Evening had already fallen. Although the residual heat of summer still remained, it was autumn now, and so the skies darkened into dusk a little earlier than usual. The town gates would be closed in a scant two hours. I’d be forced to camp out in the wilderness if I missed the gate closure. It wouldn’t be a problem to just fashion a bed, but then I’d have to come up with an excuse to give Armeria and Cosmos for why I hadn’t returned, and that was significantly more difficult. And pointless, to be honest—no matter what I told them, they’d be angry regardless, and I didn’t want that.
“Let’s try it out tomorrow. If I make Armeria and Cosmos angry, they might not let me leave the Lycoris estate ever again.”
“Then I will simply bring you back to town myself once we’re done.”
“Aruna?!” What are you saying, Aruna!
“That’s a lovely idea. That shouldn’t take any time at all,” Cult chimed in.
“You too, Cult?” I doubted I could wriggle out of this situation, especially considering the deadly serious look on each of their faces.
“Just give up already, Huey! Let’s all try out the hot springs together!”
“T-Together?! We can’t do that, Fouré!” I squeaked.
“Why not? I don’t know what’s so bad about it. We’re fairies, you’re mentally an adult, and this is just some nice, wholesome bathing.”
“No, no, no! Mixed gender bathing isn’t wholesome to begin with!”
“What do you mean? This is the house we all worked together to build. I think to celebrate, we should all take a bath together too.” Fouré sadly hung her head, gaze turned downcast. She looked like she was about to cry, as though I’d hurt her terribly. As for me... My heart always melted when I saw someone in distress.
Turning everything over in my mind, I likewise hung my head in defeat. I wasn’t getting out of this.
I sighed. “All right, fine. I just have to take a bath with you all, right?” As long as we wore towels, at least it’d be a little better than nothing. With that thought in mind, I acquiesced to their demands.
“Yay! Me first, then!” Fouré whooped.
Without a shred of hesitation, Fouré magicked away her clothing, and stood before the rest of us fully nude. Her glorious twins jiggled and bounced with abandon...straight into my line of sight. The heat rose to my cheeks instantly as they burned red.
“I shall undress as well,” declared Cult.
Following Fouré’s lead, Cult did away with her clothing as well. It was a disaster—when I turned away from Fouré, my eyes fell directly on Cult. She was just as nude as Fouré, and her massive pillows—which dwarfed Fouré’s by several degrees—filled my vision.
“Ahhhhh!” I couldn’t hold in my shriek, and I instantly squeezed my eyes shut and turned around. But just my luck—Aruna was standing there. She stopped me from bolting away.
“What are you doing, Hisui? Come on, get your clothes off and let’s have our bath,” she said matter-of-factly and stripped my layers of clothing from me. Her dexterity and speed had me shaking like a leaf, although that might’ve been from the chill; I’d been left completely exposed. This was a sure demonstration of the War Goddess’s skill, if anything!
I couldn’t even begin to protest, much less actually object. She’d pulled my clothes off so smoothly it was as though I’d shown up here already naked. Clothes left in a heap on the ground, I instinctively tried to run like a spooked deer, but Aruna—who was also nude—caught me before I could get far and held me close.
Th-This sensation! Aruna was naked as well, after all... I knew exactly what I was feeling, even with my eyes closed.
“I’ll go rinse myself off first!” I yelped, but Aruna wasn’t about to be tricked.
“And where would you do that? We only have the bath here, so don’t even try that crap with me,” she said tersely, then lightly plunked me into the hot spring.
Hey, I could’ve at least poured some water over myself first! But the cries of my heart went unheard. Still, this was a good reminder of how humans were creatures of extreme adaptability—though my mind was consumed by difficult feelings of embarrassment and shame, the pleasure of the hot spring made all those thoughts fly out of my head once I entered the water.
“This...feels so good...” The consternation I’d felt just a moment ago had disappeared. I sighed happily, absorbing the relaxing heat of the water.
“Taking a bath like this once in a while is pretty nice, isn’t it, Hisui?” said Aruna.
“Yeah...” I nodded. “When I was still living back home in Clematis, I didn’t get to take a hot bath like this even once. Even when I took a bath with Azalea and my other sisters, there was only so much water we could use, and given how poor my family was, we didn’t even have enough for one person to sit and stretch out in. So a big bath like this really takes me back to my old life.”
“Hee hee. But you can use the bath at the Lycoris manor however you like, can’t you? Is this bath really that much different from that one?”
“It’s completely different! Really, honestly different. This hot spring you’ve made has to be the best in the world.”
“Oh! If you’re that pleased with it, then it was well worth making.”
I hadn’t thought particularly hard about my answer, but Cult sighed happily in response and glided over to me. The steam somewhat obscured things near me, but once she got close enough, it didn’t stop me from seeing the contours of her body with perfect clarity. Her breasts especially stood out, highlighted by the steam and water. Startled, I turned to avert my eyes. Then, just when I’d drummed up the nerve to give her a sidelong glance, I felt a soft sensation pressing into my back and arms.
“Hey! Cult’s getting all cuddly with Huey! That’s not fair, not fair at all!” Fouré was right—Cult had wrapped her arms around me in an embrace, and the softness that had pushed up against me was undoubtedly her breasts. I tried to convince myself that I was just imagining things, but thanks to Fouré’s open declaration, I was forced to face the facts. As awkward as it was, this was honestly getting me kinda worked up.
To make things worse, Fouré also rushed over to us, splashing water as she went. She grabbed my right arm, which was conveniently free, and clung to it, trying to pry me away from Cult.
“H-Hey... Come on, you two, could you at least keep things quiet and relaxed while we’re in the bath?” I complained.
“I’m only doing this because Cult’s trying to seduce you! I think you’re better off away from her.”
Cult giggled at this accusation. “But I am the very person who made this hot spring. I don’t mean to discount Hisui’s help either. But I think you ought to be the one to back off, Fouré, since you weren’t much help at all.”
“What?! I’ll admit I couldn’t help much aside from removing water from the wood, but still! You can’t just pooh-pooh me like this!”
I tried to soothe Fouré as she shouted complaints about Cult’s choice of words. I knew Fouré had tried to help as best she could—at the very least, she’d done more for the house than I had.
“Stop making a fuss, you two. Your opinions are both subjective and pointless—Hisui’s here to relax, not listen to you two argue. Leave the yelling for later.” As the only one among the three with any sort of conscience, Aruna sighed deeply as she told the others off. Problematically, however, she’d also entered my field of view. I couldn’t budge, seeing as both my right and left arms were firmly stuck in Cult’s and Fouré’s grips.
“Hmph. You only did the bare minimum, Aruna! So stop talking down at us and get off your high horse!” shouted Fouré.
“I agree. You may take the high moral ground, but I know you’ll make your own moves while we aren’t watching. That’s just playing dirty,” accused Cult.
“Just who are you calling dirty?! I don’t want to hear that from either of you!” huffed Aruna.
Even though we were in a hot spring, the goddesses were being as loud and noisy as always with their usual arguing. It was impossible to actually relax, especially since...they were all fighting nude. Every time one of them huffed in anger, my mind was ejected into the stratosphere by the swaying and heaving of their plump bosoms. Even Aruna’s were lethal weapons despite their petite size, now that they weren’t concealed by her usual ensemble.
A short distance away, Dandelion was swimming around, taking to the water like a duck. I couldn’t help but be jealous of his freedom to enjoy his bath.