Rulitora crouched down with the barrel, then Clena drew her sword that was supposedly once owned by the Dark Prince and stuck the tip into the water. She then chanted a spell, and mist shot out from the barrel to form a film of water around us. The protective barrier was almost perfectly transparent, and I couldn’t tell it was there without looking closely. However, once I stuck a finger out from my gauntlet-covered hand, it pierced the barrier and formed two streams of water on either side. The veil of water was indeed there.
“The veil is centered around me, so don’t step too far away from me. Especially you, Touya! You wouldn’t even notice if you touched the veil with that armor on, so stay close!”
She was absolutely right. The only reason I knew my finger was piercing the water right now was because I could see it with my eyes. I couldn’t feel it at all. There weren’t any monsters around here, so I might as well just stick close to her.
“I’ll be here...” Rium had climbed up Rulitora’s back and perched herself on one end of a frame that he was using to carry the barrel. The heat had been beating down on her, so she must have wanted to stay near the cool water. The water would slowly drain from the barrel while the veil was in place, and it would disappear as soon as the water ran out. If we weren’t paying attention to the water level and the veil cut off while we were surrounded by poison gas, it’d be all over for us. It’d be smart to have someone keep watch.
“Tell us if the water is about to run out, okay?”
“...Okay.”
It’d be too cruel to make Rium keep walking, so I thought we’d make her keep watch on the water instead, but there was no energy left in her voice. She must have been incredibly tired.
“...Rulitora, can you handle one more?”
“No problem.”
“Rakti, sit on the other side and keep watch on the water as well.”
“Understood! Leave it to me!”
It’d be risky to leave the task to just Rium right now, so I decided to have Rakti join as well. She looked happy to be given an order as her eyes sparkled with a beaming smile. Meanwhile, Rium wasn’t saying another word. She must have realized how tired she was.
“Go ahead and rest, Rium.”
We should let her take a break for now. We would need her after we located the demon generals’ hideout. Her knowledge as a crystal mage would be vital to investigate it. I rubbed her cheek after telling her to rest, and she nodded with a comfortable expression.
We progressed farther under the water veil until we arrived at the top of a small hill. Looking down, we finally got a grasp on the environment the demon generals were hiding in. There was a basin at the foot of the hill where all the gas had been collecting. We were already surrounded by a yellowish haze, but the basin was an even thicker yellow. The poison gas was heavier than the air and inflammable.
It felt like we were standing above the clouds right now, color aside. Our current location was the “best” in the surrounding environment. From here, we could cross into the basin. The three other directions surrounding us were steep mountain walls. So this was what the king had meant by saying that the area was surrounded by cliffs. We saw the shadow of a rocky mountain cliff from one of the farthest ends of the hill. We could see it from here since we were above the basin of gas, but traveling there on foot would take at least a day. And even if we could shield ourselves from the poison gas, we would grow tired before then. So it was visible, but impossible to reach. It was a perfect taunt from the demon generals.
It made sense why no one had been able to travel that far in all these years. The only ways you could cross were either by having a body immune to the gas, flying through this environment, or using some technique to shield yourself from the gas. Not only that, you needed to find the hideout before getting tired.
“How’s the water level?” I asked.
“About halfway...?”
“...A little more than that.”
Rakti stretched herself upward to take a look, while Rium tried to look while seated on the frame, even though her feet weren’t touching the ground. Don’t push yourself, Rium.
“How’s your MP, Clena?”
“I’m nowhere near done yet.”
She still seemed fine. She wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue in her expression, either.
I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath and let everyone inside. Since we were cut off from the outside world in here, the water veil would disappear once we shut the door, but the poison gas wouldn’t enter either. This was one other way we’d be protected from the poison gas during our journey. I replenished the water in the barrel and decided that we take a break before heading out again. We could have Clena cast the veil spell, then fill in the gaps in the door as we opened it and keep any gas from getting in.
We wouldn’t be able to reach the hideout with my Unlimited Bath alone. Clena’s water veil wasn’t enough by itself, either. However, we could make it through the gas-filled basin with our powers combined. The water veil would shield us from the poison gas, and my Unlimited Bath would provide safety and relief so that we wouldn’t run out of energy. We had brought more than enough food with us. We would slowly but surely reach the demon generals’ hideout.
It had been three days since we descended down the hill into the basin of gas, and we’d learned a few things since. For one, this yellowish poison gas affected not only creatures, but plants as well. No normal plants were growing in the area. There was only some sort of moss or mildew spread out on the ground and rocks, as well as a type of mushroom that I could only describe as enoki mushrooms with awfully long stems.
The caps of the long enoki mushrooms spread out wide and scattered the yellow mist, which made me realize what role these mushrooms served in this basin. At first I had thought they were spores, but in that case, they shouldn’t have been floating within the gas for a long time like they were. The giant enoki mushrooms were indeed scattering the poison gas around.
The water veil could shield against gas, but it was effectively useless against physical contact. We had to be careful to not let any mushrooms touch our veil. We wouldn’t be able to do anything against spores getting inside. In fact, we had messed up on the first day and I had to use an antidote spell to dissolve a poisonous spore, but let’s forget about that.
The gas blocked our view like a heavy mist, so we advanced purely following the faint light of the sun and the silhouette of the cliff in the distance. Clena could only hold the water veil up for about half a day, considering our need to replenish the water and keep up her stamina. Her MP wouldn’t be able to hold up for longer bouts of time.
As a result, we rested for half a day each day and made our way slowly but surely toward our goal. The ketolts could use the fire altar inside my Unlimited Bath in the meantime, so they were grateful. Rulitora set up a tent in the yard to sleep in, a fair distance away from the bath. The ketolts wanted to utilize the fire altar as much as possible, so they ended up hanging around Rulitora in the meantime. Mark was using his off hours to practice mending the old equipment under Shakova’s guidance.
Unsurprisingly, no monsters lived in the basin, so the rest of us besides Clena just needed to keep walking throughout the day, and we had plenty of energy to spare. On top of that, the gas blocked out most of the sun’s rays and it was much cooler here than it was before.
The one issue that had caught us off guard was using the restroom. My Unlimited Bath had no toilet, so during our travels up until now, we had simply relieved ourselves in some secluded area. However, we couldn’t stray outside the water veil now. We had no choice but to open the door to the Unlimited Bath and drape a tarp over it for privacy whenever someone needed to go. Far from a pleasant camping experience. Clena extended the reach of her water veil in those situations, but I couldn’t blame her. Her reasons were more than valid.
Anyway, for the past three days, my primary job had become taking care of Clena whenever she became exhausted from using up her MP to the last dro
p. At the end of the third day, we put on our yuamigi to refresh ourselves in the bath. Rulitora and the three ketolts hated hot water, but they still stank, so I made them at least wash themselves with cold water. Pardoe was the most reluctant of them all, but he promised to follow my orders during this journey, so he was sullenly washing the sweat off himself right now. Shakova said that he couldn’t remember the last time Pardoe had looked so white. Just how much had he avoided baths before? I felt like I could relate a little to Crissa now.
As for me, I was currently washing Clena’s hair in the bathing room.
“Ahh... I feel alive again...” Her relaxed voice echoed off the walls.
I felt like I had gotten better at washing hair lately, maybe because I had started doing it every day. I made sure to massage her scalp as well.
It was Roni’s job to scrub her body. She didn’t completely object to me doing it, but it still made her tense. I would have been more than willing—happy, even—to just wash her back, but Roni liked washing Clena’s back as well, so I left it to her.
“Whenever you wash my hair, Touya... it feels so nice that I start getting sleepy...” Clena murmured slowly. Her head was drooping as she gradually nodded off.
I knew how she was feeling since I had gone through it myself before as well. The mental fatigue of wearing out your MP really brought her into a daze. She probably couldn’t think straight right now.
“You can go ahead and sleep, but I’ll have to touch you.” If she really were to fall asleep right now, I would need to support her.
“That’s fine, but... I need to hold off until after the bath.”
“Alright, then keep yourself awake for now.” She just said it was fine for me to touch her.
“Be my lap pillow after we get out of the bath...”
She had been requesting lap pillows more often lately. I was enjoying this spoiled and defenseless side of her, not to mention getting to stroke her silver hair as she slept.
“It’ll be my pleasure.”
“That’s a promise...” A goofy smile formed on her face at my reply.
She did her best to stay awake while Roni washed her body after that, but finally reached her limit after we started soaking in the bath and dozed off. Her fatigue must have built up over the past three days. I moved in to support her before her face fell into the water.
We had already been soaking for a good ten minutes, so I carried her outside the bath. I could feel her voluptuous breasts pressing against my back and her plump thighs against my arms. There were some perks to this deal.
Roni also got out of the bath after that. She had probably predicted that this would happen and finished cleaning herself quickly while I was washing Clena’s hair. It would probably be bad for me to dry her off and dress her while she was sleeping. I left that to Roni and instead headed back inside the bathing room.
As soon as I re-entered, Rium and Rakti came running over and clung on to me with their bodies still covered in soap suds. They had been holding themselves back while I was taking care of our VIP Clena, but they took the opportunity as soon as they saw her leave the bath. Rium was normally shy around people she didn’t know, yet she let so much of her guard down around anyone she opened up to. Clena was too bashful to let me wash her body, but Rium had absolutely no problem with it. In fact, I was her first choice. She said that her teacher and pseudo-grandmother Nartha was in second place, then Sera and Haruno took up third and fourth place. I was both happy and embarrassed that she had placed me above her own teacher. The difference between Sera and Haruno was that the former was like her mother, and the latter like her older sister. I could agree with her evaluation there.
On the other hand, Rakti let her guard down around everyone, had no street smarts, was a clumsy airhead, and made me worry just by watching her. I wasn’t too street smart in this world, but she was even worse. Yet she was so attached to me, and when I saw her innocent smile, I just couldn’t leave her be. It felt like I had a duty to take care of her. This feeling was something different from wanting to worship her as a goddess, but it was honestly how I felt. I had basically already taken her under my wing.
Now that we were here, I took the opportunity to wash the two of them. We soaked in the bath for a while after that, all huddled up. We then went to the wooden room, but found no sign of Clena or Roni being there. I could hear clangs of metal after straining my ears. Mark was probably working on mending that sword again. Rulitora was likely with him. All of the weapons we had found in Hadesopolis were too light for him, so he was in the midst of negotiating with Pardoe to have something new made.
Roni had probably carried Clena to the tatami-floored room to sleep, then gone to the kitchen to prepare for dinner. Though fake, Rakti was still a labor raver and had been learning how to do chores from Roni. She put on an apron to help Roni out.
“U-uuum, hmm?”
“Let me give you a hand, Rakti.”
She was already confusing herself just trying to tie the apron strings behind her, so I did it for her. I just can’t leave this girl be, I thought.
“Alright, I tied it for you. Now do your best.”
“Thank you very much!” Rakti happily gave me a hug, then a kiss on my cheek.
I gave her a kiss on the cheek back, then she skipped into the kitchen full of smiles, arms swaying. I saw her off, then tried to lead Rium to the tatami room with me, but she wouldn’t move an inch. I turned around to find her looking at me with upturned eyes, expecting something. She almost looked fine, but was actually holding back tears. This was the face she put on when she felt left out.
I stooped down in front of her and gave her kisses on both cheeks, which made her smile lightly and give me kisses in return. I tried leading her by the hand again, and this time she followed, satisfied. We entered the tatami room together.
“...You’re late.” Clena was lying on top of a blanket inside the room, awake after hearing us enter. She was pouting. She had probably already woken up once after she had been carried to this room.
“I’m sorry.”
“Come on, hurry up and be my lap pillow.”
I simply apologized and sat down beside her. She sluggishly moved her chin onto my legs, then turned around—and smushed her nose against my stomach. She was too close. She shifted position a little and tried turning over again.
Restoring MP required resting with peace of mind, and apparently this gave her the most peace of mind at the moment. She had tried using Roni as a lap pillow, but kept worrying if she was too heavy.
When I first heard that from her, I jokingly asked, “Then how about me?” She replied by saying “I’ll be fine if I imagine it’s just my boobs and butt that are making me heavy.” And to that, I had replied, “Don’t think of yourself like that. I can support all of your weight.”
I didn’t know if that was the reason specifically, but we had gotten closer since then. Clena said that she had finally found a place where she felt like she could belong. She had doubts on her possible half-demon identity, had abandoned her family and run away from home, and didn’t have anywhere else to go. She was thankful for me, but there were plenty of things we couldn’t have accomplished without Clena’s help as well, so the feeling was mutual.
Rium sat down and leaned against me, then opened up a book to read. It was a textbook on crystal magic. I had tried going through it once before, but couldn’t understand a word. It was a bit of a surreal sight to see a girl as young as her reading such a difficult book. I didn’t want to lose to her, though. I opened up my cleric magic textbook to study. Clena would start sulking if I didn’t pay attention to her, so I rested the book on the blanket and used my free hand to play with her hair.
“Your hair’s gotten even prettier lately.”
“It’s all thanks to your soap.”
That made me feel pretty proud. The soap born from my MP was making her and all the other girls prettier.
“You know how we found all those jewels and accessori
es in Hadesopolis?”
“Yeah, what about them?”
“I think your hair is prettier than all of them.”
All the other girls had nicer hair now, but Clena’s stood out above them all. Her shiny, glossy silver hair was a sight to behold.
“...You say some pretty ridiculous things sometimes.”
“I’m serious. Though I admit it’s also rare for me, since people didn’t have silver hair in the other world.”
“...Thank you,” she said, then turned around again and buried her face into my stomach. She gripped the edge of my pajamas and didn’t budge after that.
Apparently she had gotten embarrassed. She probably didn’t want me to see her blushing. I didn’t say a word and just stroked her hair. I think I had a huge grin on my face right now.
“......”
I felt a gaze coming from Rium’s direction, so I turned around to find her still leaning against me, but looking up with a pleading expression. I wasn’t in the proper position to stroke her hair right now, but I could wrap my arm around her shoulders and give her a hug. That made her drop her book and lean all her weight against me, putting her in the perfect position for me to bury myself in her hair and rub my cheek against her head. She responded in kind by rubbing her cheeks into my chest.
“Hey, let me join too.” Clena sat up while we were messing around and gave me a hug as well. She would normally have been too embarrassed to do something like this, but she was acting more bold now under the pretense of healing her fatigued mind with peace and comfort.
Clena’s weight made all of us fall onto the blanket. We continued playing around for a while afterward, then eventually fell asleep. We continued sleeping until Roni and Rakti came over to get us for dinner. My alarm clock was Rakti’s flying body slam of jealously against the other girls. It surprisingly didn’t hurt, either because Rakti was so light or because I had gotten a bit more tough.
The next day, we once again set out from the Unlimited Bath under the guidance of the faint sun and the cliff’s silhouette. We took a break and refilled our water a little before noon, and then after walking for about another hour, we encountered a shadow distinct from the cliff’s.
The Chaotic Stone Sauna Page 17