[Job - Solo] Tales of Old

Zen had one slight detour in his little personal trip that he was on. The situation in Cedar took a bit out of him, so he felt compelled to have a bit of a relax time, some time for himself. He was glad that he had come across the fabled Spa Town, or Hosenka, which was its actual name. Everything seemed quite fancy, it made him feel like he was walking in the Rose Garden again. The plants and the décor complimented each other well. If the town wasn't so far away from the Guild, Zen would've considered daily walks in the area. But perhaps a regular trip out here wouldn't hurt. What the young man noticed as he walked around, however, was that there was an abundance of spas and hot springs. /"That's probably why they call it the Spa Town."/ Understandably. However, that begged the question. Was Zen really going to be just walking around, or will he give the hot springs a go? The answer was more than clear.

Mere moments later, Zen was standing at a counter, waiting for a wooden key to his locker that he was supposed to be assigned. The lady behind the counter handed him the key and some towels. She then motioned towards a door that had blue cloth hanging above it. "The men's lockers and bath are through that door." She said and bowed. Zen bowed in return and murmured a thanks. The idea of the baths was relaxation and the naked equality. The only thing he wasn't sure about were the demonic markings he had scattered around his body. He hoped that whoever was present in the bath, didn't freak out. If there was somebody to begin with. The young man stepped inside the men's locker room and swiftly de-clothed himself. His skin was pale and on his chest was a rather large crest of Apollyon. One of many marks of the pact he had made with the demon. With a little sigh, Zen put away his clothes and items into the locker and exited the room with two towels. He held onto a smaller one and held the other towel over his nether region, for the sake of decency. The young man descended a wooden flight of stairs and he was almost instantly hit with the heat, radiating out of the room ahead.

There was a great hot spring, a portion of it was under a roof and an another portion was under the sky. Only one more person was in the bath, besides Zen himself. Zen was insctructed to wash himself first, before stepping inside and he did just that. There were showers nearby and the young man scrubbed himself as clean as he could. The young man put a small towel on top of his head, to make sure it wouldn't touch the water. Shortly after, he slowly, bit by bit, stepped into the hot spring. It was very much hot and Zen took his time. He wasn't used to such temperatures. After he reached the bottom of the hot spring, the water came up mid-way to his chest, hiding the lower part of the mark. The other man seemed to be an elderly man, laying against some smooth rocks that were on the outside side of the spring. Zen wanted to enjoy the view from the outside side of the spring. He walked over to the edge of the rocks and half-layed down on it and observed the garden that was nearby. Zen could feel ripples in the water and he assumed that the other man moved. "Such a youngster." He could hear a comment, most likely aimed at him. Zen looked over to the man's direction, seeing that he was looking at him, but this time he was sitting, slightly closer to Zen. "We used to visit hot springs with my pals all the time." The man would look away. "In between all of the adventures, of course." He had the voice of someone, who was reminiscing about better times. "We laughed and bled together. When one of us fell, the others picked them up." He nodded to himself. "But it was simply not meant to be. I do not use my magic anymore, after I was the sole reason my closest friend had perished." Sadness coated his voice. Zen shifted uncomfortably. Was it okay for him to be listening to such tales? It all seemed like very sensitive memories. "I was supposed to watch his back, as he carried the crystals we were employed to gather. But I got overconfident and went out of my way to kill the beasts. I killed plenty of them, but I left my friend's back vulnerable. And that was his end. And also mine." The elderly man would sigh, deeply. Zen didn't know what he was supposed to say, even if he was supposed to say anything at all. "Thank you for listening to this old fool's tale." The man would look at the half-demon. "May you never make such a mistake, as I did." He would nod and slowly leave the hot spring. Something told Zen that the old man probably went to sleep with a lighter heart that night.