"I'm sorry I fought for the client..."
"Damn! and I had thought of a perfect plan!"
"Sa-ku-ya!"
"Umm... It doesn't matter. Forget what I said."
"I'm so sorry you have to see this, Blake."
"Do not worry..."
"Well, I think I should introduce myself one more time. Welcome to the Miyako inn, I am Shinonome, the owner of the inn, and they are my cute employees, my daughter Sakuya, and Pia. We have great meals and wonderful baths. Please do not hesitate to use our facilities from time to time." Shino's attitude had taken a great turn, now Blake could see how she turned into a businesswoman and how she showed him all the characteristics of the place, in addition to he was surprised that she had a daughter, as she looked like she was in her twenties and didn't give the feeling of a married woman.
"Exactly, my baths are open from ten in the morning to ten at night! I hope to see you sometime in them!"
"As you can see, Pia is in charge of the bath and Sakuya has a souvenir and strange object shop on the opposite side. You should take a look sometime."
"What do you mean by "strange objects"?! I sell things that I find on my travels and there is always a great variety of products that customers may be interested in."
"Huh, okay, I'll make sure to keep an eye on it..."
"By the way, Blake. Why did you have to come to the inn? It's not that I'm trying to scare you away or anything like that, I'm just curious."
"Oh! Do you want to rent a room? Perfect! I'll take you to reserve it right now." And the same scene was repeating itself, Sakuya took Blake by the neck and carried him dragging who knows where while that Shino could only give a helpless sigh.
"Sakuya, you can't do that yet!"
"Eh? Why not, Pia?"
"The client must be tired; he needs to take a bath as soon as possible!"
"But, Pia..." And again, Blake was kidnapped. Pia dragged him away without giving him the slightest chance to protest, and once he thought better of things, he felt that it would actually be nice to take a bath, so he got carried away by Pia.
"Ahaha, how would you like your bath? Cold or medium?"
"We are talking about a bath, right?"
"Of course! Our baths are the best in the world, our hot springs make your body relax and your energy regenerates completely, you will feel like squid in a pot, but before entering you must leave your clothes in one of the washes, so your clothes will be cleaned and dried by the time you go out, isn't that great?!"
"I suppose..."
"What is your name? I must keep a record of everyone who uses the bath."
"Don't you remember? We met this morning."
"Hmmmmmmmmmmm... Oh, I remember, you were Mr. Trout's friend, weren't you?"
"Sigh... Yes. I'm Blake..."
"Nice to meet you, Blake, you can call me Pia."
"Yes. You have already told me your name before."
"Really? Are you sure you're not a seer?"
"No, I don't think so..." Blake couldn't keep up with her, he felt that if the conversation dragged on longer, Pia's comments would make less sense the more time passed. He was formulating a plan to end the conversation, but it wasn't necessary.
"Well, Blake, you can go in through that blue curtain, that's where it goes to the boy's bath normally you would have to pay three hundred coins to use it, but the first time it is always free. Take your time and enjoy the bath!" Then Pia started to walk away leaving Blake as he breathed a sigh of relief. Once he opened the curtain and entered, he could see a huge hallway that led to the hot springs. In the middle, there was a kind of bench to sit on, and on the sides of the place, you could see several towels and some strange artifacts that he assumed were the washings Pia was talking about.
"Is this where I should leave my clothes?" The washing was medium in size and made of a hard white material, in front there was what looked like a small circular door and Blake deduced that he must put his clothes there. He saw that there was no one around him, so he began to undress, took a towel to cover himself, and put his clothes in the wash. At first, he felt confused as nothing was wrong, but after doing some research, he saw that on top of the device there was what looked like a button. He pressed it and then it started working. "How strange, does it also have a spell inside to work?"
Blake was once again surprised by the uses of magic and how mysterious it was, plus he thought that thanks to the system maybe he could understand how it really worked, but he felt that the best thing would be to go to the bath and not waste much time. He walked to the door and saw a small sign.
'Remember that before entering the hot springs, you must wash your body or a giant squid will come to devour you.' After reading the peculiar poster and entering, he saw what it meant. The bathroom was huge, it was surrounded by a bamboo wall, the water in the pool-like area gave off some steam indicating how hot it was, and on the left side were some wooden buckets as well as a huge container of water. Blake knew that was the place where he should wash, but when he was getting closer, he saw a golden hair that was also there and remembered who he was.
"Hello."
"Hello. Hmm...?"
"I am Blake. I just moved to the Sharance tree. A while ago I saw you in the restaurant and I thought about introducing myself."
"Oh, I see. I am Rusk. It seems that we are the same age. So let's treat each other informally."
"Okay, nice to meet you, Rusk."
"Yes, anyway. I'm usually in the restaurant, so if you look for me you can find me there. I just finished, I'm going away, enjoy the bath, Blake."
"Yes. See you." As Rusk continued on his way, Blake wasted no more time and began to wash his body, the water that was used to wash his body was not hot or cold, besides there was a kind of soap for him to use, it had a nice smell and it was enough for him. Once he finished, he approached the hot springs and began to enter little by little... And feeling the hot water in contact with his skin, made his whole body relax.
Blake was on the edge of the bath while his body was in the water below his shoulders while using as a pillow the towel, he previously had to cover himself, it felt as if his body was flying, and the feeling of relaxation only continued to increase every second that passed making him close his eyes to enjoy it more.
"Awww... I wish I never had to leave this place... It feels so good that... Yawn... I'm feeling sleepy..." Everything seemed to come together in that instant, and Blake just needed a moment to fall completely asleep without knowing what the future had in store for him.
[Progress... Saved.]