The Fervent Sand Baths

by Nagaharu Hibihana

  I stopped the flow of my MP and a moment later the knife bulged out, then reverted back to soil.

  “This spell is pretty useful. I could use it in battle.”

  “Excuse me, that spell is actually used for tending the fields or building aqueducts...”

  The elder who looked like a middle-aged salaryman and was watching over my practice told me with a tired expression as I was nodding to myself in satisfaction.

  This spell was normally used for construction, so compressing it into a weapon would require a significant amount of MP.

  “This is merely a blessing from our little temple, but if you receive a blessing from the main temple, you’d be able to achieve much more.”

  “Does the size of the temple change things?”

  “Yes. The head temple is on another level.”

  It looked like I had to pay a visit to the main temple of the Goddess of Earth if I wanted more power. It might be best to do the same for each of the other goddess’ blessings.

  Coincidentally, the head temple for the Goddess of Light was in Jupiteropolis, so I had nothing more to gain on that front. For now, though, I needed to concentrate on getting to the desert kingdom, so I kept it in mind as an option for later.

  When I went back to the room after practice, Clena and the rest had just returned as well. While I was training, they were making preparations for the journey.

  I would have helped ordering a new carriage if we were gonna get one made to order, but since we were buying secondhand I left it to Clena.

  “Oh, Touya. How’s your magic coming along?”

  “Pretty great. I’ve learned the basic spells and have a textbook now, so I’ll just need to practice on my own after this.”

  “I see. We got our hands on a good carriage, too. We just need to purchase a supply of food, and then we’ll be ready to go.”

  According to Clena, the carriage they bought was unattractive, but sturdy. Roni and Rulitora said it was just your standard covered wagon, though.

  Apparently when Clena thought of a carriage, she imagined the fancy coach her family had used when she was young, so that’s why she called it unattractive.

  She had also purchased large cushions for us to sit on during the journey. She was properly preparing us for all the shaking.

  As for the rickshaw, we sold it off. It had kept us good company ever since we left Jupiter, but the time had come to switch it out with the carriage and say farewell.

  “When will the hard leather armor be ready again?”

  “It should be ready this evening.”

  Rulitora answered my question this time.

  It would only take half the time the metal armor took in Jupiter, probably because leather was easier to tailor.

  “Then let’s order some food on our way there, so we can pick it up first thing tomorrow morning.”

  “Oh, we can take the day off tomorrow, then!”

  Roni happily agreed with my suggestion. Since she was always making our daily lives easier, I wanted to give her a day off.

  We had a washing machine now, so I could take care of the laundry for her. Though I would need Clena to help take care of her and Roni’s underwear.

  Above all, there was Rulitora. Even during our time in Ceresopolis, we were constantly using him as our bodyguard whenever we went out. I wanted him to have a nice day off tomorrow as well.

  After that, the four of us went to pick up our hard leather armor, making sure there were no problems with our tailored pieces.

  There was a rush fee if we wanted our food ready by tomorrow morning, so we opted to wait until the morning after tomorrow, so we could pay the standard prices. We had paid our advance with a bit of a tip thrown in so we’d be getting good, durable products.

  Clena commended me for how used to the system I’d gotten, which was probably thanks to my experiences exploring the city and learning how to make purchases with Haruno and her party back in Jupiter.

  Even if a product came from the exact same store, storage life would depend on the season it was made. Where I came from, you had easy to understand labels with expiration and sell-by dates, but there was no such convenience in this world. Assuming your eyes weren’t sharp enough to make out when an item was made, your best option was tipping the shop in the hopes they’d make something good.

  And so, next was our day off.

  Since I had told Rulitora about this last night, he had been sleeping all morning. He wasn’t the type to show it, but he must have been tired after all those nights standing guard. I peeked inside the bedroom to find him lying on his side on the rug, his tiger-pattern tail lazily sprawled out. He looked like a father on a Sunday.

  As for me, I took over our laundry as planned and let Roni rest.

  “Um, are you sure? It’s easier for me now with the washa masheen.”

  She couldn’t help it since the word was still unfamiliar to her, but her awkward pronunciation was adorable.

  “Yeah, so we can handle it, too.”

  “But, the underwear... um...”

  “I won’t be touching them. Clena will be helping me.”

  I had no intention of touching the girls’ underwear, of course. I had seen them completely naked before, never mind seeing them in their underwear, but touching their delicates was a different matter.

  Clena should be able to handle taking clothes in and out of the washing machine and hanging them up to dry.

  “Huh, me?”

  “If you don’t want to, I’ll have to handle it.”

  “I never said I don’t want to.”

  Clena realized that I’d be the one washing their underwear if she didn’t, and jumped up. Though she was a born and raised aristocrat, she often helped Roni with cooking and didn’t mind taking up the menial tasks.

  “That’s not all, Lady Clena. The washa masheen can’t clean underwear.”

  “...What?”

  “Eh?”

  “The ones it washed before got kind of worn...”

  “Ahh, no wonder since it gets tossed around and heated up so much.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Clena folded her arms and nodded. She seemed to be in agreement.

  I didn’t quite understand, but I guessed this wasn’t a topic a man could broach too deeply, so I decided to leave myself out of it.

  “So you two will take care of the underwear, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “...Got it. I’ll take the opportunity to learn how to do this. Roni, will you teach me?”

  “I understand. Sir Touya, may I use the sink?”

  “Sure, do whatever you need to do.” Trying my best to avoid looking in their direction as they used the warm water to scrub their underwear, I got started on the rest of the laundry.

  Though back in Japan, I was just your average high school student who didn’t try to help out with chores too much.

  And so I took out the instruction manual again and navigated through the steps. It was easy to not mess up as long as I used the correct type and amount of detergent. The wash cycle finished without bubbles shooting out of the machine or anything.

  Then, I set the clothes to dry until they were half-dry, and hung them on a clothesline in the changing room to finish drying. I couldn’t hang them out to dry in the temple yard, since it was a front yard facing the road.

  I left the Unlimited Bath quickly after completing my laundry duties. I had been reading the clerical magic textbook for a while when Clena and Roni stepped out, having finished hanging up the rest. All that was left was a day of resting up. I was using my MP the entire time the clothes were drying, but it didn’t put any physical strain on my body.

  “Where is the Unlimited Bath, anyway?”

  “What are you talking about? It’s right there.”

  I hadn’t closed the door yet, so it was still floating in front of us. It was a strange sight, but I was used to it by now.

  “That’s not what I meant. It’s all
made from your MP, right, Touya? So does it all go inside you when you close the door?”

  “...I wonder?”

  It felt like I was opening the door to a parallel dimension, but everything in there was made from my MP, so there was no doubt that it was under my control. So technically she could be correct by saying it was all inside me.

  “It’s a little weird thinking that my underwear is drying inside Touya right now.”

  “Oh, is that what that means?”

  Clena had a dubious expression and Roni was aghast at her words. Clena had only noticed since it was her first time doing the laundry. I knew where she was coming from, but the sentiment felt a little delayed after all the time she’d spent cleaning herself in there.

  “Well, we don’t know if it’s actually inside me in the first place. I could see it being explained as this world being connected to another dimension. The proof is right here,” I said as I pointed at myself.

  A hero summoned from another world. I myself was evidence that another world really existed.

  “Well, don’t worry about it. I’m not actually absorbing all of it into my MP.”

  “If that were the case, I’m not sure I could use the bath anymore.” Roni gave me a wry smile.

  In reality, we’d had no issues bathing so far, and the cargo we were storing inside remained unchanged. The question of how it all actually worked remained, but I chose to not think about it too hard.

  “A parallel space for myself created by my own MP. That’s all you need to think of it as.”

  “...I see, that does work.”

  Clena seemed convinced enough. Worrying about it would get you nowhere.

  After that, we told the temple elder that we would be heading off tomorrow, and donated more coins as thanks for letting us stay.

  And then we simply relaxed in our room.

  It’d be boring to just do nothing, though, so I read the textbooks on cleric spells.

  Clena was a bookworm like me. She was reading a biography of the first sacred king that she had borrowed from the library.

  Roni was sewing. She seemed to be quite adept at it, currently mending the frayed sleeve of a shirt. The other shirt wasn’t fit to be worn anymore, so she was going to transform it into a hand towel.

  I was reading both the light textbook and the earth textbook simultaneously. I took note of any common and differing points while comparing the two. For example, the basic spell “Healing Light” was present in both books. There were more details to the shared spells in the light textbook, so it seemed smart to reference that one whenever I needed to practice.

  Incidentally, Rulitora had woken up once around noon, but he just ate his meal and went back to sleep. He woke up again for dinner, but went to sleep right after that as well.

  “Don’t you have anything to do, Rulitora?”

  “No, I’m not keeping watch or being a bodyguard today, and I can’t hunt in the city, either. I’ll stock up on sleep while I can.”

  Apparently he had nothing to do. I guess this was what you called a workaholic.

  He acted as our bodyguard in the city, so even while we were walking around town, he likely hadn’t allowed himself to relax. In that respect, the days we spent indoors were the perfect opportunities for him to catch up on rest.

  I looked over at Clena, who raised her index finger. She was telling me to keep quiet.

  When I looked over to Roni, she gave me a sweet smile and a nod.

  I had no objections. He’d been taking care of us day to day, so we were going to give him some peace and quiet today.

  Spring Bath – Great Detective Harunon

  There was a small hill in the shape of a table, enshrined by the rest of the city.

  The top of the hill was surrounded by walls, and within those walls stood a grand, chalk-colored temple that brought Greek mythology to mind. It was as if the hill itself was one giant fortress.

  You would always find the white city at the foot of the hill bustling with life. One peek inside the town meeting plaza, and you could hear lively voices discussing all sorts of matters.

  The arguments were numerous. They discussed the scarcity of this year’s wheat harvest, whether they should increase temple donations, and if they should reinforce their troops in preparation for the demon lord’s revival. The one who suggested increasing donations to the temple was a cleric from the temple of the Goddess of Light, but I digress.

  It didn’t matter if the debater was male or female. Everyone was wearing a piece of cloth over their clothing. The cloth was wrapped around their bodies and draped over one shoulder—the traditional style of wear in Athena. One could tell from the delicate embroidery on their tunics that they were all upper middle class.

  Hard labor was handled by their servants, the ravers, and they would go to work in a way that contributed to society. Such was this assembly of intellectuals called the ecclesia.

  This was the nation of the wise, Athena. They lived as ordinary middle class citizens within the capital of Athenapolis.

  Recently, one topic had grabbed the attention of all the citizens of Athena. The topic of Haruno Shinonome, who had traveled here from Jupiteropolis.

  She was currently under the care of Rium’s master, the renowned crystal mage Nartha, in a mansion in the outskirts of Athenapolis. She led the Goddess of Light Pilgrims, who had begun taking down the monsters in the surrounding area.

  The pilgrims normally were a group who traveled around, assisting anyone in need, never staying in one place. However, the pilgrims led by Haruno were her bodyguards. They were staying under Nartha’s care along with Haruno.

  They had started the monster subjugation as a means to train Haruno using real battle experience, but the citizens of Athena didn’t have to know that. For them, simply having pilgrims around to eliminate monsters was reason enough to be thankful.

  Haruno herself was kind and beautiful, showing everyone a friendly, charming smile whenever she went into town. Athena had strong faith in the Goddess of Light, and there were even whispers of her being the incarnation of the Goddess herself, despite her black hair. It was a matter of course that Haruno had become so well accepted by the citizens of Athena.

  Yet another reason for her favorable reception was her status as a Hero of the Goddess, not a Hero of the Sacred King under Jupiter’s royal family.

  At that very moment, the famed Haruno was letting out a deep sigh outside Nartha’s mansion.

  “...My Unlimited Reflection is so useless...”

  “There aren’t many monsters that use magic, after all...”

  The female cleric sitting beside her, Sera, gave her a strained smile. Haruno considered Sera her first friend in this world, but even this friend couldn’t offer her any words of encouragement right now. She swayed her body from side to side, thinking of a way to respond, her blonde hair swaying in turn.

  Haruno’s gift, Unlimited Reflection, allowed her to nullify spells and anything else that used MP. The name might imply a gift used to reflect spells, rather than just nullifying them. Unfortunately, she had yet to refine it to that extent.

  It was a powerful gift capable of blocking all attacks from opponents such as demons, but alas, the only monsters to wander near human territory were on the weaker end. Strong monsters that could use magic were a rare occurrence.

  “U-um, I heard that some monsters’ poison breath uses magic! I’m sure you’d be able to nullify that!”

  “And where would those monsters be?”

  “...Deep in the mountains, maybe?”

  Assuming monsters were even the slightest bit intelligent, they wouldn’t intentionally wander near human civilization. The strong ones lived in secluded areas away from human eyes.

  Back when the demon lord was still in good health, they had initiated an attack. But now, 500 years after the demon lord’s defeat, humans and monsters had segregated themselves, maintaining a cease fire to this day.

  “But even if you could protect you
rself from that breath, you’d still be in trouble if you get hit. If you have to fight those monsters, then you have no choice but to toughen up your body and learn the fundamentals of battle.”

  Sandra put in her two cents. She was a temple knight and one of the pilgrims, sporting long blue hair tied up into a ponytail, and a dignified aura. Thanks to her long-lasting friendship with Sera, she grew close to Haruno, and had become her personal bodyguard. Along with another close group of two, they made up the “three temple knight sisters.”

  “You’re right... I’ll take it one step at a time without rushing things.”

  Haruno wholeheartedly agreed with Sandra. She was no fool. In fact, prior to her summoning, she had been an honor student. Her smarts had carried over to this world as well, and she had decided to concentrate on steadily becoming stronger before giving in to her urges to see Touya. And so, on days off from subduing monsters, she trained her sword along with the temple knights during their stay at Nartha’s mansion.

  The yard was huge. On the west side you’d find a botanical garden, neatly filled with several types of plants. And on the east side there was an empty lawn. Looking up at the mansion from the road, you’d see that the two sides were stylistically mismatched, which had to do with the east side being crystal mage Nartha’s experiment grounds. Haruno was borrowing this space for her training.

  “I wish Rin was as well-behaved as you...”

  “Why did you have to bring me up?”

  The middle of the three sisters, Rin, grew agitated after being given the stink eye. She also belonged to the temple knights of which the pilgrim group was comprised, and had become friends with Haruno after a long friendship with Sandra. Although that long friendship mostly consisted of the ever-serious Sandra scolding Rin as she took care of her over the years. Even now, Rin’s twin braids were drooping like dog ears.

  “Now now, Sandra. Come on Rin, let’s go train together.”