“Welcome, Jaid. I’d tap that box to the sensor before you fail at the last minute,” Nachi smiled at her from the hotspring where she bathed in the nude.
“Uhh, right,” Jaid took her advice, doing her best not to stare. Thankfully, the water was pretty steamy and hid basically everything underneath the water line. She pressed the cube against the sensor and the light went out entirely. A second later, the top slid open and revealed what was inside. Jaid pulled out a single shot glass filled with a clear liquid she had to assume was alcohol.”
“Pretty smart, right?” Nachi laughed, proud of herself. “What item can you not jostle even a little bit without ruining it. Not a single drop could be spilled. Of course, for the test, I had the foresight of putting lids on them. Now, if you don’t want it, give it here.” Jaid chucked the shot glass over to Nachi since it was annoyingly clear that nothing would spill.
“Even smarter of me, right? I turned you all into my personal delivery service. Hard to keep a buzz going, though, since you’re only the second person to arrive yet.” Jaid was a bit surprised, thinking she was the first. She hadn’t seen anyone else come down the mountain yet—cubeless and the glee of freedom on their face.
“Chorus actually made it up here almost right away,” Nachi informed her. Now thinking back, Jaid hadn’t actually seen Chorus the entire time, and probably subconsciously assumed they were plotting something or filming from the shadows. The fact that they’d finished didn’t rule that out. In fact, Jaid did a cursory glance for cameras just now but didn’t find anything.
“They finished even faster than Rusa did. Carried the thing like they were holding a damn royal baby, gliding across the ground like they weren’t even walking. Mawhging annoying, honestly,” Nachi lamented and then pounded back her gifted shot. “Now, why don’t you join me? You take me for a lady who enjoys a nice hot bath. Doesn’t get more nice and more hot than this.”
“A tempting offer, but I’ll decline,” Jaid was about to turn around to leave, but Nachi’s words stopped her.
“Your arms, right?” Nachi nailed it in one. “You’re always wearing long sleeves to hide your Curse Mark, yeah? Pretty obvious that’s what it is. Given your background, no way you haven’t been showering in a group setting. So while you may not like it, I bet you’ve seen plenty of other people naked, and I’m sure plenty have seen you.”
While Nachi didn’t know her real background, she still wasn’t spouting any inaccuracies. Jaid had been subjected to it plenty, even though she hated it every time. Somehow, though, the damned marks on her arms made her far more embarrassed and frustrated than being in the nude ever had.
“I’m guessing Chorus didn’t either, given their proclivities in hiding their gender.” It was a moot point to this situation, but Jaid figured she could use someone else bailing in order to strengthen her opposition.
“They actually did join me for a while but covered their body with a towel,” an answer Jaid hadn’t been expecting. “Even with how much it clinged to their body, I still never came closer to making a proper guess. It’s annoying since I don’t know if I should be hitting on them or not,” Nachi sighed.
“Anyways, they left some towels hung over there in case anybody wanted to use them,” Nachi nodded towards the weird giant box off to the side that Jaid had been ignoring until now. “Don’t know why you’re so worried about some hands on your arms, though. My body’s got plenty that I’d rather not be there.”
Nachi stood up from the water. Jaid tried to cover her own eyes but still peeked nonetheless. “Unlike you Fiends, us Lessers don’t get the benefit of having our scars fade away. Though, some of them do seem a little lighter.” Jaid had noticed the occasional ones on her arm and a slight one on her cheek, but her body was covered in them, especially her stomach.
“Fine,” Jaid had run out of excuses and honestly did want to try it. She didn’t have any clones summoned at present, but almost felt a twinge in the back of her mind like they were egging her on. She grabbed two towels and went behind the box to change. One was for her main body, and the other was to wrap around her arms and shoulders like a shawl.
“What exactly is this?” Jaid couldn’t help but wonder more about the box as she disrobed behind it. There was a flexible pipe coming out of it and into the water. On the box itself was a sign: ‘Cleansing Sins - Do Not Disturb’.
“Ehh, don’t worry about it. That’s just a failure who is leeching off our good graces for too long.” Nachi didn’t hold back her mocking. “She’s The Beacon, a Fiend who tried to get recruited but was disqualified at the last question. Tried to kill the little fluff-ball. Drim gave her that private bathing chamber as a consolation prize.”
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“So, can she hear us?” Jaid asked as she slipped into the water, immediately not caring about the answer. All of her problems melted away in that moment. Baths had become harder to appreciate since becoming a Fiend, not able to get hot enough to appease her new temperature resistance. But damn, this hit the spot just right. It also made her wonder how Nachi, who only got a slight resistance, was able to stay in the hot springs for hours. She didn’t care about that answer either, really.
“Yes, she sure can!” Nachi raised her voice. There wasn’t a response, but a surprised sloshing of water came from the box. “Hurry up and go on a pilgrimage already! Or whatever it is you religious types do.”
Jaid stopped listening and mumbled, “I won’t stay here for long. I’ll definitely leave before someone else comes.” She was trying to convince herself more than anything. Nachi started to ramble about something else but Jaid was gone, lost in her own world as she let the warmth of the water take her.
On the verge of falling asleep, Jaid suddenly jolted upwards. She didn’t know how much time had passed, and Nachi was now off in her own zen. It didn’t look like anyone else had come, but Jaid forced herself to get out, wanting to skedaddle before someone really did show up. Her timing had been perfect, as she heard voices while she got dressed.
“Ah, my drinking buddy! I won’t try to take your shot.” She walked out once fully clothed and found Tize going through a similar bewilderment to when she first arrived. Jaid didn’t say anything to the man, but they at least exchanged a courteous nod as she passed. On the way down the mountain, she passed quite a few more near the top than she expected. It seemed some good progress had been made by everyone during her relaxing soak.
The most surprising was Itsy, who had actually made it onto the mountain now, though she wasn’t very far in. Jaid thought she was standing still at first, but no, she was just being slower than a totrtoisnail, not even moving an inch with each step. Her concentration was serious and impressive, and Jaid made sure to give her a wide berth—pretty sure that if she bumped her, she’d be slammed around like a ragdoll.
It was quite quiet at the restaurant that night with most of the loudest still up in the mountain. Jaid enjoyed the peaceful meal but had gotten used to the rambunctious background noise. Surprisingly, the four main Generals were there, as the CP called them. They were at their own table and seemed to be having a more serious meeting rather than eating.
Jaid’s first instinct was to spy on them. Which it should be, as was her literal job. She thought about how to do it: moving closer, getting up to get more food, accidentally dropping in a cup in that direction. None of the ideas came to fruition as their meeting dispersed before she could act.
A wave of relief washed over her, but that was troubling. She should have been eager to gather more intel, but it just seemed like a burdensome obligation. Jaid blamed it on the relaxing bath she just took and made up for it by walking the perimeter of the compound after dinner.
Some of the old walls of the original Drazah compound still remained. Jaid was surprised and confused as to why they didn’t replace all of them since most of the border was brand new. What was old was quite old—weathered and worn. It could be said they were saving on supplies, but maybe there was a hint of nostalgia as a factor.
Walls on the perimeter at all were superfluous. They weren’t keeping anyone out while the barrier was there. Jaid made sure to run her fingers along the invisible nothing every so often, checking the solidity. It was interesting to see the slight pink hue as she touched it, writing her name before it vanished back to nothing.
Back in her room, Jaid sent a slew of reports to kill time since it was still early in the night. She really needed hobbies. It was a luxury she’d never been afforded in either past life. At the CP, everything had moved so quickly, there’d been no time to relax. In her life before that, if she wasn’t doing her job, then she was required to stand around and wait to do her job. Time to herself had been rare.
When she ran dry on reports, she turned on the TV and began flipping through the channels, hoping to drown out her boredom. Even though she’d been trained to death these past days, it was still her instinct to do so. Any idle time she’d had before, she’d always train if she could. But if she went to the gym now, it’d be suspicious why she was working so hard.
Her phone beeped as she zoned out, letting her know that she had a new Screening. It was mostly the usual, but there were a few new questions asking about specifics on certain individuals, questions to fill in the gaps of their history and details. Jaid didn’t always have an answer, but gave her best guess whenever she could.
Then came the last question: 『Do you believe you have been compromised?』The question had been added at the end of every Screening after the first. Jaid quickly answered no, but not immediately. Every time she answered this question, she found herself staring at it for just a moment longer. There were no wandering thoughts, so it didn’t make sense really. Maybe the repetition and insistence to answer it was getting to her. Quite puzzling.
The current results came in for the 5th ranking test late that night. It was noted that it was subject to change as some were still testing.
[Rank 5 Results]
Passed: Niloy, Tize, Chorus, Kaizu, Roque (Automatic Pass), Jaid, Rezin
Failed: Gatrim, Itsy