Ristia took her time leisurely moving the materials. Any passers-by that saw that sight would never think that Ristia was carrying anything heavy, but Wood and the others knew that the material she was handling was well over a hundred kilograms. As a result, Wood and the rest of his men shared the same idea: “Yeah, this little lady isn’t ordinary. Period.” But just then...
“Whoa~ Director, what are you doing~?” Several of the children came over to Ristia as she transported the materials.
“I’m carrying the materials that they need to rebuild the orphanage up to the second floor.”
“Then, I will too!”
“And me! Me, too!”
The children circled around Ristia. The first thought that came to Wood and the others, upon seeing them, was that having kids on the construction site was dangerous, so they rushed themselves over to Ristia to disperse the crowd of children, but before they could...
“Okay, then, why don’t we all do it?” said Ristia, making Wood’s eyes go wide in shock.
“Wait, a second! What’s the big idea, Little Lady? There’s no way in the world that...” Wood barely reached the end of his sentence before Ristia casually chucked the over-one hundred kilogram building materials to the dog-eared girl, who caught them with a cute little, “Heave-ho.”
“...Wha?!”
The likeminded carpenters that were heading toward the children all stopped and made the same dumbfounded exclamation.
“Now, carry it nice and carefully. And make sure not to inconvenience the others, okay?”
“Mm-hmm, gotcha~” said the supposedly prepubescent dog-eared little girl as she proceeded to carry the crushingly heavy batch of materials up to the second floor.
“Wh-What? What the heck is going on here?”
“I-Is it because she’s from the dog-eared tribe?”
“Well, I have heard that beast-men are stronger than humans, but... one that young?”
Amidst Wood and his men’s confusion, they caught a glimpse of Ristia passing off materials in similar fashion, this time to a human boy, and sure enough, he also proceeded to transport the materials without even a hint of an issue. The brooches on their chests glowed the entire time, but clearly, nobody gave that detail much attention. At any rate, faced with the sight before them, Wood and his carpenter team were positive—positive that it wasn’t just the girl that wasn’t normal, but the whole orphanage itself.
──8──
One day, about two months after construction had started on the new orphanage, Ristia’s long-awaited bathhouse was completed. Per the children’s specifications, it was split into two sections—one for boys and one for girls. And, of course, it was promptly opened for the children, as well.
“Let’s have a bonding session, everyone~” Ristia said, trying to invite everyone to come bathe together with her, regardless of gender. However, the girls were staunchly opposed to this idea. Ristia was still young herself, but the orphans were even younger. She was convinced that they were still too young to be aware of sexual interests, so Ristia was impressed by their reaction, thinking, My, everyone is so precocious.
Late that night, Ristia found herself in the changing room. The day didn’t fatigue her at all, but she still wanted to take a relaxing soak since she hadn’t had a bath in ages. She first removed her blouse, cast some cleaning magic over it, and threw it into her Item Box. Then, she took off her bra, panties, and skirt and put them away in a similar fashion. Now in her birthday suit, Ristia tied up her long hair into a bun and headed toward the bath.
“Ehehe, a nice, big bath is such a welcome treat after so long~” Ristia said to herself in high spirits. Adhering to pre-bathing manners and customs, she used cleaning magic to cleanse herself of any filth before soaking in the water. While that eliminated the need for her to really get in the bath to begin with, doing this was a matter of principle. She proceeded to pour some of the water on herself before entering the tub proper. Soaking her lower body first, she gradually submerged her upper body, as well. Now with the water up to her shoulders, Ristia laid herself down in the wide open space of the tub. Maybe it was from the components of the spring, or perhaps it was just a placebo effect, but Ristia found herself significantly more relaxed.
“Hah... This feels fantastic~” How long has it been since I’ve had a real bath? Ristia absentmindedly thought to herself, but she could only recall bathing with her sisters before she took her thousand-year sleep. “I wonder what my big sisters are doing right around now... And where...?” She hadn’t taken in a little sister for herself yet, but she’d figured out both what it meant to be a little sister, and the realization of just how much her older sisters cared for her. It’s been so long; I sure would like to see them... Ristia thought. But even for someone as capable as Ristia, seeing as how she didn’t know where in the world her family could be, it wasn’t possible for her to search for them. Although, if they were to intentionally use a large amount of power, she could at least isolate the area they might be in. That way, she could search for them, and would probably even find them in due time.
I sure would like to have a little sister to introduce to my big sisters before I see them again... As that thought ran through her head, the door to the changing room opened without a creak. Out from the door appeared a brown-skinned girl.
“Oh, you’re here, too, Maria~”
“Who’s... Oh, it’s you, Director Ristia. I was wondering where you went, but I guess you were taking a bath this whole time. Am I... disturbing you?”
“Goodness, no~” Ristia said with a soft grin as she rose from the bath.
“...Are you getting out already, Director Ristia?”
“Nope, I just figured I would help wash you off, Maria.”
“Huh? Oh, um, well... I can do that my...” she started protesting, shrinking herself in wariness. Perhaps it was a combination of the memory of being violated haunting her in addition to her lingering fear of being touched by others, but that would explain why she didn’t bathe with the others and waited to do so by herself this late at night. Understanding Maria’s mindset, Ristia gave her a comforting smile.
“You’re so pretty, Maria. Plus, I don’t mind if you’re still nervous about me. We’ll take it one small step at a time. Okay?”
“...Director Ristia, um, if you insist... then I’d appreciate it.”
“Sure thing, just leave it to your Big Sis, my dear!” Taking on the role of older sister for a bit, she sat Maria down on a stool at the washing station. Ristia took to her knees behind the girl at an angle and picked up the shower nozzle.
“Okie dokie, here comes the hot water~”
“Eeek?! Wh-What? What is this?!” Maria seemed unfamiliar with what a shower was. The hot water that spurted out from the shower made her shiver in surprise.
“This is called a ‘shower,’ and it’s a tool that can efficiently spray hot water~” Ristia said, spraying hot water from the shower to the shaken Maria’s side to demonstrate. Seeing that Maria’s fear was starting to diminish, she spritzed some hot water on her leg to further introduce her to the concept.
“...! It... tickles. Mm.”
She was still shivering, but it wasn’t out of fear like a few moments prior. Confirming that to be the case, Ristia slowly started to run the shower over Maria’s entire body. The hot water pelted off of Maria’s young and vivacious skin—a result of Ristia’s magic regenerating her body on a cellular level.
“It feels so good... but... using hot water this way is extremely frivolous.”
“It’s a blessing from nature. I say it’s fine to reap as many benefits from it as we’d like.” The hot spring being a blessing from nature was... technically not incorrect. So long as one was to turn a blind eye to the Artifact-level tools here and there that Ristia had used to power her way thousands of meters underground, of course. In any case, Ristia could see that Maria’s body was getting to the right temperature, so she pulled out a specially-made body soap and sponge, squeezed the soap onto the spongy surface, and started to lather the girl up.
“Alrighty, now I’m going to get to your back.” She gently applied the sponge to Maria’s back.
“...!“ Maria’s body stiffened up in response.
“Are you okay, Maria?”
“...I’m fine. I’m flinching out of reflex, but I know not to be afraid of you, Director Ristia.”