South Sea, Adventure II
Seafaring in Infinite Dendrogram didn’t have the same resource limitations that were common obstacles during the real-world age of discovery.
For the most part, this came down to one thing: the existence of Inventories.
Inventories could store a great volume of items, with the more expensive Inventories having immense capacities and sometimes even the ability to slow down time for anything stored inside. With enough funding, a ship would never run out of resources no matter how long they were at sea.
Additionally, there was magic and alchemy that could filter seawater and make it fresh, allowing the entire crew to enjoy daily baths—a luxury unthinkable to any seafarer in the history of Earth.
The Adventure II was no exception—it had a bathing area for the people on board, and at this very moment...
“Hm-hm-hmm...”
...as evening fell, a quiet humming could be heard echoing inside. Whoever was humming had a pleasant voice, and they never sounded off-key—clearly they had studied music and had some vocal talent.
Right now, they were in the midst of washing up.
“Hm? Is someone already in here?”
Just then, the door to the bathing area opened, and another person stepped inside. It was the fleet commander, Riella, clad in nothing but a towel. Her eyes were instantly drawn to the person already occupying the bath, who was still humming pleasantly. They were washing their long black hair, which mostly obscured their form.
The sight made Riella tilt her head in confusion.
She had no idea who this was.
It’s the women’s turn to bathe right now... Riella thought, trying to discern who this might be. There were quite a few long-haired women in her crew, but Riella had no recollection of anyone with hair this black.
She had also never heard this pleasant humming before.
Huh? Through the long hair and soap suds, though, Riella finally caught a glimpse of the person’s muscular body. Not even her late father had been that toned, let alone any of the female crew members.
Maintaining her silence, Riella reached for an Inventory shaped like an armband—which she wore as a precaution even in the bath—and took out a cutlass.
She then swung the blade at the neck of this unfamiliar, highly suspicious interloper.
“Hm?” However, the man simply made a noise of mild surprise and caught the blade with just two of his fingers, stopping it mid-swing.
Riella’s eyes widened. She’d caught this man completely off guard, and yet he’d stopped her attack effortlessly. Even though he was only using two fingers, she couldn’t move the blade even a fraction of an inch.
“Damn you...!” Riella was about to raise her voice and warn the rest of the crew, but then...
“Riella, you’ll catch a real grizzly cold just standing there. Go warm up in the bath.”
...the suspicious interloper said a few gentle words.
“Huh...?” Riella hadn’t recognized the humming, but that speaking voice—and the awkward pun—could only have come from the man she’d just met earlier today.
“You...”
“Oh, but paws for a shower and wash off the salt. You don’t want to dirty up the water fur anyone getting in after you.”
“Oh. Right.” The man pointed out the obvious, causing Riella to put away her cutlass and go wash herself in the nearby shower. Her hair was far shorter than his, so they both finished at about the same time.
The two then entered the bath and let out a sigh.
Then, at that moment, the strangeness of the situation finally hit Riella. She stood up sharply and yelled, “Hold on! Why’re we bathin’ together?!”
“Well, that line had a lotta buildup,” said the man. He was averting his eyes like a gentleman, but still seemed a little uncomfortable with the situation. “It took so long fur you to say anything that I almost thought you did mixed bathing here.”
“We don’t! And that makes it pretty damn clear ya knew ya weren’t supposed to be here, ya furry bastard!” All red in the face, Riella pointed accusingly at the man—who, of course, was Shu minus the bear costume.
“My bad fur that, but nobody told me the bathing schedule... And all that time soaking in the ocean and then diving into a whale’s guts made me feel pawsitively filthy. I wanted a bath ASAP.”
“Well, if ya realized I was here, ya could’ve said somethin’ earlier!” Shu was behaving so casually, though, that Riella ended up continuing the conversation in spite of herself. “Besides, I didn’t even know ya could take that costume off!”
“Huh? It’d be beary scary if I couldn’t, don’tcha think?”
“Well, yeah! But if ya’d worn it into the bath, I would’ve recognized ya earlier...! Ah-choo!” Riella’s lecture was interrupted by a sneeze.
“You really are going to catch a cold standing there, so either leave or dip your paws back in the bath.”
Shu spoke as if sharing the bath with a naked woman didn’t bother him one bit—maybe to him, she was still just a child.
Riella spent a moment pondering before ultimately deciding to get in the water all the way up to her shoulders.
“I-I’m the commander of the adventure fleet! Sh-Sharin’ a bath with a guy is n-no big deal for me!” she said, her face going red.
“Whate-fur you say,” Shu responded, still not looking at her.
A few moments went by as they simply sat in the bath together.
Finally, Riella broke the silence. “Where’s your costume, anyway?”
“In the wash. It’ll be downright spawrkly by the time I’m done here.”
“You talk like that even when you’re not wearin’ the outfit?” It didn’t bother her much when he looked like a bear, but his ridiculous way of speaking was quite at odds with his current appearance.
“If I talk normally, you’d have a harder time just enjoying your bath, wouldn’t you?” Shu said, ditching the puns and speaking in a more relaxed—and less silly—tone.
Though she didn’t want to admit it, that made Riella’s heart skip a beat.
“Hmph! Got a pretty high opinion of yourself, huh?” Totally rejecting his assertion, Riella shot him a sidelong glance and realized that his face was a lot more refined-looking than she would’ve expected from someone who wore a costume everywhere. Riella wasn’t the type to care much about a man’s appearance, but even she could tell that most women would find him extremely attractive—he possessed strength and beauty in equal measure.
“Why do ya wear that costume, anyways?”
“I was trying to tell you back there, but you just refused to bear with me.” Riella had asked the same question after Shu had beaten Whalunder, but quickly decided against waiting on the answer.
“I changed my mind. Tell me.”
“To hide my face.”
“What? Ya mean, like, so girls don’t start fightin’ over ya? Are ya really that much of a narcissist?” Riella asked, glaring at him like he’d suddenly transformed into some kind of insect.
“Oh, no no no no,” Shu said with a chuckle. “It’s just that most Masters who come here make themselves look diffurent than they do on the other side—with some exceptions. That fox, for example.”
“Fox?” Riella could tell that he was referring to a person rather than the animal, but she had no idea who it could be, so she moved on. “What do ya mean, make themselves look different? By magic?”
“It’s more like...we use a diffurent body. This isn’t the same body I’ve got over there, but I couldn’t change the face,” Shu said, tapping his face with his finger. “This right here looks just like it does on the other side. That might cause trouble, so I throw on a different pelt to avoid all that.”
Riella could understand the gist of what he was saying—he wanted to keep his grudges confined to the worlds where he’d made them. She could see how dealing with two worlds’ worth of enemies all the time would be a pain.
“How’d ya end up looking the same on both sides?”
“The guy in charge of my entry didn’t like me...or maybe liked me a little too much. I don’t know fur sure, but it didn’t end there—I’m still getting thrown into new trouble because of it. It’s unbearable.”
“That so?” Despite Shu’s words and troubled expression, Riella got the impression that he didn’t hate his circumstances all that much. “Wait. First the face thing, now somethin’ ’bout ‘the one in charge’... Doncha think you’re tellin’ me a bit too much?”
“Hey, I saw you totally bear. I gotta hand out a secret or two of my own in return.”
“And you think that’s all my body’s worth? That kinda pisses me off.”
“Ha ha ha. I’ll find some other way to make up fur it, then.” Shu then stood up from the bath, making Riella blush bright red and turn away. “Anyway, I’m out.”
“You know you’ll get your ass kicked if you bump into any other girls, right?”
“No need to worry. I’m beary good at sneaking outta places.”
He then used the Instant Wear skill to equip an animal costume. It wasn’t the black bear one, though—he was now a chameleon.
“So yeah, I’ll be slithering along. Catch ya later.” With that, he activated his camouflage, becoming transparent, and used this moment of invisibility to leave the bathing area.
Riella was surprised that he had other animal costumes, and by the awkwardness of the pun...as well as other things. However, she chose to not say anything further.
Once the man was gone, though, the embarrassment of having shared a bath with him welled up. This feeling, along with many others that had no outlet, got all tangled up in her head, and all she could do was splash the surface of the bathwater in frustration.