The ketolts stared in curiosity at the flat stones that formed a path away from the cabin. It was a common feature of Japanese gardens. I believed they were called stepping stones. This would also have been a strange sight in this world.
“Mew... It’s kind of plain, but stylish in its own way.” Shakova, who was always on the lookout for designs, admired the way the path blended into the natural scenery.
We stepped on the stones toward the other building, only to find that it was in an even worse state than the cabin. The inside of the cabin was decaying, but this building itself had rotted away. It looked like this one had been made of mud.
Maybe this hideout has been abandoned for a long time now... I thought, and began inspecting the building. I could look inside the building through its windows—or rather, the holes in its walls—but couldn’t find any sign of the door.
“Where’s the door on this thing?”
“Right over here.”
“...That’s tiny.”
The door we found was so small that even the ketolts would have to stoop down to enter it. I doubted I could get in wearing my Magic Eater even crouching down on all fours, to say nothing of Rulitora. I had a feeling I knew what this building was.
In any case, there seemed to be no traps here either, so I had Roni scout it out. Pardoe and Shakova followed her inside, wagging their tails with keen curiosity. Mark only looked at them, sighing. He had it tough, too. Though I had to admit I was curious too, so I also peeked my head inside.
“Oh, Sir Touya. Look at the floor in here.”
“Just like I thought...” I was not surprised at all by what I saw.
“This is tatami, right...?”
Yes, tatami mats covered the floor inside the small house. Though I could barely recognize them as tatami mats in the condition they were in.
“Is there anything else in there?”
“Not even a hairball!”
“The floor sort of dips down in the middle, but there’s nothing in it.”
That was within expectations, too. I had a good guess as to what this building was. We stepped out of the building and made our way toward the workshop next.
“It’s a pottery workshop, I knew it!!” I unintentionally raised my voice as soon as we stepped inside.
Yep. A kiln loomed in the back of the abandoned workshop. Several pieces of what looked like broken bowls were scattered around it.
“P-pottery? They were making tableware here?” Clena asked, looking like she didn’t believe a word I just said.
I couldn’t blame her, though. We crossed a sea of poison gas, defeated a dragon, and finally arrived at the hideout where a demon general was supposedly lurking, only to find this snug little pottery workshop. Pardoe suggested that they may have conducted metalworking here, too. He recognized a few traces of cast metal in the room.
I could guess that the pottery was for tea cups and the metalworking was for tea kettles. The small building was most likely a tea house. I hadn’t gone to a tea ceremony myself before, but I remembered seeing buildings where you needed to crouch to enter on TV before.
This Fire Devil was mostly likely a tea ceremony master who had been summoned from the Sengoku period. He had built a tea house, as well as this workshop to create tea utensils so that he could enjoy the ceremonies in this world as well. He must have forged the tea kettles himself after not being able to find anyone else who could, making him quite the hobbyist.
In any case, I knew for sure now. Though this was a hideout, it hadn’t been meant for plotting something against Hephaestusopolis. It was just a personal hideout. And judging by the state of decay, it had been abandoned for a long time now. I didn’t know what to think anymore, knowing that Hephaestusopolis had kept such a concerned eye on this personal hideout that had been abandoned for who knows how many years now.
He had built this hideout knowing it was visible, yet unreachable from Hephaestusopolis, then abandoned it fully aware that they were still keeping watch. Assuming that was really the case, he must have had an awful personality. What kind of person was this Flame Devil, anyway?
We did a thorough sweep of the workshop and found a single notebook. It looked like a historical document you might see on TV, its pages thin and decayed. The text was in Japanese, but an old form of the language that I normally wouldn’t be able to read. However, the Goddess of Light’s blessing allowed me to understand any language present in this world, so I could decipher what was written in the notebook.
I made my way through portions of the text I wasn’t able to read before, finding that the Flame Devil had recorded details on all the tea ware and kettles he had created in a diary format. It seemed like he had gone through many years of trial and error to construct his tea ware and kettles.
“Whoa, what?!”
“Wh-what’s wrong?!”
I couldn’t believe it. I eventually came across an entry that might have explained why the Flame Devil left this hideout, but I was shocked at what it said. I read the entry aloud with everyone else’s eyes glued to me.
The following was what it said: The dragon that I had brought along as a guard dog has withered the trees away with its gas, and the scenery is no longer to my taste, so I shall depart to another location.
Everyone else opened their mouths agape, speechless. That was the expected reaction. I felt the same, too. So the dragon had just been abandoned here.
There was a chance this journal had been left here as a little prank on whoever managed to find this place. If that were the case, he did well. I turned the page and found one last sentence written just before he left.
“It says I have yet to recreate the Hiragumo...” I see, Hiragumo was that famous tea kettle. He must have been forging tea ware here with that as his goal.
I still didn’t know who the Fire Devil was, but he was definitely quite the hobbyist. We finished investigating the hideout of one of the Five Great Demon Generals, the Fire Devil, and returned to Hephaestusopolis about one week later. We were mentally drained, so the hike back ended up being more taxing on us than the initial trip.
Another week passed since we returned to Pardoe’s mansion. We took the time to not only rest ourselves up, but start preparing for our next journey. I thought back on the past two weeks as I washed Rium’s hair in the Unlimited Bath. We had searched every nook and cranny of the hideout, but found no signs of any underground tunnels or hidden rooms. The tattered flag and journal were our only spoils. I thought it over and could only conclude that the Fire Devil had left them behind on purpose. It made the most sense, as they would provide all the answers for anyone who came across the hideout after he left.
The flag was a big clue as to who the hideout’s owner was. It would at least confirm that it was one of the Five Great Demon Generals who had survived the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord. That was the first blow. The second blow was the journal, which revealed that he left because he didn’t like the look of his garden anymore. It was a two-pronged attack.
My theory was that the Fire Devil had left us those items as a couple of pranks. It was very likely a trap aimed at someone related to the sacred family—especially a hero, since the Goddess of Light’s blessing allowed you to decipher any language. The hideout was within sight of Hephaestusopolis, but just out of reach. A hero would have no choice but to investigate it if he found out about its existence. We crossed a volcano and poison gas, escaped a dragon, and avoided death by a hair, only to find a few buildings that were long deserted. And then that diary entry. If anyone wanted to know how great the mental damage was, they needed to look no further than us.
I contacted Haruno to get her opinion as well, but she couldn’t think of any other reason why the Fire Devil would have left the journal behind, either. If he wanted to prove his identity, the flag would have been enough.
Either way, we couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to get my spirits up by telling myself that we at least protected the peace in
Hephaestusopolis.
After returning to the city, we presented the Fire Devil’s flag and journal to Hephaestus XIV and told him everything honestly. The shock of finding out that the hideout they had been so vigilant of had actually been abandoned for about 100 years was so great that the king collapsed on the spot. However, he made a quick recovery as a king should and immediately set out to discuss our next steps.
The reward I was supposed to receive in exchange for the sword and shield with the royal crest would now include our accomplishments during this trip as well. The dragon I defeated apparently was an achievement worthy of a medal, so they would be splurging on my rewards. They needed some time to prepare an extravagant ceremony in the royal palace, so we took care of other things in the meantime.
First, we needed to organize our loot. Though we hadn’t managed to reap anything too worthwhile this time around. The hideout was barren besides the flag and notebook, so the only things we could consider loot were the dragon-hippo’s parts. We had managed to recover plenty from the dragon itself, but it was still a little disappointing compared to the weapons and treasures we brought back from Hadesopolis.
Though Clena talked some sense into me, saying that our spoils from Hadesopolis were plain abnormal. She was completely right about the amount we had looted from the demon lord’s castle. We couldn’t even put a monetary value on it. I understood why people in my former world loved hunting for buried treasure so much now.
We discussed what to do with the dragon parts. The bones would go toward making a new set of armor for Rulitora, while the jade scales would be used to tailor a set of scale armor for Clena. Scale armor normally referred to armor reinforced with scale-shaped pieces of metal, but the added defensive power usually wasn’t worth the extra weight. A few advantages it had over chainmail, which involved meticulously chaining together metallic rings, were its attractive design and comparatively cheap and easy tailoring process.
However, the armor we were making for Clena was different. The dragon scales were lighter, sturdier, and more beautiful than metallic scales. We named it the dragon scale armor. It would be more expensive to make, but considering we were purchasing better safety, it was worth the cost.
“Huh? We should take it to a human blacksmith?”
“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn’t be tampurring with metal for this job, anyway.”
We had a human blacksmith help us forge the dragon scale armor at Pardoe’s recommendation. Of course, he introduced us to someone skilled. Apparently humans were better at dealing with leather armor too, so I also ordered a set of red lizard skin armor for Roni.
Rulitora’s bone armor required shaving away and molding hard bone, so this was better for ketolt blacksmiths to handle. Pardoe introduced us to the best blacksmith who could handle bones out of the twelve blacksmith families. We thought about calling this “dragon bone armor.”
Once Hephaestus XIV heard our plans, he decided to make the award ceremony double as an unveiling for our completed sets of dragon armor. We had made the right choice by ordering from both human and ketolt blacksmiths. The two races lived in harmony in this kingdom, but they must have had their fair share of hardships as well.
I also tried to use one of the dragon’s tusks to make something I wanted to call Dragon Killer, but it didn’t quite work out. While that dragon-hippo had molars tough enough to chew giant enoki mushrooms, it didn’t have the fangs needed for biting into meat. The teeth weren’t the right length to make any swords. I had imagined a sword when I thought up the name “Dragon Killer,” so I was a bit disappointed. I knew how sturdy it was, though, so I picked the biggest molar to make a mace out of. Of course we didn’t use the tooth as-is, but shaved it down and shaped it. Shakova was good at carving things, so I left the job to him.
As for the rest of the teeth, Clena and I decided to gift them to the ketolts as thanks for helping us on our journey. Mark wanted to create a war hammer from one of them. He happily hoisted up a dragon tooth about the size of his head with his chest held high.
Soon after we finished sorting out our loot, I was asked an unexpected question.
“Huh? Come with us?”
“Yes, meow.”
“What about Crissa?”
“She’ll come too, of course.”
Amew—I mean, amazingly, Pardoe requested that he join us in our travels. He even wanted to bring Crissa along.
“Are you fine with that, Crissa?”
“Yes. I cannot fight, but I can assist with chores like a labor raver would. Also, I’m worried about my father going off on his own...”
I checked with Crissa, but she was more worried about Pardoe getting into trouble outside of her control than the journey itself. She said that she knew basic self-defense. In that case, I had no particular objections. Rather, I’d be less worried about her than I was about Rakti. Especially since we slept inside the Unlimited Bath at night. Compared to normal travelers, we had very little to worry about when setting up camp for the night.
“Then I’m going too, meow!”
“Me too!”
Then Shakova and Mark joined the fray. Mark was acting especially insistent about it. He must have overheard Crissa’s situation.
Crissa herself simply giggled and said “my, my” as she looked at Mark acting all tough. She really did only see him as a little brother.
“May I ask the reason?” Rulitora hadn’t seen the request coming either, so he asked them about it with a confused expression.
“There’s something I got curious about after we found the demon general’s hideout. Sir Touya’s Unlimited Bath is very similar to that hideout.”
“...Well, it does have a tatami room, and the atmosphere feels similar.”
The Flame Devil’s hideout wasn’t exactly a Japanese house, but he had built it to resemble one with a Japanese flair. He probably didn’t have the right skills to recreate one exactly.
The tub in my Unlimited Bath was a Japanese cedar tub, and I had gotten a tatami-floored room from the Goddess of Darkness’ blessing, so my Bath had a Japanese flair as well.
“I want to know more about these techniques I’ve never seen before!”
“A beauty that melds with nature! It’s a whole mew world!”
Pardoe and Shakova leaned forward in excitement. It looked like Japanese culture caught their interest.
Pardoe further explained that he still wanted to study the fire altar, but Shakova was simply keen on “Japanese beauty.” According to Pardoe, it was the first time both of them had agreed that something looked beautiful. No wonder they were both so enthusiastic.
Mark, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in Japanese culture. Crissa, who would be coming along to look after her zealous father, was most important to him.
As for me, I wasn’t exactly used to looking at Japanese-style scenery anymore, but it was so matter of fact to me that I didn’t quite follow what they meant by melding with nature. I could understand them saying how it wasn’t too flashy, though. That must have been why Pardoe had also seen the beauty in it. Their reactions reminded me of foreigners being amazed at Japanese culture.
“What was it called again... wabi-sabi?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s the term for what you guys are feeling right now.”
I didn’t know the exact definition, but I figured this was close. It was the term for appreciating the aesthetics in Japanese culture such as tea ceremonies... or something like that. The words by themselves meant the beauty that came with “imperfection” and “time”... I think.
“Uh-huh, wasabi...”
No, it’s wabi-sabi.
Anyway, now I knew what their reasons were. They wanted access to the wealth of untapped knowledge pertaining to a culture from another world that came with me and the Unlimited Bath. If they were to join my party, I’d be their leader, so they wouldn’t mind me ordering them around like I did Rulitora. That was just in the context of the
party, though.
I already knew that they weren’t just blacksmiths holed up in their workshops all day—they could fight monsters, too. Though here in Hephaestus, it was “just” the blacksmiths who would venture out to gather materials amid dangerous monsters. We would also need Crissa’s help if our party grew in number.
“What will you do about your houses?” Clena asked the next question. As the daughter of a noble family, a worry like that was second nature to her.
“We’ve asked the other ten families to look after them.”
“We’ve already got purrmission to travel!”
Pardoe and Shakova answered promptly. Not a surprising reaction from the ketolts who have given up the throne to focus on their smithing work.
They already had everything taken care of on their side, and I had no objections of my own. They had plenty of potential to contribute to the party, and we had already worked out the kinks in living together while they were tailoring my Magic Eater. I looked over at Rulitora and the others, but none of them gave any particular reaction. Besides being a little startled, at least.
“Got it. Pardoe, Shakova, Mark, Crissa—welcome to the party!” I decided to take them up on their request. I addressed the four of them as the party leader, then shook each of their hands.
“......”
“Meow? What is it?”
“No, it’s nothing. We’re planning to set off soon after the ceremony is over, so let’s keep preparing until then,” I stated in as calm of a voice as possible, but my mind was elsewhere. Their little paws were so soft and squishy.
A few events happened over the next two weeks. The blacksmiths we had ordered our armor from knew the award ceremony couldn’t be conducted until the armor was completed, so they rushed to get the orders done. Now we had everything we’d requested, and the ceremony would be held this afternoon. Right now, we were getting ready for it by bathing ourselves.
“There, all finished.”
I slowly poured water over Rium to wash the suds off her, and she shook her head and splashed beads of water all around. She really did manage to soothe my nerves.
The Chaotic Stone Sauna Page 20
