Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension: The Hero of the Unlimited Bath

by Nagaharu Hibihana

  “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 th
eir 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.