I almost burst out laughing imagining Van throwing a tantrum about not wanting to go to school. I could almost sympathize with Duchesse’s troubles, picturing him with an untroubled expression on his face while dealing with Van.
“In any case, what did the others say about our plans for Diamant?” Van asked.
I started giving Van my report. I wanted to make it as detailed as possible, but there had been too many debates. I decided to tell him only the things that had been set in stone.
Lady Opera had met the Four Great Nobles’ wives and other noblewomen of various ages to gather their opinions. The Dragon Duchy of Éclair previously had no concept of what a “hot spring” was, so the meeting had begun with an explanation of what they were. Many of the noblewomen had narrowed their eyes upon hearing that they were similar to the public baths in the Kingdom of Sacristain as those were apparently vulgar and obscene institutions.
Of course, Van had burned down those facilities with his breath attacks before the Dragon Duchy of Éclair had even been established. After their destruction, they had never been rebuilt, and they were nowhere to be seen in this day and age.
The dirty image of those public baths was too strong in the minds of these noblewomen, though, so many of them had been against the idea of making the hot springs a public attraction.
“During the first meeting, Lady Opera was unable to explain the concept of hot springs very well, and it all ended with a big argument,” I recalled.
“Sounds like a disaster.”
Lady Opera had then come to me to ask for advice on how to make them understand the appeal. That had surprised me as I hadn’t thought she was the type to ever ask someone for help.
“I’m sure it’s because Opera trusts you,” Van said. “She’s accepted you as a part of her family, so she trusts you with her vulnerabilities.”
“Well, that’s quite an honor, then.”
Explaining the concept of a hot spring to someone who had never heard of them was certainly a difficult task, so letting them experience it firsthand would make it easier. I’d suggested this to Lady Opera, and she’d immediately approved of it. “That’s it!” she’d exclaimed.
Thus, she had immediately taken action and taken the noblewomen to Diamant to tour the hot springs. She had brought them to the underground hot springs in the Noisette mansion—the Pearl Bath. A large marbled pool had been constructed in the basement for the residents to enjoy.
While Lady Opera had been used to exposing her body to the attendants during her baths, many of the other noblewomen had never even shown their bodies to anyone other than their husbands. Naturally, many of them had also been resistant to showing their naked bodies to others while in the baths. Those who had been reluctant to enter would later do so at their own pace, but others had experienced the hot spring baths with Lady Opera for the first time.
“Apparently, all of them were so astonished at their first time in the hot springs,” I said.
“I can imagine,” Van replied.
After their baths, the women had used the Jeweled Snow Hot Spring Lotion. Their reviews had been very favorable. The hot springs had also turned out to be quite popular, even among the women who had initially been reluctant to get in. All of them had returned to the capital feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
“It sounds like the discussions all went well after that trip. Lady Opera said that they’re now in the middle of talks about the facility interiors,” I told Van.
Lady Opera now knew that there were women who’d be reluctant to show their skin to strangers, so she’d approved a suggestion to construct private bath stalls. If she had been the sole person in charge of the construction plans, she would’ve pushed for giant hot spring pools all over instead.
“She wouldn’t have gotten different perspectives on how people enjoyed baths if she didn’t go there with those noblewomen,” Van remarked.
“Right. None of the women would’ve brought up not wanting to enter baths with strangers in a meeting room either.”
Lady Opera had managed to learn something valuable by failing to convince the noblewomen the first time around.
“I’m sure they’ll be able to come up with the ideal hot spring resort that the nobles envisioned,” I concluded.
“I look forward to that.”
On the other hand, Madeleine’s planning of the resort for the general public had also run into a few roadblocks. She’d called women of various ages and different walks of life to come to her meetings, like the wives of merchants and traders from all over the duchy, teachers and seniors from the magic academy, and staff members from various stores and shops.
During her meetings, she had informed the women of the tentative costs of a hot springs tour.
“Madeleine computed the costs of traveling to Diamant including transportation, inn fees, and meal prices, but the women complained that it was too expensive,” I said.
The estimate that Madeleine had come up with for a single trip was almost what the general public made in an average month. That day’s proceedings had ended on a sour note as everyone had refused to pay such an exorbitant amount.
“After that, Madeleine tried to figure out why the costs were so high.”
The sum she had come up with took into account the wyverns’ passenger capacity, the number of rooms in the local inns, food and maintenance costs for the resort, and employee salaries. All of those were important, and she couldn’t afford to deduct from any of those.
Until now, tourism had been a luxury only affordable to wealthy families and nobles. But even so, Madeleine had been determined to spread the wonder of hot springs to the public. She had scrapped her plans and started over. She had then consulted her fiancé—my brother—and he had advised her to find out more about the lives of the duchy’s populace first.
Madeleine had immediately gone out to the city with my brother to survey the public. There, she’d found out just how much the lives of us nobles differed from those of the general populace.
“First of all, most people don’t live in single-family mansions like most nobles do. Instead, they live in communal residences that can house several families,” I explained.
Before then, Madeleine had only perceived the slender five-story buildings lined up on the city streets as mere parts of the capital’s scenery. But now that she had taken a good look at them, she realized that many people lived out their daily lives in those structures.
She had also encountered large two-floor carriages on the city streets, each one packed full of people. The carriages that Madeleine was used to could only fit four to six people at a time, so she had never considered that they could be used to transport masses of people at once.
“From her observations, Madeleine concluded that her basis for a ‘resort for the general public’ had been wrong from its very foundation.” She had been assuming that the transport wyverns would only carry six people at a time, and the inns for the hot springs would consist of about thirteen separate structures each holding an individual group of visitors. Those assumptions had driven up the costs of her estimations.
Madeleine had then revised her estimates by imagining two-story transports that could carry upward of twenty people at a time and assuming that the inns would be tall structures that could house many guests at once. By doing that, she’d managed to slash the costs to about one-third of her original estimate.
When she had brought up her new estimates in the meetings, the participants conceded that the prices were reasonable enough to spend once every six months. They had finally agreed on an ideal amount.
“Madeleine managed to get her plan accepted,” I concluded.
“I see. She really worked hard to get this far.”
“She really did.”
During her time at the magic academy, Madeleine had been timid enough for Van to run into her without noticing, but now, she had grown into a strong woman. She had surprised me by volunteering to manage discussions for the public-facing hot springs resort. I was glad now that I hadn’t said no to her, thinking that she wouldn’t be able to handle things on her own.
“Do you think our tourism industry will be a success?” I asked Van.
“It will. You don’t need to worry about anything,” he replied confidently.
Hearing him say it with such certainty made my worries go away. I had faith that the hot springs would be accepted and become beloved by the Dragon Duchy of Éclair’s people.
I then recalled an experience from the time when Van and I had returned to the Dragon Duchy of Éclair from Diamant. We were greeted by the knights who had acted as our body doubles—Sir Chouquette Salée, Sir Saint-Honoré, and Sir Potiron. This time, they were not cross-dressing but in their regular armor.
“Lord Dragon Duke, Lady Dragon Duchess consort, welcome back.”
“We are relieved to see all of you well.”
“We are glad to see you back.”
I had been so used to seeing them in their feminine outfits that it felt odd to see them in full armor. Apparently, they had managed to go the entire time without being found out.
“I’m sorry I put you through a mission that none of you were used to,” I said.
The three knights looked at each other and gave us big smiles.
“Not at all. We spent quite a peaceful time here in the capital.”
“I feel enriched by the experience.”
“It was a valuable opportunity for all of us.”
They all said that they would happily act as our body doubles if the need ever arose again. It would seem that I had obtained three powerful allies.