<h4>Chapter 227: Exining The Purpose</h4>
<strong>Proofreader: Xemul</strong>
It was the next day, and their group were at the south gate of the city of Karlovy.
“So Loren decided to ept themission, is that correct?”
Le, fully armed, asked Loren with her arms folded in front of her chest, and he nodded, albeit slowly.
“May I ask why you took it?”
“The main reason is, how should I put it? It was your leader who first said he would take it.”
Loren reminded her, and Le turned her steely gaze toward us. us, who for some reason was carrying arge luggage on his back, noticed her gaze, started and shivered, then began to sneakily move away from her line of sight.
“The Lord is a woman, right?”
“That’s the main reason. I could have left him to it, but… Well, maybe I felt it was toote to turn back, or maybe I was feeling responsible for being there and couldn’t stop that guy…”
The question of whether or not he should have stopped us even if he had to beat him up kepting back to Loren’s mind, unanswered even now.
It was somehow strange to ept a job offer at a ce they had traveled to for a vacation. However, the fact that half of the appeal of the ce was unserviceable meant that they couldn’t enjoy their vacation to the bottom of their hearts, so he believed it was not a bad idea to work a little to eliminate the cause for concern.
“You say the hot springs are no longer avable, but what is actually happening?”
Le asked as she led the group through the south gate. Behind her was Loren and Lapis, who walked side by side with Loren, followed by G, Ange, and Laure. us walked at the end of the line.
“Originally, the hot spring water here was opaque, but it has turned a reddish-brown color and began to smell like rusty iron and decay.”
“Could it have been blood?”
“Don’t know. It seems like it, though. But how much blood is there to make all the hot springs in the city be like that?”
If just a small amount of blood got mixed into the source of the hot springs, it would not have been discernible to the entire city, and while it was a creepy story, it would not have been enough to cause a fuss.
However, as all the hot springs in the city were in such a state, one would have to assume that the amount of whatever got mixed in was also quiterge. And if it was in fact blood, it would mean that an unthinkable amount of blood was mixed into the hot springs’ source or somewhere else.
“That’s hard to imagine.”
And if it was blood, then it had to flow out endlessly. Otherwise, as soon as the hot water with the blood in it finished its flow, the original clean water would have to flow back in.
“It’ll be a different story if there is a wounded dragon plunged into the source. If not, then blood is probably not the most likely exnation.”
“Then what do you think, Loren?”
Loren shrugged at the question.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m going to check it out.”
“I see. That’s fair enough, but, you know,…”
Le didn’t stop talking while leading their group. While thinking that she was surprisingly talkative, Loren had no intention of stopping her, since the questions Le asked also help in exining the situation to Ange and Laure, who were walking behind them.
“If she is a Lord, doesn’t she have at least a few trusted soldiers?”
“Not sure. But those trusted soldiers should also be beastmen, right?”
The answer Loren gave was not clear to Le, and she frowned as if asking for some additional exnation. Loren had no choice but to continue.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but… I’ve heard that investigation is a difficult task for beastmen.”
“Oh… I see.”
The beastman race was generally considered not suited for detailed work, although there were a few exceptions. It was something recognized by both beastmen and others; the beastmen do seem to be aware of this.
“If she lets the soldiers under hermand do the investigation, it will probably only make things worse.”
“She is a splendid Lord in that she is aware of the situation and does think of countermeasures.”
Lapis said as if she was impressed, but Loren and Le could only smile vaguely when hearing this, not knowing whether to be impressed or not.
“I don’t think it’s verymendable to give amission to an adventurer you’ve just met for the first time, is it? Especially when it’s directly from the Lord herself.”
“The information is the lifeblood of the city, but it’s not as confidential as military secrets. If you dy in dealing with it, it will eventually be known.”
“The reason why the Lord directlymissioned us is that, she was just in the middle of looking for someone good when she met us, and it just clicked.”
“us?”
Lapis looked back at Le, who looked surprised, with an equally surprised look on her face. Loren could somewhat understand both their feelings.
Lapis probably thought that between him and us, us was obviously the one easier to deal with, and she found it natural that the Lord had her eyes on us.
Le, on the other hand, probably thought that Loren would be more easily noticed than us, who was too soft on women despite being under ‘familial punishment’. And thus she was surprised to hear that the Lord had her attention on us instead.
But after a while, Le was the first to show the look of understanding on her face.
“She sensed that us is a womanizer…”
“Not directly so, but…”
Lord Minuet told Loren and us that she chose them was very likely because her intuition told her that us wouldn’t refuse her.
At the same time, however, Minuet knew that she would not be able to finalize the discussion if she dealt directly with us, and as a result, she made her request to us through Lorén.
“Is that idiot so obvious that even aplete stranger can see through him?”
Le red at us, who was walking at the end of the group. us tried to look for a ce to escape from her gaze, but he could not find it and had no choice but to turn around to use the luggage on his back as a shield.
“Be it wild intuition or beastly intuition, Lord-sama does have a good instinct.”
“Themission was epted, so it can’t be helped. It’s unfortunate for you, but you’ll just have to live with the misfortune of being here.”
“I’m rather willing to do it, though.”
Le called themission a misfortune, but Lapis responded with surprising words.
Not expecting Lapis to be interested, Loren and Le looked at each other with a nk expression, but she continued.
“This is about the hot springs we went through so much trouble to visit? I am looking forward to a big bath, and I’d hate it if I can’t use the hot springs. We should investigate the cause and restore the hot springs’ service as soon as possible.
“I see.”
Le nodded, as if the exnation Lapis gave with all her might was understandable.
“The reward she offers us is not bad. If we can remove the cause of the problem and make the hot springs avable, she will give us a bonus.”
“So from what I understand, themission is just to investigate the cause, right?”
Investigating the cause and removing the cause were on different levels of difficulty; that was why Le wanted to confirm themission’s details. Loren nodded.
“Yes. The main purpose is to investigate first. We were told that there is no need to forcibly solve the problem.”
“Of course she wants us to do it if we can, and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
Le could see that there seemed to be a big difference in enthusiasm between Loren and Lapis regarding thismission. Le wondered if it was the difference between those who liked baths and those who did not care for it. If asked which side she was on, she thought it would be Lapis, who would like to be able to use the hot springs.
“So, we’re heading south, but what’s the actual n?”
“I’ve heard that the canal that brings the hot springs to the city is underground.”
Lapis kicked at the ground with her heel. The canal was built underground to prevent any kind of filth from getting into the hot springs that run to the city, but this had the disadvantage that it made things difficult to investigate if something went wrong.
“It is difficult to investigate a canal buried underground, so we will go to the warm waterke at the other end of the canal and investigate there.”
If there was no problem at the end of the canal, then the canal was the problem. The Lord asked them to conduct an investigation to determine that first, but before that, Le wanted to make sure of something.
“A warm waterke?”
Le asked about the unfamiliar words, and Lapis continued to politely exin.
“There is ake at the end of the canal where the hot spring temporarily gathers. Although I said ‘warm water’, theke is actually filled with boiling water, so it may be quite dangerous to go near it.”
“Theke is about half a day’s walk to the south.”
The road leading to the ce was a gentle uphill. The difference in elevation was utilized to send the hot water to the town.
“The thing that bothers me is that the Lord said that theke is surrounded by a forest.”
“What’s bothering you about that?”
Le thought there was nothing strange about the fact that there was a forest around theke, but Lapis shook her head to disagree.
“A forest surrounding ake full of boiling water? It’s not the proper environment. It is strange that there is a forest there. Also, hot springs are usually formed when groundwater boils due to geothermal heat, which is often near volcanoes, but there are no volcanoes at all in the vicinity of the hot waterke.”
In addition, ces where hot springs welled up often have some kind of gas emanating from them, so it was not an easy ce for living creatures to live. Yet there was no such environment at the ce of the hot springke, and that fact bothered Lapis.
However, she did not raise these questions to the Lord because she believed that even if she did, she would only be told that it was just an exception, or that it was nothing to be concerned about.
“There are exceptions to everything. If we go there, maybe we’ll know?”
In any case, if they didn’t examine the actual ce, they wouldn’t make any progress. Thinking so, Lapis called out to the others, then walked a little faster along the road leading to the warm waterke.