Still, that made Viria curious about the free bathhouse... was it really even that, or was it more akin to the bunch of naked prisoners getting blasted with cold water...
Still, maybe he was just letting his imagination get the better of him – Bossac also stated that there was a queue for the place so it couldn't actually be all that bad.
"Wel... welcome, young man. In the bathland of respite, we can offer..."
The old man whose sight apparently wasn't the best flinched and stuttered when the blood-soaked young man walked right in front of the counter. Considering the manager's age, it must have been quite some time since he hunted for monsters himself, but it was still a bit strange that he wasn't used to seeing bloodied people. All in all, hunting monsters was supposed to be the most profitable work on the first floor which meant that the people hunting the creatures should be the most loyal customers...
"Good morning. Considering that I am not paying upfront, I don't want to be a bother. As long as you have hot water and provide some bath supplies I will be fine. Thank you."
"...!"
Viria really didn't want to make a big deal out of a simple bath, so he raised his hand to stop the old man who was about to have another go at welcoming him in the facility, and nodded to him with a polite smile.
"Bath supplies...?"
The bathhouse manager asked, making Viria feel worried that he would not be able to properly clean himself after all.
"You know... soap for some bubbles, big old sponge to have a nice scrub down, and a towel to dry off afterward."
The young man raised his brows and explained, giving up even the thought of asking about shampoo or even the second towel after seeing a reaction like that for the request he thought of as simple considering what the facility was all about...
"Big old... ah! Hehehe, big old sponge! Now I get it!"
"..."
The old man laughed in a rather suspicious way and Viria had to bite his lips to stop himself from shaking his head and retorting that the old man did not actually get it.
The young man also looked around again but there was nothing in the interior design of the reception that would suggest the place was anything else than a bathhouse.
"This way – there is a changing room in the front where you can leave your stuff and the actual bath is a bit further in. Go on ahead, your supplies will be there shortly."
The manager stood up from his chair and moved to the right pointing at the doorway with a signboard -men- above and the blue curtain blocking most of the view inside.
"...I am probably overthinking it..."
Viria glanced to the left, making sure that there was a doorway for the women's bath on the left side of the counter, sighed, whispering to himself and just going in.
The changing room was very simple and consisted of a few open shelves where the customers could leave their clothes, and judging by all of them being empty, Viria was the only one there at that time.
Having a bath, whatever size it was, all to himself was quite a nice thought so the young man started undressing, making sure that no one is watching him.
He wasn't a particular prune or anything – it was just that he realized too late that he didn't have anywhere to hide the monster cores he carved out of the mole-rabbits corpses.
He was certain that he wasn't going to just leave them in the changing room.
Instead, he used his long hair as an additional barrier while acting as if he had trouble taking off the prison shirt because of all the viscera covering it.
Viria also had no other choice but to turn his hair into a multipurpose tool.
Thanks to the monster core of a mole-rabbit being considerably small, barely an inch-tall shard of murky red crystal, he was able to bundle all three in his possession in strands of his hair, creating a hiding spot good enough for short-time storage. The only thing that he would need to be extra careful about was washing his hair – it also hot its fair share of monster blood sprayed all over, after all – but Viria had no intention of exploring alternative means of keeping the cores with him.
Once the young man entered the bath, he was pleasantly surprised.
It had that rural, really old-time feeling about it – with no faucets and water for washing up before entering the basin of the dug-in tub taking more than half of the entire floor – but maybe because of that, it gave Viria a sense of security.
Being alone there also helped – there was no reason to even question that, but still.
Viria sat on the spot for washing up and after grabbing a shallow wooden bucket he began to pour the cool water on his body.
He could wait for the bath supplies to be delivered to him, but honestly, the drying blood was really annoying.
Some media back in his previous life humorously pointed out the problem with cleaning up after a bloodbath, but watching it through a screen or reading about it, and actually having to experience it on his own were two completely different experiences.
*plap* *plap* *plap* *plap*
"...finally..."
After a few minutes, while the reddish water was flowing to the drain thanks to the slightly sloped floor, the clapping on bare feet getting closer made Viria beath out and straighten his back.
He never thought of himself as a clean freak or anything, but he was about to rip his skin off with his fingernails in an attemtp to get all the blood clots off, and even considered summoning his soul artifact to try and cut them off.
"Just leave it by the door, I'll get it myself – thank you~!"
With a shadow of a person passing by a lantern next to the door announcing their presence, Viria leaned back and called out in relief...
*plap* *plap*
"..."
But with the footsteps not slowing down at all, the young man's brows furrowed as his expression soured and he began glaring at the door.
Only a few seconds later a pretty brown-haired girl a few years older than Viria, wearing only a white bath towel wrapped around her body entered the bath.