The Fervent Sand Baths

by Nagaharu Hibihana

“Make it quick. I don’t want his death on my conscience.”

  We figured putting him back into the spring would get us in even more trouble, so we took a bucket from the Unlimited Bath and captured the sage inside. If he tried anything again, we could just flip the bucket over.

  “...This thing is the sage who guided the first sacred king?”

  Unfortunately, the self-proclaimed sage was in no condition to answer Rium’s question.

  But would he answer our questions just because we caught him? I had my doubts, but there would be no point to letting him die here, so I rushed to get a bucket from the Unlimited Bath.

  “Why you bastards! What’dya put in this water?!”

  I quickly filled the bucket with water, grabbed the goldfish sage with my fingers, and tossed him inside. The first thing out of the self-proclaimed sage’s mouth was that cry. How rude.

  The self-proclaimed... no, pseudo-goldfish is fine. He was struggling and squirming around for some reason, but I couldn’t tell why. Naturally I couldn’t read a goldfish’s facial expressions, so I had no idea what he was thinking.

  “Th-this water is loaded with MP, dagnabbit! How’m I gonna use my magic?! What did’ya do, ya scalawag?!”

  “Huh? What are you going on about?”

  So that flopping around earlier was just him trying to use a spell. Of course, our guards were still up from the first attempt, but I didn’t know his magic would be cut off like this. Because of my Unlimited Bath, no less.

  “Maybe the water from your gift is different from natural water?”

  “Gift?! Don’t go tellin’ me yer one o’ them summoned heroes?!”

  The pseudo-goldfish responded immediately to Clena’s pondering.

  “Oh, right, the first sacred king was also a summoned hero. So he would know.”

  “I see, so ye were summoned here... figures...”

  I hadn’t given him a direct answer, but it looked like the pseudo-goldfish had connected the dots. So all that talk about being the sage wasn’t a bluff.

  I didn’t know if the pseudo-goldfish would answer my question, so I turned it to Clena.

  “What’s different about the water from my gift?”

  “Magic works by channeling your MP into your surroundings and interfering with the spirits around you.”

  I nodded. That much was clear to me. To give you a simple example, cleric magic worked by finding a path to interfering with those spirits through a blessing from a goddess.

  Clena’s spirit magic granted her paths beyond the ones a goddess blessing could give. For Rium’s crystal magic, she could substitute spirits with specialized crystals and cause interference through items with crystals attached to them. During our battle with the sandworms, she had used MP to cause interference and transform her pencil-sized spear into a larger spear. The crystals were an alternative to finding a path to the spirits, so the tools made for the temple were called holy tools. Rium seemed to have a few more of them on hand, but since we had been traveling through the raining void ever since that battle, I had yet to see any of them.

  Either way, it appeared that the pseudo-goldfish couldn’t use any magic right now.

  “But right now, this guy is in water created with Touya’s MP. Basically, your MP stops him from interfering with surrounding spirits.”

  “So even if he tried to use magic... Touya’s MP water keeps him from doing so.” Rium, who was kneeling next to Roni, staring at the pseudo-goldfish in the bucket, continued explaining.

  “I had no idea the water from my Unlimited Bath could be used that way...”

  “Magic-sealing water, huh...” Rulitora mumbled.

  That pretty much summed up what he had to say about interference blocking. It wasn’t all that convenient, though.

  “It can’t block my crystal magic.” Rium showed me another one of her silver spears with a proud look on her face.

  The way to conduct crystal magic was by holding the object in your hands, so it would still work even when surrounded by my water. Even if you called it magic-sealing water, it could only seal certain types of magic.

  “Bah... Why’d you lot have to come here? It’s jes an empty wasteland. Ain’t no place to wander around all willy-nilly-like.”

  The pseudo-goldfish became a little more cooperative after realizing his overwhelming disadvantage. Though I couldn’t say his attitude improved.

  “First I wanna ask—are you the same sage who guided the hero 500 years ago?”

  “You betcha! I tell ya I get no respect at all!”

  Why should I show you respect?

  “I have a question, too. What do you do to the people you brainwash after drinking your water?”

  “Ain’t it obvious?! I take ’em outta the void! Wipe their memories clean!”

  I sort of expected the first part of his explanation, but that second part bugged me.

  “Which means there’s something hidden in the void.”

  “And that might just be the demon lord’s castle, considering how this guy was the one who guided the hero.”

  “It’s the only possibility, when you think about it.”

  “So this is the desert kingdom.”

  “Hadesopolis!”

  Everyone prodded him at once.

  You could tell he wasn’t expecting the name Hadesopolis to come up. The pseudo-goldfish couldn’t hide his surprise. Or, is it right to say he was surprised? It seemed that way from the atmosphere, but I’d never seen the face of a surprised goldfish before, so I couldn’t say for sure.

  “Hah, hahahahahah! Right y’are, I brainwash and chase off anyone who comes near Hadesopolis.”

  So that was it. Since he knew the name Hadesopolis, he must have been a former resident there, or at least had some connection to it.

  “Why shouldn’t I go there? I was summoned here and told to defeat the demon lord as soon as he revived... Is he still asleep or something?”

  “That shouldn’t be the case. It’s said that one of the demon lord’s surviving generals carried their corpse away.”

  “What, really? Who was it?”

  “Don’t ask me. But this is a famous story, you know?”

  I did find out about it after all our research on the first sacred king, but it seemed this pseudo-goldfish wasn’t clued in. He probably had no means of getting that information.

  “...What are you lot after? Treasures?”

  “Well, that too, but like I said I was summoned here to defeat the demon lord, and since we’ve found evidence of history being tampered with, you can’t blame us for wanting to dig deeper.”

  “Hmm...”

  The pseudo-goldfish swam in circles in the bucket. It looked peaceful on the outside, but with this guy we knew something ugly was rearing inside.

  “...Alright, if ye must know, I shall tell you what I know.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  “I do have one condition... Ye hafta take me along to Hadesopolis.”

  “I see...”

  I had no idea why he was here in the first place, but there was no place for him to go in that goldfish body. So his request to take him to Hadesopolis was perfectly reasonable.

  “Sir Touya, what should we do?”

  “Let’s see...”

  Still, we had no reason to lower our guard just yet. He seemed like someone who’d take a mile after being given an inch. I replied to him, trying to uphold any and all assertiveness.

  “Everything depends on the information you give us. We’ll get to the desert kingdom with or without you.”

  “Whut the...! Hah... Hahahah! You jackanape! D’ya think ye can get to Hadesopolis just by wanderin’ around the desert?!”

  “This guy seems awfully confident...”

  Clena had a point. He seemed particularly sure that we’d never find the place at the rate we were going. There was a secret to be uncovered here. I could feel it.

  And so I thought. What could we conclude from the information we knew so far?


  “Not a single person has been able to find the desert kingdom in the 500 years since the demon lord’s defeat, right?”

  “Yeah, though I don’t know how many have gone to search for it in the first place.”

  “The mere fact that it exists is hidden, so treasure hunters usually don’t even bother.”

  “Ah, but they do show up! The bloodsuckers!!” The pseudo-goldfish rattled on, agitated. Huh, so his fins stiffened when he got emotional.

  “Even crystal mages have tried locating it from the sky, but they couldn’t find a trace of it.”

  “...Maybe the desert kingdom really doesn’t exist.”

  “Sir Touya?!”

  I blurted that out after thinking about Rium’s comment. Roni practically screamed, unable to ignore me.

  “No, I meant that maybe it doesn’t really exist in the desert.”

  “What do you mean?” Clena asked me dubiously.

  “You remember how the Torano’o elder said they destroyed the gate that ran underground?”

  “Yeah, he said they destroyed it to block off the demons that kept emerging.”

  “They destroyed that?!” The pseudo-goldfish screamed this time, but we ignored him and continued talking.

  “So we’re heading there right now because we think it leads to the desert kingdom, but does it really?”

  “I-it’s true that our ancestors never went to check what was inside...” Rulitora said, troubled. But he was a bit off the mark from what I was getting at.

  “It’s called the desert kingdom, but is it really located in the desert?”

  “We don’t know that until we’ve...”

  “......”

  Clena looked troubled now, too.

  The pseudo-goldfish was silent for once. I wanted to see his reaction, but it was hopeless trying to discern the facial expressions of a goldfish.

  “It’s said that the gate leads to an underground tunnel, but that tunnel doesn’t necessarily lead back up to the desert.”

  Alright. I’d have to ask a trick question now.

  “Clena, do you remember the library in the temple at Ceresopolis?”

  “Huh? I do.”

  There were two options, but I chose the one I thought more likely and continued to talk.

  “There was something written in a book in there. About how the desert kingdom was already submerged deep underground.”

  “What the devil?! How much d’you know, you fool?!”

  “So it really is submerged.”

  “...What?!”

  He let the cat out of the bag. I looked at the pseudo-goldfish with a victorious smile. He peeked out of the water, flapping his lips in disbelief. He looked like he was waiting to be fed.

  “You mean it’s an underground city...? Would that really exist?”

  “No, I think it’s more likely that the city was above ground at first, and then sunk.”

  It just seemed more plausible from a practical standpoint. The void hadn’t become like this naturally—something must have happened in its center.

  Mountains in the north, a fissure running along the west, and an ocean to the south. We could only assume that there was no large obstacle that kept it from spreading in the east. We had surmised that the desert kingdom was at the center of it all, but it was hard to imagine that the kingdom had remained intact after what happened to the rest of the region.

  “This is just my theory, but what if the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord was the root of all this? That would explain the reservoirs around the Torano’o settlement.”

  If those craters were the aftermath of a fight, then the rest of the region could have easily been wiped out if they’d used their full power. Assuming that were the case, I could understand why they wanted it covered up. The aftermath of the damage was too severe.

  If you think about it that way, it’s no wonder you wouldn’t be able to find anything by looking down into the desert from the sky. And I could understand why nobody had seen a trace of it for all this time.

  If I was right, then the next question to arise would be whether the underground tunnel lead to the desert kingdom, but that was something we would have to find out for ourselves.

  “...It’s possible.”

  Everyone else agreed with me and our gazes gathered at the pseudo-goldfish in the bucket. He popped his head out of the water, flapped his lips, then briefly dipped back in the water and drew a circle. He then reemerged and opened his mouth with a pensive look on his face— not to flap his lips, but to speak.

  “...Lemme jes say yer not wrong.” He acknowledged it. A witness from the legend itself.

  The pseudo-goldfish spoke to me with perhaps a resigned expression.

  “Alright, alright. Take me with ya. I’ll guide ye to the nearest gate. If that one ain’t it, I’ll tell you the location of another one.”

  The nearest gate must be referring to the one the Torano’o tribe destroyed. It was possible we couldn’t cross it any longer, but I was grateful for the information. I looked over to everyone else to discuss the matter.

  “Will this be okay?”

  “He’ll be fine away from the spring as long as we have the Unlimited Bath, right?”

  “We have to be careful in case he tries pull a fast one on us again.”

  Roni was worried about the pseudo-goldfish’s health, while Rulitora was still wary of another surprise attack. Both of them had valid points.

  “He’ll be fine. I mean, it’s not like we’re hurting for water. But just in case, let’s not put him inside the Unlimited Bath.”

  “As for the surprise attacks, we should be fine as long as Touya’s water can prevent him from using magic. But let’s make sure to change the water frequently.”

  Clena was wondering how long my MP would remain in the water after taking it out from the Unlimited Bath. I had no answer to that, so her idea of changing the water was the best plan.

  “Looks like everything’s settled.”

  “Yup. He’s a valuable source of information, as an actual witness.”

  “I’m sure he’d have difficulty making a move from there, but I’ll keep a close eye just in case.”

  “We’re keeping him in the bucket, right?”

  We all voiced our opinions after deciding we’d be keeping the pseudo-goldfish. I turned around to convey the information to him, but found Rium, who hadn’t participated in the conversation, squatting in front of the bucket.

  “Can I feed him bread?”

  “...Well, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Her mind was in a completely different place than ours.

  Third Bath – Trip Through Hades

  It had been 36 hours since we left the spring with the self-proclaimed sage/pseudo-goldfish in our bucket, but it hadn’t rained once. The area around the Sage’s Spring was mysteriously untouched by the rain, which was apparently the pseudo-goldfish’s doing. He might have not wanted the spring to be contaminated by rainwater. Or perhaps the spring water was filled with the fish’s MP just like how my Unlimited Bath water was filled with my own, and he didn’t want the rainwater to mix with that. Considering he was planning to brainwash us after we drank the water, my bet was on the latter.

  The pseudo-goldfish was now resting in a bucket placed inside a hemp-woven basket, which was hanging beside the driver’s seat. The shaking shouldn’t be so severe compared to if we’d left the bucket on the carriage floor.

  “Straaaange... we should be seein’ it by now,” said the pseudo-goldfish as he peered out into the distance from the edge of the bucket, cocking his head to the side. At least, that’s what it looked like he was doing to me.

  I called out to Rulitora, who was walking alongside the carriage, from my driver’s seat.

  “How much of the gate did the Torano’o tribe destroy, exactly? Was there anything left at all?”

  “I wasn’t aware of the gate enough to ask that much, so I can’t say...” Rulitora had a perplexed expression a
s he mulled my question over.

  At least I could understand his expressions. Even more so if I looked at his tail. It slowly undulated whenever he was lost in thought.

  Back in the settlement, I had witnessed some of the lizardmen discussing something, all waving their tails up and down as they were wracking their brains. Now that was a sight.

  “Hmm, I think the place the Torano’o elder told us about is still a little farther from here.”

  “Correct. I saw a bunch of rocks piled up flat ahead.”

  As I grumbled from the driver’s seat, Rium came back down from surveying the area on her flying disc.

  It must have been hot out there. As soon as she came down, she went inside the carriage to sip the water Clena had given her.

  It wasn’t uncommon in this world to follow a map to a village deep in the mountains, only to find that said village had been long abandoned. The maps here were far less accurate than modern Japan’s, so in the end you could only rely on your own eyes.

  Besides that, we had Rium, who could scout our surroundings from the sky. The sun may have been harsh on her, but her skills were indispensable.

  “Looks like they destroyed it pretty thoroughly. Alright, let’s check it out. Go rest for now, Rium. And Roni, make sure the goldfish doesn’t fall out.”

  “Got it! I’ll protect Goldfish!” Roni replied with an energetic voice even though the inside of the carriage was far from cool.

  It seemed that goldfish didn’t exist as a species in this world, so everyone started treating “Goldfish” as the fish’s name. I once heard that the goldfish were actually a mutation created from breeding crucian carp for display purposes, and thus weren’t a natural evolution. That would explain why they didn’t exist in this world.

  In any case, we should hurry to the place that Rium spotted.

  “I’ll go on ahead.” Rulitora said, then assumed his forward-bent stance and sprinted off.

  I sped up the carriage so that we wouldn’t get too far separated from him.

  We arrived at a giant pile of rubble that was hard to imagine used to be a gate once. They had done a thorough job destroying it, leveling it to just a smidge below my own height. If it weren’t for a piece of rubble that looked like it used to be a man-made pillar, we would have never guessed that this used to be a structure.