"Lord, you look a little tired. Would you like to go to the hot spring and soak for a while?"
Aside from arranging town affairs, Attendant Five spent almost all her other time attending to Ethan personally. But Ethan was worried she was working too hard, so he asked, "You're pretty busy every day as it is. You could just send someone else to look after me. Except for Cook Four."
"As long as I'm by your side, Lord, I don't feel tired," Attendant Five said with a smile, "Besides, I think this is probably the best way for me to rest."
Ethan placed his snow-covered coat into Attendant Five's hands and said, "Anyway, if you get tired, just find someone to take over for you. I really don't mind."
Hearing this, Attendant Five shook her head, "I don't feel comfortable with anyone else taking care of you, Lord."
"Is it that you don't trust others, or that you don't trust me?", Ethan laughed.
Attendant Five blushed and lowered her head, not daring to speak.
"Alright, I wasn't blaming you," Ethan actually quite enjoyed watching Attendant Five get shy. It was like teasing the girl next door, really amusing.
"Come on, come soak in the hot spring with me," Ethan walked toward the garden on the villa's rooftop, "I haven't tried the new hot spring since it was finished. Let's go give it a shot."
"Mm-hmm," Attendant Five nodded repeatedly.
The two then headed toward the newly built hot spring.
The bridge from the villa to the hot spring was entirely covered in glass. Not only was it filled with greenery, but it was also warmed by cozy heating, giving it a spring-like warmth.
"Not bad at all, this new glass canopy."
Ethan was quite satisfied that upgrading the estate to a town had also improved its comfort level.
"Mm, that way you won't catch a cold so easily after soaking, Lord," Attendant Five nodded as well, "And we can grow some summer flowers in here too, so you can see them bloom all year round. That should lift your spirits, right?"
"Naturally."
As they chatted, they soon arrived by the hot spring.
Ethan looked at the new hot spring and was a little stunned. Though the overall shape hadn't changed, still the same three-tiered design, the area had grown significantly larger.
Now it looked like a cluster of small waterfalls. And at the very top pool, it had even become a dual-temperature hot spring, ice and fire combined.
One side was boiling hot water, while the other side was icy cold water giving off chilly steam.
'It must feel great to soak in that.'
Not only had the hot spring changed.
Even the stone wall behind it had become an uneven massage surface, with bubbles occasionally rising from the rock face, as if it could offer hydrotherapy.
It looked incredibly comfortable.
"Come on in and soak with me!"
Ethan tilted his head toward Attendant Five.
Attendant Five's face immediately turned bright red, "Lord, I'll just stay up here and attend to you. I... I won't go down."
"But I want you down here to attend to me. You don't want to?"
"Ah! No! No! Attendant Five doesn't not want to!", Hearing Ethan's words, Attendant Five grew anxious. She quickly set his clothes aside and hurriedly unfastened her maid's uniform.
Only then did Ethan step into the highest pool with satisfaction. The water was slightly hot.
But in this kind of weather, soaking in slightly hot water while watching the snow fall outside, that feeling was truly amazing.
Soon, Attendant Five joined him in the water.
Ethan felt someone gently kneading his shoulders, and he could even sense a certain special texture pressing against his back...
That feeling left Ethan with only one thought.
'Tonight...'
'Tonight is going to be scorching hot!'
———
[Post-Nut Time]
Ethan opened his grimoire and started browsing the world channel.
And just then, he noticed that David from Region 2 and Luna from Region 8 had both sent him quite a few private messages.
"Could something big have happened?"
Ethan's eyes became sharp. He quickly opened the private message page of his grimoire.
There it was...
[Region 2 Lord David: "Lord Ethan, you're going to participate in the Magic Tree Climbing Competition in two days, right?"]
["I got some intel today. The lords of Regions 4, 9, and 3 have already met and held discussions."]
["They seem to have figured that conventional methods absolutely won't let them beat you, so they've decided to all enter the Magic Tree Climbing Competition to try and secure a top ten spot."]
["And to keep you from entering too, they're planning to find a way to stop you from registering."]
["Lord Ethan, I suggest you sign up as soon as possible."]
["Otherwise, you might miss the registration deadline, and then we'd be in trouble."]
"..."
[Region 8 Lord Luna: "Boss Ethan, I heard from Lord David about the Magic Tree Climbing thing. Regions 3, 4, and 9 are planning to gang up on you! What are you going to do?"]
["Boss Ethan, are you there? Are you there?"]
["Why haven't you replied to me for so long?"]
["You haven't met with some accident, have you?"]
["Boss Ethan?"]
["If you're there, just reply to me, okay? I'm really worried about you!"]
Seeing that Luna had sent message after message, dozens of them, all basically asking him to reply and expressing concern, Ethan couldn't help but find it both amusing and exasperating. He replied, ["I was just upgrading my town. Just finished."]
["Up—WHAT?"]
Luna sent three shocked emojis in a row.
Ethan had to repeat himself, ["Busy upgrading my town, so I didn't have time to check the grimoire..."]
["Holy crap! Holy crap!! Holy crap!"], Luna sent three "holy craps" in a row, ["You already upgraded to a town?! I just upgraded my villa and I'm still working hard on upgrading my estate. I was already feeling super proud of myself, and you've already upgraded to a town?"]
["I wasn't planning to upgrade to a town this fast either, since I didn't have enough materials,"] Ethan explained, ["But since where I live is close to the magic tree, I wanted to use the Magic Tree Climbing Competition to earn some income through my town, so I had to upgrade early."]
["Boss Ethan, do you know how much you're flexing right now?"], Luna complained with envy, hatred, and jealousy, ["I'd love to upgrade early too. It's not even that I'm missing some materials, I'm basically missing everything, okay?"]
["Comparing people really does drive you crazy!"]
["Forget it, let's not talk about this!"]
["Region 2 Lord David said Regions 3, 4, and 9 are planning to deal with you. You already know about that, right?"]
Ethan replied, ["Yeah, I saw Lord David's message."]
["So what are you planning to do?"], Luna quickly asked, ["You might not know this, but the Region 9 Lord is a Dust-Forgetting Master. I heard he used some weird method to convince the Nightmare Giant race to help them. I'm worried those monsters might cause trouble for you. And it's the kind you can't guard against."]
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