Everyone Getting Along
Brother Chris came back for summer vacation. His friends are apparently coming to Westland in a week.
Brother Gerald and I will take them to the new hot spring facility in the backyard.
The hot spring facility is a single-story building with four separate entrances—divided between employees and male/female guests and family use. The idea of an open-air bath was rejected. It's unfortunate, but they didn’t understand the charm of an outdoor bath.
We still have two of the hot spring fruits we received from the World Tree, so I’m planning to eventually create a hot spring resort somewhere within the Westland domain, with open-air baths and saunas included.
But I can’t do that right away. I still have to go to the dragon’s place, and building a resort takes money.
The three brothers—myself, Gerald, and Chris—along with Atre, Ripka, Bianca, Ciel, Luan, and Lucia... Our fluffy family gathered together and entered the bath.
The bath was made from wood that gives off a fragrance similar to cypress. For the family and guest bath, there's also a special bath made just for the fluffballs, with shallow and deep areas.
It turns out our children love the hot spring, so I’m glad I had it built just in case.
Since it's a flowing hot spring, our kids seem to go in and out as they please. Apparently, Ripka, Luan, and Lucia get in at least twice a day.
Ciel is an ice attribute, so I thought he might not like hot springs, but he seems to enjoy them. He said they’re great for recovering from fatigue.
Living here should be easier than when they lived in the forest, so I asked, “Are you perhaps still going to the forest often?” but they wouldn’t answer.
As expected, our kids have a lot of secrets.
While watching them soak in their dedicated fluffy bath:
“I’m glad everyone gets along. Just watching them is so soothing,” said Brother Gerald.
“Yeah, and this wood’s fragrance is great.”
“In the Knights Order, it’s been well-received too. They say bruises and wounds heal faster,” I added.
“And it helps with fatigue too. If you go into the hot spring after doing practice swings or training, recovery is quicker.”
“But the third blessing... is the Earth God's hot spring. I wonder how these three blessings tie into the dragon.”
“Brother, there’s no point thinking about it now. We won’t know until we meet the dragon.”
“It’s not something we can take lightly either, considering Atre’s mother was killed so easily.”
“But thanks to my mana capacity bonus, what normally would take a week to reach the dragon will only take about two days.”
“That really surprised me too when I heard the route through the World Tree could shorten the trip. It’s a huge help physically.”
“Hardt, wasn’t there anything written in the book from the saintess 150 years ago about confronting a dragon?”
“No, the books related to the saintess didn’t mention dragons at all.”
“I see… I was hoping there might be something helpful, but I guess not.”
“Brother Chris, did your mana level of wind finally surpass 40?”
“Yeah, it did. I’m able to talk a little with Bianca now. Once she grows a bit more and has more mana, we’ll be able to talk freely like you and Atre.”
“So for me to talk with Ripka, we both need more mana too?”
“That’s right. That’s why Father and Ciel could talk from the beginning.”
“What about Mother and Luan? Mother was really strong when we went to the forest, so she must have a lot of mana, right?”
When I asked Atre, he said Luan has very little mana. Maybe because Luan isn’t an offensive-type monster, but more of a defensive or stealth-type.
We received a progress report from Raphael about the curry powder project, along with two dozen jars (24 jars) of curry powder.
We had already run out, so thank you, Raphael.
Even if we tried to keep it just for our family, the smell would give it away and everyone else would look at us with such longing expressions.
So we gave in and served it twice a month to the family, employees, and knights—and it was gone in no time.
I’m afraid of how bad it’s going to be once curry rice is completed.
Apparently, the fifth level of the medicinal herb and fruit dungeon has now been completely overtaken by curry powder spices.
Even if they harvest one day, it’s ready to harvest again the next, so for now, the Knights Order will handle the harvesting and management.
Production has stabilized, so they plan to sell it in the domain capital and royal capital, but they’re still figuring out the best way to market it.
They’ve prepared three types of bottles for the curry powder: large, medium, and small, but they want to avoid counterfeits as much as possible, so they’re looking for a method beyond just paper labels.
I sent a thank-you letter saying I was out of curry powder and truly appreciated the resupply. I also suggested a sales method: do live demonstrations with curry soup and curry-powder-sprinkled skewered meat and have people taste it.
I also wrote that it might be a good idea to include the crest of Duke Clondale or the merchant guild on the bottles.
What do you think about this chapter?
