The long day of being the lord around the manor led him towards his room as he sought some rest. As he headed down the lavish hallway, he heard some mumbling and rummaging in one of the rooms nearby—no, it was actually the one neighboring his own.
'What's the commotion?' He questioned, silently taking steps near the loud noises.
Turning the corner so that he could see through the opened door, he found the scarlet-armored adventurer tossing his equipment to the floor.
"Phwaaah…!" Phoenix gasped as he finally seemed to free himself from the weight of the armor.
"Are you alright?" Leon asked, lightly knocking on the already opened door.
The adventurer was drenched in sweat, huffing as he sat on the bed, tugging on his beige tunic to air out, "Just a bit tired after almost dying. You really gave me a spook, man—I mean—"
"It's fine," Leon assured him with a laugh. "I'm gonna head to the baths, actually—wanna tag along?"
"Oh, sure," Phoenix accepted, getting up.
While it wasn't his initial plan, after seeing the worn state that his newly-hired companion was in, he felt it was a better way to cool off.
It was through some navigating that the bathing room was found—
"Woah!" Phoenix reacted.
"Pretty snazzy, isn't it?" Leon remarked.
It was a vast chamber layered with spotless, beige tiles with multiple hot springs embedded into the ground. The ground was lightly wet from the precipitation brought by the steamy room, though made for quite the perfect environment to relax.
"Cowabunga—!" Phoenix said, hopping right into the giant bath.
'That's a word in this world?' Leon thought, following the adventurer in with the same vigor.
It didn't take long to sink into the comforting warmth of the water. As if the hot springs were blessed with magic, the exhaustion was washed away in mere moments of sitting there.
"Oh, man, this is the best," Phoenix said with a sigh of satisfaction, letting himself sink into the water.
"Isn't it?" Leon agreed, doing much the same.
As he closed his eyes to allow himself to completely relax, the sensation of his scalp being massaged immediately brought him out of that. He quickly shot up, looking behind him to find a silver-haired maid looking back at him with hands coated in soap.
"Huh–? Iris?" Leon said in surprise, feeling his own hair as it was lathered in the same cleaning substance.
The maid of emerald irises blinked, tilting her head as she looked back at him, "What's the matter, Master? Would you prefer Irene to do this?"
"That's not the point here—well, I guess it's fine," he accepted before turning his back to the maid again, leaning against the ledge of the bath.
Thinking back through his foreign memories, it was a common experience—actually, he rarely bathed himself, to his knowledge. Still, as a growing man full of hormones, the idea of a cute girl washing him was a hard-to-swallow concept.
"Well, go ahead," Leon said, closing his eyes, tilting his head back to let the maid wash his hair.
Iris nodded her head, "Alright."
From what he could recall, the silver-haired maid appeared to be in her late teens. It often felt like she was a robot in terms of her straightforwardness and lack of complaint with her maidly duties.
'Seriously, how's a guy like me supposed to handle having an army of maids at his lap?!' He thought to himself.
"Is something the matter?" The soft, calming voice of Iris found his right ear.
He shuddered, trying to compose himself while feeling her gentle fingers through his hair, "Nope. Nothing at all."
Across the bath, the scarred adventurer sighed dramatically, "Man, it must be nice getting treatment like that. Most guys would trade their souls for that kinda thing—"
"May I be of assistance then?"
A brawny voice came from behind the bathing adventurer, standing with their feet just by his head.
"Ah—?" Phoenix tilted his head back to look at who stood over him.
From Leon's view, it was a rather unfortunate view that Phoenix must've found himself in, staring right at the exposed nethers of the nude man.
Of bountiful muscle on a frame like a brick wall, the tall man with long, brown hair stood.
["Augustus Rune"] [CLASS: Butler] [Designated Lv: 23]
"What the hell—?!" Phoenix shouted, immediately swimming away.
Leon couldn't help but laugh, watching the adventurer set himself closeby before looking towards the brawny butler, "I think you scared him a bit too much, Augustus."
"Apologies, Master," Augustus laughed heartily, entering the bath with heavy steps, settling himself in across. "This is my usual bathing time. I didn't think I'd find you here! What a nice surprise!"
The eccentric servant definitely seemed to put the adventurer on edge, though Leon knew the man was nothing but kind. In his mind, the perception he attributed to Augustus was "gentle grizzly bear."
"So, err…What's the plan? I mean, anything you're going to need me to tag along for?" Phoenix asked, doing his best to ignore the presence of the butler.
"Actually, on that topic—there was a message that arrived to the household just a few minutes ago," Augustus chimed in.
"Really? From who?" Leon asked curiously.
The muscular butler sat in the steaming water, lounging as he explained, "Darius Haul. The head of the Haul family."
"I see. What's this Darius guy want?" Leon questioned.
"The Haul family gain their wealth from the mines they own that contain mana runes," Augustus explained, sifting his hand through the water. "According to the messenger, the mines have been overtaken by a gang of bandits."
"Bandits? Seriously?" Leon huffed, already seeing that this had "quest" written all over it.
When thinking about bandits, all that appeared in his kind were small-time thugs that would amount to little more than some gold and a pat on the back.
'Isn't this a bit too small of a problem to come to me for? I imagine this Darius guy could just hire some adventurers or something,' he considered while the maid washed his back.
August spoke as if reading his mind, "The Haul estate is known for being a small military force of its own. Even they got overwhelmed—so, it goes without saying these bandits are the real deal."
"Hold on, if they took over the Haul mines, then could you be talking about the Brotherhood of The Eclipse?" Phoenix chimed in, sitting up with a sudden burst of vigor.
"Brotherhood of The Eclipse?" Leon repeated the name that sounded straight out of a comic.
The muscle-bound servant nodded, folding his arms over his brawny chest, "That's correct. They're a real tough batch, being assigned as an obsidian-rank threat by the Guild."
"Obsidian-rank…What are all these ranks, anyway?" Leon questioned.
Without interruption, Phoenix spat out, almost jumping from the bath, if only reminded he was unclothed, "—Obsidian is seriously bad news! It's really bad!"
"Yeah, sounds like it," Leon sarcastically said, not having any scale to measure it from.
Phoenix spoke passionately, "Listen up! The ranks go like this, starting from the lowest: Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Azure, Obsidian, Void, and finally Cosmic."
"That's a lot of ranks…You're gold, right? What rank-threat was assigned to One-Eye?" Leon asked for some sort of assessment.
"It was Platinum," Phoenix answered.
"So, only one rank higher than you and you couldn't handle it at all? I'm starting to get it," Leon said with his hand to his chin while the maid silently washed his hair.
The adventurer huffed, "It's a bit painful when you put it that way, but I'm glad you get it!"
"So, this group of bandits are Obsidian–so two ranks higher than One-Eye? That does sound pretty bad," Leon understood.
While the idea of it all at least seemed interesting, it also required him leaving the bounds of his mansion, which was a rather tiresome thought while he found himself relaxing in the grand bath.
"Did Haul mention anything about what he's offering for my assistance?" Leon asked, pointing his gaze towards the brawny butler.
"That's the best part!" Augustus answered. "Lord Haul has offered up partial rights to his mines. The estimated value in his proposition would be around one million gold."
"One million–?" Leon almost spat out.
Without even being fully aware of just how gold translated from his idea of dollars, a million was a million–a number of currency he could only dream of in his first life.
"Can you try not to move so suddenly?" Iris calmly said from behind.
Leon glanced back, settling down, "Right, sorry…Anyway, if Haul is willing to give up that much, I guess the situation is desperate."
"Desperate, yeah…Probably an understatement," Phoenix said.
"So, when does he need our help?" Leon asked, looking at the bathing butler.
Augustus stared right at him, "As soon as possible."
"I see. Well, I'll start heading there in the morning. Can you fetch for Frederick and let him know the details?" Leon said, asking the servant.
The muscle-bound man slapped his own bicep with a hearty laugh, "Of course! Leave it to me!"