The Third Hot Spring
The hot spring fruit we received from the World Tree was originally about the size of a volleyball, but after I poured boiling water into it using my water magic, it grew to around 70 centimeters in diameter.
That’s about the size of a balance ball, if we go by my previous life’s standards.
“Why would you do something like that?”
“Well, since we have to channel the hot spring all the way to the Vaash pasture, I figured it needed to be a high-temperature spring. The new town’s hot springs can just be cooled and adjusted as needed.”
At first, I’d thought the Vaash pasture could be right next to the new town, but when the Vaash staying at the mansion said there were already too many people even at the knights’ quarters, I realized it wouldn’t work.
That meant we’d have to channel the hot spring a long distance, so I started thinking about how to make the water hot enough that it could cause burns if touched directly.
What I came up with was giving boiling water to the hot spring fruit.
Since I didn’t want to damage the fruit, I first tested it with a teacup’s worth of boiling water.
It absorbed it immediately without any visible effect, so I continued pouring more until it grew this large.
“Isn’t that a bit too big?”
“Well, this will be the source spring for all the hot spring facilities in the town, so I made it big with the hope that the town thrives for a long time.”
“… Where does that confidence even come from…”
I ignored Brother Gerald’s muttered complaint, and had the earth magic users dig a hole and bury the hot spring fruit.
“Let this be a hot spring of pure water that blesses both this town and the Vaash pasture for years to come,” I said, pouring more boiling water into the buried fruit with my water magic.
We heard bubbling from underground, and I told everyone to step back—just in time for the hot spring to erupt.
“It’s hot! You’ll get burned, move back!” Grandfather shouted, and everyone backed away further.
“Hardt, you overdid it! Don’t you understand moderation?”
“Grandfather… I was just trying to help this town and the Vaash…”
“Don’t expect him to do things in moderation,” Brother Gerald said. “You have to stop Hardt before he does something unpredictable.”
Isn’t that a bit harsh? I did do it all for the town and the Vaash, you know?
“Well, whatever. Let’s go check if the hot spring is flowing properly.”
At Grandfather’s prompting, we walked toward the planned location for his future residence. Even from a distance, I could see steam rising from the prebuilt hot spring bath—it seemed to be working just fine.
They’d already created a simple wall around it using earth magic, so we might be able to take a bath today.
A magician was measuring the temperature of the water, so I asked about it:
At the site of Grandfather’s future house, the water was at 70°C, and the spring source itself was at 90°C.
If the temperature is that high, we could probably do steam cooking—vegetables, maybe?
Also, onsen eggs! I think if you leave eggs in hot spring water, you get those soft-boiled ones, right?
But I don’t really know how to cook with onsen eggs…
Maybe I could just hand them to the head chef and let them figure it out.
Next time, I’ll bring eggs and a basket with me.
The next day, we returned to the Vaash pasture fort to build their hot spring.
“Since the Vaash seem to love hot springs, maybe we should make two of them?”
“Good idea. But since we’re piping the water from the hot spring town, they’ll both have to be on the forest side.”
“Hardt, check the stone slate. Maybe it’ll tell us where a good spot is.”
When Gerald said that, I opened the tablet—and got a ding notification.
[Thanks to your wish upon the hot spring fruit, there’s no need to channel water. Just dig at the marked points on the map to find new hot spring sources.]“What the—!?”
I collapsed to my knees, hands on the ground.
“Hardt, what’s wrong?”
“What happened?”
Grandfather and Brother Gerald rushed over.
All that effort I put into thinking how to bring a high-temperature hot spring all the way out here… and it turns out it was pointless?
Just wishing on the hot spring fruit solved everything…
How was I supposed to know that?
What do you think about this chapter?
