"?"
Seeing the utterly bewildered look on her face, Jhin realized he'd made a blunder: "I thought you were about to confess to me, so I was reminding you that I already have a girlfriend."
"Who... who would ever confess to you?! Don't go thinking that just because you showed off your body you can dazzle me senseless!" After giving Jhin a not-too-light, not-too-heavy little punch, Megumin asked curiously, "So you've got a lover, huh? What kind of person is she?"
"They're the people I love."
"They?"
"Mm... I don't have just one girlfriend."
"Uwah... looks like I really wasn't wrong to call you scum back then—though it's pretty common on the continent of Astraea too, I suppose." Megumin, her face full of disdain, gave Jhin another punch, but didn't move away from him: "So... why did you say that to me?"
"It was just a precaution, wasn't it... after all, if I'm going to date someone, I've definitely got to make this clear."
"Should I call you a philandering bastard with principles, or a shameless, brazen philandering bastard..."
"Either works. I'm not going to deny any of those facts anyway."
Megumin actually wasn't put off by his straightforward, candid way of admitting it; she was just surprised he had lovers at all: "You ran off to Another World—won't your girlfriends be worried?"
"It's hard to explain in a few words; just treat it as them not knowing about my situation over here."
"How mysterious..."
Muttering a couple of words under her breath, Megumin imitated Jhin's posture too, placing both hands behind her head to enjoy the hot spring.
"Say..."
"Hm?"
"Jhin... you don't actually have feelings for me, do you?"
"...What are you talking about? We're bros!"
"Oh."
The exchange between the two ended there, leaving only the music echoing through this space. Megumin gazed wide-eyed at the star-filled night sky, her expression calm, lost in some unknown thought.
Jhin had his eyes closed, his breathing slow and long, as if he'd fallen asleep in the hot spring.
Amid the music and the sound of breathing, her weary eyelids began to fight one another. Megumin glanced at the soundly sleeping Jhin, used his shoulder as a pillow to lean on, and drifted off to sleep on her side.
When the two awoke again, they found Pecorine, Kokkoro, and Kyaru—all three—standing at the edge of the open-air hot spring, gazing at them. Megumin hurriedly sat up in the water and, with an awkward look on her face, greeted them: "Oh, oh, you... you're back."
Pinching her dainty chin, Pecorine struck a detective's pose: "As I recall... you wanted to soak in the hot spring alone, didn't you?"
"So why did you end up soaking together with Jhin instead—and even fell asleep leaning on his shoulder?" Kyaru's scrutinizing gaze kept sweeping over the two of them.
Kokkoro put on a look as if she were about to burst into tears: "Why did you secretly go soak in the hot spring with Master behind my back?"
After this combination of blows, Megumin's scalp went numb, and she anxiously explained to her companions: "It's... it's not what you're imagining... I just happened to run into him when I came back; he didn't want to go to the public hot spring, so we changed into swimsuits and soaked together... don't go jumping to conclusions!"
"Pfft!"
No one knew who was the first to fail to hold it in and let out a laugh, but then all three, completely unable to keep it together, burst into hearty laughter. In truth, they had no objection at all to the two of them soaking together; they just wanted to see how she'd react when she woke up, which was why they'd staged this whole scene.
"It's all your fault! The others have picked up your nasty habit of teasing people too!" Megumin glared at Jhin.
Having been hit by the stray shot through no fault of his own, he spread his hands: "My fault, huh?"
"Ah! Megumin, don't be in such a hurry to get out—we're going to change into our swimsuits and come soak in the hot spring too!"
"Fine, I'll soak a little longer at most before getting out, so hurry up."
"Mm, we'll be right back."
In no time at all, the three came out wearing swimsuits of differing styles. Jhin openly and unabashedly admired this lovely sight, clapping in praise at the same time: "Everyone's swimsuit fits perfectly! Mm, simply flawless!"
"Hmph, I'll reluctantly accept the praise, then." Unlike Megumin, Kyaru wore a halter bikini with a deep-blue main body and lace-trimmed crimson, fitting her tsundere personality of being cold outside but warm within.
Kokkoro wore a white one-piece swimsuit; the white pleated skirt hem at her hips and the pale-green gauze added a touch of lightness and grace to her. Hearing the praise, her little face flushed slightly, and she walked into the hot spring without a word.
Pecorine stood at the edge of the hot spring with both hands on her hips, a string of blue pearl bracelet on her left hand, dressed in a gauzy swimsuit that was mainly white with pale-blue and gold accents along the edges, a red bow symbolizing passion tied at her chest as well. Facing the compliment, she accepted it with a beaming smile, then said that Megumin's swimsuit suited her very well too.
You're the one person I don't want to hear that from!?
With her right hand hidden under the water, Megumin pinched Jhin—whose gaze was still lingering on Pecorine—and responded with a smile that didn't reach her eyes: "Thanks for the compliment. Jhin said the very same thing, you know."
"What were you two talking about in the hot spring earlier?"
"Nothing much, just said a few words about things back home."
"?"
Jhin didn't understand why Megumin would lie about this sort of thing, but he didn't expose her either. Pecorine, like a mermaid, nimbly swam back and forth in the broad hot spring, the splashes kicked up by the resistance of her chest making Megumin intensely envious—literally giving off a red glow.
Perhaps because she'd already had her fill of playing over at the public hot spring earlier, she stopped after swimming two laps and, with her ever-radiant smile, said: "I never imagined there'd come a day when I could soak in a hot spring together with so many friends. How wonderful!"
"Could it be that Pecorine didn't have any friends before?"
"Because I was always working hard at studying and training, and then I went off adventuring, so I really didn't have any friends... What about you, Kokkoro?"
"As for me... if the animals in the Forest don't count as friends, then I don't have any either."
The girls discussed it for a while and discovered that none of them really had any friends. Megumin, on the contrary, had someone called her sworn rival—only, no one knew where that person was now. Kyaru had even proudly claimed she had a dozen or so friends, but in the end it was discovered she was talking about cats.
Seeing them shift their gazes onto him, Jhin smugly folded his arms and made a tactical lean-back: "I happen to have plenty of friends."
He wasn't lying about this—girlfriends count as a kind of friend, after all.
A glint flashed at the corner of Megumin's eye: "Are these friends male or female?"
"Mm... they're all female."
"Don't you have any male friends?"
"Like hell I'd have a boyfriend! I'm a guy myself!" Jhin shot a glare at this chuunibyou mage whose head was full of who-knows-what.
"Don't tell me all those female friends are your girlfriends?" Megumin muttered in a voice only he could hear; seeing him shake his head first and then nod, the right hand hidden under the water gave him another two pinches.
"So Jhin really was popular in his original world too, huh."
"Master is so outstanding—naturally it's only to be expected!"
"If he'd just rein in that rotten personality of his... he really isn't bad on the senses."
Everyone chatted idly in the hot spring for a while longer before finally leaving the open-air bath. Then they changed into their clothes, went to have dinner, and afterward laid out the bedding and went to sleep.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Path of Elation in Warhammer 40K
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