‘Well, now that she no longer has questions? I think? I mean, I took a quick glance at her, and she did not seem to be fidgeting or anything like that anymore’ I thought. She was still looking at Aizen, but Aizen did not say anything. After a few more seconds of her thinking, Aizen scratched her cheek.

“Sorry, but I don’t think I can teach you magic.”

“B-But, what about your mana control?”

Aizen just gave her a wry smile.

“That is impossible.” She tried to sound gentle, but I saw the child’s hopes and dreams shatter, as her face turned grim and lifeless. ‘Ah well, I don’t know what Aizen was expecting. Although...-’ I looked at her and she quickly noticed my gaze. I spoke in a condescending tone.

“Wouldn’t it be fun?”

“Shut up.”

She ended up pouting. However, that did not last long. I noticed her face lit up, and then she looked at the other door with sparkling eyes as if remembering something.

“I am going to take a bath.” she suddenly informed me.

Right… I also want a bath. But, there is something. That bothers me, should I or should I not let this girl know I am a beastkin? I wonder, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, but her dad is a noble or something right? Wouldn’t that be, troublesome? Hm… I need help with this one.

I noticed Aizen went towards the bath, Ari also followed, however. I still needed her help.

“Ari,” I called out for her assistance. She looked at me and tilted her head. I just decided to quietly point at the ring in my hand with my free hand. She instantly shook her head. I figured... I looked at Aizen and she shrugged. ‘I guess there is no other choice.’ I dejectedly muttered as they were entering the bath.

I want to take a bath, but this is rather complicated… I guess using the ring inside the bath doesn’t matter, does it? Without the ring it's more comfortable, but considering I don’t quite know this girl... I mean looking at her she seems pretty innocent but, she is the daughter of a noble right? Aren’t rich people bad? I guess I will wear my ring for now.

“Umm…” Cecil called out to me.

“Yes?”

“Can I take a bath as well?”

She said while fidgeting with her hair and slightly twitching while looking down. I looked at her and remembered she was still dirty. I kind of just had forgotten about it.

“Ah, yes. We should take a bath.” I casually said and went towards the bathroom. She quietly followed.

I opened the door, and the bath was… Weird… The layout was the same as the previous one, but. Everything was wood, the only things that weren’t made out of wood were some baskets for clothes and the bathtub itself with a section of the floor next to it. The bathtub itself was even bigger than the last one; being made out of some white-dotted gray rock. I think it was granite.

I noticed Aizen was washing Ari’s hair for some reason. The granite floor did not look slippery or wet for that matter. I took off my clothes and put them on a basket. Cecil also took off her ‘clothes’ and looked somewhat hesitant to put them in the basket she was holding, after a few seconds of looking at it fixedly, she finally decided to put them inside the basket while sighing.

‘Well, I can see why she would be like that. I wouldn’t be exactly pleased with dressing in rags either.’ With those thoughts, I dragged her towards the bathtub to wash her on the section of the floor next to the bathtub. I didn’t quite understand how the wood didn’t get ruined from the constant humidity that would normally be in a bath. But it wasn’t something I particularly understood.

I sat her down on the floor and started washing her hair with water. There was no soap on this bath either.

“Um… Yami, I can wash myself,” she said while looking at me.

“It’s fine.” I just gave her a normal smile and continued scrubbing her hair. It took quite a few minutes but her mistreated hair looked golden just like Ari’s I moved onto her arms and neck, after that. I paused. ‘Wait… What am I doing? I-I shouldn’t be doing this.’

“Yami?”

“You said you could wash yourself right?”

She slowly nodded from my weird question. Seeing her affirmation I just moved aside and started scrubbing myself. ‘While I might look like a girl now, I still don't think doing that was right...’ With those thoughts in mind, I left Cecil wash herself with a slightly twisted mouth. I could visibly see her confusion but it was better than nothing.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“K-Yami. How long are you going to keep doing that? Just come in.”

Aizen called out for me with a slight stutter. I looked at Cecil and now she looked completely clean, and while her hair was extremely uneven she no longer looked like a slave, so that was good. ‘I guess I can go into the bath now?’ With those thoughts, I grabbed Cecil and pulled her towards the bathtub.

Once we were inside the bathtub I let her do whatever she wanted. I chose to just sit down and relax myself while soaking in the warm water. A few minutes passed, everyone was now relaxing on the tub. But, I had remembered something.

“Cecil, what kind of place is the capital?” She paused for a second. And then looked at me.

“It’s boring.” She nonchalantly informed me, although it wasn’t what I was looking for.

Hmm, I wonder. How do kids work? Wait… If I ask her why it’s boring wouldn’t she explain everything that she finds boring? I am so smart.

“Why is that?” I curiously asked.

“Well… Everything is the same.”

This is… No good at all, Ari wasn’t like this at all… I guess I will just have to do a very specific question to which she should probably answer with what I am looking for.

“Why do you find it so boring and why does everything feel the same?” I did it.

“Well, because my life was always the same. Academy, behave well, sleep.”

She dejectedly said. It was something insightful... On her family that is. I wonder, what I could actually ask her. Hmm… That’s it, I know now.

“Cecil.” Before I could ask her, Aizen called out for her.

“Yes?” She replied while tilting her head from being suddenly mentioned.

“Tell me things I should know about the capital.” Aizen casually commanded her.

I noticed Cecil went into deep thoughts while placing her hand on her chin. ‘Silly dragon, there is no way it would work.’ I joyously muttered. However, I noticed Cecil stopped thinking and looked at Aizen once again.

“Well, There are two academies, which are magic and combat. Well, I don't think I need to explain each of them.” She omitted the details with a wry smile and continued speaking. “The most important guild branches on this continent are in the capital. And… Well, the capital is a boring place with lots of people, a noble district and a royal family with an amazingly big castle. Also, the slums are scary,” she shuddered as she finished her talking.

‘Was it really that simple?!’ I grabbed my head in frustration, the only person that looked at me worriedly was Cecil. However, she did not say anything. Instead, she looked for help towards Ari and Aizen, both of them shrugged.

“Hmm…” Aizen was audibly thinking about something, it made me look at her and relax a little bit. I think I was overthinking it anyways.

“Cecil, you said you were going to the magic academy, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“What did you learn there?” Aizen was onto something.

“Well, for the most part, it was mana perception and manipulation until we got a class, so…” She had a flushed face for saying that. But continued talking to Aizen.

“I remember getting an actual basic class with an elf, he had a short temper and seemed arrogant.”

“Ho-oh, how amusing. I would like to see that.”

Ignoring Aizen’s amusement, there was something that bothered me. Elves seem to be fine, dwarves are fine, beastkin aren’t? I have to ask.

“Cecil, are there beastkins in the capital?” She froze and started muttering.

“Well… My father said I wouldn’t want to know where they end up.” She innocently said while fidgeting, I guess I don’t want to know where they end up either… I also noticed Ari seemed stiff. Now that I think about it, she was stiff that time with the inn-lady too.

“Ari, are you fine?” I was worried.

“Ah… Sorry, I was just hoping the beastkins were fine. I-I really hope so…” Her face became grim towards the end, making me think about what could make her think like that. ‘Is it because of the inn lady? I wonder…’ As I was thinking, I noticed Ari’s eyes lit up.

“Um, sorry about that.” She quickly apologized realizing her weird behaviour. I noticed Aizen had been thinking the entire time.

“Cecil, did the elf say something interesting?”

“Interesting?” She tilted her head while looking at Aizen.

“Yeah, interesting.” She affirmed with a faint smile.

“Well… I don’t know if this is interesting. But the elf spoke seriously when mentioning the [Neutral] attribute, calling it the ‘death’ attribute or something." She awkwardly said. I noticed Aizen nodded as if it didn’t matter. Ari, on the other hand, paused again. However, after a few seconds, she just pretended like nothing happened. Weird.

We continued talking about less serious topics for a few more minutes until we dejectedly left the tub and dried with some random cloth that Aizen found. It kind of looked like a cotton towel so I guess it was fine. As we were getting dressed I noticed Cecil was dejectedly looking at her basket. ‘Ah, right. She needs new clothes’ With those thoughts in mind, I quickly got dressed up and started looking through my inventory.

‘This should do.’ I muttered as I noticed something rather peculiar. Looks like I had missed it last time. It looked like some type of sailor outfit, thinking back. I do remember having the male version, so that must’ve been it. I handed it to her, seeing it. Her eyes were wide-open.

“I-I didn’t know you had a magic academy uniform,” she shockingly said. But there was something wrong, I don’t remember having a uniform for the magic academy. I don’t even know what it looks like.

“That’s not a uniform.” I decided to inform Cecil who was now putting it on.

“Really? It looks like one.” She said while tilting her head.

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if it looks like their uniform or not. It’s not like it bothers me if I lose the item or not; it was just an [Uncommon] tier one anyways. She looked happier about having proper clothes. So I figured she could have it as a gift.

“If it looks like your uniform then I guess you can keep it.”

“Nn!”

She excitedly nodded now fully dressed. We left the bath without saying much after. I noticed Fenri was now sleeping in the living room next to one of the beds. I looked at the beds to see how we would arrange to sleep.

“I take Ari and you take Cecil.” Aizen nonchalantly informed me.

“...Nn.” I slowly nodded from the sudden declaration. Ari looked somewhat sad about it but did not say anything. I guess Aizen just liked Ari over Cecil or something. Which I completely understood. Not like Cecil was a bad girl, but we had just been with Ari longer.

I ended up sleeping with Cecil, she didn’t seem that willing at first, but she ended up complying after she was getting dizzy.