Volume 4, Chapter 12 – The Moonlit Hot Spring and the Intruder

“Huh? Chris-san, you look like you’re feeling a bit under the weather. Are you alright?”

“…Fiene-sama, I am fine. It is no problem.”

We were relaxing in the room after dinner, but I noticed Chris-san’s face looked a bit flushed, and she seemed slightly out of breath, so I decided to ask if she was okay.

She says she’s fine, but she doesn’t look fine at all.

“Chris-san, you were breaking trail through the snow all day today, so maybe you’re just exhausted?”

“No, that amount of effort wouldn’t…”

Chris-san continued to insist.

“Hmm, let me feel your forehead for a second.”

I pressed my palm against Chris-san’s forehead.

“Wait, Chris-san, you definitely have a fever! Oh, come to think of it, you didn’t change your clothes right away even though you were sweating so much. Your body must have chilled.”

“Ugh, that’s…”

I put my hands on my hips, puffed out my chest, and declared to Chris-san:

“Chris-san, please get warm and go to bed immediately. Got it? You’re forbidden from going outside until your cold is gone!”

“T-That’s too much! I can handle this level of—”

“No. Even a slight cold can turn into pneumonia, and that would be terrible. You’ve eaten delicious food, so now all you need to do is stay warm and get plenty of sleep!”

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Chris-san looked like she wanted to say something, but I wouldn’t hear it.

“The only answer I’ll accept is ‘yes, understood,’ okay?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Very good! Now, hurry up and get under the covers.”

“I-I understand.”

With a reluctant look on her face, Chris-san dove into her bedding.

“I’m worried about her, Onee-sama…”

“I am too. But she worked so hard on those snowy roads. We should have been more mindful to make sure she didn’t get chilled.”

◇ ◇ ◇

Once we confirmed that Chris-san had fallen asleep, we headed to the private rotenburo.

The dim rotenburo, illuminated by moonlight and lanterns, welcomed us.

“Onee-sama, isn’t it a bit dark?”

“Now that you mention it, Lu-chan, you don’t have night vision, do you?”

“Ah, that’s right. Onee-sama can see even in the dark. That’s cheating!”

I mean, I’m a bit troubled to be called a cheat.

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I am a Vampire, after all.

Though for some reason, it comes with a “(LOL)” attached.

We stripped off our clothes, gave ourselves a quick rinse, and immediately soaked in the tub.

“Aaaaaaaah, this feels so goooood!”

Lu-chan was making those weird noises again, just like she did back in the Far North.

Well, hot springs are the ultimate. If everyone just soaked in a hot spring, the world would surely be at peace.

This is truly “Bath Bus & Peace.”

Eh? You don’t get it? You think I should say something more clever?

Hehe. Expecting that kind of wit from me is where you went wrong.

I mean, I barely understand what I’m saying myself.

“Onee-sama! This is a hot spring too, right? What kind of benefits does it have?”

“Let’s see, this is an acidic spring, so it should be effective for chronic skin diseases. Though that doesn’t really apply to us at the moment. Other than that, it has general benefits like improving health and treating poor circulation.”

“Aw, so it’s not for beautiful skin?”

“There are all kinds of hot springs. But the water here is a lovely milky white, don’t you think?”

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“You’re the only one who can actually see that!”

“Oh, right. Well, you can just come back tomorrow during the day. Chris-san is down with a cold, so it looks like we’ll be staying here for a while.”

Lu-chan replied with a worried expression.

“…I see. Since it’s a disease that even Onee-sama can’t cure, Chris-san must have caught something really serious, right?”

“Hmm?”

“Eh? No? Onee-sama, can’t you cure diseases too?”

“…Ah.”

Yeah, that’s right. I can cure a cold with Disease Treatment Magic.

I hadn’t used Disease Treatment Magic in a while, and I was so caught up in the common sense of “stay warm and sleep” when it comes to colds that I completely forgot.

“Ahahaha, I’ll treat her later.”

“Eeeh! Onee-sama, you forgot you could cure it yourself?!”

“Well, I just haven’t done any disease treatments lately, so it slipped my mind.”

“Geez, Onee-sama…”

Yeah, I did a bit of a disservice to Chris-san. I’ll apologize to her when she wakes up.

We chatted about trivial things for a while, but Lu-chan started feeling lightheaded from the heat, so I had her return to the room first.

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I stayed behind, leisurely enjoying the hot spring while gazing at the night lake. I could feel my body warming up, but I didn’t feel lightheaded yet, so I figured I could soak for a while longer.

The wind, cooled as it crossed the lake, gently chilled my face, which was flushed from the hot water.

I moved to the lake-side of the tub and gazed at the scenery.

Beyond the tub was a small cliff.

Below lay a snow-covered forest, illuminated in a pale blue by the moonlight.

Beyond that stretched the pitch-black lake, with a white band of moonlight reflecting on the surface and stretching toward me.

Looking up, the black silhouette of the outer rim mountains surrounding Tougen Lake and the Kusane caldera separated the lake from the sky.

A beautiful half-moon floated in the night sky, with the twinkling of a thousand stars adding color to the scene.

“It would have been even more beautiful if it were a full moon,” I murmured to no one in particular.

“True. But tonight’s moon is beautiful too, isn’t it?”

“!?”

Startled by the voice coming from behind me, I hurriedly turned around.

“It’s been a while, Fiene. Have you been well?”

There sat Ade, soaking in the hot spring with a perfectly nonchalant expression.