Chapter 35 - Interlude Ganche’s Bath (1/2)

“Aah, this one. Bring down this one for me, will ya?”

“Nah, check out the one over here. This bad boy lets off a nice smell when it burns.”

“Ya got a point. That one’s good for when you’re smoking stuff to cook. But it’s better to use this one for the fireplace. It takes its time burning.”

“Then how about we just chop down both of ‘em? Well then, Ganche, please go ahead.”

Ganche, who had been in the middle of cutting up the wood of a giant tree he had felled ten days ago, paused in his chopping.

“Piss off! If you want it chopped down, use your own hands and chop it down yourselves.”

“What’s with you! You’re really gonna make aging old people like us work?”

“Who the hell is an aging old person. Think about your ages after dividing them in half. You 90-year old guys are 45. 45-year olds aren’t aging and old!”

When Ganche said this to him, Itor, a member of the 2nd platoon, laughed without any trace of shyness.

The Lord’s estate possessed a splendid bathing room. It didn’t lack in size even when compared to the Crown Prince’s bathing chambers.

When Ganche asked the head butler why it wasn’t being used, he was told, ‘There’s no fuel’. Though they could have used wood that had rotted off in the forest for fuel, the people of this estate were too lazy to prepare wood for anything other than for cooking and fireplaces.

Since they were like this, it was no wonder the forest kept steadily expanding further and further, Ganche thought.

In any case, he couldn’t allow for this splendid bathing room to not be put to use. Ganche knew that Ernst enjoyed soaking in hot water more than anything.

Ganche had immediately brought back trees he had cut down from the lord’s forest.

This was a bath that hadn’t been used for a hundred years. He spent a whole day meticulously polishing it. After that, he gathered some snow into the bathtub, then lit the fire.

He fretfully kept checking over it, worrying that the bath might have some defect after all this time, but the water grew hot after one hour.

Jumping for joy, Ganche had gone to go call for Ernst – when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, realizing: the bath worked, but he had no soap.

Ganche spun on his heel and ran to Saiquani Town.

They didn’t have anything as top-quality as what he’d used in the royal palace, but at least he had gotten some soap at all.

Ganche urged Ernst to come with him. When he brought Ernst to the bathing room, Ernst looked up at him in surprise. Then, a wide smile dawned over Ernst’s face.

After that, Ganche heated up a bath every day.

The forest contained plenty of fuel. A single large tree could provide heating for five days.

So that the wood could dry and catch fire more easily, he gathered the chopped trees and left them in the forest. Every five days, he could haul out one of them.

Today, too, he’d come to the forest to pick up some wood, but for some reason the militia troops had followed him.

The five people who had come with him pointed at the trees in the forest while thinking about what they would do with them, then made a racket telling Ganche to chop them down.

“You brought your axe, didn’t you?”

Each member of the militia was equipped with an axe.

The militia’s job included gathering firewood for the estate’s use. There were about enough axes for each person located inside the barracks’ tool shed. But it should also be said that all of those axes’ blades were now dulled over time.

“Can such an elderly person like me really bring down a giant tree like this…”

So grieved Tite, a soldier of the 1st platoon. On the New Year, this guy would be certainly be turning 72. But when converted to Dunbertian years, he was 36.

“…So split it between two people.”

Lately, the militiamen started bringing up their ages as a pretext to foist all of the hard work on Ganche.

“C’mon, isn’t it fine? Just whack at it a little with your axe and bring it down for us. Besides, it’s not like us guys won’t be able to carry it back on our own.”

Ganche let out a sigh, then got to work.

They would only get more annoying if he kept ignoring them. Besides, they said they could carry the trees back themselves. Now that he was chopping the trees down for them, they had better actually follow through.

It was a simple task to carry one or even two of those trees, but it was a one-hour walk from this forest to the estate. Since he also had to bring back wood for the bath, he would end up having to make two round trips.

Just transporting it alone would take up 3 hours, so by the time he got around to heating up the bath, it would already be far too late in the day.

“…Move out of the way.”

Ganche looked at the tree, which looked like it would amount to enough wood for three soldiers to carry in their arms. Since it had been half-heartedly chopped at, there were axe-marks left behind on its surface. Even if it was littered with notches from the axe’s blade, it wasn’t a big deal for this wood to be a little chipped, Ganche thought.

Once Ganche saw that the soldiers had moved away from the tree, he walked ten paces away the tree he was going to bring down and readied his aim.

“…Hey?”

Itor called out in bewilderment, watching as Ganche tossed aside his axe and bent his knees.

Ganche pushed with his legs and charged, aiming straight for the tree. He angled his shoulder, ready to strike it with all he had.

Boom.

The tree shook, struck with a loud sound. Birds burst and fled from the treetops, and piles of snow fell from the sky.

He once again distanced himself, then rushed forward.

Boom.

The tree leaned to the side.

Ganche rammed it with his shoulder just one more time.

The enormous tree let out its final groan as it slowly fell over.

“…You sure showed us an unimaginable way to bring down a tree…”

Tite murmured, letting out a tightly-wound breath.

Well then next up, please carry this back for us. Before those militiamen could have the opportunity to say that kind of thing to him, Ganche easily lifted the whole giant tree meant to be used as bath fuel onto his shoulder.

Then, he quickly returned to the estate, leaving the dumbfounded soldiers behind him.

“I was wondering, isn’t it difficult to have to heat up the water every day?”

Ganche gently stripped off the clothes so as to not damage this top-quality silk, which had come from those days of being the crown prince.

“No, not at all. It’s nothing of the sort.”

As he kneeled in the small room which led to the bathing room, Ganche took off Ernst’s underwear. It was just as enjoyable as taking the peel off of a ripe peach.

“I see… Though I’m happy to be able to take a hot bath every day, Ganche’s body is the most important to me.”

Ernst extended his slender fingers, stroking Ganche’s cheek.

The care and worry in his blue eyes made something warm spread through Ganche’s chest.

Ganche knew that when the militia troops pushed him around to do work for them, it was a result of how close and friendly they felt toward him – but in all honesty, he felt like it was a pain in the ass.

But Ernst – Ernst always cared about Ganche.

Even though just like the militiamen, he was a Kleber of the Schell race, Ernst still thought about Ganche as if he were the same kind of person he was, no matter if Ganche was Dunbertian.

“Since I’m a Dunbertian, I’m strong enough to handle it, right?”

“I know that Ganche is strong, but even Dunbertians can feel tired, can’t they? Ganche, whenever you feel exhausted, don’t push yourself, please. I hope that you can tell me when that happens.”

As Ernst gently stroked Ganche’s head, Ganche brought his mouth to kiss the stomach in front of him. He left a mark on that white skin as if trying to convey the happiness he felt, and he stripped the last piece of clothing on Ernst’s body.

He brought Ernst’s slender and small parts into his mouth. Ganche rolled them atop his tongue, feeling his own cock slowly rise and harden.

“Aah…”

He heard Ernst’s sweet moans and felt Ernst pull the curls of his hair.

“Ganche… let’s head into the bath. We shouldn’t let the water you heated go to waste.”

Ganche released Ernst from his mouth, giving one last lick to those palely-colored parts before embracing Ernst’s small body.

He had learned how to conduct himself as a bathing attendant while serving in the bathing chamber of the royal palace.

What was different compared to back then was that now, Ganche had also stripped bare, and he entered the bathtub together with Ernst.

Then, he was allowed to bring his finger deep into the pucker of Ernst’s small bottom.

“Haa…”

Ernst panted seductively, clutching Ganche’s shoulder. Within the warm water, his slender body stirred.

“Lord Ernst. How are you doing?”

Ganche crept his fingers along Ernst’s slender nape, and perhaps because of that, Ernst felt hotter than usual.

“I think, I’m feeling a little dizzy…”

“Shall we get out, then?”

“…I’d like for us to stay in the bath, just a little while longer.”

Chuckling, Ganche pulled Ernst up from the water.

Ernst’s legs were soaked only up to his knees as Ganche gently set down Ernst’s upper body on the floor. Ganche supported Ernst’s head with his palm so that it wouldn’t be hit in the process.

The floor of the bathing room was made out of stone. It seemed that a giant rock had been leveled into a flat surface, laid out over the ground, and turned into a stone floor.

Seeming as if he found the stone floor soothing, Ernst pressed his cheek to the stone and spread both of his hands on it.

“Is it not cold?”

“No… This stone is probably Linua stone. It’s a rock that conducts heat; the stone of the bathtub likely transferred the water temperature to the stone floor. It’s very warm.”

Ernst closed his eyes to enjoy the sensation, a sight that delighted Ganche, as well.

Ganche gently and rhythmically rubbed from Ernst’s small knee to his thigh, watching the gentle cadence of Ernst’s pale belly rising and falling.

He felt like the challenges thrust before Ernst kept growing with each passing day.

After he solved one problem, another that was even harder popped out.

It was almost as if some unseen force was trying to test the limits of what Ernst could do.

The front which Ernst showed his people was unperturbed by everything, capable of handling matters without needing anyone’s worry; yet from the back, Ganche knew that his small body clamored with rising complaints.

Lately, Ernst’s body began to tense up every now and then.

Only in front of Ganche would he relax every muscle of his body, his eyes falling half-lidded.

For the sake of providing Ernst a place where he could rest his mind, Ganche vowed that even if he broke one or both of his arms, he must go out and heat up a bath for Ernst every single day.

Ganche gently rested his head upon Ernst’s slender thighs. When he rubbed his cheek against Ernst’s inner thigh, feeling just how soft it was, Ernst brought his small hand to stroke through Ganche’s hair.

Ernst often patted and stroked Ganche’s head. In Ganche’s memory, he did not recall his parents ever having patted his head for him.

He never realized that this was actually something that could feel so nice. Or did it feel that way simply because it was Ernst who was doing it to him?

When Ganche tried to bring his face into the area hidden between Ernst’s pale thighs, Ernst spread his slender legs for him.

Ganche brought the small, limply-hanging manhood into his mouth. He also swallowed down the sack behind it, rolling them in his mouth together.

As he continued on to insert his fingers down below, inside of his mouth, Ernst’s parts grew slightly stiffer.