A pastoral-style gate hung with a plaque reading "Music Hot Spring." Jhin bought a group ticket at the ticket booth, and then a maid led them into the interior of the inn.
It was an inn full of Japanese-style architecture. Both sides of the corridor were dotted with all kinds of neatly trimmed plants and rockeries, and a cobblestone-paved path wound through the garden like a flowing stream.
The maid walked ahead to guide them while introducing what made the Melody Hot Spring unique.
Every hot spring here would emit different musical tones whenever someone was in it. In particular, when a group of three or more guests entered together, special-ingredient hot spring eggs would appear. For women, these eggs had whitening and beauty-enhancing effects, which was why the Melody Hot Spring was a top vacation choice for many women.
If you wanted to eat a second hot spring egg, you had to wait until the following year. During that time, no matter what method you used—such as teaming up to bathe with other people who had never been to the Melody Hot Spring—you couldn't obtain a hot spring egg. It was as if the hot spring itself had a separate built-in cooldown time for everyone.
Once a guest obtained a hot spring egg, they could hand it over to the inn to be cooked. There were two preparation methods to choose from: the first was to simply boil it into a soft-boiled egg, and the second was to make it into a deep-fried hot spring egg.
"If we leave it to you to handle, who can guarantee the hot spring egg won't be swapped out?" Kyaru posed a very sharp question to the maid.
The maid took this in stride; every year quite a few customers asked this sort of thing. Maintaining her professional smile, she answered, "If the guest is worried about this, you may go to the viewing dining hall and watch the chefs prepare the hot spring eggs from start to finish. The inn would absolutely never do something that would tarnish its own reputation."
"Th... there's no need to go to so much trouble, I was just asking casually."
"Kyaru, honestly... you're way too suspicious!" Pecorine laughed and patted her shoulder.
"I call this being careful, okay! Careful!"
Jhin gazed at that streak of white hair on Kyaru's forehead, like a dyed highlight, and suddenly grew a little curious about what breed she'd be if she turned into a cat.
Going just by the hair color, maybe a cow-pattern cat—so would I have to perform exorcisms on her at regular intervals?
He imagined himself extending the Great Wild Heaven-Imprisoning Finger toward Kyaru, and the scene of her immediately starting to go berserk, and couldn't help frowning and shaking his head.
Way too out of place... it's hard to imagine Kyaru ever being like that.
"Guests, this is your room. Inside there's a private Melody Hot Spring, and a hot spring guide is placed on the table. If there's anything you don't understand, you can consult the guide, or simply ask one of the other maids. Well then, I wish you all an enjoyable stay."
After the maid left, Megumin took the lead, sliding open the door and running inside: "Oh! I can finally lie down and rest for a bit."
The room was a very standard Japanese-style hot spring inn layout—tatami, a closet, and an open-air hot spring.
Apart from Megumin and Jhin, the others found it more or less novel; none of them had ever seen this kind of decorative style before.
Pecorine looked around in a circle and said, puzzled, "How come I don't see a bed in the room?"
"Ah... that thing's probably stored in the closet. We just take it out and lay it on the tatami when it's time to sleep."
"Megumin, have you been here before?"
"No... but the decorating style here is very similar to Crimson Demon Village."
"This place isn't another business run by the Red Demon Clan, is it?"
"How could it be..." Megumin rolled over, giving off a salted-fish vibe. "This kind of troublesome management—not a single person in the Red Demon Clan would ever do it."
"You Red Demon Clan folks really are a peculiar bunch..."
"Heh heh, pretty cool, right!"
Jhin pulled snacks out of his Storage Space and laid them on the table while ribbing her: "That line Pecorine just said wasn't praising you guys."
"!? Are you serious?"
Kokkoro was flipping through the hot spring guide. When she saw a certain item in it, she looked up and asked the others, "It seems we haven't bought swimsuits yet, have we?"
"Do you even need a swimsuit to soak in a hot spring?"
"For a women's hot spring there's no need, but I want to soak together with my master..."
"In that case we'll have to go buy swimsuits!" Pecorine laughed and dragged the others along, extending an invitation to Jhin: "Jhin, do you want to come buy swimsuits with us?"
"No need, I have one. You all go ahead."
"Mm! Then we'll be right back."
"Hey, I'm not even going to soak in the hot spring together with him, so why are you dragging me along too?"
"We're going to the beach in summer, so just think of it as buying swimsuits early. Kyaru, come with us~"
"I get it, just stop hugging me like that, it's so hot!"
The four of them quickly finished buying their swimsuits and came back, then—under Jhin's expectant gaze—went off together to soak in the women's hot spring. Even Kokkoro, who had originally planned to soak with him, for some reason didn't bring it up again.
"Is... is this really okay?" Kokkoro kept glancing back at their room with every step. She actually really wanted to soak in the hot spring together with Jhin, but unfortunately she'd been forcibly dragged away by Kyaru.
"You only said you wanted to soak with him, you never said which time. Besides, we finally get to soak in a hot spring, so of course we have to go soak our fill over at the women's hot spring. Or are you saying you don't want to come with us?"
"O... okay then." Faced with this line of reasoning, Kokkoro could only figure out a way to make it up to Jhin afterward.
Seeing her agree, Kyaru nodded with satisfaction: "That's more like it."
This was her little revenge against Jhin—all because, whenever he was teasing Megumin, he'd occasionally rope her into the teasing too.
On the way to the hot spring, Megumin suddenly stopped and said she wasn't used to crowded places and wanted to go back to the room to soak in the private hot spring there. The other three didn't force her, so she hurried back to the room and ran right into Jhin, who was still inside.
"Huh? How come you didn't go soak in the hot spring?"
Looking at the dumbfounded Megumin, he pursed his lips: "Because I got tricked, and I'm so disheartened that I plan to soak alone in the room. And you? How come you came back too?"
"I actually wanted to monopolize the room's hot spring all by myself... who knew you hadn't left at all."
"Then... shall the two of us soak together?"
Faced with the invitation, Megumin hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement: "The hot spring's big enough anyway. Two people it is."
Jhin changed into his swim trunks first and stepped into the open-air hot spring. The mist-like spring water seemed to seep into his body through the pores on the surface of his skin, and a warm current washed over his whole body, making him let out a comfortable little sigh.
As expected of an otherworld hot spring—it's actually this comfortable.
"Pat, pat."
Footsteps sounded in the air—the sound of bare feet walking on the stone slabs. Jhin looked toward the sound and saw Megumin, wearing a red bikini, slowly walking out from behind the rockery.
She bashfully shielded her front with both hands, and when she saw she was being stared at so intently, her fair little face went "poof" bright red, and she said petulantly, "You... you turn your head away!"
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