Third Bath – Mixed Bathing Under the Sea

Our voyage was smooth sailing thereafter. Pardoe finished mending the broken armor literally first thing in the morning, so all we had left to do was maintain our spirits until we arrived at the water capital. We didn’t encounter any marine monsters since we were sailing so close to the ocean floor, so it was a peaceful journey for the next few days. Eventually, the Grande Nautilus’ radar picked up a signal on a bunch of giant buildings.

Pardoe, who was manning the radar, said in a perplexed tone, “These structures... are definitely myan-made.” He couldn’t be sure until we saw it in person, but there was hardly any questioning it. We finally arrived at the water capital.

“Alright, let’s continue cruising until we get closer. They were the ones who invited us here, but there’s still a chance that they’ll notice us and start something.”

“You think it’s gonna get violent, meow?”

“No... but I can’t say for sure.”

I’d continued sending Haruno a letter every day, but she never replied. We couldn’t let our guard down until we knew what was going on. We readied ourselves for a possible attack and continued sailing the ship toward the radar’s readings. As we slowly approached, we picked up three small readings coming from the water capital.

I’d held off on this until now since we never had a use for it, but let me explain how the Grande Nautilus was armed. This ship was equipped with two types of weapons. The first was silver spears, but not the small ones that Rium used. These were more aptly called silver ballistae, big enough to pierce through giant marine monsters when shot. Their dormant size was already big, so they packed a punch, but at a significant monetary cost.

The second was magic cannons, which could fire spells from the inside to the outside of the ship. This was actually something I had come up with and requested to be constructed. The construction itself was simple—according to Rium, the cannons were just using the ship itself as a conductor for magic. Though apparently the insides were pretty messy to allow for ease of use.

The placement of the cannons was normal enough: one at the bow, two at the hull, two on either side, and two at the stern, for a total of nine. The cannons in the front and back where aimed downward, while the ones at the sides were aimed upward.

“Clena, go for it.”

“Got it. ...Water veil!”

Clena rested her hand against the magic crystal on the ship deck, chanted her spell, and then a large bubble formed out of the cannon at the ship’s bow and enveloped the entire ship. Now we could lower the ship’s dome without having to worry about succumbing to the water pressure. We only opened it slightly, though. The dome was our armor. We needed to tread with caution until we knew who we were up against.

“Now it’s my turn... summon spirit!” I summoned light spirits, which formed from one cannon at the ship’s hull and brightened our surroundings. We couldn’t use these cannons if magic was already occupying them, so we reserved the other cannon at the hull in case we would need it.

In the meantime, the three readings continued to approach us. They apparently noticed the opened dome and poked their heads inside the bubble. However, they immediately withdrew. Apparently they couldn’t breathe air.

One of the three was a white gillman. He must have been a water cleric. I’d never seen the species the other two were from before, though. They looked like turtle men... or maybe pillbug men? Oh yeah, they looked like the giant isopods that lived in the ocean depths. I remembered learning about them on TV before. They certainly looked similar as they had their back to us, talking about something with the water cleric. From the looks of it, the water cleric was their leader. He led the two giant isopods, almost as big as Rulitora, closer to us.

“They’re not monsters... right? Do you recognize them, Clena?”

“Sorry, I don’t. I’ve studied quite a bit on monsters and demi-humans, but...” Clena knitted her eyebrows, perplexed.

I asked Rium the same, but she didn’t respond. She was just staring at the giant isopods in earnest. This was how she acted when something new tickled her curiosity. I racked my brain over how to interact with these completely unknown beings, but someone unexpected covered for me.

“They’re probably bathynomus, a race that serves sister Water. I’ve never seen them before either, but I’ve heard about them.” Yes, the Goddess of Darkness, Rakti. I kept forgetting she was a goddess.

So they weren’t monsters, but a race that served the Goddess of Water, like gillmen. Just like how the Goddess of Light had elves, the Goddess of Darkness had demons, the Goddess of Fire had ketolts, and the Goddess of Wind had cyclopes and glaupis. According to Rakti, the bathynomus could only operate deep underwater and were completely unknown to races living on land.

“So is this first contact between land dwellers and bathynomus?”

“...Most likely,” Rium responded, her cheeks glowing red at the thought of standing within a moment of history.

The creatures outside the ship pointed toward the water capital three times, then quickly swam away.

“Are they telling us to follow them...?” Mark was at the rudder, but couldn’t decide if we should chase after them or not.

“We have no choice but to follow them. But we still don’t know what’s going on, so don’t let your guard down.”

“I’ll keep watch outside.” Roni placed herself on lookout duty, and we kept the dome and water veil as-is as we followed the bathynomus to the water capital.

We stayed vigilant, but nothing happened in the time it took us to reach the capital. The place was covered in tall but skinny mountains, almost like a forest. There was a larger mountain in the distance, but that one was wider and more imposing.

Looking closely, I noticed that each mountain had what looked like a door and windows, and bathynomus were coming and going from each. They were staring back at us, too. The Grande Nautilus must have been a pretty rare sight.

These mountains must have housed residents of the capital. Each of them was really tall, so maybe they were apartments.

“Open up the dome all the way.” I finally opened up our entire field of vision and observed all I could of the water capital.

The mountains, both skinny and wide, continued as far as the eye could see. Everything was enveloped by a deep blue hue, which emitted a dim light. It was a little eerie, but also strangely calming. The skinny mountains were like waves, while the wider mountains were like islands among them. One mountain stood especially prominent above all of them. That must be where the Goddess of Water was. I’d been calling this a water capital, but it was even bigger than I was expecting.

“...A fossilized city?” Yukina whispered.

“This? A city? This is way too big to be just a city!” Clena responded. I could relate to both of them.

If each and every one of these mountains was a dwelling, then this was essentially a metropolis filled with high-rise apartments. Yukina called it a fossilized city, but Clena couldn’t even begin to fathom how this could be considered one. That couldn’t be helped, since she hadn’t seen the cities of our world. In this world, even the castle in Jupiter couldn’t compare in size. From her perspective, the mountains themselves had become houses. Only castles could even approach that size in this world. This was essentially a city filled with castles.

The water cleric beckoned to us with his fin and started swimming alongside the ship. The two bathynomus split up and entered the forest of high-rise apartments.

“Looks like we can’t enter the city like this, so let’s follow the gillman.”

We carefully navigated around the mountains. The cleric eventually led us to a large ledge on the outskirts of the city.

“What a giant cave... even a whale could fit in here.”

The underside of the ledge contained a large opening to a cavern, which the cleric swam into and we followed. It was surprisingly spacious inside, and I could see light above us. The cleric kept swimming up toward the light. The Grande Nautilus ascended in kind until we arrived in an area above water.

The room was pretty big. Just like the outside, the walls here were a deep blue and radiated a faint light. I could see around us without having to use the light spirits. One wall was covered in a giant mural, from the water’s surface to the ceiling. I guessed that it depicted the Goddess of Water. This painting most resembled the real goddess compared to the depictions we’d seen so far. Maybe this was the case because the goddess herself lived here.

“This is probably a shrine for creatures to worship at when they can’t enter the capital.”

“...What kind of creatures would those be?”

“I’m sure there are several kinds, but marine monsters, most likely.”

Rakti and Rium conversed as they stared at the mural. I see. This room was so big because of the kinds of creatures that visited. The Grande Nautilus could fit in here with plenty of room to spare, so it wasn’t hard to imagine how big some of the monsters who visited were. I’d start getting scared if I kept thinking about it though, so I looked around the room to focus my mind on other things.

The room wasn’t just a mural. There was also a floor to walk on underneath. The floor was wide and flat, and a tunnel in the wall led deeper inside. I bet this place was used by the gillmen as well. They were dolphin demi-humans, so they could only stay underwater for so long.

Now I understood why the water capital was located in the bay. This area was surrounded by the mainland and two peninsulas, so most of the sea floor was still on the continental shelf. The capital itself might be deeper, but still within reach of the gillmen.

“Sir Touya, I see people over there!”

I looked where Roni was pointing and saw some people that were neither gillmen nor bathynomus. The water cleric had gone ashore and started talking to them.

That person was... Haruno! I could recognize her glossy, silky, lustrous black hair from this distance. There was no mistake!! The blond woman to her right must be Sera. The three to her left were Sandra, Rin, and Lumis. The large blue-skinned girl behind her must be the cyclops, Prae, that she mentioned in her letters. I couldn’t see the small imp, Daisy, from here though.

“Let’s get out. Pardoe, you guys stay here and keep watch for now.”

“No problem, meow!”

I led Rulitora, Rium, Clena, Roni, and Rakti to solid ground. I wore minimal armor with only a tuna knife attached near my hip. As soon as I opened the hatch and stepped out of the Grande Nautilus, Haruno noticed us and came running.

“Touyaaa!!”

I couldn’t hold back after hearing her voice, either. I dashed forward and embraced her as she leaped into my arms.

“Haruno... are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” She felt lighter than the last time we’d seen each other. Thinking about it, I had just grown stronger, but we’d been without contact for so long that I blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“I-I’m okay. Um, you must have sent a lot of letters, right? I’m sorry, our holy tool broke...”

“It broke? What happened to it?”

“Actually...”

Haruno was about to speak, but I suddenly noticed that something was off. Something was different about her from the Haruno I knew before. I gazed at her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. She wasn’t injured, as far as I could tell. She didn’t seem funny when she ran to me earlier, either. Her hair was a little longer and she was slightly more tanned now, but that wasn’t what felt off.

Her breasts felt a little bigger when we hugged each other, but that wasn’t it either. Though it was also very important to note. Lastly, I looked her right in the face, and I finally realized what it was.

“Huh? Your eyes...” Her eyes were a different color. Was she an imposter? No, I didn’t think so. An imposter wouldn’t reveal themselves with such an obvious giveaway. “Haruno, what happened to your eyes...?” I asked.

She covered one eye with her hand and sighed, “I was just about to say... the wind temple was attacked and destroyed.”

“...What?” The wind temple was Haruno’s party’s destination. I figured something had happened to it, but I wasn’t expecting this.

“The Goddess of Wind was defeated, too.”

“What did you say?!” I looked back at Rakti. She was far enough away that I didn’t think she heard, since she was just blankly staring at us from beside Clena.

“I took on what remained of the Goddess’ powers and managed to flee to here, but... my eyes are a side effect of that.” Haruno finished her story and removed her hand from her eye. Her irises were now a dark green instead of the black they once were. She looked straight at me with those eyes like shining emeralds.

Shining emeralds. As I was captivated by her gaze, Clena, Sera, and all the others started to gather.

“It has been a long time, Touya.”

“You too, Sera. I’m glad to see that you’re well.” I felt a sense of security with her gentle smile. If Sera was calm, then that must have meant Haruno was in no danger right now.

The three temple knights soon followed, and we exchanged our greetings. Or maybe I should call them former temple knights? They had abandoned the Goddess of Light’s band of pilgrims in favor of supporting Haruno. They looked fine and healthy, too. Looks like I didn’t have to worry about injuries on their end, either.

Next, I saw Prae and Daisy. I could easily discern who was who based on their sizes. Prae was two or three heads taller than Rulitora.

“Goddess of Darkness, so cuuute!” Shockingly, she figured out that Rakti was the Goddess of Darkness from just a glance. She embraced Rakti like she wanted to chomp down on her, but Rakti didn’t seem like she was hurting, so Prae must have had a good handle on her limits. She really was jumbo-sized, though. Rakti looked like a doll in her arms. I wanted to experience being hugged by her too, but I kept that thought to myself.

“Huh, so you’re Haruno’s boy...” Then there was Daisy, who flew around my head while sneering. Haruno must have told her a lot about me, as she was peering at me with intrigue. I wondered how exactly she had portrayed me to the other girls, but I wasn’t too keen on finding that out.

Yukina then jumped in and started flying around as well. I almost thought they were making friends, but then I felt sparks over my head. Rivals, huh? Were they fighting for the “mischievous devil girl” role?

Then, Daisy made use of her size by sprawling herself on top of my head. Yukina couldn’t find a counter against that move.

“Um, I’d like to talk more in our room, but is she heavy...?”

“Nah, she’s light as a feather. Don’t worry about it, Haruno.”

“Now now, don’t act so spoiled. Come over here, Yukina.”

“...Okaaay.”

With Clena’s help, the only girl who remained stuck to me was Daisy, and then we started walking to the room Haruno’s party was staying in. Though Yukina still flew around me and glared enviously at Daisy.

“Why are you so glued to Touya?”

“This guy’s emitting some pretty comfy powers,” Daisy laughed above me. I couldn’t tell if she meant my partial demon transformation or my Unlimited Bath.

On another note, the water cleric had remained silent as he guided us. It looked like having us meet went perfectly according to plan.

I walked down a very peculiar hallway with Haruno. The floor was made of soft sand, and the abnormally high ceiling was covered in faintly glowing moss. The smooth rock walls were a shade of pale blue different from the walls outside. This cave was clearly man-made.

Haruno said that the moss on the ceilings provided both light and oxygen. This sure was a cleverly constructed place. Apparently several of these caves dotted the outskirts of the water capital and were used as rental housing for followers who couldn’t breathe underwater. Haruno’s party had rented out this entire cave.

“Isn’t this way too big for just your group? Although I don’t know if they have anything smaller...”

“About that... you’ll see if you come over here,” Haruno said, then led us in front of a large room. The room had no door, so I peeked inside from the hallway and saw a few dozen figures suddenly turn our way.

The figures looked completely out of place in this water capital. They came up to about my shoulder. Their bodies were pretty wide as well, but since they were covered in feathers, I couldn’t tell where their bodies ended and feathers began. Their faces were flat with two large, piercing eyes. Instead of lips, they sported pointy beaks. They were clearly a race of birds, not fish.

“Owls? Wait, don’t tell me...”

“Yes, they are the glaupis who were once driven out of Athena.”

I knew they were winged demi-humans, but I wasn’t expecting them to be owls. I looked around the room and estimated that there were a couple dozen of them in total. Judging by their varying sizes, both children and adults were present. Ten of them were standing in front of us armed with spears and wearing breastplates. At first I thought they were holding the spears with their wings, but they actually had hands covered in feathers.

Farther back, I noticed several larger figures that I assumed were cyclopes. They all had blue skin like Prae. Some smaller cyclopes were among the group, but I didn’t notice them at first because of the glaupis. Were they kids? Their heads were moving around skittishly.

...Wait, most of the cyclopes were women—especially the adults. Maybe they were all mothers? If the wind temple had really fallen, then the women and children would have escaped first—or rather, they were made to escape first.

“Come over here, Touya. Let’s talk in the room farther inside.”

One of the glaupis holding a spear joined our group, and the water cleric followed. However, the room we entered was absolutely dreary. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture inside, and the floor was all sand.

“What is this place?”

“All the rooms are like this,” Haruno said, and then I suddenly recalled the feast we’d had with the gillmen. All the gillmen had either eaten standing up or sitting directly on the beach—none of them used chairs. Come to think of it, I could barely imagine a gillman sitting on a chair.

“The gillmen all live in houses like this. They might have a place to store their spears, at most?” Yukina, who had allied with the gillmen for a while, confirmed my suspicions. I see, so furniture like desks and chairs weren’t part of their culture. The room was spacious, but that made me feel all the more restless.

“Haruno, let’s use the Unlimited Bath instead.”

“Oh? Are you sure? You mentioned it’s bigger now, but...”

“There won’t be a problem.”

Haruno and I had promised each other that when we became stronger, we’d reunite and bathe together. But I never would have imagined that we’d meet again in a place like this. Thoughts raced through my head as I stepped out of the room, summoned the door to the Bath, and flipped it open. I made sure to summon it outside the room since Prae and the other cyclopes were too big to go inside.

“Come on in! This is my new and improved Unlimited Bath!” It felt like I was inviting a girl into my own room. I tried to sound confident, but this was still pretty embarrassing. Apparently Haruno felt the same way and slightly blushed and mumbled, “Excuse me,” as she crossed the door.

“Wow...” she exclaimed, her eyes wide in astonishment. The growth of this Bath also signified my own growth, so I was happy to hear her reaction.

“Unbelievable!” Daisy, who had been resting atop my head, fluttered her wings and started flying around. She might hit her head on the ceiling if I let her be, so I told her to stay close to Yukina.

“Come in, everyone.” I invited Sera and the pilgrims in next. They had seen the Bath back when it was just a tiny room and a tub, so they gasped at how much it had changed. “...Oh yeah, what have you all been doing for water here?”

“We’ve been managing, though we can’t gather too much at once.”

“I see... The water here is all fresh, so feel free to give some out to everyone else if they need it.”

“In that case, let me take care of it.”

“I’ll help too!”

Sera and Lumis volunteered themselves, so I left it to them. Sera should be familiar with how to use the faucets in here, but they had since moved locations, so I asked Rium to assist them.

“How about food?”

“We have been providing food for everyone!” the water cleric interjected after being silent for so long. That wasn’t the only part of my question, though.

“Don’t worry, I trust you on that. But can you obtain food from land all the way down here? I don’t think you can do much in terms of making fire for cooking, either.”

“W-well...”

“It’s the best they can do, Touya. Cooking food isn’t even customary for the ones living down here,” Haruno defended the cleric with an awkward smile. So they had been eating nothing but sashimi and seaweed salad? I worried about their nutritional balance.

“Roni, go cook something up. Use the fishing pond if you need to.”

“Understood!”

I had assumed that we were just going to pick up Haruno’s party and leave, so we didn’t have an unlimited supply of food, but Roni should be able to make something nice. Even simple fried fish would be a refreshing meal for them.

“Sandra, Rin, can you help her?” Haruno asked.

“Yes, we will. We’ll assist with whatever she asks.”

“Gotcha! Wow, I haven’t had a hot meal in ages.”

Sandra and Rin followed Roni into the kitchen, so now all that was left were me, Clena, Rakti, Haruno, the water cleric, and the glaupis. The central room would have a lot of people coming and going, so I took the six of us to the tatami-floored room we normally used as the bedroom. It’d be a little cramped with all of us in there, but we couldn’t exactly use the bathroom, so this would have to do. I slid open the window and saw Rulitora and Prae, whom he had guided outside. Good, now she could be part of our conversation too.

“Now then... could you tell us everything that happened?” I sat cross-legged at the head of the table and asked Haruno.

“Yes. First, let me tell you what happened to the wind temple,” Haruno kneeled down, straightened her back, and replied.

I promptly corrected my posture and assumed the same proper sitting stance as her. The atmosphere had suddenly become a lot more rigid as soon as we stepped inside this room. The traditional, serious Japanese air made it Haruno’s home court. Clena and Rakti looked confused at the way we were sitting at first, but then imitated our postures.

“The gillman and glaupis over there—don’t worry about sitting like us. Just make yourselves comfortable,” I addressed the two who were anxiously trying to sit like us, then told Clena and Rakti that they could relax as well. After that, I urged Haruno to continue.

Her emerald eyes stared directly at me, then she began. “I’m sure you’re wondering, so let me say this first... The one who attacked the wind temple wasn’t the demon lord army—it was Jupiter.”

“The sacred family?”

“Most likely... I don’t know if it was an order from the sacred king or from the prince, though.”

“...We came across the hero Cosmos’ party in Neptune, and Princess Franchellis told us that the prince is anti-demi-human.”

“Do you believe that?”

“It’s much more likely than the sacred king, at least.”

My impression of the sacred king wasn’t necessarily a bad one, but it wasn’t particularly good either. On the other hand, my impression of Princess Franchellis had done a one-eighty since meeting her in Neptune. I figured she was as oblivious as Cosmos at first, but that was just an act. In reality, she was pretty sharp. Cosmos was definitely important to her though, so as long as he and I were on the same side, we could trust her information. Maybe she had put on that act because Cosmos had been the most enthusiastic about subjugating the demon lord. If that was the case, then she had a pretty pragmatic way of thinking.

“I’m thinking we can trust her word as long as we don’t share a conflict of interest.”

“Clena, was it? In that case, it’s much more likely that the prince ordered it... but we still can’t say for sure.”

“Yeah, and that’s fine for now.” The bigger issue was that the demon lord’s army wasn’t part of this. I’d heard that prejudice against demi-humans had died down, but maybe it was resurging. The sacred family had summoned us as heroes after learning of the demon lord’s possible revival. Fearing the demon lord, they probably started to view not only demons, but all demi-humans as their enemies.

“One other thing I’ve been wondering about... Is it that easy to defeat a goddess? Rakti aside, since she had been sealed and lost her powers.”

Hearing that, the water cleric interrupted with a quivering voice. “Um...”

“What is it?”

“Is this girl named Rakti, um...?”

“Yeah, she’s the Goddess of Darkness.”

The water cleric’s jaw dropped to the floor and the glaupis rustled his feathers. I bet they never expected the Goddess of Darkness herself to be right in front of them.

“I-I shall notify the Goddess right away.”

“You don’t have to. I bet she already knows.” I let Rakti’s secret slip so easily because it would come out soon enough anyway, with the Goddess of Water here. When we headed back to the Grande Nautilus, I planned to introduce Haruno’s party to the ketolts and tell them about Rakti at the same time.

“Um, Touya? We goddesses have two bodies. One of them is our original divine form, while the other is our corporeal body we use to interact with this world.”

“W-was that how it is...?”

“The ones you see in your dreams are our original forms.”

Seriously? So the other goddesses were in their original forms in my dreams, too?

“Wait, does that mean the Goddess of Light was physically present in the temple in Jupiter, too?”

“No, sister Light’s corporeal form has already been lost. She cast a spell that assimilated her body with something else in order to store her powers. Right now, the only ones left with physical bodies are sister Water, sister Wind, and I...” Rakti started choking up toward the end of her sentence and hung her head. Since the Goddess of Wind’s corporeal form had now been defeated, the only ones left were Rakti and the Goddess of Water.

“So then, Haruno...”

“We didn’t completely merge, but she granted me her powers.”

“Her physical form had been weak ever since she left Athena. After she learned of Jupiter’s attack, she trusted part of her remaining power to Lady Haruno and told us to run away...”

I see, so that was how Haruno had gotten her powers. “Did she use what was left of her power to fight Jupiter?”

“No, actually...” Haruno’s voice faded, but suddenly the glaupis slammed his fist against the tatami floor and wailed.

“Our Goddess! She used her remaining power to transport us all the way here! Her physical form is likely nothing more than an empty husk now...!”

“So that’s why she was defeated...!” Instead of fighting Jupiter’s army, the Goddess of Wind had put priority on ensuring everyone’s escape. Even if it meant sacrificing her corporeal form to the opponent. “So the Goddess of Wind had warping abilities?”

“It’s called a ‘sanctuary.’ The Goddess of Wind can use her sanctuary as a medium to go anywhere in the world.”

“Normally, only goddesses can enter their own sanctuaries. But since sister Wind assimilated part of her power with Haruno’s body, she was allowed to enter. Then, she used her remaining power to transport everyone else to sister Water.”

“She must have thought that this was the safest place, since the Goddess of Water still has a physical form...” I surmised, and Rakti nodded. Rakti was also an option, but I wouldn’t have been able to handle having such a huge number of people dumped on me. The water capital was her only choice.

“...I think all the demi-humans here was the limit of who sister Wind could transport. I’ve heard that her sanctuary takes a tremendous amount of power to use...”

“Ahh, my Goddess...!” Hearing Rakti’s words, the glaupis broke down in tears.

After seeing only women and children among the cyclopes, I guessed that only a small fraction of the people in the temple had been able to escape. The few armed glaupis had been transported to protect everyone else, but this was still a huge shock for him, even knowing that.

“Now I’m worried about everyone who was left behind, though.”

“Then you can just ask~”

“Huh?”

Prae answered Clena’s question, grinning as she peeked inside from the window. According to Haruno, this girl was actually a cleric who served the Goddess of Wind. In the wind temple, the cyclopes were normally clerics, while the glaupis were temple knights. Despite appearances, Prae should have all the knowledge a cleric would. What she said just now wasn’t just nonsense.

“Prae, was it? What do you mean?” Though in spite of that, I unwittingly spoke to her like she was a kid, thanks to her innocent air.

She responded to me with a big, happy smile. “Um, Haruno is part-goddess now, so she can grant blessings!”

“...Oh, so I can just receive the blessing from her.” After that, I’d be able to see the Goddess of Wind in my dreams, just like all the others. Her corporeal form might have been defeated, but according to Rakti, she should still have her original divine form.

“That’s right. If Touya gets the wind blessing, then he can communicate with sister Wind in my sanctuary. She must be keeping an eye on everyone who was left behind!”

“I see, so that’s the plan... Wait.” Hold on, Rakti just said something that caught my ear. “...Sanctuary? Yours?”

“Yes? That’s what we’ve always been using.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“You mean... that dream with the goddesses I always see is because of your sanctuary?”

“Yes! I don’t know why Touya and all my sisters can enter it, but that’s definitely my sanctuary!”

“So you haven’t figured that part out...?”

“I’m sure it’s fine! For I am the one who rules over serenity and the night, the Goddess of Darkness!”

I had no idea what was fine about it, but her confident smile made me forget anything I was going to say. I couldn’t just sit here shocked, though. I set aside the topic of my dreams for now.

The others explained everything that had happened until I had a firm grasp on what exactly went on with the wind temple and with Haruno’s body. The Goddess of Wind wanted to use her sanctuary to let everyone escape, but she needed to grant Haruno her powers first to let her enter, and then used her remaining power to transport everyone she could. In that case, it was no wonder why they had lost to Jupiter’s army. Haruno said that it was barely a fight, and the goddess’ corporeal form had likely already disappeared.

The Goddess of Water had most likely called us here because she had no other way of transporting Haruno and the others back above ground. I asked the water cleric if that was the only reason why we were called here. “There’s nothing going on in the water capital, is there?”

“Well, humans coming down here is a big incident in itself.”

“Besides that.”

“...No, nothing in particular.”

He paused before saying that. Was there really nothing going on, or was it hard to talk about? What should I do here?

“Okay then, please tell the Goddess of Water that the Goddess of Darkness has arrived.”

“Understood.”

“Please arrange a time for us to meet with the Goddess, too. I want to properly thank her for taking care of Haruno’s party.”

“...I shall let her know. May I ask you to wait a while?”

“I don’t mind. But our food is limited right now, so we can’t just wait forever, you know?”

“I understand.”

“Alright then, we’ll leave it in your hands.”

The water cleric hurried away as soon as we finished talking. Maybe he wanted to avoid me interrogating him any further... no, I only thought that because I suspected him. In any case, this was the most we could do for now. If the goddess was in some sort of trouble, she could always request our help. If our meeting ended up delayed, then that implied the cleric was keeping something from us. We should start preparing ourselves for any sudden movements right now, while keeping an eye on the other side.

“Okay, should we get Touya his blessing from the Goddess of Wind first? The Unlimited Bath will grow even more if we do.”

“You’re right, we should get everything taken care of in case we need to depart.” Clena and Haruno made their suggestion, probably because they also thought the cleric’s actions were suspicious.

Yes, there was one major preparation we should make. We needed to ready ourselves in case we needed to depart at any moment.

After Roni’s group finished prepping in the kitchen, we stepped out of the Unlimited Bath, then moved to the inner room to conduct the blessing ceremony. However, Haruno said something strange.

“Okay, so I’m supposed to grant the blessing now... Um, should we kiss or something?”

“Uh, I received my earth blessing from a plump middle-aged man, the water blessing from a gillman, and the fire blessing from a group of muscular old men...” And the darkness blessing from a goldfish. Needless to say, I didn’t kiss any of them. In any case, it looked like Haruno didn’t know how a blessing ceremony worked. “Rakti, do you know?”

“I don’t know how sister Wind normally does it, but it’s just granting a blessing.” Rakti explained that all you needed to do to grant a blessing was gather power in your hand and touch the receiver. It was a sensible explanation, but apparently a goddess’ power was the only requirement.

Haruno’s hand was already giving off a faint light. I kneeled down on one knee before her, just to make it seem formal. She placed her hand on my head, and then the light seemed to pass into me, then eventually dissipated.

“...Is this really okay?” Apparently this was all a ceremony needed, but Haruno wasn’t fully satisfied.

I wasn’t satisfied either, in another sense. “Now I’m wondering what the ceremony for the fire blessing was all about...”

“I think that was just to sister Fire’s liking.” According to Rakti, clerics needed to perform different rituals depending on each goddess in order to borrow their powers.

“All Goldfish needed to do was yell ‘Curse yer hides!’ at me, though.”

“That man was actually an arch-cleric under my temple.” Huh, so Goldfish was actually someone pretty important.

Back on topic, Haruno was finally satisfied after hearing our explanations. “I guess it’s better this way, then. I don’t know how to recite any ritual prayers, anyway.”

“And I trust the Goddess of Water a lot more now.”

“Why is that?”

“Because her ceremony was normal.” The fire ceremony was just awful in comparison. It’d probably show up in my nightmares if I didn’t see the goddesses every night. If that was really the Goddess of Darkness’ sanctuary, then I had Rakti to thank for my peace of mind.

Now that our simple ceremony was over, it was time to check out how the Unlimited Bath had changed. But before that, there was one thing we had to do.

“Haruno, ask everyone to gather their luggage together.”

“Everyone? You mean Prae, and all the others?”

“And the glaupis, too.” If we wanted to prepare to leave at any time, then we needed to get everyone in the Grande Nautilus first. The cyclopes would be safe as long as we had them board the ship.

Now then, let’s see how the Unlimited Bath had changed. We could get back the Grande Nautilus first, but if they had a lot of luggage, then it’d be easier to move everything inside the Bath first.

“It’s grown even bigger...” I opened the door to find that the inner building was even farther away than before. The hose had just barely been able to reach outside back on the dragon’s island, but now it definitely wouldn’t reach... Or so I thought, but now there was a drinking fountain right beside the door. It was a common drinking fountain you’d find in parks—the type where the water streamed out in an arc. There was a faucet on the side, so we could attach the hose there.

Rium twisted the faucet on, which spurted a stream of water right at Daisy’s face as she was peering into it. The water actually had enough force to cause Daisy some pain, so I soothed her with healing magic.

Rakti stepped closer and leaned down to inspect the drinking fountain. “This one... is from sister Water.”

This wasn’t water for cleaning, but water to drink. In other words, it wasn’t for purification. So this wasn’t from my new wind blessing, but growth from a previous blessing, like how the washing machine had popped up.

Haruno’s party looked around, speechless. Not surprising, since they had been taken aback by how large my Unlimited Bath had grown just earlier, and now it had grown even more.

The left side of the building had expanded. A new room had probably formed next to the fire kitchen. If it followed the order of the goddess sisters, then that should house the new gift I received from the wind blessing.

“Hasn’t it grown even more than it usually does?”

“You think?” Following Rulitora’s remark, I tried to count the number of stones in the stone path, but stopped when I realized that I didn’t know how many there were in the first place. I took a small breath and looked up, and then I realized the true meaning behind Rulitora’s words. “...What’s all that?”

The building had actually grown taller. Of course Rulitora would be the first one to notice. Either the ceiling had gotten higher, or there was a second floor now. We wouldn’t know until we saw for ourselves.

The sliding door itself had grown even larger. Even Prae could enter if she stooped down a little. I wondered if a sliding door this big would be heavy, but I guess since this was a gift, even Rakti could slide it open with ease.

“We’re going to check inside, so Yukina, take Daisy and see what’s changed outside.”

“Okay!”

“Sure, whatever.”

I saw the two off and crossed the door. The ceiling was indeed higher than it was before, but not enough to cover how tall the building had become. There had to be a second floor.

“This is my second time at a place like this~” Prae said with a smile, which made Haruno look a little sad.

I asked her what was wrong, and she whispered in my ear that her “first time” was likely the time she was captured and trapped in a jailhouse in Athena. I see. In that case, we needed to show Prae some hospitality here.

“Comparing the bath with a jailhouse? I would never forgive that, even if a goddess would! I’m gonna show her such a good time here to the point that she’ll never be able to go back to how she used to live!”

“Well, I don’t think a goddess would forgive that, either...”

“Probably not,” I bluntly agreed with Sera’s retort. The goddesses I met in my dreams would no doubt be irritated at this conversation.

But my feelings were just as pertinent. Even accounting for our differences in culture, I couldn’t just leave a girl be when she couldn’t tell the difference between a house and a jail cell.

We entered the building, and I saw a set of stairs to the right of the newly expanded entrance hall. The stairs were right behind the sink. The sink itself hadn’t moved even though the room had grown larger, so a new set of stairs took up the empty space.

“Is this where we take off our shoes?”

Oh yeah, this was the first time Sera and the others experienced taking off their shoes at the front door. Well, that was just the way it worked here, so they had to get used to it.

“I’ve been thinking... this isn’t even a bath anymore, is it?”

“It’s not just my Unlimited Bath that’s been leveling up—I’ve received a new gift with every blessing. So this isn’t just a bathroom, but a space that unifies all my gifts.”

I was curious about my new gift, but let’s check out the second floor first. Prae was too big to climb the stairs, so instead I asked her, Rulitora, and Roni to clean up the central room for now. Our furniture didn’t move when the room expanded, so we needed to reorganize accordingly. Rulitora and Prae should be able to finish the job fast.

“We can assist as well.” Sera, Sandra, Rin, and Lumis volunteered themselves. The job was in capable hands.

I led Haruno, Clena, Rakti, and Rium to the second floor, which turned out to be an empty, spacious room. No furniture was in sight, but the carpet looked especially fluffy and inviting. Rium dived right onto the floor and tumbled about.

“......”

“You can try it too, Rakti.”

“R-really? Okay then!”

She had been fidgeting hesitantly, but a bit of encouragement prompted her to happily dive onto the carpet as well. She rolled around with Rium. They were rolling so much that their skirts were endearingly riding up their legs, but neither of them seemed to notice.

“Um... may I, as well?”

Et tu, Haruno? You’re one of them?

I had no reason to say no, so I gave her my permission, and she let out a gleeful cheer and jumped right in. And now there were three girls rolling about on the ground.

I wasn’t expecting this side from our diligent honors student, but she was plenty adorable like this—in fact, I welcomed it. Impressively, her skirt wasn’t riding up her legs at all. Was that wind magic at work?

Anyway, this carpet was so fluffy that diving into it didn’t look like it would hurt at all. Could this room be considered its own gift?

“You’re such a kid, Haruno~” Clena said slyly.

“Okay, we’re going in too!”

“Wha—?!”

Clena’s apprehensive posture made it plain as day that she wanted to try it out as well, so I grabbed her shoulders and plunged ourselves in. Yeah, I was getting jealous of the girls too.

It actually didn’t hurt one bit. Clena had fallen head-first, but the soft carpet absorbed the impact, and she was wide-eyed at her lack of injury.

The carpet itself wasn’t difficult to walk on, but it was still soft and fluffy bliss once you lay down. It struck the perfect balance. Placing any furniture on here would be a waste.

“How is this so soft?! It’s just carpet, and yet...!”

“This is better than my bed at home...”

Judging by Clena’s and Haruno’s reactions, this was grade-A material. Rium and Rakti were still tossing themselves about, trying to absorb every bit of the sensation they could.

The room also had a terrace on either side, which opened up to the outside. The openings weren’t covered in glass.

I looked out onto the left balcony, where Yukina and Daisy just happened to drop by. Anyone who could fly would be able to enter the second floor directly from here, huh. I asked the two of them what they had found.

“It’s gotten sooo big!”

“It’s big enough to fit everyone inside.”

I had a feeling before, but the outer garden really had expanded much more than usual. Maybe the Goddess of Wind’s desire to protect everyone who had escaped manifested itself in this gift. Haruno breathed a sigh of relief from nearby, and I became less anxious as well.

“Oh, and there’s a big windmill.”

“A windmill?” I looked out the terrace to see a pure white windmill opposite the fire altar. Like always, the “gift handbook” popped up in my head and informed me that the windmill was the wind altar.

The windmill didn’t move with the wind, but rather created wind by forcing it to spin. It was more like an electric fan, in that sense. We could use it to make dried fruits and other preserves.

“Huh, isn’t the fire altar really far away now?”

“The altars are tied to the four corners of this space.”

The fishing pond was likely farther away now, too. This was one inconvenience from the Unlimited Bath growing larger, but it couldn’t be helped.

Now then, it pained me to leave this fluffy carpet, but I needed to go downstairs and check out what the new room held.

“Ahem. We can come back to rest later.”

Haruno cleared her throat, a little embarrassed, and prompted everyone else to stand up.

“Cold!!” I exclaimed as soon as I opened the door to my new gift. The others who had been cleaning up the first floor looked over out of curiosity.

“Cold? Does that mean...” Haruno peered inside the room, then shivered at the chilly air.

“Is this... a refrigerator?”

“Looks like it. I had given up on having one since the water blessing didn’t make one appear, but the wind blessing actually did it.”

The entire room was a refrigerator. Thanks to the wind blessing, it was fitted with some sort of air cooling system, so the room was cold and breezy inside. The door was heavy in order to keep the cold air from escaping, though that caught me off guard when I first opened it.

Yukina hopped inside and twirled, giggling, “It’s cold!” She sure was unaffected by the temperature despite wearing what was essentially a swimsuit.

“Are demons strong against cold temperatures?”

“It depends, I guess?” Clena was also strong against the cold, but she figured that was because of the environment she grew up in.

“So what’s a... refrigerator?” No one else knew what we were talking about, and Rium was the first to ask.

“...It’s kind of hard to explain when you think about it. I guess it mainly... chills your food so that it lasts longer?”

“Ooh, so it’s like an icehouse.” Having grown up in the north, Clena immediately understood what I was talking about. Roni helped explain to everyone else how this room worked.

“In our world, there’s a refrigerator in every house.”

“They’re not as big as this one, though. This is commercial-size, isn’t it?”

Haruno and I tried walking inside, but it really was chilly. She shivered and snuggled her body closer to mine, which made Yukina jealous and hug me as well. Her skin was ice cold.

“Yukina, your body is freezing.”

“Oh no, let’s get out of here!”

“Okay then, can we get right in the bath?”

“...I’m plenty tempted to as well, but let’s save that for after we return to the Grande Nautilus.” Everyone else was keeping themselves busy, so we shouldn’t be skipping off into the bath quite yet. “But you can take a bath by yourself if you want, Yukina...”

“No, I don’t wanna!”

I figured she’d say that. Oh well, we just had to hold off for now.

“Alright, wear my cloak instead.”

“Okaaay!” Yukina skipped out of the refrigerator room and the two of us followed.

“Haruno, about how much luggage do you think everyone has?”

“They didn’t have time to bring much...”

“It shouldn’t take long to carry everything in here, then. Let’s pick up the pace.”

“Okay!”

If I were to give this new gift a name, I’d call it the Unlimited Refrigerator. It was absolutely useless in battle as always, but it sure was convenient. Our next big step was to bring everyone back to land. The refrigerator would help us store plenty of food, so I planned to put it to good use.

First on the list was transporting everyone’s luggage into the Bath.

“Is this a village?” the group of demi-humans asked as soon as they stepped inside the Unlimited Bath.

I didn’t think this counted as a village. In fact, if they wanted to turn it into one, I’d no longer be able to move away from here.

The upgraded Unlimited Bath was big enough to act as a shelter, so we shouldn’t be too cramped during our journey back to the surface. After moving everyone’s belongings inside, we made our way back to the ship. I placed a magic crystal against the door to open it, then invited everyone in. Next, I told the ketolts about Rakti’s true identity.

“—So I never mentioned this before, but Rakti is actually the Goddess of Darkness that the first sacred king accidentally placed a seal on.”

“W-well, I suppose it was purrfectly reasonable to keep that from us, but...”

“But?”

“I can’t quite believe that this girl is really a goddess, meow.”

“Same here.”

“Sniff...”

Unsurprisingly, they didn’t totally believe that Rakti was a goddess. Her eyes were watering. Well, it was the truth whether they liked it or not. Rakti was also one of the primary reasons why we hadn’t been driven out of the water capital even though we weren’t followers of the Goddess of Water.

“So now what do we do? The water cleric was acting suspicious earlier.”

“He was clearly hiding something. I haven’t sensed any ill will from him before, though.”

“You can tell...?” Clena was astounded by Haruno’s judgments. You’d expect no less from the girl who exposed the injustices lurking in Athenopolis all in one night.

“I wonder what sort of response we’re going to get...”

“How was it when your party arrived, Lady Haruno?”

“We were told she was busy, so we didn’t request an audience. We couldn’t leave this cave, in any case,” Haruno answered Rulitora’s question with a wry smile.

Here at the ocean floor, their food supply and livelihoods were in the water capital’s hands. Haruno’s party had no choice but to stay silent. Now that we were here, though, they could finally make their move.

“Touya, what should we do next?” Sera asked me. We just had to wait for a response to our meeting request for now, but we couldn’t wait forever.

“Let’s give it three days.”

“What if we haven’t heard anything by then?”

“I’d feel bad for Rakti, but we’ll return to the surface.” I didn’t know what was going on, but if the goddess needed help, she should be able to reach us. If we heard no response, then that meant she either didn’t need help or didn’t want to ask us for it.

We only had a limited supply of food, too. Haruno said that the gillmen were bringing them food, but that would only be the case as long as we stayed in the water capital. We needed to keep our supplies high enough to sustain everyone until we returned to land. Considering that, I picked three days as our limit. If we made good use of the fishing pond, then we’d have barely enough food for the trip. Well, we could sustain ourselves for longer, but then we’d be eating fish three meals a day. We packed as much food as we could, but I would never have expected so many people here. So what should we do for now, in concrete terms?

“Let’s keep the dome open so that we always have someone on the lookout.”

“The gillmen will come back to deliver food, so we need someone to greet them. We can ask the glaupis to help keep watch.”

There were six wind temple knights present. If they joined, then we could always have someone on lookout duty. I left Haruno in charge of talking to them.

“I’m going to keep the fishing pond active at all times. We need to have people constantly catching fish, too.”

“We can eat whatever they bring us for now, and then smoke everything we catch... no, then we’d run out of wood. Let’s dry them.”

As usual, Clena was a great planner. She knew how to make use of all the resources we had at our disposal. Ocean water surrounded us, so we had an unlimited source for salt. The wind altar was also perfect for dehydrating things. This gift of mine sure is convenient, I have to say.

And so we each took up our posts. The glaupis agreed to cooperate as soon as Haruno asked. The temple knights were absolutely eager to help, so much that all of them volunteered themselves for night duty. They had been forced to escape to protect their peers, so they were especially keen on fulfilling any duties that befitted a temple knight.

I appreciate the thought, but get some sleep. Including Rulitora, Sandra, and the other girls, we had more than enough people to take turns keeping watch.

Everyone else worked on drying food. Clena, Yukina, Rium, and I were in charge of catching fish. Haruno, Sera, Roni, Rakti, and Crissa processed everything we caught. The girls were split up into groups that couldn’t or could cook. I was a decent cook, but my stamina would be put to better use at the fishing pond.

All the ketolts besides Crissa were at the fire altar making salt. To make dried fish, we needed to pickle the processed fish in a salt water brine, but the ocean water wasn’t salty enough for that. I felt bad for making the ketolts do all the work, but I’ll make sure to apologize to them later. A certain goddess might complain that her altar was being used for something boring, but I was sure she’d laugh it off later. I knew enough about her from meeting her in my dreams.

The rest of the glaupis split up and assisted everyone here and there. I was worried that the cyclopes wouldn’t be able to contribute since they were so big, but they could at least carry things back and forth. Ocean water was especially heavy, so I was grateful to have them around. I realized that we were really dealing with deep ocean water, which was less salty than warmer waters.

Anyway, this was much easier than figuring out how to deal with a dragon. We gradually worked on our respective duties while spending our leisure time with each other, waiting for the goddess to respond.

...But that only lasted for so long.

“Ugh, this is exhausting...”

Let me go over the process for making dried fish one more time. We used the Goddess of Water’s fishing pond to catch fish, then used the Goddess of Fire’s fire altar to make a salt water brine, then used the Goddess of Wind’s windmill to dry it out. All my gifts were operating at maximum capacity. My MP was draining faster than it had been in a long time.

I couldn’t keep fishing in this state, so I left it to Clena and was lying down in the tatami-floored room right now. The carpet on the second floor was a tempting choice as well, but this room helped me relax the most.

“Whoa there, are you gonna hold up like that?” Daisy asked. She had her back to me, wings fluttering and face turned my way. Her wings produced a soothing breeze against my face. Apparently Haruno had asked her to check up on me.

“I’m just being wrung dry right now. I’ll be better after we finish making all the dried fish.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, putting all my gifts into action is going to suck away my MP. Summoning the fish from shallow waters is taking a lot more effort than I was expecting.” We were at the ocean floor right now, but the distance directly above us to reach fish in shallow waters was only about 200 stuto.

“Why are you going out of your way to summon them? Is it because all the fish around us are civilians?”

I hadn’t even thought about that. Though in this case, they’d be seavilians. The only sea creatures living in the capital should be the bathynomus, though.

“N-no, it’s not that. I just don’t know if the fish down here are edible.”

“Is that so?”

“I don’t know the details, but I heard about a species of fish that gives you terrible stomachaches even though it doesn’t contain any poison.”

“Ew... don’t make me eat something like that!”

“I just said I’m not catching them!”

Apparently the fat in that species of fish couldn’t be digested by humans. Maybe it was different for imps, but we didn’t have to test it out. I didn’t even know if there were any of those fish around here.

Anyway, quantity was the biggest factor right now. I summoned fish nonstop into the pond so that they could be caught and processed, but this was honestly taking a toll on my MP. I wasn’t exactly skipping out on work though, so I may as well get what rest I could right now.

“Daisy, can you check up on everyone else? Let me know if anything’s wrong.”

“Sure thing.”

I saw her petite flying figure off, and now that I was finally alone, closed my eyes.

“Touyaaa, it’s time to eat~”

I slept until Rakti came to wake me up. Everyone’s work was progressing without a hitch, so Daisy never came back to wake me. I thought I’d see the goddesses in my dreams, but I actually didn’t this time.

“Hey, Rakti. I wanted to see the goddesses in my sleep, but couldn’t... Does it not work on an afternoon nap?”

“Huh? Ooh, I think that’s because I was awake. It’s my sanctuary, after all.”

I see, that made sense. I was hoping for the Goddess of Water to show up, but I guess that would have to wait until tonight.

The gillman had brought over our dinner, which Rulitora and the others took. The heap of seafood didn’t consist of any weird deep water fish, but just normal fish, shrimp, shellfish, seaweed, and other ingredients. Everything was raw, but that was to be expected. We were so deep underwater, and I didn’t want them to try and fail at cooking, either. Apparently Haruno’s party had been making their own fires to cook the food until now. They barely had any seasoning to use, and all they could do was heat up the fish until it was done.

“This is soooo good!!”

“I’ve never tasted anything like this before... It’s great!!”

And now, everyone was awestruck by the Goddess of Water’s special udon broth. The broth was fish-based, but I bet none of them could tell.

Today’s dinner was fish stew made by Haruno and the other girls.

“Wow! This tastes nothing like what you make, Touya!”

“Well sorry about that.” I had made something similar to this before, but like Yukina said, this was on another level. I picked up a piece of tender meat that was giving off faint steam with my fork. The seasoning permeated throughout the meat, and each bite filled my mouth with a distinctly Japanese flavor.

Clena took a bite and widened her eyes. Then she glanced at me. She was thinking the same thing as Yukina, huh?

“I thought everyone was tired of tasting just salt all the time, so I tried simmering the broth down and concentrating the flavor,” Haruno smiled. She had plenty of help in the kitchen, but she was the only one who knew this particular technique. I thought she’d look cute in a household apron before, but now I thought she’d look best in a professional chef’s apron.

The side dishes that the others cooked were absolutely delicious as well, and now I was getting worried that we wouldn’t be able to keep this up until we reached the surface. However, apparently they hadn’t used up too much of our spices. The udon broth covered almost the entire flavor profile.

“We don’t have many vegetables, but I guess we can’t do much about that. Let’s make sure everyone gets a share of the orange juice.”

The cyclops children were especially fond of it.

“This is tasty~♪ Thank you, Touyaaa~♥”

Correction—Prae was the most fond of it. Her giant body suddenly hugged me from behind. She just about knocked me over, but I somehow managed to keep my feet on the ground.

“Don’t just drink the juice. Make sure to eat, okay? You don’t have to hold back.”

“Okaaay~♪” Prae cheerfully bounced back to get another serving of orange juice.

I have to make sure she eats some fish, too. Though I’m not sure if we have a big enough serving... I thought, but then Lumis approached her with a big portion of fish stew. According to Sera, those two were actually close friends. I could leave Prae in her hands.

“How did the drying go? Did any of the altars stop working during the day?”

“No, it was fine. I bet your MP is leveling up like crazy again.”

“Even if it is, the card doesn’t show it, so I can’t tell anything that’s going on with it.” The lines had already shot off my card a long time ago.

“Oh yeah, I wonder if I’ve become stronger after gaining the goddess’ powers...” Haruno joined the conversation. I was curious about that, too. We couldn’t find out until we reached land though, so no use in wondering about it now.

Dinner continued as Clena and Roni held a little Q&A session with Haruno about her cooking techniques. Clena didn’t cook often, but she still knew a thing or two about it. And then, after a pause in their conversation, Haruno mumbled something.

“Um...”

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, well, I just remembered something.”

“What did you remember?”

“Well...” Haruno looked down, her face flushed red. Was she talking about...

“...After dinner?” I asked, my heart racing. Haruno looked back at me with upturned eyes, then shyly nodded. We wouldn’t be heading straight to bed after dinner... there was something to do in between.

“Um, we did promise. The next time we meet we’d bathe together, with everyone,” Haruno said timidly, but her face also formed a bashful smile. I had to respect the courage Haruno was showing right now, so I nodded in response.

“Touya, your face is red as a tomato.” But then I panicked as soon as Yukina pointed that out.

Calm down, calm down. It’s just the usual bath, but with Haruno now. Wait, that’s a really important part!

Compared to me, Haruno’s eyes were now sparkling and she had somehow started looking confident. But the more bold she acted toward me, the more embarrassed I got. Oh no, I can feel my ears getting red, too. I felt like steam could pop out of my head at any moment.

“L-looking forward to it, Haruno!” However, Clena wasn’t about to back down to her audacity like me. She raised her voice to match Haruno’s.

“Thank you, Clena. I’ll be joining you all from today onward.” She met Clena’s words with a refined smile. Was it just my imagination, or was there tension in the air between them?

After dinner and clean-up, we all decided to bathe together. Now all of us were in the changing room, but well...

Yukina, Clena, Roni, Rium, and Rakti were the usual bathing group. But now, Haruno, Sera, Sandra, Rin, Lumis, Daisy, and Prae were joining them. The door to the bathing room had grown large enough that even Prae could enter if she stooped down a little. Size-wise, the bath itself was as wide as before, but now extended farther lengthwise.

That wasn’t the problem here, though... Twelve beautiful girls were standing inside this room. And then there was me, the only guy. Now that I finally had time to think about it, this was pretty amazing. Happy? Sure, it made me happy, but this was a little too much. I had to make sure I didn’t stare, and I always put my clothes on one side of the basket away from theirs, too.

However, the girls had been acting differently recently. They had gotten remarkably nonchalant. Maybe they’d gotten used to it, or maybe they felt their advantage in numbers, but they’d become so bold that even I was shocked. Thanks to that, I’d been having a hard time talking to them until they finished changing into their yuamigi. I couldn’t exactly look up from the ground, after all. Especially with Clena.

I changed with my head facing the wall, hearing merry voices behind me. Apparently the other girls in Haruno’s party didn’t mind mixed bathing either, so that was one less thing to worry about. They must have been so casual about the idea since they outnumbered me twelve to one. In any case, I definitely felt more eyes on me than usual. It must have been Haruno’s party, since this was their first time.

“...Haruno, it’s rude to stare, you know?”

“How bold, Haruno! We’ve been trying not to...”

“I-I’m sorry, I just...”

Correction: apparently it was just Haruno. Clena couldn’t let the offense slip by and called out to her.

“You’re only allowed to stare if you’re okay with being stared at yourself.”

“Really?!”

That’s the first I’ve heard of this.

“Hold on a sec, Clena. Since when has that been a rule?” I asked her with my head still to the wall.

“It’s just my piece of advice,” she replied coolly. “I stopped being worried about having your eyes on me when I realized that I could do the same. Isn’t that right, Roni?”

“Lady Clena?!” Roni exclaimed in embarrassment, which made me realize what Clena was referring to. That incident.

“You mean... back in Ceres?”

“Bingo. You’re as sharp as ever.”

I knew it. Back when we stayed at the temple in Ceres, I witnessed Clena in her birthday suit when I rescued her out of the bath, and Roni ending up seeing all of me as well. I had asked Clena to take care of Roni’s embarrassment, so she must have spoken to her about this mindset back then. I see, so they were employing the “eye for an eye” principle.

“You’ve started to look more tough lately, so you’ve been a pleasure to look at.♥”

“R-really?”

“Yeah! Your back’s gotten bigger!” Roni complimented me excitedly.

I honestly couldn’t tell. Well, I’d been wearing the Magic Eater a lot recently, so maybe they were speaking the truth. I noticed that they sometimes looked at me in the bath, but I had no idea they were thinking about me like that. Well, as long as it made them happy... I guess? Clena and the other girls had gotten more tough as well, in a different way.

“...Touya!”

“Y-yes?!” I had been lost in thought about the girls’ progress, but then Haruno’s shrill voice brought me back to reality. I just about turned around, but barely managed to endure. “Um... what is it?”

“I’ll look at you plenty, so please look at me as well!”

“Hold on, how’d you arrive at that?” I couldn’t have predicted Haruno’s words.

“Lady Haruno, don’t take off your yuamigi!”

And what was she wearing, or not wearing, while saying that? How much of herself was she willing to show me? Can I look? Can I really? Can I stare at those things that I think would even beat Clena’s in size? The temptation to turn around filled my head, but I fought against it with all my might.

“...Uh, I’ll go in first.” I knew I couldn’t fight it for long, though. Ignoring the commotion happening behind me, I entered the bath first. I wasn’t running away. This was just a tactical withdrawal. It wasn’t like I could calm down the situation in the changing room, anyway.

I entered the bathing room and took a seat at a faucet far from the door. Clena had fainted in Ceres because I hadn’t realized I was sitting too close. I poured some water over myself, and then Yukina and Daisy entered the room shortly after. They noticed me, and Daisy flew right up close. We didn’t have any yuamigi in her size, so she was wrapped in a hand towel. She was apparently an adult in imp years, so her body was already well developed—though miniature-sized.

“Heya, it’s gotten even more interesting back there.”

Her mischievous grin was that of a kid’s, though. Maybe she wasn’t quite an adult yet, mentally. She sat down on the stool next to me, so I grabbed a pail and filled it with water. “What’s happening?”

“The lot of them took off their... yuamigi? And are talking things over with extremely serious expressions.”

All of them? I wanted to see this, but I couldn’t give in to temptation. I couldn’t have them catching colds, though.

“Yukina, turn on that switch by the door for the heater in the changing room,” I asked Yukina, who was still by the entrance.

“Huh? Oh, this one. Got it.” She then picked up a stool and sat down behind me.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ll wash your back. The early bird gets the worm!”

“Huh? You don’t have to...”

“But washing each other is fun.”

“That sounds terrifying,” said Daisy. To be fair, it’d be tough to handle someone of her size. I didn’t trust myself to scrub her small head and body.

“Yukina, let’s trade spots. And Daisy, pay attention. I’ll teach you how to use this bath’s features.” I couldn’t just leave Daisy be, though, so I should at least teach her how to use this bath. I washed Yukina’s hair as usual, but this time Daisy flew in circles above us and watched with curiosity.

“...Hey, is it that fun to wash each other?”

“It feels really nice... it makes me happy...”

Daisy stared at Yukina’s face, which now formed a relaxed grin. Come to think of it, I had no idea how imps normally cleaned themselves.

“How do imps take baths?”

“Huh? Well, we don’t use all this foam.”

“...What about when you get dirty?”

“We jump into the water!”

That was pretty barbarian. Apparently imps enjoyed playing in the water, unlike ketolts.

“But you do clean yourself first, right?”

“...Do I have to?”

“You have to.”

Haruno had tried getting Daisy to use soap during their travels, but Daisy had always managed to escape. She was even trembling at the sight of the shampoo bottle right now.

“Isn’t that kind of scary, though?”

“Scary? In what way?”

“It’s like a mass of light magic, right?”

“...I don’t think it’ll hurt you, though.” I had used the Bath to defeat monsters before, but that didn’t work just because it was a manifested form of light magic. Daisy looked a little more interested after I explained that to her, and then she timidly approached the shampoo bottle. She couldn’t pour it out herself though, so I assisted.

“Make sure the suds don’t get in your eyes.”

“Ooh~” She started washing her hair with clumsy hand movements. It reminded me of how Yukina used to wash herself.

She was already falling ill by the time she started elementary school, so our parents were often busy and left me to help her take baths. One time, however, she insisted on washing herself. I taught her how to wash her body, clumsy as we both were, and eventually all I had left to do was keep an eye on her in the bath. She had gotten plenty adept, so I figured she would be fine by herself. This continued for about a month, but one day, she suddenly started crying. I calmed her down and asked her what was wrong, and then she replied that she felt so lonely as she shut her eyes and washed her hair all by herself. After that, we started our tradition of washing each other.

I finished washing Yukina’s hair as I reminisced on the past, then rinsed the shampoo off. I looked over at Daisy before our next step, but her entire face was covered in suds as she yelled, “It hurts! Ow ow!”

“Daisy, I’m going to wash the foam off your face.” I used my finger to lift her bangs, then poured water over her face. She then fell silent as if the pain had subsided, then resumed scrubbing her hair. Yukina had done the same thing at first. Following what I did back then, I continued to lift her bangs off her face until she finished. Daisy peered at me and we ended up staring at each other. Yukina had also done this in the past, which made me laugh as I remembered.

“D-don’t laugh at me! I’m not scared!” Her face was red, most likely not just because of the hot water. Yukina sat next to her, nodding along.

She’d been in the same position before. She was so scared of shutting her eyes and just stared at me while I helped lift her bangs off her face. I remembered it just like yesterday.

I was feeling awfully relaxed despite not soaking in the bath yet, until Daisy asked, “Am I done yet?” Yukina promptly helped her rinse off the shampoo, and then she shook her head to splash off the excess water. I told her she did well and patted her head, but she brushed my hand off in embarrassment.

Next, we taught her how to wash her body. Daisy’s washcloth had been cut from a bigger one by Roni. Yukina first scrubbed herself to demonstrate how it was done. Daisy imitated her, but soon enough ended up entirely covered in soapy suds. They didn’t get in her eyes this time though, so she was fine. However, a problem emerged when she tried to wash a certain part of her body.

“Huh? Hmm?”

It was her back. Her wings got in the way of her washing her own back.

“Let me help you, Daisy.”

“...Sure.”

I should be able to manage if it’s just her back and wings. I moved her stool so that she sat in front of me.

Her body sure was tiny, though. I took the washcloth and gently washed her back, making sure I didn’t hurt her. I washed my hands first so that I didn’t damage the membrane on her wings. This was my first time washing wings...

In the meantime, Daisy had grown meek as a lamb. Yukina watched over the two of us, full of smiles. Daisy noticed and tried to punch her in the nose, but Yukina simply blocked it with the palm of her hand. Hey now, settle down. After I rinsed all the suds off, Daisy stood up and flapped her wings to get rid of the water.

“Come with me, Daisy!”

“Whoa, hey! Let me go!” She tried to fly away soon after, but before she could, Yukina grabbed her into a hug. Yukina ignored her rapidly flailing legs and carried her right over to the bathtub. I wanted to join them, but I hadn’t washed my hair or body yet. I’d told Daisy that she needed to clean herself first, so I had to follow my own example.

I guess I’m washing myself today, I thought, but then the door to the changing room suddenly flew open. I looked over to find Rakti and Rium, and then Prae, who ducked and walked in. Sandra, Rin, and Lumis followed. I didn’t see any sign of Clena, Roni, Haruno, or Sera. Rakti and Rium quickly noticed me and skipped over. Prae followed them close behind.

“Where are the rest?”

“...They were taking too long to talk, so we left them.”

“Oh, but don’t worry. They’re not fighting or anything.”

“Everyone is getting along~”

I wondered what those four were talking about? It made me curious, but it must have been some sort of girls’ talk that I shouldn’t poke my nose into. While I was lost in thought, Rium sat down in Daisy’s seat in front of me and Rakti sat down in Yukina’s seat behind me. Prae stared at us from the side. She was still wearing her eyepatch.

Well, we couldn’t do anything but wait for the remaining four to be done. We might as well carry on for now.

“Alright then, let’s start with the hair. I’ll teach you how to use this bath, Prae, so make sure to pay attention.”

“Okaaay~”

I started with Rium’s hair, instructing Prae all the while. Rium had tensed herself up out of nervousness, then flinched when I applied shampoo to her hair. She had never been able to get used to the shampoo.

Rakti was having fun lathering up a washcloth behind me. The thought of having a goddess wash my back was crazy, but Rakti had always been fond of taking care of others. In that sense, she was pretty goddess-like... if that sounded right? Anyway, I washed Rium’s hair as Rakti washed my back. This really was calming. It was like our little hour of peace.

“H-hey, you’re making it harder to wash.” Rium was gradually drawing her head closer to me. This was a normal occurrence. She would sometimes fall asleep like this, so I spoke up to keep her awake. “Don’t you imitate her, too.”

“Eheheh...” Rakti mirrored Rium and stuck her entire body to me. This was a normal occurrence, too. I was never able to tell her off too sternly after that shy giggle. She had been acting especially doting ever since Yukina joined our party. She must have gotten jealous after seeing Yukina act so spoiled around me.

Prae kept watching us from nearby. Her single unconcealed eye was glistening like a ruby. Her eye looked about twice as large as mine. The reflection of my face seemed especially conspicuous in her pupil, and I ended up staring back at her as I worried whether or not I looked too goofy.

That made Prae look away while squealing “kyaah~” Oh, we had been staring right at each other. Crap... I acted rude.

“Sorry for staring so much.”

“I-it’s okaaay~ I just got a little embarrassed~” She waved her hands to hide her embarrassment. Judging by her behavior, she was like any other girl, just with blue skin. Though her hands were big enough to stir up a light breeze that chilled my cheeks.

Now that I had gotten a good look at her though, her juvenile personality contrasted her feminine figure. It was hard to tell due to her size, but I estimated her proportions to be about that of a 20-year-old’s.

Wait, crap, I started staring at her again. I had just finished apologizing, too. Her breasts, which were each bigger than my head, were staring me in the face, but I couldn’t look. I had to resist.

“Whoa, I can’t wash you like this...!”

“It’s my turn... right now...” Perhaps because she could tell what I was thinking, Rium pressed herself into me harder. It didn’t hurt of course, but I couldn’t move like this. The girl behind me had also kept rubbing herself against me until bubbles formed all around us. Prae looked on all the while, her smile unchanged.

I finally finished washing Rium’s hair as I struggled against the forces sandwiching me. It had taken some time, since I needed to be gentle with Rium.

After that, Rakti took Rium’s seat. She had finished scrubbing my back, so she eagerly sat down in front of me. Rium hopped into Prae’s bosom and rested there, looking back at us. I was about to tell her to hop into the bath for warmth, but... that didn’t seem necessary. She seemed plenty warm with Prae wrapped around her.

A spectacular pair of boobs were plopped above Rium’s head. Man, I wished I could trade places with her right now.

“Touya...?”

Geez, I started looking again. I brought myself back to reality and started washing Rakti’s hair.

As I massaged her head as usual, she also started to draw herself toward me. Her expression was composed, but her cheeks flushed a deeper red than usual for being in the bath. She was clearly doing it intentionally. I already knew that Rium would come crawling over and lean against my back soon after this.

“Guh.” ...or so I thought, but this time, Prae came along too.

Surprisingly, she wasn’t heavy. I had prepared myself so that I wouldn’t fall onto Rakti, but apparently Prae made sure that she wasn’t leaning her weight against me. I was being made into a sandwich again, though. A sandwich with two big and plump berries encasing my head. I wanted to stay like this, but I couldn’t move at all. Not to mention that Rakti was just nuzzling herself against me now.

“Could... could you get off me for a bit? I can’t wash Rakti, and Rium probably can’t breathe.”

“I’m okay... like this.”

“Even if you’re fine, Rium, Prae needs to wash herself.”

“...You’re not going to wash me?”

Oh, so that’s what she was waiting for. Well, if she insisted... wait, no. She really would insist, but there was no way I could wash her front.

“I can only wash your back, okay? Though if you wait a bit, I can also wash your hair.”

“Okay, I can wait!” Prae said happily, then got off me. I kind of regretted it, but I had no choice.

“Rium, help Prae if she doesn’t understand something.”

“...Okay.” Rium unstuck herself from me as well, and now I could finally concentrate on Rakti.

However, Rakti started snuggling against me even more after that. She would often start doing these things without a word. I rinsed the shampoo off her and patted her head, and the smile she showed me in response was positively contagious. Her snuggling made it harder to wash her, but I could never say anything against it when she showed me that smile.

I looked over and saw Prae trying to scrub herself with awkward gestures. She had been given a full-sized bath towel to use as her washcloth. Rium was washing her back, and Rakti also volunteered to help as soon as she noticed. She really was clumsy, though. I wondered if she had never used soap before.

“She’s never washed herself with anything other than water before.” Suddenly, Rin spoke out to us. Her tone was somewhat playful.

It looked like she had just finished washing her hair, as her wavy flaxen locks glistened with water droplets. She wasn’t as shapely as Clena or Haruno, but I could tell she had slim proportions under her wet yuamigi. I had been trying to not look in their direction, but Sandra and Lumis were sitting close to the door, which was far from us. On the other hand, Rin had chosen to sit only two faucets away from us. She didn’t seem to pay me any mind though as she continued to talk.

“Prae did try it once before, but then she got shampoo in her eye...”

“And then she refused to use soap again?”

Rin nodded. Even monsters would faint if they got this shampoo in their eyes. Though wasn’t her eyepatch to blame here? Maybe Prae had gotten convinced to give it one more shot after seeing everyone else have fun here.

“Well, we haven’t been able to use this stuff in a long time either. It really is nice.”

“Oh? Was the amount I gave you in Jupiter not enough?”

“It’s not that. We just don’t have much water to waste here.”

“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t have anything other than drinking water.” Everything around us was salt water. “In that case, use as much as you want here. We won’t run out as long as I don’t run out of MP.”

“That’s the plan! And I’ll give you a little fanservice as thanks♪” she said flirtatiously.

“...Did you quit being a pilgrim to get more shampoo?”

“I can’t deny that, but I did think seriously about it. Even though I quit being a pilgrim, I’m still a temple knight.”

“Did that go against your faith?”

“I didn’t think about it that seriously...”

Which is it? I was about to ask, but then Rin suddenly stared right at me.

“Anyway, I just didn’t believe that either Lady Haruno or you were wrong.”

“I-I see...” So she trusted us. And what was up with her suddenly getting so serious? That made my heart skip a beat.

“Oh, but don’t go staring at the other two. Sandra might be an apathetic brute, but Lumis is honestly pretty shy.”

“I can hear you, Rin!” And then she did another one-eighty back to acting playful.

Sandra protested her comments. She had finished washing her hair as well, and was in the middle of scrubbing her body. Of course, she wasn’t wearing her yuamigi at the moment.

“Alright now, don’t stare!” Rin immediately blocked my view. The sight was already burned into my pupils, though.

Rin said she looked brutish, but she was nothing of the sort. Her indigo-blue hair was long and lustrous, and her tall figure had well-balanced proportions. Her legs were especially long and slender. They were perfect for ogling. On top of that, she had been unabashedly washing her naked self despite the fact that I was looking at her. Even Clena and the usual group cared about my gazes a bit more.

“Sorry, Sandra hasn’t changed since her pilgrim days.”

“...Do all pilgrims act like that?” I had imagined them as a far more earnest group of people, like a bunch of genius women.

“They’re a bunch of women who spend their days without a man in sight, you know? Live long enough in that environment, and you’ll forget what embarrassment feels like.”

“...Is that so?”

“It is.”

Come to think of it, Rin had always been different from the other pilgrims ever since I met her. I never would have thought that her job would affect that aspect of her personality.

“Sandra, have a little more shame! That’s why I was calling you a brute earlier! Be more self-aware! You really are apathetic!”

“You have no right to say all that to me. Didn’t you just say you were giving him some fanservice? If that’s how we should thank him for using the bath...”

“That’s naive, silly-tits.”

“Silly-tits?!”

“You think you can thank him by simply hanging your tits out in the open, and that’s just silly.”

“Hanging...?!”

Sandra was the one with the bigger bust between the two of them. Rin’s complaints might have had something to do with that. She had gotten something wrong though, so I needed to correct her.

“Hold on, Rin. With a lady as beautiful as Sandra, it really is enough to do that.”

“S-Sir Touya, please stop with the jokes!”

“No, I’m being serious here. Your legs are great.”

“Legs?!” That finally made Sandra embarrassed enough to curl up and cover her legs with her soapy washcloth. She then realized her chest was completely bare and covered that as well.

“Yes, that’s what I’m talking about!”

“What?!”

“That shame! Sir Touya would be much more pleased with that!”

“Ehhh...” Sandra flapped her mouth open and closed a few times, then finally hung her head down.

Basically, since the pilgrims traveled entirely as a group of women, they had become more ignorant of a man’s gaze. They were treated as personifications of the goddess and were revered from a distance, which may have encouraged their behavior even more. They were always on the go, so worrying about nudity would just mean that they weren’t fulfilling their duties well enough. Rin viewed that as abandoning their womanhood, but to me, that shamelessness didn’t change how beautiful of a woman Sandra was. Though I couldn’t deny how appealing it was to see an unexpectedly shy side to her dignified self. It was rude to keep staring at someone who was embarrassed though, so I stopped. I recalled how Clena had just said, “You’re only allowed to stare if you’re okay with being stared at yourself.” I felt like that didn’t quite apply here.

Rin had her arms folded, nodding “Yeah, that’s how you charm them,” so I tried prodding a reaction out of her.

“Have you thought about how to charm someone, Rin?”

“Wasn’t I just talking about fanservice?♪” She didn’t back down, instead striking a pose and huffing proudly.

That’s a little off from the “thanking” you were talking about, I thought, but it was easier to let her act however she pleased.

“Thank goodness you got away from that before you got brainwashed too, Lumis.”

“Don’t bring me into the conversation, Rin!” Lumis exclaimed from afar. She had been listening in this whole time. This wasn’t something I wanted to learn, though.

“Oh, Lady Haruno hasn’t been brainwashed either, so don’t worry about that.”

“I-I see...”

“In fact, I’d say that Lady Haruno’s behavior has influenced the rest of us a bit...”

“That’s impressive.” I could see that happening, considering Haruno’s personality.

“She was telling us to be more mindful of a man’s gaze, and all... Anyway, I’m gonna be scrubbing my body now, so... you can peek just a little, okay?”

“You’re making this pretty difficult for me.” I returned Rin’s flirtatious wink with as casual of a tone as I could muster, though my heart was beating out of my chest. I wondered what she meant by “just a little,” but unfortunately I didn’t have time to wonder for long.

“I’m done~♪” Prae suddenly hugged me against her freshly-washed body.

Rium and Rakti looked proud of themselves for a job well done. It must have taken some effort for them to wash Prae’s large back. Now then, it was time for me to wash Prae’s hair as we had promised, but where should I start?

“Prae, do you mind removing your eyepatch?”

“Umm... That’s a little...”

Negative, huh. I had to take another route.

“U-um... may I help?” I racked my brain over how I should approach the task until Lumis spoke up to us in a timid voice. She had already put her yuamigi back on after her shower.

“Oh? Are you sure?” I couldn’t tell if she was okay being so close to me.

“W-well, I helped take care of Prae during our travels! And I’ve always had a lot of demi-human friends...!” She further explained with a flushed face that her hometown had plenty of demi-humans that she got along with, and she had volunteered to look after Prae when she joined the party. So that’s why she had come up to us even though this was embarrassing for her. I hoped she didn’t think I was about to try anything funny on Prae.

“In that case, please do.”

“Th-thank you! What should I do first? Cover her eyes?”

“No, I don’t think that would prevent the shampoo from stinging.” I had thought up a certain plan, so let’s try that first.

“...What are you doing, Touya?”

“Exactly what it looks like, Yukina.”

We had Prae lie on her back so that I could wash her hair. Daisy, who had followed behind Yukina, mumbled, “Is this a beauty salon now?”

Oh yeah, I had tried this with Yukina before, too. She was never able to go to a salon due to her health, so we played make-believe. Not surprisingly, she was looking at us enviously right now. I’d have to remember to do this with her tomorrow. But right now, it was Prae’s turn. Her head really was big, so I had Lumis use the shower head to rinse the suds off her face. I arrived at this plan after thinking about how to avoid getting foam in her eyes. Right now, she was probably feeling embarrassed as it was her first time, and was squeezing her eyes shut with her cheeks flushed red.

“It feels nice... having my hair shampooed...”

I was happy to get both Prae and Daisy to convert. It might have been tiring to wash this big head, but I enjoyed it as long as it made Prae happy. In fact, it made me feel kind of proud since they were essentially approving of my Unlimited Bath.

“Lumis, could you turn on the shower head... Uh, Lumis?”

“H-hyah?!” Lumis let out a shrill cry after I called her name. She had been spacing out for some reason.

“What’s wrong?” Had she been staring at something? I looked in the direction she had just been staring, where I found Prae’s two big, blue, and propped-up knees... No, only slightly lower than those were two big blue bazongas.

...Let’s pretend I didn’t see that.

Lumis looked away in embarrassment after she noticed where my eyes had been. She was the same age as Haruno, but let’s just say that she was sometimes mistaken for a boy.

Now then, I asked Lumis one more time to rinse the shampoo off Prae’s hair. The next step was drying her hair off enough that the water wouldn’t seep into her eyepatch later. Yup, this looked about right. Lastly, I patted her short and ruffly hair.

“Alright, done.”

“Thank youuuuu!!”

“Gyah?!”

She suddenly sat up and latched onto me energetically. Three stutos’ worth of a cyclops leaned into me. It was so soft... my face was getting buried. But it was heavy. But so soft, too.

“Wait, Prae! You’re crushing Sir Touya!”

“I-I’m okay...”

Lumis was getting anxious, but I was fine. I could handle this. This was another way to measure just how far I’d grown. I continued to support her giant knockers—er, body, with all my strength. However, I got the feeling that she’d lift me up and spin me around soon, so I quickly got my fill and pointed out the bathtub to her.

“Look, Prae! Look at the bathtub over there!”

“Huh? Oh... but I’m too big...”

“You’re fine. Do you see that handrail over there? If you follow it, you’ll get to the deeper end of the tub. I think even you will be able to sit and soak there.”

“Really?!”

“Really. And be careful if you’re going there too, Lumis.”

“Thank you. Come on, Prae, let’s go.”

“See you later, Touya~♪”

The two girls walked to the bath hand in hand. They couldn’t differ more in height and skin color, but they looked like sisters. The smaller Lumis would be the older sister here, though.

I watched as Prae plopped down in the deeper end of the tub. The water would only come up to her waist if she sat upright, so she lay on her back and cheerfully splashed her feet in the water. They didn’t look like they were having any issues.

“Yahoo!”

“H-hey, Rin! Oh, Sir Touya, we’ll also be getting in now!”

Having just finished washing herself, Rin hopped, skipped, and jumped into the bath. Sandra gave me a short bow, her cheeks still a little pink. I kept an eye on everyone enjoying their soak, when suddenly a voice came from behind me.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Touya.”

It was Haruno. The chilly outside air seeped into the bath from the door. I quickly turned around and became speechless at the sight of her.

Her smooth black hair glistened under the light. It may as well have been threads of silk. Her once fair skin had gotten a little tanned, but I thought she looked much more healthy and captivating this way. She’d told me that she had gotten better at using swords, but her arms were still slender and supple. Maybe that was an effect of the Goddess’ blessing, like my strength. Her elegant yet sweet face was flushed a shade of pink. Below that was her yuamigi, which was just barely containing a massive pair of melons. I knew she was big before, but I never imagined they’d be right in front of me like this.

After letting myself be entranced for a moment, I asked the necessary: “...Isn’t your yuamigi a little small?”

She looked borderline in many ways right now. To put it briefly, her chest was lifting up the rest of her yuamigi so much that the bottom hem was right around the danger zone. Haruno tried to pull it down, but that only made her chest spill out more, so she could do nothing but fidget awkwardly.

“I’ll pick one a size bigger next time...”

“But uh, you could always go back and change right now.”

“...Y-you’re right. Hold on a moment.”

Realizing that she couldn’t exactly go on like this, she scurried back into the changing room. I guess I should pat myself on the back for not missing the chance to sneak a peek at her butt?

“You’re as quick as ever,” Clena said to me, exasperated. She wasn’t losing to Haruno in certain departments I won’t mention.

“Why didn’t you point it out to her before she came in?”

“Uh... sorry. I was too focused on our chat.”

“What were you all talking about? You took so long.”

“Huh? Uh, just everything that we’ve done until now? And what we plan to do next! We were just exchanging information!”

“Uh-huh...?” I didn’t quite believe her, but I decided not to pry further.

“Wow, it really has gotten bigger in here,” Sera said as she looked around. She hadn’t been in the Unlimited Bath since Jupiter, so “surprised” wouldn’t begin to cover what she was feeling right now.

“Hm? What is it?”

“N-no, it’s nothing...”

She tilted her head and I quickly looked away. Well... Sera was quite the adult, if you know what I meant. Though she shouldn’t have been much older than the other girls. I accidentally became bewitched by her graceful presence.

Clena and Roni sat themselves to my right, while Sera sat one stool down to my left. She left a spot in between us for Haruno.

“Th-thanks for waiting...”

“No worries, I just got here... well, no, that’s not true.” Crap, I was getting too nervous. Clena was smirking at me.

She must have been just as nervous though, since she wasn’t asking me to wash her hair like she normally did. Roni kept giving me stray glances, but wasn’t speaking up either. The atmosphere was feeling a little tense. I didn’t think they had been fighting in the changing room, though.

I hadn’t cleaned myself anywhere besides my back yet, so I started washing my hair, and then heard the three around me begin as well. They were apparently showering their bodies first. Maybe it was because I had to keep my eyes closed for now? I might as well take a little longer to wash my hair today.

“You’re going to make us feel anxious if you keep doing that.” Or so I thought, but eventually Clena tossed some water over my head. I looked up to find Haruno giggling at me.

“Thank you for worrying about us, Touya. But we can’t finish washing ourselves that fast, anyway.”

I-I see, I was only encouraging them to wash faster. In any case, it was me and eight girls just earlier, and now four. They weren’t being shy, maybe because they had the advantage in numbers. It was painful resisting the buoyant temptations all around me, but I couldn’t act rude.

I thought it might be awkward for all of us to be silent, but then Haruno spoke up. Might as well let her break the tension in the air.

“Um, thank you for looking after Prae. She’s been sad ever since we came here.”

“She was? She didn’t seem like it...”

“She changed after you all arrived, Touya. The Goddess of Wind was like a mother to her...”

“I see, so...” Rakti might have done the trick, since she was the Goddess of Wind’s younger sister.

“I wasn’t able to fill that role for her...”

“You may have inherited her powers, but you haven’t transformed into a goddess yourself, right?” Clena interjected.

The mood was much less awkward when we chatted like this. Though all the girls were showering right now, so none were wearing their yuamigi.

“Well... I wonder about that?”

“Oh, I think we’ll have an answer for that tonight.”

“Huh? Oh, was it that thing Prae mentioned earlier?”

“Yeah, the dream I have with the goddesses every night. If you don’t show up in my dream, then that means you haven’t become a goddess.”

“And it was the Goddess of Water who told you that Haruno was here, right?”

“We were told that Touya would be coming here... was that how it happened?”

Oh yeah, the Goddess of Water never showed up in my dream after that. Did that water cleric’s attitude have something to do with it? If she appeared tonight, then I wanted to ask.

“What are the other goddesses like, by the way? The Goddess of Wind was very different from Rakti.”

“Their ages are pretty far apart, judging by their appearances. I think the reliefs in the temples give the order they were born in?”

“Oh yeah. From the top, it’s Light, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and Darkness.”

“...That doesn’t quite match with how all of them look.” Especially the Goddess of Earth—I couldn’t believe she was the second youngest. Both her looks and her personality made her much more of a mother figure than the Goddess of Light.

“Really?”

“Just to give an example that Haruno would understand... the Goddess of Light is a strict bespectacled teacher, the Goddess of Fire is a gym teacher, and the Goddess of Earth is a school nurse.”

“...What?”

“Well, I’ve been learning magic in my dreams. They show up wearing a suit, a tracksuit, and a white lab coat.”

“Th-they change outfits in your dreams?” Haruno stopped scrubbing herself. Needless to say, she looked shocked.

Sera was sitting stone-faced, looking straight ahead. I looked toward the tub, and Sandra and the others had also frozen up. They had been eavesdropping on our conversation.

“They are goddesses, right?”

“When they first appeared, they really did look like the goddesses of legend.”

“M-my goddess...” Sera had her hands on her head. She was a light cleric, after all. I could tell how she was feeling right now.

I should clear something up for her. “U-um, Sera? Their outfits aside, they’ve been amazing at teaching me spells. Everything they’ve taught me has been ancient spells lost throughout the ages.”

“I-is that so?!” Sera jumped out of her seat and approached me. She left her washcloth behind, so nothing was covering her other than bits of foam. She grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth, so I couldn’t avert my eyes.

“Wait, calm down, Sera! I can see! I can see everything!”

“Wha... oh, oh no, how could I...”

Sera returned to herself and covered her body. Round of applause for me, who burned her figure into my mind despite being disoriented.

“A-and I wrote down everything they’ve taught me, so I can show you later.”

“Really?! Thank you so much!!” And now she hugged me. I was still sitting, so she buried my face in her chest.

“Ow! My eyes! My eyesssss!!” Her body was still covered in soap though, so I didn’t get the opportunity to appreciate it.

“Now then... Touya, can you help me with the usual now that I’m done here?” We calmed Sera down, and after the girls finished washing their bodies, Clena asked me to wash her hair.

I glanced at Haruno and Sera, who both wore keen expressions. That was all they were wearing, though... I’m glad, but please put on your yuamigi if you’re done showering.

“Oh, don’t worry about Haruno. She said she wanted to watch how we normally do it first.”

“We were talking about it earlier,” Roni added.

I see, so this topic fell under their “information exchange”? They did need to let their guards down to let me wash their hair.

“It’s really amazing, though. I could do it all day.”

“Th-that sounds exciting, but also scary...”

Oh no, it wasn’t scary. I’ve been making them melt with my techniques recently, but I wasn’t doing anything funny with them.

I needed to wash their hair in earnest today so that Haruno and Sera would trust me. First up was Clena, then Roni.

“I see, you really are just washing their hair... right?”

“Why did you turn that into a question?” I was going about it like normal, so it didn’t compute. Maybe because Clena started making a pleasurable face as soon as I touched her head? Roni was wearing a similar expression right now, but I didn’t point it out. This was one of the few times she could kick back from all her duties. I made sure to give her tail a thorough cleaning, too.

“That went fine, right?”

“It was scary in a different way... Clena, your face is completely red.”

“I-it’s just hot in here!” Clena gave an unconvincing excuse.

Just in case, let me clarify that I didn’t change my scrubbing techniques between Clena, Yukina, or any of the other girls. I didn’t have some special powers emanating from my fingers, either. Roni’s reaction was just naturally similar to Yukina’s.

I ended up starting with Sera, but she simply said, “My, this does feel nice,” with a calm smile. No problems came up, other than the fact that I stole a few glances at her big butt.

Haruno became less anxious after seeing that, so now it was her turn. Like Sera, she also had long and beautiful hair. I should take good care of her.

“Ah... ngh...” And thus I meticulously, carefully, and diligently washed her hair, but an embarrassed voice escaped her throat.

“Um... does it hurt, Haruno?”

“N-no! It doesn’t! It just feels really good...”

“I-I see...” Maybe I really did have powers emanating from my fingers. In either case, she didn’t seem to mind it. I needed to focus just on her head, or else I’d be in trouble.

On another note, both Sera’s and Haruno’s hair seemed a little damaged. The feel of my fingers brushing through their hair felt different from Clena’s. I didn’t voice that thought, though. But from now on, we’d be together. As long as she continued to use my MP-based shampoo, her hair would return to its lustrous shine from back in Jupiter. Or maybe even better than that.

Later in the bathtub, Haruno and Clena latched firmly onto me. Sera and Roni sat opposite to us and grinned.

“Clena, your face is red. Shouldn’t you be getting out soon?”

“Aren’t you even redder than me, Haruno?”

The softness around my arms was great, but sparks were flying on either side of me. Oh, maybe they were fighting to see who would stay in here with me longer.

Their quarrel continued on after that. I would stop them if they were actually fighting, but they weren’t causing trouble, so I let them be. All I could do was enjoy the supple softness pressing into me on either side.

Eventually, Yukina’s group left the bath, then Rakti’s group, then Sandra’s group. Finally, Sera led Roni out of the water and it was just us three remaining.

“Heh... heheh... you don’t have to push yourself, you know?”

“S-same to you...”

They taunted, but in the end, they knocked themselves out at the same time. I was still fine, so I picked them both up and carried them out of the room.

“Hmm... why don’t you get dizzy in the bath, Touya?” After a while of rest, Haruno sat up and asked me that.

Yukina answered in my stead. “Touya’s always taken long baths. He would stay in there for sooo long after I got out, but I’ve never seen him get dizzy before!”

Yeah, I’d always been fond of long baths. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I’d been handed the Unlimited Bath as my gift. Haruno looked puzzled at that answer, as if it made sense but there was still something missing for her.