First Bath – Welcome to the Goddesses’ Hot Springs Hotel

First Bath – Welcome to the Goddesses’ Hot Springs Hotel

We followed the Demon Dog’s directions and sailed along the coastline toward the hill, eventually spotting a cave entrance. It could be accessed from the sea and was big enough for a large boat to enter with room to spare. Inside, we saw several piers. The underside of this hill really was a port.

Apparently this cave entrance could be sealed with magic when the waters got rough. They used earth cleric magic to raise the seafloor to act as a cap. It was similar to how I was able to block the dragon’s attacks back in Hephaestus.

In any case, this cave sure was huge on the inside. There were structures by the water. Maybe that was the port? When we made our way to shore, everyone in the area stopped what they were doing and stared at the Grande Nautilus. It wasn’t every day they saw a ship in the shape of a nautilus shell, so I couldn’t blame them.

The crowd was made up of a wide variety of races. The most numerous were dark elves, who had blueish-black skin. They were all fairly petite compared to the Dark Giant we had fought at the water capital. I guess they called him a “giant” in comparison to the rest of the elves?

The next most common were either the dolphin demi-humans called gillmen or the dog demi-humans like the Demon Dog called lycaons. I couldn’t tell at a glance. The lycaons were also fairly small in stature compared to the Demon Dog. They looked nearly identical to a normal dog, so they were smaller than even Roni. They were basically just medium-sized dogs standing on two legs.

Besides them, there were lizardmen like Rulitora, but more slender and with green skin. Haruno told me that they were called ‘marsh lizardmen.’ She had come across them in Athenapolis. Rulitora told me that they liked water, unlike sand lizardmen, and could swim well. As one could guess from their slender builds, they weren’t as strong as sand lizardmen, but in exchange, they were much more dextrous. You could say that the sand lizardmen excelled in power while the marsh lizardmen excelled in technique. The Demon Dog also explained that they were often employed as crew members in Ares since they could swim back up to the surface by themselves on the off chance that the ship capsized.

Last, the rarest race I could see were humans. Most of them looked like merchants. The type of merchants who would visit Ares were not prejudiced against demi-humans, so many of them employed demi-human ravers since they were relatively cheaper. That probably made the ratio of humans at this port even smaller. As such, there were a variety of other races in the crowd, but the majority of them seemed to be the merchants’ ravers.

Hephaestus only had ketolts, so this was the first time I was seeing so many different races in one place. Was this a so-called multinational city? Although ‘multinational’ felt like the wrong word—I’d be better off saying a multiracial city.

In any case, now that we were finally on land again, I wanted to take the opportunity to have maintenance done on the Grande Nautilus. I mean, an entire wall had collapsed on her back in the water capital and all. We borrowed a dock and anchored the ship there. This dock was used to build medium-sized ships, so our Grande Nautilus looked miniature in comparison.

Next, we needed to book an inn. This was both for the ketolts, who would be performing maintenance on the ship, and for the glaupis and other refugees to have a place to rest. Apparently, it would take over a day to walk to the city center, where the royal palace was.

This port had enough inns to accommodate visits from large merchant ships, so we had no trouble finding one for us. They had their busy days, but otherwise didn’t get much business, so we were able to rent out an entire building. I wondered which was the more comfortable place to stay for them—an inn with private rooms and bedding, or the Unlimited Bath with its baths but having to sleep outdoors. In any case, that ate up a large chunk of our funds. Haruno was very apologetic, but she didn’t have to worry since this was all cash we earned from looting the demon lord’s castle.

I started wondering how the temple of wind was holding out right now. It would take a while to investigate. I could see a lot of work ahead of us, so we’d better start thinking of a plan. However, the problem at hand was that we couldn’t find an inn big enough to accommodate the cyclopes. Apparently, the city center had larger inns, so it looked like we would have to take them with us until we got there. I didn’t mind traveling at a slower pace for their sakes, but we couldn’t take them with us forever, so we really needed to think of a plan for them.

I gave the ketolts and glaupis enough money for the inn and general expenses. The rest of us, including the cyclopes, would leave for the city center. The cyclops group included three grown women, two adolescent girls including Prae, and seven children—four boys and three girls. There were so few left because when Jupiter attacked, they had all banded together to fight back. I could only pray that the rest of them had escaped safely.

The road from the port to the city center was apparently a cave passageway. It was still morning now; considering how long it might take to reach the other end of the cavern, we might as well take a break here and have lunch before heading out.

“How long is that cave road?”

“Oh, it’s not all cave. There is a temple town on the way.”

“‘Temple town’? What’s that?” Clena and the others tilted their heads at the unfamiliar term.

“Assuming it’s the same term from our world, it’s a town that was built around a temple, shrine, or other religious building,” Haruno responded.

“So in this case... that would be the temple of earth?”

“Yes, it is located between the port and the city center.”

The temple of earth was built there originally, then the town slowly developed over hundreds of years. Apparently, it was still expanding to this day.

I wondered how they had managed to build such a large town from nothing, but earth cleric spells likely had something to do with it. Now that I thought about it, earth spirit summoning was originally used for civil engineering. I was just using it for attack spells by pumping an enormous amount of MP into it.

“If we leave now, I think we can get there by lunchtime.”

“Even with children with us?”

Those words made Yukina and Rium pout at me, but I was referring to the cyclops children, not them. And Rakti? She was more the type to be excited about being treated like a child.

In any case, I was told that it should be fine, so we got going. Normally I would equip a tuna knife around my hip and dress to look like the young master of some merchant family, but this time I put on the Magic Eater for safety’s sake. Walking around in this for a long time would tire me out, but this was a precaution. There was a nonzero chance that another demon general might try to reclaim the Demon Dog from us, after all. My appearance would of course stand out, but that was already the case with the Demon Dog in our group. He was famous in this country.

After hearing that we would be visiting a temple, Yukina changed into her sailor uniform. Schoolkids normally wore their school uniforms to formal events like weddings, so I guess this was a similar occasion for her. But then for some reason, Rium and Rakti came out in their sailor uniforms as well. I glanced at Clena and Roni expectantly, but they dismissed my hopes with a firm “Safety first.” Haruno looked a little bewildered, so I explained what had happened to Yukina before middle school and she sympathized immediately.

Anyway, now we were all set to depart. Haruno and I were immediately followed by Clena, Roni, and the Demon Dog in the front. Guarding our rear were Rulitora, Sandra, Rin, and Lumis. We’d all make sure that no one went astray from our group. Oh, Daisy came and sat herself on my shoulder, so that was one more member in the front line.

We arrived at the gate before the passageway and found that it was more than big enough for the cyclopes to walk through. Goods of all sizes were transported between the port and city center through this road, so they needed the space.

They of course didn’t have any street lights, so it was dark inside. You had to borrow a torch at the gate. The passage also widened at set intervals as rest stops. I guess they functioned as ichirizuka, historical Japanese distance markers, too. Though I think these were built after the demon lord’s era. With all these furnishings in place, I wish they’d also provide a bus—err, a horse-drawn carriage, but the cyclopes wouldn’t be able to ride in it so we’d end up walking either way.

On that note, the carriages in this kingdom were not horse-drawn, but rather gembolic-drawn. Yes, those same gembolics I fought back in the void. Their horns were cut off, of course. Apparently, those monsters were raised as livestock here. There are as many customs as there are countries, I suppose. Maybe this was only possible because the demon lord’s army was based here.

We borrowed two torches for the front and the back of our group and entered the passageway. The rock walls inside weren’t jaggedy like I was expecting but rather smoothly polished. The semicircular shape reminded me of the tunnels back in my world. There were even gutters built into either side.

This sure was well-maintained. I had expected it to be similar to the ruins of Hadesopolis, but I was wrong. This wasn’t like the underground shopping centers I knew, either. A mysterious world spread before my eyes. I’d describe it as a “futuristic fantasy world.” The Kingdom of Ares seemed more advanced than any other place we had visited so far.

We passed the first rest stop and took a break at the second. The children still had plenty of energy left in them, but I could tell that the mothers were starting to get tired.

“I-I apologize...”

“Don’t worry. We’re not in a rush or anything.”

She seemed really apologetic, but I didn’t want them to feel guilty about it. We’d been living under the same roof ever since our time in the water capital. Though I wasn’t sure if a ship counted as a roof. Anyway, we were comrades, and I was going to take care of them. I really didn’t want them to hold back. I wasn’t the type of person who could ignore children when they needed to be looked after, either.

I didn’t know what our whole plan was for them yet, but that was something we’d figure out together. Our topic of conversation during our break was exactly that.

“What do you think our options are?” It was an awfully vague question, but I couldn’t think of a better way to approach the subject. I thought that I’d gotten used to this world by now, but in reality I’d only been hopping from journey to journey. I had no idea what it meant to settle down in one place.

“I want to take everyone to the temple of wind, but... I’m not so sure.”

“Why not? Because it would take too long?”

“No, because then their location would be leaked to Jupiter...” Haruno said, her voice trailing off.

I see; even if we could bring them back, they still ran the risk of getting attacked again. I hadn’t considered any potential challenges other than the long journey.

“Should we make this our main base? We can find a place where everyone can live.”

“Touya... Oh, right, you have citizenship.”

“...I do?”

“You wouldn’t be able to employ a raver otherwise.”

I hadn’t thought about it before, but apparently both Haruno and I had citizenship with Jupiter. It was marked on our status cards. It was apparently granted after we were recognized as heroes.

“Then maybe that’s an option we should seriously think about.”

If it really would be too dangerous to return to the temple of wind, as Haruno said, then making this multiracial kingdom of Ares our new home was a perfectly valid option. The ultimate goal was to return them to the temple, but they needed a place to live in peace until then. Of course, one of the problems was the sheer size of our party. I asked the Demon Dog for his opinion, but he said that it was something we would have to discuss with a bureaucrat. Even though the demon lord’s army had their base here, they didn’t run the kingdom. The rulers were the Ares royal family.

“They are on good terms with the demon lord’s army, though,” the Demon Dog chuckled.

In that case, we need to learn more about this kingdom. I wanted to find out more about their relationship with the demon lord’s army. We should hurry things up a bit. We ended our break and continued along the passageway until we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

“The temple town is just a bit ahead.”

“It looks pretty bright. Are we finally going to be outside?”

“No, but there is a skylight. Once we get there, it will be very well-illuminated.”

Our party proceeded with a spring in our steps. We finally exited the passageway, and before our eyes was—nothing?

“This is a town...? I guess it is.”

I had imagined rows of buildings within a cave like the port city, but that wasn’t the case here. The passageway had become about twice as wide, and what looked like shop fronts were lined along either side. It looked like an underground shopping mall made of stone. The area was bustling with activity. I saw several varieties of demi-humans just like back in the port city. Passersby kept staring at us, perhaps because the cyclopes were a rare sight.

“Where’s the temple of earth?”

“Do you see that large gate up ahead? That’s the entrance.” The Demon Dog pointed to a gate as wide as the whole road. Maybe the passage in this temple town had been built to match the width of that gate.

The only way to reach the city center was to pass through the temple. This was a defensive measure, in case anyone tried to invade through the port. However, apparently an invasion had yet to ever reach as far as this town.

If I requested a blessing ceremony here, then I would finally have all the blessings from each of the goddess sisters. The Unlimited Bath would grow even further and be granted a sixth gift as well.

“Oh, do they sell fruit baskets for donations near the gate?”

“That shop over there sells them. You actually pay mind to those formalities?”

First impressions were important. According to the shopkeeper, it was more common to donate a gem known as a “rainbow opal” rather than fruit baskets here in Ares. Rainbow opals were gemstones mined in Ares. The higher-purity gems sparkled with all the colors of a rainbow, hence the name.

“‘Iridescence’ is the term for the effect.”

According to Haruno, gemstones from our world had similar properties.

The gems themselves were common enough to be found within the walls of Ares homes, but they were worth virtually nothing if they didn’t give off that rainbow glow. I see, so the quality of the rainbow opal you could donate differed based on your social class. The shopkeeper said that for a “young master like me,” he would recommend a rather large stone.

Why of course—the Goddess of Earth had done me plenty of favors, after all. However, I absolutely would not buy the gold chain pendant that the shopkeeper recommended along with it. If the Goddess of Earth were to wear such a long chain, then the rainbow opal itself would be buried well within her cleavage. Hmm, but maybe that could be a good way to symbolize this town underneath a cave?

...I should stop my thought process there. If I continued this train of thought in my dreams, she would read my mind and then lightly berate me. I’d be happy about that, but at the same time I’d want to run far, far away.

“Should we really be giving them accessories as a donation, anyway?”

“It’s not the best practice, but followers of the Goddess of Earth aren’t that finicky,” the Demon Dog explained, tail wagging. He said that out of all the faiths he’d had to interact with until now, the people of the temple of earth were the easiest to deal with.

Rakti got a little teary-eyed at that statement, but I think his impression of the temple of darkness was more tied to that goldfish, the Masked Cleric. Anyway, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Let’s pick out a large rainbow opal to donate. Of course, it wouldn’t be an accessory. I didn’t like the idea of donating one of those to a temple. Though if I was gifting this directly to the goddess in my dreams, that would be another story.

“Touya, what do you think of this one?” Haruno picked out a large frame with rainbow opals embedded into the shape of cacti. Each of them glistened with a rainbow light.

“That’s so pretty!” Clena and the others exclaimed positively.

“It’s nice, but... Why cacti? Do they grow around here?”

“There are cactus farms above ground.”

They were apparently a staple food in this region. The void also had cacti—I wondered if they were originally imported from Ares. Anyway, this frame was a good pick. We purchased it and made our way to the temple.

When we greeted the temple knights standing guard at the entrance, they were wary of our party size and the presence of the cyclopes, but their attitudes did a one-eighty when they saw the Demon Dog and they welcomed us through.

“You sure are popular around here.”

“I’ve lived here for quite a long time.”

It had been 500 years since he escaped Hades. I guess anyone would become pretty friendly with the locals after that much time.

Back to the present, there were two temple knights on both sides of the gate, and all of them were dark elves. I was a little cautious of them at first since we had just fought some in the water capital. Perhaps sensing my apprehension, they told me in a very proud manner, “Dark elves are common in this kingdom. We’re very sociable, unlike those light elves who seclude themselves in the forest.” Maybe they had a bit of a rivalry as fellow elves.

We went through the usual formalities and entered the temple. What immediately caught my eye were the walls. Unlike the smooth walls of the passageway behind us, the inside of this temple was left as natural rock. The temple knights explained to us that a natural cave was considered “blessed land” and was treated as more luxurious than the manmade caverns built with magic. The temple of earth was the only building here originally, but the town around it had gradually expanded into the shape it was in now.

Since this was a natural cave, there were places too small for Prae and the other cyclopes to pass through, but we could navigate while avoiding those routes.

“This was originally a rainbow opal mine. Eventually, the abandoned portions of the mine turned into homes for residents to live in. Perhaps it was easier than living above ground at the time.”

“It does seem like it can get pretty hot.”

“Indeed, it does. Please take care when you travel to the surface.”

Clena scowled when she heard Haruno’s words. She was probably having flashbacks to our time in the void. Her expression made me recall the time I treated her burn wounds, and then she gave me a frank stare, as if she could tell what I was thinking.

Ahem, let’s get back on topic.

The cleric who guided us was a lycaon. He was awfully cordial with us, perhaps because the Demon Dog was of the same race, but more likely because the Demon Dog held a position of respect in this kingdom. Maybe it wasn’t the Demon Dog himself, but the entire demon lord army that was revered here.

The cleric led us to the chapel, which was also a natural cave. The walls glowed faintly, which made the room feel warm and inviting. However, in contrast to the jagged walls, the interior was neatly lined with smooth, polished benches. The mismatch felt a bit odd, but this might just be the norm in Ares.

At the end of the room was a statue of the Goddess of Earth. It was a beautiful, pure-white sculpture. This resembled the goddess a lot more than the reliefs I had seen in each of the other temples.

First, I offered a prayer to the Goddess of Earth. I could meet her in my dreams, but I wanted to do things the proper way here. After that, I requested a blessing ceremony. I wanted to update my status card too, but the card was issued by the temple of light, so unfortunately that service wasn’t offered here.

When I told the cleric that after this ceremony I would have the blessings from all of the goddesses, he became more than eager and started the preparations immediately. The temple in Ceres had apparently already sent them a message. The temple elder there had done us a favor and put in a good word for us. Thanks to that, we were able to get started with the ceremony immediately.

“Daisy, stay here and watch everyone, okay?”

“Tch!” Daisy was trying to sneak her way in with me, perched on my shoulder, but I handed her off to Yukina.

This chapel was plenty big, so Prae and the others should have no issues waiting here. I asked Clena and the others to reserve our rooms for the night while the ceremony took place. We had a large party, but all we needed was a place to open the door to the Unlimited Bath. There was no point in hiding its existence when the Demon Dog was already aware of it. Considering the Demon Dog’s social status here, I figured it would be best to reserve him a VIP room rather than lock him in our tatami room like before. I left that to Clena as well.

At any rate, after I returned from the ceremony, it would be time to take a tour of my newly evolved Unlimited Bath.

The cleric led me out of the chapel and down a zigzagging side path. The ceremony would be conducted in a place that was “closest to the goddess.” I noticed that the path was descending ever so gradually. The place “closest to the goddess” was probably the lowest location in this temple.

After walking for a while, we reached a narrow dead end. If it weren’t for the dark elf wearing a robe and holding a staff, I would have thought we had taken a wrong turn. He was the temple elder—petite, but sturdily built. I started flashing back to the ceremony at the temple of fire after seeing him, but there was probably nothing to fear. There wasn’t even enough space to dance here.

I was unsure if the temple elder could sense my worries when he started talking.

“Please sit here.”

I had wondered why we would conduct the ceremony in such a cramped space, but after collecting my thoughts, I realized that this pocket of space deep underground might be considered the holiest land to them.

The cleric who had guided me left, and I followed the elder’s instructions to sit with my back to the wall. He then stood before me, sprinkled what appeared to be ground-up rainbow opal over me, raised his staff, and started chanting a ritual prayer.

A rainbow light shined behind me. The light formed a magic circle on the rock wall. This was the same magic circle that was drawn on the ground back during the ceremony in Ceres.

It might be more efficient to have my back touch the wall here. I sat up straight, pressed my back against the wall, and closed my eyes.

Then the ceremony ended without a hitch. I silently clenched my hands into a fist.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, it just feels a little different from usual...” A feeling of completion welled up in my body. But I couldn’t tell why, exactly. HP, MP, STR... I went through every stat listed on my status card, but none of them felt like the cause. Something else was coursing through my body. The only thing I could say for sure was that it felt like a good thing. My body didn’t feel weary—rather, it was in better condition than ever.

I wanted to get back to everyone quickly. The temple elder and I proceeded back up the steady incline. We reconvened with the cleric halfway, and the three of us returned to the chapel.

“Welcome back!!” Yukina leapt into my arms as soon as I stepped inside.

Rakti and Rium soon followed and tackled me, but I embraced all of them without faltering. I’d gotten into pretty good shape ever since coming to this world—this was nothing I couldn’t handle.

“Hey now, restrain yourselves when you’re out in public.” Clena peeled the three of them off of me. The clergymen smiled as they watched us. The Demon Dog also looked at us with a big grin. He said that it was great how Clena and I were so close to each other. He was probably thinking that he could bring a hero over to his side if Clena was the demon lord’s granddaughter. I didn’t think Clena would be so naïve, though.

“...And what are you doing, Haruno?”

“N-Nothing...” Haruno’s face was bright red, her fingers raised up and quivering. She must have been debating whether she should jump onto me too or not. Hey, I was open anytime. But we couldn’t act like this wherever we went, especially with the temple elder present. I corrected my posture and we all thanked the elder again.

“It was my pleasure. But also...”

“‘Also’?”

“The gift that the goddess has blessed upon you... May we see it as well?”

“...Uh?”

I had noticed that the elder and the cleric were whispering about something on our way back; it must have been about this. Clena probably brought up the Unlimited Bath when she was reserving our room. I couldn’t blame them for being curious. It would be weird to turn them down, so I agreed, adding, “But keep in mind that I can’t just show this to anyone.”

The place that the temple showed us was something like a garden. Although there was no greenery, there was a water fountain and a canal as well as many engravings on the walls. It was both wide and tall—plenty of space for me to deploy the door.

“I’ll be using this wall,” I said, then opened the door to the Unlimited Bath.

What appeared inside was another door the same size as the gate to the temple. Well, I guess it was a gate now too. It didn’t have a tiled roof like the gate to the temple, but it was still an impressive wooden gate the likes of which you could find in front of big temples or old dojos in Japan.

Thinking back, after I underwent the blessing ceremony back in Ceres, the bathtub had changed into a cedar wood tub. Now that I had been granted the blessing from the head temple of the Goddess of Earth, the entire space had adopted the wooden theme.

“Ohh! Astounding!” The Demon Dog raised his voice in awe. I could understand where he was coming from. This must have been a nostalgic sight for him.

However, I was surprised to hear other voices expressing similar feelings of awe. The stares I felt from behind me made me a little nervous, but we couldn’t just stare at this gate forever. I regained my composure and gathered strength in my arms to push the doors open... or at least that was the plan, but my hands were greeted with air. The doors opened automatically before us. The motion was smooth, as if the doors were weightless.

Gates that opened by themselves? This was yet another new feature. I took a big breath, passed through the gate, and looked up at the building before us.

“...I see.”

Across the neat stone pavement was a large wooden building. The white walls from before had transformed. The building had a tiled roof, and judging by the placement of the windows, it now had a third floor. The windows were plain before, but now they were covered by shoji paper in a lattice frame.

Haruno stepped up beside me and said earnestly while looking up, “This... is almost like a historical ryokan, huh.”

Indeed, the building had evolved, but appearance-wise it now had the old-fashioned atmosphere of a Japanese inn. The Unlimited Bath received blessings from the goddesses every time I powered up and gradually became more convenient, but now it had finally made the dramatic transformation into a hot springs hotel.

Yukina flew up to the roof above the entrance and looked around. “Hey Touya, don’t the second and third floors look pretty far away?”

“Really?” She was right, the floors above the first were much farther away than before. I was so taken aback by the dramatic transformation that I hadn’t noticed, but the second and third floors hadn’t expanded as much as the first floor had.

Daisy flew up next to Yukina and also inspected the building from above. “What’s all this? It’s all mismatched.”

The two of them described several one-story cabins surrounding the main three-story building in the center. Oh, so we weren’t looking at one building, but a bunch of new ones surrounding the old one. They were all connected by walkways to form a single connected property. The cabins each had different sizes and heights. That was what Daisy must have meant when she said everything was mismatched. The three-story building in the center was about the same shape as before, though. Alright, let’s split our manpower and get exploring.

“Rulitora, take Prae and the other cyclopes with you to look around outside.” I asked the bigger people to investigate the outer garden. I could already tell from here that it had increased in size about as much as the building itself had. I also asked Yukina and Daisy to go along with them, since they could observe from above.

“Roni’s team will investigate the cabins.” Roni, Rium, Sera, Sandra, Rin, and Lumis were assigned the cabins around the building. “And Rulitora, make your way clockwise starting from the right side.”

“Did you see something there?”

“No, but there used to be nothing there. There should be an earth altar taking up that space now, like the other altars.”

Looking to the right past the building, I could see the fishing pond. The windmill was on the left-hand side. If they followed the same pattern, then a new altar should have appeared deeper on the right-hand side.

“If you find something, bring the elder and cleric over there.”

“Understood, I will do so.”

The temple members were teeming with curiosity at the entrance.

Now then, the rest of us would investigate the center building. The earth gift should be somewhere in there. Rakti, Clena, Haruno, and I went inside, along with the Demon Dog who we couldn’t let roam free just yet.

The first thing we saw past the front door was a spacious, lavish entryway with wooden flooring. On either side was a large wooden shoe cabinet and a duckboard. This was exactly like a typical hotel front lobby, minus the reception desk of course.

The ceiling was high enough for the cyclopes to stand up straight. The luggage we had left at the entryway before was still here. This was essentially the evolved version of the entryway we had before. The last time I received the Goddess of Earth’s blessing in Ceres, the bathtub turned into a cedar wood tub. The fact that so many things had turned wooden here must have been a direct effect of the earth blessing.

“Um, Touya, what are these?” Roni asked and pointed to a row of slippers that filled the shoe rack. This was commonly found in ryokan as well.

“Sandals? But they look like they’d fall off really easily.” Clena picked up a pair of slippers, looking confused. The Demon Dog was also tilting his head next to her.

Oh yeah, indoor slippers in this world were often fastened together with string. I had forgotten since we could walk around the Unlimited Bath barefoot.

“They’re indoor shoes. You should wear them inside except in the tatami-floored room.”

“They seem difficult to run in...” grumbled Clena. You’re not supposed to run indoors.

The slippers came in all sizes, suitable for anyone from Prae to Daisy. There were also clogs, which we could wear around the garden outside.

The Unlimited Bath really is cool. Though I’m not sure if I should be saying that about my own gift.

Anyway, we all changed into slippers and parted ways with Roni’s team. They were going to investigate in a counterclockwise direction to sync up with Rulitora’s team.

My team went straight in, down the hallway, and into the center building. There was an inner courtyard between the surrounding cabins and the center building, but still no plants. It was a rock garden. The Unlimited Bath couldn’t sustain plant life, so there was nothing we could do about that.

“It’s like a castle.”

“Huh?” Clena couldn’t empathize. Haruno was talking about the old castles of Japan as she looked up at the center building. The only people who knew what she was talking about were not from this world—Yukina, the Demon Dog, and I.

“Don’t you think so too, Touya? The top looks like a castle keep.”

“It really does...”

White walls with a tiled roof separated each floor. Something that looked like shachihoko, those tiger-carp statues, were perched on top. The design did remind me of a castle... Were they actually shachihoko, though? Something definitely sat on both ends of the roof. In Japanese castles, those would be where the shachihoko were attached. The two sides were sized differently—the left side was bigger.

“What are those on the roof?”

“They look like... statues of women.”

The Demon Dog, using his keen sight, revealed their identities. Sometimes you would see a female statue as the figurehead on a ship, but in place of shachihoko on top of a building? What was going on with this gift of mine?

“Are those... the Goddess of Light and the Goddess of Darkness?”

“Oh, you’re right. The bigger one might be my sister...”

So that was it. When I was granted the blessings of fire, water, and wind, I received not only a new gift but also an altar of sorts. Prae and the other refugees had been praying in front of the windmill every day. Maybe the third floor of this building was also an altar? Did it materialize because I now had the blessings from every goddess? That was a possibility. I decided to wait until after finding my new gift to check it out. We entered the center building as I mulled over my thoughts.

“The layout hasn’t changed from before.”

“Though it’s gotten a lot bigger and had some remodeling done.”

Just as Clena pointed out, the flooring was all wood now; it resembled a dojo. We could tell it had gotten bigger because of the extra space between the bookshelf and the wall. The space in between was exactly how much the room had expanded from before. We’d have to organize everything again after we completed our tour. We made sure to keep tidy on a regular basis, though, so that should be a quick task.

All that aside, first was the gift. There was a new door on the far right wall, making for six doors in total. Each of the six doors had a distinct look. In the middle was the sliding door leading to the Light bath, covered by a noren curtain with the hiragana “ゆ” written on it. The door to the tatami-floored Darkness room was a fusuma, a sliding screen door featuring an elaborate painting. The Fire kitchen on the left had no door, just a noren you could easily pass through. In contrast, the Wind refrigerator was secured by a heavy door. That was probably to prevent the cold air from escaping. The room with the Water faucets on the right had a lattice door. And last, the new door, which would lead to the earth gift, was made of wood but reinforced with metal; it appeared sturdy.

“It looks pretty rigid.”

“It feels like the door to a vault.”

“Yeah, it really does.”

I had only seen them on TV, but I knew what Haruno was talking about. As much as it looked like a vault, it was not locked with a heavy key, so we simply opened the door and went inside. I turned on the lights and saw a bunch of empty shelves.

“There’s nothing here...”

“Is it a storeroom?”

It did fit the image of the door behind us, and this would certainly be a convenient room to have, but was this really the gift? No, there might be something deeper inside like the faucets that produced udon broth and orange juice. I looked around keeping that in mind and found something at the other end of the room.

A stone bowl with a deep bottom was sitting below a thick stone disc in the shape of a bundt cake, except it didn’t have a hole at the bottom. This hole-less bundt cake was split into two plates, and the top plate had a handle attached so that you could spin it around. Only the plate on top had a hole in the center.

When I picked up the bowl, I realized that it wasn’t made of stone but rather some kind of surprisingly light material. There were a few more spare bowls next to it.

“What’s this?”

“I think it’s called a quern-stone.”

I had seen this on TV before. I recall it was a special feature on a restaurant that made handmade soba noodles. The hole on top was for pouring in ingredients like wheat, rice, or beans, which would be ground into a powder. If this was the gift, then it would be the Goddess of Earth’s quern-stone. But all things considered, I doubted that this was an ordinary quern-stone.

“Um, Touya, I see buttons on here.”

“Oh?” I looked again to see six buttons on the upper plate. As soon as I did, the manual on how to use this quern-stone popped open in my mind. I carefully pressed one of the buttons, then turned the handstone. White granules starts pouring out from between the two plates.

“Is this being generated from your MP, like the soap?”

“Yeah. Try tasting it, you’ll know what it is,” I said. Clena gingerly dipped her finger in some of the powder, then licked it.

“It’s sweet! Is this sugar?”

I hated to cut this short, but we still had a lot more to go. I pressed the next button, turned the stones, and another white powder came out. This was salt. With the next button press and stone turning, a light amber-colored liquid came pouring out—vinegar.

“Oh, it’s the five pillars of Japanese cooking...”

I could always trust Haruno to pick things up quickly. The fourth button produced a dark liquid, soy sauce. The fifth gave us miso. It was pretty surreal to see these liquids just pouring out from between the two stones.

This was like one of those magic items you heard about in fairy tales. It was a quern-stone that produced an unlimited amount of condiments. We could have as much seasoning as my MP could handle.

“Th-This is giving me so many cooking ideas...!”

“M-Miso... It’s been 500 years...!”

Haruno’s and the Demon Dog’s eyes sparkled as each of the condiments poured out. The miso was especially exciting since there were no substitutes for it in this world, like how soy sauce could be replaced with fish sauce. I’m sure Yukina would be pleased too. I’d need to show this to her later.

Meanwhile, Clena was astounded by the pure white sugar, which was a rare sight in this world. It was covered in vinegar and soy sauce and miso now, though, so we’d need to wash this bowl off later.

Rakti, who had been fidgeting alone in the background, realized something. “There’s one more button, isn’t there?”

Good job noticing that. She was right, we still had one more button to try. The true worth of this gift was about to be revealed. I switched over to a new bowl, pressed the last button, and turned the handstone. White grains started pouring out from the center.

“T-Touya! Is this...?!”

You bet.

“Is this... rice?!”

Yes, this was rice. White rice. An essential part of a wholesome meal. I kept turning the handstone until the bowl was filled to the brim with rice. Ohhh, now this is what I call a gift! We definitely had to eat rice tonight...! Though unfortunately we didn’t have an electric rice cooker.

“Do you think we can boil it in a pot?”

“You can even simmer it in a slow cooker.”

“...Really?”

“I think so.”

Haruno clearly knows more about it than I do, so I’ll let her handle this.

“I’ll make miso soup, too. And plenty of side dishes, since we have the seasoning for it.”

“Please do! Use as much as you want! Run my MP dry!” I was willing to offer my entire being for this. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to move at that point, but we could deal with that when the time comes.

In any case, I wanted to eat onigiri. We didn’t have seaweed so it would have to be salt onigiri... No, now it would be possible to make some fillings for it. I could tell that I was getting a little too elated. It hadn’t crossed my mind until now, but evidently I had been starving for Japanese food this whole time.

The Demon Dog was the same. He was wagging his tail hard. “Oh, I’m looking forward to this~”

“...Huh?” Wait a moment.

“Huh? What do you mean, ‘huh’? Are you going to starve a prisoner of war?!”

“If we treated you like a prisoner of war in this country, then we’d be the bad guys.”

“Well, I can’t deny that...”

“And that’s why we reserved the VIP room in this temple for you...”

“......”

“They’re probably preparing a feast for you, since a demon general is a pretty special guest...?”

The demon generals were revered in this country, so we couldn’t treat the Demon Dog like one of our prisoners. That’s why we never had him chained up while he was with us. Maybe he’d forgotten by now, but we did keep him locked inside the tatami room at first. And that was all the more reason why we wanted to treat him to some hospitality by reserving the VIP room here now...

“Nay, take pity! To have come this far and have white rice taken from me! Thy cruelty is unjust!!” The Demon Dog groveled at my waist, all his shame and respect thrown to the wind.

“Woah, don’t cling onto me! And did your way of talking just become completely different?!”

“Thou art bearing witness to my true self!”

Apparently he had been speaking the way he had before to maintain appearances as an emissary.

“Prithee, spare me thine white rice!!”

“Alright, alright, I get it! I’ll talk to the temple elder about it!!” I gave in to the Demon Dog’s whimpering and let him stay with us for tonight. Well, at least we now knew that the demon generals might be weak to this new gift.

Next, we checked the tatami room from the gift of darkness.

“The number o’ tatami has increased.”

The room had grown slightly more spacious. Did this mean that the blessing of darkness inside me had increased in power as well? The room itself was now bestowed with several effects: “a good night’s sleep,” “a quiet sleep,” “good dreams,” “a peaceful awakening,” and “accelerated recovery from fatigue.” The perfect setup to help any one of us recover from exhaustion. I expected nothing less from the goddess of night and serenity, Rakti. She was meant for healing.

“Do you feel okay, Touya?”

“He’s all right. The room just got a little bigger is all! And the blessings from my sisters have all gotten stronger too!” Rakti exclaimed, puffing out her chest. She said that this would have no effect on the suppression of my demon transformation.

The part about the other blessings getting stronger caught my attention, though. We went over to the faucet room and immediately noticed that there were six taps now. Each of them stood separately, like they were six small altars. I could tell what would come out of each of them by looking. Each tap had a relief that depicted the Goddess of Water holding something. The first two were the same as before—udon broth and orange juice. I understood the latter, since the relief depicted a fruit. But the carving on the udon broth tap was a little surreal—the Goddess of Water was holding her chopsticks wrong.

“This one’s apple juice.”

“It’s been a while. There aren’t any similar fruits around these parts.” They might grow in colder places like Clena’s birthplace, the northern kingdom of Juno. This relief depicted the Goddess of Water holding an apple. She looked dignified.

“Touya! This one’s fizzy!”

“Oh, it’s carbonated water.”

The Goddess on this relief looked majestic, wearing a dress that evoked the image of European nobility. The carbonated water might be tasty mixed with some other drinks. This would take some experimentation.

“This one’s... red?! Blood?!”

“Calm down, Clena. That’s tomato juice.”

Clena realized that she misunderstood, which made her face turn as red as the tomato juice as well. You could tell by looking that the tomato juice was thick. It didn’t look that much like blood, but I couldn’t blame her for being surprised by this liquid suddenly coming out of the faucet and jumping to conclusions. The Goddess of Water here was wearing a chic evening dress. Was it just my imagination, or did she look a little like a vampire here?

“And this last one... Ho, this relief may be mine favorite.”

“It’s... hot! Is this tea?”

The last altar gave us green tea. It wasn’t hot enough to burn me, but I was still surprised at the unexpected heat. The Goddess in this relief was dressed in a kimono, maybe to signify the green tea. I could understand why the Demon Dog liked this one the most. That aside, the Goddess of Water sure enjoyed getting into the spirit of things.

“But why did you get so many? Is it because you have blessings from all of the goddess sisters now?”

“Maybe, but Sister Earth is also the goddess of good harvest, so I think that has something to do with it.”

“I see, that makes sense...”

In that case, the other gifts might have powered up too. We went across the hall to the Goddess of Wind’s refrigerator. As we suspected, this one had transformed too. There were new compartments inside. I opened one compartment and was met with even colder air stinging my face.

“...This is a freezer.”

Only Haruno and I knew what this was. This refrigerator used cold winds to maintain its temperature, but this new section inside contained even colder winds, cold enough to be used as a freezer.

“Um, I don’t totally understand, but this shelf is what you call a ‘freezer’?” Clena asked as she looked at the refrigerator.

There were five compartments in total. Besides the freezer, there was a crisper for keeping vegetables fresh, a meat zone to keep fish and meat fresh, a partial-freezing zone, and a cooling zone. It would take too long to explain each compartment one by one, so for now I just gave her an affirmative reply.

This room had transformed in another way—there was a new door that led to the Goddess of Fire’s kitchen. This wasn’t the most exciting change, but having direct access between the refrigerator and kitchen would be very convenient.

And thus, we went through the aforementioned door to the kitchen. The kitchen had also become larger and was now equipped with even more appliances. The stovetop was the same as before, but the oven and microwave had combined into a single appliance and now had a steaming function too—a microwave steam oven. There was also a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a blender, and even a large brick oven. Needless to say, they were all powered by my MP. If I wanted to, I could make that blender crush even bone.

“A rice cooker... Nice timing!”

“We can make rice without having to boil it ourselves now!”

Haruno and I were getting excited; I was looking forward to tonight’s dinner even more. After we finished jumping for joy, Rakti came at me with a barrage of questions. The kitchen was her primary battleground, so she wanted to learn everything she could.

I explained how to use each and every item to her. As I showed her around, I saw that we had multiple rice cookers ranging in size from common household ones to large commercial ones. We’d have no problem cooking for the whole family.

The brick oven was the only thing that looked out of place. Knowing the Goddess of Fire’s personality, she probably wouldn’t be satisfied with just making everything more convenient. I couldn’t say for sure, but that was my hunch.

“I think I can guess how to use that big oven, but everything else...”

“Let’s teach Sera and the others too when they get back.”

Of course, no one knew how to use these appliances besides Haruno and Yukina, so we’d have a class on it later. Although, I had no idea how to use a brick oven. That should be something more in Clena and Roni’s area of expertise.

At last, it was time to check on my very first gift—the Unlimited Bath. This had transformed the most out of any other room.

First, the door didn’t lead directly to the bath anymore, but to another walkway in between. The walkway also branched out to the outer cabins, so you could come in from there as well. I wasn’t expecting all this. This extra space was behind the building, so we hadn’t seen it from the entrance. The space that the Unlimited Bath occupied was much bigger than I was expecting.

“Is this the annex?” asked the Demon Dog, scratching his head. Would that mean that the main building was behind us? But this dimension was originally supposed to be the “Unlimited Bath,” so did that mean that this was the main building, and the annex was behind us...? Well, for simplicity’s sake, let’s say that the main building was the bigger one.

“The bath has finally become standalone.”

“Is that entire building the bath?”

Clena, who had been with us ever since the original days of this bath, had a conflicted expression. She didn’t know whether to be more surprised or bewildered. I bet my face looked similar right now, too.

Anyway, time to explore this annex building. We were walking down the covered walkway when we ran into Roni’s team, who had been exploring the perimeter of the building.

“Sir Touya, why are you here? Did you need something?”

“No, but the bath seems like it’s become its own building over there, so we were going to check it out.”

“Huh?” They all replied in unison. Yeah, it was pretty surprising.

I took the opportunity to ask Roni’s team what they had found so far. The cabins of various sizes were joined by a covered walkway that formed a perimeter around the main building. Each cabin had different floor plans. Some of them were just one big room, and others were split into several smaller rooms. I asked them to explain the details to me later.

They hadn’t found anything with special powers that could be a gift, but the cabins with a single room were big enough for the cyclopes to sleep in. They also had verandas, so they could enter from the other side as well. Perfect, I could let the cyclopes stay there starting tonight.

They also spotted the earth altar from the covered walkway. It was apparently a tree made of rainbow opal. Rulitora’s group had already guided the elder and cleric there, and they immediately started conducting some sort of ritual. I guess I shouldn’t expect less from them? It didn’t sound like I had any reason to stop them, so I let them be for now.

“Okay then, shall we leave this big building to your group, Sir Touya?”

“Sure. I’ll leave the rest of the buildings to you.” The other cabins didn’t seem like they contained anything special, so they should finish up quickly. I asked them to come find me when they were done. I wanted to have enough time to explain the new gifts to everyone. We also still needed to check the second and third floors, so I might leave those explanations to Haruno.

We parted ways with Roni’s team for the time being and entered the annex building. The first room past the door wasn’t the usual changing room but a lobby. There were other entrances on the left and right so that you could enter from the outside as well. The lobby was outfitted with a break area containing sofas and tables. It also had massage chairs in various sizes. There were even ones you could lie down on, so that any and all demi-humans could use them.

The entrance to the changing room didn’t have a door but instead a partition screen that you couldn’t see through. The other cyclopes weren’t here right now, but I bet this would make it easier for them to move about freely.

The cabinet with the yuamigi, the wearable towels, was moved to the lobby as well. I noticed an extra shelf within the cabinet. One shelf held the yuamigi while the other now had yukata.

“Are these robes?”

“No, they’re called yukata. They’re like pajamas... Well, not really? Since you can also wear them to festivals.”

“It’s a common type of clothing from our world,” Haruno chimed in as I was getting confused over my own explanation. “They’re a popular part of mainstream fashion now, so you can wear them outside. You can even wear underwear with them now!”

And then she frantically added to her own explanation with a blushing face. Well, I hear that people didn’t wear underwear under a yukata in the old days.

The yukata came in six different colors. After calming down, Haruno pointed out that they likely represented light, fire, wind, water, earth, and darkness. We could have everyone pick out their favorites later.

The changing room itself was spacious, with a ceiling fan slowly spinning above us. We walked into the bath house, and to my absolute lack of surprise, there were even more baths now. The cedar wood tub was there still, but in addition, there were now a hot tub, a sauna, and an indoor open-air bath.

The concept of an “indoor open-air bath” felt kind of self-contradictory, but that’s what it was. This annex building was actually two stories tall, and the second floor had a dome ceiling that could project the view from outside. The bath itself was surrounded by rocks as if it were outside, so that made this an “indoor open-air bath.”

Of course, this feature used my MP, and it’s not like we could see the view from anywhere in the world. But one of the main disadvantages of the Unlimited Bath was that we couldn’t tell what was going on in the outside world, so now we finally had a way to handle that. Plus, I was simply happy that we could project the starry night sky from within this room. It’d be cool to try project the view from under the sea as well.

The hot tub was shallow enough to kick back and relax in, and it used ultrasonic waves for the jet streams. The sauna was an infrared sauna.

“How is that different from a normal sauna?”

“Just as the name implies, it uses infrared lighting for the heat. The temperature is a little lower than steam baths.” According to Haruno, there were benefits to both health and beauty. I felt pretty indifferent upon hearing that, but she seemed happy about it.

There was also a pool outside the building. Though, in this case, it was probably less a pool and more a cold water bath. I did notice something when I went to check out the pool.

“...Does this look familiar to you?”

“You’re right...” Clena knew what I meant. The pool was circular and shaped somewhat like a mortar. This reminded us of the reservoir back at the Torano’o tribe, although our pool was bigger.

Rakti was fidgeting impatiently, ready to hop into the pool at any moment, but I made her hold back for now. Don’t look at me with those upturned eyes... She was so cute that I was close to giving in, but I needed to stay strong too. In reality, we should only have fun after sorting all of our luggage... But that was a little too cruel, so the ban was only until we finished checking everything out. Maybe I was being too nice.

Anyway, I was happiest about this new pool. Our party had many members, mainly Rulitora, who couldn’t stand baths. I could turn down the temperature, but I couldn’t do anything about the humidity. We finally had a solution to that. They could take cold water baths freely now. There were demi-humans of all sizes, but the slight slope of this mortar-shaped pool should accommodate everyone.

“This bath sure has gotten huge, huh.” Haruno said in amazement.

“Maybe it’s the eldest goddess sister’s pride at work?” I intended that as a joke, but maybe I was actually pretty close to the mark.

We were now done assessing the gifts, which all changed remarkably. I bet it was because I had finally gotten all of the blessings. I had no particular reason to believe that, but I frankly couldn’t think of any better reason. It wouldn’t do me any good to keep thinking about it anyway, so we headed back to the main building and regrouped with Roni’s team. I asked Haruno to stay with them and explain how the new gifts worked. Clena, Rakti, the Demon Dog, and I headed up to the second floor.

“Hmm, only normal rooms up here.”

“The central room has tatami flooring and is surrounded by a hallway on three sides, which leads to 17 smaller rooms.”

“The five rooms farther inside have tatami flooring, while the others all have wooden flooring.”

Each hallway opened up to five rooms. The front side of the central room with the staircase also had a room on each side, bigger than the other rooms along the hallways. Each of the smaller rooms opened up to a terrace outside. The terrace wasn’t segregated by room, it continued straight around the building. The four corners of this floor also had doors that led to the terrace without having to go through a room.

“Ahh, how nostalgic.” The Demon Dog looked reminiscent. Indeed, besides the high ceiling, this was built like one of those Japanese castles of old. There didn’t seem to be anything resembling a gift here, though, so we climbed up to the third floor.

“I see, so this was shifted up.”

The giant bedroom had been moved to the third floor. It was already big before, but now it was even roomier. This floor also had a terrace around the perimeter. If you looked down from here, you could see the entirety of the Unlimited Bath space. The garden outside wasn’t big enough to be considered scenic, but from here I could tell how much the outside area had expanded. Thanks in part to the annex building, the space was even larger than I was anticipating.

“Oh, Touya!” Yukina, who had been checking on each of the altars, flew toward me.

“Ugh, I’m tired~” said Daisy, who also flew by and landed on my head. Yukina felt some rivalry from this and flew down next to me, grabbing my arm. “That was rough! Everything’s so much bigger than I thought it would be.”

“...Yeah, seems like it.”

The altars each looked pretty far from here. It was kind of inconvenient for the fishing pond to be so distant. I patted Yukina’s head to thank her for her hard work, then I noticed something unfamiliar out of the corner of my eye.

It was surprisingly close to us. There was a ramp connecting the terrace to the ground. Yukina and I tried following it down. It connected to the second floor’s terrace too, then kept going down to the ground.

“Is this for Rulitora and the other demi-humans?”

“Yeah, I think it is.”

The stairs we used were fine for us humans and the ketolts, but they were a little too small for Rulitora, much less the cyclopes. That was why they had never come up to the second floor before. But now they could use this ramp.

“It’s so inconvenient not being able to fly~”

“I know, right?”

...But this had nothing to do with Yukina, Daisy, or the glaupis.

I asked Rulitora later if he wanted his own room on the second floor, but he answered that he felt uncomfortable staying somewhere above the ground. Well, I couldn’t argue with that. He said he’d rather use one of the cabins surrounding the building if he had to pick, so I could give one of those to him.

“I want to stay with everyone~” In contrast, Prae said that she wanted a room on the second floor. Looks like we already had an occupant for one of those two big rooms next to the staircase.

We finished the tour and returned to the first floor, where Haruno had already finished giving an explanation of the new gifts. The others were having some trouble understanding the household appliances, but they would just have to learn through hands-on experience. I was worried that they might injure themselves, though, so I would help cook for the time being.

“The second floor has a bunch of rooms now. There are enough for everyone to have their own room.”

“...But what about the bedroom...?”

After I described the second floor’s layout, Haruno looked as if she had jumped into an ice cold bath without remembering to heat it up.

“Oh, the bedroom has been moved to the third floor.”

“Thank goodness...”

This time, her face melted as if she were soaking in a warm and relaxing bath. Her smile was so soft that it even made me feel warm inside. Did she like that bedroom that much?

Rulitora’s team had also come back, so I asked them to report their findings. The garden had expanded in size, but not much else had changed besides the addition of the earth altar. They hadn’t found anything that could be considered a gift.

“We have enough room to house everyone with the new buildings, so do you think we should get Crissa and the others?”

“Nah, let’s hold off for now. There’s still the fact that I can’t close the door if anyone is inside.” And if I couldn’t close the door, then I couldn’t move about. It’d still be best to have everyone stay at inns until we could find them a place to stay during the day.

With this, we finally completed our inspection of the upgraded Unlimited Bath. Intense stares had been drilling into my back for a few minutes now. I glanced behind me to find Yukina, Rium, Rakti, and Daisy, their eyes sparkling. I knew what they were after, so I might as well give permission.

“...You can go to the pool now,” I said, and they promptly cheered and ran off with swimsuits in their hands.

The pool seemed pretty deep near the center, so I wanted to appoint a lifeguard for them. Thankfully, I had no trouble finding candidates; the cyclops children also wanted to go for a swim, so their mothers offered to keep watch. I allowed all of them to go.

For the rest of us, it was cleaning time. First up was moving the heaviest items in the building, like the bookshelves.

“Do we want them against the wall?”

“No, let’s move them to the second floor. It’d be nice to have some more space here.” There was another large room next to the one Prae had chosen on the second floor. I wanted to move everything book-related there and make it a study room. “Rulitora, can you carry this with the books still in it?”

“Of course.”

“I shall take thine other shelf.” Despite being even shorter than I was, the Demon Dog picked up another bookshelf, unwilling to let Rulitora show him up.

“You’re willing to help us out?”

“’Tis with service that I must repay thy kindness.”

I suppose he was talking about how we were letting him stay here tonight. He certainly wasn’t our prisoner anymore, that was for sure.

We moved the chest of coins, which had been moved out of the tatami room in order to lock up the Demon Dog there, over to the Goddess of Earth’s vault.

By the time we finished cleaning everything up, it was just about time to start making dinner. Yukina and the other girls had come back from the pool plenty worn out.

“Would thou kindly allow me to partake in the bath for a while?”

“Hmm... You can use the cedar tub, but not the others. We haven’t inspected those in detail yet.”

“Why, ’tis exactly the one I wish to use.”

The Demon Dog had used the bath many times since we left the water capital, though of course supervised by me or the glaupis warriors since he was our prisoner. But, judging from his behavior recently, I didn’t think we needed to be as vigilant anymore. I let him use the bath alone for today. There was probably nothing to worry about since he was looking forward to dinner so much while we were cleaning. I saw the Demon Dog off and headed to the kitchen.

“Touya!” Right as I was about to enter, I bumped into Haruno. She was about to go out to the town to buy ingredients since we didn’t have enough.

“What are we missing?”

“We don’t have enough vegetables.”

Vegetables, huh. Our stock of produce had run out a while ago. This was a good opportunity to eat something fresh again now that we were back on land.

“I wish I could help you carry the bags, but...”

“You can’t leave the Unlimited Bath while people are inside, right? Don’t worry, Prae is coming with me. We’ll bring back lots.”

I at least walked her to the door to see her off. But once we arrived at the gate, we were greeted by several people.

“Sir Hero! Thank you for everything today. Are you heading out?”

It was the temple elder and cleric. They had completed their ritual while we were cleaning. I didn’t have anything to hide, so I answered them honestly.

“We’re going out to town to buy some ingredients.”

“In that case, please allow us to make a donation.”

“...Huh?” Shouldn’t the donations go the other way around? Apparently this was their way of paying a usage fee as thanks for letting them use the altar. I accepted their offer, and they came back with a bigger haul of ingredients than I ever would have expected. Did they have enough left for the rest of the temple? I guess this was just how much the altar meant to them. At any rate, it felt wrong to reject their offer at this point.

Haruno leaned over and whispered, “Why don’t we invite some more people from the temple over for dinner?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.”

I wanted to share the taste of Japan with everyone.

“I’d like to invite your temple to have dinner with us this evening...”

“Oh no, please don’t mind us...”

“Not at all, I insist. It’s thanks to the Goddess of Earth’s blessing that this place grew so much, after all.”

The temple elder kept declining at first, but he finally accepted after some more pushing. He looked pretty happy about it, so it seemed like he was just trying to be considerate rather than actually refuse us. We also decided to invite eight clerics and knights who were leading figures of the temple.

Now then, it was time to cook. We had lots of hands in the kitchen to help prepare for our big guest list. Sandra, however, was with Rulitora entertaining the temple clergy. That may have been because she was the least gifted at cooking out of her sisters, but I’d never say that to her face. On that note, the most talented was Rin. She was the type to thoroughly master whatever she set her mind to. The cyclops mothers also joined in. The kitchen was too small for them, but they could use the barbecue outside. I sent Lumis to help out their group.

“Daisy, bring the Demon Dog over here when he comes out of the bath.”

“Got it~”

I didn’t want to offend the palates of our guests, so the Demon Dog would be our taste tester as he was most familiar with the cuisine of Ares.

“Of course, I shall gladly be of assistance!” the Demon Dog answered readily.

Daisy plopped herself back on my head when she came back, and I proceeded with the cooking. According to the Demon Dog, Ares had been influenced by Hades and the demon lord army’s culture since the old days, so they would most likely enjoy Japanese food.

“By the demon lord army’s culture, you mean...?”

“Why, we did enjoy delectable food.”

So they had attempted to recreate the food of Japan. Come to think of it, one of the notes we found in the demon lord’s castle described something similar. Apparently that experiment hadn’t gone so well.

“Oh, miso... I did miss grilled miso so much...♥” The Demon Dog was dancing around merrily. I reminded myself that this one was one of the Five Great Demon Generals. In either case, it was plain as day how much he was looking forward to the miso. What was grilled miso, though?

“What’s grilled miso? How is that made?”

“Art thou unaware?!”

That’s right, but you don’t have to wag your tail about it so much.

The Demon Dog’s spontaneous lecture taught me that grilled miso was miso mixed with various other condiments then fried until all the water content evaporated.

“Then thou puts it atop a bowl of hot rice with minced sardines and pours hot water atop to melt it all together, and then, mmm...!”

It was apparently already tasty when dry, but even better with the hot water. He said that the demon lord enjoyed the dish back when he was alive, too.

“Isn’t that just miso ochazuke...?”

“Shh, don’t say it.” Haruno clamped Yukina’s mouth shut and quietly chided her. I heard her, but the Demon Dog seemingly hadn’t over all his gushing.

“Sardines? I think we fished up something similar from the fishing pond before.”

“Then please, allow me!”

“Hey, what about your taste testing?!”

The Demon Dog ran off, and I had no choice but to send Yukina and Rium after him. Well, it wouldn’t take him too long to catch a few small fish. I used the time to continue cooking.

We had plenty of new appliances like the microwave, so I taught everyone how to use them whenever it came up. Sera and Rin would come to me looking worried every time they needed to use something. It would take some time for them to stop fearing the unknown. The only way to get used to them was simply to keep using them. The girls in my party had picked it right up after the first explanation. For the time being, I would help out with the cooking until everyone became more familiar with the appliances.

The clergy had left for a while and returned shortly before we finished cooking. They had come back in formal wear. Their yellow robes were just as gaudy as the white ones from the temple of light. I hadn’t intended for this to be such a formal event, but that must have been how much the earth altar meant to them. That, or it could have been the Demon Dog’s presence.

We used one of the big cabins outside the building as a banquet hall. Rulitora guided everyone inside. Tonight’s menu was rice, miso soup, tamagoyaki, and a vegetable stew. But those alone would be a little too plain, so we also prepared miso grilled meat, teriyaki poultry, and marinated fried fish. At the Demon Dog’s request, we also cooked up grilled miso and small salted fish.

However, when we distributed the dishes to the temple members, their attention went not to the main dishes but to something else.

“I-Is there... dirt in the soup?!”

I apologize. That is miso soup.

But it was possible for them to assume so from the color. If you had no idea what it was, it might not look so appetizing. The clerics and knights started whispering among themselves. I hurriedly took a sip to show them it was fine to drink, but they still looked dubious. The temple elder picked up the bowl with trembling hands, whispering, “My Goddess...”

I really do apologize, but that’s just miso soup. I was not intending to test your faith with this dish.

Did we mess up? Haruno, Clena, and I glanced at each other nervously. When we were just about at wit’s end, we were saved by an unexpected helper.

“Ahh, how nostalgic this is!” Completely oblivious to the mood around him, the Demon Dog poured the miso soup over his rice and scarfed the bowl down. Then he got a second helping of rice, put grilled miso and salted fish on top, and started chowing down again.

“Exquisite! This is what I have been searching for since 500 years past!!” He went for a third bowl without slowing down. He started crying, having been so moved by the nostalgic flavor.

After watching him, the temple members also poured the miso soup over their rice and hesitantly started eating. Their hands paused for a moment, eyes widening, and in the next moment they started consuming the food much more vigorously. They each asked for a second helping of rice, and this time they added the grilled miso and salted fish on top to mimic the Demon Dog. I could tell that they were genuinely enjoying the food.

The Demon Dog saved us with that one. Was this how much a member of the demon lord’s army was trusted in Ares? The relationship that had been built up over 500 years was almost tangible. In any case, I wish they would try some of the other dishes as well, but it might be best to let them calm down first.

“We’re really pleased with how these other dishes came out too...”

I ate my own share of the grilled miso, also savoring the nostalgic taste, and waited for them to come back to their senses.

After a while, the clergy had their fill of the miso and finally turned their attention to the other dishes. I was nervous not only for their reaction, but also for the Demon Dog’s. However, they devoured these dishes too while asking for more helpings of rice all the while.

“You guys aren’t surprised by this, Clena?”

“Surprised by what?”

“The food from our world.”

Clena looked down at the teriyaki on her plate, then up at the ceiling, and finally nodded as if she had come to a conclusion.

“I guess I’m... used to it by now?”

“‘Used to it’?”

“The food you made has always been a little different.”

“...Has it?”

“I don’t mean it tastes bad.”

Roni, Rium, and even Rakti nodded in agreement.

Clena explained that my cooking had always been a little strange to them. I had always seasoned my cooking to my own preferences, but I guess it was pretty far from the norm in this world.

“Actually, we’ve been worried that you don’t like our cooking...”

“That’s not true at all,” I refuted Roni’s comment without skipping a beat. It was a little light on seasoning, but that made it plenty delicious in its own right.

“That happened with my party, too. When I cooked for them for the first time, they were all surprised...” Haruno added, mentioning that her party enjoyed her food as well. Apparently, back when they were staying at the royal castle, they always thought she made too much.

“That didn’t happen with me~” said Yukina, who had never learned to cook by herself, but now knew her way around the kitchen after helping me. She had gotten used to bland foods after being in the hospital so often, and I bet she had never had a luxurious meal while living with the other demons on that island.

“Considering how long ago the Demon Dog lived, a bunch of these dishes are new to him, too.”

“Is that why you were nervous?”

“I think he likes it, judging by his appearance right now.”

I was worried when they were only going for the ochazuke, but now they were all chatting and eating happily.

“Actually, I thought this was clay at first too.”

“I thought it was mud.”

They all thought it came from the ground. Well, I suppose in that sense, miso was a fitting gift from the Goddess of Earth. In any case, Clena and the rest thought the grilled miso was delicious too. I’d say that this dinner party was a great success. Afterward, the clergy thanked us and bowed before us several times over before finally leaving. It had been a long day, but I wanted to test the new additions to the bath before the day ended. It was time to have everyone pick out their yukata.

The yukata had different colors and designs based on what the goddesses reigned over. I let everyone pick out whatever they liked without much of a fuss, since they didn’t have to wear the same one every day anyway. Rakti picked out a pink one, which almost made me tease her with a “Are you sure about that, Goddess of Darkness?” but she looked so cute in it that I couldn’t object.

I showed everyone how to use the sauna, but this world apparently had steam rooms too. That plus Haruno’s explanation on the health and beauty effects made everyone quickly want to try it out. I’m sure it wasn’t just my imagination that the girls had a different charm than usual, with beads of sweat glistening on their bodies. But anyway, I reminded them to rehydrate afterward. Safety first.

I had assumed Rin would be the most interested in the sauna, but surprisingly, it was Sera and Sandra who were more keen on it. The beauty effects were apparently exactly what they wanted. Rin was instead more fascinated by the hot tub. It was an unusual sight and piqued her curiosity. There were five sections in the hot tub, and all of them lined up to make a single spacious spa. Prae could even fit inside if she used up the whole thing.

Prae lay down in the hot tub next to Rin. “It tickles~!” she laughed.

Yukina and Rakti jumped down on top of her and they all played around in the bubbles.

“Are you going to join them, Rium?” I asked.

“Mm...” She wordlessly pointed at the ceiling. The indoor open-air bath on the second floor, huh. We did still need to check that out. Everyone else was having fun on this floor, and I didn’t want to interrupt them. The rock bath on the second floor was smaller than the cedar bath on this floor, so we didn’t have to go with everyone anyway.

I wanted to join Yukina and jump into Prae’s chest, but I resisted the urge and took Rium’s hand to go upstairs to the second floor. Haruno, Clena, Roni, and Daisy joined us. Daisy had just escaped the sauna and plopped herself down on my head. It seemed like she’d taken quite a liking to that spot.

The rock bath was in the center of the second floor, but there were no showers surrounding it. This was so that we could have an unobstructed view of the dome screen, which made up the walls and ceiling of this entire floor. I guess you would probably want to wash your hair on the first floor then come upstairs to have a relaxing bath with a view.

First, I checked how to use the dome screen. The instructions were already mostly in my head. Let’s see, it would be a little boring to show the temple, so I raised the elevation a bit and projected the view from above ground. This function consumed MP, but all I had to do was chant a spell in my mind to use it. I was the only one who could recite the spell and control it.

The dome glowed faintly, then lit up with the view from outside. The sun had already set; it was a desert landscape with stars as far as the eye could see.

“What, we’re outside?!”

“Kyah?!”

Clena and Roni jumped in the bath, anxiously covering their bodies underwater.

“Um, we’re okay. This screen is just projecting the view from outside. We didn’t actually get teleported, and I doubt anyone can see us from out there either.”

“Oh, really...?”

Apparently they had both gotten confused by the realistic scenery on the screen and thought we had suddenly been teleported outside. Rium hadn’t jumped into the bath with them, but she had instead quickly hidden herself behind me. Daisy was still calm atop my head, but I think she just wasn’t bothered by the idea of anyone seeing her in a yuamigi. Haruno wasn’t bothered either, likely because she also realized that it was simply a projection.

“I-Is it really okay?”

“Don’t worry. This is just an image of the scenery outside.”

This used more of my MP than I was expecting, though. I think it consumed the most out of any gift so far. There should be a limit on how far away we could see.

“Are you okay, Touya?”

“Hmm, yeah, this shouldn’t be a problem.” I was already used to draining my MP all day every day, so I still had plenty left in me. That aside, let’s all hurry up and get in the bath.

“Here you go, Daisy.”

“Oh, thanks!”

I noticed that Daisy was hesitant to get in the bath, so I opened my hand just under the water and gave her a spot to sit. She flapped her wings to get down and landed on the palm of my hand, where she lay back and soaked in the water.

Haruno and Rium sat themselves not far away from us, but Clena and Roni were still a little wary of the screen and clung to my left and right sides.

“If you’re that scared, you can go back downstairs.”

“It’s fine, I can understand it logically.”

So they just needed to get used to it. In that case, I should try changing the view a bit. I chanted within my mind again, and the view started moving at a fairly high speed. The scenery rushed along as if we were looking out the window of a train. It was a bit of an alarming sight for Clena and Roni, but also pretty fantastical for people from this world, so the idea that they were actually outside faded and they calmed down a bit.

“Touya, it’s okay now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, it was such a lovely night sky, so let’s enjoy it.”

I stopped the screen then took a big breath. This was actually pretty tiring.

“More...” On the other hand, Rium had actually gotten excited about the screen movement. Her eyes sparkled as her curiosity was stoked. I told her to spare me for now and we’d do it again another day.

The view was desert as far as the eye could see. The starlight illuminated pillars of smoke rising in the distance. Maybe they were ventilation outlets. They continued in a row into the distant night. It was a curious sight, but I wanted to pay more attention to the stars. I copied Prae by stretching out my legs, using the edge of the bath as a headrest, and lying down in the water. I didn’t forget Daisy of course, so I kept my outstretched hand floating above the water. However, she flew over to the area below my neck and lay down there instead.

“Are you okay, Touya?” she asked in a worried tone.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I was indeed tired, but that wasn’t the reason why I suddenly wanted to lie down. “It’s easier to see the stars like this, isn’t it?”

“Ohh...”

On cue, everyone else looked toward the sky, too. We were far from shore right now, but this starry sky was as spectacular as the view from the open-air bath at the Maiden of the Roaring Waves. Haruno lay down like I did, and we spent the next several moments in peaceful silence. This projection constantly consumed my MP, but it was worth it. Though maybe I was the only one who was qualified to say that.

The sound of chatter and giggles coming from below finally broke our silence. Everyone who had been enjoying the sauna and hot tub came upstairs.

“Woah, what’s this?!”

“Amazing!”

Everyone was surprised by the outside view. We sat ourselves back up, with Daisy propping herself on my shoulder, so that we could greet the new arrivals.

This rock bath was big, but still smaller than the cedar bath downstairs. Having everyone in here would make the space cramped, but it was still much better than the days where Clena, Roni, and I huddled ourselves together in a single tiny tub. All three of us glanced at each other. They were probably thinking the same thing I was. Then Haruno snuggled herself against me before I knew it. She might have been reading my mind.

Yukina and the others were coming into the bath one by one, but for some reason Prae had stopped in her tracks. At first I thought she was worried about someone her size getting in the bath, but that wasn’t the case. She was staring at something on the wall projection.

“What are you looking at, Prae?”

“Um, there’s a big light coming toward us from over there.”

“A big light...?”

She was looking beyond the pillars of smoke toward the sea. There was indeed a bright light swaying in the distance, which made everyone tense up. Curious about what was approaching the port, I zoomed in on the area where the light was coming from. The landscape flew by even faster than before. Before long, we were flying over the sea. Now we could clearly see the light, and I realized that it wasn’t one light source but many that seemed like a single one from afar. I zoomed in even closer to get a view of exactly what the lights were.

It was a galleon. Perhaps to make it easier to spot from port, there were several lanterns hanging from all over it. I wondered why they’d do such a thing, but after looking at one particular spot on the ship, all my confusion vanished.

“...What’s that guy doing?” I could see the bow of the ship, where the self-proclaimed Cosmos was striking a pose. We couldn’t hear his voice from here, but he was arching his back and bellowing a mighty laugh.

“Oh.”

In the next moment, he fell into the water because he had arched his back too far. Ricott jumped in after him in a panic, while Foley threw a rope down their way. As I watched him get rescued somehow, I once again murmured, “...What is he doing?”

“...Okay, let’s ignore Cosmos for now.” Once I confirmed that Cosmos was safe and sound, I decided that we didn’t have to pay their party any mind and turned off the screen. He wasn’t a bad guy, but he was exhausting to be around. I didn’t mind seeing him again, but I wouldn’t be the first one to greet him either. That was my ambivalent relationship with the self-proclaimed Hero Cosmos, AKA Akio Nishizawa.

“Um... That was Nishizawa just now, wasn’t it...?” Haruno asked timidly. She had a faint recollection of him. I guess she hadn’t seen him since Jupiter. I just realized that I’d been calling him “Cosmos” without thinking. Well, I guess I didn’t mind.

“We’ll see him at the capital either way, and it would take time for us to go back to the port just to greet him.”

“Yeah, we can’t take detours while the people from the wind temple are in our care.”

They’d been constantly on the run, even now. I wanted to give them a place to rest soon. If we only wanted rest, staying at this temple and using my Unlimited Bath was a good-enough solution, but then I wouldn’t be able to move from here. And without the Unlimited Bath, they needed a large place to stay. Especially the cyclopes with their large bodies.

We might have to have Clena, Haruno, and the others search around while I guard the Unlimited Bath, but even in that case, I didn’t want them to stray too far from us. So the best place I could think of to go right now was the city center, where the royal palace was. We needed to head there as soon as possible; we didn’t have time to go back to the port. So we’d start traveling again tomorrow, just as planned.

“Well, let’s not change our plans at this point.”

“Yeah, we’ll start heading to the royal capital again tomorrow morning.”

And so I turned the screen on again, and we enjoyed the rest of the bath looking up at the starry sky.

“It’s so pretty~”

“It really is~”

“What a wonderful night sky~”

I was lying on top of Prae, and Rakti was in turn lying on top of me. I was sandwiched between the two of them, but I couldn’t help it since this bath was small. I also had to lean my head farther down Prae’s chest to stare up at the night sky, but I couldn’t help that either. Probably. Daisy was lying in Rakti’s hands right now, so we were actually four layers deep. Anyway, Prae really was big. In a lot of senses. I bet I looked like a kid from a distance compared to her.

On another note, Rakti, Yukina, and Rium had apparently discussed among themselves and came to an agreement taking turns lying on top of me.

“When Rium’s turn is over... Do you want to try, Lumis?”

“Why would I?! That’s embarrassing!!”

That prompted a little teasing scuffle between Lumis and Rin, though one of them was quite serious. Haruno tried to use the opportunity to take the spot on top of me, but Clena knocked some sense back into her.

“P-Please don’t mind me...”

And then, I was a little confused on how exactly this developed, but Roni ended up being the fourth to lay on top of me. She was, well... her tail wagging from underneath her yuamigi was extremely ticklish.

After the bath, I took on my daily task of deciphering our collection of ancient texts. Once that was done, we all went to sleep on the third floor with Prae joining our usual party... But for some reason, I was in the bath in my dream, too.

In front of me was the Goddess of Earth, smiling widely. She was wearing a yuamigi, but her northern hemispheres were very much uncovered, probably too big to fit within. Her lightly tanned twin islands stuck out right before my eyes.

“Sorry, what’s going on?”

“You’ve grown.”

I didn’t get it. So was this a reward for my growth? I felt like my eyes might get glued to those twin islands forever, so I restlessly looked around.

The steam obstructed most of my vision, to the point that I could only see slightly in front of me. If this was the Unlimited Bath, then the ventilation should work a bit more effectively. The water was a cloudy milky-white color, also not something from the Unlimited Bath. But this place looked somehow familiar, including those twin islands...

Where? Where had I seen this before? I mean, I saw those twin islands every time I dreamt, but...

...That’s right! That’s it!

“Have you remembered?”

“Woah?!” I turned around at the sudden voice to see the Goddess of Light standing behind me, also in a yuamigi. She walked through the water until she stood before me, then reached out her hand to touch me.

That moment, my memory cleared as if the cloudy water had suddenly become transparent.

“That’s right... Before I even met Rakti, right after I came to this world, I met all of you...!” About a week after I was summoned to this world, I’d had a dream where I was surrounded by all of the goddesses.

“Oh, you remembered! Good boy!” The Goddess of Fire appeared to my left and patted my head vigorously.

“Hey, have you ever thought about why we goddesses are sisters?” The Goddess of Wind flew down to me next, coiling herself around my arm.

Hm, the Goddess of Wind had a point. I started thinking back to the basics. Why were they the six goddess sisters? Did someone decide that they were sisters? If so, who had the power to make that decision?

“It’s not so different from your relationship with Yukina...” After I couldn’t voice an answer, the Goddess of Water appeared behind me and gave me a hint.

My relationship with Yukina... I see. Thanks to the Goddess of Water, I thought of one more key point.

“Everyone has the same parent...?” Siblings were born from the same parents. That was obvious. But it was true that I had never thought about it that way until now. That the goddess sisters, who reigned over all things in nature, might have parents just like humans did. In that case, what did the parents reign over?

...Hm? The parent of the goddess sisters, who ruled over all things in nature...?

“Could it be...”

“Yes, you are correct.” The Goddess of Earth was grinning from ear to ear as she got up and stood beside the Goddess of Wind.

“Yes, Touya. Our mother is... the goddess who created this world, and the one who rules over the world itself.” The Goddess of Darkness, Rakti, finally revealed herself from behind the Goddess of Light and spoke up to me. She shifted to the Goddess of Light’s right side so that I was finally surrounded by all six goddess sisters.

“Great job thinking that through, what a clever child!” If it wasn’t for the Goddess of Wind’s amicable attitude, I’d be feeling incredibly overwhelmed right now.

“By the way, Brother. Have you realized that this is not our usual place?”

“...Huh?” By “usual place,” she meant Rakti’s sanctuary, where we appeared in my dream every night.

A sanctuary was a goddess’ power. The Goddess of Wind had used her own sanctuary to transport Haruno’s party to the temple of water. This bath wasn’t the Goddess of Darkness’ sanctuary. In that case, where was this?

“...Wait. Considering the topic at hand, could it be—”

“Correct! This is Mama’s sanctuary, though just a tiny part of it.”

I see. This was also where I’d had my dream soon after I was summoned to this world. But why? Why was I able to come here? I knew why I could visit Rakti’s sanctuary. It was because we were always traveling together. But I didn’t know the Mother Goddess. I didn’t have her blessing, either. So why?

The Goddess of Light and Goddess of Fire answered my question.

“You’re misunderstanding something, Brother. Everyone in this world has forgotten our mother’s name, but she has always been watching over us all.”

“Every living being in this world has been blessed by our mother. It’s just that none of them have noticed it, not even you.”

“Everyone in this world...? But I was summoned here.”

“You were granted the blessing when you were summoned to this world. Otherwise, you would not be alive right now.”

But that’s the Goddess of Light’s... I was about to say, but then realized. Her blessing allowed me to understand the language of this world and communicate with its residents. But there were other blessings that the ruler of the world could grant me that would allow me to survive in this world, too.

“No one in the world has noticed our mother’s blessing... Yet, you were able to come here. That is why you are our younger brother,” the Goddess of Water added.

I see, that was the reason why the goddesses had always called me their brother. I glanced at Rakti, who noticed me looking and said “I’m the older sister!” while puffing out her chest. So even Rakti thought of me as her younger brother.

The Goddess of Earth patted Rakti’s head, then turned her gaze straight at me. I also tried my best to look straight back at her without flinching.

“Please remember this. Our mother is... the ‘Goddess of Chaos’—the goddess who gave birth to this world.”

“The Goddess... of Chaos...”

The mother of the six goddess sisters. She may have been named Chaos, but she was also the creator goddess of this world.

“Is she somewhere in this bath...?”

As soon as I said that, the Goddess of Wind, who had kept herself wrapped around my arm this whole time, let go of me and stood up. Then the goddesses split themselves into groups of three to my left and right, forming a path in front of me. All of them seemed a little bit tense.

Beyond the steamy air, I could hear a soft splish, splash. The source of the sound made her way slowly and deliberately toward me. She stopped when she was within arm’s reach, slowly stretched out her hand... and then, my consciousness suddenly cut off.

I sat up with a gasp, then found myself in the center of the giant bed on the third floor of the castle. Everyone else was still asleep. Looking at the clock on the wall, I saw that it was still dawn.

“Touya...” Rakti sluggishly sat up.

I took her out of the room quietly, so that we wouldn’t wake anyone else up. My head was still in a fog. I wanted to take a bath to clear the haze away. I needed to explain the Goddess of Chaos to everyone, but before that, I wanted to make sure my head was clear.

Keeping Rakti under my arm, we headed downstairs to the bathhouse in the annex. The walkway outside was dead silent. I stopped where the walkway formed a cross in the center.

“Hey, Rakti. I... did meet her before, right?”

“...Yes, you may not remember, but you did meet her—our mother, the Goddess of Chaos.”

“Uh-huh... That’s right.” I didn’t doubt her. It was just a strange feeling. I didn’t remember what she looked like, but an affectionate smile was tugging at my memory. I also didn’t remember what I had said to her, but what she had said to me had been imprinted inside my head. I still didn’t get the feeling that I had really met her, so what was this memory that seemed so sure for me?

I looked at the garden from the walkway. This building had gotten bigger, but so had the garden. Putting everything together, this really was the size of a castle. Honestly speaking, there was one other doubt I had—my gift didn’t really have much to do with baths anymore. But I figured as much when the Goddess of Fire’s kitchen appeared. I hadn’t really questioned it after that.

But now I knew. The Goddess of Chaos had told me this.

“So this space itself is...!”

The “Unlimited Bath” was, at most, just the bathhouse. This space itself was the Goddess of Chaos’ gift—the dimension that brought all of the other goddess’ gifts together. In other words, this was another world. While trying to wrap my head around that fact, I soaked in the morning bath while talking with Rakti more about the dream last night.

“...So the Goddess of Chaos’ blessing isn’t that special in itself?”

“Yes, everyone in the world has our mother’s blessing, including us sisters.” Rakti explained everything I asked her with delight, probably because she got exclusive use of my lap this morning. The Goddess of Chaos’ blessing was granted to everyone in this world, including the goddess sisters, but nearly no one realized this fact.

“So why did I realize?”

“In your case, I think it’s because you received all of our blessings.”

This had been explained to me back in Ceres, but to receive the blessing of two or more goddesses, you needed to have an appropriate amount of MP to match. The amount of MP required to receive all six blessings must be phenomenal. San Pilaca, one of the party members of the first sacred king, had received five blessings. I was probably the first person in history to receive all six.

The Goddess of Light’s blessing allowed me to level up faster, and the Unlimited Bath made me consume MP on a daily basis. Come to think of it, my MP usage multiplied every time I was granted a new gift, but I never felt like I was running out of MP because of it. I was growing as much as my MP costs were. I wasn’t really conscious of it, but that’s just how quickly I had been growing.

On the other hand, if I hadn’t leveled up enough, one of the blessing ceremonies might have failed. I was relieved that they had all gone well, though I bet none of the clerics had been worried since I was a Hero of the Goddess.

“Then has anyone else ever realized this? Besides you and your sisters, of course.”

“The dragons have.”

I was apparently dragon-class now? Thinking back, “dragons” weren’t a race of beings in this world but instead a term for powerful monsters that had the ability to affect their surroundings. I guess I was affecting my surroundings via the Unlimited Bath.

Well, “Unlimited Bath” was no longer an accurate name for this small world that the Goddess of Chaos’ blessing had brought about... but I didn’t know the correct name for it, so Unlimited Bath it would stay.

“...I don’t feel like I’ve become as strong as a dragon, though.”

“No dragons have their own world, you know?”

I guess it wasn’t just a matter of strength. The spore dragon was one thing, but the flower dragon hadn’t been all that tough.

“Can I talk about this with everyone else?”

“I don’t mind. We’re not hiding it or anything.”

The reason Rakti and her sisters hadn’t mentioned it until now was because the Goddess of Chaos had forbidden them. She wanted me to remember it myself first. So she had been testing me—testing whether I could get this far on my own. In that case, did yesterday’s dream mean that she acknowledged me?

“Oh, and one more thing, Touya. You’re the newest member of our family now, so...”

“So?”

“I’m your older sister now!” Rakti stood up with her hands on her hips and stuck out her chest. Her proud-looking stance was so cute that I patted her on the head. She grinned happily, but then tensed up as she remembered what she’d just said, and once again proclaimed “I’m your older sister!”

She really was cute, so I gave her a big hug. What an adorable older sister I had.

Everyone had woken up by the time we returned from our morning bath. They had begun cooking breakfast, so Rakti and I also put on aprons and started helping out. This was a good opportunity to talk since the Demon Dog wasn’t around. I called Rulitora over and talked about the Goddess of Chaos with everyone.

“...This is hard to believe right off the bat. I don’t think you’re lying or anything, of course.”

As to be expected, they didn’t take in my story so easily.

“What you’re saying makes sense to me, though,” said Haruno, who could follow along just fine. We were on the same wavelength. But the people from this world were different. Clena explained that the people here believed that the six goddess sisters created this world. No one had ever considered the idea that there existed another goddess who created this world, and that she was the mother of the goddess sisters.

“Does this world have any other creation myths that are passed down outside of human settlements?”

“No, there are none of those.”

Apparently the temples were the only organizations who passed down these teachings. Rulitora’s tribe didn’t have any creation myths in the first place. That was no surprise, since I bet missionary workers wouldn’t travel as far out as the void anyway. It was also not the temples’ fault that the Goddess of Chaos had been forgotten, either. She had apparently been forgotten long before the temples even came into existence.

“...Are you okay, Sera?”

“I-I’m okay. This does not stand in contrast to the Goddess of Light’s existence, after all.”

The most shocked out of all of us was, unsurprisingly, the cleric Sera. Followers of the Goddess of Light believed her to be the eldest sister and also the leader of all the goddess sisters. It must have been shocking to hear that there was an existence above her, and that it was her mother. Sera wasn’t the type to care too much about hierarchy, yet this news was already so overwhelming for her. Other people might have even more extreme reactions.

“Wooow! The Goddess of Wind has a mom, too!” Prae was not affected at all, but she was probably the exception here. Yeah, we probably shouldn’t spread this information yet. We all agreed to keep this a secret, including from the Demon Dog.

After breakfast, it was time for us to get ready to depart. The temple elder had prepared enough gembolic wagons for all of us. One of them could seat two adult cyclopes, so we finally had a means of traveling with them, too. If we used these, then we could reach the city center by this afternoon.

The ones that the temple elder had prepared for us were rapid gembolics. They didn’t have to pull a large carriage, so we could reach the city center fairly quickly like this. They suggested sending a letter to the demon lord’s army to alert them of our arrival. Yeah, I didn’t want to accidentally start a war. I read over the letter that the Demon Dog wrote, then we sent it off.

We’d probably eat lunch while riding on the gembolics, so we should prepare portable lunches for the journey.

“I wish for onigiri! Please, grant me an onigiri lunch!!”

At the behest of the Demon Dog and his wagging tail, we made onigiri for lunch. It was a good pick for a light and portable meal. We made some tea for the ride, too. Then we split up into the gembolic wagons and began our journey to the city center.

I took up the front wagon. With me were the Demon Dog, Clena, Haruno, Rulitora, and Daisy. Rulitora took up two seats, while Daisy was perched on my shoulder. We had a long journey ahead of us, so I started to think about topics of conversation, but the Demon Dog started talking first.

“Sir Rulitora, were thou born in Ares?”

“No, I was born in the void. Though I’ve heard that my ancestors used to live around here.”

“Why, the void...!” The Demon Dog reacted deeply to that name. That area was once his homeland. He added that many sand lizardmen lived in Ares, mainly above ground.

All right, I might as well use this opportunity to pick the Demon Dog’s brains. Once we reached the city center, it would finally be time for us to confront the survivors of the demon army. I wanted to gather as much information as I could before then.

“Just to make sure, what exactly is the relationship between the demon lord’s army and the Ares royal family?” This was what I was most concerned about. Were they still cooperating to this day?

“What exactly do you mean?”

“Like, are you guys secretly controlling the royal family from the shadows, or...”

“How exactly dost thou view the demon army, Sir Touya...?”

“I’m thinking of the Goldfish’s old party. And is the Flame Devil still around?”

“I cannot refute those points!”

Neither of them were the greatest people, after all. Anyway, Clena and the others were looking our way with interest, so I kept interrogating him.

“So really, how’s your relationship with them right now?”

“We do maintain good relations. The royal family is fully aware that our base is in Ares.”

“Are they sheltering you?”

“’Tis not so one-sided as that. Ares is a rather poor kingdom, so we give the royal family our assistance.”

I see. So in the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord 500 years ago, this might have been the reason why Ares had remained Hades’ ally until the end. The view from the indoor open-air bath last night was a vast desert land which couldn’t be considered fertile by any stretch of the word. It wasn’t so difficult to imagine how important trade with Hades must have been to this country. Ares must have taken in the refugees from Hades so readily for similar reasons. If the demon army and Ares were cooperating to this day, it must be for mutual benefit. The royal family really could be giving the army shelter right now.

“So what exactly is this alliance?”

“’Tis a combination of a few things. And one more thing that I must tell thee at this point... We are no longer called the ‘demon lord’s army’!”

“...Huh? What do you mean by that...?” I asked in confusion, and then the Demon Dog replied with a rather haughty tone.

“Indeed! Now, we are... the Demon Lord Corporation! We are the greatest merchants in Ares and one of the pillars that support the standard of living within this country!”

Um, was it really okay for the demon lord’s army to switch jobs like that? Although, I could finally come to terms with them coming to the water capital to negotiate trade now.

According to the Demon Dog, this company originally started as a cover for the army to stay hidden within Ares. But as they mimicked the teachings of the demon lord, their commerce business began taking in steady profits, and they figured that this was a fine track to stay on until the demon lord’s revival.

Was this why the army was split between two factions now—the ones wishing for the demon lord’s revival, and the ones who wanted to appoint a new demon lord?

I had several questions, but there was one obvious one that I wanted to point out first. “You guys didn’t actually call yourselves the Demon Lord Corporation, do you?”

The Demon Dog promptly looked away.

“You really did?! You were supposed to be in hiding, and yet you named yourselves the ‘Demon Lord Corporation’?!”

“’Twas a long time ago! We changed our name after we were almost discovered!” He explained that the merchants who escaped Hades had called themselves that at first. It was also a way to guide the survivors of the demon lord’s army back together after they had been scattered apart.

After Hades collapsed, Ares had no trading partner other than Neptune, who at the time had many followers of the Goddess of Water. They’d determined that the eyes of the sacred family wouldn’t reach them there for the time being. However, around 300 years back, the temple of the Goddess of Light greatly expanded in power, and they zeroed in on the Demon Lord Corporation. They changed their name at that point to escape detection.

“So what are you called now?”

“Aye, currently, we call ourselves... the ‘White Orchid Corporation.’”

They’d done a one-eighty and given themselves a completely normal name. Formerly the Demon Lord Corporation, now the White Orchid Corporation. He said that the White-Faced Ogre currently led the company. Maybe that had something to do with the new name?

They were apparently in support of the demon lord’s revival. What stance should we take when we meet with them? With the Demon Dog here, I didn’t think we needed to be hostile. But would that still be the case with the demon lord factored in?

I should talk about this with the others. As we swayed in the gembolic-drawn wagon headed straight for the city center, I turned to Clena and Haruno.