Chapter 104 - Dragon-san Makes a Plan (1/2)

Volume 4 Chapter 3: Dragon-san Makes a Plan

The villa was a two story house, a short walk from the lakeside.

Thanks to the money that I earned from my job as a Hunter, I had managed to finally buy it and make it our own.

For now there were only rooms for Nectar, Aru and I, a kitchen, bathroom, living room and all of the other daily necessities, but we could always expand this place so that it could accommodate as many people as need be.

When Mikoto arrived at the villa, I lead her to one of the rooms on the second floor.

Just by looking at Mikoto’s shimmering golden tail, I already knew that this was going to be a great day.

According to Elvie’s words, during the spring break Mikoto went to a lot of different places, travelling as much as time and money allowed her to.

Since so many people were visiting this place, the people in charge were looking for someone with a vast knowledge regarding hot springs, so who wouldn’t be better at this job than someone from the Eastern Countries, with their vast and rich bathing culture?

After all, hot springs are God’s gift to humanity.

While I was thinking that, I could feel a surge of magic in the vicinity, and I knew that another guest has arrived.

Heading into the hallway at the ground floor, I could see both Ligurila and Senjiro entering through the front door.

Ligurila shook her golden hair while carrying only one trunk with her.

「Thank you for inviting me here, Lava.」

「Welcome, welcome! I hope that you had a pleasant journey!」

We exchanged pleasantries and I shook Senjiro’s hand, but for some reason he looked really tired.

Looking at his luggage, I could see that he was carrying only one small cloth bag, like the kind vagabonds used to carry around them.

「I don’t know about pleasant, but I’m glad that it is over.」

「First of all, congratulations on your promotion to Rank 5!」

I congratulate him, and to that Senjiro’s face twists somewhat strangely.

「For now I have accepted that promotion, but I don’t think I deserved it. There’s still a lot of room for improvement.」

「No, no, no. You well deserve it. It was thanks to you that both the monsters at the borders and the ones at Melias were exterminated, and those were no small fries, but second and first class no less! If it was on me to decide, I would make you nothing less than a hero!」

「It was only natural, since aside from us, there is no one as strong as you at the Guild for the moment.」

Ligurila says something like that and then adds: “That’s my Senjiro for you.”.

I think that Ligurila was the one who was the happiest about Senjiro’s promotion.

But as expected, hearing Ligurila praise him, his ears were moving slightly, telegraphing just how overjoyed he was.

「It’s so nice that we could come to the hot spring place as nice as this one. Especially right now, while I’m waiting for my promotion.」

I was glad that Senjiro seemed happy to be here. It was a nice change of pace for him, one that he really needed and hopefully wouldn’t come to regret.

Part of the reason for inviting them here was so that both Ligurila and Senjiro could have quality time all to themselves.

However, due to all of his recent achievements, involving monster extermination at the border and the Melias incident, he was forced to go to the capital city of Ballow so that he could be granted the title of the Rank 5 Hunter at the Guild’s headquarters. It was a rough time for him.

I knew just how tiresome and exhausting such a ceremony could be, because I had to go through that myself in the past.

However, Ligurila said that she would stay with him at the capital and that the two of them would use Teleportation from her house as soon as the ceremony had ended so that they could come here.

Her official reason was that she had some business she needed to attend to at her shop, but that excuse wasn’t fooling anyone and I knew that she was doing it for Senjiro’s sake.

Seeing just how happy he was at the moment, he must have been pretty much devastated when he thought that he wouldn’t be able to do to the hot springs with Ligurila.

However, the disappointment in Ligurila’s eyes at that moment could have been even greater than his.

「Now that you are here, why don’t the two of you go relax in the hot springs? Their properties are perfect for recovering the magic you have lost.」

「Back in my country, such hot springs would often be places of various pilgrimages. So it’s even more amazing that one such spring is right here, Lava-dono.」

Seeing Senjiro’s grey tail shake happily I couldn’t help myself but laugh just a little bit inside.