Chapter 5: Trust

“If you want to surprise him, wouldn’t it be better to discuss it inside a regular car?”

“…No, I thought it would be better on the way to the blacksmith’s.”

“What were you planning to do about the relic?”

Father looked embarrassed as he was prodded by Renji-san with a hint of disbelief. Nevertheless, he gathered himself and continued with a serious expression.

“However, the blacksmith is not an easy person to deal with. I doubt he would agree so easily. He’ll likely come up with some conditions for forging the magic sword.”

“Conditions?”

Conditions, huh? Maybe something like demanding money or something similar.

However, it’s unlikely that someone dealing with exorcists would be short on money. It’s a bit vulgar to say this myself, but we’re reasonably wealthy.

I’d like to think that he wouldn’t demand an amount of money that even we couldn’t afford for forging the magic sword…

In that case, what else could it be?

Like passing a test to wield the magic sword, similar to a qualification exam?

Surely, it wouldn’t be something like getting an ordinary driver’s license. That would be absurd.

Actually, Renji-san mentioned that an “Relic of the Sixth Rank” is needed to forge the magic sword, but I wonder if that’s a condition. Well, judging from my father’s manner of speaking, probably not.

As I pondered over these things, Father interrupted the conversation.

“It’s pointless to think about that now. Everyone must be tired from the car journey, so let’s take a break.”

“Yeah! Break time!!”

Hina, who hadn’t been involved in the conversation until now—or rather, couldn’t be involved—spoke up and immediately stood up.

Seeing her, the others also stood up in succession.

“Since we’ve come all the way to the hot springs, it might be nice to take a quick dip.” 

“Huh, now?”

Aya-chan tilted her head at Renji-san’s suggestion.

While patting Ayachan’s head, Renji continued.

“We’ll go to the blacksmith’s place a little later, Souichiro.”

“Yeah, if we go, it’ll probably be in the evening. We don’t know if he’ll be there during the day…”

On the other hand, my father, who was being asked, said so with a stern expression.

Wait, is he really that laid-back of a person…?

Before I could grasp the personality of the blacksmith we haven’t met yet, the conversation shifted to going to the hot springs before meeting the blacksmith, led by Renji-san and my father.

As the discussion turned in that direction, I stood up, thinking to put our belongings in the room where we’d stay. But Nina-chan grabbed my clothes and pulled.

“No, I won’t go in.”

Her voice was so soft that only I could hear it. It was probably also because she was conscious of not causing trouble to others. She’s considerate like that.

“I… don’t want to be apart.”

It was as if she was stating it as the universal truth. 

But that’s a problem. Our main reason for coming here is Nina-chan’s recovery. We came to these hot springs because of the energy from the earth veins that overflow here.

It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t drawn into the discussion about the magic sword, but I’m still concerned about Nina-chan’s mental state.

So ideally, I wanted her to enter the hot springs. Just as I was thinking about what to do, Irina-san interjected.

“Nina, Itsuki-san will also enter.”

“In that case, I’ll go with him.”

“No, that’s…”

“In that case, I won’t be separated.”

Irina-san had a bitter expression. I probably had a similar one.

“Nina-chan, the hot springs are separated for men and women.”

“…I know that. That’s why I’m saying I won’t go in.”

It’s been a year since Nina-chan came here, so she surely knows about the hot springs. I tried to explain that, but it was met with an unyielding response.

What should I do…? Just as I was pondering this, Hina came over to us.

“You know, Hina will go in with Nii-chan!”

“That’s because Hina is Nii-chan’s little sister…”

She said it so proudly that it seemed like the conversation was about to get even more complicated, so I temporarily put Hina aside. Although she looked dissatisfied, my mother scooped her up with a swish.

While I was trying to figure out how to handle this situation, my eyes met with Aya-chan’s. The moment our eyes met, Aya-chan nodded deeply.

“Nina-chan! Let’s go in together!”

Saying so, she took Nina-chan’s hand that had been holding onto my clothes. 

“Oh, but…!”

“It’s okay! You’ll see Itsuki-kun again soon!!”

And then, Nina-chan tried to resist being taken to the bath, but Irina-san moved to cover her. And with that, Nina-chan was swept away, carried off.

I think Nina-chan was betting on not causing a scene here… I heaved a sigh of relief that it went well. Actually, I knew from the moment she conveyed her argument in a soft voice instead of shouting loudly that Nina-chan still had some common sense.

Aya-chan is asking Renji-san about what happened to Nina-chan. That’s probably why she took Nina-chan away, being considerate.

“Itsuki, let’s go with them.”

“…Yeah.”

After waving to Nina-chan, who was being carried away with the help of two people and occasionally looking back at us, I picked up our luggage.

“Hey, Dad. Do you think Nina-chan will get better?”

“…………”

Father’s stern face became even more severe as he fell silent. I know that not lying in situations like this is a sign of my father’s kindness.

To fill the silence, Renji-san continued.

“Taking a hot spring bath is just to expedite healing. It’s not like healing magic where injuries immediately disappear. Especially mental wounds.”

“Yeah. I heard that from Dad.”

“All we can do is trust her.”

The word “trust”… it made me reflect for a moment. Trusting someone is difficult…

“Well, if we stay here forever, we’ll just be in the way… Let’s go. To the hot springs.”

“Yeah!”

I nodded to Renji-san and started following Father, who had started walking.

While we were on the move, Renji-san shared some trivia with me.

“It seems like this inn has a sauna.”

“A sauna? In a hot spring?”

Come to think of it, saunas were popular in my past life.

As I reminisced about that, Range-san continued.

“Yeah. It’s been popular lately, and surprisingly, many exorcists seem to like saunas.”

“Huh. Is that so?”

“Because it’s hard for them to relieve stress with alcohol or cigarettes. Exorcists can get called for work even on their days off, right? So if they drink, it could be a matter of life and death; they don’t want to perform exorcisms while drunk.”

“I get why alcohol is a problem, but why not cigarettes?”

“Well, you know. Considering the times.”

Renji-san shrugged.

Well, it’s true that both smoking areas and smokers seem to be decreasing nowadays, and I’ve seen the price of cigarettes being joked about on social media even in my past life.

So, exorcists like saunas because there are a lot of middle-aged men among them…?

I was thinking that, but the response from Renji-san was more practical than I expected, and I ended up nodding in agreement. I see, so that’s why saunas.

“I heard this hot spring has five types of saunas. It’s great, isn’t it? I’m looking forward to it.”

Range-san said excitedly.

That’s all well and good, but I suddenly had a question.

“…Is that still a hot spring?”

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