First Bath – Towels, Right or Wrong?

Ceresopolis—a city enclosed by walls atop a small hill and surrounded by farmland. Like the other countries, it was developed as a city-state with just one central city.

Three days had passed. We had finally arrived at Ceresopolis. The sun had already set, so we were likely spending another night outside.

Sweepdogs and lesser boars. We’d encountered several of them during the first two days out, but we had yet to see a single one today. We had probably entered the domain of the Ceres army.

The only protocol at the city gates was to show them my status card that I had created at the temple. It was no exaggeration to say that this was the most trustworthy form of identification.

The country thriving with agriculture, Ceresopolis.

After we passed through the gates and the cityscape filled my vision, I unwittingly muttered, “How is this a ‘country thriving with agriculture’?”

The sight before my eyes couldn’t have been further from that image. The city, bathed in the colors of the sunset, was what I’d describe as “classy.” There was a large road lined with many shops, though most of them were closed at this hour.

Beyond the roofs of the shops, I could spot several giant mansions. The atmosphere might have felt a little dated compared to modern Japan, but it reminded me of a traditional European town. Though I’d never been to one before.

I had imagined a country village from the name ‘country thriving with agriculture,’ but this was a metropolis comparable to Jupiteropolis. Clena addressed my doubts.

“You’re looking at it right here.”

“Do the farmers live in those fancy mansions?”

“...Oh, so that’s where you’re misunderstanding.” Clena faintly sighed. “The majority of the ones working in the fields are labor ravers. The people living in those mansions are their owners.”

“So they’re feudal lords...”

“Ceresopolis runs under a parliamentary system, so they have no lords.”

“Huh? Oh, so they’re like wealthy farmers?”

So Ceres indeed appeared to be thriving with agriculture, but the idea deviated a bit from what I had imagined. For one, it differed from Jupiter in that they had no noble families.

“Also, that village we passed? The people living there were most likely all labor ravers.”

“...Seriously?”

According to Clena, the possibility was high that all the villagers there were ravers besides the magistrate, priests at the shrine, and village head. In other words, that village was built to house the labor ravers that worked in the large fields outside the city. It was similar to the shouen system of old Japan.

There was the magistrate who managed the ravers, deployed by their owners.

There were the village heads, who remained in the village to assist the magistrate even after their term as a raver was over and they had gained citizenship.

And lastly, there were the priests who managed the village shrine, deployed by the temple.

The man who chased after Ritsu Nakahana would probably be treated as a “runaway raver.”

“What about the fields around the city?”

“They’re probably estates owned by the wealthy farmers. Ravers are working there, too.”

This country used the raver system as well, but it seemed that the majority of them worked as labor ravers on the lands owned by the wealthy farmers. The ravers who finished their term of employment gained citizenship as well as their own tract of land, though small. The ones who managed to amass a fortune and obtain large amounts of land became the wealthy farmers who lived in those mansions.

The city-state was managed by a parliament consisting of wealthy farmers. In that sense, this was a “city thriving with agriculture.”

“So the Olympus Alliance isn’t entirely composed of monarchies...”

“Juno has no king, either.”

So Clena’s country also wasn’t ruled by a royal family.

“There were four countries with kings, if I remember right?”

The Olympus Alliance was formed from twelve countries, which meant that the countries with kings didn’t even make up half of them. Maybe royal powers were weak here... No, maybe that’s exactly why the sacred king held so much authority. I, who came from a parallel world, and Rulitora, who came from the Torano’o tribe and had little interaction with humans, were consistently impressed by Clena and Roni’s explanations.

We headed toward the temple as we conversed. Since I was a “Hero of the Goddess,” the temple should be willing to give us lodging. We weren’t strapped for cash, but saving money was always the better decision, and above all, the temple would be safer than any inn in the city. “We shouldn’t talk about the Desert Kingdom to the people in the temple, huh?”

“I bet they wouldn’t understand even if we did mention it, but it’d be best not to.”

It was a piece of history erased 500 years ago, and the people today seemed to be unaware of its existence at all. But it was indeed a dark blotch in history and best kept a secret.

Looking at it another way, all four of us shared this one big secret.

“Speaking of which, we had never even considered what else was out there when we lived in the desert.”

“Even you guys living in the void were like that, Rulitora?”

It was called the “void” exactly because there was nothing there. Knowing that the Desert Kingdom used to exist there made me suspect that there was an intent behind naming the region.

But the name came hundreds of years ago. The truth was hidden in the darkness.

And then we finally arrived at the temple of Ceresopolis. There was a shrine for the Goddess of Earth in the village we had passed, but this temple carried the symbol for the Goddess of Light. The architecture was similar to the one in Jupiteropolis as well.

“Even though this is the country of thriving agriculture, it’s not the Goddess of Earth.”

“The Goddess of Light is the eldest sister of all the goddesses. Any well-off individual typically worships the Goddess of Light.”

“They’re pretty accommodating.”

“...Well, in a sense.”

“In a sense?”

Clena explained things to us as she always did, but this time she looked a bit dejected. I echoed her words, wondering what was wrong.

“We’ll talk about it in our room. This is the wrong place for it.”

She didn’t answer me, and instead walked toward the temple knight guarding the temple.

If this was the wrong place to talk about it, then it probably had something to do with the desert kingdom. We didn’t say another word and followed Clena’s footsteps.

The temples could apparently use cross-temple magic to communicate, so they realized I was a Hero of the Goddess as soon as they saw my status card. We were given immediate audience with the temple elder and obtained permission to stay there.

The temple elder here was younger than the one in Jupiter. He had a gentle demeanor and appeared to be a good-natured middle-aged man.

We left the rickshaw in the courtyard and sorted through our cargo. We donated whatever fruit could still be eaten but were no longer in selling condition to the temple as thanks and in exchange for our lodging fees, along with the message to “please eat them quickly.” We also treated them to dried meat.

Maybe it was a difference in technique, but the dried meat made by humans stayed fresh longer compared to what the Torano’o tribe could make. It seemed best to buy a new batch when we left Ceresopolis.

We planned to sell the aloe and dried dates to further fund our travels. The furs had been treated, so it would depend on their price.

Anyhow, the temple residents enjoyed the fruit and dried meat. It looked like we left a good first impression.

The main problem was the room Rulitora would stay in. Sand lizardmen didn’t use beds—they’d even be fine sleeping on bare dirt. In fact, beds were so soft that they couldn’t relax in them. He had slept on the floor back in Jupiteropolis.

Thus, the room that the temple elder reserved for us was one that was once used by a visiting distinguished pilgrim. In other words, a VIP room.

The floor was furnished with carpet, which the elder suggested would be more comfortable to sleep on than hardwood.

“Oh, wow...” I couldn’t help but gasp when a priest led us into the room.

Unlike the other guest rooms, this one had separate living and bedrooms. It wasn’t overly extravagant, but it was decorated in a refined manner with motifs of the goddess sisters.

There was a fireplace in the living room. The large chimney above the fireplace was also decorated with a large relief.

Five women were lined up vertically in the relief. According to the priest, it was a historical masterpiece depicting the goddess sisters.

Clena entered the room and muttered “it sure feels like a temple now” as she looked up at the piece.

After the priest left, Clena turned around and beckoned for me.

“What’s up?”

“Look at this.”

“By this, you mean the relief?”

I looked back at the relief hanging from the pillar as Clena told me. The top of it was rounded out, but otherwise it was shaped like the pillar. It sat inside a frame with golden lining, and was several steps above the rest of the furnishings in the room in terms of extravagance.

One person was depicted in the top middle, then four more people to her left and right in a zigzag pattern. No, they were goddesses, so should I be using the term “people”?

I couldn’t discern the good and bad characteristics of an art piece, but even I could tell that this was an outstanding work of art.

“From the top down, they’re the Goddesses of Light, Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth.”

“Huh, so they’re...”

“The five goddess sisters.”

Rulitora and Roni came up and stood beside us. Rulitora was looking at the relief in admiration, but Roni had somewhat of a meek expression as she grasped onto Clena’s sleeve.

Then, Clena pointed at the relief and began to speak. “This was created after the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord.”

“You can tell?”

“I can. Since there are five of them here.”

“...What do you mean?”

“Right now they’re called the five goddess sisters, but they used to be the six goddess sisters.”

So who was the missing one?

“Light, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth... could it be Darkness?”

“You’re right. I’m impressed you figured that out.”

“...Well, it’s no big deal. A lot of the stories back in my world used a similar setting.”

It was a pretty cliché pattern when it came to video games.

I doubted she would understand the term “video games,” so I opted to use “stories” instead.

“That was the goddess that the desert kingdom, Hadesopolis, worshiped. Right, Lady Clena?” Roni contributed to Clena’s explanation.

In short, this relief was created after the history involving the desert kingdom was erased 500 years ago, and thus there were only five goddesses here.

Maybe that was how these girls came to know of the desert kingdom. Perhaps they saw something that depicted all six goddesses.

The land where the demon lord and his race were born, and the Goddess of Darkness. It felt like the pieces were starting to fall into place.

And then there was the Olympus Alliance, who erased that history. Perhaps the battle from 500 years ago wasn’t as simple and straightforward as a fight between the hero and the demon lord.

Lost in thought, I grew uneasy that someone might be listening in on our conversation.

“...We’re not being spied on or anything, right?”

“It’d be a big scandal if the VIP room was bugged.”

“Do not worry, I detect no other presence at the moment.”

“I’m not picking up any scents of someone hiding, either.”

Clena, who knew that this was an inappropriate place to be spied on.

Rulitora, who could trace suspicious presences, and Roni, who could detect scents.

I had such reliable comrades.

In any case, it was still safest not to talk about the topic in the open too much. So we decided to end the conversation about the desert kingdom there.

After that, we unloaded our cargo, relaxed in the living room, and talked about what we were going to do from here.

Two sofas faced each other with a table in between. I was sitting on one, and Clena and Roni on the other. Rulitora was sitting cross-legged on top of the carpet. Since he had a long tail, he couldn’t sit on any sofas with backs to them.

Of course, our next goal was to go back to the void and find the gate that the Torano’o elder told us about, but before that, we needed to prepare.

“I want to take a break for tomorrow.”

“Me too.”

The first suggestion to pop out from Clena and me, whose muscles had yet to heal, was to just take a break tomorrow.

“Oh, but we should sell our things sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah, we do need to sell off the dried dates soon.”

Selling them was impossible to do right now, but it was best to get done as soon as possible.

Roni agreed with this suggestion. We’d ask the temple residents for guidance tomorrow.

“Hey, why don’t we check out the temple’s library? We should be fine if we say we’re collecting information on the demon lord’s army.”

“The demon lord’s army... You’re right, we’re going to need that information.”

Clena suggested an idea and Rulitora responded in agreement.

Indeed, we’d be better off not being ignorant about the demon lord’s army. We’d ask for help from the temple on this matter as well.

After that, we needed to prepare for the next leg of our journey. We wanted to buy a carriage because it seemed convenient, but there was one problem standing in our way.

“That destroyed gate... do you think a carriage could fit through it?”

If we were only investigating the outside of the gate that the Torano’o tribe destroyed, then there’d be no issue, as the surrounding area was only wasteland. But the problem arose if we wanted to pass through the gate itself with a carriage.

“It was fine when it was only Sir Touya and me, but now with Clena and Roni and all our luggage as well, it’d be impractical for us to travel with only a rickshaw.”

“I really can’t walk that much.”

Rulitora had a point. It’d be crazy to ask him to pull all three of us plus the belongings of four people in one rickshaw. And the argument against walking through the void was pretty convincing when the person making it had collapsed and almost died doing so.

“How about we consider the worst case scenario and buy a cheap carriage?”

“That sounds about right.”

It would be a waste, but we were taking safety measures. Buying a carriage would be best option here.

“I’m so glad we don’t have to calculate water into our cargo.”

“My gift is useful for that.”

Of course, we didn’t want to just pack as much as we could; we had to consider the possibility of having to abandon it all as well. Clena was ideal to consult on this topic thanks to her experiences traveling.

Now that the issue of cargo volume had come into play, we had one important point to consider: the storage capabilities of the Unlimited Bathroom.

From the experiments I conducted on our way to Ceresopolis, I learned that time passed normally inside the bathroom even when the door was shut. For example, I closed the door while our laundry hung inside with the dryer fan turned on, and my MP continually depleted until the dryer fan turned off. I could dry our clothes in this manner.

Outside of the bathtub itself, it seemed that the other devices could be used even when I wasn’t present.

This was a sign of my growth. I was conflicted whether this was more convenient because the bathroom could be used without me, or less convenient for the same reason.

So during our travels, I had Roni take care of washing our laundry while I dried them with the dryer fan to train my MP. In fact, I was doing so right now.

The problem lay beyond that. The fact that time passed inside meant that any food placed there should grow rotten and get moldy. However, while the fruit that I left inside indeed got dried up or overripe to the point that it was inedible, it never grew mold.

This perplexed Clena, Roni, and Rulitora, but I realized why it happened. The Unlimited Bath was a gift that allowed one to take a bath anywhere and anytime. It promised a pleasant bathing experience.

But try picturing this. Could you willingly enter a bathtub that had mold growing all over it?

The answer was no.

Presumably, the Unlimited Bath itself had functions to prevent the growth of mold. Thinking about it, I had been using the bath for two months up until now without doing much in the way of cleaning, but I had never spotted a speck of mold.

I had also tried placing a dagger inside, but it didn’t rust at all, either. I concluded that the bathroom controlled both the growth of mold and rust.

“We’ll have no problems storing money, either.”

“And since we can do laundry every day, we don’t need to bring too many changes of clothes!”

One of the unexpectedly heavier, bulkier items among our cargo were coins. We had no choice, since there was no paper money in this world.

Here people used three categories of currency—copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins. It would have been a pain if the currency varied in value between countries, but fortunately on this continent, there existed a shared currency called the Olympus coin.

It was common sense for travelers to carry their daily expenses around in a small pouch and store the rest among their belongings. There was the risk of theft when walking around with a bag of coins. And it went without saying that there was the risk of burglary when storing belongings in an inn.

The common sense solution was splitting one’s pouch into several more pouches. Another was exchanging one’s coins for precious gems, which held more value than gold coins though there was a slight loss in the exchange, so one could carry more money around at a time.

And then there was me, who had no need for any common sense solutions whatsoever.

I did carry around a bag of coins, but I just put the rest of the money inside the Unlimited Bathroom. The coins wouldn’t deteriorate like fruit, after all.

As for the changes of clothes that Roni mentioned, travelers usually had three options: increase the amount of clothing they carried, walk around in damp clothes, or put up with wearing dirty clothes.

But I had the power to dry our washed laundry while on the road. Nothing beat having your clothes dry under the basking sun, but I was blessed with a better environment compared to your ordinary traveler. The Unlimited Bath really found its place to shine outside of battle.

In any case, we now had our general plan of action in Ceresopolis. I was lounging on the sofa when a temple priestess came to tell us that they had prepared a bath for us before dinner. They had also prepared a place for Rulitora to bathe in the courtyard with a folding screen for cover.

I looked toward Clena to see what to do, but she replied to the priestess, “We’ll be right there.”

After the priestess left with Rulitora holding a towel, I turned to Clena.

“Was that so that they wouldn’t find out about the Unlimited Bath?”

“That too, but it takes some effort to prepare a bath here. We’d look bad if we didn’t take them up on their offer after they went through all that trouble.”

“...I see. That makes sense.”

Enough water to fill the tub and enough wood to heat it up. This wasn’t something I was exposed to much since I used the Unlimited Bath, but in this world, baths cost both labor and money. For that reason, only aristocrats owned private baths, and the rest used the public ones.

They had prepared all that for us. It would be flat-out rude to decline their hospitality.

Also, I was sure that the baths here would be as large as the ones in Jupiteropolis. Bathing in a packed tub with Clena and Roni wasn’t bad—in fact, it was paradise—but a nice, relaxing soak in a large bathtub might be nice once in a while as well.

“By the way, what will you do?”

“About what?”

“Do you want to bathe with us or bathe separately?”

“...You’re asking me?”

Was that really something best left for me to decide?

I looked over at Roni, and she repeatedly glanced up at me with a red face.

What did she mean with that expression? I hoped it didn’t signify her disapproval for perverted things.

“Would the temple mind if we entered together?”

“Huh? I doubt it... They wouldn’t try to meddle with personal affairs.”

“In that case, as long as you two are okay with it, I want to bathe with you,” I asserted bluntly, and then continued. “I am indeed a man who yearns for mixed bathing. But that doesn’t mean I am willing to bathe with anybody.”

“...Are you sure?”

“It may not seem that way, but I’m still putting a lot of my faith in you two. Also in Haruno and Sera and Rium. And Lumis and Rin and Sandra.”

Yes, I didn’t want just anybody. I hadn’t made promises to bathe with Lumis and the rest, but we had gone to town a few times together, so I considered them my friends. It might have seemed like all my friends were female from this, but I had male friends as well.

Our difference in social status aside, I considered Rulitora a close friend.

Then there was Dokutora and the other young warriors of the Torano’o tribe.

Huh, they’re all sand lizardmen.

“Wha?! Why are you crying?!”

“Er... It’s nothing.”

I’m not crying. I’m not crying. What’s wrong with having non-human friends?

“Well, anyway. It’s up to you two. It’s usually the girls who make the decision on things like this.”

“...I guess I have to, then. I bet you’re lonely, so we’ll keep you company. Is that okay with you, Roni?”

“Of course!”

Clena was bluffing, but as always, her cheeks were bright red.

As for Roni, she had a beaming smile on her face and was wagging her tail energetically. It looked like her glances from just now didn’t harbor any bad intentions, thank goodness.

“You’ll need to tell me all about those names I haven’t heard before.” Clena said with a grin.

Was she angry? She didn’t look like it...

“I’m not angry. I have some things I haven’t talked about, either.”

Most likely related to her being disowned. I had no plans to force her into telling me. We were in similar, though very different situations. There was also the factor that she might not be opposed to polygamy, having been born and raised in an aristocratic family.

“I’ll make you spill every last detail~♪” Clena said, as if she was enjoying some part of this.

And so she led me by the hand to the bath in the temple.

“I see, so all that happened.”

I spilled every last detail about my relationship with Haruno and the other girls in the temple’s bathhouse. Roni was washing my back in the meantime.

The bathhouse was underneath the temple, and light spirits lit the room up. It was one or two sizes smaller than a typical Japanese bathhouse, and was all made of stone.

From the changing area, you could see a door on the left-hand side, stools lined up against the left wall, and a large bath along the right wall. There was no faucet or shower—one had to carry water over from the bathtub to use.

There were no separate men’s and women’s baths. Instead, they were split up according to time slots. Our time slot was reserved for guests.

Clena was sitting beside me, talking to me with her arms crossed. I wondered if she noticed how she was emphasizing her cleavage with the way her arms were squeezing her chest?

“You’re not angry?”

“Why would I be?” She returned my question with a tilt of her head.

I had promised to bathe together with not only Haruno, but Sera and Rium as well, and I’d also talked about the kiss as well. Yet she didn’t seem particularly mad about any of it.

“As long as you have the capabilities, Touya, I have nothing to complain about.”

“So you’re saying I should support everyone?”

“That, and protect them. It’s a dangerous world here, after all.”

“I understand...”

In one way or another, this world was ruled by the threat of monsters. Whether it be battle power, political power, or economic power, people would gather under those they felt had strength.

“I believe in you, Touya.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

Her blunt words made me feel pressure all the more, but I sensed that she had predicted my reaction and increased the force in her words even further.

Roni finished washing my back, so we traded places and I started washing hers instead. Roni, in turn, started washing Clena’s back. We were all lined up in a row.

The girls had their towels off for times like this, but right now, all I could see was Roni’s back. Or rather, her bushy tail caught my eyes the most. It made for a pleasant scene, but I had to admit I was still a little disappointed.

The soap we were using was taken from my Unlimited Bath. Warped bars of soap were set out for us, but the difference in how well they lathered was too significant.

“Oh yeah, Sir Touya. Should we ask to transmit a message through the temple?”

“Hm? Oh, you mean with the temple communication magic?”

Apparently all temples offered it as a service. There was a fee attached, of course, so it wasn’t something an ordinary person could freely use.

“Haruno’s party went to Athenapolis, right?”

“Yeah, she said they were making it their main base.”

Haruno didn’t know that I had left the Torano’o tribe and arrived at Ceresopolis. She probably had no way of finding that out unless I contacted her first.

“You think we should wait until tomorrow to ask?”

“Unless you want to abuse your status as a hero, that’s the best option.”

“I don’t. Who would want to try that?”

My goal was to bathe with Haruno and her party, and to achieve that, I needed to earn both power and reputation. I might be able to use my “Hero of the Goddess” title as a means to that end.

But I had no intent to brandish that authority without good reason. Rather, I might earn myself an ill reputation by doing so. Thus, we put off contacting Haruno until tomorrow.

After we finished cleaning ourselves, we wrapped ourselves in towels again and stood in front of the bathtub. At that moment, I realized something.

“Hey, Clena.”

“What is it? Hurry up and get in.”

“In this world, is it proper manners to enter the bath with a towel on?”

“...Huh? Why wouldn’t it be?”

Clena answered my question with a question. It appeared that this world didn’t address the issue at all.

Back in my world, entering the bath with a towel on would dirty the water with soap residue and towel lint, and it would clog the filters in the circulation system as well.

The residents of the temple were likely going to use this bath after us. The baths in this world had no circulation, so dirtying the water might cause an issue. The towels we had wrapped ourselves with were different from the ones we had just used to wash ourselves. They were all clean, so one would hardly notice a difference in the water, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it now that I was aware of the issue.

Clena looked troubled herself after I explained this to her. Roni looked like she didn’t pick up on all of it and stood there with a puzzled expression.

“But in the Unlimited Bath...”

“No one used that other than us, plus I can add or remove water at will, and clean it whenever.”

Not to mention I could control the temperature as well.

It was thanks to the gift’s powers that we could enter the bathtub wrapped in towels unaffected by those issues. But now that we were using a regular bath, we had to consider our etiquette.

“Touya... You’re not saying all this because you want to see us naked, right?”

“Wha— Why do you think that?!”

I turned toward Clena and was met with a scornful stare.

It was true that she could interpret my words that way, but that wasn’t my intent by any means. It was a matter of etiquette for guests using this bath.

I mean, I did actually want to see them naked. I wanted to take in the sights of their bodies without a single thread of clothing or soap suds covering them up, but I didn’t want to force them into anything.

“That’s just how it was in my world.”

“Well, since your baths are so different from ours, it’s no wonder our rules of etiquette are different...” Clena was conflicted.

She was a prudent girl. I was sure she understood my reasoning. And I was sure she understood that there was a good point to my suggested rules of etiquette.

“But baths normally don’t get that dirty anyway, right?”

“It’s just that stuff like towel lint is hard to notice. But they’re definitely in the water.”

“With a towel like this, though...”

In this world, there were no towels as thick, fluffy, and soft on the skin as were common in Japan. They were all flimsy, like handkerchiefs. That one perverted craftsman never touched this field of work, likely because it didn’t involve underwear.

In the end, there was probably no problem with just entering the bath with our towels on, since the residue wouldn’t stand out. The question was what we should do if there was a problem.

In any case, even if I suggested for us to take off our towels, I doubted Clena would oblige with a simple “Okay, sure.” She would sometimes be bold and defiant, but despite that, she was easily embarrassed at heart.

On the other hand, Roni would probably strip without a second thought. In her case, it was less that she had no shame and more that she paid little mind to it.

And thus I tried suggesting a compromise.

“It’s a pretty large bath, so why don’t we get in with some distance between us?”

“Hm? Oh, that’s a good idea.”

Clena must have been pretty anxious if she hadn’t arrived at that idea herself.

“What should we do for the usual massages, Sir Touya?”

“We can do those when we get back to the room. We have a bed today, after all.”

“That’s true. Let’s take up Touya on his idea,” Clena said, then led Roni and herself toward the far end of the bath.

Clena was probably suspecting that after taking off her towel and soaking in the water, I would get out of the bath and walk by her. I tried to stop her, but soon enough, I just stopped and stared at the wet bath towel clinging to her round and shapely butt.

“Ughhh...”

After that, Clena was lying on the sofa in our VIP room, feeling faint after the bath. Roni was doing a respectable job preparing water and other remedies for her. Rulitora was fanning her, and I was being used as a lap pillow.

I had tried to stop her because I thought this would happen. Between the three of us, I tended to bathe the longest.

Next was Roni.

And Clena was in last place with the shortest time.

Though we entered the bath at a distance from each other, it wasn’t so much so that we could no longer see each other. Clena noticed that and drew herself further away in the bath, and was likely planning to get out after I was done.

I had planned to get out soon enough, but before that, Clena started to faint. Perhaps because the bath was underground, the steam collected more easily than usual.

I realized Clena had fainted when Roni called out to her, and then I rushed over myself to help her up. I of course let myself revel at the sight and even touched her as well. Or rather, Clena was totally limp, so Roni and I had to wipe her down and change her into her clothes.

How should I put it? They were incredible.

Clena didn’t have a particularly large build; she was shorter than me. She had a dignified appearance, but still possessed an air of youthful cuteness about her. On the contrary, her body was that of a fine woman. She was voluptuous with skin tinted light rose.

She was always worried about how she was plump compared to Roni, but looking at her like this, her soft, buxom breasts and plump, full butt granted her some amazing proportions. I didn’t have the opportunity to take it all in when I was healing her burns, but now that I was wiping her down, I felt like I was handling a work of art.

I was making contact with something meant to be sacred. The thought made me feel elated and even brought a tear to my eye.

My only mistake was not wrapping a towel around my waist in the frenzy and letting Roni see me.

Not to mention it was while I was having a reaction any healthy male would have.

She was predictably embarrassed by that, and kept glancing in my direction with red cheeks as she looked after Clena.

Clena noticed her behavior and asked me about it.

“Hey, what’s wrong with Roni?”

“...While we were taking care of you in the changing room, she saw me too.”

As she heard that, her face was quickly dyed the color of embarrassment. From those words, she could deduce what Roni had seen of me, and what I had seen of Clena as well.

Roni had exposed herself to me as well, but she appeared not at all bothered by that, which was very in-character for her. I’ll just say that lycaons, the wolven demi-humans, weren’t particularly hairy aside from their ears and tail.

“Should I apologize to her now?”

“Apologize for what? Just act like you always do. I’ll make sure to follow up with her later,” Clena said, and sat back up. It seemed like she was fine now.

“Sorry, you’re a big help.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s my role, after all.”

Clena laughed and waved her hand at me.

Clena had been disowned and lost her place to return to, but she became my party member because she saw potential in my future and allowed herself to be taken under my wing.

But that didn’t mean she just followed me around. She stood beside me and offered mutual support. She didn’t want to just be taken care of; that was her way of life.

That notion of not simply relying on others felt similar to Haruno’s mannerisms as well. Perhaps one of Haruno’s aspirations was to lead a lifestyle similar to Clena’s.

I took Clena and Roni to the bedroom.

Since the first sacred king had a party of four, the notion that a party should consist of four people persisted in this world to this day. Even in the military, the smallest number a troop could be made of was four. Because of that, it was common for guest rooms to have accommodations for four people, and this VIP room was no exception.

We were supposed to massage each other as we weren’t able to do so in the bath, but now that Roni was being shy, I was massaging Clena instead.

“I’ve been wanting to try this~ Come on, lie down over there.”

It was my turn first tonight. I lied face down on the bed as Clena commanded, and then she sat herself down on my back in her thin pajamas.

“Whoa... soft!”

“...Were you saying something just now?”

“N-no, just your imagination.”

The weight on my back was soothing.

Roni, who had yet to receive her massage, stared at me with a bright red face and eyes that looked ready to devour me. She was embarrassed, yet filled with curiosity. I didn’t think it was just my imagination that her line of sight went toward my hips.

At this rate, Clena should handle Roni’s massage tonight rather than me. We might not be able to bathe together tomorrow night. The best decision here was to wait for Clena to handle the situation rather than for me to approach her with the awkward topic. It seemed prudent for me to leave the room while Clena massaged Roni.

I wonder if I’ll be able to see Roni’s usual smile tomorrow? I indulged myself in Clena’s massage as I gave thought to these things.

“Good morning, Sir Touya!”

Roni’s attitude had lightened up a bit after all the worrying I had done last night. Or rather, it felt like we were acting more like how she and Clena normally acted together. Like we had grown a little more intimate with each other.

I didn’t know what Clena discussed with her last night, but by the time I returned to the bedroom, Roni had covered her face with the blankets and wouldn’t let me look at her. That made me concerned about what was going to happen with her, but it seemed my worries were unfounded. Roni just happened to be embarrassed at the time.

I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath, wanting to wash my face.

“...Excuse me.”

But I closed the door as soon as I opened it.

“What’s wrong, Touya?”

“Wrong room.”

“Uh, how could you have gotten the wrong room?” Clena looked perplexed.

Well, she had a point.

I tried opening the door again. The view was just the same as before. I wasn’t just seeing things.

“Um, Sir Touya...? Where did this door lead to again...?”

The sight past the door was completely different from how it was just last night.

“Uh, it shouldn’t lead anywhere other than the Unlimited Bath, but... Did I gain a level from lodging here?” I’d heard of games with such features in the past.

“You gain levels naturally. Though you can’t tell until you update your status card,” Clena said, then peered inside the Unlimited Bath from beside me.

“There’s no bathtub anymore...”

“There’s a big window, but the glass doesn’t seem very high quality.”

Roni also peered inside from my other side, both of them speaking their minds. But they were both missing the point.

They probably didn’t understand at the moment, but beyond this door was the changing room.

It was about the size of six tatami mats. The floor was tiled in a soft color. A sink was on the right, and next to it was a large, front-loading washing machine. The thing Roni called a big window was, in fact, a door. Before it lay a bath mat for your feet.

Until this day, the Unlimited Bath comprised of just one room, but instead of a door it had a curtain dividing the changing and bathing rooms. It must have been their first time seeing a door like this.

Compared to the world we were currently in, the quality of the glass was very high. No one would even consider having a door made of glass here. Roni’s comment on it being low quality likely referred to how opaque it was, but that was because of the bathing room on the opposite side.

“For now, let’s go to Rulitora... No, let’s get him over here. We’ll have our breakfasts delivered to the room.”

“I understand. I’ll get him.” Roni quickly spun around on her heels and left the room to fetch Rulitora.

In the meantime, Clena and I stepped into the Unlimited Bath and started investigating.

I opened the glass door to find a bathtub. No surprises there. The materials of the walls and floor were unchanged. The goods we had left next to the wall were spread all over the floor, where the wall would’ve been had the room not changed in size. The control panel was on the wall at about eye level right next to the door, and another one was located on the wall near the bathtub.

This room had also expanded. Now all three of us could wash ourselves like we did last night in the larger bathroom. The bathtub was large enough to fit all three of us.

“Clena, would you mind checking if the bathroom works like it did before? I’ll check out the changing room in the meantime.”

“That’s the door, right? Got it.”

She switched places with me and went to check if the faucets and shower could run both hot and cold water like they did before. During the past week she’d gotten accustomed to the control panel that regulated water temperature.

Keeping one eye on her, I began scouting the area, starting from the sink. In front of me was a large mirror. This would also be considered high quality to the people of this world. To the left and right of it were cabinets. I found a toothbrush holder in the right cabinet.

They had toothbrushes in this world, but the quality was a far cry from modern Japan’s. Cavities could be healed with magic here, so there was no demand for higher quality toothbrushes. You could say that brushing your teeth here was mainly to keep bad breath at bay. For people with regular access to healing magic, it wasn’t uncommon to skip the brushing process entirely and just chew on specialized herbs. It was an environment that I just couldn’t get used to, as a person with modern Japanese sensibilities.

Opening the cabinet under the sink, I found spare toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and even laundry detergent. Of course, all of this was created from my MP. The toothpaste came in all varieties, from kid’s to medicinal to ones for sensitive teeth.

Actually, Clena was pretty obsessive about brushing her teeth. She claimed it was to preserve their bright whiteness, but according to Roni, she had suffered from cavities as a child.

She might like the whitening toothpaste.

At that point, Roni returned with Rulitora in tow. The two of them stood in the doorway, curiously gauging the inside of the room.

“Is this because of you leveling up?”

“You think so, too?” I answered Rulitora’s question with a question of my own. I didn’t really know, either.

“We’re checking to see if everything can still be used for now, so can you two check if all our stuff is okay?”

“Understood.”

“Alright, then I’ll take them outside for now.”

“Thank you. I’ve gotten better with it now, but I’m still not good with humidity.”

The humidity had gone down now that the washroom and changing rooms were separate, but Rulitora still seemed averse to the damp air. Considering how he used to avert his face and complain about his eyes stinging, though, it was a huge step forward.

That aside, I went to inspect the washing machine next. It was front-loading, and from the control panel I could tell that it also had a drying function. The text on it was of this world, though. It looked like something you’d find where I came from, but I wasn’t able to locate a manufacturer logo anywhere.

There was a metal basket on the side, in which an instruction manual was placed. It was a standard modern electrical appliance manual no matter how you looked at it, but just like the control panel it was written in this world’s language, which gave it a surreal aura.

“It’s powered on... So this is running off my MP, too.”

We had a change of clothes, so we should try washing whatever was meant to be laundered today in here. We just needed to take out any important items we couldn’t risk losing in case something went wrong.

And then I turned around to the sight of a surprisingly spacious changing room. It was a big step up from the previous changing room, where the three of us had to bunch up if we wanted to sleep.

On the opposite end was a large shelf stacked with bath and hand towels. There were empty shelves as well, perhaps for placing your clothes while you were changing.

And lastly, there was one shelf stacked with something other than towels. I took one out to see what it was, and found something called a “yuamigi.” It sported a colorful design.

“Clena, take a look at this.”

“What’s up? ...Er, what’s that? A dress?”

It might have looked like one based on the shape. There were a variety of designs in there, as well as ones for men.

“This is called a yuamigi. You wear it when you take a bath.”

“S-something you wear when you take a bath? And it’s not a swimsuit?”

Clena seemed confused at my explanation. Due to cultural differences, this might have been hard to comprehend for her.

“We’re wearing bath towels right now anyway, right?”

“Oh, I see.”

Clena understood once I explained that it could be used instead of a bath towel.

“I mean, do you wanna bathe with girls so badly that you’d create those things?”

“What do you mean? These are common where I come from.”

“But the thing that made them was your gift.”

“Hmm...? Oh, is that what this means...?” I noticed after Clena pointed it out to me.

Indeed, I had the thought that using just a bath towel to cover ourselves was inconvenient, and the tub was too small for three of us in the previous version of the Unlimited Bath. I had wanted a washing machine after seeing Roni do our laundry, and I had thought about the fact we didn’t have decent toothbrushes or toothpaste. This supposedly improved Unlimited Bath solved those problems.

There were some issues left, though. It was still inconvenient to sleep in and Rulitora said it still hurt to enter. But this Unlimited Bath had indeed become more user-friendly.

“So it’s granting my wishes?”

“It might be more correct to say that your gift is growing according to your desires, Touya.”

“Hm, that sounds about right.”

Rulitora and I both agreed with Clena. You could say it was the power to gain what you wish for.

“Is it really that convenient of a power?”

“I’m no expert, but I’ve heard that gifts are a manifestation of the traits of your soul.”

“Your soul, huh...”

“In other words, your desire to bathe with girls goes down to your very core, Touya!”

“Hey!”

“Isn’t it true, though? This Unlimited Bath is proof.”

Clena accused me smugly, to which I drew my face close to hers in anger, but she remained unwavering as she replied to me nonchalantly.

“...You’re such a pervert, Sir Touya,” Roni muttered as she turned away from me, her face red like a ripe apple.

I wasn’t just imagining it, Roni’s bashful remark had pierced my heart more sharply than Clena ever could with words.

We inspected the facilities thoroughly after that, but found no particular issues with the power, water supply, or detergent selection. You could say the Unlimited Bath just grew bigger and gained new powers. It didn’t grow stronger, but rather became more convenient. I was kinda done with hearing about its power over and over again.

Now that we had a sink, I could wash my face in the mornings more easily.

I was going over the instruction manual of the washing machine with Roni, and we did a test wash on some clothes that’d be fine even if it failed. It was an automatic machine that did everything including drying, so all we had to do was wait.

Roni couldn’t believe that you could do laundry by just putting things inside a box. As soon as the machine started turning and making noises, she latched on to me in surprise. It didn’t take long until she and Clena were entranced by the tumbling clothes to the point that their heads were spinning.

Most surprised of all was Rulitora, who almost burst into the Unlimited Bath ready to attack after hearing the washing machine. He had assumed an enemy appeared due to the unfamiliar, non-human sounds coming from within. For me, it was a nostalgic but familiar sound, but for the people of this world, it must have been a bizarre noise they hadn’t ever heard before.

“Hey, when we send the message to Haruno, how about we request a status card upgrade as well?”

“Good call. Let’s do it.”

The Unlimited Bath’s growth must have been connected to my own. Was the timing just a coincidence, or did it happen as a result of me getting a good night’s sleep?

We had a late breakfast because of the time spent on investigating the new bathroom, then the four of us headed out to find a temple cleric.

“A message for the Hero of the Goddess in Athenapolis? I don’t mind.”

We asked the designated cleric and she graciously granted our favor.

Knowledge had already spread to the various temples of Haruno arriving and beginning her duties at Athenapolis. Her party had established their base in Athenapolis, and together with the pilgrims they were currently helping fix the damage incurred in the city from monsters.

I was disappointed that the message couldn’t be a love letter. It was a new experience for me, so I was pretty excited.

That said, the message was sent by carving it onto a clay tablet, and transmitting it onto the destination temple’s own clay tablet. So the temple sending it out would have to read my message. Not only that, the receiving temple would need to check the contents of the message as well, so they could read every word. Thus, the contents of the message had to remain discreet. I couldn’t send any declarations of love, of course, but I also couldn’t send her anything about the desert kingdom.

In the end, I decided to tell Haruno about how I managed to save the Torano’o tribe and about my two new party members, Clena and Roni. And that I wouldn’t be staying in Ceresopolis for long, and would be heading out to meet her soon.

“Soon” referred to after we finished our investigations in the desert kingdom. I couldn’t tell her about that detail in the message. I didn’t know what we would find after our investigations, but in any case, it was something we needed to talk to Haruno about directly.

I was the one who dictated the message, while Clena wrote it down for me, and then we handed it over to the cleric. I hadn’t been able to write too smoothly yet.

Even though I was a “Hero of the Goddess,” we paid the fee necessary to send the message. Thanks to that I also knew that it was a pretty hefty fee, one that an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to easily pay.

Afterward we had our status cards updated. Clena and Roni had gained one level each, probably thanks to subduing that monster army.

Clena was level 20 and Roni level 19. Clena was a top-class party member, but Roni was only a step behind.

Clena’s stats were higher than average across the board, with her MP and MEN particularly high. Roni, on the other hand, had lower numbers in MP and MEN, but her TEC soared above the rest.

Unfortunately, Rulitora was still stationary at level 29.

My status card update was to be done under the presence of the temple elder. This might have seemed unnecessarily grandiose, but apparently it was normal for a Hero of the Goddess.

The newly updated card came out the same blue color it had always been, which unfortunately meant that I had yet to reach level 20.

Level 19.

I matched with Roni, but that was hardly the end of it.

“...The hell is this?” Clena exclaimed in shock after she peered at my card from my right.

The problem was my stats. The graph drawn on my status card was jutting out.

“Your MP and MEN are off the charts.”

My other stats had grown across the board, but just as Roni said, my MP and MEN were outstanding... no, they were literally shooting beyond the border of the card.

Even the temple elder from Jupiteropolis still had his stats contained within the card. Looking at it from that perspective, I could tell how extraordinary this case was.

I had been anticipating the extent of my growth since training in the Torano’o tribe’s settlement, but this came completely out of left field.

The temple residents couldn’t hide their surprise either, as several of them lauded me with words of praise.

“Was this from using your gift so much in the settlement?” Rulitora wasn’t able to contain his surprise either, as he looked at my card from over my head.

That was the only explanation I could think of myself. That must have done it.

“Ah...” Clena said faintly, as if she had just thought of something. “Sir temple elder. Please prepare the guide we had asked for earlier. We shall be taking our leave now to make preparations.” Clena said in an uncharacteristic tone, then grabbed my hand and promptly exited the room.

It probably involved something she couldn’t talk about right then and there. We inferred as such and followed Clena back to our room as she dictated.

Once we entered our room, Clena sat down on the sofa with a troubled expression. Roni and I took place on the sofa across from her, while Rulitora sat down beside us on the ground, seeing as his tail wouldn’t allow him a spot on the sofa. Assured we were all sitting down, Clena began to speak.

“Touya, you were conjuring water in the settlement for about half of every day, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, six to seven hours, to be specific.”

Clena sighed deeply. She found something troubling about my answer.

“To be frank, even I can’t continuously use my magic for more than an hour. I might be able to pull it off with some breaks in between, but that would knock me out for days.”

“The Unlimited Bath doesn’t put too much of a strain on me, though.”

“Even so, you were using it constantly. You wore your MP down to the last drop every day.”

“I managed to fill the reservoir with enough water in just half a month thanks to that. I’m glad I did so.”

Come to think of it, I had increased my water output to fill it up faster. I had probably used more MP because of that, seeing how I didn’t scale back the time I spent on it.

“I was naive. I should’ve realized when you healed all of my burns, leaving not a single scar behind...”

She cradled her head in her palms.

Speaking of which, my Healing Light was the most basic of healing spells. Achieving such results using only that spell implied immensely powerful MP.

She probably hadn’t been in the right state of mind. You couldn’t blame her for not noticing at the time.

“Oh yeah, Sir Touya. After we’d left the settlement, you were using the dryer fan to dry our clothes, right? Does that use MP, too?”

“Yeah, it does. Anything you can use in the Unlimited Bath requires my MP.”

The washing machine was running at the moment, and was being powered by my MP as well.

Roni was probably just asking me an honest question.

Rulitora simply looked on with a dubious expression.

But Clena’s eyes grew wide after hearing my answer.

“I-it’s true that there are some long-term spells out there, but...”

Clena was a top-class magic user, but maintaining a spell for that long would put a huge strain even on her.

In comparison, I was draining my MP dry every day for six or seven hours straight. Even after leaving the settlement, I was using my MP while we were traveling. What’s more, I even used it while we were taking breaks and bathing together, and for ventilation during our sleep. I hadn’t paid it any mind, but I might even have been using MP to keep our goods stored inside the bathroom.

Seeing how the Unlimited Bath had increased its features, I’m sure it would continue taking its toll on my MP. Thinking about it now, this was all pretty incredible.

“Your MP has gotten to the level of someone who’s been using magic for decades, Touya. It’s on the level of legends.”

My MP and MEN shooting off the edges of my card were the results of that.

People blessed by the Goddess of Light were said to progress faster than others, but apparently I had already soared past those limits without realizing it. And if I kept using my powers, I’d keep growing.

“What kinds of spells could you use again?”

“Just your basic light spirit summoning, Healing Light, and Antidote.”

The main problem was that, even if my MP was legendary, I had no use for it past my Unlimited Bath.

I was tempted to take a bath in the new bathroom since the conversation kind of wore me out, but our cleric guide had arrived, so we went ahead into town.

We had decided to sell the cactus fruit, dates, and lesser boar fur, as well as the aloe that could be used to make medicine. Last was the gold ox fur. We weren’t going to sell it unless we got the going price, but since that turned out surprisingly high we decided to do it anyway.

Clena took charge of judging the prices. Gold ox were only encountered in the void, so you could get a pretty penny for their fur in northern countries like Junopolis. Their price here in Ceresopolis rivaled Clena’s estimations, so we decided to sell them all off.

This country had no royal family, and instead was ruled by a council made up of the greater landlords. That in itself wasn’t an issue, but nobles from other kingdoms within the Olympus Alliance tended to look down on countries without a king. As a result, the upper class in this country reveled in showboating by dressing up in extravagant clothing and accessories. Gold ox fur fetched such high prices because its golden color was perfectly in line with their fashion senses. You could just write it off as vulgar excess, but their economic influence covered a much wider breadth than that of the useless nobles of other kingdoms.

The fur trader took us for amateurs and tried to haggle us down, but Clena saw through it and called his bluff. He grew flustered, but when I saw he still tried to slip in some miscalculated prices, I spoke up. Ultimately we managed to sell the fur off to him at a slightly boosted rate.

A lack of compulsory education in this world meant that illiteracy was through the roof, so you’d often encounter people who couldn’t even do simple math. But you shouldn’t ever try to swindle a high school student from modern Japan.

As for our own shopping, we first purchased some items that we’d been wanting for a while—a tent and a folding screen. After that, Clena and I purchased a full set of hard leather armor. We had learned the agonies of traveling through the void in metal armor.

We then went to the shop of the grandmaster pervert—the Ficus Brand shop—so Clena and Roni could get some nice, breathable underwear. They had also suffered some personal, painful experiences during our stint in the void.

I somehow got dragged into helping them pick out their underwear.

The shop had plenty of designs to choose from as far as breathable underwear went. Roni came up to me sporting an innocent smile, and a selection of said underwear.

“Sir Touya! Which of these colors do you like?”

Roni had brought me three sets with different colors. They were top and bottom matching sets, decorated with a cute heart pattern and ribbons. The colors were white, light blue, and pink. I imagined the warm tone of the pink one would match well with her custard cream-colored hair, and said as much.

“How about the pink one?”

“Got it! As long as you like it, Sir Touya!” Roni said, then went back to Clena with a happy smile, waving around the underwear that I picked out for her.

Her smile was innocent as usual, but beyond that, I felt like the distance between us had shrunk just a bit.

“Hey, Touya. If you’re going to help us pick, then come over here.”

“...If you’re fine with that, Clena, then sure.”

Rulitora, the cleric and I assumed the girls would feel embarrassed, so we were guarding the bags at a distance. But if Clena wanted me to come with her, what choice did I have?

I left Rulitora and the cleric, and made my way toward Clena. I couldn’t take the cleric along, and Rulitora was far too big to fit through the aisles. Actually, the aisles here were much narrower compared to the shops back in Jupiteropolis.

“This place is pretty cramped compared to the one in Jupiter.”

Clena looked around in response, then finally caught on to my remark on the aisles. She probably hadn’t noticed before, since it didn’t hamper her own browsing.

“Hm? Oh, that might be because demi-humans don’t come here.”

“They don’t? Why not?”

“Ceresopolis has a distinct lack of demi-humans. It’s a farming country, so they’re probably not interested.”

“Is that it?”

“I think most of them would prefer hunting to farming work,” Roni said with a tilted head.

Basically, since demi-humans had little interest in this agricultural country, shops weren’t built with demi-humans in mind, either. Come to think of it, Roni and Rulitora were garnering a lot of stares from people. Especially Rulitora.

“Anyway, what do you think of this?”

“...They’re big.”

“Not that,” She retorted in exasperation as I blurted out my thoughts on the bra she’d picked out.

“Er, I mean, I think it looks good. Though I don’t think I’ve seen you wear white before.”

“That’s because I’m so pale.”

Clena was showing me a pure white bra. She didn’t normally wear that color, but she seemed to have taken a liking to the frilly design. Apparently she liked underwear in deeper colors, due to her pale skin and silver hair.

Sure enough, her skin had gotten a little red when we were traveling through the void, but you could barely call it a tan. It was just the way her body was.

Her porcelain skin stood out even more compared to Roni and I, who were now plenty tanned.

The girls weren’t done after just one pair, of course, and proceeded to pick out several more. I didn’t have anything new I needed to buy here. I had previously already bought everything I needed with our trip to the void in mind.

It was almost noon by the time we left the store, so we got the location of a carriage seller and headed back to the temple. You see, we wanted to pick out a carriage for our journey to the void without the cleric accompanying us.

It would have been weird to reject the cleric as our guide for the afternoon, so instead we opted to do research on the demon lord in the temple library.

That said, it was particularly difficult to keep our interest in the desert kingdom under wraps. Clena and Roni had journeyed all the way from Junopolis like this, so I’m sure my problems faded in comparison to theirs.

It’s not like I had any intentions of becoming your garden variety hero, but I sure seemed to have ended up on an alternative path to becoming one.

I didn’t regret it, though. The fact of the matter was that I couldn’t just abandon these two girls in this reckless journey.

And since we all felt compelled to uncover the hidden history, the truth about the demon lord, we decided to head for the desert kingdom together.

Upon our return to the temple, we took out our half-dried clothes and hung them out to dry under the sun. Leaving them in for the full cycle would wear them down faster. Drying clothes under the sun was something that we could only do while staying in one place. Normally, I’d be hanging them to dry inside the Unlimited Bath.

We then ate lunch, and spent the rest of the day scavenging the library.

Both Rulitora and Roni weren’t great at reading, so they were put on book transporting duty, while Clena and I did the actual reading.

Even though I was summoned from another world, I could read in the language of this world thanks to the blessing of the Goddess. That wasn’t the end of it. I could even read the books written in an ancient language that Clena couldn’t decipher. It was convenient, sure, but this goddess blessing just didn’t know where to quit.

“Ugh... not a single lead...”

Despite all our research, we couldn’t find a single article with details on the demon lord.

I drooped my head down on the table after hours of unfruitful work.

The temple library was a smaller room than the name might have implied. We had looked though all the documents that seemed noteworthy, and while we found a mountain of texts on the first sacred king, we barely found anything on the demon lord. Maybe information on the demon lord was erased along with everything pertaining to the desert kingdom.

The legend of the first sacred king defeating the demon lord had been passed down, but knowledge on where that demon king had lived was lost. Part of the legend told of the first sacred king’s party storming the demon lord’s castle, after learning of its location from a sage living in a spring. However, there were no records of the whereabouts of said spring.

And now, 500 years later, the only information we had was that this sage’s spring was located on the continent, but we weren’t able to determine which spring. This might have been another piece of cover-up work they had done.

Looking at a map, Ceresopolis also had a “Sage’s Spring” to the east. Assuming the desert kingdom was where the demon lord had lived, this was likely the one. I was only able to figure that out thanks to the information Clena had given me.

“Hmm, do you think we could stop by this spring since it’s along the way to the gate?” Rulitora asked, inspecting the map.

If this map was correct, we would arrive at the spring if we left Ceresopolis heading directly east. A little more to the south of that stood the gate that was once overflowing with demons—the gate that the Torano’o tribe had destroyed.

“We should check it out just in case. Though I don’t expect to find anything there.”

“Yeah, it’s been well over 500 years since the sage lived there.”

We decided to add the sage’s spring to our itinerary, so we could use it as a landmark for getting to the gate.

During my research, I also tried looking for books on cleric spells to find other ways of utilizing my colossal pool of MP. Unfortunately, those efforts ended in vain as well.

Well, it’s not that I didn’t find any books. There were quite a few, this being a temple and all.

I just wasn’t able to find anything more thorough than the textbook the temple elder at Jupiteropolis had given me. That man had really gone all out for me.

After we concluded our research and returned to our room, I sat down on the sofa and went over the textbook. I put off practical training for now and skimmed through the entire thing, but attacking spells didn’t fall under the domain of clerical magic. The only exception I found was one for purifying impure beings such as the undead, but unfortunately it had no effect against normal opponents.

“Do you think I could learn your spirit spells, Clena?”

“That’d be impossible. You can’t even hear the voices of the spirits, can you, Touya?”

I came up with an idea, but unfortunately, it required some special traits that I didn’t possess. “Cleric spells are very systematized, so anyone who receives a blessing should be able to learn them fairly easily.”

“Is that how it works...?” I drooped my shoulders.

I should’ve been confident in the efficacy of my spells, but as a man, was I wrong in wanting some uniqueness to my spells?

Other than the clerical ones, spells weren’t systematized. So, to learn them, you had to study under one of the various practitioners.

The only people I knew who could use magic outside of cleric spells were Clena, who used spirit magic, the princess of Jupiteropolis, who used holy magic, and Rium, who used crystal magic.

“Is there a way to find other magic users?”

“Some of them take students, but in any case you’d have to meet with them in person first. The only spells you can learn from a textbook are cleric spells... Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“You might be able to find some in temples for other goddesses. Textbooks for other spells, I mean.”

“Really?”

“Well, do you think summoning light spirits is a spell that uses the power of the Goddess of Earth?”

“Ohh... Yeah, guess not.”

It would be “summoning earth spirits,” if anything.

They’d still be your run-of-the-mill cleric spells, but if there were any attacking ones, I could start utilizing this crazy MP pool of mine and be more useful during battles.

“Oh, Sir Touya. I think this city also has an earth temple.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, since the Goddess of Earth is worshiped by farmers and hunters.”

I see. That meant that the Goddess of Earth’s followers were here in this agricultural capital of Ceres.

“Come to think of it, I think I saw their symbol today. It was a small building compared to this temple.”

“Of course it would be. The rulers of a country prefer to worship the Goddess of Light.”

In all but a few countries, the temple for the Goddess of Light was the biggest one, thus being their representative temple. But that didn’t mean temples for other goddesses didn’t exist.

According to Rulitora, the Goddess of Earth’s temple was only half the size of this one. To be frank, they probably weren’t getting nearly as many donations from their followers.

“We probably shouldn’t head out now, huh?”

“It’s already getting late. I think the clerics are making dinner for us right now, too.”

“All right, then we’ll head out tomorrow morning.”

I was ready to go, but as Roni pointed out, we couldn’t just ignore our dinner, let alone go visiting other temples so late at night.

“Let’s gather our luggage for now.” Rulitora slowly stood up and jumped right into it.

The heaviest, bulkiest part of our cargo right now was coins. We divvied up the amount we’d need on hand among several pouches, then tucked the rest away in a bag inside the Unlimited Bath. There was no safe more secure than this.

“Touya, let’s go say hi to the temple elder.”

“Would it be okay to tell him about us going to the Goddess of Earth’s temple?”

“It’ll be fine. The temples should be on good terms with each other. You can even tell him that we’re going to look stuff up in their library.”

“All right, I will.”

We left the cargo to Rulitora and Roni, then the two of us went to greet the temple elder. But when we did, the elder urged us to stick around for a bit.

I was taken aback by his hasty demeanor, but Clena remained unaffected and kept a straight face. I guess she had predicted it would come to this. When I asked her about it later, she told me that donations from followers would accumulate just by having a Hero of the Goddess present. As if to say “Allow us to chip in for the hero’s accommodations.”

And just as Clena had suggested earlier, the elder remained silent when I told him that we’d be visiting the library in the Goddess of Earth’s temple, as if he had given up. He probably figured out that we had gained nothing from our research in their library. I felt a little guilty for relying on them so much, but we had at least donated enough fruit and dried meat for everyone in the temple to enjoy. We had only stayed a day, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

As we were heading back to our room after the conversation with the elder, blankly staring ahead of me, I asked Clena in a subdued voice:

“Should we give our donation to the earth temple in coins?”

“We probably will, if we’re going to stay there. Let’s make preparations back in the room.”

On that note, we had gone all the way down to the underground bath to wash up for the night, but we were unable to hold back our curiosity about the new bathroom and opened the door to the Unlimited Bath there.

The girls were enjoying the shower. It was endearing to see them play around in their yuamigi while sharing the handheld shower head.

The tub wasn’t as large as the temple’s, where we could stretch our legs out all the way, but it was still plenty big. It went without saying that all three of us had a relaxing time.

The next day, our party departed from the temple of light and headed for the temple of earth.

I took to the streets fully armed, the attack on the hero Cosmos still fresh in my mind. Without exchanging a word about it, the others had also armed themselves to the teeth. No big whoop, right?

Rulitora led us to the Goddess of Earth temple, which was located between two streets lined with various shops. I hadn’t noticed yesterday, but this was the street we’d taken on our way back from the armor shop. Rulitora was paying extra attention while we walked, so he had noticed the symbol for the Goddess of Earth.

Just like he said, this was about half the size of the temple of light. It had a cozy atmosphere and resembled a large workshop or office more than a temple. It made me recall a small shrine surrounded by houses in my neighborhood back home.

The front gate was similar in design to the temple of light, but you still wouldn’t be able to tell this was a temple were it not for that symbol above the gate.

Incidentally, there was a fruit shop next to the temple. You could hear a lively old man and woman raising their voices at each other. They were probably married.

There were baskets of fruit for donating to the temple lined up in front. They had a good sense of business. In fact, I’d say the baskets stood out more than the symbol on the gate.

We bought a basket while we were there, then walked through the temple gates as we heard the fruit-selling couple yell out “May the Earth bless you!” from behind us.

This temple had a front yard instead of a courtyard, so we left our rickshaw there. The guard already seemed to know that I was a Hero of the Goddess and was staying in the temple of light, so he let us in as soon as I showed him my status card.

It was funny seeing his eyes bug out when he saw the stats shooting off my card.

Interesting, so whenever I handed my status card over as personal identification, I’d also be revealing my stats. Obviously people were going to be shocked, I mean, even I still wasn’t used to seeing them.

We were able to meet the temple elder immediately. He was a middle-aged man with brown hair, a round face, and no facial hair. He had a short, portly figure and stumpy legs. If it weren’t for the cassock he was wearing, I’d have assumed he was a company manager or something.

We gave him the fruit basket and told him we were looking for information on the demon lord and textbooks on the Goddess of Earth’s spells. He promptly led us to the library, excusing himself for its small size. It was the kind of place you’d expect to find information that was once erased and forgotten, though, so I was more than happy with it.

I was quickly given a magic textbook. They apparently had plenty of spares, since most people wanted to become clerics under the temple of light rather than the temple of earth these days.

“If you wish to study these spells, may I suggest you be given a blessing?”

“You mean a goddess blessing? I’ve already gotten that.”

“That is only the Goddess of Light’s blessing. This would be the Goddess of Earth’s blessing.”

“Is that really okay?”

“Why would it not be? A normal person might not be able to handle it, but you should have no issues with your MP levels, Sir Hero.”

It seemed there were no problems with receiving multiple blessings, since the five—no, six goddesses were all sisters. The ceremony itself was also a standard one, conducted whenever someone was to become a cleric.

“The arch-cleric in the first sacred king’s party, San Pilaca, was blessed by all five of the goddesses.”

“That was one of the allies of the past hero, right?”

“Yes, one of the three.”

In other words, even if it wasn’t common, there was at least a precedent. Though that precedent was someone who had achieved legendary status.

I checked with Clena, who said that I should be fine with my MP levels. I trusted Clena and her knowledge about magic, so I agreed to receive the blessing of the Goddess of Earth.

The temple made preparations for a few hours after that, we had lunch, and then the ceremony itself would take another couple of hours. The temple elder had changed from a cassock to a ceremonial robe and looked like a proper elder rather than a salaryman now.

The ceremony involved me sitting down inside a magic circle, similar to the one used to summon me here, and the elder endlessly chanting ritual prayers.

The magic circle beneath me started giving off a warm, soft light. Thoughts floated in and out of my mind as I wondered if it was like this when I was summoned. I just sat there the entire time, but the elder remained standing, chanting those prayers for several hours. That must have been tough. He was gasping for air when it was over.

I didn’t really notice anything particular about being blessed by the Goddess of Earth after the ceremony, but I was told it would come after I’d learned some spells.

We had an early dinner, matching our early lunch, then remained in the temple for the rest of the night. The fruit basket was a donation for perusing their library, so we donated a coin-filled pouch for letting us stay. We felt much obliged as the temple elder himself guided us to our room.

The room’s cramped size reflected the temple’s, and there was no large bath, but at least it had a place for Rulitora to bathe, so we couldn’t complain.

That evening, the three of us went into the Unlimited Bath with our changes of clothes in hand.

“...What?”

The floor of the changing room was now made of wood. The bathtub had changed to a Japanese cedar wood tub.

I could only trace the cause back to the Goddess of Earth’s blessing.

We had stayed in the Goddess of Earth’s temple for three days now.

I was borrowing the ceremonial grounds and carried a bucket of soil over to practice my spells on.

Learning a new spell in three days might have sounded fast to some. However, taking three days to learn a basic spell when I already knew the fundamentals of clerical magic was actually on the slow side.

Apparently the problem was me trying to use the power of the Goddess of Earth for spells, where I had previously used the power of the Goddess of Light. Using cooking as an example, it’d be like trying to make something salty by adding sugar. Basically, these past three days were me learning to use salt instead of sugar.

It was surprisingly difficult. I could now see why so few people could use spells from multiple goddesses.

And the results were as such...

“Summon spirit!”

I rested my hand on the pile of soil and summoned spirits of the earth. My MP activated. A portion of the soil transformed into the shape of a cone, pointing towards the ceiling. I wasn’t the one shaping it—the earth spirits were.

I successfully pierced through a plank of wood with the cone. I might be able to toughen this up by pouring more MP into it and increasing its density.

Unlike light spirit summoning, which could be done anywhere as long as you had MP and yourself, earth spirit summoning had the disadvantage of requiring soil. On the other hand, it had an advantage over light spirits for being able to create physical offensive power.

I grabbed the pointy end of the cone, channeled my MP into it, and the soil grew more dense and turned black. I pulled my hand out in a swoop, and what was left was a crooked, black knife. It almost looked like a knife made of obsidian.

I tapped the glossy surface with my finger and it made a high-pitched sound, indicating how hard it was. It wasn’t very firm, but it seemed sharp enough to make up for that.

I tested it on the plank I just pierced a hole into. The blade went deep into the wood and then broke. It was definitely sharp, but brittle, too. I probably could’ve cut the plank in two if the MP I had put in was stronger, or if I’d used more dirt.

I stopped the flow of my MP and a moment later the knife bulged out, then reverted back to soil.

“This spell is pretty useful. I could use it in battle.”

“Excuse me, that spell is actually used for tending the fields or building aqueducts...”

The elder who looked like a middle-aged salaryman and was watching over my practice told me with a tired expression as I was nodding to myself in satisfaction.

This spell was normally used for construction, so compressing it into a weapon would require a significant amount of MP.

“This is merely a blessing from our little temple, but if you receive a blessing from the main temple, you’d be able to achieve much more.”

“Does the size of the temple change things?”

“Yes. The head temple is on another level.”

It looked like I had to pay a visit to the main temple of the Goddess of Earth if I wanted more power. It might be best to do the same for each of the other goddess’ blessings.

Coincidentally, the head temple for the Goddess of Light was in Jupiteropolis, so I had nothing more to gain on that front. For now, though, I needed to concentrate on getting to the desert kingdom, so I kept it in mind as an option for later.

When I went back to the room after practice, Clena and the rest had just returned as well. While I was training, they were making preparations for the journey.

I would have helped ordering a new carriage if we were gonna get one made to order, but since we were buying secondhand I left it to Clena.

“Oh, Touya. How’s your magic coming along?”

“Pretty great. I’ve learned the basic spells and have a textbook now, so I’ll just need to practice on my own after this.”

“I see. We got our hands on a good carriage, too. We just need to purchase a supply of food, and then we’ll be ready to go.”

According to Clena, the carriage they bought was unattractive, but sturdy. Roni and Rulitora said it was just your standard covered wagon, though.

Apparently when Clena thought of a carriage, she imagined the fancy coach her family had used when she was young, so that’s why she called it unattractive.

She had also purchased large cushions for us to sit on during the journey. She was properly preparing us for all the shaking.

As for the rickshaw, we sold it off. It had kept us good company ever since we left Jupiter, but the time had come to switch it out with the carriage and say farewell.

“When will the hard leather armor be ready again?”

“It should be ready this evening.”

Rulitora answered my question this time.

It would only take half the time the metal armor took in Jupiter, probably because leather was easier to tailor.

“Then let’s order some food on our way there, so we can pick it up first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, we can take the day off tomorrow, then!”

Roni happily agreed with my suggestion. Since she was always making our daily lives easier, I wanted to give her a day off.

We had a washing machine now, so I could take care of the laundry for her. Though I would need Clena to help take care of her and Roni’s underwear.

Above all, there was Rulitora. Even during our time in Ceresopolis, we were constantly using him as our bodyguard whenever we went out. I wanted him to have a nice day off tomorrow as well.

After that, the four of us went to pick up our hard leather armor, making sure there were no problems with our tailored pieces.

There was a rush fee if we wanted our food ready by tomorrow morning, so we opted to wait until the morning after tomorrow, so we could pay the standard prices. We had paid our advance with a bit of a tip thrown in so we’d be getting good, durable products.

Clena commended me for how used to the system I’d gotten, which was probably thanks to my experiences exploring the city and learning how to make purchases with Haruno and her party back in Jupiter.

Even if a product came from the exact same store, storage life would depend on the season it was made. Where I came from, you had easy to understand labels with expiration and sell-by dates, but there was no such convenience in this world. Assuming your eyes weren’t sharp enough to make out when an item was made, your best option was tipping the shop in the hopes they’d make something good.

And so, next was our day off.

Since I had told Rulitora about this last night, he had been sleeping all morning. He wasn’t the type to show it, but he must have been tired after all those nights standing guard. I peeked inside the bedroom to find him lying on his side on the rug, his tiger-pattern tail lazily sprawled out. He looked like a father on a Sunday.

As for me, I took over our laundry as planned and let Roni rest.

“Um, are you sure? It’s easier for me now with the washa masheen.”

She couldn’t help it since the word was still unfamiliar to her, but her awkward pronunciation was adorable.

“Yeah, so we can handle it, too.”

“But, the underwear... um...”

“I won’t be touching them. Clena will be helping me.”

I had no intention of touching the girls’ underwear, of course. I had seen them completely naked before, never mind seeing them in their underwear, but touching their delicates was a different matter.

Clena should be able to handle taking clothes in and out of the washing machine and hanging them up to dry.

“Huh, me?”

“If you don’t want to, I’ll have to handle it.”

“I never said I don’t want to.”

Clena realized that I’d be the one washing their underwear if she didn’t, and jumped up. Though she was a born and raised aristocrat, she often helped Roni with cooking and didn’t mind taking up the menial tasks.

“That’s not all, Lady Clena. The washa masheen can’t clean underwear.”

“...What?”

“Eh?”

“The ones it washed before got kind of worn...”

“Ahh, no wonder since it gets tossed around and heated up so much.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Clena folded her arms and nodded. She seemed to be in agreement.

I didn’t quite understand, but I guessed this wasn’t a topic a man could broach too deeply, so I decided to leave myself out of it.

“So you two will take care of the underwear, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“...Got it. I’ll take the opportunity to learn how to do this. Roni, will you teach me?”

“I understand. Sir Touya, may I use the sink?”

“Sure, do whatever you need to do.” Trying my best to avoid looking in their direction as they used the warm water to scrub their underwear, I got started on the rest of the laundry.

Though back in Japan, I was just your average high school student who didn’t try to help out with chores too much.

And so I took out the instruction manual again and navigated through the steps. It was easy to not mess up as long as I used the correct type and amount of detergent. The wash cycle finished without bubbles shooting out of the machine or anything.

Then, I set the clothes to dry until they were half-dry, and hung them on a clothesline in the changing room to finish drying. I couldn’t hang them out to dry in the temple yard, since it was a front yard facing the road.

I left the Unlimited Bath quickly after completing my laundry duties. I had been reading the clerical magic textbook for a while when Clena and Roni stepped out, having finished hanging up the rest. All that was left was a day of resting up. I was using my MP the entire time the clothes were drying, but it didn’t put any physical strain on my body.

“Where is the Unlimited Bath, anyway?”

“What are you talking about? It’s right there.”

I hadn’t closed the door yet, so it was still floating in front of us. It was a strange sight, but I was used to it by now.

“That’s not what I meant. It’s all made from your MP, right, Touya? So does it all go inside you when you close the door?”

“...I wonder?”

It felt like I was opening the door to a parallel dimension, but everything in there was made from my MP, so there was no doubt that it was under my control. So technically she could be correct by saying it was all inside me.

“It’s a little weird thinking that my underwear is drying inside Touya right now.”

“Oh, is that what that means?”

Clena had a dubious expression and Roni was aghast at her words. Clena had only noticed since it was her first time doing the laundry. I knew where she was coming from, but the sentiment felt a little delayed after all the time she’d spent cleaning herself in there.

“Well, we don’t know if it’s actually inside me in the first place. I could see it being explained as this world being connected to another dimension. The proof is right here,” I said as I pointed at myself.

A hero summoned from another world. I myself was evidence that another world really existed.

“Well, don’t worry about it. I’m not actually absorbing all of it into my MP.”

“If that were the case, I’m not sure I could use the bath anymore.” Roni gave me a wry smile.

In reality, we’d had no issues bathing so far, and the cargo we were storing inside remained unchanged. The question of how it all actually worked remained, but I chose to not think about it too hard.

“A parallel space for myself created by my own MP. That’s all you need to think of it as.”

“...I see, that does work.”

Clena seemed convinced enough. Worrying about it would get you nowhere.

After that, we told the temple elder that we would be heading off tomorrow, and donated more coins as thanks for letting us stay.

And then we simply relaxed in our room.

It’d be boring to just do nothing, though, so I read the textbooks on cleric spells.

Clena was a bookworm like me. She was reading a biography of the first sacred king that she had borrowed from the library.

Roni was sewing. She seemed to be quite adept at it, currently mending the frayed sleeve of a shirt. The other shirt wasn’t fit to be worn anymore, so she was going to transform it into a hand towel.

I was reading both the light textbook and the earth textbook simultaneously. I took note of any common and differing points while comparing the two. For example, the basic spell “Healing Light” was present in both books. There were more details to the shared spells in the light textbook, so it seemed smart to reference that one whenever I needed to practice.

Incidentally, Rulitora had woken up once around noon, but he just ate his meal and went back to sleep. He woke up again for dinner, but went to sleep right after that as well.

“Don’t you have anything to do, Rulitora?”

“No, I’m not keeping watch or being a bodyguard today, and I can’t hunt in the city, either. I’ll stock up on sleep while I can.”

Apparently he had nothing to do. I guess this was what you called a workaholic.

He acted as our bodyguard in the city, so even while we were walking around town, he likely hadn’t allowed himself to relax. In that respect, the days we spent indoors were the perfect opportunities for him to catch up on rest.

I looked over at Clena, who raised her index finger. She was telling me to keep quiet.

When I looked over to Roni, she gave me a sweet smile and a nod.

I had no objections. He’d been taking care of us day to day, so we were going to give him some peace and quiet today.