As the two bath girls drew closer with their flirtatious advances, the atmosphere in the room grew increasingly hazy and decadent. All three of them seemed to have let their guards down.
Letting one's guard down was good—it meant there was an opportunity to strike while the iron was hot.
For the two bath girls, Horitake loosening up meant they could serve him more naturally and coax more joy (and money) out of this guest.
For Horitake, however, their relaxation meant he could start making indirect inquiries to gather the intelligence he sought.
Did they really think he had fallen for the charms of this "Gentle Village"? Did they think he was so caught up in the pleasure that he had forgotten his home?
Hardly. He was still fishing for information.
At a glance, these two bath girls were clearly high-ranking attendants meticulously trained by the bathhouse. They likely held a certain status within the establishment and probably knew a fair share of its inner workings.
Horitake naturally had to seize this chance to gather intel from them.
Taking another sip of wine, Horitake began to feign a state of tipsiness, acting as if the alcohol was starting to go to his head.
When a man gets drunk, his courage inevitably swells while his wits grow cloudy. Horitake was currently mimicking this exact state. Look—he was already starting to pull them into his arms.
Acting intoxicated, he reached out with both hands and pulled Chu Ju and Tao Yao, who were sitting on either side of him, into a loose embrace.
While it hadn't quite reached the level of "soft jade in his arms," the three of them were now sitting quite close.
The two bath girls shared a moment of feigned shyness and let out a string of giggles.
Seizing the moment, Horitake, looking bleary-eyed and sounding as if he were speaking without thinking, began his probe:
"Ah, truly wonderful... I've traveled all across the country and visited quite a few establishments, but this place of yours? It's easily among the best I've ever seen."
Beside him, Chu Ju gave a bashful smile. "We are very happy that you are enjoying yourself here, Sir."
For some reason, Horitake seemed to recall something unpleasant. He furrowed his brows, a look of distress crossing his face.
"I run all over the place for my business. Although I've made a lot of money, I've also encountered many terrible things."
Beside him, Tao Yao immediately sensed the change in mood.
She knew that Horitake was looking for a vent for his frustrations. In times like these, her job was to be a quiet, empathetic listener.
"What kind of matter could possibly trouble a man such as yourself, Sir?"
"Plenty of things can trouble me. There's a saying... 'Eight or nine out of ten things in life don't go your way.' It means you never know when an accident will come crawling out of the woodwork. Just recently, I went to Kansai to discuss a very important business deal. But the deal fell through! Blown to bits!"
Tao Yao asked with concern, "Did you run into some difficulties?"
"It wasn't me who ran into trouble; it was my business partner! Something happened to him, and once he had problems, it affected my side, and the whole deal went south! But I can't even blame the man. With the kind of tragedy that hit his family, how could he possibly focus on business?"
Curiosity got the better of Chu Ju, and she chimed in, "Did your friend suffer some kind of disaster at home?"
Horitake swayed his head back and forth, appearing even more drunk than before.
"Was it a disaster? It was a man-made catastrophe! My partner has a massive estate and great wealth, but he's getting up there in years and only has one teenage son. But a few days ago, for reasons no one can explain, his son disappeared. Truly, gone without a trace—no body if he's dead, no person if he's alive. It's absurd! With his family's influence in that area, no one should have dared to touch the boy, yet he just vanished! They even mobilized the government forces to search, but they found nothing. Absolute silence. These are troubled times... for a teenage boy to be missing for that many days, there's basically no hope left. Now, his family is trapped in a fog of grief. The whole household is falling apart, let alone doing business with me!"
Hearing this, Tao Yao covered her mouth, a look of genuine pity on her face. "What a terrible thing... to lose a child. The parents must be heartbroken."
"Exactly! My friend is practically broken now. And speaking of which, on my way back from Kansai to Kanto, I heard plenty of rumors. It seems like a lot of children have gone missing in this region lately. I have some connections in the government, and they told me that many teenage boys have vanished recently—over a hundred of them by now! It's terrifying! Who could be so cold-blooded and insane to do such a thing?"
Horitake spoke with a tone of righteous fury, appearing as if he were venting his anger.
The two bath girls hurried to comfort him.
In reality, Horitake was neither angry nor drunk. His mind was sharp and clear. As he brought up the topic, he had been subtly observing the two women.
Their reactions were perfectly natural. They were clearly uninvolved and genuinely seemed to know nothing about the matter.
What did that mean?
It meant these two girls had nothing to do with Demons.
This realization put Horitake somewhat at ease.
His biggest worry was that the Demon had turned this bathhouse into a "Demon House," using some method to hold everyone hostage and forcing the entire establishment to serve its interests—namely, helping it catch and eat humans.
Based on the girls' reactions and what he had seen inside the bathhouse earlier, the operations seemed normal. The place wasn't being controlled by a Demon.
It seemed this Demon wasn't that powerful.
It appeared that this wandering, fleeing Demon had arrived here and, instead of making a scene, had chosen to lie low and hide somewhere within the bathhouse.
Now that he had confirmed the girls were unrelated to the Demon, the next step was to find out if anything unusual had happened in the bathhouse lately.
Asking directly would be too sudden and suspicious.
Therefore, he needed to "pay them back in their own coin."
What did that mean?
These two girls had been humoring him and plyed him with so much wine; now it was his turn to ply them. Once they were drunk and their minds were hazy, he could ask his questions naturally.
So, amidst the chatting and flirting, the "drunken" Horitake timely expressed his dissatisfaction.
"Hmm? No, no... this isn't right. It feels like I've been the only one drinking this whole time. That won't do. You two have to drink as well."
As he spoke, Horitake slipped an arm around Tao Yao and brought a wine cup to her lips.
Tao Yao gave a helpless, bitter smile. What could she do? She didn't dare disrespect a guest like Horitake. She could only follow his lead and drink the wine.
"And you! Don't think I didn't notice you staying quiet. You gave me plenty of drinks earlier; I'm not letting you off the hook. Come here, little beauty!"
With a burst of "drunken" enthusiasm, Horitake pulled Chu Ju over and handed her a cup.
Chu Ju had a gentler personality and wasn't good at refusing a guest's request. Fortunately, it was only a few cups of wine. She smiled and drank obediently.
As long as the two bath girls started drinking, the rest would be much easier to handle.
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