097. Mixed Bathing (1)
097. Mixed Bathing (1)
Honestly, I thought it was a failed cosplay.
It wasn't that the look was wrong. Just visually, including the chest, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Beatrice from the illustrations had been copied and pasted directly into reality.
It was just, how should I put it... the characterization was a bit off.
In the novel, Beatrice was an elegant, kind, gentle character with her femininity practically maxed out.
Rinne had specifically described her as a soothing heroine who always wore a soft, cheerful smile.
But Alicia merely had the same outward appearance as Beatrice; her facial expressions were far too different.
Not a soft, cheerful smile... more like, how should I put it? A slow seethe?
Yeah. Seething.
A venomous expression with malice and dissatisfaction practically seeping out of it.
While sitting there with her legs crossed, she would glare at customers who identified her with the Beatrice from the erotic doujinshi as if they were disgusting.
Zero points for characterization accuracy.
So wouldn't she deserve a low rating? That was what I, not being an otaku, had thought.
And yet, somehow, the customers were swarming.
It had gotten to the point where I doubted whether this was the same booth that had been dead just moments ago.
I couldn't understand it.
"Why is it selling so well...?"
If you considered exposure, the cosplayer at the booth opposite was showing more.
I couldn't judge how well she played the character since I hadn't read the original, but at the very least, her customer service was friendly.
When a customer approached, she would greet them with a warm "Welcome~" and hand over items with both hands, never forgetting to say "Thank you for your purchase~" with a smile that reached her eyes.
But this side?
—Hey there, sir. You buying or not?
—How many copies?
—If you've bought them all, stop standing there staring and get lost.
Setting aside how completely she was butchering the characterization, her customer service was blatantly awful.
Why in the world?
"They must think it's a concept."
"Excuse me?"
"As you said, subtly missing the original characterization could lower the rating. But look—the Beatrice Alicia is playing is a full 180-degree reversal of the original. She comes across like a dark version of the character, right? To customers, she doesn't look genuinely rude so much as deliberately playing a sharp-tongued maid persona."
"Sharp-tongued maid?"
"Yes. Simply put, it's a character type who speaks roughly, but in reality is desperately in love with her master. Ah, to be more precise, it would be more accurate to say she projects her dissatisfaction with herself—for loving her master so much—onto her master, while she still hasn't accepted the fact that she likes him.
"Even so, the fact that she is clearly of lower status than her master gives the reader a sense of security, while simultaneously, her resistance to the obedience expected of a maid makes the character feel more flexible.
"In short, it's a configuration like a familiar, dependable comfort food—frequently used but still beloved. So the fanbase is also solid. There are even people who pay money to be verbally abused by such maid biodroids. For reference, I've paid for it too.
"Overall, Alicia's cosplay is perfect. More than that, her talent for cosplay is honestly a little frightening."
"Ah, yes...."
I didn't really get it, but apparently, something about it resonated with otaku.
I decided to just accept that explanation and move on.
About three hours passed like that.
The erotic doujinshi Behind the Cradle, which had been on the verge of becoming kindling because it could not even be donated to a library, sold out completely.
Rinne, who belatedly escaped the photo line and visited the booth, was satisfied as well.
At least as far as she was concerned, I could say without hesitation that she had enjoyed a 100-point vacation.
...The problem was that our goal hadn't been to satisfy Rinne.
I had inserted myself into Rinne's schedule to teach Alicia what a proper vacation looked like, but we had ended up focusing on entirely the wrong thing.
As a result, Alicia, who had spent three hours enduring cosplay customer service labor she never wanted to do——
"Your stats went up again."
Her Emotion Control had risen from C-rank to C+ rank.
We'd tried to fix one problem and only ended up making it worse. That idiom must have been made for situations like this.
"...This is hardly the time to make leisurely comments as though it were someone else's problem, is it?"
"Don't worry. I planned all of this fully expecting it."
It had been a situation where getting proper rest during Rinne's vacation was obviously hopeless.
In that case, I had decided it was better to at least help Rinne.
"As I said earlier, there are plenty of other vacation applicants besides Rinne."
Everyone except Alicia had submitted vacation requests.
I was planning to have Alicia participate in every vacation, with the consent of the people involved.
Surely, within a few days, Alicia's stats would drop back to their previous levels.
After all, it was highly unlikely that work would pop up at every vacation spot, making it impossible for her to experience any rest whatsoever.
...'Highly unlikely' always comes back to bite you.
***
Why was this happening?
I didn't know exactly why, but work popped up everywhere we went.
For example, Eve's vacation, which we accompanied next after Rinne's.
Following her request to visit a PC bang, I took her to one in a shopping district not far from Krädel.
And just as I was about to lecture Alicia on the good points of gaming—— suddenly, some rough-looking biodroids swarmed toward our seats.
One of them rasped out a question.
—Are you the 'Absolute Sovereign Cheonwolhyangv' who just took my item and ran?
Apparently someone had pulled some dirty play in the game.
But then, Eve fired back with all the swagger of an elementary schooler who came to the arcade with dependable older siblings from the neighborhood.
—Oh-ho. So you're the pathetic scrub I utterly crushed last round.
Of course, I had no intention of taking Eve's side.
More than that, I had no way to take her side. The opponents were biodroids, after all.
In the end, it was only with Alicia's help that I barely managed to stop the fight.
And even that was on the condition that I scolded Eve in front of them. (Well, I would have scolded her even without that condition.)
Right after that attempted real-life showdown ended, we were immediately kicked out of the PC bang.
In that process, Alicia, naturally enough, hadn't gotten a single bit of rest.
More than that, her combat power had slightly increased.
The next vacation, with Sumire, was an even bigger headache.
The vacation spot Sumire had applied for was the nation's largest used parts mall, located in Metropolis. Commonly known as 'Recycle Heaven.'
Recycle Heaven was lined with all sorts of rare items you'd never find at the small-scale parts shops near Krädel.
Sumire had applied for a rare trip away from base with grand plans to browse those unusual items to her heart's content and, if the chance came up, snag some bargains.
In that sense, she had brought out every bit of savings she had meticulously accumulated——
—Huh?
—What's wrong?
—No. Just now, right after I bumped into that person... it feels like my bag suddenly got lighter....
Yeah.
She had been pickpocketed before we even stepped through the entrance of Recycle Heaven.
For reference, we couldn't report it to the police.
Because the victim, Sumire, was still officially a deserter.
If reporting it exposed that we were criminals too, we would be right back where we started.
Even if we reported it under my name, it didn't seem like it would mean much. Crimes in Recycle Heaven, a high-crime area stuck right next to the slums, weren't properly investigated most of the time anyway.
In the end, our only remaining option was to take matters into our own hands.
In that sense, the one suited to chase down the pickpocket, presumed to be a biodroid, was——
—Are you telling me to work again...?!
—Ugh... I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Leaving the apologizing Sumire behind as she bowed her head, Alicia set out in pursuit.
So, well.
Thanks to Alicia's relentless pursuit, we caught the culprit and got the money back.
However, by that time, it had gotten close to the military police patrol times I had checked in advance.
In the end, all we had accomplished all day was running around to catch a pickpocket, and we returned to headquarters with nothing else.
...Ah, it wasn't that we had accomplished absolutely nothing. As a result of running around for several hours, Alicia's Sprinting Power stat had risen from A-rank to A+ rank.
Following that, Laika's vacation, which we accompanied next, was truly the icing on the cake.
And not in a good way.
So, well....
Laika had chosen the newly opened mega-aquarium in Marine City for her vacation.
It was so she could see an ocean sunfish in person, which had become her favorite fish ever since she started raising them.
The problem was that this newly built aquarium had planned a permanent exhibition not only of ordinary fish but also of marine Legions for the first time in the world.
...No, no, even exhibiting Legions was fine.
The display Legions were practically stuffed specimens—weak F-Ranks from the outset, half-dead and stripped of almost all their phase power.
There was no way an incident could occur where they would break out of a well-equipped exhibition space by their own power and harm people.
Unless someone deliberately released them.
...And you might have guessed by this point.
—Ah, ah, mic test.
—As of this moment, we are taking over this aquarium.
They really showed up.
Humans who deliberately released the Legions.
—Ah, now that I think about it, we forgot to introduce ourselves.
—We are the pro-Legion group defending Legion rights, Save the Legion!
—From now on, we shall grant salvation to all Legions captured, imprisoned, and abused by wicked mankind...!
In short, some lunatic terrorist group had smashed up the aquarium and released the Legions.
Of course, the exhibition hall had its own security forces.
But the security force had been organized for incidents involving one or two escaped Legions. They did not seem equipped to handle a mass breakout caused by terrorists.
At this rate, it was obvious that at least a few people would die or get injured.
—Laika, Alicia, let's lend a hand.
Laika, of course, responded enthusiastically.
Because the sudden occupation of the aquarium meant she couldn't see the ocean sunfish she had so desperately wanted to.
As for Alicia, well, she wasn't so cold-blooded as to stand by idly when people were about to die.
In the end, the two of them joined the battle together.
They managed to subdue the Legions and the terrorists without major casualties.
Thanks to that, we even received a certificate of appreciation and a reward from the exhibition hall director, but....
That only pushed us even farther from our goal, because Alicia's stats had risen yet again.
It wasn't exactly surprising.
When you thought about it, this had been her first real combat against Legions.
Stats heavily influenced by real combat experience were bound to grow rapidly.
...That being said.
"So, what do we do now?"
Well, now.
That was what I wanted to ask.
What should we do from now on?
How was I supposed to teach a workaholic who somehow found work everywhere she went what a vacation was?
...I didn't know for sure, but it seemed unlikely that the method of tagging along on other people's vacations would solve this.
Because there was no one left to go on vacation together with.
No, more than that.
If only adverse effects were occurring even after doing this much, maybe it was time to revise the overall strategy itself.
In other words, we would abandon the straightforward approach of having her rest on her own and letting her stats fall naturally over a day or two.
Instead, we would move on to Plan B—a workaround bordering on a shortcut.
"There was a Plan B?"
"There was. From the very beginning."
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner? If you had, we could have switched cleanly to Plan B as soon as Eve's vacation went off the rails."
Well, now.
I doubt it.
Because there's no such thing in the world as a Plan B that's better than Plan A.
No, more than that, actually, both Plan B and Plan A shared the same foundation.
Both were methods of activating the degrader to lower Alicia's stats.
If there was a difference in Plan B, it was the method of activating that degrader.
Previously, I had tried to lower her stats gradually through "natural rest."
But Plan B would replace natural rest with semi-forced rest.
And that semi-forced rest was—maybe Alicia had already noticed—
"An Origin Liquid half-body bath."
"Origin Liquid...?"
"A special solution used for the long-term preservation of biodroid bodies."
"I know that, but what do you mean by doing a half-body bath with it?"
Exactly what it sounds like.
Roughly submerging your body up to shoulder height in Origin Liquid.
"...And doing that activates the degrader?"
"Of course."
Origin Liquid was like an anesthetic that put biodroids to sleep.
A biodroid submerged in it felt an extreme sense of stability and rested physically and mentally.
Because of that, Origin Liquid half-body baths were often prescribed for biodroids suffering from severe combat fatigue.
...Again, I said often. It wasn't an especially recommended treatment.
Because resting in Origin Liquid caused the body to relax excessively, resulting in rapid stat loss.
Alicia's case was a little different, though.
She was actively trying to lose stats, after all.
"As you say, it looks like an incredibly simple measure with no downside for me whatsoever. In that sense, why was the Origin Liquid half-body bath Plan B and not Plan A? Is there a specific reason?"
There was.
Three of them, in fact.
First, because I had never imagined Alicia was such a workaholic idiot that she found it this hard to follow an order to rest for a single day.
"...I understand that. What are the other two reasons?"
"The other one was a matter of my mindset as a commander."
I had boasted to Alicia that I would 'teach her a proper vacation.'
Having said that, I couldn't bring myself to give up midway.
I wanted to teach my unit member a truly proper vacation...!
To me, pouring out my passionate sincerity, Alicia replied in a cold voice, as if completely uninterested.
"I will take that to mean the sunk-cost fallacy made you cling to a completely useless course of action."
"That's harsh."
"So, what is the last reason?"
"...The last one isn't a big deal."
I let out a deep sigh.
"If we choose Plan B, I have to do it together with you."
"Excuse me?"
A moment later, Alicia blinked and asked.
"What do you mean? Together... you have to?"
What else could it mean?
"I'm saying we have to bathe together."
You and me.
Holding hands tightly, we go in together.
Into the Origin Liquid bath.