I turned my gaze away and simply enjoyed the hot spring bath while keeping an eye on the three with [Observation Haki], but Kazuma was blatantly staring at Wolberg. Sensing that gaze, Wolberg looked at Kazuma and said.
"Hey, if you stare too much, it's embarrassing..."
"Don't mind it."
When Kazuma said that confidently, Wolberg was rather flustered.
"Oh, right... It's a mixed bath..."
"Don't mind it."
Then, Vanir next to Wolberg laughed and said to Kazuma.
"Hahaha, you're speaking boldly, but you're a virgin boy excited to see a beauty's naked body for the first time in a mixed bath, right? Perhaps you're expecting something good to happen here, but sorry! Nothing like that will happen, hahaha!"
Kazuma, hit on the mark, blushed and panicked.
"W-what are you talking about! It's not like that!"
"Hmm~ This embarrassment! Good emotion. But I can't feel anything from the friend next to you; are you even human?"
When Vanir pointed at me and asked, I answered immediately.
"I am human."
Then Wolberg stared at my face intently and whispered to Hans and Vanir next to her. The three of them murmured something, then stopped bathing and got up to head to the shower area. Kazuma continued to gaze at Wolberg's figure until the end, even after being told off.
"I think I'll see you again. Let's meet after the silver flash, hahaha."
Vanir said that to me and left, and Wolberg also said as she left.
"You're more handsome than the rumors. See you next time, handsome~"
Wolberg winked at me and left. Hans muttered about recruitment and then suddenly threw the Axis Cult's soap on the floor and left. Seeing that, Kazuma spoke with an understanding expression.
"Ugh, it seems that person had a hard time in the village too."
"Seems so."
"But do you know the masked man and the red-haired beauty from earlier?"
Kazuma asked about Vanir and Wolberg, but I decided to brush it off.
"No, I don't. They looked like adventurers; they must have heard about me somewhere."
"Well, Cassian was a very famous adventurer. When will I become like that?"
"But in Axel, there's no one who doesn't know your party, so haven't you become a bit famous? And Megumin even has a nickname."
"That's true... Crazy widow... No, that's a nickname too, I guess."
About Megumin's nickname 'Crazy Widow', Kazuma tried to say something but gave up. He probably hesitated to talk about it since he was involved in it too.
We got out of the bath and decided to try the hot spring massage, a specialty here. This hot spring massage involved lying down while oil was applied to the body for massage to relieve fatigue, and finally using the famous soap to clean the body, making it accessible even for those with physical discomfort.
We received the massage first. Lying on the massage bed, robust attendants came out, applied oil to our bodies, and started massaging by pressing on stiff muscles. Kazuma was amazed as his muscles loosened.
"Wow~ This really relieves fatigue. I thought only old people got massages, but it's not bad."
"Right, it's my first time too, and it's good."
After the massage ended, they washed our bodies with foam from the famous soap on a cloth.
"How is it, sir?"
"It's good~ Ah~ there there~ Ha~"
Kazuma was receiving the service almost to the point of being sensual.
"This soap is very soft, right?"
"Ah, yes."
Suddenly, the attendant promoted the soap and urged us to join the Axis Cult.
"This soap cures any status ailment, and then, you can even eat it! It's natural and sacred! You can get it if you join! It's free!"
"Hiek! No!!"
While Kazuma was being subjected to this, I used [Conqueror's Haki] to pressure the attendant assigned to me, washed roughly, and left the spot. On the way out, I saw Hans in the next room being held by an attendant and suffering similarly.
"Let go of this! Stop deceiving with that thing!!"
I pretended not to see and went back into the hot spring to enjoy it. Then Kazuma also returned to the hot spring with a very tired expression, having escaped from the attendant.
"Haa... This is maddening. It seems quiet and good just being in the hot spring. I won't receive such service again!"
"Right, let's just quietly enjoy the hot spring, wash, and leave."
Then, voices of women were heard from the next bath.
"Megumin~ Long time no see. It's been a while since we bathed together. Oh my! Your breasts have gotten a bit bigger~"
"Cecily sister! Where are you touching! Hah!"
"Yunyun is quite big. Come here~"
"No!"
At that sound, Kazuma suddenly got out of the bath, pressed his ear against the wall towards the women's bath, and focused on the sound. Kazuma was indeed true to his instincts. I, regardless, had enjoyed enough and was about to get out of the bath to tell Kazuma, but Kazuma seemed too focused and not interested in me leaving. So, without disturbing, I quietly left, showered, and returned to the inn.
As expected, all the women had gone to enjoy the hot spring, so no one was there. I went out to the village and bought a lot of soap, detergent, and specialties like manju. Since this was the only place to buy them, I decided to stock up while here. After looting several shops and returning to the lodging, Aqua was crying loudly.
"It's too much~! I just entered the hot spring... Waa~!"
Listening to the story, Aqua had been kicked out because she purified all the hot spring water.
"I told you to control it. They rely on the hot spring for income; if you purify it, what will the believers live on?"
"But but... It doesn't make sense for me to be kicked out of a church that worships me!!"
"If you keep this up, you'll be hated by the believers too."
"I don't want that!"
"Then control it. If you keep causing accidents like this, you might end up being sold off somewhere as we talked about before. How long will you keep causing trouble? Instead, practice by dropping ink into a cup of water so that it doesn't get purified."
"Sniff... Okay. I'll try..."
Aqua, not wanting to be hated by the believers, agreed. I hoped this incident would help her control her power, but I didn't have high expectations.
As we were resting, Kazuma and the others, Cecily, and Yunyun returned from the hot spring. As soon as they arrived, Megumin confronted me.
"Cassian, why didn't you stop Kazuma?"
"Huh? From what?"
"Kazuma peeked at the women's bath!"
"Well that... Kazuma is at an age true to his instincts, so it's natural to be interested in women's bodies."
Kazuma was even more embarrassed by my words.
"But if you're only true to instincts, that's just an animal."
"Of course, Megumin is right. If it's excessive, it is like an animal. But without such emotions, none of us here would have been born."
Then Kazuma stopped me with a troubled face.
"Cassian, please stop. I feel like I'm becoming more pathetic."
"Ahem... Okay, got it."
After eating, we went to our respective rooms to rest. I spent a hot night with Darkness and fell asleep. Since this is an inn, I didn't go as far as last time and kept it moderate.
The next day, Darkness and I showered and went down to the dining hall to eat together, and the others also came down, so we ordered food and ate together. Then Aqua suddenly stood up and spoke urgently.
"That's right! I forgot to mention it yesterday because I was kicked out of the hot spring, but it seems this village is in crisis!"
Hearing that, Kazuma asked Aqua while eating.
"Crisis? What are you talking about? You were practicing something with a cup of water until late last night."
"The manager said, 'The hot spring water quality has been bad lately.' This must be because the Demon King's army, thinking they can't win in a direct fight, is trying to take away the precious resource of the hot spring!"
Aqua's words were half true. Arcanletia was difficult for the Demon King's army to attack because the entire city was under Aqua's protection and had many skilled priests. Moreover, even the Demon King's army disliked getting involved with the Axis Cult.
Actually, the last part might be the biggest reason. Anyway, to destroy the Axis Cult, the Demon King sent Hans to continuously pollute the water quality.
Kazuma heard that and answered dismissively while looking elsewhere.
"Wow, amazing."
"Believe me!!!"
Megumin also seemed not to believe it.
"Well, it's true that people avoid the Axis Cult... But would they go that far to bother?"
I should have believed Aqua for the sake of the original story, but I thought Aqua needed to grow up a bit, so I didn't take her side.
"I think Aqua is the biggest problem. Honestly, how many hot springs did you purify yesterday?"
"T-that... About three."
"Then the people operating those hot springs probably can't operate for about a day until they drain the plain water and refill it with hot spring water. Seeing this, isn't Aqua, who purifies hot springs into plain water, more of a problem than the Demon King's army? And would people believe someone who caused such trouble? It's lucky you weren't chased out with stones."
"That is... But..."
"So if you had practiced controlling your ability earlier, you could have solved the problem easily with the villagers' cooperation without such incidents. Plus, the issue with Kazuma fighting every day isn't resolved yet. With so many accumulated problems, who's worrying about whom."
"Waa~!!!"
Aqua couldn't refute my words and started crying on the table. It was the karma Aqua had accumulated, so it couldn't be helped. But the girls watching also didn't look happy. So I decided to stop here.
"But since the party hasn't completely abandoned you yet, if you ask to be taken back, they might agree. Right?"
I turned my head and looked at Kazuma and the others. Then Kazuma sighed after pondering and set a condition for Aqua.
"Stop being so selfish! That's the requirement. If you had thought of others first, you should have known how to control your power. Anyway, if you accept the condition, I'll take you back."
Aqua, hearing that, hung her head dejectedly and said.
"Okay. I'll try."
"Good! Remember that."
Then the girls went to Aqua and hugged her together.
Megumin
"That's good. Now we can take requests together again."
Darkness
"Right, from now on, we'll become a better party."
Yunyun
"I'm glad. Miss Aqua."
Cecily
"Ah~ How happy I am to be able to hug Megumin and Yunyun like this!"
Though there were strange words in between, it seemed to have resolved well.
"Then let's investigate right away. Everyone, gather information by walking around the village. Check if there's any problem with the hot spring water flowing into the hot springs, and if there are any suspicious people."
Then Aqua raised another objection.
"Instead of that, if I persuade the villagers somehow..."
"As I said earlier, you'll be chased out of the village immediately if you do that. Purifying the hot spring is a very big problem. Frankly, if I were them, I'd demand enormous compensation for the days of lost business and the amount of hot spring water."
It was unclear if she kept doing this because she trusted her believers. Cecily also agreed and added.
"Cassian is right. Arcanletia's main business is the hot spring, so if there's a problem with it, it affects income greatly. If someone purified it into plain water, wouldn't everyone be very angry now? For such a person to persuade people... It's lucky if they don't throw stones."
"So we have to solve it among ourselves. Fortunately, with Cecily here, if there's a problem, the cult's cooperation will be quick."
We decided to meet at the lodging in the evening and pair up in groups of 2-3 for investigation. The pairs were
Kazuma, Darkness
Megumin, Yunyun
Aqua, me, Cecily
I decided to take the problematic ones with me since Aqua and Cecily might cause accidents. The others roughly understood why and didn't say anything.
"Then see you in the evening."
"Okay."
With Cecily who knows the way, we decided to investigate the hot spring water coming from the source and moved. Thanks to Cecily, we could move comfortably without Axis Cult followers urging us.
Moving like that, we arrived at the first hot spring water stream.
"Hmm... There's nothing unusual here."
Cecily said while looking around. I checked too, but there was nothing strange. Then Aqua tried to touch the hot spring water again, so I immediately hit her on the back of the head.
Thwack!
"Ouch! Why did you do that?"
"If you dip that hand and purify it again, I'll just throw you to the villagers and tell them, 'This one purified it.' I told you. If you keep purifying this, the village will be ruined. I'm saying clearly, stop touching the hot spring water. This is my last warning."
"Okay. I was just checking if the hot spring water had any problems."
"Ah, I can't stand the anxiety. Let's just tie you up."
"C-Cassian?"
I took out a straitjacket top from my inventory, put it on Aqua, and tied her arms. I had bought a few from the MCU, thinking they might be useful.
"Cassian! I can't use my arms at all with this."
"That's the point. You still can't control your ability. Plus, despite telling you not to touch, you tried to touch again, so I took special measures."
Aqua eventually wore the straitjacket without complaint and followed us crying.
"Sniff... How did I end up like this..."
Regardless, we examined the hot spring waters coming from the source. There was nothing special. But when I checked with [Naked Eye], I could see that the hot spring water was slightly contaminated with poison. This was clearly Hans polluting it at the source, same as the original.
"Hmm... Nothing unusual here either..."
"Cassian, this is the end. We've checked everything."
"I see. Then let's go back."
"Yes."
We finished the investigation and returned to the lodging. Upon arriving, I untied Aqua's straitjacket.
"Phew... I feel alive now. Do we have to do this? I won't go near the hot spring water anymore."
"If you hate it so much, learn to control your ability quickly."
"I'm trying."
Since the others hadn't returned yet, Cecily and I rested at the lodging, and Aqua alone practiced controlling her power by dropping ink into a cup of water. But she kept failing, and the ink was purified immediately upon dropping.
"Why isn't this working! Waa!"
Aqua eventually burst into tears from frustration during practice. At this point, it was a bit pitiful. Well, she had lived in heaven with overflowing divine power until now, so it wouldn't happen in a day.
"Relax and practice. When you can't control your power like this, think of a faucet and imagine adjusting by letting water flow little by little. And when not using power, lock it."
When I patted Aqua and gave advice, she stopped crying and practiced again.
"Faucet... Faucet..."
Aqua practiced by dropping ink into the cup again. Then Aqua happily said to me.
"It worked, Cassian! Look, there's still black ink left!"
As Aqua said, there was a slight trace of black ink left in the cup. It seemed the [Teacher] ability played a big role this time too.
"Oh~ Really. Congratulations. Now that you've got the hang of it, you can do more."
"Right? Hehe!"
Aqua was so happy that she kept staring at the cup. Then the others arrived at the lodging, but their conditions weren't very good. They seemed to have been harassed by Axis Cult followers again today.
"Soap is something you can eat..."
"Snap out of it, Megumin!"
The mental shock seemed significant, so we let them rest a bit before starting the meeting.
"We examined the hot spring water coming from the source, and there was no problem. How about you?"
At that, Kazuma answered.
"We asked around, but since this is a hot spring town, there are too many tourists, so they said it's impossible to know if someone is suspicious."
Megumin also answered.
"Same with us. Rather, they said we were more suspicious for asking such things."
"Then there's only one thing left. We have to go to the source."
Then Cecily said.
"No can do. The source is... It's a bit awkward to say this, but actually, because the Axis Cult caused too many accidents, the Eris Cult manages the source. Outsiders and the noble managing the land can't enter."
"Don't worry about that. We have Darkness who's a noble, and I have a medal from the prince."