That day, we decided to stay in a village.
　We were in the middle of crossing a mountain, and the village had a hot spring.
　At night, we decided to go to the hot spring. After dinner, we were about to go to the hot spring when we decided to join Ex and Arthur.

''Oh.''

　I exhale involuntarily as I pass through the changing room and head for the open-air bath.
　The hot spring baths are made of stone, and the steam coming out of them emits a unique smell.
　The stars twinkle in the night sky and the clear air is pleasant.

It's a nice atmosphere.

　[Jet Black Brave] Ex-san enters. His well-trained body is dazzling.

''I heard that in this area, they soak in the bath and drink alcohol. My husband gave it to me, and I'm sure Reme will drink it too, right?

　[Knight King] Arthur-san is slender compared to Ex-san, but his body is well toned.

''I see, then, thank you.''

　If tomorrow is the original dungeon, I'll refrain from doing so, but the journey continues. It would be good if it doesn't affect tomorrow.



''Ah, it would be hard to tighten up that much in [Black Mage]. You just say you want to be brave.

　Ex-san and Arthur-san said admiringly.

''Haha thank you very much. Let's wash up before our bodies get cold.

''Huh, right. Speaking of which, does Reme know of any special uses for my spirit arts?

Is that a special use?

Hey, Ex....

Ha, that's good. There's no one to show off to.

You're on your own.

　Mr. Arthur chuckles, then heads to the washroom.

''Well, Leme. The spirit I have contracted with gave me the power to control the 'shadow'. I can manipulate my own shadow at will, materialize it, or even control the shadows of my enemies. In order to manipulate someone's shadow, sometimes you need to touch the target's shadow with your own shadow, but, well, you know what I mean.

Yes, sir.

Controlling shadows is quite difficult, and if you're a wizard, it's easy to understand how difficult it is to manipulate magic.

Oh, I see...

　Magic power is invisible, and it doesn't have a specific form. It takes a lot of training to control it at will.

'That's where I came up with the idea. If you use shadows on a regular basis, your progress will be faster.

Yes, I think so.

　That part might be similar to my black magic training method.
　Like, by constantly casting black magic on yourself, you train your magical organs while also training your magic control.

''Through years of practice, my spirit arts have reached this level...!　Behold!

　His shadow began to move as Mr. Ex spread his arms out in an exaggerated manner.
　It became a myriad of arms, each one moving swiftly.

　There were arms that picked up the soap. Several arms lathered it up, leaving Mr. Ex covered in foam.
　There were also arms that washed her hair briskly. Not only that, they held a tub and poured hot water over Ex-san.

'So you don't even have to use your own hands anymore.

　Technically it's terrific, but the picture plane is so surreal that I - I can't help but laugh.
　I was able to endure this quite well, but when the shadow was attached to his head in the form of a shampoo hat, I couldn't resist and erupted.

''Haha, Ex-san ... no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that's amazing ... very much.''

"Hahaha...!　Come on, Arthur, it'll be great.

Huh, I hope I'm not disillusioned.

That's okay. Hey, Leme.

Yes, yes. Um ... it's about time, you know, I mean ...

'What?　Do you want me to wash you too?

I can do it myself.

　I hurried to the washroom.
　Seeing this, Ex-san smiled happily again.

　After all this, I take a bath.
　A gasp escapes me as my fatigue seems to melt away in the hot water.

　When you travel from town to town in search of dungeons, you can't take a bath every day.
　I do wipe myself with a wet cloth, but that's only after consulting with the amount of water left and the distance to my destination.
　In the adventurer's industry, there is a half-joking saying, 'Bring in someone who can use water magic'.
　The comfort of the journey will certainly change dramatically with the presence or absence of one.
　Since Fenix was there, though, it only took a moment to make fire.

"Wow, that feels great!

Oh, yeah. See, you two.

　A wooden tray floated puffily. On it was a distinctive shaped bottle and a small vessel.
　Arthur poured the liquor from the bottle into the bowl, and we took it in our hands.

'Well then, cheers.'

　I say to no one and raise the bowl.
　The aroma reminiscent of a clear stream escapes my nose as I take a sip of the sake.

'Yes, it's delicious,'

　Then we talked about some trivial things.
　After a while, Mr. Arthur said he was going up first and left the bathroom.

　Maybe that's about it.
　The atmosphere of Aksu-san changed a bit.
　Although it was only slightly, a faltering expression came to appear on her face.

''Leme, there's something I wanted to ask you.

What is this?

'As I said before we left, there are more people who have been encouraged by your efforts than you realize. I'm one of them. Despite being in an unfavorable position, your party has risen to fourth place. Fourth place. Fourth from the top in a party of tens of thousands.

Yes.

''Indeed, even so, there were always those who said you were unnecessary. It was the position of the [Black Mage] in the industry, because the brilliance of the [Fire Brave] was so great, the way you chose to... support him, it was a result of a combination of all of those things.

　Rather than thinking that I'm a [Black Mage] worthy of the fourth place, it's more natural to think that the four great spirit contractors are so great that they can be ranked fourth even with a [Black Mage]. Normal. Easy. Interesting. It's good for a story.

　Up to the third place, things haven't changed much anymore.
　Conversely, up to fourth place, it's replaced there.
　Just like the Skaha Party dropped to fifth place after being overtaken by the Fenix Party.

　Because of this, adventurer fans sometimes feel that if there are people who can break into the top three parties, they're the real deal.
　That's one of the reasons I was aiming for third place or higher.

　Because, you know.
　The Aerial Party, the Ex Party, the Helvall Party.
　If I could be ranked higher than them, I couldn't complain no matter how many [Black Mages] were mixed in with them.

　From my point of view, there are many people who are strong and respectable regardless of their rankings, but an easy-to-understand achievement was needed at that time.

''I've never regretted teaming up with Fenix.

I know that. What I'm asking is why did you leave out? I thought you wanted to be in first place with the Phoenix.

It's not...

　I wanted to be, of course.
　No, Ex-san knows that, too.

'You know that, Ex-san. I couldn't convince him, and kicking out the other three men in reverse is out of the question. Who would aspire to be a brave man who kicks out his friends to keep his limp-wristed childhood friend?

　Even the general public knew about it, as Alba had been talking about a lot of things for a while after she left the company.

'So, it's for Fenix?'

I'm not sure...

　Ha. Well, what Ex wants to ask is.

'....No, no. That was a decision I made for myself.

Yes.

'I admired a brave man who could help his friends win. I'm a [black mage], but I wanted to think that by helping my party win, I was moving toward my dream. But then I realized on the day I left the party.

　Alba's frustrations are always the same - and I was pretty serious at the time - but I could have passed it off, maybe even passed it off. I'm used to enduring it.
　Still, I decided to get out that day.

'Is that the kind of guy who would make the party awkward by his presence, or who would break the party at worst by making the decision to stay, the kind of guy who is brave?

..........

'He's so far removed from the brave man I admired. I think that's why I left. I guess I just needed to keep trying.

Well....

　Mr. Xu scooped up the hot water and poured it over his own face. Then he slapped his cheek with a bash and said.

''You're strong.''

What?

'I'm ashamed of myself,' I thought, albeit for a moment. When I heard that you were out, I was sad to see that he had given up on you too. I was happy to see you in the tag team tournament, and it was an honor to work with you this time around. But I was just wondering what you were thinking at the time.

Miss Ex....

'And I can predict the way the black magic is shown. My Merlin has been through a lot of trouble, too. Me and Arthur, too.

　Merlin-san is a rare person who can produce magic power on par with the four great spirits.
　Ex-san and Arthur-san have the blessings of spirits other than the four great spirits.
　From the country's point of view, the ones who aren't decent [brave] guys have a strong power.

　It is famous that there was a time when there was a period of unsubstantiated slander in addition to rumors that the country's surveillance was on them or that they were considered dangerous everywhere.
　Overcoming those, the Ex-Party stands at number two in the world.

''But being strong isn't what it's about. Reme, you--you have a strong heart.

　That's what my mentor said to me a long time ago.
　After my great teacher, even my esteemed predecessors said to me, "I'm weak.

"I am ... weak.

　I couldn't quite make out his words because of the voice that came through the partition with the women's bathhouse.

'Wow!　The stars are beautiful, sister!

Well that's why I didn't want you to do it, ma'am.

　The one making a confused voice is Mira.

''Fu-chan, Sitri will flush your back for you, okay?''

"Hm.

What's that you're eating?

"Hot Spring Eggs.

Hmm?　Fuu is cute eating something. I want Citry to feed him.

Later.

Yay.

　Mr. Citry and Mr. Fulkus are also there.



"Huh, don't look at me like that, Mal. A man is only as good as his tits.

'Thank you, Mr Merlin. So where does that leave us?

The soul.

Huh, huh... yeah?

　Even Maru and Merlin.
　I can hear a number of other voices as well. Maybe they had talked beforehand about going together in some degree of unity.

''Haha, it's nice to see the ladies buzzing around. Oh, Leme, no peeking, okay?

I won't...

　I laugh bitterly, but I was curious about Ex-san's behavior earlier.
　Now he is the same as usual, calm and slightly mischievous Ex-san.
　Earlier, he was trying to talk to me about something.

By the way, Leme, how are you getting on with Miss Mila?　You'll have to talk to your uncle about it.

Oh, no...

　I tried to escape softly, but my body wouldn't move.

'I've already stepped on your shadow. You can't escape, hahaha.

　Then he asked me for a while, digging my roots.
　As the other men came in, he asked, "Do you know of any special uses for my spirit arts? He finally released me around the time he started to say, and that one earlier made me laugh again.

　I was concerned, but I didn't want to ask him with no intention of talking to him.
　We did so, and we were able to get a brief respite from our journey.

　◇

　I woke up to the sound of a tapping, something tapping on the window.
　There are several investigators asleep in a large room, not a single person, but a large room.
　I slowly got up and approached the window.

　When I looked, I saw that it was a bat. A bloodsucking bat. A sub-beast of Mira-san.
　When I opened the window, I saw a beautiful woman below me.

Would you like to go for a short walk?

　I nodded at the invitation of the beautiful vampire standing in the moonlight.

'Yeah, I'm coming.'