098. Mixed Bathing (2)
098. Mixed Bathing (2)
※ This chapter contains a somewhat explicit illustration. Please keep that in mind before reading.
Origin Liquid.
It was an aqueous solution of specially treated Blue Superphase Substance, and it had no particular effect on the human body.
It was essentially just very viscous water.
Origin Liquid showed its true value when it came into contact with a biodroid.
For a biodroid possessing Beta Phase power, Origin Liquid acted as a sort of contact anesthetic; the body and mind of a biodroid touched by Origin Liquid would relax.
Beyond simple contact, if a biodroid submerged their entire body, they fell into a kind of suspended animation.
The body of a biodroid who fell asleep in that manner was perfectly preserved.
Therefore, Origin Liquid was generally used as a preservation fluid for the long-term storage of fully manufactured biodroid bodies.
It could also be used therapeutically to recover from fatigue.
Instead of shutting down consciousness and fully submerging the body, a biodroid could take only a half-body bath while remaining conscious.
The method we were attempting was the latter: a half-body bath.
If we carried out an Origin Liquid half-body bath, Alicia's body and mind would forcibly relax so she could finally get some 'rest.'
That should trigger the degrader and lower the stats that had shown absolutely no sign of falling.
Origin Liquid was surprisingly not very expensive.
As for the time required, well, I would have to see how things went, but one or two hours should be enough.
In short, it sounded like an incredibly simple solution, and it actually was.
Except for one thing: a condition so minor it could be ignored depending on the circumstances.
—To take an Origin Liquid half-body bath, Alicia had to get in with me.
"Why does it have such an absurd restriction attached to it?"
"Because you like me too much."
"I am not in the mood for jokes."
"It's not a joke."
It was not a joke; the fact that Alicia liked me too much was genuinely the problem.
"......What do you mean?"
"So, basically."
As I had mentioned before, Origin Liquid put biodroids to sleep.
However, that 100% efficacy only applied to an empty-shell biodroid without a phase-resonating partner.
For a biodroid who already had a commander, like Alicia, the effect was minimal. The stronger influence of the Alpha Phase emitted by her commander created a kind of resistance to the phase pressure of Origin Liquid.
In that sense, Alicia was currently at:
[Phase Resonance Rate with Commander: 87%]
Yeah.
As you can see, her 'Commander's phase is so good, every other phase can get lost' meter was sitting at 87%.
There was no way an Origin Liquid half-body bath would work like this.
"If that is the case, shouldn't we simply sever the phase resonance?"
"How would we sever it?"
"......How do we sever it?"
Apparently Alicia didn't know much about this part either.
That was because this girl had lived almost without paying attention to phase resonance rates, due to her independent action skill.
So, while I was at it, I explained it properly: once the Phase Resonance Rate crossed a certain threshold—about 60%—it could no longer be severed at will.
One would have to send her to the manufacturer and have them mess with her brain, but no matter what, that was not something to be done.
"......Even so, what difference does it make if you, Commander, enter the bath with me?"
"It makes a difference. If I enter with you, the resistance to the drug's effects will be lowered by that much."
"Why on earth would it be lowered?"
"I don't really know the details of that. Anyway, that's what the manual says."
When I pulled out that unbeatable cheat code, Alicia let out a thoroughly defeated sigh.
Then, after a long pause, she said:
"Fine."
"......What's fine?"
"I am telling you that you may proceed with the proposed Plan B."
Huh.
"Are you serious? You'd have to share a bath with me for over an hour."
She wasn't having some naive thought that we could enter wearing clothes, was she?
In case that was what she was thinking, I told her in advance: at least once inside the bath, everything had to come off.
Because if you wore clothes, the minimal phase power emanating from them would interfere and reduce the drug's efficacy.
"I had roughly guessed as much."
"And you still want to do it?"
"......I never said I want to do it. Please be careful with your word choice."
Alicia pointed this out, sounding a bit heated, and then continued.
"More than that, do I even have a choice in this matter? Plan A failed, so isn't proceeding to Plan B the only option?"
"Well. I was hoping you'd come to your senses here and declare, 'I will try resting properly this time'."
"Is there a reason to go that far?"
"There is. You have personal feelings for me."
"Personal feelings?"
"You know. Like how in that distress log last time, you seemed to have developed a romantic interest in me...."
......I realized it in the middle of saying it.
That statement just now was a significant slip of the tongue.
Because I had read that log without Alicia's permission, entirely on my own.
I had kept it a secret all this time, but it slipped out unconsciously.
There was no taking those words back now.
Because Alicia had turned bright red and was shouting.
"H-how did you......?!"
How did I read it? I just read it.
You accidentally saved it to the Krädel cloud data, so I read it.
I had opened and read it without even knowing what kind of file it was, wondering what it could be.
So in a way, you could call it Alicia's own fault.
"If you knew it was saved by mistake, shouldn't you have stopped reading it?! No, more than that, how did you read that and interpret it as me having a romantic interest in you, Commander?"
"Because no matter how you read it, that's how it reads."
First of all, wasn't that the case for you yourself? Saying my scent was so nice. Saying you felt I was lovable.
"That is entirely wrong......!"
Alicia burst out yelling.
"Let me be perfectly clear: I have absolutely no personal feelings for you, Commander. Far from it, I do not even see you as a man."
"Look, having a romantic interest isn't some huge or strange thing."
"Whether I show you my naked body or not, I will not feel a speck of excitement or embarrassment! I might as well use this opportunity to prove it to you through the mixed bath......!"
Alicia declared, completely ignoring what I said.
I was dumbfounded.
"No, I think you'll regret it if you decide that impulsively."
"I am not impulsive. I am calm. I am telling you more calmly than anyone, that I have so little interest in you, Commander, that I will not be shaken in the slightest even if I show you my naked body."
"You're not calm at a——"
"More importantly, isn't this the last procedure before the re-enactment experiment? The next step will be activating the Telescope. And when that happens, I'll have to endure the worst feeling imaginable—taking your 'thing' into me, Commander. Having already resolved myself to that, I have no reason to fear something as trivial as a mixed bath."
Hmm.
It seemed this girl's signature 'stubbornness of a kind the person herself is completely unaware of' had activated.
The activation keyword was apparently 'having the fact that she has a romantic interest in Han Si-hu pointed out.'
So, under normal circumstances, I would have stopped Alicia here.
'......Is there a need to do that at this timing?'
For me, going with Plan B was much more convenient than Plan A.
I had assumed Alicia would never accept Plan B, so I had avoided even bringing it up out of concern that the moment I explained it, she might report me to the military for sexual harassment through abuse of rank.
However, Alicia was currently volunteering to jump into the mixed bath plan herself.
There was no need for me to step up and stop her.
I also wondered if this was really something to make such a huge fuss over in the first place.
No, no, I wasn't trying to downplay the implications of a mixed bath between a man and a woman. It was certainly a delicate and embarrassing matter.
But, how should I put it.
Alicia and I had already overcome many obstacles together.
For example...... we had drunk together.
She had stubbornly insisted she could handle things alone, and I had witnessed her collapse with a fever.
I had nursed her back to health.
On top of that, I had also seen her in a bunny girl outfit and a maid outfit.
In that state, she had climbed onto my back, and we had fallen asleep huddled close together in a single tent.
No, in the first place, I had even caught a glimpse of her bathing once before.
I had been utterly scorned at that time, but.
Anyway, regardless, what I wanted to say was this.
We were not at a stage where we would get embarrassed over something as trivial as this.
Especially Alicia; she was much more mature than the other girls.
With a perfectly reasonable work-related justification, perhaps Alicia and I could both handle it matter-of-factly.
I had that hope, however briefly——
"......."
"......."
As expected, it really was mortifying.
This thing called mixed bathing between a man and a woman.
***
No, perhaps it really could have been fine.
If only Krädel's bath had been just a little bit bigger.
I hadn't exactly expected a super-sized public bathhouse tub. If it had only been large enough for two people to sit separately, that would have been enough.
If that were the case, we would simply be sharing the same space, with no particular reason to be conscious of each other.
We could have sat there melting our brains over boring short-form videos on our PDAs, then left together once Alicia's stats had fallen enough.
However, reality was far from the ideal.
Krädel's bath was absurdly small.
It was so small that it was actually cramped for even one person to fully fit inside.
There was only one way for two people to enter such a micro-sized tub at the same time.
For one person to climb on top of the other.