A Drink After a Bath Is Special (Revised)
A Drink After a Bath Is Special (Revised)
The bathwater was adjusted to a suitable temperature.
I tied my hair up with a towel. It was something I had seen long-haired women do before getting into a bath.
So I tried it myself, and... well, not bad.
Right after returning from the territory, my body had been a complete wreck. It was because I had spent two weeks in a cramped, stuffy space with the fox beastmen. There was more than one spot on me that felt grimy.
Obviously, a bath was essential. That part wasn't the problem.
The problem lay elsewhere.
"You can come in."
I had nothing on but a single towel. Seeing Rote seated on the bottom of the bath gave me a complicated and subtle feeling. I asked, letting a hint of complaint creep into my voice like a child whining about side dishes.
"Do we really have to wash together?"
"It's a waste of water otherwise."
Rote let out a little laugh. That was some spirit of thrift.
"And I wanted to take our time talking with you. I mean, we just saw each other for the first time in a while, right? We should catch up on old times sooner rather than later."
Rote spoke boldly and dipped her foot into the tub. I let out a sigh as well and slowly entered the water after her.
"But why did you go into the Count's study before coming in here?"
"Oh, I had a brief word to discuss with Father."
"Hmm."
We sat facing each other a short distance apart. When I glanced sideways at the other side, a faint silhouette was visible beneath the steaming water. My friend's graceful, shapely legs were impossible to hide even through the water.
I slipped the towel on my head down a little to block my own view.
"What are you suddenly doing?"
"Dispelling worldly desires."
What was the real motive behind my doing something like this?
Saying it was because my mind was still male was a shabby excuse. I had spent years in this body by now. I was not so naive that I would panic at the sight of a woman's naked body at this point.
We were all adults anyway, weren't we? We were at an age where we knew everything there was to know, so what. So logically, this was simply a matter of decorum—in other words, mere manners.
And so, this was an action born from a more primal emotion. I had never bathed with anyone before in my life. Obviously not in a public bathhouse, but I also had zero experience washing with my family.
Because of that, exposing my body to another person was deeply uncomfortable for me. If I had to describe it, yes. It was due to a feeling of awkwardness.
Anyway, to minimize that discomfort, I had borrowed a long towel from a maid and covered my body.
Wrapping a white towel around myself like this, covering from the top of my chest down to the adductor muscles, at least helped me feel some peace of mind. I submerged my mouth up to the level of the water in the tub and blew bubbles.
Trickle, trickle.
Warm water poured from the mouth of a statue shaped like a lion. Perhaps because it was a noble mansion, even the scale of the bathroom was extraordinary. The width was clearly in a different dimension from the standard-grade tubs seen in ordinary households.
As I stared blankly into the air, Rote took a bath additive from a basket and opened it.
"This is something my family makes. You take unlignified Rosemary branches, break them off, and preserve them well with vinegar. They give off a fairly decent scent."
"Not bad."
A subtle and refreshing fragrance brushed the tip of my nose. It seemed some ingredients like mint or jasmine had been mixed in as well.
Having finished opening the bath additive, Rote tucked her hair back from her temple and stretched her feet forward. It was the posture of someone who wanted to have a 'serious conversation' with me.
She brought up the subject in earnest.
"Did you manage all right while you were in the Beastkin Federation?"
"Mm, so-so."
"What were you doing there that took so long?"
It was a tricky question to answer truthfully. But lying to such an honest friend also felt uncomfortable.
There was a useful method for times like this. The so-called 'I am not technically lying' strategy.
"In the place where the beastmen live, there was a friend I've known for a very long time. I went to see how they were doing, just for a short visit."
That the friend was Frey was a secret. The kid's identity had to be known by as few people as possible.
"Originally, I was planning to meet my friend, pick up some shopping nearby, and come back. You know, that famous Mana Cigarette brand the beastmen sell."
"I see. Then what was that talk last time about your hometown?"
"Huh?"
"You said there was a place beyond Pitchblende Mountain where you were born. Since it's the break, I assumed you had gone back to your hometown."
Ah, right. I definitely had said that.
It was a story from the first day after we arrived here. While looking at Pitchblende Mountain, I had absentmindedly let the word hometown slip out.
That my hometown was beyond that mountain.
Of course, no actual hometown was there. It was a metaphorical way of saying that if I met Jormungand at Pitchblende Mountain and completed the request to help the beastmen, I would be one step closer to returning to Earth.
Making an excuse for this was not difficult either. I answered immediately.
"The place I lived is far, far beyond that. You'd have to cross the sea at the very least."
The Arens Continent was shaped like Pangaea. One planet, one huge solitary landmass. Aside from that, the only land people could set foot on was a few archipelagos.
"I was born on a remote island somewhere way beyond that."
This was not exactly untrue either. Before unification, my country was effectively an archipelago anyway.
"Then the time before when you said you grew up in the Elankaya Mountains, was that a lie?"
"Not really a lie. There was a time in my life when I lived there, too."
The spot where the Goddess had dropped me was, of all places, the northern part of the Elankaya Mountains. I had spawned in a ruined little village, and while I was wandering around trying to figure out where I was, I got caught by a slave trader who happened to be out hunting the Gold-Eye Tribe.
At my unhesitating answer, Rote nodded. It was a sign that she roughly accepted it.
There were things that made me uneasy, but talking this way was better for both Rote and me. What would change if I confessed that I was not a person from this world? It would only increase the confusion.
Though now that I thought about it, this felt exactly like a thesis defense.
"Got it. Then the next thing. This is what I was most curious about... that girl named Akasha from earlier, is she really your twin sister?"
Making that plausible was the most difficult thing of all.
I didn't know Akasha. Even Vermel, a fellow possessor, had never mentioned her. Yet a kid who looked exactly like me had suddenly appeared and called me older sister.... It was no wonder I had panicked.
I couldn't think of anything to dodge this.
"It seems to be the case."
"You knew her name. How did that happen?"
Rote demanded an explanation.
Last time, when Rote asked about my family, I answered that I had 'only one older sister.' And now at this point I was bringing up that I had a twin younger sister?
That would make me nothing but a liar. It might be trivial right this moment, but later it would deal a major blow to my credibility.
"I'm sorry."
In situations like this, bowing your head was the right answer.
"I genuinely could not remember anything about her. Isn't it strange? I remember my house, my old friends, yet I had no idea I had a younger sister."
Just by existing, Akasha had reduced all my previous statements to mere excuses. She was an annoying creature.
The only way to avoid that was to apologize. I needed to let Rote know in advance that what I said didn't add up, and then apologize.... Right.
"No."
Rote shook her head and smiled brightly. She then drew her legs together and took something out of the courtesy basket. One was shampoo, and the other was a roundish glass bottle.
"What's this?"
"Treatment."
Treatment? I felt like I had heard the word at least once, but I didn't know exactly what it was used for.
"Let's talk about the rest after we get out. Staying in here too long will make us dizzy."
I nodded and closely observed the treatment. It was a colorless, transparent liquid with a slippery texture like oil.
All right, I needed to think.
For washing your hair, shampoo alone was sufficient. In that case, this was probably something meant to be applied to the body.
Moreover, 'Treatment' in English meant 'healing.' Given its viscous form, it had to be effective when applied to the body to treat skin conditions.
That was a truly perfect piece of reasoning.
I poured some of the treatment from the bottle into my hand and spread it onto my neck, shoulders, and so on. Rote's face, watching this, was colored with sheer shock.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
What.
"Isn't this how you use it?"
"That's hair treatment. It goes on your hair...."
Oh, for shit's sake.
"If you didn't know, you should have said so."
Rote let out a deep sigh and put a hand to her forehead.
Both my cheeks were burning. It probably wasn't because Rote was coming closer, her fair skin exposed.
"Here, look. You squeeze it into your hand like this and spread it evenly through the inside of your hair. Doing this helps prevent your hair from getting damaged."
Swoosh, swoosh.
Rote positioned herself behind me and applied the treatment for me. I could feel her slender fingers threading through the strands of my long hair. It felt like getting a scalp massage from a professional masseuse.
Under Rote's touch, drowsiness gradually washed over me. It was because the fatigue accumulated from going to the fox beastman village had not yet been relieved.
"You're not dozing off, are you?"
Just as I was slowly falling asleep, Rote's suggestion that we get out jolted me back to my senses.
After rinsing off with warm water, I felt half in a dream. I rubbed my sleepy eyes and shook off the moisture. Since my hair was longer than Rote's, drying it took that much longer as well.
While I was drying my hair, Rote retrieved two bottles of liquor from the refrigerator.
"What's that?"
"Ice wine. It's the type of drink commonly called 'Work Wine.'"
Work Wine, huh. Something you drank while working?
No, that couldn't be. What kind of bastard drank on the job?
Above all, it was best to refrain from pointless inferences. Hadn't I just now made a fool of myself worthy of a nerd by misunderstanding even the single application of the treatment? Well... come to think of it, I was a nerd after all. The sudden moment of self-reflection made me a little sad.
Whatever the case, the fact remained that I needed to ask what it meant.
"What kind of liquor is Work Wine?"
"Huh? You really don't know?"
Rote looked at me with slightly surprised eyes. Then she shortly let out a deep sigh.
"You almost drank it without knowing what it was. This goes down easily, but it has a higher proof than you'd think, so you get drunk fast."
"Oh."
"If you're okay with it, want to drink together?"
At the mention of it being strong, I hesitated for a moment.
I was a lightweight. One liter of draft beer, the kind they give you when you go to a fried chicken place, was my proper amount.
I wasn't someone who drank often in the first place, so I had never even tried soju or Western liquor. In that situation, I wasn't sure if abruptly challenging something high-proof was worth it.
"It's been a while since we met. I wanted to get drunk together and... Ah, no! If you don't want to, you don't have to. I'll just put it back in the refrigerator!"
"What are you talking about."
I smiled dryly.
"For opening up about things, there's nothing better than alcohol."
Liquor tears down the walls between people. It helps you hold serious conversations and brings out the words that are hard to say sober because they're too embarrassing.
If I drank a moderate amount, the benefits would outweigh the drawbacks. Judging it that way, I didn't refuse.
"Besides, it's got to be an expensive wine. The young noble lady is offering to treat me for free, after all."
I followed Rote into her room.
"Here, hold out your glass. As a noble, I will exercise Noblesse Oblige and pour it for you myself."
"What's all this Oblige talk between friends."
A glass of wine right after a bath, was it. It felt somehow refined.
I laughed softly and raised my glass.
Glug-glug.
A cheerful sound filled the shallow cup.
The height of the wine glass was about that of a little finger. Even for hard liquor, it looked so small that I doubted whether a person could possibly get drunk on that much alone.
Just then, bright moonlight streamed in through the window. The moon held within the glass gave off a sweet fragrance.
"Is it something like grape wine?"
"Yes. I don't really know either, but probably similar?"
It wasn't bad. At this level, I didn't think things would go so far as to black out.
Rote smiled contentedly and raised her own glass of wine.
A clink sounded. Savoring the scent of the alcohol, we tipped our glasses back at the same time.
And then.
-Thunk
"Ughhh...."
"Oof...."
Simultaneously, we got completely drunk.