It was now evening. There were a few inns in this town, and we had decided to stay at the largest. We had wanted to stay in a smaller inn near the forest if possible, but those were all booked.
Apparently, this town was famous for its hot springs, and Yui clearly couldn’t wait. “All righty! Now that I’ve put away my bags, it’s time for a bath!” she exclaimed as she stepped out from the inn. Silica and Claira followed shortly afterward.
“Couldn’t they be a little more anxious?”
“Give it a rest, Cross. See? Claira isn’t used to all this travel. She’s tired.”
“I-I mean, I guess, but...” Cross was clearly torn.
Daggers pushed back. “Can’t we at least let her enjoy a bath at the hot springs?”
I agreed with that sentiment. They should have at least been allowed a bath—rest was important. But even more important...
“If they’re going to go, it’s maybe best they go early.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Claira will stand out.”
Ever since we had entered this town, everyone around had been staring at Claira, which I guess made sense. She was a woman concealed with a black hood and surrounded by a retinue. Since this town was en route to the capital, they likely got plenty of travelers and merchants here. But there were probably very few who looked as suspicious as us.
And this wasn’t very good for us. While being stared at was never comfortable, it also made it hard to distinguish who we needed to be wary of from those we could ignore. Since we were taking the long route to the capital, it was unlikely we’d encounter any demons here. But since we couldn’t be sure whether the demons were our only enemies, I could never be satisfied no matter how much detection magic I cast.
We walked through town for about thirty minutes, asking for directions. Eventually, the houses around us began to grow sparser, as if we had entered the woods. That’s when Yui caught sight of a certain building and stopped. “Hey, looky there! Isn’t this a hot spring?” she asked, her finger pointed forward.
I turned to the end of it to find a large structure surrounded by trees. After focusing my eyes, I noticed there was some steam rising from it.
“Yeah, sure looks like it.”
“Then we’ll go on ahead! You boys watch the perimeter!” Yui immediately grabbed hold of Silica’s and Claira’s hands and dashed off to the building containing the open-air bath.
“Hey! We still haven’t...” Daggers tried to protest, but they ignored him and immediately disappeared inside. “I mean, rest is important, but...” Daggers let out a sigh. He seemed to be thinking Yui needed to be a bit more cautious too. “Jeez. We’re all still on guard duty...”
“Well, nothing we can do about that now. She’s always like this,” said Cross, looking as annoyed as Daggers.
“Yup...”
“Yup.”
Cross sighed. “Well, now that it’s come to this, we’ve gotta protect Claira with everything we’ve got.”
Daggers silently nodded.
After some discussion, it was decided that I would stand guard behind the open bath, where the least number of people gathered. But still, it was kind of...
The front was put together well enough, but not the back. It was littered with trash and absolutely reeked. Since it was behind the building, the sun didn’t shine, and it was awfully humid too. “Do I really have to be here until they’re done...?”
Some nature would have been nice, but we were still partly in town. We had chosen this hot spring since we always needed to be prepared for battle. Plus, Yui insisted it be an outdoor bath, not an indoor one.
To be honest, I didn’t want to be here for very long. But since I was on guard duty, I didn’t have much of a choice.
I sighed. I was jealous of Daggers, who was keeping watch of the front, and Cross, who was watching from a distance. When they asked me to guard the back, I hadn’t expected it’d be this miserable. And since it didn’t seem like Daggers or Cross knew either, they couldn’t have assigned me here on purpose.
This was just how it was going to be. I’d just have to do my best to guard the place.
I looked to the sky as I was overcome with misery. I guess the girls had to be entering the bath by now...