Second Bath – Water Vapor Is an Explosion

We had planned on spending some relaxing time off at a cabin filled with family-friendly fun close to the sea, but then the self-proclaimed Cosmos landed his ship at the port right next to us.

“...Hey, is it okay for you to not go say hi to that Cosmos guy?”

I had pondered what I should do for a while, but couldn’t think of any reason why I actually needed to greet him, so I just went back inside to take a bath with everyone and go to bed. Thus, right now I was peacefully washing Roni’s hair. She was normally put-together, but when it came time to wash her hair, she melted into a puddle of smiles and let herself be spoiled silly.

I wasn’t escaping from reality or anything. You could barely count our points of interest on one hand. We neither hated each other enough to say “I’ll murder you!” and get in a fight, nor were close enough to say “Hey, it’s been a while!” and rekindle an old friendship. I was a “Hero of the Goddess” and he was a “Hero of the Sacred King,” but that was only because a tiny group of people labeled us as such. Hardly a reason for either of us to pick a fight with the other. Well, I was sure he’d been notified that I was in this city thanks to our plans with the auction house, but he had no reason to come find me either. Probably.

“There’s no reason why I need to go meet him. Sure, we’re from the same place, but we only met each other after being summoned at the same time.”

“Uh-huh...” Clena mumbled as she rested her chin on her hand at the edge of the bathtub.

“So what’ll you do if he comes to find you?”

“Roni, you’re so cute~”

“S-Sir Touya?!”

“Don’t change the subject on me!”

I dodged Clena’s question by hugging Roni from behind, but she immediately gave me a head chop with her hand.

“Well, I don’t really want to meet him, but I also don’t want to go into hiding or anything...”

“...It’s complicated, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s complicated.”

If he were an enemy, we’d already be readying ourselves for him, but Cosmos was a straight up “good guy” from what I’d heard. If you were to ask which of us had the most diligent and ambitious outlook as a hero, it would undoubtedly be him.

I started washing Rium’s hair next, and then Clena asked me a question with a suspicious expression. “...Hey, can I ask you something while we’re at it? It’s about your old world.”

“My old world? What about it?”

“Did you... ever have a girlfriend?”

“...Where did that come from?”

I figured she was reminded of something after I mentioned not knowing Cosmos back in my own world, but how did she arrive at the subject of girlfriends? On that note, my number of years without a girlfriend equaled my number of years alive. I didn’t want to talk about it.

“Because you seem used to it, Touya. Washing a girl’s hair, I mean.”

“Oh, that. Well, I am used to it.”

“So you did have a girlfriend...?”

“Nope.”

That wasn’t quite right. I was used to washing a girl’s hair, but the reason behind that just hadn’t come up in conversation before. Well, I wasn’t trying to hide it or anything. Now that it’d come up, I might as well talk about it.

“I had a little sister. She wasn’t able to do stuff like wash her hair by herself.”

Rium looked over at me, asking, “...Had?” She was sharp.

“She died from an illness three years ago. If she was still alive, I’d be frantically looking for a way to return to my old world right now.”

“I had no idea...” Roni said with an emotional expression. She looked like she might start crying any second now.

It was a huge shock to me when it happened, but I’d learned to deal with it. I noticed that Rakti had been staring at me as if she wanted to say something.

“What’s wrong, Rakti?”

“...Um, I was just thinking that you really were summoned using sister Light’s hero summoning ritual.”

“Hm? What do you mean by that?”

“Sister Light doesn’t summon anyone who doesn’t want to be summoned.”

“...Well, we were brought here without even being asked about it.”

“That’s not it. You can only be summoned if you fulfill certain conditions.”

“So there are a few requirements to becoming a hero?” Clena asked, leaning forward as if she had found interest in our conversation. I looked over at her to find a pair of bouncy balloons hanging from the edge of the tub, then quickly turned away.

Girls around Roni’s age still felt like a little sister to me, but that wasn’t the case with Clena. I had gotten more used to her recently, but she still caught me off guard sometimes like this. Clena noticed my behavior and stared straight at my back. She’d normally start making advances at me for some skin to skin contact at this point. I’d deal with that after we put on some clothes, but for now I needed to ignore her and keep talking.

“Uuhh, Rakti. What are those conditions for becoming a hero?”

“Oh, yes. Sister Light’s condition is that you have no lingering attachment to your previous world. Or at most a very small amount of attachment.”

“Lingering attachment...”

That was better than summoning anyone who was still attached to their old world, or should I say kinder. Thinking about it, that was certainly true for me. So was that also the case for Haruno and Cosmos?

I broke away from the conversation to focus on washing Rium’s hair. I rinsed the soap suds off with the showerhead, and then she shook her head like a puppy to splash the water away.

Next up was Rakti. She looked a little glum from our exchange about the summoning just now. I made sure to give her pretty black hair extra care, gently running my fingers through it.

Clena was last up. She was clearly still concerned about our earlier exchange as well. Not the summoning—the fact that I looked away from her just now.

“Come on, let me wash your hair.”

Clena leaned her warm body toward me, the flowery scent of her hair wafting through the air. I looked down behind me to see her cleavage heavily emphasized by her tight yuamigi.

“Oh, they’re touching your back.”

“So get away!” Thank god she was at least wearing something right now. I managed to finish washing her hair as she continued teasing me every so often.

However, our roles reversed as soon as we stepped out of the bath. We kept flirting around for a while... until Rakti jumped into the mix and made everything a little more rowdy. Our topic in the bath hadn’t been a very happy one, so everyone was probably trying to cheer me up. Clena and I exchanged glances, then smiled and sighed as we looked on at the girls. Being interrupted was a little unfortunate, but seeing everyone happy was most important.

After breakfast the next day, we set off to collect information. We had two goals: find out where to buy or commission a boat, and find out where the temple of the Goddess of Water was. We’d need to ask sailors for the former and fishermen for the latter, so we split up into two groups. There were apparently many ruffians among sailors, so Rulitora, Rakti, Rium, and I made up the first group. The rest of the party made up the latter team, led by Clena. We split up our two non-combatants, Rakti and Crissa, then put everyone who looked harmless on Clena’s team to deal with the fishermen’s families and the elderly. Rium had simply wanted to be on my team.

I strapped a tuna knife to my hip and had Rulitora dress in full armor so that even the ruffians wouldn’t try to pick a fight with us. Rakti was wearing her maid uniform, so she looked like our servant. No one would be left to watch our cabin, but I had everything stored in the Unlimited Bath anyway. We promised each other to return by sunset, then set out.

Now then, here was problem number one. If we wanted to find sailors this early in the morning, where should we go? This was a harder problem than I had expected. I’d heard voices singing from the city until late last night. Assuming that came from a tavern, the sailors must have been partying all through the night, and would be dead asleep right now. There were also sailors that embarked on ships early in the morning, but those ships departed at the brink of dawn. It would already be too late to go to the port now. So where should we be going to meet sailors?

“Alright then, let’s go to the raver market.”

Yes, the answer was the raver market. The majority of sailors were, in fact, employed ravers. Apparently many of them were former fishermen who didn’t inherit the family business, so they chose to sell themselves as sailor ravers to save up money to buy their own boat. If we wanted information on boats, it’d be best to ask the captains who owned one themselves. We were most likely to run into them in the raver market, where they’d be looking for crew to hire.

There were two raver markets in Neptunopolis—one in the elevated area and one in the coastal area. The elevated area’s market kept bodyguards and soldiers, while the coastal area’s market mainly kept sailors. Needless to say, we were heading to the coastal area’s market right now. The building sat in a block along the main road lined with merchant shops. The walls of the building were a light blue, speckled with white dots that formed the image of rolling waves. It was pretty small compared to the raver market in Jupiter. The building was no larger than the inns and pubs we had passed by so far.

We passed under a signboard that depicted a large ship, and the gazes of all the customers in the room promptly fell on us. Rakti hid herself behind me, while Rium remained standing beside me with a nonchalant expression. The room looked like the banquet room of a traditional Japanese restaurant. It was split into three sections—the right and left sides were raised, while the center was a lowered corridor. There were tables on each side, and several people that looked like sailors were surrounding them sitting cross-legged on the floor. I could see a few women among them. So sailors weren’t all men here, huh.

They looked like they were evaluating us from head to toe, but then turned their heads down as soon as they noticed Rulitora. Well, of course nobody would try to start something after seeing him.

We walked down the center corridor to the opposite end of the room, where a young woman who looked like a staff member was standing. She was wearing a white sailor uniform. Come to think of it, I’d heard the sailor uniforms back in Japan were originally worn by actual sailors. Looked like they had become raver market staff uniforms in this world. I bet the great pervert, Ficus, had a hand in this. The staff lady’s white cap with a ribbon on it was especially cute.

“Welcome, are you here to request work? Or would you like to employ a raver?”

“No, we actually have business with the people who come here for work. We’d like to buy a boat.”

I heard whispers behind me as soon as we said that. If we wanted a boat, then of course we’d need a helmsman. They probably all thought this might be a job opportunity.

There were two captains in the room right now. One was a fisherman and the other was a tradesman, both of whom conducted business in the bay surrounded by Talon Peninsula and Dragon’s Tail Peninsula. The tradesman mainly dealt with Ares, the country in Dragon’s Tail Peninsula. Rakti tilted her head and tugged at my shirt from behind upon hearing that name. I asked her what was up, and she said she remembered hearing that name often a long time ago.

I decided to sit down at an open table and hear the two captains out. They both said they were here to replenish crew members that had died during monster attacks, laughing about it as if it was a daily occurrence. It looked like the life of a sailor was pretty harsh.

“So you’re the rumored hero... you’re not wearing that flashy armor today, eh?” The tradesman had already heard about me, most likely from the auction house.

“A ship for the hero’s travels, huh? A carrack would be your best bet. It’s sturdy and big enough to store plenty of cargo.”

“It’s a very balanced ship. I recommend it.”

They both recommended us a carrack, a medium-sized ship. A small ship was called a caravel, while the largest model was called a galleon. The tradesman chuckled, saying he wanted to buy his own galleon one day.

“Is a caravel no good?”

“Well, it doesn’t have much loading capacity. Though it’s decent for long journeys since it only needs a small crew.”

“But it’s fragile, so it can’t sail deep into the ocean. If one of those big bastards finds you, you’re a goner.”

Since there were monsters in this world, ships needed a minimum level of durability. Caravels were fine ships, but only when they stayed close to shore. However, the two captains’ expression suddenly clouded.

“Well, at least that’s the case for now...”

“What do you mean?”

“More monsters have been appearing in the bay lately.”

According to them, more and more giant sea monsters had been spotted in the bay in the past few years. Several cargo ships had fallen victim to them up to this point. I see, that made for a good reason to get at least a carrack-sized ship. Come to think of it, what about Cosmos’ ship?

“Was the Hero of the Sacred King’s ship that entered the port last night also a carrack?”

“Nah, that’s a galleon. It was most likely made in Vestapolis.”

Vestapolis was a country on the eastern side of the continent, and the second most powerful country in the Olympus Alliance. They were famous for their fine wines. The fisherman had gone to see Cosmos’ ship earlier this morning, and it was apparently beautiful and exquisitely decorated. Since they were bringing the princess along, the ship had to have cost a pretty penny.

However, mine was a slightly different case compared to any other sailors. Loading capacity wasn’t a factor for us since we had the Unlimited Bath. The door would remain open where I left it, so we’d need to figure out a way to anchor it, but I couldn’t ignore the possibility of a small ship with the hardiness of a medium-sized one.

“Do you know of a ship that’s smaller in size, but still durable?”

“Small but durable, huh... nope, don’t think there’s anything like that.”

“Hrmm, one actually comes to mind.”

I knew I might have been asking a little too much. The tradesman cocked his head, unsurprisingly not coming up with anything, but the fisherman actually seemed to know something.

“Where would we find a ship like that?”

“Oh, hold on a second. I know it’s small, but I can’t promise it’s sturdy. Though it’s made from different stuff, so I think it might be.”

“Um, what do you mean by that...?”

“There’s a crystal mage who’s working on making a new type of ship.”

Rium perked her ears at the mention of another crystal mage. They were a type of mage who imbued spells into objects. Essentially, there was someone in this town trying to create a magic ship right now. That definitely caught my interest.

“You’d have to ask the person himself for the details.”

“Well, that part’s obvious... but he’s a raving lunatic of an old man, ya hear?”

“I don’t mind. Could you tell me where we can find him?”

That was hardly a surprise. There was a reason geniuses of engineering tended to be stereotyped as head cases, or at least oddballs.

“If you say so... The old man’s name is Rondalan. And he lives—”

The fisherman gave us Rondalan’s address. Apparently it was pretty close to the ocean. On that note, I felt like I’d heard that name somewhere before...

“Oh yeah, I heard that old geezer caused a ruckus in the temple of light the other day.”

Oh yeah. He was that mad scientist with the explosive hair who’d gotten in a heated argument by the entrance to the temple. Don’t tell me the experiment that caused those clerics to collapse was related to the magic ship? He wasn’t someone I would normally want to involve myself with, but I was curious about this ship. We had no choice but to meet him for now. I thanked the two captains and paid them a fee for the information, then headed to Rondalan’s research lab.

The laboratory was near the harbor. He had apparently been driven out of his former home after causing too much commotion in the name of his experiments, and now both lived and conducted his research in a warehouse in the port.

We arrived to the smell of the sea breeze, the cries of seagulls, and sounds from a crowd of people. Some fishermen’s boats had just returned, and they were squatting in front of mountains of fish, sorting them by size or quality. Occasionally, they threw a fish behind them. I wondered if it was okay to throw fish on the roadside, but immediately afterward, seagulls came swooping down to take the fish that had just been thrown away. I see, one man’s trash was another bird’s feast. Both parties seemed used to the exchange, as the fishermen threw the fish behind them without a glance and the seagulls picked up only the fish that were being thrown away. Oh, one of them grabbed a fish before it even hit the ground. Nice catch.

Rakti was jumping and waving her arms around as the birds swooped down close to her. Rium leaned into me from my front. She wasn’t hugging me as usual, but rather pressing her back into me.

“They attack you from behind...”

Looked like she had some bad memories involving these birds. And then I looked toward the shore, only to see a person carrying a wooden crate filled with fish running from a seagull as it flew at him from behind, snatching up a fish. I see, that’s what it was.

I looked around more and saw that some fish were already being sold after they’d been laid out and organized. The buyers weren’t just merchants, but also a few couples I spotted here and there. They probably all wanted the freshest catch. It was probably cheaper than what fishmongers in the city were asking.

Rondalan’s laboratory was a little past this hustle and bustle. Rulitora would have to be careful not to bump into anyone on the way. I soaked in the sights around us as we made our way over. A haggling battle between a fisherman and a housewife, seagulls circling overhead as they waited for spoils, a group of girls carrying the hero Cosmos on a stretcher...

“Wait, what?!” I suddenly shouted and turned around, but I didn’t think I was at fault there.

The one who noticed my yell was a slender and petite young girl in an elegant dress, the princess of the sacred family. I couldn’t forget her flaxen ringlet curls even if I wanted to. Then, a tall woman carrying a spear stepped between us. She was probably her bodyguard.

“Oh? You must be... a Hero of the Temple of the Goddess of Light—”

“That’s way too long, so just call me a Hero of the Goddess.”

Fortunately, she seemed to recognize me and relaxed her guard.

“Um, we need to hurry and take Sir Cosmos away...” Another girl with long ears and honey-colored hair down to her shoulders peeked at us. She must have been the elf that Cosmos rescued.

And she was absolutely right. This didn’t look like something I wanted to involve myself with, but I wasn’t so heartless as to ignore someone who had collapsed.

“So what happened to him?”

“I... just have to help those in need, you know?☆” The one who answered me was Cosmos, giving a sparkling white-toothed smile from the stretcher. He surprisingly still had life in him, as he gave me a thumbs up despite looking deathly pale.

“We’d heard that someone was in need of assistance after being rejected from the temple...”

“...Are you talking about the guy who lives over there named Rondalan?”

The bodyguard woman nodded, and then the elf continued the story. “Sir Cosmos had all his MP sucked away after helping Sir Rondalan with his experiment. We need to hurry and get him to the temple...!”

“His MP, huh?”

“Touya, that spell might work...” Rakti spoke up from beside me. Yeah, a spell that I had just recently learned might come in handy here.

“Alright, leave it to me. Transfer!” I put my hand on Cosmos’ forehead, recited my spell, and felt a bit of power being whisked away from me. This was a light cleric spell that allowed me to transfer my own MP to someone else. We had forced Clena through a lot of exhaustion to get through the poison gas in Hephaestus, so I learned this spell to make things a little easier if anything similar happened in the future.

“...Okay, he should be good now.” His MP filled up much more quickly than I’d expected. Looked like Cosmos’ MP stats might have been pretty low. Well, mine were still unusually high after constantly using it for so long.

“Th...thank you!! ...Guh.”

“Sir Cosmooos!!”

Cosmos gave me another smile and a thumbs up, but then knocked himself out again. The princess was in tears next to him. What was this, a comedy skit?

“Is he going to be okay...?”

“Y-Yes, don’t worry. His MP and complexion look fine now.” I asked Rakti just in case, but she also looked a little anxious.

“After you lose all your MP, your physical body starts taking damage... so he probably fainted because of that.”

“So should I use my healing light, then...? No, he doesn’t have any actual injuries.”

Unfortunately, healing light could only heal wounds and did nothing for fatigue. As we conversed, the bodyguard and elf came up to us.

“Excuse me. We must thank you, but right now...”

“Yeah, no worries. Just take him somewhere he can rest for now.”

“Um, we’re staying in a hotel called Maiden of the Roaring Waves, right over there!”

The bodyguard was dutifully executing her responsibilities. She was the calm and collected type.

On the other hand, the elf looked seriously worried about Cosmos. She remembered to keep us in mind, though. She pointed in the opposite direction of Rondalan’s laboratory. I could see a tall building by the shore. That must have been the “Maiden of the Roaring Waves.” I could tell it was four or five stories tall from here—a fancy high-class hotel. It melded with the pale blue of the sea and sky, bringing about a different sort of dignified air compared to the auction house. I expected no less from the hero’s party, or should I say the princess’ party?

“Got it. We’ll come by and check up on you guys later.”

“We’ll be waiting. ...And I’m sorry for not introducing myself. My name is Ricott, the captain of the bodyguards under Her Highness Franchellis. Please ask for me when you arrive at the hotel.”

“Oh, that’s right! My name is Foley!”

Oh yeah, I never found out these girls’ names. I’d heard the princess’ name once after I was summoned, but I had completely forgotten it by now. I remembered my manners and introduced not only myself, but also Rulitora and the rest. We couldn’t keep them for long, so I kept the greetings short. And then we watched as the group of girls carried Cosmos’ body away.

We’d attracted a lot of attention in the meantime. It’d be wise to remove ourselves sooner than later.

“...That big fish looks like sea bream. Can I get those squid and shrimp-looking things, too?”

...After getting some tasty looking seafood, that is.

We finally found Rondalan’s laboratory after freeing ourselves from the open-air market. I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath where no one could see, then put away the fish we bought. We didn’t have any ice, but I could regulate the water to stay at 1°C, so it worked as a refrigerator.

“Um, will we be okay? The other hero fainted and all...” After I exited the Unlimited Bath, Rakti voiced her worries to me. She’d probably grown anxious after seeing Cosmos in that state.

“It looks like Cosmos and the clerics collapsed after getting all their MP sucked away, but I barely felt anything after recovering Cosmos’ MP.”

“Really?”

“Well, Sir Touya’s MP shoots right off of his status card...” Rulitora put his hand to his chin, pondering. He sounded a little sarcastic, but that was probably just my imagination. That was just how much of an outlier I was, though I was hardly one to talk.

I couldn’t prove that I would come out unscathed, but that should have put Rakti’s mind at ease at least a little bit. Or rather, if even I couldn’t handle Rondalan’s experiments, then he might as well quit while he was ahead.

Those thoughts ran through my head until we arrived at the laboratory. It was a warehouse, so the front door was huge, but it had been left ajar after Cosmos’ party had rushed out from it. We could see inside, but the place was a mess since Cosmos had failed the experiment.

I could see a ship... I think? Something was propped in the middle of the room, but it barely looked like the fishing boats at the harbor, much less Cosmos’ galleon. It was about caravel size, the same as the fishing boats outside, but it didn’t even have a sail and its unique shape brought anything but a ship to mind. If I had to describe it, it resembled a giant spiral shell. Looking at it from underneath, I felt overwhelmed, almost as if I had become a small fish.

“What are you lot doin’ here?”

While I was still stunned looking at the ship, an old twig-like man with explosive hair called out to us. He was the owner of this laboratory, Rondalan.

“We...”

“As you can see, I’m busy cleaning up right now. Go home if you don’t need anything.”

I tried to introduce ourselves, but he wouldn’t even let us. He was clearly disgruntled. Though I couldn’t blame him, seeing as how he had just recovered from a failed experiment.

“Hey! What are you doing?!”

I looked over to see Rium approaching the ship and Rondalan yelling at her to stop.

“I-I’m sorry! Rium!”

She must have been curious as a fellow crystal mage, but her timing was poor. I rushed over to her and picked her up by the armpits. But she remained unperturbed, and as her feet dangled around in the air while I held her up, she turned to Rondalan and spoke in a soft voice, “You have a weird way of drawing formations... are you from the Erandis school?”

“...What?”

Erandis? It was the first time I’d heard that name. But Rondalan stopped in his tracks the moment he heard it.

“Youngin’, are you one of Erandis’... no, that can’t be. He’d died long before you were born.”

It sounded like Erandis was the name of his master. Since he’d had a “school,” he must have been a pretty distinguished crystal mage. And here was Rium, who was knowledgeable enough about Erandis to shock Rondalan, yet she could never have been his student. Maybe her master Nartha, who I’d heard so much about, was the one who had known Erandis. Could Rondalan and Nartha have been fellow pupils?

“You’ve got a sharp eye for being such a little brat. Who’s your master?”

“...Hn.” Rium didn’t directly answer his question, but instead drew out three small silver spears from inside her cloak. They looked like skewers for kebabs at first, but they were actually weapons that could turn into giant spears after channeling MP into them. I’d seen a giant sandworm get stabbed by those spears once before. I wondered if those spears were enough to answer Rondalan’s question, but when I looked at him, he gave a loud yelp and jumped back toward the wall. His face grew pale and beads of sweat ran down his forehead.

What? What did those spears mean to him?

“N-N-No way...! Are you Nartha’s disciple?!” Rondalan looked positively frantic. On the other hand, Rium simply nodded. He clearly knew Nartha, judging by his reaction. They must have been fellow pupils after all. But why was he so scared, though? I’d never met her before, but according to Haruno’s letters, she sounded like a graceful and kind old lady. Rulitora and Rakti looked like they were thinking the same thing as they looked at each other. All our questions vanished after Rondalan’s next exclamation.

“How dare you, Silver Executor?! You sent one of your students all the way out here?!”

“Whaaat?”

...Only to bring up another host of questions. The “Silver Executor” seemed to be referring to Nartha. Rulitora, Rakti, and I looked at Rium in shock, but she just kept fiddling with her spears as her feet dangled in the air.

“...Have you calmed down?”

“...Sorry about that, folks.”

It took about ten minutes for Rondalan to calm down after that. He kept glancing fearfully at Rium as she toyed with her spears, but at least we were able to talk to him now thanks to her. What in the world was Nartha like when she was young, anyway?

“Rium, come over here.”

“Mmh...”

I beckoned Rium over and had her sit in my lap. She looked happy about it, and it would help Rondalan keep calm—two birds with one stone.

Don’t look at me like that, Rakti. You’ll get your turn after we go back.

“We saw the hero Cosmos being carried away just earlier. What in the world happened?”

“What, are you lot his friends?”

“...Well, we’re acquaintances.”

We weren’t enemies, but I didn’t want to call us friends either. He was just the self-proclaimed Cosmos.

“I asked him to activate this magic crystal... but between him and the clerics, none of them are worth a damn!” Rondalan grumbled in annoyance as he smacked his fist against the spiral-shelled ship in the center of the room.

Magic crystals were conductors that crystal mages embedded in their contraptions. Rium’s flying disc had about a fist-sized magic crystal affixed to it. I couldn’t imagine the size of the crystal needed to operate an entire ship.

“So you don’t have enough MP to activate it?”

“It’s not even filled a third of the way yet!”

“Oh, so it doesn’t have to be all at once?”

It worked a bit differently from how I’d imagined. I thought it would keep sucking the user’s MP until they collapsed. Maybe I could allow myself to be a little optimistic here. I showed my status card to Rondalan, told him I was a Hero of the Goddess, and explained why we were here.

“We came here to find a ship to travel out to sea with. If your ship needs that much MP to function... it must be pretty powerful, I assume?”

“Oh? Y-Yes! Of course!” Rondalan replied absentmindedly. It didn’t sound like he was unsure of the ship’s abilities. He was probably just looking at my status card—specifically, the MP stat flying off of it.

“Is this really a ship? It looks like a seashell to me.”

“You don’t know anything, lizardman. Can’t even see the merits behind this design, huh?”

“Will this shape keep it stable in the ocean?”

“Y...yeah, probably.” He had responded to Rulitora in an arrogant tone, but started cowering as soon as Rium spoke up. Maybe the ship really did have stability issues, or maybe he was wary of the spears in Rium’s hands, but most of all, he was probably scared of the “Silver Executor” he was imagining behind her.

I climbed on top of the ship and saw that the mouth of the “shell” was facing upward, but there were no barriers to prevent waves from splashing inside and eventually flooding the ship. Rulitora and Rium had plenty of reason to be dubious. The whorl inside the shell formed a cabin. This was an interesting ship, but its likeliness to flood was a deal breaker. A ship that couldn’t sail out to sea could hardly be called a ship in the first place. We concluded it wasn’t worth trying to activate the crystal if we couldn’t even use it.

“This was a letdown...”

“So that’s a no go? Let’s find another ship, then.”

“W-Wait!”

Rium mumbled her harsh opinion and Rakti responded by leading them out of the building, but then Rondalan ran over and stopped in front of them. He was quicker than I would expect for his age. He wasn’t going to let someone with as much MP as me leave just yet.

I looked at the ship one more time, pondering something else. Rondalan noticed me staring at the ship and called out to me as a last cry of hope. “Say something, lad! All I ask is that you help me activate the crystal!”

“Nah, I have nothing to gain from doing that,” I said, which made Rondalan think of something. He had originally requested help from the temple, so he was probably thinking of how much he should pay me right now. But I didn’t need money at the moment. All I wanted was a functional ship.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“What?”

“Only that mouth portion of the ship is prone to flooding, even though the rest is this weird shape, right?”

“Of course. This beauty’s made from nautilus shells I collected. That makes it both light and sturdy, so those old wooden ships won’t stand a chance against it. It’s a shipbuilding revolution!”

Apparently nautiluses were a type of monster that essentially looked like a smaller version of this ship. They lived in the water surrounding Neptunopolis and were often spotted around the beach.

“Can it handle high water pressure?”

“Not a problem!”

“But wouldn’t it just sink because it would flood from the top?” “Uh...” Rondalan had answered with his chest puffed out in pride, but then Rakti called him out.

I wondered why he hadn’t just created a normal-looking ship from these shells, but I bet that thought had never crossed this guy’s mind in the first place. Anyway, an idea came to mind as I was thinking what we could do with these shells.

“Couldn’t we just make this whole thing a submarine...?”

“......”

Rondalan stopped in his tracks at my words. Even Rium, Rakti, and Rulitora were staring at me with stunned expressions. Did I say something that strange? The nautiluses that this ship was based on lived underwater anyway, and we might as well block off the ship’s hull if all it did was allow water in.

“Young lad...”

“What do you think?”

“...What in the world is a submareen?”

Oh, the word submarine wasn’t even in this world’s vocabulary. I see. I’d never seen a submarine here before, now that I thought about it. The idea of venturing underwater probably wasn’t even considered in this world, aside from free diving. I figured we would get nowhere, but I explained what I knew about submarines, and then both Rondalan’s and Rium’s eyes started glistening in curiosity.

“A hatch that can open and close, huh... Mhmm, that can work.”

“What about the air inside...?”

“Hmm... we’ll need another magic crystal for that.”

The two of them were deeply conversing about the ship’s new mechanics, any hint of tension between them now gone. Seemed like curiosity got the best of fear. I let the two of them be for now.

In the meantime, I called Rulitora and Rakti over to look at the ship again. I was mainly curious about its propulsion mechanisms. This ship didn’t have anything that looked like a sail. I circled around to the back of the ship and sure enough, found a hole that looked like a rocket’s nozzle. Something would spurt out from here to propel the ship forward.

Rulitora squinted his eyes and looked inside the nozzle. “Is that a magic crystal inside?”

It was dim inside, but I could faintly spot what looked like a crystal embedded deep inside.

“I think so. I can feel some power coming from it, though it’s weak.”

“Weak?”

“Compared to the size of the crystal, at least.”

“Because it’s only about a third filled right now?”

Maybe I could feel something from it if I got closer. I braced my feet on the edges of the nozzle and peered inside.

“Whoa?!”

The next moment, my entire body was sucked inside. I wasn’t being physically dragged by anything, but sucked in by some force.

“Touya?!” Rakti stretched her arm out to grab me, but couldn’t reach. My body was suspended in the air as it was forcefully pressed against the magic crystal.

“Th-This thing is absorbing my MP on its own...!” I could tell my MP was being sucked out of me. At an extremely fast rate, no less. I had already transferred about 20 percent of my MP to Cosmos, leaving me at 80 percent. But now my MP was quickly dwindling down to 50, 40, then 30 percent.

“Rulitora!”

“Hold on!”

Rulitora leaned himself inside, grabbed onto me, then used his thick arms to pry my body off the crystal, and finally brought the both of us back outside. Right after that, Rondalan and Rium came rushing over, having noticed the commotion.

“What are you doing?!”

“That’s my line!”

I had just barely 10 percent MP left. My head was spinning. I had only been stuck to that crystal for half a minute or so, but over half my MP had been sucked away in that time. Had Rulitora rescued me a moment later, I’d have ended up another Cosmos. I explained what had happened, but Rondalan cocked his head in confusion.

“True, the magic crystal draws you in as it absorbs MP, but it’s not supposed to move your entire body. At most it tugs at your hand.”

“Really? I figured you had set a trap because you didn’t have enough MP...”

“Touya, Rondalan is telling the truth. Magic crystals aren’t supposed to do that... especially before they’re activated.” I still had a doubtful look on my face, but Rium backed up his claim.

“Um... maybe it’s because Touya has too much MP?” Rakti interjected. Now that I thought about it, Rulitora hadn’t been pulled in either.

“I bet that’s the reason. Look here, I can get inside and nothing happens,” Rondalan said, then pushed himself inside the nozzle. Rium followed behind him, but neither of them were triggering a response in the crystal. It looked like my massive amount of MP really was the issue. I wasn’t expecting this pitfall.

“Impressive work, lad. You actually filled this thing up to 90 percent.”

“...Well, I’m a hero who mains in magic, I guess.” I normally wore a full suit of armor and swung an axe around, yet magic was my forte.

Anyway, apparently I had twice the amount of MP as Cosmos and the three clerics combined... no, I had transferred a portion to Cosmos, so it was even more than that.

“Now if you would hear me out—could you come back after your MP recovers? I may need to install more magic crystals, so I’ll be asking you to activate those as well. In exchange, the ship is yours the moment it’s done.”

“Do you think you can make it a submarine?”

“Who do you think I am?”

I think you’re a mad scientist who started a fight with the temple knights right in front of the temple. Well, he wouldn’t cause a scene as long as Rium was with us.

On that note, I could channel my MP into the magic crystal without getting too close by firing light spirits at it. Or rather, the light spirits would be immediately drawn in either way. The problem with activating the crystals was settled now. I didn’t know whether Rondalan could successfully transform the ship into a submarine yet, but that was a safe enough bet to make.

“Do you have enough nautilus shells to make the hatch?”

“Not quite, since I’ll also need more to reinforce the hull.”

“Tell me where we can find them. Fighting monsters will be a good workout for us.”

“Let me make you a map, then.”

We figured we’d better help him in every way we could to make the best submarine possible.

“Got it. We’ll stop by again tomorrow... no, the day after tomorrow.”

But for now, I was dead tired. I decided to take the day off tomorrow.

“Are you alright, Sir Touya?” Rulitora asked me in a worried tone. I was a bit unsteady on my feet.

I had pampered Rakti after we got back to the cabin, gave Roni the fish we bought to make dinner with, then let Rium sit in my lap to read a book together. Later, I took a nap on Clena’s soft and squishy thighs. Yep, I was exhausted.

“I won’t be able to get any sleep if you’re using me as your pillow.”

“You have a point.”

We agreed to let me use her as a lap pillow only while Roni and the others were making dinner. I pinched her plump thigh, to which Clena promptly slapped my hand away. She told me while I was lying down that their investigation into the Goddess of Water’s temple hadn’t turned out so well. There were indeed some followers of the Goddess of Water among the fishermen and sailors, but there were no temples or clerics in this city. At best, there was a small chapel.

“Oh yeah, they said that the gillmen might know something.”

“Gillmen... as in mermaids?”

I remembered hearing about them back in Jupiter as an example of demi-humans who didn’t take baths. So they lived around here, huh?

“But they live on an island out in the sea, so first we’ll need to wait on the... submareen?”

“So we’ll have to postpone getting the blessing from the Goddess of Water for now.”

“Can’t we just sail that ship out as-is?”

“No, it’ll get flooded by waves in its current state. Not to mention we’ll be able to do a lot more with it after it’s done.”

We’d be going back to activate the magic crystal and get information on the nautiluses after my MP recovered. But for now, I needed to rest so that my MP would come back even a second faster.

Roni and the others were using the kitchen in the cabin to cook tonight, while Mark refrained from using the fire altar. Instead, he was helping Crissa with dinner as if his life depended on it. They were having all sorts of trouble using the hearth since they had gotten used to the kitchen in my Unlimited Bath. It went without saying, but the user-friendliness of a modern kitchen couldn’t compare to the ones in this world.

I slowly closed my eyes as Clena stroked my hair. This wasn’t so bad. I rested like that for a while until I felt a weight on my arm.

I opened one eye to see what happened and was met with the cocoa-colored back of Rium’s head as she read a book. She was using my arm as a pillow to lie down on as she read. I wrapped my free arm around her waist and pulled her in, and she scooched herself closer to me as well. I could use her as a body pillow while we were here.

Later that evening, Rakti and Roni sandwiched us between them to sleep, after having found us and gotten jealous. I took the opportunity to ask Rakti about the gillmen.

“Oh, it’s not just the gillmen. Many followers of sister Water live in the sea!”

“Not just the gillmen...?”

“Yes! Like dolphins and whales!”

Apparently the Goddess of Water had a wider variety of followers than I had imagined, considering how even dolphins and whales, to say nothing of the gillmen, were her followers. The gillman clerics that served under the Goddess of Water were called “sacred dolphins.” They looked like dolphins at first glance, but they were actually gillmen who could speak like any other human.

“...Wait a second, are gillmen actually dolphins?”

“No, they’re not. Gillmen can walk on land, unlike dolphins!”

So the mermen of this world were actually dolphins that had learned to walk upright on land. There were a few among them who had pure white bodies and were known as “sacred dolphins” who served as clerics. Those white-bodied gillmen were honored as the guardian deities of the sea by fishermen and sailors. Apparently there were stories of a sacred dolphin coming to the aid of capsized fishing boats, carrying fishermen back the harbor. Now that made me curious—I wanted to see it in action. But that would also have to wait until the submarine was complete. I should be focusing on that for now.

I napped until noon the next day to let my MP recover, and then headed to Rondalan’s laboratory again the day after that. This time, we went with the whole party because they all wanted to see the ship.

I infused my MP into the magic crystal by firing light spirits at it from a distance so that I wouldn’t get sucked in. It really did attract magic—even when I shot the spirits in the wrong direction, they would draw a sharp curve and get sucked right into the crystal. It absorbed anything magical.

“Could this be used as a defense against magic attacks?”

“You could try, but it’ll end up being one-time use each... and that’d be pricey.”

I thought we could use the crystal’s behavior as a way to defend against incoming spells, but it wasn’t so simple. Between the hardened earth created from earth magic and balls of fire created from fire magic, there were too many spells that would physically damage the magic crystal and render it useless. The crystals were both expensive and rare, so we couldn’t expend them so freely.

I minimized the number of times I had to cast my spirit summoning spell by pouring as much MP as I could fit inside a sphere the same size as the magic crystal. After the crystal inside the nozzle flashed brightly for the umpteenth time, Rondalan gave the stop signal. The magic crystal had finally activated.

“It’s stabilized now that it’s activated, so it won’t pull you in anymore. You can get closer to it now.”

“Alright then...” I stepped inside the nozzle, with Rondalan, Mark, and Rulitora, who had been keeping an eye out for me, following close behind.

Clena and the other girls weren’t here right now. They had gotten bored of watching me chuck MP at a crystal ball over and over, so they had gone shopping. It was a good opportunity to split the workload in our party. I wasn’t lonely or anything, I swear.

Anyway, Rulitora was bracing himself to rescue me in case anything was about to go awry, but I felt nothing from the crystal this time as I stepped inside the nozzle. As a test, I fired a small ball of light at it, which immediately went inside the crystal. It hadn’t lost its magic absorption powers.

I looked closer and noticed that the ball looked brighter than it did just earlier. Or rather, a bunch of faint lights were floating inside the sphere. I put my face right up to it and saw the lights flickering inside. It actually looked quite pretty like this. I appreciated the dancing lights for a while longer, then stepped outside the nozzle to find Rondalan facing me with a dubious expression.

“Are you still doing alright, lad? You’ve been throwing your magic at that thing for a few hours now.”

“Don’t worry, I’m still fine. I can keep going as long as I don’t get stuck to the crystal like last time.”

I still had about half my MP left. Chanting the same spell dozens of times in a row had done a bigger number on me so far.

“Looks like most of your MP had gone rogue the day before yesterday... it was only an accident, but still, what a waste.”

I had no response to that. Well, Rondalan couldn’t have predicted that my body would get sucked toward the magic crystal either, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Well then, if you still have some energy left in you, help me activate those other magic crystals.”

“Are you going to be using more?”

“Yeah, I’ll need to install them to prepare the ship for going underwater.”

“Weren’t magic crystals rare and expensive...?”

“Hmph! I won’t be paying you to activate these crystals, but I’m not asking you to pay me back for buying them either. The deal’s costing you a lot less overall... but in exchange, I’m having you help me with every last drop of juice ya got!” Rondalan cackled as he picked up two soccer ball-sized magic crystals under each arm. I supposed we lit up his fiery inventor spirit.

Mark followed behind Rondalan, carrying a huge basket filled with magic crystals. Since when did you become his assistant? I looked over at Rulitora, but he seemed as exasperated as I was.

In any case, I’d gladly help him if it meant getting us our very own submarine. I’d even help be a crash dummy if it meant reinforcing the ship’s safety features.

The crystals would require a lot of MP to activate, but it wouldn’t do me much harm. We only had a lot to gain if it all worked out.

The only issue was whether or not he could actually make us a submarine, but we had plenty to look forward to if he was serious about it. Low-risk, high-return. There wasn’t much to say no to.

“Okay, let’s do this!” I put on an audacious smile and grabbed one of the magic crystals from Rondalan... but then I stopped in my tracks.

“Sir Touya, what’s wrong?”

“Er, it’s not doing anything.” Wasn’t this thing supposed to start absorbing my MP as soon as I touched it? I cocked my head in confusion, but then Rondalan explained it to me.

“Oh, the crystal’s absorption powers are proportionate to its size. A crystal of that size can’t absorb anything on its own.”

“So then how am I supposed to do this?”

“You could just inject your MP into it directly...”

“I’m not that skilled.”

“Then you’ll just have to fire your light spirits at it like you did just now.”

There were at least a dozen magic crystals in the basket Mark was carrying. How many spells would I have to chant to activate all these crystals? I was getting exhausted just thinking about it.

“...Oh.” And then I remembered something.

“Hey, professor! I have a question!”

“What is it?” Rondalan looked back at me, clearly annoyed.

“Would gifts that use MP count as magic?”

But as soon as he heard my question, he stopped what he was doing and started looking around. “...A gift... you mean like what the first sacred king had?”

“These things went back 500 years?!”

“If anybody other than the first sacred king could use them, then why would we have summoned you guys?” I was shocked, but then Mark retorted me.

Yeah, he had a point. If people from this world could use gifts, then they didn’t need to go out of their way to summon us. Before us, there were no other people who had gifts other than the first sacred king.

“We won’t know till we try. As long as it’s something made from MP and won’t damage the crystal, then go right ahead.”

“Won’t damage it...” I think this might work.

I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath right in front of me. This would be related to the submarine’s loading capacity, so I might as well let Rondalan see it. However, the door didn’t appear in front of me after I opened it, and not a moment later I heard a sound coming from behind me.

“Huh...?”

“What was that?”

“It came from behind us!”

We all looked at each other wondering what was going on, then turned around to see a door stuck to the front of the magic crystal deep inside the nozzle. The door was round, as if it was matching the shape of the magic crystal.

I knew what that was. It was a different shape, but that was the door to the Unlimited Bath for sure.

“...Wh-What in the world is that?” Rondalan looked stunned. Well, of course he would be.

“Did the magic crystal suck it in?” Rulitora asked doubtfully, which made me sprint towards the door.

“Is everything okay inside?!” I opened the door and ran inside, but fortunately everything looked the same as always. The sword made from the grave marker that we had put next to the entrance looked untouched as well.

When I went outside and closed the door, it disappeared like normal, and when I tried opening it again, it got stuck to the crystal again. When I got far enough away from the magic crystal, the door remained in place like it usually did.

“Looks like it really is sucking in the Unlimited Bath.”

“Let me try closing it from the inside.”

This time I tried closing the door while I was still inside, and everything still seemed normal. However, the outside was a different story.

Usually if I close the door from the inside, no one could interfere with the Unlimited Bath from the outside anymore. But now the door remained visible and stuck to the magic crystal even when it was shut.

“Um, the door remained even after you closed it.” Rulitora opened the door from the outside and ducked in.

“So this is your gift, lad?” Rondalan and Mark came inside next, looking around. He couldn’t hide the surprise on his face. That made me feel a little haughty, I admit.

“So it’s the magic crystal that’s making the door stick to it?”

“That seems to be the case. Though there doesn’t seem to be any problem with the door just being stuck to it.”

“Can we access this magic crystal from inside the ship?”

“Of course. You’ll need to replenish it with MP while sailing.”

In fact, we could only see a small part of the crystal from the nozzle, and most of it was sitting inside the ship’s engine room.

“One more question... normally, that door can’t move from where it was originally summoned.”

“...Mhmm?”

“If the magic crystal moves while the door is stuck to it, what do you think will happen?”

After hearing my question, Rondalan smirked and then replied, “It probably won’t move from the surface of the crystal. That’s just how it works.”

I replied by nodding in satisfaction.

There was actually one big problem with using the Unlimited Bath while traveling by ship. The door to the Unlimited Bath stayed in the same spot as long as it was active. If I closed it from inside and then opened it again, the door would open in the same spot it was closed before. So yes, the door would not move along with the ship. We had to find a way to anchor the door to the ship if we wanted to use the Unlimited Bath. Even if we weren’t sailing, we couldn’t help the ship from moving as it rode with the waves. I had been thinking of using the ship’s hold along with the Unlimited Bath during our trip at sea.

But it looked like Lady Luck was smiling on us today. If we utilized the magic crystal’s tendency to suck in magic, then we could use the Unlimited Bath while out at sea. I wouldn’t be able to move far from the Bath while it was open, but that was hardly a trade-off worth mentioning for being able to use it in this spiral-shaped ship. Finding this ship may have been a big stroke of luck for us.

“Sir Touya, how are the magic crystals?”

“They look unaffected. Well I wasn’t expecting them to absorb MP just by stepping inside the Bath.”

Actions would speak louder than words here. I entered the bathing room, then sunk a magic crystal inside the cedar wood tub.

“Wow, amazing!”

“Meow... what’s going on?!” Mark had stopped at the entrance to the bathing room since he was a ketolt who hated water, but he was overcome by curiosity and ran over to me. He looked inside the bathtub and let out a shocked yelp.

His reaction wasn’t surprising. The magic crystal inside the tub was absorbing the hot water, which made the water level gradually dip. Rondalan’s eyes were wide as he looked on from behind us.

“What’s going on...? Oh! I see! This is your gift!” Rondalan used his crystal mage instincts to immediately figure out what was going on.

Yep, this was the main attraction. Piping hot bath water made from my MP. The magic crystals absorbed magic, so it was sucking in all of the water. But I wasn’t expecting it to suck up all the water along with it. I was expecting the MP to just vanish from the water like that time we had trapped a certain evil goldfish inside it.

The water was about to vanish, so I quickly turned on the faucet to fill the tub with more hot water. If I kept this up, I wouldn’t have to chant any more spells and still be able to activate these crystals. I put the rest of the magic crystals inside the bathtub.

A bunch of soccer ball-sized spheres sunk inside the water. They’d get in the way when we wanted to take a bath, but we could just remove them temporarily.

“I’ll take the magic crystals for now. They’ll start shining like the bigger crystal once they’re activated, right?”

“Y-Yeah, you’ll be able to tell by looking. I never thought a method like this existed...”

“No, you wouldn’t be able to do it. Only Touya’s gift would be able to do this,” Mark said as he stared into the tub. He was right, this was unique to me.

I recalled that this was how people in the countryside cooled their watermelons. And come to think of it, the hot water generated so much steam. There was no reason why the water had to be hot. I turn the faucet down to cool and led everyone out of the Unlimited Bath. I’d be borrowing the magic crystals for now and returning them once they were all activated.

After that, I spoke with Rondalan about what kind of features a submarine would need and whether or not they were practical. For now, the most important things were measures against water pressure and deep sea monsters. Rondalan proclaimed, with his chest held high, that he could make it happen as long as he had the magic crystals.

Clena and the other girls returned after a while of us talking.

“Sorry for the wait!”

Each of the girls was carrying a bunch of bags. It looked like they had gone on a shopping spree.

“Another bunch of stuff? Want us to toss everything inside for now?” “Yes, thank you.”

Rulitora, Mark, and I took up all the bags and carried them inside the Unlimited Bath. Roni and Crissa took some of the fish immediately into the kitchen. They were fish bought from the harbor, just like yesterday.

Clena was hugging a package to her chest.

“What have you got there?”

“We’ll be hunting nautiluses, right? I bought something to prepare for that.”

“Prepare? What for?”

“For this. While you were infusing that magic crystal with your MP, I asked around for where the nautiluses lived,” Clena said, then took something out of the package. “We’ll need this at the beach. I bought a cute one, so look forward to it!” She was holding a cute swimsuit, just like she said.

I spent all of the next day activating the magic crystals, then rested for another day. And then we went to the southern beach of Neptunopolis. It wasn’t far enough to need a carriage, so we went by foot. It was about two hours away. I would have winced at a two-hour walk before being summoned to this world. But now I was appreciating the sea breeze, fatigue hardly crossing my mind, which made me feel like I had really gotten used to being in this world.

“Are you okay, Rulitora?”

“I’m fine enough for now. The wind is keeping it from feeling too humid, so I’ll be alright.” The sea breeze was also helping Rulitora from feeling too bad.

On that note, his stance on the submarine was that he had no idea what it was, but he was fine with it. He seemed to like the idea of traveling in a ship with a cover on it. Clena and the others didn’t fully understand either, but they were very interested. They got to enjoy bathing with modern technology inside the Unlimited Bath, so they had little reason to object.

As we chatted, we defeated our second sweep dog and finally arrived at the beach. I took a quick look around and saw that the beach was covered in rocks—not the best-looking place to swim. But this seems like the ideal habitat for nautiluses.

“Alright, let’s start changing then.”

“Oh, you didn’t buy a swimsuit for me... right?”

“This one’s for you, Touya.”

We were about to get right to it and change, but I realized that I had never bought my own swimsuit. And then Mark called out to me.

“What’s this supposed to be?”

“It’s a breastplate made from the same nautilus shells as the ship. You can’t wear the Magic Eater at the beach, right? So I had that old geezer make this for you.”

“I see, meow.”

“Don’t say meow, meow!”

Apparently during the two days I was resting after activating the magic crystals, Mark had expedited an order for a set of beach armor for me. He had realized that my full plate armor, the Magic Eater, would be too dangerous to use near the sea after listening to Rondalan and I talk. He was right, I would drown in that thing.

So Mark had made a pure white breastplate for me that was shaped like a couple of seashells with a wavy design. Each part was reinforced with metal to give it stronger defensive capabilities, and each shoulder pad was attached by chains. It was a beautiful piece that also functioned as a work of art. It was more than enough as temporary armor. I chose to wear it since they had spent all their time making it for me.

“...You really are Shakova’s son, huh.”

“No no no! Rondalan was the one who made the mold! I was just using magic!”

He claimed that he had only connected the parts together and reinforced them with metal, which was how they had managed to finish it in two days. But in my opinion, he had really inherited his sense of aesthetics from his father. I mean, why was he so worried about the compliment? Maybe it was because Crissa had inherited a plain and simple aesthetic from her father? I didn’t think she’d be concerned about that.

In any case, Rondalan really did have an obsession with shell designs. That would explain why he had chosen to settle down in Neptune for his research.

After I finished changing, I sat down on a nearby boulder to wait for the girls. Rulitora and Mark were waiting next to me in their usual outfits. Mark was wearing his small breastplate and Rulitora had his dragon bone armor, so both of them should be fine near water.

Of course, the most important thing right now was the girls’ swimsuits. And their amazing figures. I had already seen all I could see of them in the bath, so maybe it felt like I was backtracking right now... but this was a different matter. I had a separate mind for appreciating girls in cute outfits.

I bet the southern sea would be warm. After our submarine was finished, we would probably head to Dragon’s Tail Peninsula first. It would be even hotter there.

That’s right. We should buy summer clothes for everybody one of these days. I would take up all of their requests for what kind of clothes they wanted to wear.

“Sir Touya, the girls have finished changing.” I was in the middle of daydreaming when Rulitora patted me on the shoulder. As soon as I returned to my senses and looked at the door, I saw Rakti leaping toward me with a joyful expression.

“Touya! How do I look? How do I look? Does it fit me?” She jumped into my chest and looked up at me with a grin. It was a satisfied, proud, innocent, and adorable smile. Obviously it was the first time she had worn a swimsuit, and she seemed incredibly happy about it.

Her swimsuit was a one-piece. It was shaped like an A-line dress, and had a light blue color. I could trace a transparent skirt from around her modest chest down to her thighs.

She wanted to show off her swimsuit more, so she backed up a bit and did a quick twirl. I could see her slender body line underneath her fluttering dress as it shimmered in the sun.

“You look really good in it, Rakti.”

“Thank goodness...” She smiled, relieved and embarrassed at my compliment. I felt happier just looking at her.

“You forgot your hat.” Roni approached her from behind and plopped a straw hat onto Rakti’s head.

She was wearing a white and pink striped bikini. The bottom was styled like boy shorts. There was even a hole in the back for her tail.

It was a sporty design that suited her tanned skin well. She had slender limbs and a slim waist, a small yet very present chest, and a butt that was just meaty enough to fill out those boy shorts. Her usual frizzy hair was tied back into a ponytail right now, which also suited the sporty look.

“You look cute too, Roni.”

“Th-Thank you very much!” Her smile was like a flower in full bloom. Roni started playing with Rakti, her ponytail swishing back and forth in tune with her tail.

“......”

And then before we realized it, Rium had wordlessly squeezed herself into the mix. Her expression was as nonchalant as ever, but she seemed like she was having fun.

She was wearing a light blue tankini with a row of buttons going down the front and a denim sarong wrapped around her waist. It almost looked like a fancy formal dress, but it was actually a swimsuit. The bright colors complemented her cocoa-colored hair and her tanned skin well. Though in Rium’s case, she was happier being able to play with everyone rather than wearing a cute swimsuit. She surprisingly got lonely quite easily.

She tottered over and stared up at me with her golden eyes. I could easily guess what she wanted me to say and do for her.

“You look good, Rium,” I said and patted her head. After that, she turned around and skipped back to the other girls. She didn’t let it show on her face, but she must have been embarrassed. She started playing with Roni and Rakti again, but seemed just a little bit happier than she was before.

“What are they doing...?” Mark sighed, looking at them in exasperation. Could he not appreciate what an amazing sight this was?

Rulitora also stared at them with his arms folded, nodding. He looked at them like a father watching over his daughters.

And now it was time to tease Mark a little.

“Oh, that looks good on you too, Crissa.”

“Thank you very much!”

“Hey, wait!”

All the girls had gone on a shopping trip to buy swimsuits. Of course, that included Crissa as well. Her pure white fur was covered by a pastel green one-piece swimsuit. It was a simple and clean design, but also sported a cute ribbon above her chest. So even the ketolts wore swimsuits, even though they were basically two-legged cats.

“Does it look weird on me?”

“N-No, that’s not it...”

Oh boy, he was getting nervous. He was looking at his crush in a swimsuit, so of course he would be.

“And what are you doing...?”

Clena had finished changing while I was still staring at the two of them, and I replied without looking back at her.

“Cheering them on?”

“...Well, you’re not wrong.”

If I hadn’t brought up the subject, Mark would have stood there doing nothing but blushing. Now then, what kind of swimsuit was Clena wearing? I slowly turned around in anticipation, and then stopped in my tracks.

“C-Clena...”

“What is it...? Don’t stare at me like that.”

She was actually wearing a halter top bikini. I couldn’t believe she actually picked that out herself. She had always complained about her figure, but I kept on telling her that I didn’t care and that the extra flesh made her more sexy. It looked like my efforts were finally coming to fruition.

The bikini was a charcoal gray, almost black. It contrasted against her porcelain white skin well. I looked down wordlessly and saw her thighs that I had slept on the other day peeking out from under a flower patterned sarong.

“...Aren’t you going to say anything to me?”

“Oh, um... You look cute! Super cute! That looks amazing on you!” I was brought back to my senses by Clena’s voice, which sounded a little peevish, and immediately blurted out the first words that came into my head. She responded by squirming around in embarrassment, then tried to hide her chest with her arms, but that only pushed up her cleavage even more. I bet she had no idea how destructive that was on my senses.

Rulitora, stop looking at me the same way you’re looking at Rakti and the other kids. Crissa, stop saying your signature “Oh my, oh my.” And Mark, stop grinning at me. Was this payback from before?

“L-Let’s hurry up and hunt those nautiluses!”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get started already.”

I tried my best to change the subject to the task at hand, and Clena responded with a kind smile in agreement. Why did I feel like I was the loser here?

Anyway, we started preparing for the hunt. Apparently we could lure the nautiluses with bait. Rondalan had helped prepare a special mix of highly effective bait for us.

“All right, Rulitora and Mark will be with me in front.”

“Understood.”

“I’m ready to go!”

“Clena and Rium will stay in the back, casting spells.”

“I can go with that. My sword won’t be too effective anyway.”

“......” Rium nodded wordlessly.

It was the obvious formation, since we couldn’t have our scantily clad girls get hurt. The nautiluses had hard shells that would easily repel any half-baked attacks. Even though her sword once belonged to the Dark Prince, one of the five Great Demon Generals, it wouldn’t do much damage with Clena’s physical strength.

Actually, that sword was thin and single-bladed, like a Japanese sword. Maybe it was wrong of me to think of it as an otherworldly sword in the first place.

The nautiluses were hardy but not very dangerous, so our armor was mainly a backup measure. Now was the chance for us three men to go out in front and impress the girls.

“Alright then, do your best, Mark.”

“With what?!”

Don’t make me say it, it’s embarrassing... Or maybe not. Do your best, Mark. I’d be giving it my all as well.

Their shells were formed using magic just like the armor Mark had made for me, so it didn’t matter if we smashed them into pieces. I could lay waste to them using my Crescent Moon magic axe as much as I wanted.

“Roni, you’re in charge of collecting the nautiluses that we defeat. Rakti and Crissa, you two will be in charge of cleaning the parts.” “Understood!” “Leave it to us!” “So we’ll be cleaning them on the inside.”

The biggest nautiluses apparently went up to my waist. If Roni couldn’t carry all of them by herself, then we would have Mark or Clena help her. I had expected the monsters inside the spiral shells to be soft-bodied creatures like squids or octopuses, but in reality they were more like hermit crabs. Apparently their meat was a popular food in Neptunopolis. I was curious what they tasted like, but we’d be hunting them for a few days, so I bet I would find that out as soon as tonight.

I had Rulitora scatter the powdered bait into the ocean. It would spread out as time went by. We also set out a case filled with bait in the water. We could trust Rondalan when it came to craftsmanship like this, so now all we had to do was wait for the nautiluses to show up.

“I-It really is effective...” Roni was the first to notice them coming. Her lycaon eyes noticed the sea spray drawing near.

“They’re here already? That was fast.”

If we waited any longer, that topic of conversation would be brought up again, so it worked out. Rulitora, Mark, and I readied our weapons. Clena stuck the tip of her sword in the sand, preparing herself to fire a spell at any moment.

“Oh, I can see them now.” After a little more waiting, I spotted the water spray with my own eyes. Rondalan’s homemade bait was more effective than I had expected.

“I can see them too, but...” But this was weird.

“Wh-What are those...? They look...”

Why was the wave so spread out? It only took a few seconds before we got our answer.

“Your bait is way too effective, Rondalan...!” I blurted out, looking at the swarm of nautiluses coming toward us. There were at least 100 of them.

“Prepare for attack! Retrieve the bait! Rakti, you and the others hide inside the Unlimited Bath!” I gave my orders in rapid succession while the giant swarm of nautiluses approached us. They would surround us in no time, so I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath and braced myself, acting as a shield for the others. Mark brought back the case of bait we had set in the water, and I handed it over to Rakti and Crissa to clean up.

Clena was firing off spells to keep them at bay, and I was protecting us from near the door. I let Rulitora and Mark fight to their hearts’ content, as they were fully armored. Rium had gotten on her flying disc and was floating in the air before I realized it. She was covering for us from the air. I let her do whatever she judged best for now.

Roni was supposed to be in charge of collecting materials, but I didn’t think I should let her go in this situation. I was about to ask Clena to protect Roni and turned around to see them hastily putting on their armor inside the Unlimited Bath. Clena was wearing the jade scale armor we had ordered for her, and Roni was wearing her red lizard armor top. They were both wearing armor on top and bikini bottoms below. Even though Roni was wearing boy shorts and Clena was wearing a sarong, they both made my heart skip a beat.

“Stop looking at us and focus!”

“O-Oh yeah!”

Lastly, they put on pairs of sturdy boots that covered their legs up to their shins. Considering the size of the nautiluses, leg armor would be important.

Roni wasn’t carrying her usual daggers, but a pair of weapons that looked like ice picks, and was raring to go. I felt comfortable letting her go wild along with Rulitora and the others. I later learned that those ice picks weren’t actually weapons, but tools made for picking the meat out of the shells.

During the time we had taken to prepare, the swarm of nautiluses landed on the shore. There really were a lot. The first group of monsters that arrived on land came rushing toward us. Rondalan’s bait must have had some lingering effects even after we took them out of the ocean.

There were at least 200 here, with far more still coming in. This was way too much no matter how I looked at it.

“Um, Touya! Do your best!” Encouraged by Rakti’s words, I faced the incoming swarm.

This would be a much tougher battle than we had expected. I gripped the hilt of my Crescent Moon and braced myself.

“Uwoooooh!!” Rulitora was the first to leap into the fray. He let out a roar and swung his glaive, sending several of the nautiluses flying at once. The nautiluses went flying through the air with every glint of the blade. The monsters fought back by trying to surround Rulitora, but between the waves of his tail and his kicks, the enemies couldn’t get close to him.

“Get lost, you bastards!” Mark was following close behind. He was smashing several of the nautiluses with a swing of his dragon tooth hammer, which happened to be taller than his entire body.

It was a fitting way for ketolts to fight, with their tiny frames but strong muscles. Naturally he couldn’t take out as many of them at once like Rulitora, but he was a more than adequate backup.

Meanwhile, Rium was whittling down the number of nautiluses using crystal mage techniques from up in the air.

“O rain of light, shower down...” She grabbed several marbles from out her cloak and scattered them in the air. They promptly turned into balls of light that rained down on the swarm of nautiluses. On their own, the shots weren’t strong enough to take down their sturdy shells, but those that managed to hit their soft bodies were highly effective. The attack wasn’t very precise, but in exchange it covered a large area.

Rulitora could take on the swarm with his giant body head on, Mark could easily dodge around the crowd with his petite body, and Rium weakened the swarm with her wide ranged attack. I could leave the battle up front to the three of them.

“Whoa!” One of the nautiluses aimed a pincer at my leg. I quickly dodged it and struck my hammer down, not just at its pincer but at its whole body. The nautiluses that had escaped from Rulitora’s group were starting to approach us.

They looked like hermit crabs in spiral shells about 1 stuto in diameter. And of course, the hermit crabs inside were as big as their shells could fit. No matter how sharp those pincers were, they would do more than just hurt if one managed to grab me. The sight of their many legs scurrying around sent a shiver down my spine. They were abnormally aggressive, keeping us intimidated while waiting for a chance to strike. But their tough shells also gave us a chance to fight back.

“Take that!” Roni skillfully brushed off their attacks using the ice picks and an occasional kick. The nautiluses rolled over, wriggling around on their backs and unable to get back up. I used the chance to swing down on them with my Crescent Moon. Occasionally, I pulverized a nautilus along with its shell. I wasn’t as nimble as Roni, but as long as I had my Crescent Moon, I could pull this off.

“Touya! Roni! There’s more on the right! Chain of Sand!” Clena’s support was just as valuable. She pierced her sword into the sand, summoned the spirits of earth, and twined the sand around the nautiluses, rendering them immobile.

It wasn’t just one or two of them—she caught every nautilus within her range. Roni and I didn’t waste a second to clean all the trapped ones up. Thanks to Clena’s ability to paralyze the monsters, we could take care of the ones on land just fine.

However, there was no end to them. I had prepared myself, but this was more than I could have imagined. We kept fighting for a while, but the swarm of nautiluses didn’t seem to die down at all. Rulitora managed to sweep away several monsters at once with a swing of his glaive. Both of our groups combined had probably fought off 100, no, 200 of them by now.

None of us could hide our exhaustion, including me. Even Rulitora was starting to pant. Rium had run out of marbles to conduct her area-of-effect spell, so she had switched over to her silver spears to throw at the monsters. They were strong enough to pierce the shells, but they were singular, one-use attacks with essentially no area of effect and could hardly be called efficient.

“Maybe Rondalan’s bait still had an effect even after we took it out of the water?”

“If it’s the smell that’s luring the monsters, then that’s a possibility...”

Should we close the door to the Unlimited Bath? No, I had no idea when the effect would wear off. I didn’t want to deal with another swarm of nautiluses once we open the door again. Maybe we should put the bait in the bathing room and turn the fan on? No, it might stink up the bathroom and then the smell would linger on us.

“Um, Touya. How about we burn all of the bait up?” Rakti timidly called out to me from inside the Unlimited Bath.

We looked over to see her crouched down beside the door. Since only the door was visible from the outside, her body looked like it was disappearing in the air.

Anyway, burning it sounded like a good idea. The effects of the bait should disappear if we eliminated the source.

“Rakti! Crissa!”

“Y-Yes!” Crissa’s tail shot up in surprise after she was suddenly called out to.

“Take that bait to the kitchen and burn it up! Use the godly setting!”

“Using sister Fire’s powers?!” Rakti’s voice was practically hysterical. What was she so surprised about? If we were going to do this, we’d need to be thorough about it. And besides, if the smell really was the reason behind this, clearing out the scent might not make much of a difference. There was even the chance of making the smell stronger. So it would be safest to burn it to ash. That was the only sensible option.

“Hurry up! We can’t last much longer!”

“G-Got it!”

I rushed them on in a loud voice, and the two of them picked up the case with the bait and carried it inside the room. The godly flame shouldn’t burn the whole building down. I hoped. I was a little worried as I recalled the Goddess of Fire in my dreams with her wild smile, but right now I had to trust her common sense, or rather her good will. I was sure that she wouldn’t hurt her little sister.

I kept cutting down the nautiluses with my Crescent Moon, and after a sudden burst of lethargy, Rakti came running back out from inside.

“Touya! We did it! It all burned up right away without a trace!”

“Already?! That godly flame sure is something!” Roni turned around in surprise. Clena also looked dumbfounded. Yeah, let’s ignore the fact that that was supposed to be a kitchen burner for now.

Back to the point, everyone was just about at their limits. We should end this now without taking up any more time.

“Rulitora! All of you come back here for now!” I called for the three in front to come back.

As soon as he heard me, Rulitora kicked away the nautiluses at his feet and ran back. Mark followed behind him, his breathing ragged. He couldn’t have gone on much longer either. The swarm of nautiluses tried to chase after them, but Rium shot a silver spear at them to stop the pursuit.

Alright, we were all back. Now it was my turn.

“I’m going to fire off one of the goddesses’ favorite gaudy spells! Buy me some time for the chant!” Everyone had guessed what I was about to do and formed a protective circle around me.

The goddesses had been giving me magic lessons in my dreams. I couldn’t hear them so my senses were limited, but I had picked up a few things along the way. One of them was that the Goddess of Fire really liked gaudy things. I wasn’t talking about fashion, but about incredibly flashy magic spells. However, that meant that the spells she taught me were all complicated, so I had only learned one up until now. That one spell was enough for now, though.

“O flames! O flowers! Dance! I offer this crimson banquet to the Goddess! Blazing Dance!” Flame sprouted all around me, and everything around us besides ourselves burst into fire.

The blazing flames did look like a crimson banquet. They were flaring up even taller than I was, and all of them together looked like a bright red flower garden. I see, so this was the flower in the chant.

The heat was pricking our skin, so we put our arms up to shield our faces.

After the fire died out, there wasn’t a single nautilus left moving.

“Is it over...?” Rulitora murmured, looking around him.

The nautiluses’ shells were strong against heat, but the same didn’t go for their insides. Even if they hid inside their shells, they would essentially be baked. I didn’t think it was just my imagination that the air was smelling a little tastier right now.

“Looks like it’s over... Are you okay, Touya?”

“That shaved off a good chunk of my MP, but I’m fine.”

“Then please rest. We’ll take care of collecting the shells.”

I wasn’t anywhere near collapsing, but I still felt incredibly fatigued. That was a really powerful spell, but it sure did consume a bunch of MP. The others wouldn’t let me work in that state, so they offered to collect the nautilus shells themselves. I should take them up on their kindness for now.

“Be careful, the sand might still be hot...”

“Alright! Now then... huh?!” She had replied with a smile, but it was quickly wiped off her face when she looked toward the ocean.

I looked in the same direction, wondering what was going on, and saw another wave of sea spray approaching just like earlier. It was another swarm of nautiluses. Looked like they couldn’t get enough of us.

“The effect of the bait should have worn off by now...” Crissa murmured.

“...Maybe it’s left over from before?” Mark grumbled in reply.

“...That’s probably the last one. There won’t be another wave.” Rium descended from the sky. She had scouted out the sea for us using the small telescope in her hand. So that swarm really would be the last one.

“One more battle, huh.”

“...No, stay back. I’ll use another big spell.”

Blazing Banquet wasn’t the only spell I had learned. This time, I would cast a powerful one using light magic.

“Will you be okay?”

“I still have enough MP.”

Rulitora looked like he still had some fighting energy in him, but the others, not so much. I would get even more fatigued from this spell, but that was it. There was no need to hesitate on this decision.

Everybody readied their weapons and kept their eyes on the approaching swarm. It was about time for me to start chanting the spell. I pierced my Crescent Moon into the ground, and then...

“Stop right there, if you would please! It’s the end of the line for you monsters!”

...a familiar voice rang in the air. Several gunshots sounded not a moment later, piercing holes into the nautiluses.

Yes, the owner of that voice was the hero Cosmos. He was wielding dual pistols to channel his gift, the Unlimited Bullet, as he stood beside the bank.

“...What are you wearing?” The only thing he had on was a speedo.

“Hahaha! There’s nothing more to worry about now that I have arrived!”

“Why are you here?”

“What more reason do I need than to help a person in distress?”

I could almost see his teeth sparkling as he said that. He was pretty amazing, if only because he said those lines completely unironically.

Behind Cosmos were all his party members, including Princess Franchellis and her elite guards. The whole party numbered close to 20, all of them carrying weapons and donned in swimsuits. I had no idea why they were here, but it looked like they wanted to help us.

“Now then, let us embark! Hup!”

“H-Hey! Hold on a—”

“Uwhoaaaoo?!”

I tried to stop him, but it was already too late. Cosmos eagerly sprang down to the sand, but then let out a strange yelp and jumped up immediately after. Of course the sand would be hot if you stepped on it with your bare feet right after I set off the Blazing Dance. Oh, now the princess and her guards were gleefully putting on boots. Foley the elf healed Cosmos’ feet with magic, and then they put on boots as well. But now I couldn’t unleash an AOE spell with all of them here. I might as well let Cosmos and his gang help us out.

“Cosmos! Their bodies are more fragile than their shells! Watch out for their pincers, since they’ll aim for your feet!”

“Thanks for the advice! It’s showtime!!”

I gave Cosmos a few words of warning just in case, to which he offered his gratitude like any normal person. He then dashed off toward the crowd of monsters with a pistol in each hand... while wearing nothing but his speedos and a pair of boots.

The princess’ entourage of bodyguards followed quickly behind. I’d say they looked more like a bunch of students from a girls’ school carrying weapons. It was a sight. So much so that it almost brought a tear to my eyes.

The captain of the bodyguards, Ricott, stood out among them. Her tall and slender figure was clad in a wine-red racing swimsuit, and she swung around her spear as if she was performing a dance. She looked about the age of a college student. And then there was Cosmos, who occasionally struck a pose as he fought with his twin pistols.

“What... is that...?” Clena asked in wonder as she watched him.

Oh, she hasn’t seen a gun before... I almost thought, but that’s not what she was wondering about. Cosmos mixed some hand-to-hand combat into his gunfights, then struck a cool pose in the middle of battle. Why did he keep stopping to pose with a sparkling smile? Was it part of some spell that had an enchantment effect? I’m sure Clena had no idea, either. Or rather, or brains were actively rejecting trying to figure it out.

“Calm down, Clena. Let’s focus on the monsters in front of us.”

“Uh, yeah... You’d better protect me, Touya.” She was acting unusually meek. This was new. It made me want to protect her with everything I had.

“Leave it to me. Just don’t leave my side.” I reminded myself to tease and spoil her about it later, but for now I pat her on the shoulder to cheer her up. “Alright! Let’s wipe the lot of them!”

“Roger!”

“Meow!”

Rulitora and Mark followed my battle cry. Rium had replenished her supply of marbles from the Unlimited Bath and whittled down the swarm of monsters with each shot of her Rain of Light. Roni and I covered the rear as we protected Clena and Crissa, fighting off the nautiluses that managed to make their way all the way here. With the heroic and boisterous cries of the elite guards as my BGM, I slammed my Crescent Moon down on a nearby nautilus, making sure not to look in Cosmos’ direction all the while.

The sun was high in the sky when we finally finished cleaning up all the nautiluses. It had been over an hour since we initially scattered the bait. We managed to get out of that last battle unscathed thanks to Cosmos and his party. I’d have to thank him later.

The problem right now was whether or not I should reveal my Unlimited Bath to him. The original reason I had kept my gift a secret was because I didn’t want word to get out that I was a “weak hero with a gift that was useless in battle.” I took extra caution to hide it because I predicted it would make me a bigger target. However, I knew plenty of cleric spells now and could fight confidently without the need for a gift. Right now, I could laugh it off by saying my gift was a convenient little extra. I didn’t mind if other people knew. I left the door to the Bath open and started speaking to Cosmos’ party.

“Thank you, you saved us.”

“Hahahah, it was a matter of course!” I reached out to shake his hand, and he responded in kind with a cheery laugh.

Princess Franchellis approached us with a graceful smile. I hadn’t noticed from afar, but she was actually wearing a white microbikini. Are you sure you should be wearing that, princess?

She had a petite frame that I’d hardly call curvy, so the outfit honestly didn’t suit her very much. Sitting opposite of the princess was Foley the elf. She was wearing a cute frilly tube top bikini with a flower pattern. I bet the princess would look better in something like that as well. Ahem. It’d be rude to stare, so I paid attention to the conversation instead.

“By the way, why are you all here?” Cosmos asked, staring at the mountain of nautiluses surrounding us.

“We tried using the bait Rondalan made for us, and well, stuff happened...”

“Ohhh...” Cosmos immediately knew what I was getting at, as he had already collapsed once at Rondalan’s hand. He turned to the sky, overreacting as usual. “Well, I’m happy we arrived in time. We shall be going for a dip in the ocean now.”

Oh, so that was what their swimsuits were for. He was like a grade schooler who was so excited for pool day he came to school with a swimsuit under his clothing. Well, he wasn’t wearing any clothing on top, so it was even worse than that. But in that case, I might as well give him some of these nautiluses. We needed to keep the shells, but we could afford to part with some of the meat. It was perfect for a seaside barbecue.

“Let me give you some of these nautiluses as a token of our gratitude. We need the shells, but go ahead and take one or two hundred pieces of meat.” On that note, I had no way of counting exactly how many we had defeated in total, but I estimated it at just over 300.

Cosmos returned my offer with a look of doubt. “Oh no, I didn’t help you in search of a reward. Just consider it payback for you helping me the other day.”

“......”

He sounded serious. I opened my eyes wide and turned to Ricott, but she simply shook her head. She must have been used to this. Did Cosmos do this kind of stuff all the time? It sounded like he was just saying it to be nice, but that wasn’t actually the case. The leader of a party always needed to be on the lookout for sources of income for the sake of the group. Of course, neither of us would do anything as low as demand money from the needy, but this was far from the case right now. How had they survived up until now? Could it be? Was the princess basically funding their whole trip?

Said princess was resting under a parasol one of her attendants set up because she didn’t want to get a tan. I wondered what she thought of Cosmos’ personality. I couldn’t begin to guess from the way she was grinning so lightheartedly.

“...Well, we have no use for all of them. We’re going to grill them soon, so join us for a meal.”

“A lunch invitation, is it? In that case... what do you say, princess?”

“Aye, do as you please.”

Before Cosmos could respond, Ricott interjected and posed the question to Princess Franchellis. She kept herself cool with a regal-looking fan and gave a composed reply. If the princess agreed, then Cosmos had nothing else to object to. The nautiluses we had fought a fierce battle against just minutes prior were now about to become ingredients for our barbecue.

We started preparing by picking the nautiluses out of their shells. Since we had over 300 to go through, we split the work between Rium, Roni, Crissa, Mark, Foley, a few of the bodyguards, and me. Rakti and Clena then took the nautilus bodies and peeled off their outer skin, then sliced them. We could fry them easily on an iron griddle if we cut them lengthwise. A few of the bodyguards helped out here as well. I really appreciated their sheer force in numbers right now. Each nautilus was big, so I had no idea how many our parties combined would be able to consume.

Rulitora wasn’t as adept at handiwork, so I had him carry all the iron griddles outside. These griddles were crafted using iron from armor and weapons we had scavenged from the demon lord’s castle. I watched him from the corner of my eye as I picked a nautilus from its shell using a dagger. This was harder than expected.

Foley and her comrades looked at me in surprise. I asked them what was up, and apparently Cosmos couldn’t cook at all, so they had assumed I couldn’t either.

Cosmos peered at us from behind, curious about our work. “Hahahah, they look like crayfish!”

“At least compare them to lobsters.”

A conversation that could only be had by two people from the same world.

The nautiluses’ bodies had surprisingly long tails hidden in their shells, which made them akin to shrimp. Since they lived in the sea, I would say they were most similar to lobsters. Though I’d never actually eaten lobster before.

Roni and Crissa were the fastest workers among us by far. Mark was third due to his built up dexterity. He picked up the pace as time went on, quickly grasping the methods and tricks. Thanks to those three, we quickly finished prepping and piled all the shells inside the Unlimited Bath. Clena and the rest were already taking care of the next steps, so after we cleaned up the shells, it’d be time to start barbecuing.

Foley’s group continued to help us cook even though they were our guests. She must have acted as the caretaker in her party. We couldn’t ask Cosmos or the princess to help cook, and it seemed reckless to ask Ricott as well. She was cool and collected as the captain of the elite guards, but apparently she was useless when it came to housework.

We obviously didn’t have enough plates, so we borrowed some of theirs. Well, we’d planned to camp here for a few days, gradually hunting the nautiluses, but we got everything we needed in under half a day. We had brought a ton of food with us, so we might as well take them out and have a big party as a way of saying thanks. And thus I changed from my armor into an apron and started cooking. Barbecues were fun since everyone got to participate.

“Here, Touya. Say ‘Ahh!’” Rakti wanted me to sample her cooking, so she offered me a slice of nautilus.

The meat, which was lightly covered in fish sauce, had a bite to it. Rich flavors filled my mouth with each chew, the taste more reminiscent of crab than shrimp. This might go well in a stew, too.

The grilled nautilus seemed to be a hit among the swimsuit-clad girls in Cosmos’ party. I looked around me again to appreciate what a sight it was. But my party was nothing to scoff at, either. Clena, Roni, Rakti, and Rium were here. I could barely see their swimsuits under their shirts and aprons, but I was still confident enough to say that our girls were just as good. Well, it’s not like I was trying to compete with Cosmos about this anyway.

Speaking of, Cosmos was currently trying his hand at rock fishing. He was just about bouncing in excitement right now. He shouted something cheerfully, then cast his rod into the water like he was putting on a show. He sure knew how to live it up.

The princess couldn’t quite keep up with him right now, so she was gobbling down a helping of the barbecue under a beach parasol. She was having no less fun than anyone else.

“Want to take a break, Touya? Here’s a freshly grilled batch.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Once everyone was starting to settle down, Clena brought me a heaping plate of nautiluses. I sat myself down next to Rakti, who was also eating. Come to think of it, she had busied herself helping everyone out here and there, but did anyone even begin to suspect that she was the Goddess of Darkness? Even I almost forgot that fact sometimes, especially since her long black hair was tied in a loose braid right now.

Most of the swimsuit-clad bodyguards had finished eating. There were two left near the barbecue, plus Foley, who had started cleaning up. Five of the guards, including Ricott, were keeping watch around us, and the rest joined the princess as she played in the water.

Oh, a monster that Cosmos fished up was biting down on him. I stood up, about to go help him, but Ricott darted over before I took a single step. She pierced the monster with her lance. I kept eating while soaking in such sights around me. Just as I was thinking about how Cosmos was blessed with some great companions, Rakti spoke out to me.

“Touya, this is yummy! Here, say ‘Ahh!’” She picked up a chunk of a potato with her fork and pointed it toward me with a charming smile. It looked like she had taken a liking to having me sample her food.

I glanced around me to find Clena looking at us with a mischievous grin. Mark too, huh? Rium was staring with her usual expression. Roni kept sneaking glances as she cleaned the dishes, but her cheeks were red. Rulitora and Crissa were looking over here with fond smiles. The group playing at the beach hadn’t noticed us, but Foley and everyone else who was still eating had stopped what they were doing to look at us.

Why is this happening? I had no choice but to say “Ahh” here. This was embarrassing.

Rakti kept her fork held out. Her smile was that of an angel’s, even though she was a goddess. What kind of face would she make if I rejected her here? I just couldn’t. It was physically impossible for me to say no. I braced myself and ate up what she offered me.

“Isn’t it yummy?”

“Y-Yeah.” It really was... and even more embarrassing.

But this level of embarrassment was nothing if it meant protecting Rakti’s smile. I really wished everyone around us would stop staring and grinning, though. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Though her smile was worth a million. Alright then, I might as well turn the tables here.

“Okay, now it’s my turn.”

“Huh?”

“Rakti, say ‘Ahh.’”

“Oh, yes! Ahh!”

I picked up a bite-sized piece of sausage and offered it to Rakti, which she happily gobbled up. Yup, I could do this all day. I suddenly noticed that the princess was staring at us. Sorry, Cosmos. I might have put some strange ideas in the princess’ head. Though he seemed like the type who could handle it, so maybe this should count as a gift from me.

“Clena.”

“Wh-What?”

“Later.”

She covered her beet-red face in response to my curt reply. Of course, the same went for Roni and Rium. If we continued to feed each other, then Crissa would start getting some ideas, too. Consider this a gift from me, Mark. Don’t think you can escape this by just sneering in the background.

And in the end, even though our parties combined had feasted on the nautiluses, we were unable to finish all of them. In fact, we still had way too much left. What should we do about this?