Third Bath – Beyond the Laconium

“Hyaaah!” I yelled out, then sliced a red lizard’s body in two.

The monster looked like an oversized red iguana with the way its large spikes ran down its body. It was over one stuto in length, giving it a pretty frightening appearance.

I had a new weapon in my hands. It was one of the magic weapons we had recovered from the demon lord’s castle, a one-handed, double-edged battle axe with a unique shape. It sported a beautiful golden color on the outside, but was in fact made of a sturdy metal. The right and left sides of the blade weren’t perfectly symmetric, and the blade itself drew an upward-facing arch. It looked like a hollowed out semicircle. The edges of the blade were decorated not with accessories, but with craftsman spell inscriptions carved using crystal magic. Rium told me that many spells had been cast on the blade, Rustproofing being one of them. Spells were cast by inscribing the name of the spell onto the blade. The larger the blade, the more spells you could place. There was a magic conductor in the middle of the blade, which was the deciding factor in me choosing this crescent moon-shaped axe. I didn’t know if the axe already had a name, so I decided to call it Crescent Moon. Yes, I know I wasn’t very creative.

When I told everyone the name I had chosen, Rakti cheered in joy. Apparently the Goddess of Darkness had often been called the Goddess of Night, so she was glad I had picked a name related to the night. That was probably one of the reasons this axe was in Hadesopolis in the first place, too. And to no one’s surprise, the Goddess of Light showed up incredibly annoyed in my dream that night.

I mustered up all my strength and swung my Crescent Moon downward to decapitate another red lizard. I didn’t forget to offer my prayers after killing it. We’d be able to absorb some of our opponent’s power like this and slowly raise our levels. The rest of the party lined up to offer their prayers as well. Thinking about it, this must have looked like the scene at the end of a battle in an RPG where everyone struck a victory pose.

I looked beside me to see Rakti trying her hardest to offer a prayer. She had been prayed to a countless number of times until now, but had never done the praying herself. She didn’t have her own way of praying from Hadesopolis and was trying to imitate me instead. Well, the intent was the most important part of it. How exactly you prayed didn’t matter.

We were now traveling on Mt. Lemnos. Our goal was the demon generals’ hideout, of course. Stifling air surrounded us on this pure red mountain. Needless to say, it was hot. And though it was, we hadn’t reached the area with poison gas yet, so we hadn’t brought out the water veil.

Rakti’s temporary body was hardly any different from a human’s, so she was being overwhelmed by the heat. My Magic Eater should have been treating the heat as damage to deflect in exchange for my MP, but even then it was hot. The air I could see beyond my helmet’s narrow vision was blurry, but that wasn’t the only problem.

Mt. Lemnos never had any large-scale eruptions, but smaller eruptions happened frequently in exchange. Getting close to the volcano meant being exposed to the ash falling from above. Rulitora was the only one who could travel through all this without batting an eye.

Clena and Roni had learned from their last incident in the void and were wearing light clothing under their leather tunics and armor. The leather was made from red lizard skin to protect them against the heat. They were also wearing thin veils to shield them against the volcanic ash. Roni had a particularly large veil on to cover her frizzy and abundant hair.

Unable to take the heat anymore, Rium stumbled over to me and rested herself against my back. My armor was cool and soothing, as it had been deflecting the heat in exchange for my MP. She couldn’t use her flying disc among all the smoke and sparks of fire, so she had no choice but to walk this whole way.

We had asked for permission from both the temple and the Hephaestus royal family to do this investigation. They had been tormenting themselves over this issue for a long time, so they gladly welcomed any chance to finally make progress.

“Meow then, time to skin it!”

“Mark, come help!”

“Yeah, yeah...”

The cats pranced over from behind me. Pardoe, Shakova, and Mark were all present. The three of them had come along with us on this investigation.

Since this was viewed as the country’s problem, it would have been an issue for just my party to conduct the investigation, so the ketolts volunteered themselves, as they already knew about my Unlimited Bath. Mark was supposed to be mending that old sword, but for some reason he had joined us. He was probably trying to show off to Crissa.

I was worried about taking them to a place the demon generals might be, but Mark said that it wasn’t uncommon to come across monsters in the mines anyway. He looked pretty reliable shouldering his large battle hammer with his tiny body and breastplate. They were using umbrellas to shield against the ashes.

On that note, making your own weapons and armor to wear into the mines was considered a rite of passage to becoming a professional blacksmith. Apprentices would borrow ones from their masters to wear, but were expected to start practicing making their own immediately. They normally equipped a breastplate and a battle hammer, and occasionally gauntlets. The make of the breastplate would signify that blacksmith’s skill, style, and even their personality.

Pardoe’s breastplate was the very definition of “plain and simple.” It looked sturdy and had no bells or whistles. Shakova’s was a little more complicated, achieving a fine balance between being gaudy but still practical. You could tell that Pardoe had the upper hand in pure skill. Lastly, Mark’s equipment conveyed how inexperienced he still was. I didn’t have an eye for craftsmanship or artistry, but according to Clena, he was still only halfway there. He was aiming for the plain and simple look, but hadn’t been able to keep himself from making it a little gaudy either. He was probably trying to become a blacksmith that catered to Crissa’s tastes. I see, so even his personality shone through in the make of his breastplate.

On another note, the red lizard that Mark was currently skinning was an indispensable resource to the people of Hephaestusopolis. They utilized every part of this monster. Like I had mentioned before, the skin was resistant to fire and made into gloves for the blacksmiths to use. The meat was edible, and the teeth and bones could be made into various tools.

There was one more unexpected use for them. The image of a lizard in my mind included their signature thin tongues sticking out, but these red lizards actually breathed fire. They possessed an organ inside their mouths that secreted a certain fluid, which acted as the fuel that allowed them to breathe fire. That certain fluid was, in fact, their blood. The flammable blood looked like oil, and was indeed used by the citizens of Hephaestusopolis as their oil source. These lizards would still be fine even if they started bleeding and their blood caught on fire. They really were monsters. And above all, they lived by consuming fire spirits and fire itself.

Red lizard meat couldn’t be fried, so it was boiled instead. I had eaten it several times during our stay in Hephaestusopolis. It was light, tender, and tasted like chicken. It was especially tasty when flavored with spices to give it a little kick.

The blood of the red lizards hardened quickly unless it was extracted immediately. It would also explode if it touched volcanic ash, but there were tools to keep that from happening. The ketolts must have rushed over immediately after I killed one and started dissecting it for exactly those reasons.

Shakova shifted his umbrella over to keep the ash from falling on Mark. Looking closely, he was making sure the umbrella was protecting his son more than himself. Shakova mainly watched over Mark and gave him a few pointers as he extracted the blood. Mark had done this plenty of times before, but there were still some tricks only veterans were aware of. This must have been one way of passing the family trade down the generations. Pardoe was watching the two of them from a ways off.

Maybe it was just because I came from another world, but I was feeling rather emotional while looking at this ordinary scene. So this is how they live in this world, I thought. It was affecting me on a deeper level.

And then I thought... I really was just a stranger in this world, feeling so much emotion from something the others considered so commonplace.

I suddenly wanted to see Haruno again. We were far from each other right now so I couldn’t go see her right away, but I’d at least send her a letter.

They finished dissecting the red lizard while I was lost in thought. We put everything in my Unlimited Bath, then went on our way again.

Some time later, another red lizard appeared before us. There sure were a lot of monsters here, even though Mt. Lemnos was so close to the city.

“Leave this to us, meow!”

“Come on, Mark!”

“You don’t have to tell me!”

Before I had even budged, the ketolts ran forward with their hammers in hand. Their arms, which had been forged through their blacksmithing work, slammed their hammers down on the red lizard’s jaw right as it tried to shoot out fire. Their strength as warriors definitely rivaled that of the red lizard’s. I kept alert around us, making sure no more monsters were coming as I watched over the fight.

This was the total opposite of the idyllic countryside scenery outside Ceresopolis. Over there, the guards just needed to make their rounds once in a while, but this volcano was in a constant state of danger. Not to mention the monsters here ate fire spirits as food or were made up of fire themselves. This was essentially their paradise. The monsters had the advantage in this environment. This was their territory, not ours. I imagined that the residents of this blacksmith capital were all pretty courageous for being able to live right next to all this.

The ketolts had managed to defeat the red lizard without any particular trouble and dissected that one as well. After we walked for a while longer, Shakova suddenly stopped in his tracks and pointed at the sky, which looked foggy from all the smoke gushing from the craters.

“Grr...! The birds of Lemnos are coming!”

“The birds of Lemnos?” I looked to where he was pointing and saw several dancing flames within the thick, ashen air . The flames were undulating in the air, then burned up into a large fire. It wasn’t such a strange sight in this environment.

“...Are those birds?”

“They look more like spirits to me...”

Clena and Rakti commented, and I stared at the bundle of flames one more time. The flames kept swaying up and down, showing no signs of dying out. I kept peering, and finally realized that they were pure red birds flapping their wings.

There were five of them. It looked like they had noticed us and were spreading their wings, approaching us. I finally grasped their full forms as they drew in closer to us.

The birds of Lemnos had wings made of fire. No wonder I mistook them for dancing flames from a distance.

They were a rare species of bird that lived exclusively on Mt. Lemnos and consumed fire to survive. They were very large, and with the way their wings were spread out, could have been even bigger than an eagle. They had keen eyesight and were extremely aggressive. No matter if the target was a human, ketolt, or red lizard, the birds would undoubtedly swoop down for an attack. That must have been the case now too, since they were flying toward us.

“Hide under a boulder, hurry!”

“Have your backs to the rock and strike them down once they approach!”

“There’s no boulders anywhere near!”

“Then face your backs to each other!”

Pardoe, Shakova, and Mark formed a circle, each of them covering the others’ blind spots. Since arrows wouldn’t be able to pierce those wings made of fire, this was the best plan of attack. Clena, Roni, and I also formed a circle so that we protected Rakti and Rium within. I was positioned so that I was directly facing the birds. Now was the time for some magic.

“Rulitora, come over here!” I called out to our only party member who hadn’t grouped up.

“No need... I can handle this myself!” However, he didn’t bother joining the circle with us and instead gripped his glaive, faced the birds, leaned forward with his tail outstretched, and dashed off. Before I could say anything, he let out a roar and leaped up toward the birds of Lemnos. He shot forth like an arrow with his glaive in his hands. Not just like any arrow, but like a giant missile fired from a ballista.

He pierced one bird that was right in front of him, then used the glaive’s hilt and a swing of his tail to take down another two. He landed and finished off the two birds that were still squirming on the ground. The remaining two used the opportunity to swoop down behind him, but he quickly spun around and swung his right arm with the glaive in hand. The heavy blade slashed one of the birds right in half, but the other one narrowly dodged the attack. It then flew right at Rulitora’s chest, but didn’t make it in time. At the same moment, Rulitora’s left hand swung around right in tune with his right and grabbed a hold of the bird. He gripped the bird’s head and raised it up high, then using his thick fingers and sharp claws, crushed it right inside his hand. The bird of Lemnos squirmed around for a moment, but eventually fell limp, and its wing-shaped flames died out as well.

I looked at him from behind, his thorny armor made from the shell of a giant scorpion filling my vision. My Magic Eater may have looked daunting, but his armor was no better. I had thought I’d gotten pretty strong recently, but I was still nowhere near a match for him.

“...Wait, you were grabbing something that was on fire!” I finally realized, then ran over to him. “Rulitora, is your hand okay?”

“Huh? Oh, that was nothing.”

“Let me see.”

He showed me the hand he had used to grab the bird of Lemnos, but the amber-colored scales that covered his hands only looked a little sooty. It had no burn wounds at all.

“...That’s amazing.”

“The void was still hotter than this,” Rulitora said, then let out a big laugh. The sand lizardmen were yet another species highly resistant to heat.

We progressed farther, battling the occasional monster along the way, until we gradually stopped seeing signs of life.

“Sir Touya, there’s a strange scent in the air.”

“I haven’t noticed anything, but... I’ll take your word for that, Roni.”

Roni was the first one to notice the scent. We were finally nearing the region with the poisonous gas. Roni had picked up on it with her sharp sense of smell.

“Clena, shall we get started?”

“Alright. I don’t want to breathe in any of that at all.”

I agreed. Since Roni was the only one who could notice the scent, we were still far enough from it to be affected at all, but poison gas was something we wanted to avoid at all costs.

“Everyone, gather ’round!”

I opened the door to my Unlimited Bath, filled a large barrel with water, and had Rulitora carry it. Clena would use the water from this barrel for her water veil. We had proactively kept Clena away from battles for this purpose, and Roni as her guard.

Rulitora crouched down with the barrel, then Clena drew her sword that was supposedly once owned by the Dark Prince and stuck the tip into the water. She then chanted a spell, and mist shot out from the barrel to form a film of water around us. The protective barrier was almost perfectly transparent, and I couldn’t tell it was there without looking closely. However, once I stuck a finger out from my gauntlet-covered hand, it pierced the barrier and formed two streams of water on either side. The veil of water was indeed there.

“The veil is centered around me, so don’t step too far away from me. Especially you, Touya! You wouldn’t even notice if you touched the veil with that armor on, so stay close!”

She was absolutely right. The only reason I knew my finger was piercing the water right now was because I could see it with my eyes. I couldn’t feel it at all. There weren’t any monsters around here, so I might as well just stick close to her.

“I’ll be here...” Rium had climbed up Rulitora’s back and perched herself on one end of a frame that he was using to carry the barrel. The heat had been beating down on her, so she must have wanted to stay near the cool water. The water would slowly drain from the barrel while the veil was in place, and it would disappear as soon as the water ran out. If we weren’t paying attention to the water level and the veil cut off while we were surrounded by poison gas, it’d be all over for us. It’d be smart to have someone keep watch.

“Tell us if the water is about to run out, okay?”

“...Okay.”

It’d be too cruel to make Rium keep walking, so I thought we’d make her keep watch on the water instead, but there was no energy left in her voice. She must have been incredibly tired.

“...Rulitora, can you handle one more?”

“No problem.”

“Rakti, sit on the other side and keep watch on the water as well.”

“Understood! Leave it to me!”

It’d be risky to leave the task to just Rium right now, so I decided to have Rakti join as well. She looked happy to be given an order as her eyes sparkled with a beaming smile. Meanwhile, Rium wasn’t saying another word. She must have realized how tired she was.

“Go ahead and rest, Rium.”

We should let her take a break for now. We would need her after we located the demon generals’ hideout. Her knowledge as a crystal mage would be vital to investigate it. I rubbed her cheek after telling her to rest, and she nodded with a comfortable expression.

We progressed farther under the water veil until we arrived at the top of a small hill. Looking down, we finally got a grasp on the environment the demon generals were hiding in. There was a basin at the foot of the hill where all the gas had been collecting. We were already surrounded by a yellowish haze, but the basin was an even thicker yellow. The poison gas was heavier than the air and inflammable.

It felt like we were standing above the clouds right now, color aside. Our current location was the “best” in the surrounding environment. From here, we could cross into the basin. The three other directions surrounding us were steep mountain walls. So this was what the king had meant by saying that the area was surrounded by cliffs. We saw the shadow of a rocky mountain cliff from one of the farthest ends of the hill. We could see it from here since we were above the basin of gas, but traveling there on foot would take at least a day. And even if we could shield ourselves from the poison gas, we would grow tired before then. So it was visible, but impossible to reach. It was a perfect taunt from the demon generals.

It made sense why no one had been able to travel that far in all these years. The only ways you could cross were either by having a body immune to the gas, flying through this environment, or using some technique to shield yourself from the gas. Not only that, you needed to find the hideout before getting tired.

“How’s the water level?” I asked.

“About halfway...?”

“...A little more than that.”

Rakti stretched herself upward to take a look, while Rium tried to look while seated on the frame, even though her feet weren’t touching the ground. Don’t push yourself, Rium.

“How’s your MP, Clena?”

“I’m nowhere near done yet.”

She still seemed fine. She wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue in her expression, either.

I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath and let everyone inside. Since we were cut off from the outside world in here, the water veil would disappear once we shut the door, but the poison gas wouldn’t enter either. This was one other way we’d be protected from the poison gas during our journey. I replenished the water in the barrel and decided that we take a break before heading out again. We could have Clena cast the veil spell, then fill in the gaps in the door as we opened it and keep any gas from getting in.

We wouldn’t be able to reach the hideout with my Unlimited Bath alone. Clena’s water veil wasn’t enough by itself, either. However, we could make it through the gas-filled basin with our powers combined. The water veil would shield us from the poison gas, and my Unlimited Bath would provide safety and relief so that we wouldn’t run out of energy. We had brought more than enough food with us. We would slowly but surely reach the demon generals’ hideout.

It had been three days since we descended down the hill into the basin of gas, and we’d learned a few things since. For one, this yellowish poison gas affected not only creatures, but plants as well. No normal plants were growing in the area. There was only some sort of moss or mildew spread out on the ground and rocks, as well as a type of mushroom that I could only describe as enoki mushrooms with awfully long stems.

The caps of the long enoki mushrooms spread out wide and scattered the yellow mist, which made me realize what role these mushrooms served in this basin. At first I had thought they were spores, but in that case, they shouldn’t have been floating within the gas for a long time like they were. The giant enoki mushrooms were indeed scattering the poison gas around.

The water veil could shield against gas, but it was effectively useless against physical contact. We had to be careful to not let any mushrooms touch our veil. We wouldn’t be able to do anything against spores getting inside. In fact, we had messed up on the first day and I had to use an antidote spell to dissolve a poisonous spore, but let’s forget about that.

The gas blocked our view like a heavy mist, so we advanced purely following the faint light of the sun and the silhouette of the cliff in the distance. Clena could only hold the water veil up for about half a day, considering our need to replenish the water and keep up her stamina. Her MP wouldn’t be able to hold up for longer bouts of time.

As a result, we rested for half a day each day and made our way slowly but surely toward our goal. The ketolts could use the fire altar inside my Unlimited Bath in the meantime, so they were grateful. Rulitora set up a tent in the yard to sleep in, a fair distance away from the bath. The ketolts wanted to utilize the fire altar as much as possible, so they ended up hanging around Rulitora in the meantime. Mark was using his off hours to practice mending the old equipment under Shakova’s guidance.

Unsurprisingly, no monsters lived in the basin, so the rest of us besides Clena just needed to keep walking throughout the day, and we had plenty of energy to spare. On top of that, the gas blocked out most of the sun’s rays and it was much cooler here than it was before.

The one issue that had caught us off guard was using the restroom. My Unlimited Bath had no toilet, so during our travels up until now, we had simply relieved ourselves in some secluded area. However, we couldn’t stray outside the water veil now. We had no choice but to open the door to the Unlimited Bath and drape a tarp over it for privacy whenever someone needed to go. Far from a pleasant camping experience. Clena extended the reach of her water veil in those situations, but I couldn’t blame her. Her reasons were more than valid.

Anyway, for the past three days, my primary job had become taking care of Clena whenever she became exhausted from using up her MP to the last drop. At the end of the third day, we put on our yuamigi to refresh ourselves in the bath. Rulitora and the three ketolts hated hot water, but they still stank, so I made them at least wash themselves with cold water. Pardoe was the most reluctant of them all, but he promised to follow my orders during this journey, so he was sullenly washing the sweat off himself right now. Shakova said that he couldn’t remember the last time Pardoe had looked so white. Just how much had he avoided baths before? I felt like I could relate a little to Crissa now.

As for me, I was currently washing Clena’s hair in the bathing room.

“Ahh... I feel alive again...” Her relaxed voice echoed off the walls.

I felt like I had gotten better at washing hair lately, maybe because I had started doing it every day. I made sure to massage her scalp as well.

It was Roni’s job to scrub her body. She didn’t completely object to me doing it, but it still made her tense. I would have been more than willing—happy, even—to just wash her back, but Roni liked washing Clena’s back as well, so I left it to her.

“Whenever you wash my hair, Touya... it feels so nice that I start getting sleepy...” Clena murmured slowly. Her head was drooping as she gradually nodded off.

I knew how she was feeling since I had gone through it myself before as well. The mental fatigue of wearing out your MP really brought her into a daze. She probably couldn’t think straight right now.

“You can go ahead and sleep, but I’ll have to touch you.” If she really were to fall asleep right now, I would need to support her.

“That’s fine, but... I need to hold off until after the bath.”

“Alright, then keep yourself awake for now.” She just said it was fine for me to touch her.

“Be my lap pillow after we get out of the bath...”

She had been requesting lap pillows more often lately. I was enjoying this spoiled and defenseless side of her, not to mention getting to stroke her silver hair as she slept.

“It’ll be my pleasure.”

“That’s a promise...” A goofy smile formed on her face at my reply.

She did her best to stay awake while Roni washed her body after that, but finally reached her limit after we started soaking in the bath and dozed off. Her fatigue must have built up over the past three days. I moved in to support her before her face fell into the water.

We had already been soaking for a good ten minutes, so I carried her outside the bath. I could feel her voluptuous breasts pressing against my back and her plump thighs against my arms. There were some perks to this deal.

Roni also got out of the bath after that. She had probably predicted that this would happen and finished cleaning herself quickly while I was washing Clena’s hair. It would probably be bad for me to dry her off and dress her while she was sleeping. I left that to Roni and instead headed back inside the bathing room.

As soon as I re-entered, Rium and Rakti came running over and clung on to me with their bodies still covered in soap suds. They had been holding themselves back while I was taking care of our VIP Clena, but they took the opportunity as soon as they saw her leave the bath. Rium was normally shy around people she didn’t know, yet she let so much of her guard down around anyone she opened up to. Clena was too bashful to let me wash her body, but Rium had absolutely no problem with it. In fact, I was her first choice. She said that her teacher and pseudo-grandmother Nartha was in second place, then Sera and Haruno took up third and fourth place. I was both happy and embarrassed that she had placed me above her own teacher. The difference between Sera and Haruno was that the former was like her mother, and the latter like her older sister. I could agree with her evaluation there.

On the other hand, Rakti let her guard down around everyone, had no street smarts, was a clumsy airhead, and made me worry just by watching her. I wasn’t too street smart in this world, but she was even worse. Yet she was so attached to me, and when I saw her innocent smile, I just couldn’t leave her be. It felt like I had a duty to take care of her. This feeling was something different from wanting to worship her as a goddess, but it was honestly how I felt. I had basically already taken her under my wing.

Now that we were here, I took the opportunity to wash the two of them. We soaked in the bath for a while after that, all huddled up. We then went to the wooden room, but found no sign of Clena or Roni being there. I could hear clangs of metal after straining my ears. Mark was probably working on mending that sword again. Rulitora was likely with him. All of the weapons we had found in Hadesopolis were too light for him, so he was in the midst of negotiating with Pardoe to have something new made.

Roni had probably carried Clena to the tatami-floored room to sleep, then gone to the kitchen to prepare for dinner. Though fake, Rakti was still a labor raver and had been learning how to do chores from Roni. She put on an apron to help Roni out.

“U-uuum, hmm?”

“Let me give you a hand, Rakti.”

She was already confusing herself just trying to tie the apron strings behind her, so I did it for her. I just can’t leave this girl be, I thought.

“Alright, I tied it for you. Now do your best.”

“Thank you very much!” Rakti happily gave me a hug, then a kiss on my cheek.

I gave her a kiss on the cheek back, then she skipped into the kitchen full of smiles, arms swaying. I saw her off, then tried to lead Rium to the tatami room with me, but she wouldn’t move an inch. I turned around to find her looking at me with upturned eyes, expecting something. She almost looked fine, but was actually holding back tears. This was the face she put on when she felt left out.

I stooped down in front of her and gave her kisses on both cheeks, which made her smile lightly and give me kisses in return. I tried leading her by the hand again, and this time she followed, satisfied. We entered the tatami room together.

“...You’re late.” Clena was lying on top of a blanket inside the room, awake after hearing us enter. She was pouting. She had probably already woken up once after she had been carried to this room.

“I’m sorry.”

“Come on, hurry up and be my lap pillow.”

I simply apologized and sat down beside her. She sluggishly moved her chin onto my legs, then turned around—and smushed her nose against my stomach. She was too close. She shifted position a little and tried turning over again.

Restoring MP required resting with peace of mind, and apparently this gave her the most peace of mind at the moment. She had tried using Roni as a lap pillow, but kept worrying if she was too heavy.

When I first heard that from her, I jokingly asked, “Then how about me?” She replied by saying “I’ll be fine if I imagine it’s just my boobs and butt that are making me heavy.” And to that, I had replied, “Don’t think of yourself like that. I can support all of your weight.”

I didn’t know if that was the reason specifically, but we had gotten closer since then. Clena said that she had finally found a place where she felt like she could belong. She had doubts on her possible half-demon identity, had abandoned her family and run away from home, and didn’t have anywhere else to go. She was thankful for me, but there were plenty of things we couldn’t have accomplished without Clena’s help as well, so the feeling was mutual.

Rium sat down and leaned against me, then opened up a book to read. It was a textbook on crystal magic. I had tried going through it once before, but couldn’t understand a word. It was a bit of a surreal sight to see a girl as young as her reading such a difficult book. I didn’t want to lose to her, though. I opened up my cleric magic textbook to study. Clena would start sulking if I didn’t pay attention to her, so I rested the book on the blanket and used my free hand to play with her hair.

“Your hair’s gotten even prettier lately.”

“It’s all thanks to your soap.”

That made me feel pretty proud. The soap born from my MP was making her and all the other girls prettier.

“You know how we found all those jewels and accessories in Hadesopolis?”

“Yeah, what about them?”

“I think your hair is prettier than all of them.”

All the other girls had nicer hair now, but Clena’s stood out above them all. Her shiny, glossy silver hair was a sight to behold.

“...You say some pretty ridiculous things sometimes.”

“I’m serious. Though I admit it’s also rare for me, since people didn’t have silver hair in the other world.”

“...Thank you,” she said, then turned around again and buried her face into my stomach. She gripped the edge of my pajamas and didn’t budge after that.

Apparently she had gotten embarrassed. She probably didn’t want me to see her blushing. I didn’t say a word and just stroked her hair. I think I had a huge grin on my face right now.

“......”

I felt a gaze coming from Rium’s direction, so I turned around to find her still leaning against me, but looking up with a pleading expression. I wasn’t in the proper position to stroke her hair right now, but I could wrap my arm around her shoulders and give her a hug. That made her drop her book and lean all her weight against me, putting her in the perfect position for me to bury myself in her hair and rub my cheek against her head. She responded in kind by rubbing her cheeks into my chest.

“Hey, let me join too.” Clena sat up while we were messing around and gave me a hug as well. She would normally have been too embarrassed to do something like this, but she was acting more bold now under the pretense of healing her fatigued mind with peace and comfort.

Clena’s weight made all of us fall onto the blanket. We continued playing around for a while afterward, then eventually fell asleep. We continued sleeping until Roni and Rakti came over to get us for dinner. My alarm clock was Rakti’s flying body slam of jealously against the other girls. It surprisingly didn’t hurt, either because Rakti was so light or because I had gotten a bit more tough.

The next day, we once again set out from the Unlimited Bath under the guidance of the faint sun and the cliff’s silhouette. We took a break and refilled our water a little before noon, and then after walking for about another hour, we encountered a shadow distinct from the cliff’s.

“What’s that?”

“I can hear something... is it an earthquake?”

There was a low tremor beyond the barrier of our water veil. We would normally have Rulitora scout out the area ahead, but that wasn’t possible now with all the poison gas. For the time being, we had no choice but to stay alert and keep walking.

We hid ourselves in the shade of a nearby boulder and slowly approached the shadow until its silhouette barely came into view. It was fairly large—about the size of an elephant.

“I-is that a...?!” Roni was the first to recognize the silhouette’s shape. She readied her sword and stood in front of Clena. It was a magic short sword, one of the many weapons we had retrieved from Hadesopolis.

Pardoe and the other ketolts had their hammers in hand. You could tell they were alarmed from the way their tails pointed upward. I couldn’t blame them for that reaction, though. If I had a tail, that would have been my instinct, too. Rakti was the only one looking ahead with her eyes glistening in wonder.

“Is that... a dragon...?!”

Yes, the shadow formed the shape of a dragon. Scales covered its gigantic body. It might have been a dinosaur too, but I opted for the more fantasy-like possibility.

It had a wide and stout torso, a short neck, and a huge head. Its arms and legs were also short and stout, making it seem slow—almost like a hippopotamus. Though it had an even larger chin than a hippopotamus would. Its chin was the largest feature on its head, drooping all the way down to the ground. It was moving slowly right now because it was eating the enoki mushrooms. Still, it must have possessed amazing strength purely from being able to hold its head up. The scales on its body were covered in moss.

We continued watching it from the shade of the boulder. The dragon slowly ate up the giant enoki mushrooms growing off the rocks.

“...Is it eating up the entire rock, too?”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”

Just as Rulitora said, the dragon was gulping down entire rocks along with the enoki mushroom it was munching on.

“It sure sounds like that, too.”

The crunching sounds as the dragon chewed on the rocks and mushrooms were impressively loud. Its jaw was strong enough to easily break down entire boulders. Its teeth must have been incredibly sturdy as well.

“...Look at that, Touya.” Rium was pointing to the dragon’s back. Six protrusions ran along its spine. They looked like horns at first, but I noticed that yellow fumes were puffing out the tip of each one. Each protrusion looked like a chimney.

“Is that poison gas coming out of there?”

“...Spores, probably.”

“Spores? You mean from the mushrooms? Don’t tell me that dragon’s a mushroom, too?”

So it looked like a dragon, but was actually a plant? I thought that might have been within the realm of possibility for monsters here, but Rium shook her head.

“I read about it in a book before... There are some monsters that can change their environment to suit their own needs...”

“...I see.” That dragon was exactly one of those types of monsters. It could spread spores and make the mushrooms thrive, and was the very cause of all the poison gas in this basin.

According to Rium, the dragons in this world were a variety of monsters that could alter their environments in various ways. Even if this was a plant monster, calling it a “dragon” would have been accurate considering it had the power to turn this basin into a poison gas dump.

That would explain a few other things, too. For example, how the demon general managed to find a hideout under such perfect conditions. The location seemed like it had almost been custom-made. I had wondered how they’d managed to find this place, but it was a different story if some being had created it for them. If that dragon had the power to change its environment, then all the person at the hideout had to do was set it off into the basin. The dragon would diligently spread the spores and fill the basin with poison gas. And just like that, this somewhat obscure mountain hideout transformed into an impregnable stronghold. The only question was how they had managed to lure the dragon along, but considering this was a demon general we were talking about, they must have found a way.

And then the dragon suddenly stopped moving. It slowly looked around, then stopped again in one direction. No good, it was looking at us. We braced ourselves to start running at any second, but then heard an abrupt blast, and the top half of the boulder we were hiding under got blown to smithereens.

“Wh-what was that?!”

“They were rocks! It shot rocks from its mouth!”

“You mean the ones it was eating with the mushroom just now?!”

Rulitora had managed to follow what just transpired. The dragon had stopped and stared at us, then spat out several rocks it had just been chewing up in our direction. The power of the blast was enough to pulverize the upper half of our boulder. Even a shotgun couldn’t compare.

We had underestimated it. Its sluggish movements made us assume we could run away anytime with time to spare. The water veil protected us against the poison gas, but it was ineffective against physical damage. We’d be goners if the barrage of rocks hit the barrier.

“We’re running away!”

“Got it!”

Fortunately the lower half of the boulder we were hiding under was still intact. The dragon had also fired off all the rocks it had been chewing, so there shouldn’t have been any left in its mouth now. Using the boulder as our shield, we could gain some distance and then retreat inside the Unlimited Bath.

...Is what we thought, but the next moment, the lower half of the boulder also got blown to smithereens. I quickly used my Magic Eater to shield everyone against the blast. The armor prevented me from taking any damage against the rocks, but I could feel my MP seeping away.

“What did it shoot out this time?!”

“The same as last time!”

“Rocks? Were there still some left in its mouth?”

“Touya, its jaw...!”

“Wait a minute!” I finally realized from Rium’s words. The barrage of rocks would be the strongest and fastest weapon for this enormous, sluggish dragon. Not to mention its giant, heavy jaw. It had the ability to chew up and store rocks inside its jaw whenever it ate those mushrooms, so that it could shoot them back out at any time. Or maybe it used rocks as its weapon because it had that kind of jaw in the first place, but that was a “what came first” kind of question.

“Tsk! Summon spirit!” I noticed it was preparing for another attack and pressed my left foot into the ground, summoning earth spirits from the sole of my foot. A wall of dirt shot up before us, which I compressed until it turned black. The sound of multiple rocks slamming against the wall arose not a moment later. The wall was dense enough to protect us against this first wave, but it wouldn’t hold up against more streams of attacks. We were trapped. There no way we could escape the rocks now.

We had two choices. Either defeat the dragon right here and now, or escape inside the Unlimited Bath. I didn’t know whether it was by sight or sound, but it managed to detect our presence while we were hiding behind the boulder. And it attacked us without any provocation, maybe because this was its territory. Even if we hid inside the Unlimited Bath for now, it might chase us down again now that it recognized us as enemies. In that case, we’d have to constantly stay on guard against a possible bombardment of flying rocks from beyond the thick veil of gas. We’d have to defeat it right now. Our options were limited inside this water veil, but we had to do something.

First, I summoned earth spirits from the ground, formed several black spears, and threw them in the direction I estimated the dragon to be. In the next moment, I heard an anguished roar. Bull’s-eye. Now I knew that physical attacks worked against this thing.

The dragon picked up its attacks, probably angry now. My wall looked like it was about to break, so I summoned another black wall to cover us. But its attacks were powerful. The new wall formed cracks in an instant, almost collapsing from the barrage.

This didn’t look good. Its attacks were faster than mine. Unless I could handle both firing my spells off and defending against the attacks on my own, we’d eventually be overwhelmed. I had considered having Rulitora and the others put up their shields as well, but even my wall couldn’t hold up against that attack, so what could a few shields do?

I had just one option left. I summoned one more black wall, then used fire cleric magic to shoot a ball of fire off in another direction and made it explode, drawing the dragon’s attention. Just as I had planned, the barrage of rocks ceased. I couldn’t tell because of the wall between us, but the dragon was probably looking in another direction right now. Now was my chance.

“Clena, I’ll leave the veil to you!”

“Huh? Wait!”

Before she could react, I jumped away in the opposite direction I had fired the explosion. I crossed the water veil’s barrier into the sea of poison gas. This wasn’t just some desperate attempt. The poison gas was nothing to me right now.

A white light glowing from one of the horns on my helmet scattered away the poison gas as I ran. This was the antidote spell I had used to nullify the poison spores once before.

Yes, I was conjuring an antidote from my helmet’s horn and using it to erase the poison gas around me. From the outside, I must have looked like I was spouting a white flame from my horn.

I drew a large arc to make sure the dragon wouldn’t hit the black wall as I approached it. The dragon noticed my presence and fired another barrage of rocks, but thanks to the Magic Eater, I didn’t feel it one bit. In exchange, I felt my MP diminishing more and more. When I drew even closer, I noticed that my spears had pierced its stomach. The spears were already broken, but blood was streaming out of its belly. Now this was a matter of which would run out sooner—my MP or its life.

I was the faster one at this range. I grabbed the hilt of my Crescent Moon magic axe, ran to the dragon’s flank, and before it could turn around to look at me, leaped toward its ribcage.

“Eat this!” I swung my Crescent Moon down with all my might. My axe was met with tough resistance, but the swing managed to slice across the dragon’s side. Blue blood sprayed into the air, and at the same time a deafening roar pierced my eardrums.

The dragon immediately pointed its jaw in my direction, shooting out a stream of rocks, but before that I circled around to its tail and avoided the attack. Fortunately, its tail was also similar to a hippo’s in that it didn’t have enough power to knock a human down even as it swung around. I kept slashing at it, then circling around behind it. This would be an easy victory... or so I wished. After I swung at its right leg, it focused its attention on something other than me.

“Screech!”

Maybe because my figure was completely out of its sight, it started preparing an attack against something still—the black dirt wall I had set up before jumping out of the water veil. Perhaps it was just trying to vent its anger onto something nearby, but if it broke down the dirt wall, then Clena and the rest would be subject to the dragon’s attacks.

The water veil wouldn’t do a thing against an onslaught of rocks. Even Rulitora wouldn’t be able to hold up against it. Unfortunately, my slash at its side wasn’t enough to bring down this elephant-sized monster.

“Oh no you don’t!” There was only one thing I could do. I jumped in front of the rock barrage, turning my own body into a shield. As long as I could protect my eyes, the Magic Eater would absorb all the damage in exchange for my MP. I felt the lethargy seep in as my MP was gradually shaved off. But I was the only thing that could act as a shield right now, so dodging wasn’t an option.

My helmet was enveloped in a white flame, the cleric spell “antidote.” This allowed me to move freely within the poison gas, but it was consuming my MP as well. I could tell my MP was draining fast. It was a race between my MP and the dragon’s life—which would end first.

My offensive spells got their power from me pouring superhuman amounts of MP into basic spells. Of course, I couldn’t risk using them now. It was the equivalent of shortening my own lifespan.

I was in front of the dragon’s face now after turning into a shield, so I used the chance to swing my Crescent Moon into its nose. It was fairly effective, as the dragon roared and bent backward.

“Now’s my chance!” I slashed at the dragon’s tender neck now that it was fully exposed. The blood that spurt out disappeared as soon as it touched the white flame surrounding my helmet. Since it was reacting to the antidote, the blood must have been poisonous as well.

In any case, the cut on its throat seemed to have done a good number on it. It wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore, which meant it couldn’t use its lungs to blast another barrage of rocks at me. I slashed at its throat again after realizing that, making it writhe in agony.

“Whoa?!”

I thought this would be the end for the dragon, but then it slammed its large chin down at me like a hammer. I jumped to the side and just barely dodged the attack. It then tried to step on me, but I rolled back on the ground to avoid it.

“Summon spirit!!” I immediately stood back up and summoned earth spirits to raise the ground below me, forming a slope toward the dragon’s back.

Attacks on its neck were effective. I couldn’t aim for its throat anymore with its chin in the way, but next I’d try aiming for its neck from behind. If it had a spine, then attacks there should be potent as well.

I used the conductors at my feet to control the ground, riding the slope like a wave at breakneck speeds until I jumped onto the dragon’s back. Then, I swung my Crescent Moon down with all my might at its medulla, assuming it had one. A moment later, the dragon started convulsing wildly as blue blood spouted out from the open wound.

My swing met some resistance. It was softer than I had expected, as the axe sliced past its scales into its meat, but it couldn’t cut through bone.

Crap, I’d be shaken off at this rate. I desperately clung to the dragon’s back, kneeling down to maintain balance. I raised my Crescent Moon in an attempt to finish the dragon off, but couldn’t put strength into my arms like this. My Magic Eater could protect me against damage from a fall, but all the MP in the world wouldn’t be enough to guard me from what might happen if I fell near the panicking dragon’s feet. Or maybe I could jump off myself and try to gain some ground? I started loosening my grip at that thought, but then an idea suddenly sprung to mind. One thing could completely turn the tables in this situation. It wasn’t too late to try this out.

This would be my last attack. I mustered up all the strength in my body, then slammed my head into the dragon’s neck. The loudest roar yet resounded in the air. It sounded like a death cry to me.

I had stuck my head into the wound in the dragon’s neck, which was still spurting blood. The antidote that was still wafting out from my horn purified and erased any poison. And this dragon’s blood was poisonous. If you had questioned what would happen if I applied antidote to this open wound, this was the answer.

“Disappear!!”

My vision was all blue beyond the white light after sticking my head into the wound, but I didn’t flinch and kept clinging to the dragon’s back, pouring all my MP into casting the antidote spell. The poison was the dragon’s own form of vitality. I kept purifying it, making it vanish. This was even in an area close to the dragon’s head. If this didn’t kill it, then it shouldn’t have counted as a living being in the first place.

Sure enough, the dragon’s cries eventually died down as it toppled over like a giant string had snapped, making the ground rumble. That sent me flying to the ground. The impact was absorbed by my Magic Eater, but I couldn’t put any more strength into my body. I hadn’t noticed at all during the fight, but my physical strength ran out before my MP did. My breathing was ragged and I couldn’t move an inch.

Now I was in an even bigger pinch than before. If I lost consciousness, my antidote would stop working. That would leave me entirely exposed to the sea of poison gas. I had to get back to Clena somehow.

“No...!” I somehow managed to stand up, but couldn’t put strength into my legs and was about to topple over again. However, a pair of strong arms lifted me up before that could happen. It was Rulitora.

“Good work, Sir Touya.”

I looked around me and noticed the gas was gone. I had entered the water veil again without realizing it.

“...I see, so you guys got here first...”

The water veil followed Clena’s movements. Maybe they had noticed from the dragon’s death cry or from the sound of it toppling to the ground, but they had come over to retrieve me. Pardoe and the others used water from the barrel to clean the poison from my armor, then stripped it off me. Roni made me drink some water while I looked at Rakti, who was about to cry, and Rium, who was already crying. I slowly realized that I had managed to return alive.

“Oh no...”

The moment I let myself relax, both the mental and physical exhaustion took its toll on me. If I let myself continue, this would become a repeat of the aftermath of the battle against Goldfish, where everyone else couldn’t recover themselves in the Unlimited Bath until I woke up again.

“Open...!” I used the last drop of my power to open the door to the Unlimited Bath, and as soon as I confirmed it was open, let my consciousness slip away.

And then in my dream, the Goddess of Light doted on me with a face brimming with smiles. She hugged me tight the entire time, refusing to let go. She seemed awfully pleased by the fact that I had used light cleric magic to defeat the dragon.

“Where am I...?” When I woke up again, I was inside the tatami room in the Unlimited Bath. They had carried me here after I fainted. They had changed me into pajamas, too. I guessed that Roni had done it for me.

“...Hm?”

The buttons on my shirt were off by one. So Rakti had helped, too. A smile formed on my face as I imagined her clumsily trying to button me up.

I stepped out of the bedroom into the hallway that doubled as our storage room and met eyes with Roni. Her eyes grew round as soon as she saw me, then they started forming tears, and finally she leaped into my chest, overcome with emotion.

“Sir Touyaaa!”

I braced myself and supported her weight. Alright, my feet were steady. It looked like I had recovered just fine after sleeping.

I buried my face into her frizzy cream-colored hair that smelled of shampoo, hugged her tight, and patted her head. Since she had recently gained an understudy by the name of Rakti, she was acting more like a proper servant lately, and rarely put her raw emotions on display like this. I used the opportunity to pamper her as much as I could right now.

The others noticed the voices and started filtering in one by one. Roni realized how she was acting and tried to get away, but I wouldn’t let her. Then Rakti jumped onto us, making it even harder for Roni to peel herself off of me. Rium circled around behind me and jumped onto my back. I could still maintain my posture even with the three of them clinging onto me, which was a sign of how much stronger I had gotten. Maybe it was just my character to pay more mind to something like this over killing a dragon.

Clena didn’t cling on to me, but I could tell that she was getting a little teary-eyed. Rulitora looked even more like he was about to burst into tears, though. I had gotten good at discerning the facial expressions of sand lizardmen lately.

“I’m so glad you woke up, I really am...”

“You’re exaggerating... well, maybe not. How long was I out for?”

“Two days.”

“Two days, huh...”

Rulitora answered my question. I had been even more exhausted than I thought. Had I not opened the door to the Unlimited Bath before passing out, Clena would have run out of energy and our entire party would have been done for.

“We could still use the Unlimited Bath, and Rakti said you’d be fine, but...”

“Sorry for making you worry.”

“I don’t want to say we had no choice, but we really had no choice. We couldn’t have continued the expedition without taking care of that.”

“And we didn’t have many other options for taking it down.”

I had honestly braced myself for them getting angry at me for doing something so rash, but both Clena and Rulitora had realized that we had no other options at the time. If I never woke up again, though, they’d have been stuck within this poison gas forever. I needed to apologize for making them worry about that.

Even the ketolts held off from using the fire altar to give my MP some rest. That being said, they hadn’t just sat around doing nothing these past two days. Clena expanded the water veil to encompass the dragon’s corpse, then they began dissecting it.

“We got our hands on some purretty rare goods!” Shakova said, then held out a star-shaped scale about the size of my palm.

I accepted it and saw that it was faintly transparent. I flicked it with my fingers and it made a hard sound, like a mineral. I held it up to the light, which made it look almost like jade.

“...Is this really one of that dragon’s scales?” I asked in awe.

“It really is. I was surprised too when I first cleaned one up.” Mark nodded with a meek expression. It was initially dark and dull from the poison gas and mushroom spores, but after putting on a pair of gloves and washing it, the scale showed its true colors.

I couldn’t believe it. That slow, elephant-sized dragon that looked like a hippo had actually been adorned these beautiful scales that could pass for jewels. Since it was as big as an elephant, they had managed to collect a huge amount of scales. They were still in the middle of washing them.

“We gathered sooo many, meow!” Shakova was hopping around in joy. I could understand how he was feeling. Since he loved flashy things so much, this was the best possible thing for us to find.

Mark sat next to him, sighing. He must have been depressed, thinking about how many they still needed to clean. I wanted to help, since it seemed like they had a lot of work remaining, but apparently cleaning these scales required a delicate touch, and they wouldn’t let the rest of us participate.

“By the way, can you use magic again yet?”

“Hm? Ohh, I think so.”

“Just one spell. We’re still in the middle of dissecting this, so you need to rest up in the meantime.”

I was about to take on whatever request Pardoe had for me, but Clena interrupted. I felt perfectly fine already, but Clena was forcing me to rest again after fulfilling Pardoe’s request.

“So what would you like me to do?”

“We’d like you to purrify the dragon’s corpse.”

“Purify it?”

“We heard there were purrification spells among cleric magic.”

There indeed were—a light one and a fire one. I only knew the light one right now, though.

“We got all the scales off it, but the rest of its rotten flesh might turn it into a zombie dragon.”

“...It can turn into a zombie?”

“It had so much vitality that it’ll definitely start moving again even after it’s dead.”

Since undead skeletons existed in this world, I shouldn’t have been surprised that zombie dragons existed, too. Now I understood why Clena was letting me cast one spell before resting again. I needed to purify the dragon’s corpse before it could turn into a zombie. I was still in my pajamas, but it would be fine to step out to cast a single spell. We couldn’t go outside without the water veil, so I followed Clena’s lead and exited the Unlimited Bath.

“......Ugh.”

I didn’t want to describe it. The scene right beyond the door was doing no good for my mental well-being. Though it couldn’t be helped after all its scales had been stripped off of it.

I didn’t want to look at it for any longer than I had to, so I started casting the spell right away. I stuck my hands out toward the dragon’s corpse, then started chanting the light purification spell like a prayer. A bright light formed a circle around the corpse, grew to the size of a pillar, and engulfed the entire corpse.

“Purification complete!”

The spell ran its course, and after the light faded away, all that remained was the dragon’s bones. The bones weren’t part of the purification process, but they wouldn’t be reanimated like skeletons now, either.

“Ohh! Look at all the purretty bones! I thought they’d be burnt to a crisp after the purrification!” Pardoe exclaimed in joy after seeing the remains of the dragon.

The fire purification spell was essentially the equivalent of cremation. It really would have burned everything to a crisp, so that spell wouldn’t have left all these bones intact. I had assumed I only needed to learn one purification spell, and I was glad that ended up being the light one. The Goddess of Fire had also agreed, though hesitantly, to my suggestion, which must have been because she knew that that would have happened as well.

In any case, we needed to carry all these bones inside. We’d be safe as soon as we shut the door to the Unlimited Bath. Clena could put her water veil away and take a break as well.

“Alright then, let’s carry them inside.”

“Sir Touya, let me take care of that.”

“Yes, Touya, go rest.”

I tried to help, but Rulitora and Clena stopped me.

“No, you need to take a break too, Clena. You had your water veil out the whole time they were collecting the scales, right?”

“I’ll take a break right after we finish this.”

“We’re only transporting them inside, so it won’t take long,” Rulitora said, then swiftly picked up the entire dragon skull. I see, so it really wouldn’t take long with him around.

The three ketolts also adorably picked up a bone each, hauling them inside with a heave-ho. They’d all be fine. I went ahead inside to lie down in the tatami mat room.

“...I don’t smell, right?” I could detect a bit of a rotten stench from my clothes, so I changed into a set of spare pajamas just in case. All I needed to do now was lie down on the futon, but I devised a little plan before that.

It wasn’t anything major. All I did was place two pillows right next to each other on the futon and lay down on the edge of it. Clena would come here to rest after she finished her work outside. I wanted to play a little trick to see how she would react to the open space right next to me.

“......”

“...Wanna sleep here?”

She nodded in reply... Rium, that is. The one who ended up getting caught in my trap was Rium, who arrived before Clena and snuggled into bed next to me. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t see Clena’s reaction, but cuddling Rium to sleep was hardly a bad outcome, either. This was a sure way to heal my mind back to tip-top condition. And this was a secret, but when I woke up the next day, I found Clena sleeping next to us, huddled up in another futon she laid out herself.