A Feast in the Bathhouse to Wash Away the Fatigue (1)
"What are you three doing here?"
I blinked over and over at the unbelievable scene in front of me, staring straight ahead. Running into these familiar faces here, of all places, was the last thing I'd ever expected — and it left me thoroughly flustered.
"Came to see Solis."
Marin Light. The girl who should have been sitting in class at Purity Academy was standing right here.
She squared her shoulders and declared it proudly, like she had every right to be.
"I'm sorry. I should have stopped her, but before I knew it, I was here too..."
"I-I, I didn't come on purpose, I swear! Marin said she was going, so I just tagged along because I had to!"
Arlan hung her head in apology while Eva shouted her denial with more intensity than the situation called for. Both of them insisted Marin had dragged them along, but was it just me, or did Eva's "reluctantly dragged here" act feel a little too rehearsed?
"What about the Academy?"
"You skip class too."
"Yeah, well, I got Pallad's permission for that."
"Don't care. Not interested."
Hmph!
Marin whipped her head away and flat-out ignored me. Look at her from any angle you liked — she was sulking, plain and simple. Her expression didn't so much as twitch as she glared at me, and somehow that only made me feel guiltier.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"For leaving you behind and coming here. I'll try not to leave you alone next time."
Calmly, I placed a hand on her head and patted it, brushing away the dust of her long journey like it was nothing. Only then did her mood seem to lift; Marin closed her eyes and let herself sink into my touch.
"Fine. You're forgiven."
Her face softened, like a puppy nestled in its owner's arms. Her default setting was a blank stare, but I could read the shift in her emotions from the air around her.
No — at this point, I'd reached the level where a single glance told me exactly what she was thinking, exactly how she felt.
And that was all proof that the affection between us was quietly piling up.
We'd met for the first time at the Academy, and I'd spent my campus life by her side ever since. Less than a year had passed, yet we'd already piled up more memories than I could count — and along the way, I'd soothed the hollow ache that had sat unfilled in her chest.
Marin had once been shackled by a compulsion — the mandate that she had to choose Eva Amethyst — and she'd been so careful with me at first, even pretending not to know me when we first met.
Take Eva's place and become the God King.
But now that she had a new goal, things were different. She needed to come over to my side properly, fully — and I had to win her over more actively than ever.
She was already almost entirely mine, truth be told. Still, a little care went a long way toward keeping those feelings warm.
"So — how exactly did you three get across here?"
The only way off Dilmun was the cruise ship docked at the port. And outside of vacation season, it rarely sailed at all.
"We walked."
"What?"
"Crossed the sea on two feet."
My eyes went wide at what came out of her mouth next. Marin thumped her chest lightly with both fists, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and continued.
"Went straight across the seafloor. Ran at full power — took less than a day to get here."
"That's... actually impressive."
Magic was unusable in the ocean that wrapped around the edge of the world. That was the very reason no one could set foot on Dilmun without Pallad's blessing.
Planes, ships — the instant anything entered that sea, it lost all power and fell from the sky or sank beneath the waves. Only the cruise ship, blessed by the God King's Eye — Pallad's Divine Artifact, the relic that could rewrite the world's laws — could cross that water.
No matter how thoroughly a person coated their body in mana, walking the crushing depths of the seafloor was tantamount to suicide. But then, Marin had never been an ordinary human.
"W-we rode on Marin's back! The water pressure and breathing — this took care of everything..."
Eva cut in, pointing a finger at her own eye. The power of Pallad's Divine Artifact — the Eye of the God King, the authority capable of reestablishing the world's providence. Yeah, with that, anything was possible.
"So, to sum up: the moment I sent that message, Marin went berserk, crossed the sea, climbed over mountains, and showed up at the Sitrin estate. And Arlan and Eva got dragged along as collateral damage?"
"Yes."
"An excellent summary, Solis."
"M-mhm, that's right!"
"No wonder you three reek of fish and salt."
"..."
Their clothes were soaked through and still hadn't dried, and the sweat pouring off them like rain carried a stench strong enough to make me pinch my nose. They'd clearly been quietly self-conscious about it too — the moment the words left my mouth, they averted their eyes or began inching away from me one careful step at a time.
"Well, to be fair, I don't smell like roses myself."
I'd been trudging through dungeons hunting for Connectors and gotten drenched in the rain — I was every bit the drowned rat. Born Korean, where a shower at least once a day was basically the law, I simply could not stand feeling gross like this.
"Terre, would you lend us your bathhouse?"
"Go down one floor from here. There's a bath reserved for the family. Use that."
"Is that so? Then let's get moving."
"Got it."
"Shall we, then?"
With the head of the household's blessing granted, I waved the three of them along. Marin scampered after me like a duckling trailing its mother, and Arlan rose carefully from her chair.
"T-to, to take a bath?! With everyone here?!"
But Eva's reaction was... strange. Her face went red as a boiled beet, and she practically leapt out of her skin.
"Sh-shameless! How can you even think of dragging this many people into the bath with you!"
"What on earth are you talking about? Together?"
"Huh? You're going to drag us along, pretend to wash us, and then touch us here and there and..."
Out of Eva's mouth poured a torrent of lewd talk I could scarcely believe she was capable of producing. If Chloe had been here to witness this, it would have been quite the show.
"Um. All I meant was that we'd walk as far as the bathhouse together. There are obviously separate bathing areas for men and women, so I figured we'd wash up separately from there."
"...I'm so sorry. Please, I'm begging you, forget that ever happened."
Only then did she realize what she'd actually said, and she pleaded with me to keep it sealed forever. Well. That's one way to be struck speechless.
Arlan, who'd been watching, went as stiff as if she'd taken a hammer to the head, her thoughts grinding to a complete halt. Even Terre let out an astonished "Oho..." despite himself.
"I wouldn't mind bathing together."
Marin alone asked, serene as still water, whether we could share a bath.
"Not today. It's late, and we all need to get to sleep soon."
"...Okay."
I politely declined. My body felt fine, but mentally, the fatigue had piled up. Rest while I could — that was how I'd scheme for what came next.
A long-overdue moment of solitary bath time. I fully intended to savor it, slow and unhurried.
Regrettably, that expectation lasted all of thirty minutes.
"Hello."
"Why... why are you here?"
I ran into Marin at the baths. To be more precise: I was sweating it out in the sauna next to the bathing hall when she appeared before me, a towel wrapped around her body.
"The sauna connects both baths, apparently. Past this wall is the women's side."
"Seriously? Whoever designed this place was a certified genius."
As everyone knows, the unwritten rule after a good soak is to head straight for the sauna. My plan had been to finish with a dip in the cold bath, a brisk cold-water rubdown, and call it a night — and then this "incident" happened.
"Solis. You're hard."
"Ah, this? It's been a while since I've, you know, taken care of business."
While I'd been running around helping Terre secure his succession, I hadn't had the spare attention. But the moment everything wrapped up, my body started sending very insistent signals. A man needs it once a day as it is — I'd been holding out for days. The result was inevitable.
And the icing on the cake: a woman who would grant my every request with a single word was standing right beside me, completely defenseless. That was exactly why I'd refused earlier — I was afraid of ending up like this.
"If you want it, just say so. I'll take care of it."
"..."
Pretending to look away, Marin sidled up close against my side. A beauty carved from marble. Sweat trickled down her porcelain-pale skin, gilding it with a glossy sheen.
The rivulets flowed smooth and unhurried along every curve of her body, and my gaze snagged on them helplessly, tracing their path again and again.
Hold it together.
A man has his principles. I would not, absolutely not, take back what I'd said—
"Hot."
Just as I opened my mouth to refuse, Marin used the heat as her excuse and loosened her towel. The swollen peaks of her nipples, the swell of her breasts — small, yes, but shapely and lovely — and I swallowed hard.
Grr. I can't take this.
Wham!
I threw oaths and principles to the wind and pulled her into my arms.
Smack, shwap!
"Hngh... hah..."
I pressed her against the wall and leaned in, kissing her deeply. Tongues entwined, saliva mingling in a riotous dance — and Marin accepted my embrace with utter composure, as if she'd been waiting for exactly this.
"Solis. No patience."
"You're the one who seduced me — where do you get off saying that?"
"Never seduced you. Only slid my towel down."
"Doing that in front of a man is literally the definition of seduction, you little menace."
Thud!
I laid her down on the floor, taking care all the while not to hurt the girl in my arms. Sliiip.
The towel she'd been wearing came undone and scattered, leaving her nudity laid completely bare. Her body spread across that towel was a delicacy arranged on a sumptuous table, inviting the feast.
"So — you're sure about this?"
I'd held back plenty by now. Letting a woman throw herself at me and not devouring her went against everything I believed in.
But I had no taste for forcing anyone into something they didn't want, so I made a point of asking. Marin looked straight into my burning eyes and answered.
"Yes. I'm sure."
Marin's permission was granted. She was trying so hard to answer calmly — but underneath it all, an eagerness leaked through, urgency that felt like a plea to hurry.
"I'm ready whenever you are."