starting work here. It puts me in a good mood every single day.”
Though magic had driven the development of this world in science’s stead, hybrids lacked the ability to make use of it. While simple things like water taps were conveniently touchless appliances for humans, they were inaccessible to hybrids because they were really magic items. Regardless of whether the supernatural power in question yielded water by causing it to flow or just by controlling a pump made no difference: either way, only humans were able to take advantage. Hybrids, on the other hand, had no choice but to repeatedly haul buckets of water between the river and the bathtub when they wanted to bathe. With magical power, humans were even able to draw water that was already hot, whereas hybrids had to gather and burn firewood in order to heat theirs up. With so many hurdles to clear under normal circumstances, it was no wonder that the ability to take a bath daily put a smile on Chestnut’s face.
“I see. So Monstro sets up a bath for you every day, then?”
“He does. Cleaning it is still the maid’s responsibility, but every day after he finishes preparing our food, he goes out of his way to fill up a bath just for us.”
“Just for you and the other maids? Does he not take one?”
“Mr. Monstro is always confined to the kitchen until late into the night. He has to stay back to prepare for the following day as well as think over the menu. He gets in the bath much later than we do.”
“Always working late... Makes sense. He did seem pretty tired tonight.”
“Yes. Tigaro is correct to say that he’s rather severe, but...even so, there are many things for which I am grateful to Mr. Monstro as well. He takes care of us, he’s dependable... It’s true that he’s obsessive about his cooking, though. I couldn’t help with that even if I wanted to.”
So Monstro stayed shut away in the kitchen late into the night working on the food he was so highly particular about. Tigaro had said that the maids were served leftovers. If so, that meant that Monstro was putting in all that work for Beelzé’s sake alone.
Why on earth did he go so far just for one man?
“This Beelzé person: what’s he like?” I asked.
“I don’t know much about him, but...I have heard that Mr. Monstro has long been indebted to him for some service rendered in the past. For that reason, our Master has prepared his food every day for thirty years now. He hasn’t skipped even one meal.”
“For thirty years...” I said. To still be paying off a debt after such a long time... What could Beelzé have done, saved his life or something?
Timing-wise, it lined up with the stampede. Perhaps Beelzé had contributed to Monstro’s successful dispersion of the devil fly swarm. It could be that Monstro had offered to cover all of Beelzé’s food in return for being allowed to take all of the credit.
There was another possible explanation. Though I would prefer not to think so, it could be the case that Beelzé had some kind of dirt on Monstro. No matter how delicious, though, demanding food for thirty years was strange however you looked at it. If that were the explanation, it would mean that just for the sake of good food, Beelzé hadn’t left home in three decades. No trips or outings of any kind. If he really did have something on Monstro, it was far likelier that he would demand money, not food.
But while I was interested in Beelzé, it was more pressing that I decide what to do about the bath. I’d already freshened up with Clean Beam, but I did have some time to kill. I didn’t have anything better to do, and I’d been working so hard lately—why not take a little bath?
“Would you please show me the way to the bath?” I asked.
“Certainly,” said Chestnut and did just that, guiding me to a dressing room on the first floor. The antechamber had been meticulously attended to, and a feeling of cleanliness pervaded the room. A large mirror, spotlessly clean and without even a spot of fog, was hung on one wall. The tiles covering the floor were shining, no darkened areas or smudges to be seen, and there was even a basket full of crisp, white towels that looked brand-new.
“Please, take your time and enjoy yourself,” Chestnut said and politely bowed her head before returning to the hallway. Once the door to the dressing room had fully closed, I quickly disrobed and transferred to the bath.
The wide, extensive space was thickly shrouded in steam. A small, latticed window in one wall did its best to ventilate the room but evidently fell a bit short of the task. The bathtub, similar to the kind found in onsen ryokan back home, was itself quite large. After rinsing myself off, I submerged myself in its waters and leisurely stretched out my legs.