Pre-Bath – Prologue

“HARUNO IS WITH ME IF YOU WISH TO SAVE HER COME TO THE WATER CAPITAL”

The scraggly message a goddess had written for me in my dream.

When I woke up the next morning, I ran for the Grande Nautilus so that I could rescue Haruno as soon as possible.

“Calm down, Sir Touya!” But before I could, Rulitora grabbed my arms and restrained me. Rakti explained the situation in my place, since I couldn’t get a word out of my infuriated head. She was also present in my dream, as the Goddess of Darkness.

“...Basically, it seems that Haruno’s party is in sister Water’s house right now.”

“She sent us a letter saying they were heading toward the Goddess of Wind, right? How did they end up with the Goddess of Water...?”

None of us could make heads or tails of the situation.

“Hey, are the water capital and the wind temple close to each other?”

“I’m sorry, Lady Yukina. I’m not sure where the wind temple is located... But I do know that the water capital is in the bay surrounded by Dragon’s Tail Peninsula and Talon Peninsula, so the two shouldn’t be very close.”

Thanks to the white dolphin, a cleric that served the Goddess of Water, I had an idea of where the water capital was. And thanks to Haruno’s letter, we also already knew where the wind temple was. Their source was a cyclops girl by the name of Prae who had been ordered by the Goddess of Wind to take Haruno to her. They couldn’t deduce the exact whereabouts of the wind temple from Prae’s story, but they at least knew it was on the western edge of the continent. Right now, we were on the southern edge. Even travelers who were prone to getting lost wouldn’t call these two places “close.”

“So did Haruno’s party fly from the west to the south?”

“...That’s almost impossible, even with crystal magic.”

Roni and Rium both wore quizzical expressions. This world had no cars or airplanes, so it’d be difficult... no, impossible, to cross that distance in such a short time frame. The white dolphin also mentioned that no such spells existed among water cleric magic.

“Which means that something abnormal happened to Haruno’s party.” As everyone else analyzed the situation, I had finished readying myself up. A metallic sound rang in the air as I stepped up before everyone.

“Tou... ya...?” Yukina questioned me with a dumbfounded expression. Her stare was directed at a thing in my hand—a pitch black great sword, my Gravesword. I had been lost in thought about Haruno this whole time. All that filled my mind were ways that I might be able to save her from the temple of the Goddess of Water.

“In any case, we just need to save Haruno! I don’t care if it’s a demon lord or a goddess that’s standing in my way...!”

“Calm down, it’s not like we have anything to fight right now.” Clena responded with a curt whack to my head.

“Again, I don’t think sister Water kidnapped them or anything! She might have, well... she must have found it hard to communicate in the dream!”

Rakti in the spotlight. I had been made to sit on my knees as Rakti imposed herself in front of me, lecturing me on how her sister wasn’t a bad goddess. Rulitora had taken away my Gravesword, so all I could do was listen. In the meantime, Yukina was weighing down my legs by using me as a lap pillow. Rium was also leaning against my back, so if this was meant to be punishment, then I was all for it.

That aside, Rakti explained that the Goddess of Water’s message only sounded harsh because she was trying to communicate to me in Japanese, which she wasn’t used to. In reality, she had wanted to convey much more thorough information.

“So what did she want to tell Touya?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know... We’re only inside your dream, so it’s harder for us to relay our thoughts to each other. Not only that, sister Water is normally very quiet...” Rakti replied dejectedly to Rulitora’s question.

Most of the beings that lived in the ocean didn’t need to speak, so she must have gotten used to being quiet. On the other hand, the dreams didn’t stop the Goddess of Light from being a chatterbox one bit. Whenever she wanted to lecture Rakti, she would go all out. Anyway, from the little information Rakti was able to gather from the quiet Goddess of Water, it appeared that Haruno’s entire party was safe at the water capital for now.

“For now?”

“Um, I don’t know the details, but they’re being targeted by the demon lord’s army, or are being chased by them...”

“Alright, give me back my Gravesword.”

“No, we’re keeping that away from you until we actually have to battle.” Clena whacked my head again as I tried to reach for the sword.

“Okay then, can I ask where this water capital exactly is?”

“...Well, as long as we don’t have to fight the Goddess of Water.”

“I know what she meant by that message now, so don’t worry.” I wasn’t about to make Rakti cry, and I didn’t want to make any more enemies, either. “Then again, why did the Goddess of Water go out of her way to write in Japanese when the Goddess of Light’s blessing lets me understand any language from this world?”

“...She might not have gotten that message. Sister Water tends to make those sorts of mistakes.”

Oh, so she was just dense?

We asked the white dolphin for the exact location of the water capital, then set sail back to Neptune to prepare for another long journey. The Goddess of Water appeared again in my dream that night, wearing the same expression as last time, but then her cheeks blushed red and she threw her flipbook at me. Yeah, I could see that she wasn’t a bad goddess now.