Chapter 65 : Chapter 65
Chapter 65. A Brief Vacation (2)
The women's team was the first to use the hot spring.
Anonymous, Adel, and Noemi washed their bodies first.
Anonymous, not the least bit shy, confidently took off her clothes and entered the water, but Adel and Noemi just watched from a distance.
“What are you doing not coming in?”
At Anonymous's urging, Adel, as if she had no choice, threw off her heavy armor.
Thud. Thud.
The heavy armor resounded on the ground.
However, it was not the Armor of Reflection that Father had given her as a gift.
That was the armor she planned to use for the decisive battle.
Anonymous clicked her tongue and said.
“I can't believe you wear something like that every day.”
“I find this comfortable.”
“Right. Take it all off and come in comfortably. It feels really good.”
However, Adel only took off her armor, still wearing her outer clothes.
She did enter the hot spring, but she concealed her body as much as possible even in the water.
Anonymous made a displeased expression.
“How rude. Who wears clothes while taking a bath?”
“It’s a bit much for a grown maiden to walk around naked.”
“Hah! There is a time and place for everything. It seems I'll have to take this opportunity to teach you two proper bathing etiquette.”
Anonymous said that being naked before entering the bath was a given, and that if one was not confident in their figure, it was acceptable to cover the important parts with a small towel.
Also, when drying the body, one should use the wind, not a towel.
She went on and on, introducing the method of bathing, saying that drying through a wind bath was the best.
Despite this, Noemi still just sat on the edge of the tub, only swishing her feet.
A vein popped out on Anonymous's forehead.
“What are you doing, being so distracting?”
“After we finish bathing, Father will also bathe here, right?”
“Isn't that obvious?”
“It feels strange for some reason. Is this really okay?”
Anonymous asked back with a face that said she didn't understand.
“What's so strange about it?”
“The thought of Father entering the same tub I soaked my body in is a bit…”
“How absurd. It seems you are not in your right mind.”
At Anonymous's retort, Noemi was about to rebut but then pouted and shut her mouth.
However, in the end, she couldn't resist the temptation of the warm water and slowly took off her outer clothes.
As she untied the string of her top, the cloth that had been tightly wrapped around her upper body slid down.
Jiggle.
Adel's eyes grew as wide as a surprised owl's.
“N-Noemi! You, what on earth…”
Adel couldn't finish her sentence.
Noemi, flustered, pulled the cloth back up and blushed.
“I-I've always been like this since I was little! I just tied it up all this time because it was a bother!”
Anonymous raised an eyebrow and grinned.
“Why hide something you should be proud of? Humans are truly strange creatures.”
As the two of them stared at her chest, Noemi hid her body in the tub.
Then she huddled up and muttered.
“...I shouldn't have taken it off.”
However, as the warm water enveloped her entire body, she let out a sigh without realizing it.
It felt as if her whole body was melting away.
“This is a strange place. Just by entering the water, I feel my whole body filling with power.”
“You're only feeling it now? This is clearly a hot spring where a Dragon Vein flows. It's been a long time since I've been to a place like this.”
“Dragon Vein? What's that?”
Anonymous bragged, as if asking how she could not know such a thing.
“When a long-lived dragon like me dies, the flow of magic in that place becomes distorted. After a long time, when water pools, a place like this is created. It's rare to see a place this wide and clean.”
“Why?”
“Because a bloody battle of slaughter is bound to occur by monsters drawn to the warped magic. But I can't find a single slime here.”
Adel nodded, saying it was understandable.
“Because no monster could have approached due to you, Master.”
“So, in the end, a place like this was created because of me. I am a dragon with deep karma indeed.”
But Noemi, as if disagreeing with this, muttered with an ecstatic face.
“Father is amazing, as expected. How could he have known about a place like this?”
No one denied her words.
“I know, right. I wish I could live here forever.”
“It's a paradise on earth. Ahh. I'm melting, melting away.”
The three women had no intention of leaving this place for a full three hours, until Rude gave
them a look to tell them to cut it out.
Even when Rude came right up to them, they just waved their hands.
They didn't even get angry.
That was how satisfying this place was.
When one feels too good, one doesn't get angry even in situations that should cause anger.
***
Rude and I were only able to use the tub after the sun had already set.
Thanks to that, I was able to feel the overflowing magic in this place.
‘When I first discovered it, it was just an open-air bath with outstanding scenery, but it looks so different now.’
As my power returned, I could properly feel the magic swirling around this place.
How should I describe it?
Would it be explained if I said that the magic of Anonymous, who possessed the most powerful
magic among us, had exploded by about 10 times and become a single pool of water?
That's how full of high-level magic this water was.
Minor wounds would heal at once, and it seemed even a dying person would become vigorous after bathing for a few days.
Rude, also noticing that this place was not ordinary, brought it up.
“This place is unbelievable. I think I understand a little now why the girls didn't want to come out of here.”
Rude, enjoying the hot spring bath while looking up at the sky with a dazed expression.
I narrowed my eyes and scolded him.
“Adel and Noemi are adults now. If you waited, they would have come out on their own. Why did you have to go and give them a look?”
“Hey! Someone might misunderstand and think I'm a lecher if they heard you. I waited for three whole hours! Don't we need to rest a bit too?”
“For someone who says that, you didn't come back for quite a while.”
“Ahem, Noemi has grown up quite well. At first, I thought it was Adel.”
How dare this bastard sneak a peek at my daughters' naked bodies?
Just a moment ago, he was playing innocent, insisting he definitely didn't see them naked, and now he finally confesses his crime.
Guards! Beat that man severely!
I suddenly put him in a headlock, and he flailed his arms and legs, begging for his life.
“S-Save me…”
Splash, splash.
Bubble, bubble.
Gurgle.
The thick water mist and the brightly shining moonlight.
The warm heat and the pleasant breeze.
A childhood friend enjoying a bath together.
It feels like I've returned to my childhood.
Was it because Rude was flailing around like crazy?
Alvarez, who had followed along but seemed uninterested in the hot spring bath and was wandering nearby, glanced over this way.
But that was all.
He soon lost interest and disappeared from sight.
‘It would have been nice if Alvarez had come in too, but an undead bathing might ascend to the heavens.’
I kept Rude from getting out of the water for a long time before letting him go at the right moment.
“Gasp. Cough, cough. I th-thought I was gonna die.”
“There's nothing a Sage can't say, it seems.”
“You bastard!! I really almost died!”
“Yeah, right. If you do that one more time, I'll chop off your head on the spot, so you'd better know that.”
As I glared at him fiercely, Rude flinched and nodded.
How dare he critique my daughters' figures in front of their father?
Looking at this guy, I wonder if his liver hasn't popped out of his belly.
How much time had passed?
Usually, bathing for a long time makes the skin wrinkled, but instead, my skin became firmer.
My whole body was overflowing with power, making me feel like I could take out Primus in one shot if he came near.
As I was imagining slicing him in half, Rude broke my concentration.
“You did well finding a place like this. How did you know?”
“This is my domain. There's no place I don't know.”
“Right, you found the gold mine too. Hey, Frank.”
“What?”
“Sometimes, I wonder if you're not the Frank I knew, but a different person.”
Why is this guy suddenly making such a serious face?
Startled, I asked why he thought that.
He gave me this answer with a strange expression.
“You never really liked bathing, did you? A guy who would only pretend to wash his face like a cat when Isabel told him to, going on a hot spring trip. It's suspicious, I tell you.”
“People change.”
“There's a limit to how much one can change.”
Sharp.
If this conversation dragged on, I might be at a disadvantage, so I slyly changed the subject.
“Have you thought about managing the marquis's castle?”
“Are you really thinking of leaving it to me?”
“Of course. No matter how much I think about it, no one else comes to mind but you.”
“Tsk! You're good with words for someone who usually orders me around like a slave.”
“I'm being serious.”
Rude, as if he had no choice, slowly nodded.
“I'm going to run it however I want, so don't you dare say anything later. I'm even going to change the shape of the castle into an insect.”
“Hehe, good thinking. I'll tell the royal palace that you are my vassal, so be aware of that.”
At the word vassal, Rude made a wistful expression.
“To think that someone like me, who likes to wander aimlessly, would become a vassal. Life truly never goes the way I want it to.”
“Isn't that just the way it is. Anyway, thanks.”
He chuckled and suddenly submerged his face under the hot water.
As if to release all his worries and anxieties into the hot spring.
This guy must really like being underwater.
Should I play another prank on him?
***
After we finished bathing and came out, Anonymous looked at Rude and sneered.
“You complained about us taking a long time, but aren't you even worse?”
But Rude just stretched languidly and said something else.
“Phew. This is great, so great. I'd have no other wish if I could live here forever.”
“Keke. I agree. I feel like all my fatigue has disappeared.”
As Adel played along, Rude, feeling pleased, nodded his head emphatically and said.
“Maybe I should quit everything and start a hot spring business here? I feel like I could make quite a bit of money.”
No. As soon as this trip is over, you must run straight to the marquis's castle.
Your fate has been decided as such.
Then, suddenly.
A rumbling sound was heard from somewhere.
The sound came from Adel's stomach.
Adel covered her face with both hands and muttered in a voice as small as a mosquito's buzzing.
“...I'm so hungry.”
I understand.
I didn't have a watch, but it must have been past 10 p.m.
After walking all day and then bathing for a long time, it would be stranger if she wasn't hungry.
I immediately took out the food ingredients I had prepared from my bag.
Noemi approached me with curiosity and asked.
“What's that?”
“Didn't I tell you? Let's rest well for a few days. I'll prepare the meals, so you all just need to focus on resting.”
“Wow! I want to eat food made by Father!”
Come to think of it, Noemi has never eaten food I've made.
Well then, shall I show off my skills properly?
The time has finally come to present the special ramen boiled in magic-filled hot spring water.
Look forward to it. Coming soon!