After defeating the demons hiding in the capital, Suimei and the others returned to the castle and updated Almadious’s war council on the situation, receiving thanks for their efforts. At the same time, scouts monitoring the demons’ movements outside the city walls arrived with a report.
According to them, the demons’ main force had fallen back to a forest around sixty kilometers away from the capital and had yet to make any conspicuous moves. After confirming everyone was ready to take the field if anything happened, the meeting came to an end.
And so, Suimei, Reiji, and Elliot found themselves in the castle’s bathhouse. Astel largely used saunas when it came to bathing, but after the girls had noisily complained about wanting a proper bath, Suimei gave in and used magicka to construct a proper bathhouse.
Even though Suimei had constructed it for the girls’ immediate use, they were still idling about, so the boys had gone in first. Currently, they were in the washing area, towels around their waists.
“I never thought I’d get to take a bath in Astel,” Reiji commented.
“Thank the girls for throwing a tantrum,” Suimei said. “Mary and I had to put it together in a hurry.”
Elliot took a look around the newly renovated bath, then began humming in good humor.
“This is rather convenient,” he said. “Maybe you’re not all that bad.”
“Don’t use this as an excuse to treat me like a handyman,” Suimei complained.
“Why shouldn’t I? How about changing jobs?” Elliot quipped. “You’ll be able to help people better this way.”
“The more I do it, the more people will be unemployed. No thanks.”
“You really can do anything, huh?” Reiji said.
“Being able to do anything is what it means to be a magician,” Suimei explained. “We’re trying to become omnipotent to grant all the dreams of the world. We’d be failures if we couldn’t create a bath or two.”
“Hmmm.”
Reiji looked around the bath. There was a mirror on the wall and a painting of Mount Fuji in front of him. Surely Suimei knew what Reiji would think.
Suimei awkwardly lowered his eyes. “Well, just don’t ask about the decor.”
“This is that public bathhouse,” Reiji said. “Matsuno’s Bathhouse, the one in the neighborhood.”
“Hmm, isn’t copying an existing business like this illegal?” Elliot commented.
“Sure is. This is definitely copyright infringement,” Reiji agreed.
“Like hell there’s any copyright in another goddamn world,” Suimei retorted.
“What a lousy excuse,” Elliot said.
“I mean, what else could I do?” Suimei said. “Pretty much the only big baths I know of are this one and the resort spa in Germany.”
“Then couldn’t you have gone with the German spa?” Reiji asked.
“That place is way too big,” Suimei answered. “It needs way more water than it looks like it would, so preparing it is a lot of trouble.”
“So you’re just being eco-friendly?” Reiji commented.
“Yup, eco-friendly,” Suimei confirmed. “To my mana, that is.”
“Even though you do some pretty absurd, not very eco-friendly things all the time?” Elliot quipped.
“Shut it,” Suimei spat back at him.
Suimei scooped up some water from the bath and splashed it over his face like an old man. In contrast, Reiji grabbed a wooden bucket and emptied it over himself.
“Sorry, these are my world’s rules,” Suimei told Elliot. “You have to wash yourself off before you go in.”
“I don’t mind,” he replied. “Washing before entering the bath is how things are done in my world too.”
“That so? Guess I didn’t need to say anything.”
After the three of them washed off, they got into the bath.
“This feels great,” Elliot said.
“Yeah. This kinda thing isn’t so bad every now and then.”
With that, Suimei manifested a plastic pail with magicka, then slapped it against the floor, getting a nice bonk to echo through the bathhouse.
“What’s that?” Elliot asked.
“For the ambience,” Suimei answered.
“Hahahahaha. Yeah, you’ve gotta have that sound in a bathhouse,” Reiji said, laughing.
And just like that, the three boys continued to enjoy a good soak in the bath. After a short while, though, Elliot’s expression suddenly turned meek.
“I’m thinking I’ll have to change the way I fight a little from here on out,” he said.
“Hm? What’s this all of a sudden?” Suimei asked.
“Well, you know... It’s about this thing they call a hero’s power. I feel like it’s been getting weaker for a while now.”
“Huh?” Both the other boys were bewildered.
“Have you been feeling the same, Reiji?” Elliot asked.
“No, it’s been the same as always for me.”
“I see...” Elliot seemed to be baffled by the change in his own power.
“But why does that lead to changing the way you fight?” Reiji asked.
“He can’t rely entirely on the hero’s power anymore,” Suimei said, figuring it out quickly. “So, he can’t slack off anymore.”
“I’d rather you not talk like you know everything...” Elliot grumbled.
“Ain’t it the truth?” Suimei said. “Anyway, now that it’s come to this, you’ve gotta use your own power—the one you’ve been hiding this whole time.”
“Well, that’s one way to think about it,” Elliot conceded.
“But why did this happen all of a sudden?” Reiji asked.
“I don’t know,” Elliot said. “I doubt faith in the Goddess has waned.”
“If anything, more people should be clinging to her now,” Suimei agreed. “The more people are driven into a corner, the more they feel compelled to cling to gods or whatnot.”
The three racked their brains over this but couldn’t come up with an answer.
“Well, I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s possible something is happening,” Suimei said. “Let’s ask Hatsumi later too.”
“Right,” Elliot agreed. “We have to discuss this with her too.”
“Oh, Reiji,” Suimei said, deciding to ask about something that’d been bothering him. “They’re saying you got even stronger again, yeah?”
“Hm? Yeah. I mean, I haven’t gotten as strong as you or anything, though.”
“Cut it with the weird humility,” Suimei grumbled. “Is it the Sacrament’s power?”
Reiji nodded meekly after a pause. “Mm-hmm.”
“You seem awfully fixated on that,” Elliot commented, shooting Suimei a quizzical look. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t really know if it’s a good or bad thing,” Suimei said. “Even when I ask other Sacrament wielders about it, they just dodge the question. I just can’t help but think using what is essentially someone else’s power and not your own comes with a significant price...”
“A power beyond your means will eventually come back to bite you,” Elliot agreed, wiping his face with a towel. “Those are the basics.”
“It’s nothing that serious,” Reiji said. “I draw out the power using my own mana. There’s no other price or contract or anything.”
“Do you know anything about this?” Elliot asked Suimei.
“I don’t. Still, I did manage to draw out a bit of a verbal message from someone who uses a Sacrament in our world.”
“A message?” Reiji asked.
“The voice within you is your dormant desire,” Suimei said, recounting what he’d heard during his return to his own world. “If you pay too much heed to it, it’ll corrupt you. What the voice tells you is in no way always the truth.”
“That’s a pretty ominous message,” Elliot said. “Will using it contaminate the soul or something?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Suimei replied. “There aren’t that many weird events around them.”
“I see,” Reiji said, thinking. “Wait, not that many?!”
“It’s nothing that bad. Don’t worry,” Suimei told his panicking friend. “Slightly weird things just tend to happen.”
“Is that really alright...?”
Suimei brushed him off. Sacraments were outside his field of expertise, so he had no read on how things could actually develop.
“Anyway, what does that message even mean?” Reiji asked.
“Don’t lose yourself in the power you’ve obtained,” Suimei summarized. “But I’m pretty sure you’ll never do something like that.”
“Yeah...” Reiji agreed after a pause.
“Well, if anything does happen, lean on those around you,” Suimei told him. “If worse comes to worst, I’ll do something about it.”
“Sure. I’ll be in your care if that time comes.”
“Right on. Leave it to me.”
Watching Suimei reassure his friend like that, Elliot chuckled to himself, saying, “You really are a softhearted soul.”