Chapter 242 : Fulfilling The Promise
The day after enjoying the harvest festival and celebrating our birthday, we worked at the morning market in the village square in the morning as usual.
After we finished working, Nicola asked Ester to fulfill her promise, which was to take a bath together with her.
As a result, they decided to go bathe together the next day with Celine.
I told Ester that she could have decided a little later, but then she said “The more I postpone, the harder it will be.”
I felt a bit sorry for Ester who tried to keep her distance from people she doesn’t consider as ‘friends’, but I thought it was a good chance for her to fix her shyness even for a little.
ーーーーー
-The following day-
It’s Nicola’s long-awaited day. She is going to bathe together with Ester and Celine today.
Currently, Nicola, Celine, Ester, and I are heading to the bathhouse I made in the woods.
Now that the harvest festival is over and the season has changed, the leaves on the trees and grasses on the ground have begun to change color.
While I was looking around the scenery of the forest while holding hands with Ester, Nicola turned to Ester and talked to her with a bright smile on her face.
「Ester-chan, I’m so excited! I’m sure it’ll be a fun bath!」(Nicola)
「Y, Yeah… You may be right…」(Ester)
「Ara~ Ester, you seem kinda shy today~」(Celine)
Seeing Ester awkwardly reply to Nicola, Celine teased her with a grin.
Celine would normally take a bath after supplying mana to her crystal branch at the Portal Crystal, but she decided to take a break today for Nicola’s sake.
She took a break too on the day of the festival. At first, she couldn’t help but think that she might neglect her crystal branch for too long. However, the amount of mana I can transfer to her body has increased along with my physical ability, so I don’t think taking a break for a day or two will slow her growing her crystal branch.
By the way, I feel like my fire-attributed mana has gotten stronger lately, perhaps because I always help Celine supply her mana to her crystal branch.
Celine’s best magic attribute is fire, so she always uses her fire-attributed mana when supplying mana to her crystal branch, and I think it affected my own fire-attributed mana.
Other than that, I also feel that my mana bowl has expanded even though I don’t train magic as much as when I was in Fatia.
In other words, helping Celine supply her mana to her crystal branch is also good magic training.
While I was thinking about such things, we arrived at the bathhouse.
I immediately entered and started preparing the bath for the ladies.
I removed the lid that covered the bathtub, used magic to fill the bathtub with hot water, and put in some E-grade potions.
When the bath was ready, Ester poked my shoulder.
「Hm?」(Mark)
「Say, Mark… Will you join us? I think I can feel rest assured if you’re with me…」(Ester)
「Eh? That’s…」(Mark)
「Wait, Mark, you want to join!?」(Celine)
Hearing Ester invite me, Celine let out a slightly flustered voice.
Hmm… This is weird…
Normally, she would say, “Ara~ You want to join~? Of course, you’re welcome anytime~”, but she stopped teasing me like that before I knew it.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
I already have the mind of an adult male, and my child’s body is getting older. It’d be bad if I kept bathing with women.
「No, no. I’m already nine years old. I won’t join you. I’ll be going home after this.」(Mark)
「Th, That’s right. Mark will soon become a man after all…」(Celine)
Celine nodded with a somewhat glum look.
Leaving Celine aside for now, I have to find a way to make Ester feel less nervous.
By the way, Nicola is currently in the dressing room, so she can’t hear us.
「Ester, I know you don’t hate Nicola, but why are you strangely reluctant to bathe with her?」(Mark)
「Of course, there’s no way I hate a cute and cheerful girl like her, but the thing is… Whenever Nicola stares at me, I feel strange on the back of my neck as if my instinct is telling me to stay away from her…」(Ester)
What a sharp intuition…
Nicola is probably just a cute little girl in her eyes, but her intuition probably recognizes Nicola as a perverted old man.
「I, It will be alright. It’s normal for girls to take baths together. Besides, you said you would do anything for her as her birthday present, right?」(Mark)
「Yeah… you’re right. Alright, I’ll do my best! I hope she’ll be pleased.」(Ester)
Ester clenched her fist and walked to the dressing room with Celine.
Well then, I guess I’ll go run around the woods for a bit before going home.
I can enjoy the bath I made on my rooftop when I get home~
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