by Kumo Kagyu
Perhaps. But now all of that was lost.
All of it had been stolen from her.
All those many days and months that should have been had been wiped away, and now, instead, Priestess was here.
Priestess, who adventured with High Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman, Lizard Priest, and him.
She could hardly think of it as good luck. Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t imagine considering it ill fortune, either.
Fortune and misfortune, she realized, were inseparable, like milk mixed into tea.
“I’ll keep hunting the goblins. Still.” Priestess’s lips softened as she spoke. “I’ll do it even if I tremble the whole time, the way you scolded me for.”
That was right. Priestess must have looked ridiculous to this girl, who had been so ready, so into it. She suddenly found herself remembering the girl’s squinted eyes and drawn mouth as she shouted.
No doubt she had had other expressions, but Priestess hadn’t gotten to see them.
“I met your younger brother, you know… I actually became the teacher, believe it or not.”
“Don’t be mad, okay?” Priestess whispered. I may not know much, but I taught him what I could.
In the end, Priestess hadn’t brought flowers or fruit or anything else as an offering. She realized she didn’t know what the young woman liked or didn’t like. But she did know she seemed like the type who would be upset if a person picked some random item to leave at her grave.
Thus Priestess simply whispered, “I’ll visit again,” and stood gingerly.
“…Who’s in there?” High Elf Archer asked, her ears twitching. She stood a short distance away in the shade of a tree, her arms crossed.
“An old—” Priestess started, but she had to close her mouth once and open it again before she could come up with “—party member.”
“Huh,” High Elf Archer said quietly. She came over, her footsteps light, asking, “What was she like?”
“…I’ve often wondered that myself,” Priestess said, sounding a bit detached, an ambiguous expression on her face.
There was a gust of cool night breeze that made the leaves dance in the trees, and she reached up to keep her cap and hair from blowing everywhere.
“I never even had the time to find out.”
“That happens sometimes,” High Elf Archer said, squinting with pleasure as she felt the cool breeze on her cheek. She lifted her face up as if sniffing the wind, exposing her pale, slim neck. “The ties that bind us can be really strange. Sometimes it’s for a long time, others, just a short while.”
“…You’re right.”
“So they’re all gone now?”
For a second, Priestess didn’t quite understand; she cocked her head in perplexity. Then, however, she grasped what High Elf Archer was asking. “No,” she replied with a bitter smile that somehow made her uncomfortable. “One of them is left. But…”
“But what?”
“…I just can’t work up the courage to see her.”
Priestess’s voice grew smaller and smaller as she spoke, until it faded into the rustling of the trees.
There was nothing an elf’s ears couldn’t hear, though, and now High Elf Archer’s wiggled. “I’ll bet you don’t need to worry about it as much as you think.” The elf whispered, “Not like it’s all your fault, I’m sure.”
“…I don’t want to blame everyone else for it.”
“Always so earnest.” High Elf Archer sniffed disinterestedly at Priestess’s awkward smile. She was starting to think she had an idea why the girl was so infatuated with “Goblin Slayer, sir.”
She didn’t know if the reason was good or bad and had no intention of giving it any thought.
“…Okay, well, let’s go stop being serious!” She dragged Priestess away by the hand, laughing aloud at the girl’s astonished expression.
§
“W-wow…”
Priestess had spent most of her time since arriving in the capital being shocked, but, well, there were a great many things she had never seen before.
Now they were in a spacious, cool lobby, with a ceiling that vaulted high above them. The skylight let in the illumination of the stars and the moons; combined with the candles below, it was perfectly easy to see inside the room.
A stream of people in comfortable clothes came and went, relaxing and enjoying themselves. Some sat on benches, reading books; others were working out, holding heavy stones in their hands; still others were drinking to their hearts’ content…
Some people had spread cards on a table in the corner and were fighting the Black Death as it spread across a game board.
Someone else was looking at a fresco of an armored warrior the likes of which Priestess had never seen, accompanied by the letters SPELLJAMMER. In a corner of the picture was the name of a theater and a date, and she realized it must be promoting a play.
She didn’t see any kind of fireplace, yet the room was surprisingly warm.
“There are pipes in the walls to bring in warm air,” a staff member told the goggling Priestess with a chuckle. Priestess quickly bowed her head toward the employee, who was wrapped in pure white cloth.
“S-sorry, it’s just very unusual…”
“I’d heard about the baths, but I didn’t realize how much else there was here,” High Elf Archer said with an intrigued wiggle of her ears. She was the one who had dragged Priestess here.
Looks like she likes it here already, Priestess thought, giggling to herself.
Elves always washed in cold water; they had little experience of deliberately using steam or heating water as part of the bathing process. This friend of Priestess’s, despite being so much older than her, always followed that same custom, with the exception of the hot spring the one time.
The building attached to the aqueduct, which had drawn Priestess’s attention the moment she reached the capital, turned out to be a huge bathing facility. And it was, she suspected, much better to enjoy oneself at a bath than to sit and mourn in a graveyard.
“There sure is. The workout area is open, and we also offer massage, as well as light refreshments.”
“I’m sorry, but how much—?” Priestess was concerned: she mustn’t waste her money. But the employee simply smiled.
“It’s all included with your entrance fee. Please, relax and enjoy yourself.”
Priestess nodded eagerly, reflecting once more that the capital was truly an amazing place. She paid the handful of bronze coins then took a fresh look around to discover that indeed, very few people appeared to be using money.
Well, with one exception.
It appeared to be a massive bottle of water, set as if being offered up by a statue of a deity with the face of both a man and a woman. Carved on the statue was the inscription DONATIONS FOR THE DEITY OF THE BASIN, and there was a wooden box with a slot for offerings.
Children shouted and dropped coins into the box; when they did so, water poured from the bottle all by itself.
“That’s awesome!”
Naturally, one of the girls went flying over to it—namely, High Elf Archer. Her ears stood straight up, and her eyes sparkled, and she got to the statue as quickly as if she were running through the woods.
“Hey, how’s this work?”
“What, you don’t know?” A boy hardly ten years of age sassed an elf of more than two thousand. “You put in your money, then something happens inside, and then the lid opens and the water comes out!”
“Cool…!”
The boy was flippant, and his explanation was really no explanation at all, but High Elf Archer was already loosening the strings of her purse.
Priestess let her shoulders relax as she listened to the coin clink into the box. The weight she had felt in her small chest until just earlier seemed almost halfway gone.
I know they say people never feel the same way for an entire hour…
Now she felt like living proof. It made her part lonely and part relieved.
And all o
f it was because she had a friend to drag her around like this.
“…Hee-hee.”
That was what made room in her heart for a chuckle to well up from within.
Priestess looked around, planning to just take everything in until High Elf Archer got bored.
There was a path leading to a changing room, a washroom, the exercise area—she assumed the baths were past the changing room. They couldn’t keep the others waiting forever while they played, but maybe they could have a little meal. And after a dip in the baths, she’d at least like a nice cold drink…
Hmm. She tapped a slim, pale finger to her chin in thought, but then suddenly she blinked.
Am I being watched?
She detected an intense, almost piercing gaze on her. It was just a feeling, a sensation she probably wouldn’t even have noticed a year earlier.
Priestess kept herself turned in the direction of High Elf Archer, who was standing in front of the water bottle yammering, and carefully moved only her eyes.
…A soldier, maybe?
The owner of the gaze was sitting on a bench; the person looked rather military. The touch of grime on them—maybe they were fresh off duty—suggested why they had come to the baths.
But did I do anything wrong…?
She didn’t think she had done anything to warrant the attention of a soldier, not since coming to the capital and certainly not since coming into the bathhouse. Increasingly uncomfortable, though, Priestess slid closer to High Elf Archer and tugged on her elbow.
“Um…”
“Hmm? Hang on a second. Just one more time…!”
“No, I think we should get going, okay?” A thought flashed through Priestess’s mind: She’s hopeless. It was a bit like the thought she often had about him, although not quite the same, and it made her smile. “We need time for a bath, and…you’ll use up all your money.”
The two of them only headed for the changing room, though, after High Elf Archer had offered three more donations.
They followed the path running by the female face of the twin-sexed deity and soon found the women’s changing room. They found a small cold bath, the walls to either side of which had stools and several rows of cubbyholes.
It was already evening, and they weren’t the first guests; Priestess and High Elf Archer soon undressed. There were plenty of humans in the capital, of course, but there were also dwarves and rheas about, so there was no particular need to be self-conscious. It was also surprisingly warm (the pipes, no doubt, as had been explained to them), so they weren’t concerned about catching cold.
“Okay, here…” Priestess, looking at the other cubbies for her cues, folded her vestments and put them in a basket. Her slim frame had become noticeably more muscular over a year of adventuring, but she was still willowy. Beside her, High Elf Archer practically tore off her clothes and flung them in a basket.
“They’ll get wrinkled if you don’t fold them properly,” Priestess chided her.
“Aw, I don’t care,” High Elf Archer said, seeming genuinely indifferent as she waved a hand and her ears at the same time. “Hey. Come to think of it, did you bring any perfume oil?”
“Uh-huh. I asked our receptionist for advice about it once, and, uh, well, the one I got was slightly expensive, but…”
Her uncertain tone seemed to seek approval for this small luxury, and High Elf Archer giggled. “That’s fine. It’s not like you’re wearing it just to show off. I don’t think the gods are going to mind.”
“…I think maybe you should pay a little more attention to what the gods will and won’t mind.”
“Ooh, a scolding! You should learn to have more respect for your elders.”
“Huh?! Hey, stop that—Ooh…!”
High Elf Archer had reached out to poke Priestess with a finger, and the girls fell to shouting and giggling.
Then, the elf’s sharp eyes settled on Priestess’s basket of clothes.
“Are you still using that?”
“Huh?”
Priestess followed High Elf Archer’s gaze to the suit of mail. She had repaired it wherever it had been cut or slashed or stabbed, leaving little seams between the old and new chains. She kept it diligently oiled, and anyone could see at a glance how careful she was with it.
“Oh yes, I am. It’s…very important to me.”
“You make it sound like it’s some legendary armor or something.” High Elf Archer looked at Priestess from lidded eyes, and the younger girl scratched her cheek shyly.
She’s definitely spent too much time around Orcbolg.
That was very bad for this young (certainly young from an elf’s perspective) girl’s education, wasn’t it?
Almost as soon as the thought crossed the elf’s mind, though, she dismissed it with a smile and a flick of her ears.
I guess it’s a little late for that.
Goblin hunting itself was bound to be bad for one’s upbringing.
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.” High Elf Archer waved a hand at Priestess then suddenly smiled as a new thought came to her. “Since we’re here, how about we wash each other’s backs?”
“Sure!”
§
So the two of them chattered noisily as they washed, perfumed themselves, rinsed off, and set off for the baths.
The bathing area was equally warm, thanks to the pipe system; there was one large hot bath and, across from it, a cold tub. Farther in, there was a sauna where it was even hotter.
“I’ll be right back!” High Elf Archer said and jogged away, leaving Priestess by herself.
She slid into the water with a quiet splash, stretched out her arms and legs, and let out a luxurious breath. It mingled with the warm air and drifted up to the domed ceiling.
Gee, I could almost just fall asleep here…
She felt like the heated water might soak through her whole body, and she might just melt away. She stretched out a pale arm, not thinking much of it, and noticed that there was some muscle there, even if not much. And she could see scars, whiter even than her skin, running along a few places.
Experience was not normally so visible to the naked eye, but these scars were certainly part of hers.
When she thought about it, it had been two solid years of running around, the occasional day off notwithstanding.
That first adventure, her first party, the goblin nest, her party members dying, and then him.
Again, she felt a welter of emotions she still didn’t fully understand welling up in her chest.
But…
Priestess glanced in the direction of the sauna High Elf Archer had run into and squinted.
I really should be grateful.
“…Hey.”
“Huh?!”
The unexpected voice interrupting her reverie nearly sent Priestess jumping clear out of the water. She rushed to cover her chest and turned around, and she found a girl looking at her wide-eyed.
She had golden hair that went down to her shoulders, blue eyes, and she was fifteen—no, maybe sixteen—years old.
Priestess, however, could only blink at her. Something felt…off. The girl in front of her seemed to feel the same way.
“Oh,” Priestess said, looking into the girl’s startled eyes.
It was a face she rarely saw except perhaps in the Temple’s reflecting pool, but there it was. The other girl seemed to have more lustrous hair. Her skin was prettier, though she was puffier. Tall, too. But…
We do look similar.
Yes, the other girl was obviously superior. But there was a similarity.
Priestess, growing embarrassed, slid back down into the bath. The other girl was like an improved version of herself.
“Can I…help you?”
“You’re an adventurer, right?” The words came down like a judgment from above—which maybe only made sense, since the girl was standing up.
When Priestess nodded in the affirmative, the girl said, “Thought so,” nodded
with self-assurance, and sat down. Her breasts made water splash aside as she climbed in; Priestess glanced down at the sight. The gods were so unfair.
“Hey, what’s your class?”
“I’m a servant of the Earth Mother.”
“A priest, huh?” Not bad.
Priestess looked curiously at the mumbling girl. “If you’re hoping to find someone to join your group, I’m afraid I’ve already got a party…”
“Huh?” the other girl said, surprised, but then she said, “Oh, no, no. Not what I was thinking.”
Then what, I wonder?
Not being able to guess what the other person wanted left Priestess suspicious and worried. She doubted she was in real physical danger here, but she also didn’t have a scrap of clothing to defend her. She stiffened slightly, still keeping her chest hidden. She didn’t get any bad vibes from this girl, yet…
“I wanted to ask, just for my reference—what kind of equipment do you use? What’s your rank?”
“Uh, I’m Steel-ranked. And…my equipment?”
Priestess focused more closely on the other girl, who had suddenly slid much closer. Priestess was a far cry from a warrior, but she thought the other girl didn’t look much more physically hardened herself. A wizard—or cleric, perhaps? An adventurer hopeful? That possibility struck her as the most likely as soon as it crossed her mind.
…I wonder if I should try to stop her.
It was only a possibility. But all her own experiences flashed through her mind.
Then again, though, everything that had happened to her since that time, she had gotten from adventuring. She couldn’t deny that—nor should she.
“I wear clerical vestments and carry a sounding staff, and I use mail.”
“Hmm,” the other girl said. “Do they have, y’know, holy power or a blessing on them or something?”
“No, they’re just…a normal staff and mail, really.”
Still, she had first bought the armor because of the advice he had given her. Thinking about it, she realized that even in the battle in the sewer, the mail had saved her life.
The other girl watched Priestess brush her own shoulder with her palm and grumbled, “Eh, guess that’s the best you can hope for as an eighth-rank.”
