But it was just then. "Splash—"
A slow sound of someone wading through water came from the side, the ripples lapping gently in ring after ring, pushing up against Ais's shoulder.
"Um... Miss Ais, would you like me to scrub your back for you?"
Lefiya, who had been sitting on the step ladling water over herself from a small wooden basin, had at some point sidled up close.
She was far too nervous.
The elven girl's cheeks were flushed rosy—whether from the steam of the hot water or from holding her breath, there was no telling—and both her hands clutched tight to a white towel folded into a neat square.
Those pointed elven ears of hers were by now so red they seemed about to drip blood, and the tips even twitched, twitched in rhythm with her breathing.
After all, this idea was, in truth, inspiration she'd taken from Loki.
Watching the Miss Ais she had always admired now leaning all alone in the corner.
Steam swirled, the atmosphere was hushed and serene, and there was no patron goddess of her own hanging off Miss Ais all day like a koala to make a nuisance of things.
The urge to draw near the one she admired, in this instant, utterly overwhelmed her usual timidity.
This was a golden opportunity!
At that thought, Lefiya gripped the towel in both hands, bit down on her lower lip, and stared at Ais without blinking.
Hearing the voice, Ais turned her head.
Through the faint haze of steam, her golden eyes reflected Lefiya's face, so tense it all but gave off smoke. Without thinking much of it—seemingly feeling that a helping hand wasn't a bad thing—she gave a small nod. "Mm, thank you."
With that, Ais turned a half-circle in the water, braced both hands against the smooth rock of the pool bottom, and raised herself up slightly.
"Splash!" came the sound.
Ais offered her smooth back to Lefiya.
And because of her years of high-intensity training, there wasn't an ounce of excess flesh on Ais's back; the lines were taut and flowing, the contours of healthy, well-balanced muscle faintly visible beneath her fair skin.
Watching this scene, Lefiya only felt her throat go a little dry, and the palm gripping the towel began to sweat without end.
Even though it wasn't the first time they'd all bathed together within the Familia.
But to be like this now—in the corner, at such close range, about to touch Miss Ais's skin—that was still a first.
"Thump, thump."
All she could hear in her ears was the ever-quickening sound of her own heartbeat.
Seeing this, Lefiya at last finished swallowing her saliva, dipped the towel in her hand into the water, drew it out and wrung off the excess, then shook it open. With the warm, moist towel held in both hands, she reached forward, trembling, and gently pressed it against Ais's back.
In the instant the towel touched skin.
Through the thin cotton, Lefiya's fingers felt the warmth of Ais's body heat. So smooth... so soft... She carefully controlled the pressure and slid slowly downward.
"The pressure... is this all right?" Lefiya's very voice was trembling, terrified that her clumsy, heavy-handed touch might hurt the other.
"It's good."
Ais's voice came accompanied by the sound of water, carrying a touch of relaxed languor; even her tensed shoulders sank down, plainly relishing this kind of service.
She'd been praised!
Lefiya's eyes lit up, the nervousness of a moment ago swept clean away, replaced by an enormous sense of accomplishment.
She fixed her full attention on the towel in her hands, every wipe as though she were handling some rare and priceless treasure.
Her whole being was immersed in an illusory bliss, as if she were about to reach the very pinnacle of her life.
However.
Just as Lefiya's mind was full of nothing but pink bubbles.
Suddenly, a faint sound of parting water came from behind her.
Someone was drawing near.
Right after, a voice carrying a slight teasing lilt sounded directly against the back of her ear.
"Lefiya, let me help you too."
Hot, damp breath fell upon Lefiya's bright-red elven ear.
Lefiya's hand froze mid-motion, and she stiffly turned her head.
Only to see that Kikakujou Mary had, at some point, waded over to stand right behind her.
Also golden long hair—Mary's hair was swept up high, fixed carelessly behind her head with a few clips, baring the slender, fair nape of her neck.
The steam left a few stray strands clinging to her cheeks, and those blue eyes were brimming with the mirth of a prank well pulled off.
Kikakujou Mary wore a smile, and in her hand she likewise held a warm, damp towel.
Before Lefiya could even get out her line of polite refusal—"No, that's all right, thank you"—
Kikakujou Mary had already taken half a step forward.
With a slap, the towel in her hand pressed solidly against Lefiya's thin back.
Lefiya's pupils dilated in an instant.
On the water's surface before her was Miss Ais, the one she had always admired, like a blossom on an unreachable peak—and she herself was scrubbing her back.
Leaning in from behind was Miss Kikakujou Mary, beautiful and mature in figure, with a personality good enough to make one blush—and she was scrubbing Lefiya's back.
What kind of place was this?
Heaven?
Was she going to die right here today?
This very scene.
The sensory stimulation of being pincered from both sides outright exceeded the psychological limit this pure-hearted elven maiden could bear.
Lefiya only felt as if, in this moment, all the blood in her body rushed with a roar straight to the top of her head.
"Eeek—!"
Lefiya, like a duck seized by the throat, went rigid all over.
"What's wrong? Did I press too hard and hurt you?"
Sensing the stiffness beneath her hands, Kikakujou Mary halted what she was doing, leaned her body forward and craned in closer, asking with concern.
As it turned out.
The moment Kikakujou Mary tilted her head,
she saw that Lefiya's face, which a moment ago had only been rosy, was now the color of a boiled lobster.
Wisps of white steam were even rising from amid the golden hair atop her head, on account of her body temperature shooting up so sharply.
"N-no... no... I only... feel..."
The scene before Lefiya's eyes began to blur, her will having already declared an early walkout in this moment, her consciousness slipping into a half-fainting state.
Drool trickling from the corner of her mouth, she mumbled a slurred, indistinct phrase.
Then, her eyes rolled straight up, showing a great expanse of white.
Right after, her legs went limp.
"Glug-glug!" Down along the wall of the pool, she sank straight beneath the water.
"Eh?! Lefiya?!"
Kikakujou Mary, the closest, got a terrible fright; the prankish intent from before vanished entirely as she hurriedly reached into the water to fish her out.
But the elven girl's skin, soaked in the hot water, was far too slippery.
Mary grabbed downward in one go, only barely catching the edge of Lefiya's arm—and with a "shloop" she lost her grip, her hand sliding right off.
From Lefiya's mouth burst a dense string of bubbles, "glub-glub-glub."
And then, before everyone's eyes, half her head sank straight under the water, a few strands of golden hair drifting on the surface.
"What's wrong, what's wrong?!"
Tiona, who had been at the other end of the pool dragging Hanasaka Warabi into a contest of who could hold their breath longest underwater, heard the cry of alarm from over here and shot up out of the water with a "splash."
She wiped the water from her face with both hands in a flurry and stared wide-eyed over this way.
Ais, too, heard the commotion behind her and turned around.
A flicker of astonishment crossed her golden eyes, and then, reacting with great speed, she thrust both hands into the water and precisely hooked them under Lefiya's arms from the front.
"One, two, lift!"
Kikakujou Mary hurriedly propped her up from behind as well.
The two heaved together, and with a "splash" they hauled the now-unconscious, noodle-limp Lefiya bodily up out of the water.
Lefiya's head lolled weakly against Ais's snow-white shoulder, her mouth slightly open, a trickle of the warm water she'd just choked on still dribbling out of her nose.
Not only had she not come to—the flush on her face was in fact even deeper than before, and there was even a trace of a die-happy-content smile hanging at the corner of her lips.
"What in the world is going on here..."
Seeing this scene.
Riveria, who had been over on the other side all this while enjoying the quiet, couldn't help letting a trace of helplessness surface on her composed face.
She pulled over a long bath towel to wrap around herself and waded over.
Her gaze swept over the top of Lefiya's head, still steaming with heat, and over that about-to-ascend-to-heaven expression of hers, and Riveria let out a powerless sigh.
She extended two fingers and pressed them to Lefiya's carotid artery to check her pulse.
The throbbing that came to her fingertips was as fast as a beating war drum.
"There's no sign of magic leaking out; her heartbeat's very fast."
Riveria released her hand, arriving at a conclusion that was equal parts laughable and exasperating.
"It's probably oxygen deprivation to the brain brought on by being far too emotionally worked up."
"Does she need healing?"
The Holy Emperor, seeing this and assuming some mishap had occurred, immediately stood up and came down clutching her bath towel.
"It's no use."
"That magic of yours can cure the oxygen deprivation in her body, but it can't cure the wild fancies in her head."
Hanasaka Warabi curled her lip and pointed at Lefiya's lewdly grinning face.
"Just look at the state of her—this girl's probably right now in her own dream, a beauty cradled on each arm, so blissful she's forgotten all about home."
Hearing Hanasaka Warabi's spot-on assessment.
Kikakujou Mary, as one of the chief culprits, had a flicker of guilt cross her face. She coughed awkwardly a couple of times and offhandedly tossed the troublemaking towel in her hand onto the platform at the pool's edge.
"In any case... let's carry her over to the bench at the side and let her lie down for a bit first."
"If she keeps soaking in the water, she really is going to get cooked through."
Kikakujou Mary proposed, reaching out to share the weight with Ais as they dragged the fainted Lefiya toward the shore.
...
Meanwhile.
In the outer hall, just a wall away.
Haimer sat on the sofa, idly leafing through a copy of Tales of the Argonauts.
On the low table beside him sat a cup of black tea still giving off steam.
In another corner of the hall.
Loki, meanwhile, lay sprawled spread-eagle on the luxurious carpet, hands and feet ceaselessly slapping at the floor like a child throwing a tantrum on the ground.
"Too cruel! Cold-blooded! An absolute tyrant!"
"The scenery in there is so much better when everyone looks at it together, and you actually had the heart to throw me out! I'd been looking forward to it for ages!"
Loki howled as she rolled over, glaring at Haimer with resentful eyes.
But to this utterly harmless noise, Haimer didn't even shift his gaze from the pages by so much as an inch. "Aren't you a god?"
Haimer crooked a finger and turned over a page that gave off the fragrance of ink.
"A dignified patron goddess, going off to do something like peeping—if it got out, aren't you afraid those several children of yours would find it shameful?"
"Shameful, my foot! This is just one form of expressing love!"
Loki retorted with perfect self-righteousness. Crawling up off the carpet, she sat down cross-legged, snatched up a red apple from the low table beside Haimer, and took a fierce, big "crunch" of a bite. Chewing the flesh, she clamored away indistinctly.
"This is one form of expressing love, all right!"
"My love for our Ais-tan flows on endlessly, like the surging waters of a great river! And skinship is the very best way to deepen the bonds between us!"
"Besides, aren't Hestia and Hephaestus in there soaking too? Why is it they get to look but I, as a goddess, don't? This is blatant, naked discrimination against me!"
Loki swallowed the apple in her mouth and indignantly wiped the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. "Oh, right."
Having finished her complaining, Loki's expression suddenly reined in a few notches of its usual flippancy, and a shrewdness befitting a god flashed out from those devil-may-care eyes.
She tossed the half-eaten apple in her hand back into the fruit dish. "Let me say something useful."
Loki lowered her voice, sitting on the carpet looking at Haimer.
"During the day, I stopped by the underground of the Guild on the way and asked Ouranos about it..."
Loki was just saying.
Suddenly.
"Click," came a sound.
Deep in the first floor, that bath door carved with intricate patterns was pushed open from the inside.
A thick white steam, mingled with the fragrance of flower petals and all sorts of body washes, instantly came pouring out from the crack of the door, swiftly spreading through the corridor.
"Hm?"
Seeing this, Loki immediately clamped her mouth shut.
Haimer, too, reined in the mood of their just-now conversation, shot her a glance, then closed the book in his hand and looked calmly toward the depths of the floor.
All he could see was a stretch of pale white mist.
The women filed out of the bath one after another.
Walking at the very front was Tiona, wrapped in nothing but a single bath towel, shaking her head vigorously as she went, like a puppy fresh out of a bath wanting to fling the water droplets in her hair every which way.
Beside her was Tione, who'd gotten a faceful of flung water and was gritting her teeth, raising a fist to clobber her.
The next to come out were the Holy Emperor in a loose, billowing bathrobe, along with Onigawara Rin and the others.
As the picture gradually grew clearer, all manner of fair skin, slender legs, and cheeks steamed red by the heat wove together into an image of bathing beauties of tremendous visual impact.
At the sight of this picture, Loki's solemn-god demeanor from a moment ago vanished into thin air at once. "Oooh ooh ooh! Ais-tan~!"
Loki cheered while rubbing her hands together, just about to pounce on the freshly emerged Ais as she had before. But.
Loki's steps suddenly halted. "Huh?"
Loki's gaze went past the several people in front and landed on the tail end of the procession.
Only to see Riveria and Kikakujou Mary, one on the left and one on the right, propping up between them a person whose head was lolling and whose whole body had gone limp and soft, walking out.
"How did Lefiya faint?!"
Loki, for once, displayed a bit of the sense of responsibility befitting a patron god.
In one bounding stride she darted over, going straight up beside the unconscious, propped-up Lefiya, her gaze scanning up and down. But the instant Loki leaned in close.
She heard the rosy-cheeked Lefiya, that lewd smile still hanging on her face, murmuring something softly under her breath.
Loki pricked up her ears and leaned her head in close.
"Miss Ais... heehee... Miss Mary... pressed up against me too... heehee hee... heaven..."
These few heartfelt words let everyone present hear loud and clear.
"Ah."
"Yeesh, she's beyond saving."
"You've got some nerve talking about anyone else!"
The moment Loki's words were out.
They immediately drew a collective eye-roll from Riveria, who was propping up Lefiya, and from Tiona and Tione walking up front and the others.
Several pairs of eyes turned in unison toward Loki, the message conveyed in those gazes uncannily uniform: isn't her usual conduct a hundred times more perverted than Lefiya's? Doesn't she dream this exact same way every single day?
Eyed by the several disdainful looks from her own Familia, Loki felt a wave of guilt, and—rarely—a bit awkward. She whistled and looked away, pretending to admire the scenery.
After that.
Haimer glanced at the still-dreaming Lefiya and rose to his feet as well, saying:
"Lay her down over here."
"She just got out of a hot bath, so all the pores on her body are open and her temperature hasn't come down yet. If she's hit by a draft directly, she'll easily catch a cold. Just let her lie down and recover for a bit."
"Yes, Lord Haimer."
Riveria voiced her agreement with Haimer's judgment, and together with Kikakujou Mary, she carefully shifted Lefiya over toward the long sofa in the hall.
It was right at this moment.
Loki, who had been playing dumb, saw Lefiya being set down on the sofa, and her eyes gave a sly roll.
"My, my, this won't do at all."
At her own words, Loki not only failed to back away—instead she raised both hands straight up. Her ten fingers, like someone playing the piano, wiggled lewdly up and down in midair, striking the pose of someone about to give a full-body massage.
"After all, she's a child of my own Familia—how could I, as her patron god, not be attentive? What if it's her magic circuits that have gotten clogged up? I'll have to take her in hand myself and give her body a thorough examination from head to toe, inside and out!"
As she spoke, Loki, cackling weirdly, reached her devil's claws straight toward the chest of the unconscious Lefiya, sprawled defenseless on the sofa.
Just as that pair of lecherous hands was about to make contact.
"Smack." A light sound.
Haimer's hand had suddenly come to rest on Loki's shoulder.
"?"
Loki turned her head, meeting Haimer's eyes, which wore a smile that wasn't quite a smile.
"That's enough."
"Let's go."
"Since everyone else has finished bathing—weren't you just now clamoring about wanting a back-scrub?"
"Come with me. And while we're at it, the matter we hadn't finished discussing earlier—we can go in and keep talking about it."
With that, Haimer didn't even wait for Loki's response; he turned and strode straight off toward the bath.
"Mmmgh! Who'd want to scrub backs with a smelly man like you!"
Loki's face went dark, and she hollered loudly.
But watching Haimer's receding back already grown distant, Loki gritted her teeth.
Though her mouth complained that Haimer had once again ruined her chance to get close to her Familia's adorable girls.
At heart, she knew well enough that there was that proper business she'd just neglected to discuss.
And so.
She could only follow behind Haimer, grumbling and muttering all the way.
As the bath door clicked shut once more with a "click," it left behind only the dumbfounded crowd.
The entire hall fell into a dead silence.
Tione's mouth hung wide open; Tiona had even dropped the towel she'd been drying her hair with onto the floor.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan in "P" for more!🔥👻
🔥 New history: Naruto: Is it reasonable to beat up an Otsutsuki with Hamon, right?
Help us unlock these community rewards:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone