Chapter 40 – Bath Time (1/2)

The kids divided up into groups and scattered about. Some went upstairs, others headed to other rooms, then went outside.

”Miss Philia, what're they doing?”

”Oh, everyone is getting ready for their weekly bathing.”

”Huh?”

(Bathing? Weekly?!)

”T, they only bathe once a week?”

”Only? Sometimes the things you say make you sound like a noble.”

”Ah...”

(Is that the norm among commoners?)

”Are you going to take a bath as well then?”

”...Are you really not the daughter of a high lord somewhere?”

”I can assure you I'm not.”

(Where did that even come from?)

”Oh, is that so. Well, I do not know for other places, but at least here, we bathe once a week, and that is by wiping our bodies off with a wet cloth.”

”Th, that counts as bathing?!”

(There's not way that would get anyone actually clean, would it?)

”So then...”

As I watched, quite a few of the kids had all congregated in the same room.

”Is it alright if I have a look?”

”I don't think there is a single person who would object to almost anything you do.”

I didn't really like the way she worded that, nor the little grin she gave me, but I peeked inside the room.

The room itself was quite large, large enough for all the kids to use at once, though it would be a little cramped if they did that. Aside from the kids and their things, the room was pretty barren. There weren't any decorations for furniture. It looked like the only reason why they used this room to bathe was because it had drains, so getting the floor wet wasn't a problem.

The kids themselves were in various stages of 'bathing', some were still taking off their clothes, others were soaking and wringing rags over buckets of water, and the rest were in the middle of wiping their bodies down.

If I had to describe it as quickly as possible, the words I'd use were cold and miserable.

”Miss Philia, is the next room used for anything?”

I pointed at the door next to this room.

”No, it's one of our storage rooms, but we haven't used it in years.”

(Perfect.)

Opening the door to the next room, I had a glance around. The room was entirely barren. There wasn't any junk or even any dust as far as I could tell at first glance.

”It's pretty clean.”

”Of course. We work hard to maintain the orphanage to the best of our abilities after all.”

Beside me, Philia puffed out her mostly nonexistent chest while giving me a proud smile.

(Am I even allowed to use that joke, considering the size of my air bags?)

That aside, I was a bit surprised she answered my little mumble.

Turning back to the room, I stretched my arms out and pushed out my mana, suffusing it with the floor, walls, and ceiling. From there, I manipulated the room and pushed up material from the ground below, creating a large c-shaped tub with several divisions that filled up almost all the space in the room. The gap was facing the wall towards the room the kids were in, but otherwise the tub went from wall to wall to wall. The separators divided the giant tub up into smaller tubs, but even those were big enough to be comparable to a typical hot tub.

Taking drainage into consideration, I even slightly angled the bottom of the tubs towards the middle of the room, then made a hole for drainage, as well as large piping that connected to the drain in the next room.

I removed an ingot of copper and tin, as well as a leather hide. I mixed portions of the ingots to make bronze, then reshaped the resultant metal into a plug and the leather into a gasket. I test fitted it, and they had no problems. The plug I made extra large for both durability and weight, so it wouldn't easily be knocked loose if the kids ended up playing in the bath.

The little spirits were running around, checking all the stuff I had made like usual. Dipping into the tubs, spinning around like they were swirling in water, curiously poking at the bronze plugs.

”Can you step inside and close the door Miss Philia?”

”Oh umm, sure. Are these what I think they are?”

”Maybe? I can't read mind after all.”

Once Philia did as I asked and came over to join me in the open gap in between the tubs, I put all the remaining material away. Next I stretched my mana out more lightly this time and turned it into hot water, quickly filling up all the tubs as Philia's eyes grew as wide as saucers. I had trouble suppressing the grin on my face as I looked at her expression from the corner of my eye.

I stretched out my mana for the third time into the adjoining wall between where we were and where the kids were. Once I reinforced the structural supports, I dropped the wall and buried it underground.

”Wha?!”

”Ahh!”

”What the?!”

In front of us were the kids, mostly still in the middle of their so called bathing, all staring in surprise at Philia and me. Beside, me, Philia's eyes were also open wide in surprise, but she quickly composed herself and glanced at me.

”Ah, I was thinking. How about I show you all how people bathe where I come from?”

”You're going to bathe with us?”

”Really?”

”I wanna try it out!”

The kids' reception seemed to be pretty good.

”Alright. It's kinda hard to show you all without a demonstration. Can I get a volunteer?”

Almost before I could finish my question, one girl stood straight up, shooting an up as high as it would go, not even bothering the fact that she was completely naked. Rather than her being bashful about it, I felt like I was getting a bit embarrassed in her place.

”I'll do it!”

She had a determined look on her face. The other kids quickly got up one after the next, as if they were racing each other.

”Umm, yea. I guess I can demonstrate with you then, since you want it so bad.”

I pointed at the first girl, and she happily hopped over, swiftly weaving her way in between the other kids. All the while her tail was wagging, the long, still wet fur flicking water left and right as her tail swung back and forth to the annoyance of the kids who got caught in it.

”Alright then. Let me get ready too.”

As quickly as I could, I stripped down as well and stuffed all my clothes into my magic bag, then took out a cloth and several bars of soap.

”Could you put this somewhere dry?”

I turned to Philia and handed over my bag. Or at least I tried to. Her face was a bit rosy as she stared at me. She hadn't reacted like this before and was making me a bit uneasy.

”Umm...Miss Philia?”

Leaning in, I tried to get her to respond.

”Ha! Oh, umm, what was it you asked?”

”...Could you take my bag somewhere where it wouldn't get wet?”

”Oh, sure. Right away!”

Holding my bag to her chest, she quickly turned to leave, only to realize that there were pools of hot water in between her and the door she entered from. Immediately after realizing her mistake, she turned and made her way to the door for the next room and exited.

It felt like it wasn't my imagination that her face was getting red.

”Umm...alright then. Now let's go to the demonstration.”

I turned to the triangle eared girl, but she was as still as a statue as she stared at me.

”Umm...you alright?”

Leaning side to side, inspecting her, the only sign that she was still alive was that her chest was rising and falling as it should, and her eyes were following my movements. Straightening my back, my eyes caught on to the stillness of the rest of the room. Everyone there was staring at me, frozen as a statue. Looking closer, I saw that their cheeks were a bit red as well, just like Philia's.

I was pretty confused at the scene, but nothing would start if they stayed like this. Not having any ideas, I tried plopping my hand on the girl's head.

”Hey, you awake?”

”Hya?! I, umm...I'm sorry! I, I was...”

She finally reacted after having her head stroked for a few seconds. As if by magic, all the other kids started to move as well. Many of them turned away, while peeking from the corner of their eyes, while others grouped up and watched me even more closely, as if they were anticipating a show.

(Well, in a sense this is supposed to be a show.)

”It's fine. But let's hurry and start, or some of you are going to catch a cold.”

All the kids were still naked, with quite a few's skin was still glazed with water. I really needed to speed things up.

I levitated a bucket over from one of the kids, then guided the girl to sit on it facing our audience once I emptied and overturned it. Next, I levitated some of the hot water from the bath and splashed it on the girl's head, pushing the water around with my hands to make sure it seeped all the way to the roots. Her hair was pretty short, so a single splash ended up being enough.

Taking one of the bars of soap I had made beforehand, I rubbed it between my wet hands, lathering it up. Once I was satisfied, I rubbed my hands through the girl's hair, giving her a bit of a scalp massage as I went.

(Ah, it hadn't been so long, but this is so nostalgic.)

I couldn't help but think about all the time I used to do this for Alicia. Every night I'd wash away the dirt and sweat off of her hair and body just like how I was doing it for this girl.

”...Scarlet?”

”Eh? W, what is it?”

The girl turned to look at me from the corner of her eye. As I tried to ask her what was wrong, to my surprise, the words that came out strangely shook.

”Did I do something wrong? Why are you crying?”

”Huh?”

Only then I realized that there were tears running down my cheeks.

(This isn't good.)

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, forcibly calming myself down. My chest felt warm, as if to support and encourage me.

”No, I'm fine. I was just remembering something nice.”

”You cry when you think of good things?”

”Sometimes.”

I gave her the most gentle smile I could. But contrary to my expectation, she quickly stiffened up, then turned back and faced forward.

(Did I just mess something up?)

”Umm...I'm going to continue.”

The girl didn't say anything, but answered with a stiff nod.

Sighing, I went back to the scalp massage.

”Alright, now close your eyes tight as I rinse the soap off.”

Giving my warning, I levitated a larger ball of water, then slowly trickled it down from above, using my hands to push it around and sweep away the lather from her hair. When I was done, I took my cloth and lathered it up with the same bar of soap, then gently scrubbed her back with it before rinsing it off.

”Now, I think you can do the rest on your own?”

I handed the bar of soap to the girl. I thought I could see disappointment flash across her expression, but I might've just imagined it as she quickly put a bright smile on her face.

”Thank you so much Scarlet!”

”Now everyone, that's how it's done. Don't forget to wash your whole body though, not just the head and back. Once you're finished washing, the next step is to soak in the baths. It's the best part of bathing, so don't forget!”

”””Okay!”””

The kids all came to gather as I handed out several bars of soap, then several kids scooped out hot water for their buckets then they all went to start washing. I watched with a smile as they clumsily went about washing each others heads.

”Oh, and be careful you don't let any of the soap get into your eyes. It hurt a lot.”

”Gyaaa!”

Just as I finished saying that, one of the kids yelled out. There was lather dripping down all over his face, and his was holding his eyes with his hands. The amazing timing made me freeze for a moment before I went over and helped him out, rinsing off his face with fresh water.

After that, everything more or less went smooth, so I concentrated on myself.