♱
“Welcome to the Veitia Home! Are you here for a room? Or would you like to order something to eat?”
Having gotten lost in the lush forest, I’d managed to send Sérignan a distress signal through the collective consciousness, and she’d rescued me thirty minutes later. Now we had at last reached the inn adjacent to the hot springs. Just getting there had been a real struggle.
“We’ll be staying here for three days and two nights. Do you have room for us?”
“Of course! I’ll show you to your room now.”
We couldn’t take a very long vacation, but three days and two nights wouldn’t be that much. We’d been fighting one battle after another, so I really wanted to take my time and enjoy the hot springs.
The innkeeper led us up to the second floor, then to a room in the southern hall.
“Enjoy yourselves!”
Our room had four beds, with each bed having its own dedicated closet and cupboard. The window offered us a gorgeous view of the sea. A truly clean, beautiful sea, unmarred by industrial pollution.
“Let’s go to the hot springs, Your Majesty!” Lysa urged me. “Hot springs, hot springs!”
“Don’t rush me,” I told her. “I just spent almost an hour stuck on that griffin, and then I got stranded in the middle of nowhere. Let me rest.”
Contrary to Lysa’s overexcitement, I was exhausted.
“I’ll wait for you, then!” Lysa swiftly sat on the bed and stared at me.
She stared...and stared...and stared some more.
I can’t sleep with her eyes drilling holes into me like that!
“Fine, fine, let’s relax in the hot spring. Did they tell you where they are?”
“Yes, they gave me a map at the front desk!” Lysa whipped out the map, as if she’d been waiting for me to say that.
Cute.
“Let’s go, then. Do we have soap and shampoo?”
“All set! No need to worry about that, Your Majesty!”
It never hurts to check.
“Did you bring your casual clothes, Sérignan?” I asked.
She couldn’t very well go into the hot springs in her armor.
“Yes, I have the clothes we bought in Khalkha.”
Sérignan took off her armor and switched into ordinary clothes. We then made way for the hot springs. I wore a plain, casual dress so as to not draw much attention. Lysa wore a pair of boyish shorts, knee-high socks, and a black sleeveless shirt. Sérignan was in a long, black skirt and a white shirt.
“Looking awfully girly, Sérignan,” I teased. “You look like a talented secretary or something.”
“H-Huh?! I do? I picked this hoping I wouldn’t look too conspicuous...” Sérignan said dejectedly, pinching up her skirt.
This gave me a flash of her leg, and I could see she had a dagger strapped to her thigh. So that was what she meant by inconspicuous.
“That said, a long skirt could make it harder to move. Maybe I should have picked a shorter one. But that would have been embarrassing...”
“Always ready for battle, huh? I wish you’d just try to dress up for fun. You’re plenty strong already, Sérignan.” I sighed.
“Perish the thought! Protecting you is what I live for, Your Majesty. I cannot exist otherwise. Please, allow me to keep you safe!” she pleaded, desperate.
“Of course I’m letting you protect me, Sérignan. Just having you around is soothing and gives me courage. Keep me safe.”
“I will, Your Majesty!”
How did we get from talking about clothes to this?
Still, I wasn’t lying when I said having Sérignan around gave me peace of mind. She always protected me whenever I was in danger—she and the Swarm. I trusted her to no end.
“Let’s get in the hot spring, then,” I said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Ditto!”
Lysa and I left the room, feeling eager.
♱
The hot springs were very impressive. An open-air bath provided a wonderful view of the sea, and there was a lie-down bath where you could stretch out and relax in shallow water. Warming up in those waters would be bliss. I wanted to jump in right away, but I figured we’d enjoy the open-air bath first and then try the lie-down bath.
Lysa lit up as soon as she saw the hot spring. “Whoooa! The bath is huge! It’s like a lake, milady!”
She’d been traveling with us ever since she left the elven forest, and she constantly marveled at new discoveries. Hot springs were nothing new to me, but it was her first time seeing anything like it. She’s so cute.
“Hmm??” Sérignan glanced at me. “What are you looking at, milady?”
I, too, was marveling at the sights—namely, Sérignan’s breasts. They were big. No one in my grade had had breasts that big. I’d been teased for my middle-schooler figure for ages, so knockers like that were a pipe dream.
What did Sérignan do to get this nice figure? I was supremely jealous.
“Urk! I-If I may, milady, I think you’re very pretty in your own right!” Sérignan said hurriedly.
“It’s not convincing when it comes from the owner of those milk jugs,” I huffed, glaring at her bust.
“Um, aren’t we going into the bath?” Lysa asked.
“Yeah, let’s go in. We can see how these things float,” I said dryly, my gaze still nailed to Sérignan’s chest.
As we dipped into the water, its welcoming warmth melted away all my tension and envy.
“Phew... Hot springs are great.”
“The scenery is very pretty,” Sérignan commented.
“Yeah, bathing with a view of the ocean is fantastic.”
Lysa looked around. “Is it just me, or are there hardly any people here?”
The facilities were spacious, yet there was only one other lady bathing besides us. There wasn’t anyone else nearby, so we pretty much had the place all to ourselves.
It made enough sense. There were no ships nearby, and the island had no walls for protection. With the war going on, no one would carelessly come by for an island vacation. Seemed like a bit of a shame, though.
“And there’s that weird rumor going on,” the young woman sharing the bath with us interjected.
“Weird rumor?” I parroted.
“Well, apparently, there are monsters coming in from the south,” she said. “People say the Portario Republic in the new continent is struggling to keep them at bay, but they could break through any day now. And when the monsters take over the southern continent, they’ll cross the island and move north to our continent.”
Monsters from the south? I recalled hearing that before. Someone said as much during the revolution in Nabreej.
“But, I mean, it’s just a rumor.” The woman smiled. “There’re wars going on all the time nowadays, so nobody has the money to go on vacation. I just happen to be a famous banker’s daughter, so I can travel freely, but not everyone has that luxury.”
“I guess that makes sense...”
Few people could indulge in leisure at a time like this, as sad as that was.
After I’d had my fill of gazing at the sea from the open-air bath, I made my way to the lie-down bath. I lay down in the hot water and contemplated the future.
“What are you thinking about, milady?” Sérignan asked.
“Oh, not much. Just about how far we can go.”
Just how far should I take this war? Will everything end when I defeat Nyrnal? It didn’t feel that way. A menace in the south was coming our way. Maybe dealing with that was the victory the Arachnea sought. Could we really cross the sea and continue the war on the new continent?