“Yeah, usually they don’t like being called ‘some God’, but you do you,” she said as she helped him up.

“Didn’t you say he couldn’t do as he likes?” he panted, bracing himself against her.

“Well, yes. He overstepped, and turned some causality against himself. He’s screwing himself with that, though. His consequences for overstepping are far worse than mine.”

Theresa was in the midst of soothing some people in the meantime. Surprisingly, most people looked angry rather than scared.

But I suppose that’s what happens in a world where there’s a bunch of Gods. They probably have their own faiths and are mad that another tried to attack them like this. It’s not like getting any more scared would do them good.

“Still, what was that? He can just attack me like this?” he complained.

“Well… No. Normally, if you just said ‘some God’, it would be fine, but you clearly had Him in mind. It’s the intention rather than name that matters. Let’s go down, we’re stressing everyone,” she pulled him along.

They moved through the crowd, which parted off to the sides as they passed. Almost nobody looked at them directly, let alone in their eyes. Thankfully, as they reached the back, the woman called Maria opened the door.

She was clearly about to call out to them, mouth open, but they already stood in front of her, so she froze for a second. Still recovering rather quickly, she moved to open the door wide for them. “The water is running… Uh, there are also towels ready…” she said, looking somewhere past them.

“Sure, alright, thanks,” Tom thanked the woman with a smile, even though she didn’t look him in the face. Pushing the armored woman in front of him, they went through.

The door led down on stone brick stairs, the interior in general shifting from wood to dark blue stone as they went down. The path was lit with dim blue lights, somewhat reminiscent of modern electric lighting, except he could feel the mana. It felt like rain.

“Wow, this place almost feels modern. They really set the mood with this,” he appreciated as they slowly walked through.

“Yeah, the eccentricity of some summoned people really shines through in places. I’m pretty sure the general fantasy architectural style was also made by one,” Unknown commented.

The path wasn’t too long, but Tom was enjoying the corridor. At the end of it was another door made by a hanging cloth.

Pushing it aside, a large room greeted them, a pool taking up most of the space. Water flowed in from below into the center, overflowing at the edges into drains.

Hugging the left side of the entrance wall, shelves stood in rows, part of them holding the mentioned towels, the rest probably for holding personal belongings.

There were multiple doors on the sides, signs indicating one side to be changing rooms, the other for more closed or private baths.

“I guess we could separate into the private ba-... What are you doing?”

Baffled, he looked on as Unknown, fully kitted out in her armor, marched into the water. Walking across the input drain, she sat down on the other side, hugging her knees. This completely submerged her.

—

Minutes later, Theresa entered the room.

Regarding Thomas with a smile, she spoke. “I had decided to take this opportunity to also take a bath. I hope you don’t mind if I join you-whuh?”

The ending of the sentence got twisted, her movements freezing, as she looked towards the center of the pool. Bubbles were rising from the water as it boiled, though most of the heat was directed towards the back of the room with the flow, but steam was slowly filling the air.

Tom was leaning his back against the edge of the pool, keeping his distance from the water heater as he soaked. “Yeah, sure? I don’t mind personally, and I don’t think she minds, considering she decided to turn into a boiler. Don’t ask me why, she just did that without saying anything, but the hot water is nice. At least she is getting cleaned, I think?”

I saw some dirt flaking off earlier. She’s basically just dishwashing herself… But the heat really is something, it’ll soon be past a sauna at this rate.

“I see…,” the Priestess said as she recovered. Shaking her head, she quickly disrobed and joined them in the bath. “Yes, you are right… This is nice, though I do not know if normal people could handle it.”

Is nudity normal here? She didn’t even hesitate… Wait, don’t stare!

“Yeah, I don’t think steam saunas are supposed to be this hot…”

They fell into silence, enjoying the water for some time.

Their empty thoughts were interrupted by the splashing caused by Unknown finally rising out. Her armor looked much cleaner now, but something about it made it still look unkempt. “Oh. Hey. You joined.” Saying so, she walked back out of the bath.

“Ah, yes. I did. Quite a while ago, too,” Theresa said back.

“Perfect time to sort some things out then,” she said, throwing off pieces of her armor, which then disappeared in the air.

“Yeah, preferably starting with how you do that?” Tom jumped into the conversation. He’d noticed that they kept pulling things out of nowhere, but there was also a lot going on at the time.

“That? Oh, right. Inventory. System stuff, you don’t have access to it right now. Usually it’s a reward directly from the System, but I could give you some slots. It can do cool stuff,” she explained, then swiped her hand in the air. Her armor and clothes disappeared, then a stool appeared in her hand instead.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Sitting down, she started brushing her hair, which was currently a wet mess that reached her waist. Getting his first look at her body shape hidden below armor, she truly was big by many meanings of the word. Tall, broad and muscular, with limbs maybe twice the width of his, she reminded him of a heavyweight wrestler.

Theresa frowned. “It is astounding how much you carry regardless. As a follower of Order I have enhanced space, yet I still cannot afford to hold everything that may be useful one day.”

Unknown paused. “No idea. Well, I had it before I got into the System, so. But I agree, I’m a hoarder, especially with consumables. So many weapons and dresses too...”

“Anyways, back on topic. There’s some topics to sift through, including what the hell is happening right now. As in, about an hour ago, the tension felt so high, but now we’re just bathing? I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

Weren’t you the one who said that it’s okay, that nothing is happening because they’re either scared or sieging? Is that what you forgot? Of course, Tom decided not to voice these thoughts.

“Shall we go over our plan once more, then? Perhaps that will help,” Theresa suggested.

“Mhm, yeah, sure. I’ll try to remember in the meantime.”

“Then, for our current plan. First, we shall visit the King. Though I am unsure what exactly you plan to do, I do not think causing mayhem there ourselves will be of much help…”

“Yeah, don’t worry about that. I’m not gonna break everything and kill everyone. Well, maybe a little bit. I just think we need to orient ourselves over there. Right now we only know what’s happening on one side, with no idea what the Castle is preparing. Also, there’s at least one person of interest to me right now,” Unknown pondered. “Also, that’s if our plans don’t break before that. I might need to go there only by myself.”

“The plan could fail already? Isn’t that literally just one step? How much could go wrong that quickly?” Tom asked

Maybe if the entire city started to burn, then our priorities would change. But right now, there should be time, no?

“Yeah. I think that’s what’s worrying me. Some thugs or mercs might try to take advantage of what’s happening, not realizing what danger they are in. In the first place, how bad is this place? Is there an Academy?”

Theresa’s face tightened at the question. “No, there is not. By the time I was assigned to this place, public funding had been going down already. It has only gotten worse since then. The Magic Academy shut down three decades ago, the last churches two decades ago, and charities and orphanages have been disappearing for the last decade. Fortunately our Temple does not rely on their funds, nor do they have the power to displace us, but…”

The brush loudly cracked into pieces. Her face was blank as she stared at the mess, but Unknown was obviously angry.

So they just dried up all public funding, which was helping the people? That’s over a long time, sure, but I feel like someone would do something. Wait, no, this is a monarchy, isn’t it.

“That sounds terrible. It didn’t strike me like they lacked money with how many people were inside there,” he commented. “The Castle had been crawling with people, if anything.”

“Yeah no shit, they were just keeping it for themselves. You see, this is bad because, normally, there are multiple powers inside of a country. Sure, it means the central power gets weakened, but overall, all of them are stronger together. Generally, this includes the Mage faction and Religious faction. Which is especially useful if you, I don’t know, get raided by an entire cultist army,” she explained. “Anyway, all this basically just means that there is no Divinity protecting this place, and you can get smited for badmouthing a God.”

“Huh. So they just fucked up a lot, for a very long time. Nice. Then the plan is that, then punching some bad guys. Do you have soap?”

Unknown threw a bar of soap at him, which he caught before it could hit his face.

Vanilla scented, nice. Let’s scrub down and get going.

Taking a minute to properly wipe off any smell that could still linger, Tom then pushed himself out of the bath. “I think this is good enough. I’m ready whenever.”

Theresa and Unknown looked at each other for a moment, then they looked at him.

“Huh? Did I do something wrong?”

Unknown gestured at her hair.

“Oh. Ooh. Sorry, I didn’t mean that we need to rush out right now, I can wait. Do you want help with that?”

He got eyed for a second longer, before she nodded. “Yeah, sure. I’m just gonna dry off first.” Saying so, she stood up off the stool, then pounded her fist against her chest. Sparks flew off, along with a wave of hot air, steam rising off her body.

Not that there wasn’t enough steam in the room. Well, at least there seems to be airflow. Wait, can I do that too?

Having used two of his skills, he had a better grasp on how to move the mana, and most importantly knew how to move it outside of his body. He gathered it in his fist, then hit himself.

The sparks flew off, though the effect was obviously weaker than hers. Either way, it worked, completely drying his body. And burning every hair he had on his body below the neck. He stared at his naked body, now even more bare than before.

“Oh. Good job, you didn’t scorch yourself. I could’ve warned you about the side effect if you asked though,” Unknown commended.

“Wait, this is supposed to happen?” Tom motioned downwards.

“I don’t know if it’s supposed to, but it happens. Did you really think I would spend time shaving?” she spoke back.

That actually makes sense. There is no way this person, who refused to bathe, would willingly commit an act of hygiene.

“Now that you’re dry, put this on,” she said, throwing clothes at his face. “It should fit you.”

Grabbing it into his hands, he rummaged to figure out what he was holding. The outside of the clothes was tough leather, reinforced in some places with thicker layers. On the inside, there was a light cloth lining, which was much nicer to the skin than the leather.

“Huh, this seems nice. Thanks.”

—

After putting the clothes on, he went to help Unknown. While he was putting her hair into a French braid, Theresa also got out and dried, so he decided to help her too, this time going for a double braid.

Then, he went upstairs to wait for them. The atmosphere was awkward, and most people kept their distance from him, but he managed to exchange a few words with the owner, and got a cup of water for the wait.

After what felt like half an hour, the two women finally appeared in the door. Theresa was wearing a new set of the same clothes. On the other hand, Unknown was wearing studded leather armor, similar to his, except it looked generally looser, especially the pants, and heavier. She was playing around with the braid.

“This is really nice. You’re good at this, thanks,” she complimented his work.

“Yeah, I got a lot of experience braiding the hair of my daughters. I could do it with my eyes closed at this point,” he reminisced. Theresa seemed confused by this.

Yeah, daughters. I had those, except I can’t remember anything else. What the hell is up with this, do I just have amnesia or something? Fuck, I should ask later.

“Time to go to the Castle. No reason to stall any longer,” Unknown said, marching ahead. Her step was much lighter now, almost cat-like, compared to heavy and bear-like stomps before.

Theresa quickly thanked the owner, then they finally set off.