One day, I was relaxing in the mansion when my sister came in.

'Hermes, I need you to do some work for me.'
Work?

　I braced myself on the easy chair.
　I can smell the work she's bringing in, and it's not good.

　She saw through it and smiled, as if to let her guard down.

'The job of the head of the Cano family, it's a regular one. If you're worried about it, you can ask Mimis.
Really?

　My vigilance has dropped a bit.
　Is this a regular part of the master's routine?

　If that's the extent of the conversation, I might as well do it.
　Or rather, it's not worth refusing for a long time.

　　　　　☆

How is this the master's business?

　Under the blue sky, steam was rising in the air.
　I was soaking in an open-air hot spring deep in the mountains.

　The hot spring is fenced off, but I can catch a glimpse of sparrows, squirrels, and other small forest animals in the trees beyond.

'Isn't the hot water nice?'

　I hear my sister's voice from behind me.

　I turned around.

　The open-air hot spring was one huge bathtub with a large rock in the middle.

　When I looked at it from above, it was shaped like an egg.

　On the other side of the rock is my sister.


"Good hot water, what's the job of this?
'The Cano family was made barons for two reasons. Firstly, the First Master was His Majesty's master of swords.
Well. So you're a swordsman to a nobleman. That's the golden pattern.

　As I said this, I got up.
　It was pretty hot, and I thought I'd cool down a little bit because I felt like I'd get blistered if I kept going in there.

　Of course, my consciousness was firmly on the other side of the rock.
　After making sure my sister didn't come out this way, I stood in the hot spring.

　Cool, but not too cool.
　I soaked my feet only in the hot spring in a footbath state.

''Another thing. This is a hot spring dug by someone important to the First Lady.''
Yeah.
The story goes that he dug it up with a single sword.
What kind of sword is that?

　I laughed it off, half-heartedly.
　There are so many outrageous anecdotes about people in the old days, so I decided to listen to half the stories.

'That's partly why the Cano family got this place, and they've been coming here regularly for generations--'
I'm gonna wash your back...

　A young woman walks in.
　She's a servant employed by the Cannos to do some kind of caretaker thing.

　She walks in, gets out of the tub, looks me right in the eye.

"...and...

　And then he turned his gaze downward.

Kyahhhh!

　His face turned as red as a boiled octopus and he ran away screaming.

　　　　　☆

　We got out of the hot spring and were in a building that was built to look like an inn-chic.

　In the living room, there were me, my sister, and the servant from earlier who called herself Effie.

　Effie is still half-covered in her bellybutton.

''Um, give me a break!
No, I'm not.
'I was hired by a nobleman's servant, so I'm ready and rather honoured to be handed over to him, but no!　I'm going to die of something that awesome!

　Happening in the open-air bath, Effie, who has gazed at my nakedness standing in the hot tub, is half-heartedly shivering and wobbling.

　It's a normal state of affairs, but... well, it's not like I'm going to use it as a handout, so I'll just pass it off as is.

"I know you were scared, but it's okay.
'I'm sorry Miss...'
It's okay. It's more than that.
Hmm?

　I don't know why she looked at me with such horrified eyes when she was playing with Effie.

''Brother Dad.
Don't call me that, sister.
You mean you were in that state of mind while talking to me in the spa?　I think it's understandable that the bathtub is connected to one another, so your fantasies would be enhanced, but not so much for that sort of thing.
...Heh?

　She's in that (vicious) state while talking to her sister...

'No, no!　That was normal!　The normal version.
That's normal.... that's a normal... that's a great... that's a normal...

　Effie rolled her eyes and fainted.
　Her sister saw this and giggled.

'You conspired, sis!'
"Giggle, it's like a legendary magic sword.
Ugh!

　I felt like I was completely in the middle of my sister's operation, and I felt like I was being messed with, so I ran out of the building.

　It was a hot spring resort in the mountains, far from the middle of nowhere, and if you stepped away from the building for even a second, it was completely just the mountains.

'Totally,'

　No, well, it's a matter of a man's reputation, so I don't feel that bad about it.
　I didn't feel bad unless the other person was my sister, who is also my sister and daughter.

　For now, let's hang around for a while and return when the heat has cooled down.
　I wandered around at random.

　I wandered out through the grass, where there was no path.

'Wow, this is the perfect peephole.'

　It was a little high up there, where you could see the wide bathtub of the hot spring with a gut feeling.
　And because of the angle, if you lower yourself on the rocks there, you probably won't be able to see it from the other side.

　Look around, I feel like this was artificially created.

　I remember that this is a hot spring that was built by an important person of the founder.

It's a guy, and he's quite erotic.

　It felt somewhat familiar.

　As I stayed there for a while, a monkey came into the hot spring where no one was in it and got into the tub.

　I don't care if it's a girl (other than my sister), watching a monkey take a bath is just so pointless, so I tried to leave - but

'........what the hell was that?

　There was something wrong with the monkey in the hot spring.
　He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, looked again closely.

　It wasn't an illusion, the body of the monkey in the hot tub was bigger.

　Not only that, the wet body hair was darkening.
　It was oozing out, even the hot spring water was turning black.

''Tch.''

　I clicked my tongue.
　Was this the hot spring that the Ancestor got from the King?

　You must not treat the things given by the King - that is to say, the gifts given to you by the King - rudely.
　The mere breaking of a gift plate could lead to the demolition of a house for that alone, depending on the king.

　I jumped down from the rock to the hot spring.
　The monkey's transformation continues further.

　I'm no longer just an animal, I'm becoming a monster.

　Pashaan!　He jumped into the bathtub and grabbed the monkey by the neck.

　The monkey's eyes turned bright red and blazingly fiery.
　He clawed at it with his pitch-black claws.

　I grabbed its neck and threw it into the air.

''Chi!''

　My palm tingled.
　When I looked at it, I saw black body hair - body hair that was hard and sharp as steel - sticking into my palm.

　At this rate, it will completely turn into a monster, I have to kill it.

　I stick out my hand and extend it to the monkey being thrown.
　I'm a little lost, glancing at the building behind me.

　If my sister finds out, she'll lift me up again, and we'll destroy the evidence.

"Open the gates!　O ye who dwell in the heavens and the earth and the space between them! Do what I ask and cast out my enemies!

　The monkey flies away, the space beyond, a black chasm formed from nothing.
　He opens the rift in space and throws the monkey in.

　It closes immediately.
　I could clearly feel the response of the monkey thrown in, that it had been squashed.

　Okay, this leaves no evidence.
　That's right, the hot spring - yes, I treated it early, so the discoloration is almost unrecognizable as it's washed away in the new water.

　This should be fine.

　　　　　☆

　The next day was uneventful, and we returned home in the same Cano family carriage we'd come in.
　Since then, the monkeys haven't shown up, and except for me being frightened by Effie, the hot spring trip was so much more relaxing.

　...A trip to the hot springs?

That's what I'm talking about, Hermes.
Yeah?

　My sister, who was in the same carriage, suddenly said something like that.

'Nothing happened. It's the first time in a hundred years that this has happened.
What does that mean?
'What?　Well, I see, the happening happened yesterday in the middle of explaining it to you.
In the middle of the explanation... yeah.

　Well, I was in the middle of the second one for two reasons.
　I'd forgotten all about it because of my viciousness, and I'd forgotten all about it because of the incident that scared Effie.

The magic sword was used by the ancestor's loved ones to dig the hot spring. Under the influence of the magic sword, animals are periodically exposed to the miasma, which has the side effect of turning into vicious monsters.
....
It's the head of the Cano family's important job to get rid of them regularly and keep this place running. It's a very vicious monster, but the fact that it didn't do any damage means that Hermes did it for him.
You conspired, sister!

　That monkey!　That's the monkey!

I was just about to tell you.
Ugh!

　That's for sure.

　And when I came in, she told me it was work.
　And I forgot about it, and it was like a spa trip.

"What the hell did you do...
Normally, I'd have to send my men out to kill them.
What?
Hermes managed it all on his own, so I'm sure everyone will realize how amazing Hermes is by now.
I knew you were scheming, sister!

　My sister giggled as I screamed out.