The Preceding Hero and the Public Bath 2

The public bath in question was right on the border when you continue down the land route from the center of the town and bump into the gondola’s landing place.

The building’s height was about that of a three story building, but its width was so big that you could say that it could encompass the Tokyo Dome.

「It’s damn huge, oi.」

「It’s this Galarie’s number two special attraction, you know? That’s only natural!」

The guide and manner instructor Marco puffed up his chest with pride.

I guess he was happy that his home town was praised.

「Incidentally, what’s number one?」

「Of course, it’s obviously the Magic Clad Martial Arts Demonstration, Nii-chan!」

Certainly, although it’s only once a year, it’s a fight to determine the world’s strongest, so it’s probably only natural to get fired up over it.

By the way, right now, I’m not wearing the 『Darkness Executioner』 overcoat. After all, Sylvia had brought along a small number of escorts so as to not stand out, so that would be meaningless if I were to stand out.

Besides, I don’t want to enter the bath looking like that.

「Now then, let’s go inside, your Highness-nee-chan.」

When he said that, Marco smoothly ran through the crowd of people.

How should I say this, he’s a guy that has good control over his body.

「Fufu, what is the point of a guide leaving behind his group.」

While making a wry smile, Sylvia advanced through without opposing the waves of people.

「Let us go as well, Yashiro-sama.」

One of the escorts glanced over at me.

「Yeah, I guess we should.」

I nodded and continued on so as to follow after Sylvia.

When we passed through a large entrance that looked like even a tall Ogre-type Demi-human could enter, we came out into a place that looked like a vast lobby.

When I looked around, there were several shops, and guests that seemed to have come out from the baths were drinking beverages that were in bottles.

「Wait, that tawny but white drink……Could it be, coffee milk!?」

「Kouhii? Your wrong, Nii-chan, that’s called yukijiru.」

By yukijiru, could you mean Snow Br[1]……The one that introduced this was absolutely a Japanese person!

「Hou……How about we try drinking some.」

Seeing the guests that were drinking the coffee milk like it was delicious, Sylvia took out her purse from her pocket.

「You can’t, your Highness-nee-chan! That’s something you drink after getting out of the bath!」

I guess coffee milk after getting out of the bath is still the strongest even in another world.

「Is that so……I look forward to that. Well the, I suppose we should separate into two groups.」

「I don’t really mind going in together though?」

「As if that would be fine, you fool.」

「It, it was just a joke.」

When I said it was a joke (half serious), I was glared at with scornful eyes by Sylvia. She’s only grown up enough to not immediately fire magic at me, I suppose I should say that. You’re saying that I, who thinks of nothing but perverted stuff, hasn’t grown up? It’s fine because perverted things are my identity!

「What should we do about the time to get out of the bath?」

「Let’s see……There is still some time until noon so, about two koku should be fine.」

Since one koku is approximately 30 minutes, it’s one hour.

「Roger that, Sylvia.」

「Umu. Well then, until later.」

「Ou.」

When she said that, Sylvia took the other three women and walked to the entrance with the ♀ marked curtain on it.

「Come on, Nii-chan. The men’s bath is this way.」

「Gotcha.」

I forcibly turned my feet that were anxious to go to the women’s bath if I were to be unconscious of it to the men’s bath.

When I follow Marco and passed through the curtain, I saw a counter with many shelves with locks placed on them lined up and looked like lockers at the back.

「There are several people over there with the same appearance, right?」

Marco didn’t point his finger but moved his chin to point them out.

「Yeah, are they the employees here?」

「After you put your clothes and valuables into a basket and hand it over to them, they’ll take care of it.」

When he said that, Marco grabbed a nearby basket, took off his shoes and clothes, and put them in that basket.

「Take care of this.」

「Ohh, so it’s you, Marco. Here ya go.」

When Marco, who became naked in an instant, stood on this tiptoes and put his basket on the counter, a glasses-wearing employee accepted the basket and gave some kind of wooden token to Marco in exchange. When I took a closer look, that token had a string going through it.

「And that is?」

「This has the number of your own luggage written on it.」

「I see, if you hand that over after getting out of the bath, you’ll get your luggage returned to you, right?」

Just as I learned from Marco, I took a basket and put the clothes I was currently wearing and my fourth dimensional pouch in the basket.

「Uwah, ……Nii-chan, yer amazing when ya strip.」

Seeing my naked body, Marco’s face went pale. That’s not unreasonable. I don’t want to brag, but I’m actually a hidden macho. One of those small macho guys?

After learning that the guy that he tried stealing a wallet from was actually absurdly muscular after such a long time, he was probably thinking 「Thank goodness it didn’t turn into a serious matter」.

However, there are strong guys in this world even if they’re guys with slender lines. Let’s see……The 『Witch of Time Norn』, aka Baba-chan, is a good example.

Baba-chan’s body has the appearance of a little girl almost identical to Lililuri.

But despite that, even if I were to fight her head-on with a sword, I wouldn’t be able to win.

As for why that was the case, there was the fact that she had more experience, but frankly, it was her body strengthening through magic.

Body Strengthening Magic is a magic that brings forth a huge effect while being easy to do.

The action can greatly change by the ability of a practiced hand, but it can make a baby that learned the magic able to break a rock with its fist. If I were to say that, you should be able to understand just how terribly useful it is.

Therefore, it is not good to discriminate only by a person’s outward appearance.

「Stop it already, okay? Even for a slender guy, if they were to use magic, they would be able to get an easy victory over an ordinary person.」

「Hahaha, I’ll engrave that into my spirit.」

Marco laughed with a dry voice.

「Please take care of this.」

「Ah, oka~y. Dear customer, is this your first time?」

When I placed the basket on the counter, the glasses-wearing employee came rushing over. Because there were guests other than us, it looked like it was busy.

「It’s my first time but I heard about how to enter the water from Marco.」

「Hee, then that’s a relief. He’s a regular customer here, you see. Enough that we sometimes ask him to do some cleaning jobs.」

I knew it from their conversation earlier but they’re surprisingly close, or rather, they look like friends.

「Then I’ll just do a light explanation. You can enter the baths here for free. Keep the baths clean, keep your body clean, and hijinks are prohibited. I guess that’s about it.」

Only the hijinks part was said awfully strongly. I guess it happens often.

「Got it.」

「If it looks like you’re going to get rolled up in some hijinks, I suggest that you get out of the bath. Well then, by all means, please do go and relax.」

Tying the string of the token I was handed on my wrist, I turned towards the baths. When I looked around, Marco had already gone ahead of me.

◇

「I wonder if Yuu has already gotten in.」

With a towel wrapped around her body in the women’s locker room, Sylvia, who had her hair tied up, was currently about to head to the baths.

「Are you worried about Yashiro-sama?」

One of the female knights that Sylvia brought along as escorts asked that of Sylvia, who was her master, while her cheeks slackened.

「Is that bad, ?」

Sylvia said that, sounding sulky.

In response to that, the female knight shook her head while expressing a smile.

「Noーpe, not at all!」

「Rather, I want you to keep on showing that.」

「Me tooー」

The three female knights boisterously made a racket. That appearance of theirs right now was greatly different from the attendant-like appearance that they displayed when Yuu was around.

「I mean, he is Sylvia-sama’s sweetheart, isn’t heー! Though, he isn’t a prince on a white horse.」

「Well, his appearance is pretty ordinary after all……」

「He was totally staring at my boobsー」

「I know, right! Yashiro-sama is just how he is in Lord Eustace’s stories.」

「With an appearance that is ordinary, he’s lewd and vulgar. But he is a hero that possesses master-class sword technique.」

「He was on par with her Majestyー」

Sylvia breathed a sigh at the three that were boisterously making a racket.

「Good grief……I should not have had that match in front of everybody……What am I saying.」

Sylvia unintentionally muttered that from the three knights’ reaction, and then breathed another sigh at the words that came out from an emotion that resembled jealousy.

「……Nn?」

As Sylvia wrapped the token’s string around her arm and headed to the baths, a small figure of a person went by in front of her.

「An Elf?」

It was a very young Elf girl.

That bright green-haired little Elf girl made a quick glance at Sylvia and continued walking just like that.

「……It couldn’t be.」

In those eyes, even though they possessed a sharpness that didn’t match that figure, Sylvia caught a glimpse of the 『Witch of Time』 who was her teacher in magic.

Translator’s Notes:

[1] By entering ユキジル in Google and looking at the kanji option, Snow Brand Milk Products comes up.