Pre-Bath – Prologue
Let me introduce myself again. My name is Touya Houjou. People who knew the kanji for my name would often say it sounded “cold.” My name had the kanji for “north,” “winter,” and “night,” so I couldn’t deny it.
I was one of five people summoned from Japan to this world in preparation for the demon lord’s supposed resurrection. Apparently the person who defeated and sealed away the demon lord 500 years ago was summoned from Japan back then, just like us.
“You’re stiff here, Touya.”
“Same goes for you, Clena.”
I, along with the two girls I had met in the void, Clena and Roni, were currently wrought with muscle aches.
Clena was a girl with silver hair, silver eyes, and radiant skin as fair as the snow. She had a complex about her weight, but from my perspective, she was just soft and plump. I’m sure she was toned from all of her journeying so far, but on the outside she looked quite tender and feminine. You could call it a miracle. In fact, I just did.
Roni had long, custard cream-colored hair, and often worried about how thick and frizzy it was. That part I couldn’t deny. Bearing the ears and tail of a wolf, she was a type of demi-human called lycaon. She possessed a friendly smile, and the firm gaze from her orange eyes left a lasting impression. They came from the northern country of Juno. Clena was born into and then disowned from an aristocratic family, and Roni was her attendant.
People summoned to this world were blessed by the goddess and bestowed with a mysterious power called a “gift.” We were likely summoned so that the people of this world could bring forth those powers. And the gift that I was bestowed with was the “Unlimited Bath”—the power to summon a door that led into a bathroom whenever and wherever I wanted. The bathtub inside was a little too small to bathe together with a girl, but that also meant more intimate contact. You could say it was a mysterious power, or that the fact this power was brought out in the first place was mysterious. Either way, I doubted I was the only one who wanted a word with the responsible party.
In any case, this may have been a bathroom, but the changing room had enough space to sleep in. I was using it to rest tonight.
“Sorry, Rulitora.”
“No, don’t worry about me. I’d rather not be inside there anyway.”
Rulitora was on cargo-watching duty outside. He was the raver that I employed—a sand lizardman with amber-colored scales, vermilion eyes, and distinctive black markings around his eyes. He was averse to humidity, especially steam, so the fact that he could bathe in water but couldn’t enter baths was his one weakness. He was at least twice as tall as me, and his arms were bulkier than my entire torso. Not to mention he was incredibly muscular.
As the former warrior chief of his home tribe, he’d have no problem standing guard by himself. In fact, we’d just be a nuisance to him right now, with our weary muscles.
“I’m grateful we’re able to rest safely like this, Sir Touya.”
“Yeah, we’re completely sealed off from the outside if the door to the Unlimited Bath is closed.”
We hadn’t ridden the rickshaw, but that wasn’t the reason we were in this condition. We rode on the backs of the sand lizardmen until the edge of the void, but thanks to their merciless speeds, we had to grip on to them so that we wouldn’t fall off, and now our arms hated us for it. Try to imagine clinging on to the roof of a speeding car for half a day, then you’ll get the idea. We had prepared a rickshaw when we left Jupiter, but Rulitora was faster than any horse. We tried to continue our journey until we reached civilization again, but we were a sorry sight now that the sun had set.
“...Well, the best thing to do in this situation is to give each other massages.”
“I’m alright with that if you two are.”
We decided that taking a relaxing dip in the bath and massaging our arms and legs was the best solution, so the three of us entered the Unlimited Bath and did as such. At first, Roni, Clena’s raver, offered to give the two of us massages, but her limbs were stiff as a rock too, so we ended up all helping each other.
On that note, muscular pain was classified as “fatigue” under magical terms, so Healing Light wouldn’t work here, since it wasn’t an “injury.” And I had yet to learn any spells that would heal “fatigue.” In other words, I had absolutely no choice but to rub their thighs.
Yeah, that was just an excuse.
“Ah, that feels good...”
“Hm, over here?”
“Yeah yeah, right there. Put some more pressure there.”
“Got it!”
Clena was usually more headstrong, but it was no surprise seeing her as defenseless as this after the exhaustion.
That was no reason to do anything funny to her, though. I concentrated on massaging her fatigue away.
She was lending her body to me out of trust. There was no way I would betray that. That, and I realized that I enjoyed giving massages more than receiving them.
Though that may just have been because Clena and Roni were wearing nothing but a bath towel apiece at the moment. Not only that, Clena’s thighs were squishy while I rubbed them, and Roni’s were springy.
We all went silent as we exited the bath afterward. After returning to my senses, I realized that massaging each other was actually pretty embarrassing. We were groping each other in some questionable places, not to mention it felt really nice. Ahem. Let me gather myself and explain the situation.
It was a little over a week since we defeated the army of monsters that launched an attack on Rulitora’s home tribe, the Torano’o. We packed up the goods that the Torano’o tribe gave to us as thanks in the rickshaw, then our party set out for Ceresopolis.
However, they’d given us so many items that we were no longer able to fit in the rickshaw, so we opted to walk instead.
Fur from golden ox and lesser boars, rock salt, aloe, the stems and fruit of young cacti, and fruit called dates that had a flavor similar to apples. Specialty goods from the void were jam-packed in the rickshaw’s seat. Apparently some people traveled to the void in search of these items, and fur from the gold ox were especially highly valued.
From the first time Clena and I bathed together, the “Red Panties Incident,” I learned that items could be left inside the bathroom, and I’d been conducting experiments since. But unfortunately, I had yet to confirm whether we could pack our cargo in there or not. Thus, Rulitora was left in charge of pulling the rickshaw that had gotten heavier than I could imagine. He really was someone I could rely on.
Back in the present, Roni was doing laundry in the bathtub, but Clena and I were awkwardly sitting in the changing area with nothing to do.
Nothing would happen if I didn’t bring up something to talk about. I had learned this from the past few days, so I was about to bring up the laundry Roni was currently washing. But then,
“By the way, that story I heard in the village about the hero—was she also summoned here?” Clena spoke up before I could.
She was referring to an incident that occurred when we stopped at a village along the main road. We had planned to rest there until our muscle aches healed, but that plan went out the window thanks to the hero that visited prior to us. Long story short, one of the villagers attempted to stab Clena.
“She was, yeah. But I hardly even know her. I never interacted with her after we were summoned.”
“...So you haven’t promised to bathe with her or anything?”
“Not at all.”
The hero that turned up before us was an office lady in her mid-twenties named Ritsu Nakahana. We had barely spoken to each other since being summoned, and she seemed to have no interest in me either.
She tried adding the royal
prince to her party, but ended up angering him instead, and then fled off on her journey without making an alliance with either the royal family or temple. And when she passed through this village along the way, the fiancé of the daughter of the village head ran away in pursuit of Ritsu Nakahana. It had caused quite the uproar. Come to think of it, back in Jupiter, she’d also caused a stir when two pampered sons of nobles proclaimed they’d abandon their lineage to chase after her.
You could probably guess at this point, but the one who tried to stab Clena was the village head’s daughter. She wasn’t in the right state of mind at the time. Clena having a similar physique was all it took for the daughter to flip a switch and attack her.
I had grabbed my shield and prepared to jump in between them, but before I could do so, Rulitora let out a large roar. Fortunately, that was enough to stop the daughter in her tracks and prevent the event from escalating. The incident ended without much of a fuss since no one was harmed.
“The only one I promised to take a bath with was Haruno.”
“You hadn’t spoken to Haruno that much either, right?” Clena said, then turned away from me in a huff.
I see, so that’s why she suspected that I had also promised to bathe with Ritsu Nakahana. I needed to dispel her worries quickly.
“I helped Haruno with a few things here and there, including helping her awaken her gift. I don’t think I’ve ever even talked to Nakahana.”
“...Really?”
“Really. And besides, I think Haruno is much prettier than her.”
“...I see.”
“And I think you’re much cuter, Clena.”
Clena looked surprised at my first line. Then, with my next, her expression changed to bewilderment, and she puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
“Just letting you know, I’m being serious. Though it’s just my opinion whether someone is cute or pretty.”
And thus I delivered the final blow. Clena finally turned bright red and sank like a battleship. It was my victory. Well, I didn’t know what the rules of this game even were.
My promise with Haruno and her party was important, but it was unthinkable of me to abandon Clena and Roni, who had asked me to take them under my wing. Maybe I was just thinking highly of myself, but my goal was to obtain enough strength to protect those around me. Which of course was because I thought dearly of everyone around me.
“And then I’ll bathe with all of them!”
“...What are you talking about?”
I accidentally voiced my thoughts, which made Clena turn a scornful gaze up at me. Roni also paused her cleaning and turned toward us, giggling.
“Well, at least you’re motivated enough for me to trust. I’ll give you my support, so try your best,” Clena said to me with a perplexed expression, then turned away in a huff again. But her cheeks were a shade of red.
I took the opportunity to poke her cheek, and she poked my side in return. Thanks in part to the nightly massages, this amount of physical contact was a sign that the distance between us was shortening.
Roni joined us in playing around soon after that, and night fell on our journey.
First Bath – Towels, Right or Wrong?
Ceresopolis—a city enclosed by walls atop a small hill and surrounded by farmland. Like the other countries, it was developed as a city-state with just one central city.
Three days had passed. We had finally arrived at Ceresopolis. The sun had already set, so we were likely spending another night outside.
Sweepdogs and lesser boars. We’d encountered several of them during the first two days out, but we had yet to see a single one today. We had probably entered the domain of the Ceres army.
The only protocol at the city gates was to show them my status card that I had created at the temple. It was no exaggeration to say that this was the most trustworthy form of identification.
The country thriving with agriculture, Ceresopolis.
After we passed through the gates and the cityscape filled my vision, I unwittingly muttered, “How is this a ‘country thriving with agriculture’?”
The sight before my eyes couldn’t have been further from that image. The city, bathed in the colors of the sunset, was what I’d describe as “classy.” There was a large road lined with many shops, though most of them were closed at this hour.
Beyond the roofs of the shops, I could spot several giant mansions. The atmosphere might have felt a little dated compared to modern Japan, but it reminded me of a traditional European town. Though I’d never been to one before.
I had imagined a country village from the name ‘country thriving with agriculture,’ but this was a metropolis comparable to Jupiteropolis. Clena addressed my doubts.
“You’re looking at it right here.”
“Do the farmers live in those fancy mansions?”
“...Oh, so that’s where you’re misunderstanding.” Clena faintly sighed. “The majority of the ones working in the fields are labor ravers. The people living in those mansions are their owners.”
“So they’re feudal lords...”
“Ceresopolis runs under a parliamentary system, so they have no lords.”
“Huh? Oh, so they’re like wealthy farmers?”
So Ceres indeed appeared to be thriving with agriculture, but the idea deviated a bit from what I had imagined. For one, it differed from Jupiter in that they had no noble families.
“Also, that village we passed? The people living there were most likely all labor ravers.”
“...Seriously?”
According to Clena, the possibility was high that all the villagers there were ravers besides the magistrate, priests at the shrine, and village head. In other words, that village was built to house the labor ravers that worked in the large fields outside the city. It was similar to the shouen system of old Japan.
There was the magistrate who managed the ravers, deployed by their owners.
There were the village heads, who remained in the village to assist the magistrate even after their term as a raver was over and they had gained citizenship.
And lastly, there were the priests who managed the village shrine, deployed by the temple.
The man who chased after Ritsu Nakahana would probably be treated as a “runaway raver.”
“What about the fields around the city?”
“They’re probably estates owned by the wealthy farmers. Ravers are working there, too.”
This country used the raver system as well, but it seemed that the majority of them worked as labor ravers on the lands owned by the wealthy farmers. The ravers who finished their term of employment gained citizenship as well as their own tract of land, though small. The ones who managed to amass a fortune and obtain large amounts of land became the wealthy farmers who lived in those mansions.
The city-state was managed by a parliament consisting of wealthy farmers. In that sense, this was a “city thriving with agriculture.”
“So the Olympus Alliance isn’t entirely composed of monarchies...”
“Juno has no king, either.”
So Clena’s country also wasn’t ruled by a royal family.
“There were four countries with kings, if I remember right?”
The Olympus Alliance was formed from twelve countries, which meant that the countries with kings didn’t even make up half of them. Maybe royal powers were weak here... No, maybe that’s exactly why the sacred king held so much authority. I, who came from a parallel world, and Rulitora, who came from the Torano’o tribe and had little interaction with humans, were consistently impressed by Clena and Roni’s explanations.
We headed toward the temple as we conversed. Since I was a “Hero of the Goddess,” the temple should be willing to give us lodging. We weren’t strapped for cash, but saving money was always the better decision, and above all, the temple would be safer than any inn in the city. “We shouldn’t talk about the Desert Kingdom to the people in the temple, huh?”
“I bet they wouldn’t underst
and even if we did mention it, but it’d be best not to.”
It was a piece of history erased 500 years ago, and the people today seemed to be unaware of its existence at all. But it was indeed a dark blotch in history and best kept a secret.
Looking at it another way, all four of us shared this one big secret.
“Speaking of which, we had never even considered what else was out there when we lived in the desert.”
“Even you guys living in the void were like that, Rulitora?”
It was called the “void” exactly because there was nothing there. Knowing that the Desert Kingdom used to exist there made me suspect that there was an intent behind naming the region.
But the name came hundreds of years ago. The truth was hidden in the darkness.
And then we finally arrived at the temple of Ceresopolis. There was a shrine for the Goddess of Earth in the village we had passed, but this temple carried the symbol for the Goddess of Light. The architecture was similar to the one in Jupiteropolis as well.
“Even though this is the country of thriving agriculture, it’s not the Goddess of Earth.”
“The Goddess of Light is the eldest sister of all the goddesses. Any well-off individual typically worships the Goddess of Light.”
“They’re pretty accommodating.”
“...Well, in a sense.”
“In a sense?”
Clena explained things to us as she always did, but this time she looked a bit dejected. I echoed her words, wondering what was wrong.
“We’ll talk about it in our room. This is the wrong place for it.”
She didn’t answer me, and instead walked toward the temple knight guarding the temple.
If this was the wrong place to talk about it, then it probably had something to do with the desert kingdom. We didn’t say another word and followed Clena’s footsteps.
The temples could apparently use cross-temple magic to communicate, so they realized I was a Hero of the Goddess as soon as they saw my status card. We were given immediate audience with the temple elder and obtained permission to stay there.
The Fervent Sand Baths Page 1