THE HERO'S SON IS A MONSTER-Chapter 64 - 2

And with that, Anju turned to Minium, making a faint smile. The little girl’s eyes opened wider in incomprehension but she didn’t have the time to think about it.

"Of course, I will take care of your doll later too."

"I don’t care either way."

Anju nodded while Minium stayed silent.

"Here, dear customer. Follow me if you would."

"Let’s go already."

Alexandra walked as if she already knew where to go. In fact, she was going in the right direction to Anju’s surprise.

Well, it wasn’t as if they were hidden. Maybe she just noticed earlier, she thought following the one who was supposed to follow her. Now she just had to wonder: did that girl actually knew what she was getting herself into? Probably not. And even if she did, winning over someone like her would be interesting.

For once, Anju found herself excited by the thought of doing her job.

Chapter XX: Red Road Hotel – Anju of the Bath House

"So steamy..."

That’s the first thing that came to Alexandra’s mind when looking at the ’facilities’. She was so surprised she couldn’t help but mumble that to herself.

Aside from being steamy, it was also hot. Quite strange for toilets. Not to mention this place was situated at the end of stairs leading to a basement.

Anju walked past her and bowed another time. "Welcome to the Red Road Hotel’s bathing facilities. Rejoice, me, the noble Anju, will take care of you this time around."

"Bathing facilities? What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said, what else?" Anju asked, tilting her head to the side.

"What else? Hey now, you should stop using words and terms you don’t understand. You are getting ridiculous!" Anju made an uptight smile as Alexandra continued. "Listen, you ’noble’, usually the ’facilities’ refer to the toilets, not baths."

"I... know. But dear customer, didn’t you think that maybe there were toilets somewhere in this place?"

"Toilets in a bathing facility? Doesn’t that sound wrong to you?"

"It sounds normal to me."

"Hmph. As expected of you."

Anju’s smile became a bit more uptight. Alexandra noticed but this only made her feel if anything. Because she knew the girl couldn’t do anything but agree with her in the end.

"...Ah! Maybe you are right..." she said with a voice lacking a bit of conviction. "A-Anyway. I figured you might want to take a bath too so I brought you here. Was I wrong?"

"No. That isn’t it." Alexandra sighed. "Whatever. Show me the way."

"Of course. This way."

Anju navigated Alexandra through the bath’s entrance. There was an area with drawers for people to put their clothes in and then a corridor with multiple doors ending with a great space with an open bath. At least, that’s what Alexandra could see from where she was standing.

"... Dear customer, dear customer."

"What?"

"Hm, won’t you... enter the bath?"

"I will."

"Oh... fine then."

There was a long silence during which Alexandra just looked at the walls while Anju stared at her with a troubled expression.

"Dear... customer?"

"What now?"

"Aren’t you supposed to, huh, take off your garments?"

"It would be hard to take a bath with them for sure."

"T-Then—"

"Why are you still here?" Alexandra asked, suddenly turning to Anju with a raised eyebrow.

"W-Why? No... No specific reason? You requested me, didn’t you?"

"I didn’t. Get away. Shoo. Out of my view."

"(Why you...) Ahem. But, this facility is currently off-limits, you know? It is only the two of us in there!"

"Is that a threat?" Alexandra asked as her eyes narrowed. Anju could feel something akin to a murderous aura coming from her.

"(What is up with this freak??!) Whyyyyyy would you think that?! I just figured you would be embarrassed to show your bare skin to other people!!!"

"What? You think that this is my biggest concern?"

"Well, you were looking left and right as if you were about to do something not really legal so..."

"I don’t remember being naked being illegal. Why would you look at me so much? Is there a reason for such—"

"Okay, stop there," Anju said, dropping the act and with her usually sweet and harsh tone. "What is your problem? Do you have trust issues? You are making me panickate here. Why do your eyes seem to always be looking at a place thinking: can I escape? No, more like, can I kill this one without getting in trouble? Honestly, it is creepy." She got closer to Alexandra. "Also, exhibitionism is still a crime, you simpleton."

There Anju expected Alexandra to lash out at her again but that didn’t happen. On the contrary, she seemed greatly distressed while looking at the ground.

Anju sighed and put a hand on her hip. "Look... Sorry. I didn’t mean to say something that would hurt you. But you are seriously creeping me out. I observed you for some time now and you seem to be waaaay too stressed for your own good. Not that I care. You made an enemy of me from the second you used that name. You can’t take that back. Never. However, as a noble, my heart must be full of compassion. No, it must be compassion itself! That’s why I am willing to let you apologize properly!"

"... Don’t try to turn this around. You tried to kill me first."

"So you admit thinking about killing me. Way to go creep."

"What?! Creep, creepy, all of that! Why do you act like you are the victim here?! Hmph! I knew you weren’t worth my time!" She turned around. "I am leaving!"

"ARGH!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE SOMEONE CAN BE SO DUMB!!!"

Anju’s sudden outburst stopped Alexandra in her tracks. Anju raised her skirt and produced a pistol.

"Now a little question for you." She pointed the pistol in Alexandra’s direction. "Can you evade bullets?"

At that moment Alexandra put her hand into her bag to take her dagger. She was trained for this and it didn’t even take her a second.

With her dagger in hand, she tried to close the distance between her and Anju as quickly as possible. She didn’t exactly know what a pistol was but she knew it was dangerous in the same way that the rifle was earlier. Distance was her enemy.

"Bang."

To Alexandra’s surprise. Anju raised her bangs with her free hand and pointed the pistol against it before firing. The next second, she was on the ground with blood coming from her forehead.