I could create a door to the Unlimited Bath anywhere nearby me, but once it appeared, I was unable to go very far from it. If the door was left open and I tried to walk away, I’d eventually run into some sort of invisible wall.
“Okay,” Clena said. “Just as long as I don’t have to walk on the dirt.”
“Oh, right. Sure, make yourself at home.” Since she was barefoot, Clena didn’t seem to want to change on the ground.
Then, Roni crept near and looked up to me. “Um, Sir Touya. I’d like to change her into these clothes, if possible...”
“Okay, just hurry it up. You know, you should change too, Roni.”
“Er, are you sure you don’t want to check them?”
She must have thought I’d want to check to see if there was anything hidden in the clothes. I figured that if she was bringing it up herself, things would be fine.
“Honestly, at this point I pretty much trust you two. And besides, if you are planning something, remember that I have a very reliable bodyguard with me,” I said, pointing to Rulitora. The only reason I’d gathered up their weapons and luggage wasn’t really because I was trying to be cautious against them, but more because I wanted to be considerate of the lizardmen. “Th-thank you very much!” Roni bowed her head, then took the clothes to Clena.
As I watched her gallantly run off, I sat next to Rulitora with our backs facing the Unlimited Bath, so that we wouldn’t see anything. Yes, it seemed a little late for this, but oh well.
“We’re done now.” After a bit, I heard a voice and turned around to see Clena and Roni standing in fresh new clothes. They were both wearing deep navy long sleeve shirts and pants, similar to the clothes they’d been wearing under their armor earlier. Since the color of the clothes was so plain, it only made Roni’s bright custard cream-colored hair stand out even more.
“Now then, sit down over there and tell me what’s going on with you,” I said, motioning to a cloth I’d laid on the ground that was big enough for both of them.
The blanket that Roni had been using got wet during the heatstroke treatment, so I’d moved it into the corner. Once the two girls sat down on the new cloth, I sat cross-legged in front of them on my own, while Rulitora sat behind me to my right. Since they lived in tents with open floors, they were used to sitting directly on the ground.
“Allow me to thank you once more. If it hadn’t been for you two, Roni and I wouldn’t have made it. Thank you so much.” Clena sat up straight and bowed her head deeply. She seemed to know exactly how to be perfectly polite.
Roni also thanked me and bowed her head. She was just full of energy, and her smile looked cute.
“Seems like you’re both okay now. I’m glad you recovered so quickly.” When I said that, the girls raised their heads. Their faces were both full of color now.
Since Clena had been wearing metal armor, she’d been worse off than Roni, but the pain from the burns hadn’t caused her to fall unconscious. Not only that, but she was currently surrounded by a man and a bunch of lizardmen. She acted tough, but I imagined that she was experiencing stormy weather on the inside. That’s why I was so happy to see that the two were in high spirits again.
Now that I looked at her, I could tell Clena wasn’t pushing herself to appear a certain way. She trusted us, and was opening her heart to us, and that made me happier than anything else. As I continued to look at her from the front, my eyes couldn’t help but slide down to her plump thighs. Then, remembering how Haruno had caught me looking at her breasts, I quickly averted my gaze – and ended up looking Clena straight in the eyes. She was blushing, and looked like she wanted to say something. Did I just get caught again?
I decided to cover for myself by beginning the conversation. “So, what were you doing in the void? I traveled there for a reason, but what about you?”
“...Don’t laugh, okay?” Clena said.
“I’ll do my best.”
Roni looked worried as she watched Clena. Is their reason really that weird?
“I was heading for the desert kingdom,” Clena answered.
“That thing in the center of the southern desert?” I asked.
“...You’re not going to laugh?” Clena asked with a worried face.
I cocked my head, trying to figure out why she was so worried, and then I remembered. Even the people at the temple had said the stories about the desert kingdom were hard to believe, and treated them like superstition. To people in this world, ‘looking for the desert kingdom’ probably equated to something like ‘looking for cryptids’ in my world.
“Umm, Lady Clena,” Roni said, looking a bit flustered. “Since Sir Touya was summoned, perhaps he doesn’t know about the desert kingdom?”
“No, I know about it.”
“You do?!” When I quickly answered, Roni turned to me in surprise. Her tail was puffed up again – it seemed like that happened whenever she got surprised.
“Remember, I told you that I came here to save the Torano’o tribe. I knew where they were located, so I did a little research on the void.”
“Ohhh...” Roni’s beast ears twitched as an impressed look passed over her face. She had a childish charm to her, but it was different from Rium’s.
“If I were to laugh, it’d be at the fact that you crossed the wasteland in metal armor without even preparing a desert/wasteland-customized overcoat.”
“Urk... G-give us a break! We didn’t know it was going to be this hot!” Clena argued with a heated face.
I felt like there was a difference in the amount of knowledge the average person possessed in this world, versus my world. For example, I’d never actually been to the desert, but I’d seen it multiple times on TV. In this world, people could only learn things from word of mouth or books, and the rest was left up to their imagination.
“...I’m grateful to you,” Clena said, as she averted her eyes in embarrassment. “To the lizardmen who saved our lives and carried us all the way here... And to you, who saved my womanhood.”
She must have been talking about the burns on her boobs. They looked so amazingly big and plump, I couldn’t help but feel proud that I’d managed to fully restore their curvaceous splendor. As these thoughts ran through my head, Clena started blushing and staring at me again, so I decided to get back to the topic at hand.
“A-anyway, I’m not going to laugh at the fact that you were looking for the desert kingdom. I actually think it sounds pretty adventurous.”
“...Oh. Thanks.” Clena and Roni looked so sweet as they displayed their relief.
I went on. “But now that I’ve heard what you’re after, I’m afraid I can’t let you go any further.” I stared at Clena as I said this, and she stared back with a grave look on her face. Meanwhile, Roni glanced nervously between Clena and I.
“...Because we aren’t prepared well enough?” Clena asked.
“That’s one reason why, but it’s because I know exactly what sort of situation this desert is in right now.” This time, I glanced at Rulitora.
“Rulitora, tell them about the sandworm that attacked the reservoir.”
“I see. Of course.”
Rulitora figured out exactly where I was heading with this, so he turned to Clena and Roni and told them about the sandworm that had attacked the Torano’o tribe’s lifeline. He also left out no details about the many warriors who had died fighting the monster.
As they listened, Clena and Roni’s faces stiffened. Roni squeezed her hands into fists on top of her knees and grit her teeth in a frightened expression, while her tail flopped weakly onto the floor.
“Apparently, there are other monsters as well, like the giant scorpions,” I said, as Rulitora smacked his armor. When they looked at the carapace that covered his body, I wanted them to imagine how big the original monster had been. “Heat worse than the wasteland, and powerful monsters. Do you really think you could make it through there alone, regardless of how well you’re prepared?”
“W-well...”
�
�Lady Clena...” Roni worriedly glanced at Clena, who was at a loss for words and staring downwards.
“There’s also the basic question of whether or not the desert kingdom actually exists. Wandering around a desert looking for legendary ruins is a recipe for suicide.”
“I-it does exist! I’m sure of it!” Clena shot her head up and retorted loudly.
“If you’re that sure, then do you have any proof? The people at the temple in Jupiter said they hadn’t found any.”
“Well... That’s because it was erased. The desert kingdom was completely erased from existence.”
“...What do you mean?” I asked, and Clena looked away awkwardly. She seemed to be hesitating about whether or not it was okay to tell me.
“Lady Clena...” Roni murmured worriedly.
Clena gave her a small smile, then turned back to me with determined eyes. “Well, I do owe my life to you... And besides, Touya, it’s connected to you as well.”
“Connected to me?” I retorted in confusion. Clena gave me a mysterious nod. “The desert kingdom truly did exist, but it was erased from history.”
So it wasn’t that records hadn’t been left – they had just been completely erased. No wonder the people at the temple hadn’t been able to come up with anything. The question now was why it was erased from history, and what it had to do with me. Luckily, what Clena said next completely answered all of that.
“The demon lord and the demon race were born in the desert kingdom.”
That’s right. According to Clena, the desert kingdom used to belong to the demon lord. It was also the site of the final battle between the demon lord and the first sacred king.
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 w
as 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!”
Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension: The Hero of the Unlimited Bath Page 15