The Women's Bath Is More Dangerous Than a Duel
The rain didn't last long.
The roar of the downpour dwindled, then died completely. The sky reclaimed its blue as if nothing at all had happened.
But at the Training Ground, plenty had happened.
Water pooled across the floor. Students stood dripping from head to toe, murmuring among themselves.
"Did you just see that?"
"She blocked the Red Dragon's Breath."
"What kind of magic was that?"
"Where did those clouds even come from?"
Questions flew from every direction. I wanted to know the answers myself. I looked down at the Yeouiju, but the blue pearl simply glowed with quiet innocence, as if it had nothing to do with any of this.
I had thought that putting out fire required water. So water had risen, and rain had fallen. That was as far as I could explain it. If someone told me to do it again, I couldn't. Probably.
Yet a different light had entered the students' eyes. The weird new student with no wings, no Breath, and a Dragon Heart she carried around outside her body—now had one more label attached.
The new student who blocked a Red Dragon's Breath.
I liked that last one a lot more than the first three. My shoulders straightened a little without my noticing.
Erika's red hair looked even more vivid soaked through with water. Lydia's golden cloak hung limp and heavy. Selene's notebook had half-absorbed a small lake of its own. The sight of that notebook made me instinctively look away.
That thing is dangerous.
The problem wasn't the wet paper. The problem was the fresh list of my crimes currently being written inside it.
The lunatic who walks around with her Dragon Heart on the outside. And the one who flooded the Training Ground on day one of enrollment.
Ah. My collection of labels was growing way too fast. At this rate my nicknames would be longer than my actual name before graduation.
"Cheongha."
Erika approached, sweeping wet hair back from her face. She looked so brightly cheerful it was hard to believe this was the same dragon who'd been spewing Breath minutes earlier. Why did she look so happy when her own fire had just been snuffed out? Red Dragon logic truly defied understanding.
"Next time, let's have a proper duel."
"No."
The answer came out faster than I expected. Erika blinked.
"We haven't even set a date yet."
"Setting a date would only make me hate it more."
"Today I was just checking what you can do. Next time we'll both prepare and fight for real."
"Preparing won't suddenly grow me wings or let me breathe fire."
"But you can make it rain."
I had nothing to say to that. I still had no idea how I'd made it rain. Yet there wasn't a shred of doubt in Erika's voice. She looked at me as if she fully believed I could do it again.
It was burdensome. And yet, just a little, it felt good.
I had blocked a Red Dragon's Breath. I didn't know the method, but the result remained.
"Official duels between first-years require a formal application to the student council."
Selene cut in, still holding her soaked notebook. Erika nodded.
"I'll submit it tomorrow."
"Why is the process already moving forward?"
"Absolutely not."
Lydia approached. Her voice was as soft as ever. The problem was that softness felt more terrifying than anger right now. If she got mad, at least I could make excuses. When she worried, there was no escape.
"Miss Cheongha, are you all right?"
"Yes. Perfectly fine."
I said it. And immediately sneezed.
"Achoo."
Silence settled over us.
I'm doomed. The credibility of that last line just died a horrible death.
Worse, everyone else was fine, yet I was the only one sneezing from the rain I myself had summoned. The injustice burned.
Lydia's brows lowered by the tiniest fraction. I could almost hear the Saintess's worry mode switching on.
"You got soaked for far too long."
"We all got soaked together."
"You were standing out there the longest."
"Well, I was the one who called it."
"That's exactly why I'm more worried."
I had no counterargument. I had called it. I had taken the full brunt of it.
Lydia carefully pushed her wet hair back over one shoulder.
"It's late, and if you go back like this you might catch a cold." She paused, then added, "Let's wash up first."
"What?"
"There's an academy hot spring nearby. Students often go there after using the Training Ground."
Hot spring. Wet clothes. Late hour. Otome game.
Warning sirens blared inside my skull.
This is bad. This is definitely an event. There is no game on earth that doesn't plant a fanservice bath scene somewhere.
"I'm fine, really."
"You don't look fine."
"I am genuinely fine."
When the Saintess got firm, her persuasiveness somehow became terrifying. But this was not a hill I could surrender.
Just because I'd been TS'd didn't mean my previous life's ethical brakes vanished overnight. Even if this body was female, a women's bath was still a women's bath. The hurdle was far too high.
"I'll just wash up at the dormitory."
"You want to walk all the way back soaked?"
"I'll run."
"And if you fall?"
"I won't fall."
Lydia quietly took my hand. It was warm. Even soaked with rain, it was strangely warm.
"Truthfully... I've wanted to visit the academy hot spring for a while now."
"Is the academy hot spring that famous?"
"Yes. Famous enough that word has spread outside the school. But going alone felt a little awkward." She lowered her gaze, looking almost shy. "So I hoped that if I made a friend, we could go together."
Friend.
That single word stabbed cleanly between my ribs.
That's dirty. When the original game's healer heroine says "friend" with that face, who the hell refuses?
"Were we already friends?"
I made one last desperate attempt at resistance. Lydia tilted her head.
"I thought we were."
It was over. The choice had vanished.
"It's all right." Lydia gently patted my hand. "I'll be right beside you."
No. That's the problem.
The words rose as far as my throat and sank back down. And so I was dragged along by Lydia.
Erika laughed loudly behind us.
"Sounds fun. Next time I'll come too."
"Don't you dare!"
I shouted with genuine conviction. If the Red Dragon princess joined, it wouldn't be a hot spring anymore. It would be a boss rush.
Selene carefully blotted her wet notebook and muttered,
"Moving to hot spring sector. Saintess accompanying. Continued observation required."
"Do not observe me!"
"Updating the list of students requiring special attention."
"Why?!"
"There are too many reasons. Omitted for brevity."
It was unfair. Unfair, and I had zero material for a rebuttal. A first-year who summoned rain and turned the Training Ground into a swimming pool on her first day of school—if the student council president just let that go, that would be dereliction of duty.
Drakenheim Academy's hot spring sat behind the Training Ground. A massive stone building. An ancient dragon crest was carved above the entrance.
Dragon Spring Hall.
Even the name was painfully on the nose. Sometimes this world liked to mock me.
After finishing the introductions, Lydia led me all the way to the changing room door. Clutching the Yeouiju tight against my chest, I stared at the sign.
The changing room entrance. Above the door it was written with perfect clarity:
Women's Bath
The transmigration correction made the characters far too easy to read.
"Miss Cheongha?"
"Lydia."
"Yes?"
"Would it be all right if I turned around and left from here?"
"No."
Instant answer.
"I'm extremely tired."
"If you sleep while wet you'll catch a cold. Warming your body with hot water would be best."
"My dormitory shower is waiting for me."
"A shower is not a living creature."
"I need to escape this place!"
"I'm holding your hand, so you can't leave."
Why was this Saintess only this firm with me? In the original work, Lydia Aurelia was the gentle healer kind to everyone. The Lydia standing in front of me now looked exactly like a mother dealing with a child who refused to take a bath.
In the end I was dragged inside.
The changing room was quieter than expected. Because of the late hour, almost no other students were present. Small mercies.
Lydia unfastened her wet cloak. I spun my head away so I wouldn't see. More precisely, I stared exclusively at the ceiling. As of today I was an architecture student.
"Miss Cheongha, why are your eyes so wide while staring only at the ceiling?"
"The ceiling is pretty."
"Is it really?"
"Yes. I've developed an interest in dragon architectural styles."
"You showed no such interest until a moment ago."
"It just appeared."
Lydia laughed softly.
Don't laugh. I am in survival mode.
I stripped off my soaked clothes as fast as humanly possible. This body still felt foreign. Small. Light. With a tail. Horns on my head. The reflection in the mirror looked nothing like the me I knew—and yet, strangely, not completely like a stranger either.
Maybe I'd been through too much since morning. My brain seemed to be starting to accept reality. Whether that was a good or bad development, I had no idea.
Because it was my own body, there was oddly no reaction. It was just... flat. Something stirred faintly somewhere deep inside, but even that felt like it might have been milder than the old Kim Cheong-yong version of me.
The problem wasn't my assessment of my own body. Intellectually I understood. Right now I was Cheongha. On paper, in appearance, and by this world's standards, I was female. Therefore being in this place was not a rules violation.
But my interior was still Kim Cheong-yong. Thirty-year-old lifelong virgin. The only female hands I'd ever held were my kindergarten partner's and my mother's. The hardware had been completely swapped, yet the software for shame still ran on the previous generation. And that outdated software was currently throwing nonstop warning pop-ups.
Especially about Saintess Lydia. That was dangerous. I had zero confidence I could maintain rational thought after seeing those... ample reservoirs of compassion. If I made a mistake here? It was over. Another label would attach itself next to my name.
The lunatic who carries her heart outside her body on day one. The weirdo who summoned rain over the Training Ground. The suspicious first-year who nosebled and collapsed in the women's bath.
The third one was fatal. I had to avoid it at all costs.
I considered the escape option. But the door was behind me, and Lydia was right beside me. I could open the door and walk through it. I could not walk through Lydia's worried gaze. And bolting out of here would create its own problem:
The suspicious first-year who fled from the women's bath entrance.
That label was almost as lethal. In the end there was only one answer.
See nothing. Remember nothing. Go nowhere.
From this moment on I was a blind monk. I had not entered a hot spring; I was standing beneath a mountain waterfall. Even if the fact that the location was a women's bath already made the difficulty of this training hellfire itself.
So I closed my eyes. Perfect solution. Block the field of vision. Block the information. Prevent the accident.
Eyes squeezed shut, I took one step forward—and immediately staggered.
"Miss Cheongha." Lydia's voice reached me. "If you walk with your eyes closed, you'll fall."
"I won't fall. When I was little, my hobby was becoming a blind monk and roaming the jungle."
"That's a very unique hobby, but I think you should refrain from practicing it in the bathhouse."
"..."
"It's all right. Open your eyes."
It is not all right. It is really not all right.
But Lydia's voice was far too reassuring—soft in the way one soothes a small child. That softness defeated me again. Very slowly, I opened my eyes.
And I saw her.
Lydia Aurelia. Gold Dragon Saintess. The calm, endlessly compassionate main heroine of the healer route. That setting description was not limited to personality.
Even covered by a towel, the sheer overwhelming presence could not be hidden. The broad-minded, all-embracing heart that once moved even the most toxic gallery trolls to tears clearly originated right here. Even a monk would open his eyes if he could see this, wouldn't he?
In that instant my brain stopped. Previous-life ethics and current-life situation collided head-on. Morality and otome-game fanservice seized each other by the collar inside my skull.
Conclusion: system overload.
My nose grew hot. A red droplet hit the floor.
Drip.
Lydia's eyes went wide.
"Miss Cheongha?"
I stared into empty air.
Hey. Kim Cheong-yong. Did you make it?
I could almost hear the gallery users of my previous life asking. I answered inwardly.
I don't know about making it. But it was a good life.
No. A good dragon life?
I squeezed out the last of my strength and spoke.
"It was a good..."
"Yes?"
"...dragon life..."
With those words, my vision tilted. The floor rushed closer. Lydia's voice grew distant.
"Miss Cheongha!"
Ah. Looks like I'd earned yet another title.
The suspicious first-year who nosebled and collapsed in the women's bath.
On the first day of enrollment at Drakenheim Academy, I suffered a complete and utter defeat in a hot spring event far more dangerous than any duel.