When they’d been deciding where to go, Emily had been ready with a suggestion.
“We’ve got a beach resort... We’ve got hot springs...”
No one commented on her odd tone.
“And what do you get when you mix ’em together? Paradise, that’s what!”
The others had met her with silence. In all honesty, they didn’t know what she was on about. But they could tell she really liked hot springs for some reason, so they agreed that Côte Sud seemed fine.
It wasn’t just hot springs Emily loved—it was baths. No home in Japan was complete without a bathtub, but that wasn’t the case in this world. People wiped themselves down and went swimming in summer, but Emily was yet to have a good soak in a tub of hot water. Astrid was crazy about saunas, but that wasn’t remotely the same thing as a bath.
From what she heard, only the very wealthy had tubs in their homes. It was rank class—no, bath inequality! The Mojito Merchant House’s hotel, incidentally, had its own hot spring on-site. None of the three inns Nina and the others were considering even had a bathtub.
“A hot spring...nearby...” Emily gritted out. “There’s nothing better...!”
“No need to grind your teeth,” Astrid told her. “Mind you, it’s just a public bath. Anyone can use it if they pay.”
“Talk about a miscalculation... I just assumed all the inns would have hot springs you could dip into any time... This was a giant mistake...”
“What sort of fantasies did you have about hot springs anyway?” Astrid asked.
But before Emily could answer, they were interrupted.
“What’re you lot doing lollygagging in front of my inn? Either come in or clear off!”
The landlady, a woman with impressive biceps, emerged from the front door.
“We’d like to come in!” Nina said at once.
“Huh? Wait, really?” The landlady looked taken aback.
“Yes, please. Do you have any rooms available? We’ll be staying a few nights—though I’m afraid I don’t know how many yet.”
“Nina, what’re you doing?” Emily hissed.
Nina bowed to her and said, “I’d like to stay here.”
It occurred to Emily in that moment that there was more to Nina’s decision than met the eye.
“I mean... I guess,” she said reluctantly. “It is close to the hot springs...”
They went inside. Immediately before them was the reception desk, with a staircase beside it leading up to the second floor. Beyond the stairs was a hallway with the first-floor guest rooms.
The landlady told them that she was usually to be found in her house out the back of the inn. The bell at the desk would reach her there.
They took two twin rooms on the second floor: one for Nina and Tien and one for Astrid and Emily, just like always.
Once they were settled, Emily came over to Nina and Tien’s room.
“Right. Why did you want to stay at this inn?” she asked.
Nina hesitated for a moment. “The main street was so bright and clean, but the moment we turned down one of the back streets, it was no different from the slums in the capital. That didn’t seem right to me and, well, perhaps it’s presumptuous of me, but I wondered if there might be some way I can help...”
Honestly, Emily had expected Nina to say something like this. But much as she wanted to help Nina achieve whatever she set her mind on, she had no idea what they could do. There was a gaping chasm between the lives of the privileged classes of nobility and royalty and the people who lived in slums, and Emily, having come from Japan, could tell that in this world that disparity was inescapable. Côte Sud was a microcosm of imperial society, laying bare its inequality in the space of a few streets.
“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” Nina asked.
“Well, y’know...” Emily sighed. “Look, if that’s what you want to do, I’m here to help.”
Nina’s face brightened at once, and she threw her arms around Emily. “Thank you!”
“N-Nina, gerroff... It’s too hot for this.”
“She looks pretty pleased if you ask me,” Astrid commented.
“No one asked you!”
Astrid laughed, then said more seriously, “I do understand Emily’s doubts, though. Our power to change things is limited. Do you have any ideas about where you want to begin?”
“I do,” Nina said. “You mentioned a public bath before, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, it’s about a ten-minute walk away.”
“I think we should go and spruce it up.”
Nina’s first priority was improving the sanitary conditions.
Astrid made a thoughtful noise. “But even if we do, places like that cost money to run. You can’t make it free.”
“Hot springs use magical devices, don’t they...?”
“Ah, I see where you’re going with this. I could fine-tune their magical devices to cut down their rate of catalyst consumption and lower their operating costs, then we use that as a bargaining chip to get them to lower the entrance fee. You’ve thought this through. Public baths exist to serve the general populace, so making them cheaper would help to achieve your goal...”
“Yes, that’s exactly it!” Nina said excitedly. “You’re amazing, Astrid—you practically read my mind. Only, well... I hate to put this all on you...”
“Don’t worry about it. Tinkering with the magic devices for a hot spring facility might even give me some ideas for my own inventions.”
“Then I’ll make sure everything’s spick-and-span!” Nina said.
“Chi will move furniture to make it easier to clean.”
“Thank you, Tien!”
Nina looked more and more excited as the conversation went on.
Emily, however, was frowning.
“There’s nothing for me to do,” she muttered. She couldn’t see any way magic could be useful here.