Fourth Bath – Death Bath, Scalding Hot Bath, Super Intense Bath

And so I stood in the wasteland, face to face with a monster. It was a gembolic, a monster with grayish brown fur, a black tail, and a large horn jutting out of its white forehead. Gembolics were herbivores, but easily scared, so they often attacked people who got too close. When it thrust its horn forward, I deflected it to the left with the side of my round shield.

“Gotcha!”

Then, I spun my body with my left leg and swung my broad ax as hard as I could into the gembolic’s defenseless neck. It was heavy hit. I hadn’t managed to slice off its neck, but I could feel its spine snap. The gembolic fell to the ground, motionless, and I let out a sigh. “Excellent job, Sir Touya!”

After I pulled out my ax and set it on the ground, I put my hands together and prayed so the gembolic’s soul would rest in peace. In this world, offering up a prayer after defeating a monster allowed one to absorb part of the monster’s blessing power as an enhancement. There was no set way to do the prayer, so everyone just did their own thing. Some even danced, so I figured there’d be no problem with me putting my palms together.

In terms of boosting stats and leveling up, actual battles did the job much quicker than practice. I had no plans to take on the demon lord or the demon army officers who did his bidding, but I knew that I’d have to fight monsters eventually – meaning that Rulitora’s suggestion to go hunting was actually a pretty good idea. It’d give me real battle experience, and allow me to level up at the same time.

It had already been a week since I first arrived at the Torano’o tribe settlement. I went hunting early in the morning, practiced with my magic textbook and created water in the afternoon, then went to bed early in the evening, day after day.

“Hmm. The sweepdogs are looking over here.”

Rulitora’s eyes were focused on three dog-like monsters hidden in the shadow of a rock. Each was a size bigger than a wolf, and had a unique dotted pattern on its fur. They often went after leftover food and cleaned out fishermen’s hauls, so people called them sweepdogs. These monsters were a common sight all over the wasteland, and now, they’d set their sights on the gembolic I just defeated. If I ignored them, they might follow me back to the settlement, which could put the children in danger. I had no choice but to fight.

I left my broad ax on the ground, then unsheathed my dagger and approached the sweepdog. This was the monster type I’d first defeated, one week ago. There had only been one at the time, but it was fast, and hard to keep up with using my heavy broad ax. In the end, I just kept swinging my ax around wildly until it occasionally hit something.

This time, I didn’t want to struggle. A dagger would be enough to take down a sweepdog that leapt at me, and I knew from experience that a light dagger with its quick, small movements would make it easier to fight one. When the first sweepdog lunged at me, I knocked it on the side with my shield, like I’d done with the gembolic, then thrust out my dagger to the throat of the second sweepdog that leapt at me from behind. After feeling my dagger go in deeper than I thought it would, I quickly let go of it and went back to my broad ax.

I needed to keep my guard up. When I turned my shield toward the first sweepdog, it was ready to leap at me again. Instead of taking the brunt of it with my shield, I stepped in as the sweepdog jumped and prepared to counter it with my shield. Slamming an enemy with one’s shield was known as a shield bash, but there also existed a technique known as the counter bash. After I bashed the sweepdog back, I followed through and finished it off with my broad ax before it could get back up.

“Sir Touya, behind you!”

As Rulitora’s sudden shout echoed, I held up my shield and turned around to see the third sweepdog drooling and baring its sharp fangs. It leapt at me, and I panicked – I wouldn’t be able to counter in time with my broad ax. I frantically blocked with my shield, but my timing was off, so I failed to counter it as well.

“Stone Throw!”

Rulitora ran toward me with his glaive, but before he could reach me, round stones went flying straight into the third sweepdog’s side.

Surprised by the sudden turn of events, Rulitora stopped in his tracks. I, on the other hand, already knew where the bullets had come from.

“That was a close call.”

I looked in the direction of the voice and spotted Clena and Roni. They were both wearing a simple surcoat just like me, and Clena was holding her thin sword with her arms crossed. I didn’t know the details surrounding the bullets I’d just seen, but it was apparently one of her spells.

They had been watching me fight from afar. It’d been a full week since I healed them, and as a result they seemed to feel indebted to me. Clena was still acting cautious of me – probably because I’d touched so many different parts of her. After the healing, they decided to stay at the settlement as well, since there was no way they’d be able to get home safely on their own. They ended up sleeping in my tent. The lizardmen didn’t have guest tents, and they’d only put one up for me since I was a special exception. Clena and Roni didn’t insist on getting a tent of their own, and decided that if they had to sleep in someone else’s, they’d rather it be with a fellow human.

After all that had happened, Roni tried to mediate things between us by saying “it was necessary for the treatment.” Yes, I’m sorry, but of course I had been excited the entire time. When I saw how pure Roni was in the way she worried about us, it kind of made me hate myself.

Despite the fact that she had her guard up, I assumed Clena came out to hunt with me because she still preferred that to being surrounded by lizardmen she didn’t know. She normally kept her distance, but would swoop in to help me when things got rough.

“You can use your light cleric magic, right? Why aren’t you casting any spells? If you had summoned a light spirit and put it on standby, you could have saved yourself back there,” Clena said.

“Oh, you can use it that way, too?” It seemed like some really good advice. Honestly, I’d never even considered that strategy.

“I suppose you really are a beginner, Sir Touya...” Roni added.

“Yeah. That’s why I was trying to fight without using magic – to train myself.”

At first, I’d struggled against a single sweepdog, but now I could take on a gembolic, which was an even stronger monster. Even though they were monsters, I had hesitated when it came to taking their lives, and made Rulitora come to my rescue when one almost got me. But one day, when I saw a young lizardman come home wounded from a hunt, I realized something: without the help of Rulitora and the other lizardmen, I would have ended up the same way. That allowed me to cut off my emotions and fight the monsters, which in turn made me grow. Normally one might be tempted to become a little over confident or get carried away, but luckily, I didn’t need to worry about any of that.

“Sir Touya, shall we call it a day?” Roni asked.

“Yeah, good idea.”

“Roni, time for us to head back too,” Clena said.

“Yes, Lady Clena!”

Over the past week, I’d more or less gotten used to this life. But the stronger I got, the farther Rulitora seemed to be from me. I imagined I was now able to truly understand just how strong he really was, which had completely been over my head thus far. Clena also surpassed me in terms of magic ability, which was evident in how accurate her aim had been with the sweepdog. I wasn’t stupid enough to gain false confidence in a situation like this.

“Thanks for helping me back there, Clena.”

Once I thanked her, Clena looked in the other direction. “Oh, it was nothing.” Her cheeks were red. She had her guard up against me, but she didn’t hate me.

Rulitora lifted up the gembolic I’d defeated with ease. “Let’s be off, then.” It was my third gembolic for the day, and he was carrying them all without any problems.

We left the sweepdogs where they were. Gembolic meat could be eaten, but sweepdog meat had a stench that rendered it inedible. It was probably due to what they ate. Since we left the corpses there, they would eventually be eaten by other carnivorous monsters.

Once we returned, I spotted people gathered up in front of the settlement entrance.

“Ohh! Sir Touya has returned!”

“Sir Touya! Over here!” Some lizardmen who saw me began shouting.

“Let’s go, Rulitora!”

“Yes, sir!” Rulitora and I nodded to each other, then dashed toward the group.

They were surrounding two other lizardmen. One was bleeding from the shoulder, and the other from the thigh. I placed my hand on the wounds and used Healing Light to heal them. In the blink of an eye, the wounds disappeared. My week of training had certainly paid off. After using up all my MP and then restoring it day after day, my magic ability had risen a great deal.

“You didn’t heal me slowly on purpose, did you?” Clena asked.

“Believe me, I didn’t.” That was just a testament to how much I’d grown.

After I finished healing them, I washed the blood off my hands and called out to them. “What happened back there? Did you let your guard down?”

Offended, the two warriors quickly retorted. “Not a bit!”

“We made sure to defeat the monsters!”

After living there for a week, I learned how to tell lizardmen’s facial expressions apart. The young warriors were pointing to the corpse of a gold ox, which I assumed they’d defeated. As the name suggests, gold oxen were wild ox monsters that possessed golden fur.

I heard Roni speaking to Rulitora behind me. “I’ve never seen that type of monster before.”

“Because we’ve been avoiding them,” he answered. The gold ox was one of the strongest monsters in the void, so Rulitora had been making sure that an inexperienced trainee like me didn’t end up facing it too soon.

“Praise them, Sir Touya! Those three took down a gold ox all on their own!” Dokutora patted a warrior near him on the back and let out a hearty laugh.

“Wow! That’s incredible!”

The lizardman who Dokutora was patting had been in a squad with the other two. Basically, the idea to put each of the ten warriors who’d survived the battle with the sandworm in charge of three young lizardmen had turned out to be a success. Just like I’d grown over the past week, the young lizardman had gained a lot of battle experience under the tutelage of the tribe’s veterans.

After being so worried about the future of his tribe, the warrior chief Dokutora looked simply ecstatic. Through hunting in groups of four, they’d learned how to work as a team, and even recently started mixing in other members to try out different combinations.

“Oh, and Sir Touya, I’ll be sure to have them deliver the monster’s fur later.”

After he watched the young warriors heal up, Dokutora picked up the golden ox and left with it. The monster’s golden fur was actually closer to the color of the desert or the wasteland earth – in other words, it was a camouflaging color, and prized as a rare fur in human towns. Since the Torano’o tribe lived in such a hot place, they needed meat, but didn’t have much use for fur, so I decided to accept all the golden ox fur as thanks for the water.

After we ate lunch, we moved to the reservoir and dumped all the water I’d collected from the Unlimited Bath into it. Then, I went inside the Unlimited Bath to escape the sun and did a little studying.

The reservoir wasn’t just a hole they’d dug in the ground – it was shaped like a grinding mortar, and was lined with glass on the inside. Thanks to that, the water didn’t slip into the earth, allowing the hole to be used as a proper reservoir. There were numerous spots like this in the void, and the Torano’o tribe used them regularly. I could see a few trees growing on the edge of the hole, and there was enough space to lie down near one and still be in the shade.

The hole was surprisingly large, so much that when I first saw it, I’d let out a gasp. I was also surprised by how little water was left in it. The elder suggested that the holes had been created by large fireballs, which made me wonder: how big did a fireball have to be in order to melt the ground? Regardless of what may have happened here in the past, it was the kind of idea that sent shivers up my spine. According to Clena and Roni, there was a possibility that the hole had been created by a stray blast during the battle that had happened in the desert kingdom. Just what sort of battle happened between the sacred king and the demon lord?

Of course, the Torano’o tribe didn’t have the power to create a new reservoir. After their reservoir was destroyed by the sandworm, they were, in a way, lucky that it’d only created a hole that caused the water to leak out. Normally, sandworms avoided water, so the mere fact that it had run into their reservoir was bad enough, and it had all truly been a stroke of awful luck for the Torano’o tribe.

While we dumped the water into the reservoir, Rulitora stood guard over me. Since it’d be too hot for him to stand there in his gear, he left his giant scorpion armor inside the tent. I was hot too, so I’d taken off all my armor and was only wearing light clothes. Today, Clena and Roni were standing closer to me than when we went hunting, possibly because it was so hot out.

“You’re still not out of the sun completely, right?” I asked. “I won’t order you to come near me, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to get a little closer to the water.”

“...You won’t do anything weird?” Clena asked.

“No, I won’t. Have I done anything over the past week?”

“...I guess not.”

I hadn’t done a single thing. The only time I’d ever touched Clena was when I healed her burns. I wanted to bathe with her, but I didn’t want to force her to do it and make her hate me. After all, ever since then, neither of them had stepped a foot in the Unlimited Bath, and instead washed themselves with water inside the tent. They borrowed soap and towels from me, though.

Because of that, I just didn’t feel like using the Unlimited Bath alone. I had to leave the tent while they were washing themselves, so I washed myself with the lizardmen in the reservoir. Letting my body float in the water while I stared up at a clear, starry sky was actually pretty fun, and something I’d have a hard time recreating in my home world. The Unlimited Bath was comfortable with all its furnishings, but this was a different pleasure that you couldn’t experience with an indoor bath.

I also felt less resistance toward bathing with the lizardmen than I had felt toward bathing with the temple elder. The first time after I brought some water out, I’d bathed with a young female lizardman and her child. That might sound exciting, but remember, she looked the same as the male lizardmen. But perhaps it was for the better that they all looked much different from normal humans.

The problem was the children in the settlement. I really wish they’d stop submerging their faces in the water and paddling toward me. They looked just like crocodiles when they did that, and it was pretty scary. They also seemed to enjoy being able to surprise me. Thankfully, I was able to become good friends with not just the children, but everyone else in the settlement over that week. Bathing in the same water as them may have helped that somewhat.

Also, let me just state for the record that there were no problems with using soap in the reservoir. I had first noticed it when Clena and Roni used my soap, but for some reason, the water it’d been used in would eventually purify itself. Whatever soap got left over became unable to retain its form, and simply dissolved. My soap wasn’t just superior, it was also eco-friendly.

“Lady Clena, you heard Sir Touya...” Roni spoke up.

“...Fine.” Once Roni prodded her, Clena moved a bit closer to me. We went through this sort of thing just about every day. As they hesitated to get close to me, I invited them both inside the Unlimited Bath. “It’s nice and cool here. Come on in.”

“O-Okay...”

When she took off her shoes and stepped inside the changing area, Clena’s face changed from tense to relaxed. With all three of us inside, the bath felt pretty cramped, but I could lower the temperature of the water in order to make it a refreshing cold bath.

It had been so hot outside that they were both sweating. “Here, take some towels.”

“...Thanks.” Clena took the towel without resisting.

Despite the heat outside, it was nice and breezy inside the bath, thanks to the cool water. I had some cups ready, and I poured cold water in them so we could refresh ourselves. Heh heh heh... This feels so good, once they experience it, they’ll never be able to escape!

Seriously, though, it’s not like I intended to do anything bad to them. It’s just that we’d been living in the same tent for a week, so I wanted to try and get them to stop keeping me at a distance, and I hoped the cool bath would be the thing to do it. Thanks to my MP growing, I could create water for a longer period, which allowed the reservoir to fill up much quicker than I’d planned. Now, it was one third full, and lizardmen children were already able to play near the edge of the water.

When I saw that, I asked Rulitora a question. “You lizardmen go into the water often, right?”

“Yes, since it helps us get through the heat.” Technically, they never took baths, but they did submerge themselves in water every day.

“Why are baths off limits?”

“Because of the... ‘steam,’ was it? We just can’t stand that. It prevents us from opening our eyes, and feels like our bodies are being enveloped by something. Very uncomfortable.”

“Th-that does sound pretty bad...” It seemed like sand lizardmen were more averse to baths than I thought.

We spent the next few hours in peace. Then, Roni’s wolven ears suddenly started to twitch.

“Huh?” she murmured.

“Roni, what’s wrong?”

Instead of answering Clena, Roni left the Unlimited Bath, closed her eyes, and placed her hands around the backs of her ears. Once I realized that she was straining her ears, I stuck out a finger toward the children playing near the water and shushed them. They obediently placed their hands over their mouths and kept quiet.

“I knew it... People are approaching. Saying there’s trouble.”

“Trouble? Maybe the ones who went out hunting today discovered something.”

But what could they have found in this barren wasteland? Although, if the lizardmen are saying there’s trouble, it’s probably something bad...

“Hey, maybe we should head back.” Clena nudged my shoulder. Judging from her subdued look, she had probably been thinking similar thoughts.

“Okay. Roni, where are the voices coming from?”

“Uhh... Over there.”

“Toward Jupiter,” Clena added.

“Rulitora, go and stand watch over there just in case,” I said. “I’ll get the children out of the reservoir.”

“Understood.” Rulitora immediately picked up his glaive and ran off in the direction Roni was pointing toward.

While he surveyed the area, I got the children out of the water and gave them some towels I’d prepared. It’d be okay if they were still a little wet. Once I checked to make sure no one was missing, we took the children back to the settlement.

After we hurried back, we found that the warriors who’d been shouting had already returned to the settlement, and a crowd had gathered near the entrance. Dokutora was so big that his head popped out from the crowd a little. Once we got near, Rulitora called out to him. “Dokutora!”

“Oh, Rulitora! Are the children with you? I was just about to go and get them.”

“Yes, we noticed the voices and brought them all back. What happened?”

“Well... There’s a horde of monsters approaching.”

As we listened to them talk, Clena and I exchanged a look. Instantly, I recalled the mob of monsters that I’d saved them from. I heard that the lizardmen hadn’t been able to completely eradicate them, so these were most likely the survivors.

Oblivious to our surprise, Rulitora and Dokutora went on talking. According to the warriors, who were now sitting on the ground, a small hooded man had been leading the horde.

“The guy I knocked over?!” I blurted out.

There had been a small hooded man leading the monsters who attacked Clena and Roni... Could it be the same guy?

“Was he riding a lesser boar?” I asked.

“Yes. Do you know him?”

“By the time you guys arrived on the scene, he had already been flattened by the monsters behind him.”

“...He must be a tough one, then.”

I imagined the man must have taken quite a bit of damage from being trampled like that, but perhaps he was really tough – or maybe he’d been able to quickly dodge out of the way. Either way, if this small man was the same one, we needed to be careful.

“But what have they been doing for the past week?” Clena interjected.

“Maybe they don’t have anyone who can use cleric magic, so they had to wait for their wounds to heal?” Roni guessed.

“That’s a good question,” a young warrior answered.

Perhaps they’d been preparing for something. Or could this be some kind of trap?

Dokutora also looked a bit tense. But the words that came out of the young warrior’s mouth dissipated – no, eradicated all my questions.

“The thing is... the monster horde looked bigger than it did last time. About five times bigger.”

“Five times?!”

With my questions eradicated, I had no choice but to accept the biggest crisis I’d faced yet. No wonder Dokutora looks so tense. Don’t tell me that small man spent this entire week gathering up as many monsters as he could...

“That reminds me,” Clena said. “I’ve heard about a certain type of magic that allows demons to control monsters. Sometimes they’ll even summon monsters and then put them under their control, so maybe that’s what allowed him to gather so many.”

“Summoning, huh?” It felt strange to think that this magic was a similar type to the one that’d brought me here.

“Umm...” Roni cocked her head in worry, perhaps because she’d noticed how grave my face had become.

“Oh no, I’m fine, I’m fine.” In response, I shook my hand and tried to pass it off as nothing.

The question now was whether or not we could win against a horde of monsters that was five times the size of the previous one. This settlement had already lost many of its veterans in the sandworm attack. Even if hunting in groups of four had taught the young warriors how to fight, I doubted they’d be able to go up against such a mob and make it out unscathed.

When I looked around, I saw how solemn everyone had become – it felt like we were attending a funeral. They probably all realized how difficult it would be to protect the settlement. Slowly, everyone started whispering things to the person nearest to them, and when I looked at their faces, I could tell that it was nothing constructive. Meanwhile, Clena and Roni had moved in and were currently hiding behind my back. The worsening mood must have scared them.

In order to break through this deadlock, I decided to propose a plan. As I guarded Clena and Roni with my back, I called out to Rulitora. “Rulitora, how many reservoirs do the Torano’o tribe use?”

“What? Well, it rains in different places depending on the season, and it’s hard to hunt during those periods, so we always move to wherever the rainy season just ended.”

In other words, they moved to a full reservoir that wasn’t going to get any more rain. “Could you move to another reservoir, then? It may not have water in it now, but I can easily do something about that.”

“Well...”

“No.” As Rulitora hesitated, the elder stepped in for him. “If we turn our backs and run here, the monsters could completely demolish the reservoir beyond all repair.”

“Hmm...” I couldn’t think of a rebuttal.

The lizardmen relied on the limited water that filled the reservoirs during the rainy seasons in order to survive, so losing an entire reservoir was a matter of life and death. No matter how threatening their enemy was, they couldn’t afford to run away. I also couldn’t stay here forever, especially since it got even hotter during summer. I could only barely withstand the heat now thanks to the Unlimited Bath, and I didn’t have any confidence that I could take it if things became even more intense. The only way to solve this problem seemed to be the Torano’o tribe moving to another area, but I didn’t have the power to guarantee their safety after I left the void. In the end, I realized the idea to throw everything away and run was an irresponsible one.

“Sir Touya. Moving west is the quickest way to leave the void. You should have the power to make it, even with your human legs. If you keep going west, you’ll find a town road, which will lead you to a human village.”

“...Hey.” My voice suddenly got low. I knew what the elder was trying to say.

“This area is on the verge of becoming a battlefield. Sir Touya, you must escape and survive, no matter what it takes.” Yes, he was telling me to run away – to abandon the Torano’o tribe and run away.

Once they told me to go and immediately bundle up my things, I returned to my tent and sat on the ground without spreading some cloth down.

“...Hey, what are you going to do?” Clena asked timidly.

I had no answer for her. Roni also looked worried, and her shoulders were shaking softly, as if she was afraid. Outside the tent, I could hear more noise than usual, and saw silhouettes of the lizardmen running to and fro on the white wall of the tent. They were getting ready to fight.

I want to help them somehow... But what can I do? I had needed Clena’s help when I was up against only three sweepdogs... At this rate, I’ll just hold everyone back. The elder said they’d be able to preserve the water until the rainy season, but honestly, I’m not sure I believe him. He’d also told me that I’d helped them enough. That they couldn’t cause me any more trouble...

Rulitora also intended to stay at the village. He apologized for making that decision despite becoming my raver, and said that he’d buy us enough time to escape. They knew their chances at victory were low at best – but it was a matter of survival.

Honestly, I was scared. I thought that I might be able to come in handy even though I couldn’t fight, thanks to Healing Light, but I was still scared. I was afraid of standing on the battlefield. I’d become able to hunt over the past week, but my fear taught me that it’d only been due to the safety I felt from being watched over by Rulitora and the others. But I was also afraid of what would happen if I did as they said and ran. The Torano’o tribe had a very low chance of victory. There were simply too many monsters. What would happen if they got annihilated after I ran? I’d probably become tortured by guilt from abandoning them. I was afraid of fighting, but I was also afraid of that.

“Clena, Roni, are you–”

“We’ll leave that up to you.” Clena interjected.

“We can’t escape the void without your water, Sir Touya...” Roni added.

“Sorry if this seems harsh, but it’s not exactly the kind of situation where we can just choose the better option.”

Clena and Roni were going to leave their fates up to me. Now I had even more responsibility to bear. I had little hope of winning if I fought, but I’d become a prisoner to guilt if I ran. In this situation, a hero would probably fight. I honestly didn’t care about whether or not I acted like a hero, but it wasn’t as if that made running away seem like the better decision.

When I sent Clena and Roni a glance for help, I saw Haruno’s face in their own for a moment. If I ran here and survived, would I be able to proudly look Haruno in the face when we reunited? No way. I wouldn’t even be able to stand in her presence any longer. I’d feel too ashamed. And it’d fill me with regret.

As I looked down to the ground, the faces of the lizardmen came to me. Dokutora and his hearty laugh. The solemn elder and his hard-to-read facial expressions. The young warriors who always did their best no matter how injured they got. The mischievous children, and the rest of the villagers.

That’s right. If I abandon the Torano’o tribe here, I’ll regret it forever.

That settles it. I’m not going to run. I’m going to stay with them and fight. I may hold them back if I fight normally, but I should be able to support them with my cleric magic.

When I looked up, Clena and Roni were staring at me with worried eyes.

“You’re going to fight, aren’t you?” Clena asked me, after she saw my face.

“Yeah.” I nodded, and she let out a small sigh. Judging from her lack of surprise, I guessed she’d expected this from the beginning.

“See?” she said. “I told you he’d end up staying, didn’t I?”

“Well, Sir Touya was nice enough to save us when we were in trouble, too...” Roni seemed unsure of how to respond to Clena’s triumphant declaration, so she gave me an awkward smile.

Wait... Do they think I’m some kind of brave person who can’t ignore people who are in trouble? No... Maybe they even think I’m heroic! They know I’m a Hero of the Goddess, after all...

I wanted to make sure I straightened out this misunderstanding, so I called out to them. “Just so you know, I’m only doing this because I don’t want to regret having run away.”

“Who cares? I wouldn’t blame you for running in a situation like this.”

“Besides, you wouldn’t be able to make this decision without at least a little bravery,” Roni added.

It was like they could both read my mind. Of course, it made sense that people in this world knew exactly how fearsome monsters really were.

“Relax, it’s still better than bluffing your way through!” Clena said with a smile, and her words felt surprisingly reassuring. She had seemed frail when I was healing her burns, but in this moment, she looked like a truly reliable woman. “...You’re not thinking about anything weird, are you?”

Sorry. I was remembering when I healed the burns on your boobs.

Once we decided we were going to stay, we made preparations to fight, rather than run, then left the tent. I had Roni help me put my brigandine on. It was a different type than mine, but the metal armor that Clena wore was hard to put on alone, so Roni was used to helping. Thanks to that, she was an extremely skilled assistant. I could feel the villagers’ eyes on us as we walked up to the warriors. Rulitora was the first to notice us.

“Sir Touya, why are you dressed like that?!”

“You need a healing squad, right?” I smiled, and Rulitora turned to Dokutora in shock. I was trying to act cool, and hoped that it hadn’t backfired.

“I’ll plan our strategy!” Clena proudly declared in front of the Torano’o warriors.

Rulitora and the others gave her an incredulous look, but Roni jumped in and nervously explained. “Lady Clena comes from a family of strategists, you see...”

Despite Roni’s vague wording, I concluded that Clena came from a family that studied military tactics. Compulsory education didn’t exist in this world, which meant that Clena probably came from a family of military nobles or knights. Judging from the way she carried herself and her ornate sword, it made sense. The Torano’o tribe seemed clueless when it came to strategy, especially since they hadn’t thought of fighting in groups of four until I brought it up, so I decided to mediate and listen to what she had to say.

“Still, there’s only so much we can do in a situation like this,” Clena began.

She ended up suggesting a plan where we’d leave the settlement and attack the monsters head on. There, the warriors would split into two groups: one to stop the mob, and another to attack it from the side. The Torano’o tribe’s settlement was located in the center of a flat wasteland, and only had a simple fence around it, which made it rather unfit for defending. Rulitora and the others agreed that it would be hard to fight and protect the settlement at the same time, so they accepted the plan. According to Clena, this plan wouldn’t work against a human army, but it would be effective against a mob of monsters, since they’d lose their order with a single solid hit. In exchange, taking out whoever was controlling the monsters was an absolute necessity.

The small hooded man. Even without the plan, there was no way we could ignore someone who had the ability to quintuple his forces in a single week.

The warriors would split into a front and rear group and march out. The group in front would defend from mob attacks, while the rear group would circle around and attack from the side. Clena, Roni and I planned to stand in the back of the front group. The only question left was who would command each group. Rulitora and Dokutora were good candidates, but Rulitora wanted to use his giant scorpion armor to assist in the defending, and Dokutora declined outright.

“I’m the current warrior chief,” he said. “It’s my job to protect the settlement.”

“Hmm...” Once he heard that, Rulitora became unable to stand his ground – especially considering how he had stepped down from his post as warrior chief and left the settlement – and decided to join the attackers.

Rulitora had probably wanted to use his armor to become everyone’s shield. But in the same vein, his glaive was much stronger than the spears Dokutora and the other lizardmen were using. Having him work hard as an attacker seemed to be the best choice.

Once we got a bit out from the village, the massive monster horde came into view ahead of us. They were closer than we expected. If we had departed even a little later, we might have been forced to fight them in an area that could have ended up damaging the settlement. Dokutora stopped the warriors, and we prepared to engage the enemy.

“Touya, can you summon three light spirits?” Clena asked.

“You want to send them out as a pre-emptive attack?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want you to hit the monsters. I’m going to utilize your power for something else.”

“Oh, I see.”

I did as Clena told me and summoned three light spirits, which cost me hardly any MP. Clena possessed a spell that allowed her to borrow power from various spirits in order to attack. The Stone Throw she’d used to help me when we were out hunting had been magic powered by earth spirits. In this world there existed people who could borrow some power from certain spirits and use their magic. In the case of earth spirits, they were known as geomancers. Clena, however, could borrow power from almost any spirit. It was a very unique type of magic, something she’d learned from trial and error, rather than a textbook or a teacher. And since she’d never found anyone else who could do such a thing, she didn’t have a title like geomancer. Apparently, she’d never even thought to give herself one in the first place.

“If you can borrow power from spirits... Maybe you could call it spirit magic?” I asked.

“I don’t really have a name for it, but I guess that isn’t bad,” Clena answered. “I’ll just call it spirit magic.”

“Y-you sure you don’t need to think harder about it?”

In the end, our conversation led Clena to adopt the ‘spirit magic’ name I’d proposed. Since magic in this world was split up as ‘cleric magic and everything else,’ all that fell into the latter half was categorized in a surprisingly haphazard manner.

“Lady Clena, the fire is ready.”

“Thanks, Roni.”

Below us on the ground, Roni had started a fire in order to borrow power from fire spirits. Clena’s spirit magic had one drawback – she could only borrow power from spirits that existed around her. In other words, if she was inside where there was no wind blowing, she wouldn’t be able to gain power from wind spirits. If she was outside and the sun was shining, she could borrow power from light spirits that way, but summoning them allowed her to absorb more power with less MP. That’s why Roni was making a fire – in order to call fire spirits to Clena’s side.

Roni was skilled at these sorts of things. She had high STR and TEC stats, and was kind of like a jack of all trades. She was even almighty when it came to housework. This was all based on her lycaon race, though. She had a low STR stat compared to other lycaon, but was still as strong as an average human adult. The same went for the sand lizardmen – demi-humans’ physical abilities were truly astounding.

“Um, Sir Touya. The fire’s hot, so please be careful!” she called out.

“O-okay,” I answered.

Aside from the fact that she had wolf ears where her human ears should have been, and a wolf tail coming out from her behind, she looked exactly the same as a human, and was actually pretty cute. As I continued to stare at Roni, the mob of monsters got close enough that I could now see each individual monster, and I spotted sweepdogs, gembolics, and gold oxen midst the crowd.

“I can’t find the hooded guy,” I muttered. “Maybe he’s hiding in the back, or hidden in another squad...”

“There is no other squad.” Clena quickly shot down one of my ideas.

“Where’s your proof?”

“I’ve heard about demons having ways to control monsters, but they can’t gather up monsters that don’t exist. I doubt he was able to herd that many in only a week.”

“Then how...”

“With summoning magic, it would be difficult, but not impossible. Especially if he summoned in monsters from nearby.”

“In other words, the hooded man used summoning magic to amass so many? And that’s why there can’t be another squad? Because if he gets too far away from them, he won’t be able to control them?”

“...Surprising. I didn’t expect you to figure all that out on your own.”

“Wow! How did you put it all together?!” Roni shouted.

“...Guess I just got lucky.” I’d just taken a wild guess based on all the games I’d played, but it looked like I’d been exactly right. Clena and Roni stared at me in surprise, and it didn’t look like I’d be able to give them an explanation they’d understand, so I just decided to stay quiet and casually play it off.

“Time for our pre-emptive strike!” Clena unsheathed her sword and raised it up to the sky. Soon, the three light spirits gathered at the top and formed a large light orb. “Blow them away! Flash!”

In the next instant, it looked like the orb was going to expand even further – then, it transformed into a ray of light that slashed horizontally across the mob. Once it passed, a delayed explosion rocked the ground, and some of the monsters in the very front went flying.

“Now!”

Following Clena, Rulitora and the other lizardmen started throwing rocks at the monsters. Stones that ranged from the size of baseballs to soccer balls could deal serious damage when thrown from lizardman arms. Faced with a rain of stone projectiles, the monsters cowered and stopped in their tracks.

“Gooo!”

Instantly, Dokutora’s group thrust their spears out and charged. Their goal was to take the full brunt of the monsters’ attacks and stop them in their tracks, but there was no need for them to stand and wait until the monsters reached them. After Clena’s magic and Rulitora’s group threw stones, a powerful head-on attack could allow us to gain the advantage. This was the key to Clena’s strategy.

Once Dokutora’s attack was successful, Rulitora began to move. “Okay! Follow me!”

With that, he led the warriors around so they could strike the side of the mob. Meanwhile, the humans remained in the center and supported the defending warriors from behind.

“Lady Clena!” Roni shouted. “That one’s in trouble!”

“He’s only focused on what’s in front of him... Flame Arrow!!”

Roni continued to scan the front line and let Clena know when anyone was in trouble. Whenever Clena got the signal, she’d cast a Flame Arrow, and a fiery dart would arc up from the fire and go sailing toward a monster. Now that the warriors and monsters were fighting side by side, she couldn’t cast any more spells like Flash, but she could target individual monsters with spells like Flame Arrow. Since Clena wouldn’t be able to keep up with casting and finding people on her own, Roni used her eyes to help.

Meanwhile, it was my job to using Healing Light to heal whoever got hurt. Everyone was still doing pretty well, though, so I didn’t have anything to do. I didn’t have good enough eyesight to help Roni out, and since I couldn’t waste my MP, I had no choice but to stand and watch the battle develop.

It looked like the lizardmen had gained the upper hand for the time being, but since the monsters had us beat in numbers, no one could let up. It was about ten stutes from where I stood to the front lines, and I could hear angry roars and shouts echoing. This was a battlefield. I thought I’d gotten a little used to fighting, but it was far more intense and frightening than hunting had ever been.

I didn’t have time to be scared, though. Next to me, Clena and Roni were performing their duties without even flinching. I didn’t care about looking cool, but I didn’t want to look pathetic, either. I tried to strengthen my quivering legs, and continued to stare straight at the battlefield as thoughts ran through my mind. Am I going to be fighting like that someday?

“There he is! I can see Rulitora!” Someone called out.

Sure enough, just when the monsters regained their composure and started pushing Dokutora back, Rulitora’s group charged in from the side. The monsters were taken by surprise, and completely lost their momentum. Meanwhile, Rulitora and his warriors never stopped rushing forward. As I watched, I was reminded how large Dokutora and Rulitora were. Their heads always remained above the crowd, so I could see exactly what they were doing.

Rulitora’s moves were especially impressive. With one swing of his glaive, he sent several monsters flying into the air. Even when he wasn’t using his usual forward-bent charge, he could still swing his glaive around and slash his way through the enemy, as if he was cutting a path through the wilderness. This was the strength of a Level 29 ex-Torano’o warrior chief. Dokutora, the current warrior chief, didn’t look as flashy as Rulitora because he was busy shutting down the monsters’ attacks. He was probably around Rulitora’s level in terms of strength.

It looked as if Clena’s plan had been a success. The scales were tipping in our favor. Still, it’s not as if we hadn’t suffered any damage. Once a few warriors got seriously injured, others stepped up to take their places, while I healed them with Healing Light. Soon, I was faced with a young warrior who had taken a golden ox’s charge head-on. He had a large wound in his right side, and blood was gushing out. I needed to touch the wound in order to use Healing Light, so I put my hand over the gored hole.

“Gggh...!”

“Just hang in there!” I said.

I felt my hands touch something wet and squishy. But this warrior had gotten injured after risking his life to fight – I couldn’t allow myself to feel afraid. For the time being, I’d only be able to stop the blood, but it was better than letting him go on fighting without it.

“...Thanks,” he said. “You can do the rest once the fight’s over.”

“Don’t do anything too rash,” I said.

The young warrior placed a hand on his throbbing side and went back out to the battlefield. I was worried, but I couldn’t stop him. If he wasn’t there, the other warriors would only have a greater burden to bear. Once I saw him off, I prepared some more water for the next warrior. I didn’t want to touch someone with bloodied hands.

Afterwards, I healed five more warriors. During that time, three monsters slipped through the front lines, but the defending warriors took them out for us. Thanks to Rulitora’s group, the monsters’ numbers kept decreasing. Then, once I healed my sixth, I heard a voice coming from ahead. It sounded strangely shrill and irritating.

“Dammit! You can’t let them get any further!”

Once I stopped the warrior’s bleeding, I looked in the direction of the voice. I couldn’t tell what he said after that, but I knew I’d heard it somewhere before.

“That voice just now...”

“I think that’s the hooded man who was chasing us,” Roni said, as her ears twitched.

“If we can defeat him, the one who summoned these monsters, will we win?”

“Just so you know,” Clena quickly answered, “defeating him won’t make the monsters he summoned disappear. Remember how he got trampled last time, yet the monsters were still around?”

“Now that you mention it...”

With summoning magic, there were three parts to the process: the summoning itself, assuming control, then returning whatever was summoned back to its original location. Depending on what was summoned, some things could be instantly returned by defeating the summoner, but that didn’t seem to apply to beast-type monsters.

“Maybe I’m actually being controlled, too...” I began.

“No, no,” Clena said. “We’d be able to tell with a glance if you were.”

Apparently, one could tell by looking at the creature’s eyes – there was usually some sort of difference to them, such as being glazed over or looking dim.

“Why do these lizards keep standing in my way?! Curse that stupid hero!”

“...Huh?”

I couldn’t help but react when I heard the shrill voice a second time, and I was pretty sure I’d heard it say ‘hero.’ In other words, the reason that small, hooded man had gathered up so many monsters and attacked was because he knew that one of the summoned heroes was here. It was also strange how the charging monsters were worried about letting us advance. Honestly, it made no sense. I thought about going up to the front lines to find out more, but it didn’t seem possible judging by how many warriors kept switching out, and how many wounded ones I had to deal with. Meanwhile, Rulitora’s group continued to defeat monsters until all of a sudden, they had less on their side than we did.

If we’re going to capture that guy, I need to let Rulitora know at once. Then, I heard that annoying voice a third time.

“You ingrates... Fine, have it your way!”

Instantly, a pillar of light rose up from the ground. Rulitora tried swinging his glaive at it, but it was deflected with a loud clang, as if its blade had struck something hard.

“Don’t tell me that’s a ritual barrier...” Clena muttered as she watched beside me.

“A ritual barrier?”

“A barrier used to protect a caster when they’re trying to activate a big spell. He must be trying to summon something huge!”

When I looked back to the light pillar, I saw Rulitora and Dokutora double teaming it. Despite their efforts, they couldn’t seem to break through.

“Get back! A shockwave will burst out when the summoning succeeds!” Clena shouted out.

They did as she said, and dashed away from the light pillar. Immediately afterwards, blue flames poured out over the ground, and warriors screamed. Some of them failed to run away fast enough, and were swallowed up in the fire.

Behind the flames, I saw a large shadow wavering. Something was floating far above even Rulitora’s head.

Once the flames dispersed, I saw a gigantic, bloodshot eyeball floating in the sky. I didn’t bother mentioning this to anyone, but it felt just like a battle scene from a video game. Visually, it looked like a giant bulb with stringy things dangling out from it, like the kind you saw submerged in water cultures. In the center of the orb was a huge eye, while poisonous-looking tendrils, veins, or whatever they were, extended out from the bottom. From below, it looked really creepy, and the eye itself was massive. Rulitora probably couldn’t grab it even if he extended his arms to their limit.

The giant bloodshot eyeball peered down at us. How is a monster like that going to attack us?

“Mwa ha ha ha! You had your fun, lizards, but now it’s time to teach you just how foolish you were to ever defy the great Maius!!” the man named Maius declared, in an arrogant voice. He must have had a lot of confidence in that giant eyeball monster of his.

Perhaps due to the eye, the remaining monsters had all started running off in random directions. Thanks to that, we now had a clear view of Maius, who was standing directly below the eyeball.

Maius took off his hood. His skin wasn’t just pale, it was stark white, and his head was utterly hairless. He had the body of a child’s, and while I couldn’t see his face that clearly, it looked like an old man’s. Maius didn’t look very strong, but considering how he had just summoned that huge eyeball, I assumed his magic power was nothing to scoff at.

The giant eyeball was the real threat here. After a shout from Clena, the warriors all tossed their spears at the eyeball, but all it had to do was shake its tendrils to deflect them. Rulitora’s glaive was the only weapon that seemed to actually slice into the creature, but the damage was insignificant. I had hoped that some of the other spears might end up hitting Maius instead, but unfortunately the tendrils knocked them all away. So that’s why he’s standing below it.

“Clena!” I called out.

Little did I know she was already prepared. “I’m on it! Flame Arrow!”

She fired a dart straight at the eyeball, but once again, the tendrils blocked it. They only looked like tendrils, and weren’t actually plant-based, so they didn’t even burn up. The warriors picked up their spears and got back into position, but were hesitating, since they already knew the weapons wouldn’t work.

“Heh heh heh... Now do you realize just how powerful I am?!” I wanted to correct him and say it was the power of his eyeball, not his power, but I figured now wasn’t the time. In any case, Maius seemed very proud that he’d managed to deflect all our attacks. “Now to give you a taste of my true power!”

With that, Maius raised a finger toward the sky – and the eyeball above him. Soon, I saw a powerful light burning within the pupil. I heard a growl, and assumed it was coming from the eyeball. But Clena and the defenders were looking around, wondering where the sound was coming from.

Since it sounded like a growl, they probably never imagined that it’d be coming from the mouthless eyeball. Rulitora’s group also looked unsettled, especially since they had no way of attacking.

“Sir Touya, I’m scared...”

It seemed like Roni was the only one who’d caught on to the impending doom we were facing, and her ears were both drooping. It also seemed like more light had gathered into the center of the massive eye that gazed down on us. Just what was that light going to do? Maius was the only one who knew. I had a pretty good guess, though, based on all the games and stuff I’d been exposed to.

“Everyone, run to the sides! Now!” Once they heard my voice, the warriors all began to move. Clena and Roni fell behind by a second, so I grabbed their hands and yanked them away.

“Fiiiire!”

In the next moment, the eyeball fired a beam that opened up a massive hole where we had just been standing.

Now that I understood the attack, I let out a shout. “Are you kidding me?! Doesn’t that guy have any respect for the fantasy genre?!”

That’s right, it was a beam. The eyeball had just fired a massive laser beam at us.

The beam sent fear into even the Torano’o tribe warriors, who all panicked and moved back. In response, the eyeball mercilessly fired another beam and cut open another gaping hole in the ground. The edges of the hole were burned, and the smell pricked my nose. If any of us got hit by that, we probably won’t live to regret it.

“Mwa ha ha ha! You can’t keep running forever!”

The eyeball fired a third beam, which landed smack dab at the spot where I’d just been standing. It appeared the eyeball was aiming for me, which confirmed that Maius knew I was a Hero of the Goddess.

Suddenly, I remembered how Cosmos the Hero had been attacked by demons. Maius must have been the owner of the eyes Rulitora felt on us when we departed. They must have followed us here from Jupiter, then ran into Clena and Roni by coincidence and started chasing them instead.

“What’s wrong? Can’t even fight back, can you? C’mon, I wanna see you get even more scared! Grovel to me! Bow down before me and admit your defeat!”

Since we had yet to counterattack, Maius was acting like he’d already won, but I ignored him for the time being. I had more important matters to focus on. Luckily, the eyeball couldn’t keep firing beams in succession. Once it fired one, it needed some time to recharge. Additionally, once it finished charging, it couldn’t change direction, which meant that we’d always have a chance to evade. That meant we wouldn’t have to keep running around forever, and I could also keep other people out of the line of fire.

“Everyone, get away from wherever the eyeball’s looking! It fires the beam whenever it stops moving!” I shouted in a loud voice, so everyone could hear me.

“O-okay!” Once they heard me, Rulitora’s group removed themselves from the eyeball’s line of sight. This left them with no time to attack, but since that beam was an instant kill, we really had no other choice. Clena left with the defenders, while Roni continued to run around with me out of worry.

“Tch! Very clever!” Maius had been cackling only moments ago, but now he seemed much less confident, and surprised that we’d easily figured out how the beam worked.

Still, it didn’t mean this battle had become any easier for our side. Running around was sapping our stamina, and we were still in the process of being cornered.

We need to think of something, otherwise he’ll just keep whittling our stamina down until he can nab us – and that’s only moments away, unfortunately. I’d almost been zapped numerous times, and had only narrowly escaped thanks to Roni pulling my hand.

“...I know!” Suddenly, an idea hit me. I didn’t know if it would really do anything, but it was worth a try. “Roni, give me a hand!”

“Um, okay!”

“And everyone else, just keep running around to buy time!”

“Hey, you could at least explain yourself!” Clena called out from behind, but I didn’t have time to engage her.

After dodging the umpteenth beam, I quickly opened the door to the Unlimited Bath and jumped inside.

“Hurry up and close the door!”

“O-okay!” After jumping in with me, Roni frantically closed the door, upon which we could no longer hear the growling charge noise.

It was impossible for anything to reach the Unlimited Bath from the outside, which meant that we could make preparations here in peace. If we took too long, though, it could put Clena and the others in danger, so we needed to hurry.

“Roni, here’s what comes next...”

“Okay! Let’s hurry!” And so, Roni helped me prepare a certain something.

After a few minutes, our plans were complete. I picked up our special weapon, while Roni cracked open the door and took a peek at what was going on outside.

“The eye isn’t moving,” she said. “And the demon is still below it.”

“Okay, we’ll jump out after it fires its next beam.”

“...Beam? You mean that light?”

“...Yeah, that thing.” It appeared that the word ‘beam’ didn’t mean anything to people in this world. Focus! You can’t miss this chance. I pushed all unnecessary thoughts out of my mind and concentrated.

“It fired the beam!” Roni shouted. “Now!”

“Let’s go!” Roni opened the door, and I leapt out.

The giant eyeball was floating in the same spot, with sparks flying around its pupil. It looked as if it had just finished firing a beam. Underneath it stood Maius, protected by the tendrils. He wasn’t moving either.

After glancing around, I saw that there were new holes, but no fallen lizardmen on the ground. Clena was also in fine condition, which meant that everyone had been able to keep dodging without any problems. I can’t waste this chance. I quickly pulled out my secret weapon – the hose – and aimed it a little upwards toward the eyeball.

“Now, Roni!” I shouted, and I felt vibrations rock through the arm that was holding the hose. Right after Roni opened the door, she’d dashed back into the Unlimited Bath. “Take this, eyeball!”

Water erupted out from the hose, creating a wide arc, and assaulted the floating eyeball. When Roni heard the signal, she’d opened the faucet that the hose was attached to. The eyeball tried to protect itself with its tendrils, but unlike spears, which only had to be deflected once, the tendrils were powerless against liquid. And since I’d aimed the hose up a little, the water spilled mercilessly all over the eyeball.

“Mwa ha ha ha! You fools! Of all the things to try... You really think that’s going to stop my–?!” Maius’ voice was cut off by an ear-shattering screech that exploded out from the eyeball. By this point, I was really curious as to where that voice was coming from. “Impossible! How could it get damaged by mere water?!”

“Who said that was mere water?!” The water I’d fired was much more than that – because I’d poured an entire bottle of shampoo down the hose.

Water mixed with shampoo was now splashing all over the eye. I hadn’t been sure whether it would work or not, but if that eye was anything like a human eye, then it was worth a try.

“Don’t tell me this is the hero’s power... Blergh?!”

Maius was cut off once more – this time, by the eyeball itself. Unable to bear all the pain, the eyeball had fallen straight down, crushing Maius beneath. There was no way he’d make it out unscathed.

Realizing this was our chance, I quickly called out to Rulitora. “Rulitora! Finish him off!”

“Yes, sir!”

Rulitora was standing closer to the eyeball than the other warriors, probably so he could act as a decoy, which allowed him to immediately begin a forward-bent charge with his glaive. He reached the eyeball in the blink of an eye, then raised his glaive high and brought it down with a thundering swoosh. That attack sliced the eyeball right in two.

At long last, the wriggling tendrils came to a dead stop. It looked as if we’d won. Once they saw the tendrils stop, the other warriors sat down in exhaustion. I imagined they were tired from running around so much. Still steady on his feet, Dokutora moved up to the eyeball, then plucked up Maius, who at this point looked like a dirty, beat-up rag. I’d wanted to hear what he had to say, but it looked like that wasn’t possible anymore. Oh well. I should just feel happy that we managed to win this one.

“Well, gather up, everyone who’s wounded... I’ll just have to heal you one by one!” After I get a little rest, that is.

If I were to put it in RPG terms, I was the cleric, or the healer of the party. Now, I had to go back and use Healing Light to properly heal everyone whose bleeding I’d temporarily stopped. I started healing the most heavily wounded first, but I only got to half before I collapsed. It felt like using any more MP would render me completely immobilized. Only the lightly wounded were left, so we decided to heal them all tomorrow and headed back to the settlement. The rest of the lizardmen had been busy collecting meat and fur from the monsters while I worked on the healing, and according to Dokutora, it’d been their greatest haul yet. Now that our battle with the massive monster horde was over, it felt like it had all just been one big hunt.

Incidentally, they weren’t able to salvage anything from the big eyeball. I remembered how tuna eyes were often eaten, so I thought it might be edible, but unfortunately, no one rose to the challenge – including myself. Left with no other choice, I asked Clena to dispose of it along with Maius’ corpse.

As I watched the flames rise high, I put my hands together. I needed to do this first and foremost to level up, but I also couldn’t ignore the feeling that this was a good time for some prayer. The lizardmen caught on that I was praying, even if they didn’t understand exactly what it was for, so they followed suit and offered up prayers in their own way.

That evening, we had a grand banquet. The lizardmen planned to tan the hides and smoke the meat they’d gathered from the battle, but they also cooked part of the meat for dinner. Due to how much there was, only cooking a bit of it created enough for a full-scale banquet. Roni was also kind enough to add some flavoring to our meat.

Next to us, Rulitora and Dokutora were engaged in a heated discussion, and since the children who had become fond of me were instead absorbed in the meat, I was alone with Clena and Roni. They seemed tired from all the running they’d done, especially Clena, who spoke to me in a languid tone.

“Hey Touya, what are you going to do from here on out?”

“Well, first I need to fill up the reservoir...”

“And after that?”

“After that... I still haven’t thought about it.” When I said that, she stared deeply into my face.

I had a feeling I knew what she wanted to say. Their goal was to find the desert kingdom, which existed somewhere in the desert at the center of the void. The desert kingdom used to belong to the demon lord, and since I was summoned as a hero to fight the demon lord, I couldn’t act like this had nothing to do with me.

Clena stared beyond the settlement to the wasteland as she spoke. “Apparently 500 years ago, before the desert kingdom was destroyed, this area was still full of greenery.”

“Did something happen in the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord?” I asked, and Clena shook her head.

“Well, something happened that was big enough to create those reservoirs, but I don’t know the details. That’s why I wanted to go to the desert kingdom – so we could find out.”

“I see...”

I pondered this for a moment. Clena and Roni were staring at me with eyes full of anticipation, but I was more interested in this story than they knew. After all, the entire reason I was summoned was so I could do something about the demon lord, who was supposedly about to break out of his seal – yet I had no details on the demon lord himself. Since people kept talking about stopping the demon lord, it seemed strange that no one knew where he had come from or what exactly he was... But if all that history had simply been erased, then it made sense. Perhaps the key to unlock the mysteries behind that lost history lay within the desert kingdom.

Honestly, I didn’t really want to fight the demon lord, and wanted to avoid it if at all possible. At the same time, I knew I couldn’t just stand by and run away if something happened. With that in mind, perhaps it would be helpful to investigate the land where the demon lord and the demons were born.

“I thought the sand lizardmen might know something about it...” Clena said, as she looked away from me.

I followed her eyes to the elder. From the word ‘elder,’ many people might imagine a small old person with a bent back, but that didn’t apply to the Torano’o tribe. Here, elders ascended from warrior chiefs, and the elder who stood in front of us now was no smaller than Rulitora or Dokutora. It was difficult to tell if a lizardman was old, young, or male or female at first glance, but their scales got harder when they got older, and this elder’s scraggy scales with their faded shade of amber told me just how ancient he was.

“I came to thank you for saving my people and the settlement...” The elder narrowed his eyes. “There are some oral traditions that we elders inherit, but they’re all related to tribe leadership, so I’m not sure I can be of any help...” He slowly shook his head.

Unfortunately, the Torano’o tribes possessed no oral traditions related to the desert kingdom – but Clena stubbornly stood her ground. “Hold on a minute! I heard that you people descended from the inhabitants of the desert kingdom!”

“Oh yeah, I heard that too. But is there any truth to it?” I asked.

The elder casually denied the claims. “I’m afraid that’s incorrect.”

According to the elder, the Torano’o tribe moved to the wasteland after it had already become a void. Their ancestors had journeyed across the coastline and entered the void from the south, and had even circumvented the desert when they journeyed to the northern end. One oral tradition of the tribe warned about going near the desert due to the dangers that lay within, but this was simply a warning about the dangerous monsters that existed there.

“But...” Realizing that we’d come up with nothing, Clena let her head droop down, while Roni frantically supported her.

“Oh, but there’s one... I’m not sure if it’s connected to the desert kingdom, but there’s one oral tradition that talks about the demons,” the elder said.

“Not related to the desert?”

“Not directly.” Clena and Roni looked to the elder as he spoke. “Like I told you, our ancestors entered from the south.”

“After it had already become the void.”

“Yes. They reached this land after going west around the desert... But along the way, they were attacked by demons.”

“Attacked by demons? Not in the desert, but in the wasteland?” I asked, and the elder gave me a big nod.

“I’m not sure of the details, but on the west side of the wasteland there was a large gate that was overflowing with demons. And beyond the gate was a massive underground tunnel.”

“An underground tunnel... That led to the desert?” The elder nodded again, affirming my guess.

Clena seemed to also understand what this meant. She was leaning forward and resting her chin on my shoulder as she listened. I could feel something soft really pushing into my back. In fact, it felt like two large mounds were smushing up hard against it, but she didn’t really seem to mind.

“Then, the elder at the time worked together with the warrior chief to destroy the gate so that no one could ever pass through it again.”

“So it wasn’t sealed off completely, then?” Clena asked, just to be sure.

The elder laughed and shook his head. “We don’t have spells or techniques that could achieve such things.”

When Clena and I heard that, we looked at each other and nodded. “It’s worth checking out... Can you tell us where the gate lies?” I asked.

“It’s a part of our oral traditions, but I suppose we could make an exception for you, Sir Touya...” After saying that, the elder looked at Clena and Roni. He felt indebted to me, but didn’t seem to want to tell Clena and Roni as well.

Once she realized she was being watched, Clena stood up. I felt the softness leave my back and turned to look at her.

Then, she said something entirely unexpected. “That’s fine! I don’t care! After all... I need to risk my life on Touya to pay him back for what he did for me!”

“Risk your life?!” Roni shrieked.

In response, I weakly muttered: “...What?”

Along with the elder, Rulitora and Dokutora, who had been sitting next to him the entire time, were all blinking their eyes in confusion. I’d recently realized that lizardmen blinked more than usual whenever they were surprised.

I realized I had to do something, so I stood up and turned to Clena. “Hold on a minute. Just what are you talking about?”

“You did enough for me to earn this. That’s all I mean.”

“And what exactly did I do?”

“Like I said earlier, you saved ‘both’ of my lives, remember?”

In other words, all I’d really done was saved Clena and Roni and healed their burns, but to Clena, I’d also saved her from the fate of being a noblewoman covered in ugly scars.

“Right now, I can’t pay you with money or anything like that. Technically, in a situation like this the best thing I’d be able to do is become your wife, but I’m still...”

“Um, no, I think risking your life is still way more than necessary.” When I thought about it as saving a damsel in distress, or how in stories parents offered their daughters up to the people who saved them, I could sort of understand it. In Clena’s case, even though she was disowned, she still had pride in her noble birth. “There’s no reason for you to go that far...”

“You’re the one who went too far.” Clena gently placed a hand on her chest.

I was speechless. When I looked at her face, I understood everything. Clena wasn’t saying this because she felt she had no choice. She really was offering herself to me in exchange for saving her life. I looked down a bit, and couldn’t help but notice how plump and curvaceous her body was. And she was only 15 years old.

Clena really was a cute girl, with her soft, bouncy silver bob that curled inwards, her big bright eyes, and her adorable face. Let me be honest here – she wanted to risk her life for me, and that feeling alone was enough to make me super happy.

“Let’s table the whole ‘life’ thing for a moment,” I said. “Does this mean you’re willing to help me look for the desert kingdom?”

“Yes, of course,” she answered. “I want to find it too, you know.”

In the end, I decided to close things by accepting her as a party member for the time being. Don’t call me a wuss, okay? She just started talking about risking her life for me all of a sudden, so I was really at a loss. Clena and Roni had both been looking for the desert kingdom from the beginning, so they’d already been risking their lives even before I’d gotten involved – which meant that Rulitora and I going along would give them a better chance at survival. And besides, why would I turn down a chance to travel with two girls who were that cute? Gaining more party members and getting strong enough to bathe with them all was right in line with the original promise I’d made with Haruno, Sera, and Rium.

Once we came to a decision, I turned back to the elder. “Elder, these two are my party members now. If you still insist on not telling me with them present, I’ll send them back to the tent.”

“Hmm... So be it. Even though it’s part of our oral traditions, this isn’t exactly one of the most important lines.”

Since the Torano’o tribe mainly lived on the northern side of the void, information that pertained to the west side wasn’t that important to them. Still, it wasn’t just something he could tell anyone, but I was prepared to take responsibility for Clena and Roni now that they were my party members.

“It’s located in the west...”

We all had trouble following as the elder explained the exact location of the gate. Lizardmen seemed to have very unique ways of giving directions.

Luckily, Rulitora had been listening, so we didn’t need to worry. “It’s okay. I know where that is.”

Roni brought out a map from the tent so we could confirm the location.

“Rulitora,” I said. “Where exactly is the gate on this map?”

“I can’t be sure of the exact spot with this map... But I believe it’s around here.” Rulitora and Dokutora peered down at the map, then traced a circle around the west side of the void. It ended up being a pretty big circle.

“No, I think it’s a little more down to the south.” The elder extended his hand and tapped a claw on the southern end of the circle. We didn’t have an exact location, but it certainly narrowed things down. At this point, the next course of action was to actually go there and find it for ourselves.

“So once we go west out of the void, we just need to go down south a bit?” Clena asked, as she traced a route along the map.

“We can head toward Ceresopolis, then move east from there,” Roni said, pointing to one of the large town markers. It looked the same as Jupiteropolis’ mark, and had ‘Ceresopolis’ written beside it.

“What kind of a kingdom is Ceres?” I asked.

“They’re known for their agriculture,” Roni answered.

“So, a nice rustic kingdom, eh? Guess that’ll be our next stop!”

We couldn’t leave until I finished filling the reservoir, but we could certainly begin preparing. The elder was kind enough to have the entire tribe help us prepare. We had no choice but to gather food for our journey from the settlement, so I was truly grateful. Of course, due to the locale, we had a rather limited selection, but I wasn’t worried.

“I’m going to head back to the tent and rest a bit. What about you, Rulitora?”

“Could I stay and drink with Dokutora and the others?”

“Sure, why not? I won’t need you to guard me as long as we’re in the settlement.”

“Thank you very much!”

Even though he was my raver, I had no intention of robbing Rulitora of his freedom, and now was the perfect time to let Rulitora do as he pleased.

“Clena, Roni, what are you two going to do?”

“If you’re going back to the tent, Touya, then we’ll go with you.” Clena was so tired that she didn’t have the energy to enjoy the banquet.

“Please support yourself on my shoulder, Lady Clena.” Roni seemed to still be in good shape, but she’d decided to head back to the tent with Clena and rest with us.

Once I got back to the tent, something occurred to me. What are we going to do about baths tonight? I don’t have the energy to go all the way back out to the reservoir... I’ll be okay without bathing for a day, but what about Clena and Roni?

“Clena, Roni, do you want to wash yourselves off? If so, I’ll go outside.”

“Oh? Good point...” Clena looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then crossed her eyes and looked down, deep in thought. Finally, she raised her head. “...Do you want to use the Unlimited Bath? ...Together?”

She was acting casual, but I could hear how shrill her voice had gotten. Her face was bright red, and her eyes looked very worried.

“Huh? What?” Roni anxiously looked between Clena and I.

“Calm down, Clena. What is this, all of a sudden? I mean, I’m happy... Really happy, but...” Faced with her sudden request, I wasn’t exactly unfazed, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good for us to both lose control of our emotions. I did my best to talk in a soothing voice, in order to try and calm Clena down. “First you talk about risking your life for me, and now this... You’re getting way too ahead of yourself.”

“But, I...”

“I know you have your pride as a noble. And I’m not trying to make light of the fact that I healed your burns... In fact, I’m proud that I was able to remove every last wound and make your boobs pristine again.”

“In that case–!”

“But hearing you say you’re going to risk your life for me is just too heavy to deal with. Do nobles cause people trouble in order to pay them back? They don’t, do they?”

“Urk...”

“Neither of us are calm right now. We need to cool off.”

“...Fine.” It looked as if I’d managed to calm her down for the time being. Next to her, Roni patted her chest in relief.

I spread out a large cloth on the ground inside the tent and sat Clena and Roni down on it. I decided to prepare some cold water in order to help them relax, but when I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath, Roni’s shoulders twitched. “That’s rude, Roni,” Clena scolded her.

Roni let her shoulders droop back down. “S-sorry.” It was so cute how her ears and tail always moved in accordance with her emotions.

I took three cups, entered the Unlimited Bath, filled them to the brim with cold water, then passed two to Clena and Roni. I spread a cloth across from them, took the remaining cup, and sat down on it.

After Clena drank some water, she called out to me in a calm voice. “Okay. Now I want to re-discuss the bathing together business.”

“I can’t really use the Unlimited Bath unless I’m there inside it. Still, I would hate to have to keep my party members outside while I use it alone.”

“I guess I can understand that,” Clena said, glancing at Roni. “Roni, or I suppose lycaons as a whole have a similar custom.” She was referring to wolf demi-humans – Roni’s race. “They always think about rank first when several people are present. They’re extremely loyal, so they’re often hired as servants in Junopolis.”

“Interesting...” I guessed it was similar to how pet dogs ordered people in terms of ranks even within families, and in some cases, the dogs considered themselves to be at a higher rank than their masters. Of course, saying “That sounds like a pet dog” to her would be like saying “You’re acting like a wolf” to a human, so I restrained myself.

“I want to treat Roni more like a friend, rather than a servant, but she just can’t seem to stop acting reserved, so it makes me feel bad that she’s the only one acting her part all the time.”

“I see you have your share of problems, too, Clena.”

“I guess.” Clena and I looked at each other and laughed. You know, we may be able to get along pretty well...

“But we are master and servant!” Roni protested.

“It’s true that you’re my personal raver, Roni. She was the only one who came with me when my family disowned me.”

“Is that so?” I didn’t know why Clena had been disowned, but it seemed better for me not to touch upon it. In any case, Clena and Roni’s master-servant relationship was exactly how I imagined it to be.

“I wish we could just be closer, without worrying about our status,” Clena said.

“But I...”

“See how she acts?”

Clena was Roni’s master, so it was only natural of her to act like a servant. But since Clena wanted them to act like equal friends, she was dissatisfied with that.

“Can’t you use your authority as her master to free her from raver servitude?” I asked.

“You need money to do that. And since it’s tied to citizenship, it costs a pretty penny,” Clena answered. I supposed that meant it was out of the question, since Clena had been disowned. “I just wish we could be a little more friendly with each other, that’s all.”

“It’s impossible. I’m a lycaon...” Roni drooped once more.

She wanted to be good friends with Clena too, but apparently her lycaon heritage prevented that. When I took this into account, I could see that from Roni’s point of view, she and Clena belonged to a group in which Clena possessed the higher rank. Due to that, Roni’s lycaon customs left her with no choice but to act like a loyal servant to Clena. This was probably one of the reasons why lycaons were such popular servants in Junopolis.

Is there anything I can do for them? Soon enough, I came up with an idea.

“Clena, Clena, hold on a minute.”

“What is it?”

“Lend me your ear for a moment. I just thought of something.”

“What?” Clena crept toward me, and I whispered my idea into her ear. “I see. That might work?”

“Really? You like my idea?”

“I have no problems with it! How about you?”

“Why would I complain at this stage?”

“Guess you have a point. In that case, we might as well try it.”

And so, my sinister plot succeeded. Well, it wasn’t that sinister, I guess.

Clena turned to Roni with a big grin on her face. “Roni, listen to what Touya has to say.”

“O-okay!” Roni did as she was told and hurriedly adjusted her posture.

I stared across from me to Roni’s face, then looked at Clena’s poker face, and began to speak. “Roni, Clena, I want you to become my new party members. But forget all that talk about risking your lives for the time being. We okay so far?”

“That’s fine with me. I won’t forget the two lives you saved, though.”

“Me either!” Roni added.

I knew I couldn’t do away with all the ‘debt’ talk, since it would infringe on Clena and Roni’s pride, so first I wanted Roni to agree to become my party member, just as planned. “And Clena is your master, right, Roni?”

“Yes!” Roni said with a happy smile. They were master and servant, but I could tell that Roni really admired Clena.

“But I think Clena wants to be a little friendlier with you, Roni.”

“Y-yes...” The smile on Roni’s face quickly changed into a depressed frown. She was so easy to read.

It seemed as if Roni wouldn’t be able to relax unless she knew that someone was a higher rank than her. This came from her lycaon blood, which made it a difficult problem to fix – but it also gave me the chance to try one specific strategy.

“Roni, you and Clena owe your lives to me,” I said.

“Huh? Oh, yes. Of course.”

As I watched how nervous Roni looked, I continued. I felt a little guilty, as if I was bullying her a little, but Clena had already given me permission, so that was my excuse. “Our other party member, Rulitora, is my raver. With that in mind, who do you think has the highest rank within our group? Who’s the party leader?”

“That’s... you, Sir Touya.”

“Well then, as your leader, I have an order for you. From now on, I want you to act like Clena’s friend.”

“Got it, Roni?” Clena grinned. She looked really satisfied.

Roni looked as if she’d been taken by surprise, but once she understood what was going on, a smile rose to her face, and she answered with enthusiasm. “Okay!”

When Clena heard that reply, her face began to sparkle. Roni’s lycaon instincts had been the only reason why she acted like a servant. In the end, she personally thought of Clena as a friend, too. “Roni, from here on out, we’re going to be friends, not master and servant,” said Clena. “I’m looking forward to it!”

“Yes, Lady Clena!” Roni was still referring to Clena in the same way, but her attitude seemed to have become a lot softer.

Just looking at the ecstatic grin on Clena’s face made me pretty happy, too. She must have been overjoyed. Lycaons sensed out ranks within groups and obeyed the leader. Therefore, Roni had instinctively treated Clena as her leader. That’s why I figured all we needed was someone to stand at a higher rank than Clena. In other words, me – the one who’d saved both of their lives. I’d simply become the leader of the party, while Roni could go on being Clena’s raver. I had hoped that deceiving Roni’s instinctive loyalty might be all we needed in order to get her to act friendlier. It may have seemed like I was trying to gain control of Roni for myself, but Clena had given me permission without a second thought. Perhaps because she’d been disowned, Clena had no real hang-ups about this sort of thing, but whether or not she could become equal friends with Roni was very important to her.

“If you’re planning to use our debt as an excuse to steal Roni from me, then I’d say no, but you won’t do that, right, Touya? We’re going to stay together, aren’t we?”

“Of course. I have a conscience, you know.”

“Then I have no problems with this. Not when it comes to you, Touya!” Clena said with a smile.

“Thank you so much, Sir Touya.” Roni nodded her head deeply.

The problem now was whether or not I’d be able to accept this situation – but I’d already given up on worrying. Rulitora and I were basically like boss and employee by that point anyway. Rulitora didn’t keep track of his exact age, but he was apparently over 30, and when we stood together we looked just like an adult and a child, so it was hard for me to look at him as a friend. After all, Rulitora had already gotten married and had children. Unfortunately, they’d died in the battle with the sandworm, which had been one of the reasons why he decided to sell himself as a raver. This was part of why we eventually fell into a boss and co-worker relationship. If anything, it was closest to how a loyal retainer would act toward the young lord he served. I just had to be careful that I didn’t become a stupid young lord.

“Remember, I had no problems accepting Rulitora’s demeanor,” I added.

“Is this pretty much how you were treated in your other world, too?” Clena asked.

“No way!” I laughed. I’d been born into a run-of-the-mill family, so I answered her honestly. “I’m going to become the kind of man that Rulitora will be proud to serve. I’m ready to grow.”

I’d vowed to get stronger in order to bathe with Haruno and the others, but this basically meant the same thing. I had to rise up to that sort of status somehow, or else I’d never be able to bathe with everyone.

“With that goal in mind, this is nothing. And if it solves your problem too, Clena, then that’s the icing on top of the cake.”

“Icing... cake?”

“It means I couldn’t be happier.”

Sometimes, there were phrases that didn’t get translated through the Goddess of Light’s blessing, which caused some problems. The nuances of certain sayings and idioms could be translated, but it didn’t ensure that everything always made sense, so one needed to be careful. If there was an idiom that matched up in this world, it’d just get translated into that, but if there was no applicable idiom, it’d just get translated as-is using this world’s language. For example, proper nouns such as monster names and people’s names like Clena and Roni were simply transmitted to me as sounds, without being translated. Another drawback was how it allowed me to read and write, but since I wasn’t used to writing in this language, it took me a lot of time to get anything done. There were a lot of people in this world who couldn’t read or write, so just being able to understand it gave me more than enough ability, but still.

Anyway, the next thing I knew, Clena was staring straight at me with an ear-to-ear grin. She looked really happy. When I thought back and recalled how she’d been so worried about Roni despite being on the verge of collapsing due to her burns, I realized just what a good person she was. I couldn’t understand what kind of noble family would want to disown a girl like this. She didn’t seem too worried about it, though, so I figured it’d be a bad idea for me to touch upon it. Besides, thanks to her family, I’d gotten both Clena and Roni as new party members, so I decided to be thankful instead.

Here, I’d like to give a little analysis of how I thought I appeared to Clena and Roni. I was a suspicious man who traveled with a sand lizardman. They’d had no other choice but to go inside a tent with me, with no idea of what I was planning to do to them, but to their surprise, I’d helped them. I even healed all their burns, which might have scarred them for the rest of their lives. I may have appeared a bit conceited, but I hope they found some charm, or even some “gap moe” in my personality. Either way, I was grateful that Clena and Roni had come to trust me.

“Speaking of which, have you and Roni always traveled together, Clena?” I asked.

“We found several people who said they’d join us on the road from Junopolis to here, but Lady Clena said we couldn’t trust any of them,” Roni answered.

“They were all more or less brigands. Don’t tell me you actually thought they could be trusted, Roni?”

“They were suspicious,” Roni said bluntly. Her lycaon blood also gave an extremely good sense of smell, just like a wolf’s. “But you smell really good, Sir Touya!”

“Oh, thanks. I bet it’s all thanks to the Unlimited Bath.”

Apparently, I smelled good. It probably had something to do with the fact that I used soap from the Unlimited Bath to keep myself clean. As usual, my gift came in handy in the weirdest places.

“There was also the problem of whether or not we could mention anything about the desert kingdom,” Clena added.

Since all history of the desert kingdom had been erased from the entire Olympus Alliance, searching for it had become something akin to sticking one’s nose into a taboo subject. Since I was interested in the desert kingdom as the birthplace of the demon lord, and I seemed trustworthy, they’d gotten a good enough impression to ignore the fact that they barely knew me. Basically, it was like they’d found someone with the same interests. I could understand that – especially when I thought about how we were all heretical believers of the same myth. In the end, I also felt like I’d be able to get along well with Clena.

“Now, about the bath...” she spoke up.

“You still want to go on about that? I’m happy to, but are you two sure you’re okay with this?” Clena seemed fine, so I ended up hesitating. “Um, of course, if you just want to use the water, I can dump hot water into the laundry tub as usual.”

But Clena swiftly kicked my proposal right out the window. “Why don’t you just bathe with us?” Of course, as she said this, her cheeks were also turning a violent shade of red.

“Like I said, I didn’t save you so that I could force you to do things like this.” I tried to remind her of that fact.

“I’m not ashamed of a single thing on my body. And you’d prefer to do things this way, right?!” As she spoke, Clena walked toward me and made her declaration right before my eyes. It seemed like she was forcing it out a little.

When I looked straight up at her from my sitting position on the ground, her plump breasts prevented me from seeing her face, but I was sure she looked absolutely triumphant. “...What happened to all that embarrassment you displayed when I was healing you?” I took a jab at her.

In response, Clena rolled her eyes and shoved her face toward me. “A strange man who I’m not sure I can trust, and a man I do trust. Why would I act the same way towards both?”

“Touche.” She was right. Clena had decided to trust me, which is why she was acting this way now.

“I think you have room to grow, but that lack of confidence is really dragging you down. Seems like you’re still at a low level, though, so I guess it can’t be helped.”

“Leave me alone.”

“An otherworlder like you made it this far with only a sand lizardman for company, so I bet you’re not used to traveling with a party. Don’t worry, though, I’ll help you out,” Clena said, with an amused laugh. Honestly, I couldn’t be more grateful. “Besides, this is also a way for me to pay you up front.”

Pay me... for what? I had no idea what she was talking bout.

Then, Clena shot me another grin and went on. “For your growth, and your future.”

“Because I’m a Hero of the Goddess?”

“That’s one reason, but the main one is your magic.”

“Magic? But I can only use basic stuff.”

“You used that basic magic to heal my burns without leaving a single scar, didn’t you? That’s way more amazing than you may think it is.” Clena placed a hand on her chest. She looked sort of happy. “You’ve only just begun studying cleric magic, but how long do you think it usually takes to cast a spell?”

“For Healing Light, it depends on the size of the wound, but it takes less than a minute to summon a light spirit.”

“That’s about average for normal magic. But this past week, you’ve been using your MP for over six hours a day in order to power your gift. And you’re only going to keep on using it that way. Don’t you think that’s incredible?”

“But as long as I don’t overuse it, I feel hardly any physical stress.”

“Yet the fact that you continually use it is enough to enhance your MP. And probably your MEN stat, too. The next time you update your status card, I bet it’s going to look crazy. You got a blessing from the Goddess of Light as well, remember.”

Status cards weren’t convenient enough to display stats in real time, which meant mine currently displayed the stats I’d had before I departed. I thought that the battles I’d taken part in during hunting would enhance my physical stats, but if Clena’s right, then my MP and MEN are going to grow by a lot as well. If the formula was one minute for one spell, then I’d cast 360 spells per day. When I look at it that way, I guess I really have been training myself thoroughly.

“So you’re saying that I’m someone worth betting on?” I asked.

“Adding in the fact that you saved us, and what you discussed with the Torano’o tribe, I believe in you now.”

“That sounds a bit calculating...”

“I don’t know who you’re comparing me to, but I’m just being honest. Besides, I’m sure whoever you’re thinking of must want something from you as well.”

“Want something from me...?”

I was thinking of Haruno, of course. When I looked back on it, it seemed like Rium’s attraction to me came from simple curiosity, while I couldn’t deny that Haruno and I had sought comfort and sanctuary in each other. Sera was so oblivious that I had no idea what she wanted.

Huh. So that’s what she means. All of a sudden, I understood. I’d promised Haruno that we’d bathe once we got stronger, but that strength meant the power to stand up to a threat that ran rampant in this world. Haruno had most likely seen some kind of potential in me, and I’d decided that I wanted to get strong enough to live up to it. Up to this point, I’d only thought vaguely about growing strong enough to fulfill my promise, but thanks to Clena’s words, I was starting to see the concrete details. I wanted to gain the power to survive in this world, and grow strong enough to protect girls. I also wanted to gain success and social status in this world – which meant that I needed to answer to Clena’s expectations and protect her and Roni.

“Okay. Er, I mean, thank you. Thanks to your words, Clena, I’ve gotten a more concrete picture of my goal.”

“I’m glad I could be of help. I’m expecting great things from you.” When she spoke, she sounded slightly relieved.

I stared into her eyes, and she stared right back at me. Despite being disowned, she hadn’t abandoned her pride as a noble. She was a confident woman. In her mind, I guess she trusted in me like one would trust in a good investment. Some people might feel angry at that and call her conniving or calculating, but I didn’t feel that way.

Clena believed that I was going to rise to do great things. If I got angry there, then I was set to fail. Accepting her trust and answering up to it was the right path to take. I needed to feel confident and proud that she trusted me, and do my best not to let her down.

“Okay, I got it. Now, please take this opportunity to tell me exactly what you want from me.” When I said this, Clena beamed. “Okay. It seems like there are some things you don’t understand about this world, so I’ll explain from square one.”

“Please do.”

“I told you about how I was disowned, right? We went on a journey after that, and haven’t belonged to any organization since then. Got it?”

I nodded. If I called her unemployed and homeless here, she’d probably get angry.

“What I want is for you to become a home for us to return to, Touya.”

“In other words, your guardian?”

Clena nodded with solemn eyes. Ever since Clena and Roni were disowned, they’d had to support each other all on their own. They also probably hadn’t been able to find any party members due to the desert kingdom and how it was erased from history. Maybe that had something to do with the reason why they were disowned.

Then I appeared – a Hero of the Goddess who saved their lives and seemed to have some potential for the future. I was also one of the few humans who was willing to help them search for the desert kingdom, which translated to heresy in the Olympus Alliance. No wonder they can’t ignore me. If I was in Clena’s shoes, I’d do anything to try and join my party. There was a very low possibility that they’d make it to the desert kingdom on their own, after all. It was calculating, but it made more sense than assuming she’d fallen in love with me at first sight.

“Still...” I muttered. “Would it be too greedy to ask for a little love as well?”

“Huh? That stuff comes later, right? Besides, at this point, I think I’m already rather fond of you...” Clena replied with a straight face.

It appeared that the philosophy behind love and marriage in this world differed a bit from mine – although I’d heard that things used to be similar to this long ago. Being surrounded by cute girls sounded like the ultimate male fantasy, but I knew that things were never that sweet in reality.

“When you first touched me, I was shocked, but you did save me and all...” Clena said. “And refusing to run and fighting in the last battle gave you a lot of bonus points. It made me feel like I could count on you in a crisis.”

“I was just scared of the guilt I’d feel if I ran, really!”

“Yeah, I’ve grown to look at that as one of your cute points.” Clena smiled mischievously.

“...Well, thanks.” I was so embarrassed that I had to look away from her.

In order to change the subject, I spoke to Roni next. “And what do you want, Roni?”

“Huh? I can say something, too?”

“Of course.”

“Roni, just take him up on his offer,” Clena added.

“Uhhh, umm...” Roni crossed her arms and thought.

Since she’s Clena’s servant, does she always only think of herself as one half of a whole?

Then, Roni’s ears twitched, and she spoke to me in a sweet, childlike voice. “Ummm, please become good friends with me and Lady Clena!”

Oh no. I feel like something hot is going to come gushing out of my nose. She’s just too cute! “...Can I hug you?” I asked.

“Huh? What?”

“Touya will come from the right, and I’ll come from the left.” It turned out that Clena had been thinking the exact same thing.

“Whaaat?!”

We sandwiched Roni, then hugged her as tight as we could and rubbed our cheeks up against hers. At first, Roni looked bewildered, but then her face relaxed, and she started to look happy. She’s so cute.

“Hey, don’t you think it’s about time we took a bath?” After we gave Roni some love, Clena invited me to bathe with her once again. Her cheeks were crimson as usual, and her voice sounded shrill.

Honestly, I was overjoyed at the idea of bathing with her, but I still wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea or not. If I take into account the discussion we just shared, I can see it being a perk they could offer in exchange for my protection. On the other hand, they don’t really have anything else to offer me in the first place... In that case, should I just honestly accept their feelings and be careful not to ask too much of them?

“...Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it. Clena, Roni... I want you to bathe with me!”

I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to bathe with them, and protect them.

“Now those are the eyes I like to see,” Clena said. “Roni, what do you say?”

“Oh, I’ll join in too, of course. Please let me wash your back for you!” With a full-faced grin, Roni wagged her tail and agreed to bathe with us.

She was acting just like a servant, most likely on purpose. Currently, she was clad in a long-sleeved shirt and pants under her armor, but I bet she’d look great in maid clothes. I also thought it’d be nice to put her in a kimono and make her look like a Japanese style inn attendant. She was just so obedient, it almost made me worried – but also made me want to do my best to protect her.

When I looked at Clena, I saw that she was also giving Roni a warm, protective grin. She probably felt the same way I did. When our eyes met, we both showed each other smiles filled with love. In that moment, we completely understood each other. We both needed to do our best to protect Roni.

“But are you sure you’re okay with this, Lady Clena? Lately, your tummy’s gotten a little...”

“No one asked you to mention that!” Clena quickly shouted, red in the face.

“Y-yes ma’am!”

Even though she sounded mad, Clena’s face still looked slightly happy. Roni had probably never taken a jab at her like that before. Either way, I lacked the courage to comment on the situation, so I resigned myself to silently watching them play around.

A few moments later, we entered the Unlimited Bath. Clena and I carried in changes of clothes, while Roni brought in a washboard and a stick of wood. During our travels, bathtime would be the perfect chance to wash clothes. After all, where else would we be able to get so much water at once?

“Huh? What’s this?”

I saw that there was something red in the corner of the changing area, so I went and picked it up. It turned out to be the bright red panties that Clena had been wearing when I’d healed her burns. Apparently, she’d forgotten to put them back on, and since I’d only been using the Unlimited Bath to take out water and soap, I hadn’t noticed them either.

“Hey! Give those back!”

Clena was fine with bathing together, but this seemed to be too embarrassing. Red in the face once more, she pulled them out of my hands. She tried to hide the panties behind her back, but I wasn’t going to have any of this.

“Hold on now, Clena. Show me those panties once more!”

“What?! But...”

“Why did you leave those in here?!”

“...Huh?” Clena looked absolutely dumbfounded.

“Up until now, I’ve always made sure there was nothing left in here before I closed the door.”

“Uhh... Why?”

“All the hot water I drain out goes back to my MP pool. If you left your panties here, it might have gotten converted to my MP as well.”

“Um... That’s, uh...” I could understand how awkward it made her feel. I’m not even sure how I felt about someone’s panties becoming my MP. I didn’t understand how it really worked, but I’d always made sure never to leave anything inside other than what was originally there, so I’d actually just performed an impromptu experiment with her panties.

“Hmm, judging by how stretched they are, I’m positive they’re Lady Clena’s panties.” Roni’s appraisal confirmed that the panties were indeed Clena’s.

“Don’t call them stretched!” It appeared that both her butt and her boobs were both right in the middle of a growth spurt.

“...I’m sure we’ve all got a lot on our mind now, but how about we just get in the bath already?” I suggested.

“Yeah. By all means, let’s go.” Clena was probably just happy to see us stop talking about her panties, so she agreed with an exasperated face.

First, Roni took off her clothes without any hesitation. I stared at her body from head to toe. Even though she was a lycaon, her nails didn’t look very sharp. Lycaons had tails, but they didn’t put holes in their pants, and instead had a string attached to a notch in their tail that they used to tie it around their waists. When she undid her belt, I noticed that she was wearing low-rise panties. Apparently in this world, low-rise panties were popular since they didn’t put pressure on the abdomen. They also didn’t get in the way of tails, which was a merit that only existed in a fantasy world like this.

“Sir Touya, Lady Clena, I’m naked now!” Roni stood proudly in her birthday suit, without hiding a bit. At this point, it was just refreshing to see someone as open as her.

Despite the fact that Rium had looked small for her age, she’d been rather mature psychologically. In contrast, Roni was the same age as Clena, yet stood a bit shorter. Her boobs weren’t large, but they were certainly protruding to a healthy degree. Her waist was thin, her butt small, and her form looked perfectly curvy for a woman her age. She also had long, slender legs. In other words, she looked physically normal for her age, but seemed a little bit childish on the inside.

Either way, she was a sight for sore eyes. When I tousled her thick, shaggy hair, she squinted as if it felt good and accepted my hand. I could directly feel how she admired me, and her smile looked so radiant. She was just so cute, I couldn’t resist gently patting her on the head once more.

“Huh? Lady Clena, is something wrong?” Roni asked.

Clena was still fidgeting around, and hadn’t taken off her clothes yet. She had seemed fine until we got inside, but perhaps us talking about her body had made her more self-conscious than usual.

When Clena noticed my eyes on her, she blushed and timidly asked me something. “Hey, Touya. Can I ask you a question?”

“What?”

“Do you think I’m... fat?” Her solemn eyes told me just how worried she was.

I decided to answer honestly. “I think your plump body is really sexy.”

“Umm...”

“No, I’m being serious.”

Clena looked a little miffed, but I really was serious. It was true that compared to Roni’s compact body and girlish features, Clena seemed plumper overall – I wasn’t about to deny that – but the curve of her waist and her thick body made her overflow with voluptuous charm. I simply thought it’d be rude to call someone like her ‘fat.’ After all, if she was truly fat, she wouldn’t have been able to travel all the way from Junopolis in the north down to the wasteland. Her body had to be well-trained, especially when you considered how it was able to support her bursting breasts so well. She didn’t look muscular, though – rather, soft and feminine. That was yet another one of her miracles.

“...I guess that’s the gist of how I feel. What do you think?”

As I finished my passionate monologue, Clena stood frozen, her face a fiery red. It seemed like she didn’t know what to say, but I had just done my best to answer her question honestly, so I hoped she’d cut me some slack.

Finally, as if she couldn’t take it anymore, she let out a bellow. “F-fine! I’ll get naked! Go on, look all you want!!”

As she energetically pulled off her top, her breasts revealed themselves with a large jiggle, enshrouded by a slip and an orange bra. Next, she took off her pants, allowing view of her voluminous butt and panties of the same color. Her skin was so white that her veins stood out, so it seemed that she preferred colored underwear, and had several differently-colored sets.

“Well?!” In her undies, Clena crossed her arms and proudly revealed herself to me. She was clearly doing it in order to hide how embarrassed she was, and it felt a bit forced. “More importantly, why are you still in your clothes? Hurry up and strip!!”

When Clena yelled at me with her bright red face, I realized at last that I was still clothed as well.

“Allow me to help you, Sir Touya,” said Roni.

“Oh, no, I’ll be fine. I can take off my clothes on my own.”

Since I’d never had anyone help me undress before, the idea made me feel childish and embarrassed more than anything else. Rulitora and I helped each other put on armor since it was impossible to do on our own, but those were two different things. Roni looked at me in disappointment, but I withstood her eyes and took off my clothes. But maybe someday, when I become a successful hero, stuff like that will become commonplace in my life...

Clena and I finished undressing at about the same time. Whether my words had helped her regain her confidence, or whether she’d simply given up caring, she was standing proudly with her hands on her hips, as if she had nothing to be ashamed of. Her face was red, though – which meant that she was embarrassed after all. Still, I couldn’t get over how huge she was. Before I knew it, I was entranced in her–

“Sorry, but I think you should wear a towel after all. Both of you.”

Realizing the impending crisis within me, I asked them to both wear towels – as I made sure to imprint their gorgeous bodies in my mind. I could easily imagine how things would go if we all decided to bathe naked together: I’d be too busy trying to stay calm to enjoy anything.

“F-fine. Here, Roni, put this on.” Clena was acting disappointed, but she looked relieved.

“Okay.”

I knew Clena had been forcing down her embarrassment. As I saw how obviously more cheerful Clena had become, I realized I had made the right decision, and tied my own towel around my waist. Now, we were finally ready to enter the bath.

Once I entered the bath with my towel on, I explained how to use the faucet, shower, soap, and shampoo. Clena and Roni had nothing but bath towels on as well, so it was pretty exciting, but I did my best to stay calm and explain things properly. People in this world knew how to use soap and towels, but everything else was completely new to them.

“I know how to use the soap, but not the shampoo...” That’s what Clena had told me when I lent them shampoo and soap a week ago. My soap was similar to the kind they had here, but they’d never seen a liquid like my shampoo, so I understood why they reacted that way.

“How about I wash both of your hair, and you learn how to use it that way?” I asked.

“...Okay,” Clena said.

“I’ll go first then, Lady Clena,” Roni said with a solemn face, then sat down on the stool.

She probably felt like she was about to become my guinea pig. It wasn’t anything that scary, but since it was a first time experience for her, I could understand how she felt.

“Do lycaons have higher body temperatures than humans?” I asked.

“I don’t think theirs is that different. Why?” Clena asked.

“Just wanted to be sure about the shower temperature.”

Usually, it was best to set the shower temperature just a bit higher than body temperature when washing one’s head, so I used the panel to raise it a bit. Then, I sat behind Roni, while Clena sat next to me on the edge of the tub. The bath was cramped, so there was no room to put any space between us. I told Clena to watch so she could learn, but she seemed really embarrassed, and would only give me a glance every now and then. That only made me more embarrassed.

I tried to regain my senses and looked at Roni’s custard cream-colored hair, only to realize how much of it there was. It went down to her waist, but the sheer volume of it was incredible, and the fact that she was so skinny only made it seem like there was even more. On top of that, it was so frizzy that I’d be lying if I called it anything but unkempt. Her hair was wild and unruly.

“First, you need to wet the hair,” I said.

“Okay!”

I let out some more warm water and wet her hair. Roni smiled, enjoying the feeling as warm water spilled all over her. When I was a kid, I’d helped my friend give his big long-haired dog a bath over at his house, and this sort of reminded me of that. Roni’s beast ears sat right where a human’s ears would have been, and a fluffy wolf tail extended out from her butt and slipped right through the gap in her towel. Clena had probably adjusted it for her. Even though I was focused on Roni’s hair, I hadn’t forgotten about her ears or her tail. When I let the shower wet her tail, Roni flinched, as if it felt ticklish.

“Does it always pour out warm water at the same temperature? Wow...” Clena marveled as she looked between the shower and the control panel.

I had never really thought about it, but this was much more than a rare curiosity to people from this world. Since there was so much, it took me a while, but I finally managed to wet all of Roni’s hair, then turned off the shower.

“Hmm. Your hair feels damaged. We’ll have to start with the treatment product.”

Since Roni’s hair was damaged, I first put some treatment on the hair that went down her back, then lightly, gently massaged it in.

“What are you doing?” Clena asked.

“This treatment product helps to beautify damaged hair. Normally, people use it after shampoo, but when you wash long hair, it’s better to massage this into the damaged hair first.”

“Hmm... So it isn’t soap, huh?” Clena studied the treatment bottle. I guess it was more like a nutrient supplement than soap.

“Now for the shampoo. Roni, close your eyes tight. If the bubbles get in your eyes, it’ll hurt.”

When I spoke to her, Roni snapped back to reality and smiled. “Oh, so it’s just like soap! Okay!”

As she spoke, Roni’s tail moved and tickled my stomach. Clena and I looked at each other and snickered, then I put some shampoo on my hand and lathered it on Roni’s head. Instead of using my nails, I made sure to use the balls of my fingers to massage it in and wash the scalp rather than the hair. The same went for her ears and tail. When I touched her ears, Roni let out a cute squeal.

“Okay, now wait a minute with the lather on your head.”

“This sure takes a lot of time...” Clena said.

Afterwards, I added some water and used my hands to gently wash the suds off, then finished it off with some treatment based on how damaged her hair felt. Roni’s hair seemed to really be suffering, so I went with a full course.

Once I finished washing her hair, I had to gently take care of her wet hair. In other words, there could be no rubbing or massaging – I needed to not ‘wipe’ her hair off, but rather ‘absorb the moisture’ from it. We were going to soak in the tub after this, so I lightly absorbed as much moisture as I could, then wrapped a towel around her hair so no more water could get into it. Since she had so much hair, it looked funnier than it should have.

“H-how does it feel?” Clena asked curiously.

“Phew...” Roni had gotten so relaxed that she couldn’t answer.

It seemed like she’d really enjoyed it, so I made a little fist pump behind her. That was all it took for Clena to figure out how this would proceed. She stiffened her red face and gave me a look as if she had something to say to me.

“It’s your turn next, Clena,” I said. “But at this rate, it looks like Roni won’t be able to learn anything...”

“Can we just worry about teaching her next time? I want to wash my hair too, you know,” she replied.

“Sure. Okay then, Roni, come over here and take Clena’s spot.”

When I sat Roni down on the edge of the tub, it looked like she was just going to fall backwards, so I moved her behind me. Once she sat down, Roni drooped over and nuzzled up against my back. She had turned to mush. It was cute, and I was glad to feel her up against my back, so I silently let her do as she pleased.

“Seems like it’ll be easy to wash your hair, Clena.”

“Roni just has too much.”

“True.”

As we talked, I started to wash Clena’s hair. It only went down to her shoulders, so it didn’t take much time. When I touched it, I realized it wasn’t as damaged as Roni’s had been, so I decided conditioner would be the best thing to use. Boy am I glad I decided to make her wear a towel. If she was naked right now, I’d probably be too embarrassed to act so calm.

I followed the proper steps and gently washed Clena’s silver hair. All I need to do is make sure I don’t look down, and I’ll be fine. Towels become surprisingly transparent when they get wet...

“Hey,” Clena said, as I finished applying the conditioner and started to wash her hair.

“Wh-what?”

She didn’t seem as entranced as Roni had been, but her cheeks were flushed. “Can I wash your hair too, Touya?”

“To practice?”

She glanced at me and gave me a small nod.

I couldn’t deny that my hair would make the perfect practice dummy. “Okay then, please do.”

With that, I switched places with Clena. Roni was still out of it, so I made her sit cross-legged in front of me when I sat down on the stool. It was so adorable how she nuzzled her body up against me.

I doubt you all want to read about a guy getting his hair washed, so I’ll skip that part. Clena was so focused on washing my hair properly that she’d push her body against me until her boobs touched my back, then pull away, over and over. Even though I couldn’t see her face, I could tell how panicked it was making her, which was really cute.

Unfortunately, I had nothing to teach them in regards to washing the body. Clena and Roni were surprised to see how well my soap lathered up, but aside from that, everything went the same as it did in their world.

First, Roni washed Clena’s back. They both looked like they were playing, and seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Of course, they had to remove their towels in order to wash their bodies, and in that respect, I was thankful that the soap lathered so well.

Clena finished washing her body first, so she put her towel back on and entered the tub. When she submerged herself, excess water gushed over the top. It was a small tub, so it was to be expected.

Suddenly, Clena blushed, as if she’d finally noticed that I’d been staring at her with a toothy grin the entire time. Then, she used both hands to splash some hot water in my direction. I acted irritated, but I was secretly enjoying it deep down, of course.

“You’re next, Sir Touya!” Roni waved with a smile.

Apparently, she was going to wash my back for me. Obviously I had no reason to decline, so I switched places with Clena and sat down in front of Roni.

After she washed my back, Roni got into the bath, which was too small for all three of us to enter at once. In other words, I had to wash the rest of my body on my own as the two of them soaked in the tub. I noticed that Clena kept shyly glancing at me, despite the fact that I’d removed my towel in order to wash my body. Of course, I’d stared intently at both of them the entire time they washed each other, so I couldn’t exactly blame her.

After I took my time washing myself, I switched places with Roni. Just so you know, I wasn’t really happy to expose myself to them. I’d only taken my time in order to give Roni time to warm up.

Clena seemed to want to soak for a bit longer, so I sat down next to her. Meanwhile, Roni picked up the washboard and stick and started washing the laundry. We’d taken turns soaking during my experiments at the temple, so it was my first time sitting in the tub with someone else. It really did feel cramped. Roni was slim, so she and Clena probably had been a good fit, but my male physique and Clena’s thick body left us with no choice but to nudge up against each other.

In the end, Clena and I pushed our backs up to opposing sides of the tub and sat across from each other. There wasn’t enough space for us to stretch out our legs, so I opened mine while Clena sat between them.

Clena... I understand that you might be too embarrassed to look me in the face, or maybe you don’t want me to look you in the face, but either way... Just don’t look down! I’m doing the best I can to withstand this, okay?

On top of that, Clena’s arms were pushing her boobs up and creating some incredible cleavage.

“C-can’t you do anything about how cramped this is?” she asked.

“It’s always been this size... This is how big private baths are back where I live.”

“Private baths? Just how rich are you people?”

“Well, I don’t know about other countries, but it’s pretty normal to own one in mine. I’ve also been using shampoo since I was a kid, you know?”

“No wonder you’re so used to this... Your world sounds amazing.”

As we spoke, it reminded me how I was still living in another world, despite the fact that I was bathing in a very familiar place. Clena’s silver hair and Roni’s custard cream-colored hair were both sights I rarely saw back home.

“I wonder if gifts grow?” I asked. “You know, like levels and stats.”

“They probably do, based on personal growth.”

“Oh. Well, it doesn’t seem like this will ever be useful in battle regardless of how much I grow, so I wish I could at least figure out a way to make it a little more comfy.”

“Yeah, I wish that the three of us could at least fit...” Clena looked to Roni. I followed her eyes and saw Roni happily beating clothes with her wooden stick. She seemed to be a fan of the beating wash style. It was heartwarming to watch, but perhaps because I was born in modern Japan, it seemed really inconvenient how we didn’t have a washing machine.

“Either way, watching her sure soothes the heart...”

As soon as I made a dopey face, Clena glared at me. “She’s mine. You’re the party leader, Touya, but I’m Roni’s master, and don’t you forget it.”

Clena had given me the seat of party leader and allowed me to become the new target of Roni’s instinctual loyalty, but she wasn’t prepared to let me have Roni herself. I understood exactly how she felt. But I wasn’t the type to just shut up and back down, so I replied to Clena with an honest declaration. “Don’t worry. Eventually, it won’t matter, since you’ll be all mine, too.”

“...I’m expecting great things of you,” Clena said, as she bashfully averted her gaze.

Now that I had bathed with them, Clena was expecting great things from me in return. I needed to take proper responsibility, as a man.

After we got out of the bath, we spread a big cloth on the floor and got ready to go to sleep. The cloth wasn’t very thick, but since the ground was close to sand, it didn’t hurt our backs. Lizardmen’s tails got in the way if they tried to sleep facing up, so they all slept face down and curled up. But we didn’t need to go that far – the three of us were going to line up in a row and sleep side by side.

Up until yesterday, Clena and Roni had belonged to a different group than me, but since we were an official party now, I’d wanted us to try sleeping together. We fought a bit over who got to sleep in the middle, but in the end, Roni won out. The fight for the middle had started between Clena and I, but in the end, Roni seemed really excited for the chance, so we decided to relinquish it to her. We also used some thin string that Clena had in her things to hang up the laundry inside the tent.

As I watched Roni hum and happily hang up the red, orange, and two white pieces of underwear, I asked Clena a question. “Do you always hang up laundry at night?”

“What, you want to hang it up during the daytime and just sit there and wait for it?”

I looked down at her. “...Oh, I see.”

I thought that hanging up laundry under the sun was the best way to dry it, but travelers were busy traveling during the daytime. And it’s not like they could use their underwear as a flag or something.

“People only do proper laundry like that in towns. If you happened to find an abandoned hut, I guess you could rest there for a few days and do it there.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“What did you do on your way here from Jupiter?”

“It took us a day to reach the mountains from Jupiter, then a day to get over the mountains, then another day to reach the wasteland and the monster horde.”

Clena couldn’t believe her ears. “Wh-what a crazy schedule...”

Even though it had been necessary in order to save the Torano’o tribe, I thought it had been crazy as well. Incidentally, the Torano’o tribe left their laundry to the wives of the settlement. Normally, they only washed those skimpy loincloths they wore, so they weren’t really used to heavy laundry, but since the loincloth was a durable piece of clothing made for travel, they didn’t have to worry about them getting torn or anything.

“Don’t you know about the spot where the Torano’o tribe hangs all their loincloths?” I asked.

“No, I always just followed you whenever you walked around.”

Now that she mentioned it, I realized that I’d left my laundry to the female lizardmen as well, and I’d never actually gone there myself. Since Clena had always stayed with me, there was no way she’d know about it. “I’d hesitate about hanging up laundry right outside of the tent,” Clena said, “but maybe a place like that would work.”

“Okay then, I’ll guide you there first thing in the morning. That way, it should all dry before lunch.”

“Figures, with this climate...” The sun was really strong in these parts.

“I’m all done!” Roni called out.

“Thanks for the hard work, Roni,” I said.

Once she finished hanging up the laundry, Roni came over to us and sat down on the cloth. Her tail was swishing amicably.

With our preparations finished, we decided to go to sleep. When I looked up at the ceiling, I could see Clena’s bra hanging in the tent and the stars in the night sky behind it. It made me feel a little embarrassed, so I rolled over on my side. Roni was already sleeping soundly in the middle, and when I looked beyond her, my eyes met with Clena, who had also rolled over onto her side. Oh no, this is way more embarrassing.

“Why did you roll over, too?!” she whispered.

“I just felt like I might remember what the thing hanging from the ceiling usually hides...”

“Urk... Never mind. Just turn the other way.” I couldn’t see her face anymore, but I guessed it was red.

With my back to the two of them, I tried to stay still. I was still a bit nervous, and I wasn’t as tired as either of them, so I had trouble getting to sleep.

Then, I heard Clena whisper from behind me. “Hey, Touya...” As I was deciding whether or not I should turn around before I answered, she kept going. “Uhh... Take good care of us from tomorrow on, okay?”

I sensed a bit of a bashful tone in her relaxed voice. I wonder what sort of face she’s making? The moment that thought came to me, I rolled around and looked at her.

“J-just keep looking the other way...”

“No, I wanted to see your face...” I found myself unable to continue my sentence. I hadn’t thought about what I’d do after I looked at her.

As I tried to figure out why we were staring at each other, Roni grabbed both of our hands and pulled them toward her chest, so that all three of us were holding hands in a semi-hug.

“We need to all get along...” Roni said with a dopey grin. It seemed like she was talking in her sleep.

I slid my hand ahead a little and interlocked my fingers with Clena’s. Once I did that, she moved her hand toward me and gripped mine in return. This time when we stared at each other, we both had soft smiles on our faces. It felt pretty good.

With our hands connected, we went to sleep, watching each other under the slivers of moonlight that slipped in through the tent.

Maius’ assault had been an unexpected twist, and they’d told me it’d be okay for me to run away. I was glad that I’d stayed and fought, though.

Outside the tent, I could hear the Torano’o tribe enjoying their banquet. Clena looked at peace, while Roni was happily asleep. I would have lost all of this if I’d chosen to run away. I’m so glad I managed to scrounge up what little courage I had back there.

Then, something caught my eye – beyond Roni’s modest mounds, upon which my hand currently sat, I could see Clena’s bountiful cleavage, nestled right underneath her head. I’d frantically put on a bath towel so I didn’t have to experience the torture of holding back in her presence, but maybe I had been a little too hasty. No, this is bad. I still have so many more people to bathe with: Haruno, Sera, Rium, and all the other beautiful women I have yet to meet. In order to do that, there are things I need to acquire. To protect the women of this world, I need power, status, and fame. And more than anything, I need the mental fortitude to withstand bathing towel-less with a girl! I know what I’m aiming for... Yes... That massive bath I once dreamed about... As I stared at Clena’s white breasts and reaffirmed my resolve, I closed my eyes and descended into slumber.