After placing our belongings in our room, we made our way toward the hot springs.

I thought about bringing a towel, but we were told that there were towels available in the large bath, free for guests to use.

Apparently, there really were places like this where you could use as many towels as you wanted. The thought made me smile; if I were really a grade schooler, I’d probably be playing with the towels. Sure enough, the changing room had a whole stack of them.

Being mid-afternoon, there were no other guests around, so there was no one to observe my father and Renji-san’s tough, scarred bodies.

These two stand out in any bathhouse; their bodies aren’t covered in tattoos, but the scars are more than enough to draw attention. If I were back in my old life and saw two intimidating guys like them entering the bath, I’d probably make a quick exit.

Noticing my gaze, my father tilted his head, puzzled.

“Something on your mind, Itsuki?”

“No, nothing,” I replied quickly.

Still, seeing my father’s scars up close was something else. His chest had burn scars, his right arm was slashed with deep cuts, and his left shoulder was dotted with puncture wounds. He’d once told me he got those when a monster’s attack pierced right through his shoulder.

Scars covered his abdomen, legs, and back as well. It was a body that clearly bore the marks of years spent fighting monsters.

Renji-san’s body, while less scarred overall, had its own share of deep, severe injuries—the vertical slash across his face, the massive horizontal gash across his chest. It looked as if he’d been sliced by some giant, razor-sharp blade.

I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d end up like this someday, and the thought made me shudder.

“So, Itsuki-kun, now you can understand why it used to be rare for women to become exorcists, right?” Renji-san asked.

“Yeah…” I nodded.

Traditional beliefs still lingered in the exorcist community. It’s a patriarchal system where men take the frontlines as exorcists, and women play supporting roles. I’d felt this at ceremonies, like the Seven-Five-Three festival gathering.

But looking at these two, I could almost see why they’d think that way. I didn’t want Aya-chan or Nina-chan to have to endure the same painful trials.

And these wounds… weren’t only on the body.

“That’s an outdated way of thinking, Renji,” my father grumbled.

“Says the man least likely to change his ways,” Renji-san replied with a grin.

Ignoring their banter, I poured hot water over myself in a cleansing rinse before entering the bath. I’d heard about the geothermal energy, but the water just felt like regular hot spring water to me. I couldn’t feel any difference in the concentration of magic power, or any kind of energy.

Only the sulfur smell told me we weren’t in an ordinary bathhouse.

“I wonder if Nina-chan is doing okay…” I muttered.

If the energy in the hot spring truly had healing properties, maybe her mind would feel even a little lighter. But a small part of me doubted that such a minor fix could heal the kind of wounds she carried.

“How’s the hot spring, Itsuki-kun?” Renji-san asked.

“I… can’t really feel any kind of ‘energy’ or anything.”

“Maybe it’s because you have a lot of magic power already. Harder to notice,” Renji-san mused.

“So you can feel it, Renji-san?”

“Well… it feels like there’s a bit more energy than in my home bath, I guess.”

He scooped up a handful of water and let it flow through his fingers with a thoughtful look.

I eyed him skeptically.

Magic could be sensed in two main ways. The first was through something visible, like a magical creation—my

Silveit

spell or a summoned fairy. To see someone else’s creation, though, required a gift like my “True Sight.” The other way was directly, by feeling the warmth that magic brings. But with the water here already being hot, it was impossible to tell if any of the warmth was from magic.

All I could do was frown, frustrated that I couldn’t sense anything unusual.

“But even if you could sense it, it’s not like there’s much you could do with it,” Renji-san added, seeing my expression.

I hummed thoughtfully. I hadn’t really thought much about magic that exists in the environment around us, even though I knew it was there.

Magic power replenishes itself naturally. Just by breathing, eating, or drinking water, magic accumulates inside. It was something I’d learned early on during my “Magic Consumption” training.

Watching the rippling water, I began to wonder—what if I could control the magic in my surroundings? Maybe I could use magic without spending my own reserves. It seemed worth investigating.

Just then, my father waded into the bath with a heavy splash. His sheer size displaced a fair amount of water, sending ripples throughout the bath. As I watched the water overflow, I remembered my science teacher explaining that the volume of displaced water equals the volume of the object. I hoped that teacher had made it through the attack.

Suddenly, my father and Renji-san stood up.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said, nodding at Renji-san.

“Go where?”

“The sauna.”

I’d kind of expected that answer, but I still felt compelled to ask.

“We’re heading in, but you don’t have to join us, Itsuki,” my father said. “Saunas can be dangerous for kids.”

“Mist sauna might be okay for him, though,” Renji-san suggested.

I’d never quite understood the appeal of saunas, even in my old life. Why would anyone willingly sit in a super-hot room? It couldn’t be good for you, right?

But the question nagged me, so I asked, “Is it actually good for you, Dad?”

“Well, it’s not really about health, Itsuki. Saunas are more for easing the mind.”

Now that I thought about it, Renji-san had mentioned how saunas helped relieve the stress of exorcists.

“Saunas intentionally make you tense up and relax in cycles,” Renji-san explained. “It has to do with your sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves. After heating up, you enter a cold bath, which activates the parasympathetic nerves, calming you down.”

Uh… what? The explanation went over my head.

“Well, it’s fine if you don’t quite get it, Itsuki-kun,” Renji-san said with a smile. “It’s really something you’d only appreciate when you’re a bit older.”

…Fine, that was fair.

But still, back in my old life, I’d always been hesitant to try new things, closing myself off to opportunities. In this life, I’d decided to be different.

Taking a deep breath, I made up my mind.

“I’ll give the sauna a shot too.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep