Chapter 53 (1/2)

Since that day, Doug continued to thoughtlessly challenge Heath to a match.

“Heath, t-today is the day I’ll have you fight me…”

“I told you, no.”

What was thoughtless about it was that Heath would absolutely never agree.

Perhaps because Doug knew that, his sentences always trailed off weakly.

But Doug couldn’t think of any other ideas.

At any rate, he just tried his utmost to challenge her, but it was clear to everyone else that she would never agree.

“Fight me!”

“No.”

“Fight me after this!”

“I refuse.”

“Fight mee…”

“You’re so annoying.”

It was clear that with that exchange, it was Doug taking the damage.

But by now there was no backing down―――well, obviously, since he even transferred into the Northern Dorm for this―――so for the whole week, Doug continued to recklessly challenge her.

“Doug, I can understand the feeling of wanting to reach your goals… I really understand… You’ve got pa.s.sion. That’s a good thing in and of itself… But when you bother other people because of that… that’s not good, right? Apprentice knights live as a group together, you know? Even Heath has complained.”

“Y-, Yes…”

Heath had ruthlessly told on him.

After listening to Hislo’s somewhat half-hearted lecture, an hour later Doug emerged feebly from the instructor’s room.

The Northern Dormitory was home to a bathing area for the exclusive use of the apprentice knights.

It was housed on the first floor of the dormitory and had access to clean water. From there, knights would draw out the water to wash off the sweat and dirt from their training.

Because the bathing area was part.i.tioned into stalls with curtains, it was possible to clean oneself away from the eyes of others. Not only that, each stall was surprisingly big, so it was possible to bring in one’s clothes too.

Why was it built like this? Back in the day there had been no part.i.tions because the apprentices would bond together as they cleaned themselves.

But one particularly straight-laced knight complained that wandering around naked together, even amongst other men, would bring their characters as knights into question.

The result of that were these stalls.

As for Fii, she couldn’t thank the guy enough.

Because of him, she didn’t have to worry about a thing and could bathe whenever she wanted.

And as a girl, Fii loved bathing.

After all, it felt great to clean one’s body, and the cold water felt especially good after training.

“Hmmhmm~♪”

She even started to hum.

“Ah-, Gorms! There’s no more soap! Lend me yours!” she shouted.

Gorms was in the stall next to her.

“Again? Here. I’ll lend you one.”

“Thanks! When I go shopping next time, I’ll buy you a new one, okay?”

A bar of soap came flying from above the part.i.tion walls. Fii caught it with a smack and then began to carefully clean herself after lathering it over herself. While she was scrubbing away at her ankles, she heard Gorms getting out.

“Oh? Are you done already, Gorms?”

“You just take too long.”

“Ehhh, but it feels so good.”

Having cleaned just what he needed, Gorms left Fii behind.

Well, it wouldn’t help to rush, so Fii continued to carefully clean.