“Alright! Nice work, my pupils! Same time tomorrow, okay? Don’t forget your homework!”
Kenrich, Fae and Violet were all grappled onto one another as they limped out of the gym. It was the only way they could stay afoot with the amount of pain their bodies were enduring. The first week of training had now passed, and they each had very little time where they weren’t under immense pain, but the one joy they received was the medicinal baths meant to soothe their bruises which were drawn for them each night.
“I need my magical bath…now!” Violet said, throwing off the balance of the group with her motion from the right side as they made their way towards their rooms.
“You two got to go first yesterday! It’s my turn!” Kenrich objected, throwing off the balance from the left side.
“Ugh…it’s like you two are drunk when you’re this tired…” Fae said, trying to keep them both on their feet as the center of the interlocked group.
“I can’t wait any longer, Ken! Look at my legs! They’re battered and purple!” Violet attempted to raise her leg but was too weak to do so.
“Well, look at my arms! I think I’ve got at least six fractures total in just this hand!” Kenrich tried to raise his hand but immediately started slumping towards the ground. Fae just barely managed to grab his hand in time before he slid to the ground. “Augh!” He screamed as Fae gripped it.
“You two are such a handful…” Fae said, with tired eyes. “Let’s just all go together if no one can wait. Problem solved…”
“I’m not letting this ogre gawk at me!” Violet objected.
“I’d be way too busy being in ecstasy to worry about you! If today is anything like yesterday, then you two will be in there for hours while I have to wait, slowly passing away ~” Kenrich said, trying to imitate a ghost leaving his body, once again throwing off the balance of the group.
“It’s only fair, Vivi,” Fae said, pulling Kenrich up more. “If you can’t handle it, then Kenrich and I will go use the bath and you can wait.”
“You shouldn’t leave your guard down around some sleazeball you don’t even know! He once tried to get me to have sex with a different sleazeball just so he could get his hands on a fancy new gemstone!”
“That is not even close to what happened, and you know it!” Kenrich objected.
“I don’t even wanna know…” Fae said. “Look, I’m going in that bath the second it’s ready. Either join me, or don’t.”
They had finally reached their rooms. Fae let go of Kenrich in front of his door which made him slump right onto the ground in front of it. She did the same with Violet who hit the ground and laid down on the blue carpet of the hallway. Fae then went to her own door and sat in front of it. None of them had the energy to get up and enter their rooms after training, so this had been their routine for a while now. The amount of stress their bodies were put under during solidity training was more than most regular people could stand, so it made sense that they were in such sorry states a week into the process. The medicinal baths did feel good, but the main purpose of them was to repair the external and internal damage their bodies suffered to get them ready to have those same wounds inflicted on them again. If they were to undergo training without having their medicinal bath afterwards, they would likely lose function of their limbs permanently.
“Ken…if I allow you to enter that bath…there better not be any funny stuff,” Violet said, her voice muffled as she spoke while lying face down on the carpet.
“You’re not preventing me no matter what, but I’m also not going to do anything except soak until I turn into a prune.”
“Sounds like we’ll all be going together then,” Fae said. “A lot less work for Yui and no one will have to wait, so you better both be on your best behavior so we can just make this the norm.”
As if on cue, Yui turned down the hallway and made her way to the disheveled group sprawled out on the hallway floor. She stood in front of them all and began speaking.
“Ladies, the bath is now ready for you.”
“Actually, we’re all going in it together,” Fae explained. “No one wants to wait, and it’ll be less work for you anyway, so we figured it would be okay.”
“How would that be okay?!” Yui barked angrily. “Whatever that dog did to your tired and vulnerable brains to make you think this would be okay, will not stand!”
Yui put herself into a fighting stance and advanced towards Kenrich who was too tired to do anything other than put his arm weakly in front of his face.
“Yui. That’s enough,” a familiar voice said.
Kenrich looked up and saw Queen Puri adorned in only a bath towel.
“I think it’ll be a good bonding experience for my students and I, so I welcome them all to join me in the bath!” she said.
“Th-this cockroach should never be able to witness your glory, my queen! I’ll see that he hangs before that happens!” Yui yelled.
“Calm down, Yui. Here: I’ll show you all so the mystery is gone-”
Queen Puri then ripped off her towel as Yui lunged at her. Yui missed her mark and hit the ground while Kenrich shut his eyes as tight as he could. Once he did, he heard Fae laugh which caused him to slowly and cautiously open them.
“That was a good one! Who says world leaders can’t have a sense of humor?” Fae said.
“P-people say that…?” Queen Puri said, twiddling her fingers.
Kenrich’s eyes were completely open now and he finally saw what was so funny. Queen Puri was wearing a one-piece bathing suit that was actually quite modest.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“This is how we will deal with the issue!” Queen Puri said, gesturing to her body. “I’ve brought a bathing suit for each one of you!”
She handed Fae a black two-piece swimsuit, placed a white two-piece on Violet’s back as she continued lying face down on the ground, and handed a small blue swimsuit bottom to Kenrich, who looked at it, confused. It didn’t look like it would leave much to the imagination.
“Uh…”
“Sorry, Ken…We don’t have men’s swimsuits in the palace, so I had to let you borrow one of mine. Hope that’s okay.”
Kenrich looked at it once again and held it in front of his face. It was much too small for his liking. Kenrich looked over at Queen Puri whose face was slightly embarrassed as she looked away sheepishly. She was much too cute to criticize, so Kenrich just took a deep breath.
“Hahaha!” Violet laughed, looking up at him. “Go ahead! Put it on, Ken!”
“Oh boy…” Fae said with a snicker.
“I’ll do literally anything to get in that bath, so this is fine with me,” Kenrich said. “I was gonna go in butt-naked, so this is an upgrade as far as I’m concerned.”
“You’ve got that right!” Violet said, still laughing her head off.
“Wonderful! Let’s get going then! I’m ready for a nice, long soak!” Queen Puri said, clapping her hands together with a smile.
“Alright, team. Back in formation!” Fae said, picking up Kenrich and pulling him up on her shoulder before going to Violet and doing the same.
The four of them left the hallway and headed towards the bath with Yui sitting on the ground with a frown on her face. She let out a big sigh then followed behind them towards the bath.
Arriving at the bath, it was a sight that made each of them feel like they had finally witnessed heaven. Their battered bodies could no longer resist so they all changed into their bathing suits and got ready to finally feel some semblance of comfort. Violet and Fae walked out together and flopped into the bath. Both uttered the same satisfied “Ahhhhh…” the second their bodies were engulfed into the hot, light green bath. After a few moments of Kenrich struggling to get out of his clothes due to his soreness, he finally pulled up the small swimming bottom over his manhood and managed to stand up and limp his way towards the bath. Queen Puri was just about to enter the bath herself, but her eyes made their way towards Kenrich, stopping her motion. Being a miner his entire life, one thing that was true about Kenrich was that he was objectively attractive. He was strong, tall, toned, and his features made him appear both manly and kind. This made Queen Puri’s heart skip a beat. She had a thing for manly men.
“If you could stand the whole time, then why’d you make me drag you around?!” Fae yelled from the bath.
“I-I don’t think I can keep it up much longer…” Kenrich said, his knees shaking.
Violet then looked behind her at Kenrich, and immediately her gaze scanned him from top to bottom. Kenrich’s outfit truly did not leave a lot of mystery.
“Outfit looks good on you, Ken!” Violet yelled.
“Go ahead and laugh it up. I’m too tired to care.”
Kenrich then slowly waddled towards the bath and slid his body over the edge of the bath straight into the heavenly oasis.
“Yessss…” he groaned “Life is so fucking good right now.”
Another example of Stockholm Syndrome surely.
“This bath really does make this all worth it…” Fae said, sinking her chin into the water.
Still gawking at Kenrich’s body, Puri was jabbed by Yui which knocked her back to reality.
“I s-suppose I shall join you all!” she said. Yui rolled her eyes.
Puri made her way to the bath and made sure to try to keep a respectable distance away from Kenrich. She was much too shy to do anything with these feelings she had. She walked through the water towards the edge of the pool and let her body float while closing her eyes.
Kenrich had many questions he wanted to ask the queen. He had very little time to ask her anything as they only met up during training which was always too intensive to find a window for a serious conversation. He was not sure if the queen would tolerate any pause in their training either, so this seemed like the only opportunity he would get. After regaining enough strength in the medicinal pool to move, he started making his way over to Puri.
“Your majesty, I was wondering if-”
As Kenrich started speaking, Puri jumped and started flapping her arms violently. This caused water to enter her mouth and nose which made her flap her arms even more. Kenrich felt at fault for startling her, so he put his arm around her to keep her afloat while she got her bearings straight.
“I-I’m sorry if I snuck up on you! Are you okay?!”
“Yes! *cough* *cough* I’m fine! Don’t worry about it!” Puri said.
As she recovered from the water assaulting her nose, she noticed Kenrich’s hand around her shoulder. She then looked up towards Kenrich who was closer to her than he had ever been before. She began turning a crimson red, before pushing Kenrich away with a force that created a large canal in the middle of the large bath as if someone were parting the sea.
“Hey, don’t waste the magic water!” Violet yelled.
Kenrich ended his flight right in front of Violet and Fae. He floated on his back, disoriented.
“Damn, she really sent you flying,” Fae said. “What the hell did you say?”
Kenrich did not respond. He just lied there as the world spun around him.
“I’m sorry, Ken!” Puri yelled from across the bath as she slowly made her way towards him.
Kenrich finally snapped out of his daze and stood up in the water.
“You okay?” Violet asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded. “We’ve been through much worse.”
“You got that right,” Violet snickered.
Puri finally made her way to the group, out of breath from underwater sprinting all the way there.
“I’m…*huff* sorry! I didn’t mean to…*huff* do that,” she said, before finally catching her breath.
“Please don’t worry about it! I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that.”
“The fault is all mine. Now, I believe there was something you wanted to ask me?”
“I was wondering if you might know anything about this power I have.”
“What kind of power?” Puri asked, her eyebrow raised.
“I have this strange ability that takes hold of me when I get incredibly angry. I have no control over myself when it happens and it’s almost like I’m invincible. It starts with this massive amount of heat in my chest and apparently my eyes start glowing orange when it happens…Does that sound like anything to you?”