27.Let’s go to the hot spring

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Iris

In the large dressing room, a red-faced girl whose silver hair seemed to radiate a faint rainbow-colored phosphorescence, was repeatedly unbuttoning and re-buttoning her garment.

Yes, it’s me.

At the mayor’s recommendation, we went to a hot spring on the outskirts of the town.

It had been about a quarter of an hour since Nii-sama hammered home to me that I should properly face up to my present situation and accept reality. It seems that Nii-sama had already gotten tired of calling out to me, and he had already finished washing his body and were soaking in the bathtub first. That’s what I was told earlier.

…I was getting nowhere like this. It was a path that I had to give up and pass through at some point, and I guess the time had finally come. I had to make up my mind.

In front of the mirror, my clothes were removed from the top.

A thin, unbuttoned robe slipped down my torso, followed by a skirt that was unzipped on the side and crashed onto the floor. The glimpse of white porcelain skin, cherry-red from embarrassment, and peach-colored, breast-covering underwear, glimpsed through the shadows of the blouse as the top buttons were unbuttoned one by one, made me catch my breath as if I had seen something I was not supposed to see. But my hands couldn’t stop, and the fabric covering this body was removed in a nonchalant manner.

The sound of light cloth falling to the floor intermittently continued, until at last there were only two pieces of cloth left, one covering the waist and the other the chest area.

“…”

At this point, I already wanted to run away. Reflected in the mirror was my skin, as white and spotless as pearl. My body hair was very thin, and my immature limbs, which didn’t have much in terms of muscles, were long and slender, and my slim but well-proportioned hips and waist were a modest proof of my body beginning to turn from a girl to a woman.

Touching lightly around the arms and stomach, I found the elasticity of healthy thin fat as soft as a marshmallow, moist and fine-textured to the touch, and a cool, slightly low body temperature. Everywhere I slided my fingers, they were soft and fluffy, leaving an exquisite touch that feels almost unreal, but on the other hand, there was a faint friction that told me that the body I was touching belongs to me. The skin on this body seemed to be thin and sensitive, and if I slid my finger over the surface a little, that area would twitch slightly.

“I can’t run away, I can’t run away, I can’t…”

Chanting like a Buddhist prayer, I undid the hooks behind the upper part of the last two pieces of cloth, which covered my chest. It slipped off my slender shoulders, and the part of her body hidden behind it was finally revealed.

“Woah…”

So far, I have stubbornly kept it out of sight, and therefore had only touched it lightly through a thin cloth just after the transition, but never again. The place reflected in the mirror, where I saw it for the first time, was indeed still an immature bud, but it had a modest cuteness that seemed to condense a sense of immorality. The slightly swollen area that I directly touched still retained the hardness of immaturity at its core as before, but the surface was smooth and soft to the touch, leaving a superb feeling in my palm that made you want to touch it forever after touching it once. The modest cherry blossom color, which was slightly tinted at the tip, was so lovely that I couldn’t help but want to love it.

My overall appearance was pale and delicate, making me want to reach out and touch it, but at the same time, if it was touched, it would scatter and disappear instantly… It had a kind of ephemeral, art-like appearance, like an ice sculpture that shines only for a very short period of time.

I took a deep breath and put my hands on both sides of the last piece of cloth around the waist. I was frozen in conflict there for a while. Once this was taken away, all that remained is this body, without a stitch of clothing on it like a newborn. Once I saw it, there was no going back, and I must accept that this is who I am, even if I didn’t like it.

However, it’s also true that I couldn’t continue to turn my eyes away from reality forever, so now that I’d been given the opportunity from Nii-sama’s strong-arm tactics, he would never allow me to escape, and I couldn’t stop trembling at the thought of what I’d face next. Closing my eyes, I pulled the little piece of cloth off my legs at once.

Finally, I had nothing left on my body, and I slowly opened my eyes to look at it.

I. Saw. It. Perfectly.

I wouldn’t go into details, but I guessed the only thing I could say was that this body was a remarkably brutal lolicon killer… To be honest, I did not expect it to be this good. As if guided by it with its fantastic danger, my hand wandered up and…

It was a little too stimulating for me.

I had completely underestimated the situation, as I had felt nothing but disgust during my previous horrific experience.

In this peaceful atmosphere, I touched it of my own volition. It should have been just a light stroke with the tip of a finger, but just like that, my knees shattered, and my heart started to beat wildly.

Lots of blood rushed to my face and I felt a terrible heat. The unexpected shock caused an embarrassing voice to leak out of my mouth before I had time to hold it in, and I am sure it was my imagination that I felt a burning sensation deep inside my flattened body from the shame that welled up inside me.

I was disgusted to realize that the sensation that ran through me was definitely because I was touching my own body. I was too afraid to touch it again.

I hated myself for getting hot on my own naked body before even soaking in the hot spring. My memories were those of a man who has no experience with women, so please forgive me.

When I finally cooled my head and body, I ducked out of the changing room and was greeted by a small but much more beautifully maintained bathroom paved with rounded stones than I had expected, and a bathtub constructed of natural rock.

The sun was still high in the clear blue sky. The imagination of a secluded hot spring deep in the mountains was betrayed in a good way, and the sight of an open-air bath that resembled the nostalgic ones from my original world was exciting. As a matter of fact, I loved hot springs. When my grandfather and grandmother were alive, we used to go to various places for hot spring cures, along with Reiji’s family.

Due to the dangerous environment, including monsters, the human population in this world was not as large as in the original world. However, due to highly developed magical technology, it was actually not so inferior, but rather, when it came to urban areas, it was equipped with technology that even surpassed that of the original world. For example, Acropolis, which sat at the center of the continents, was an almost sci-fi version of a “perfectly environmentally enclosed multilayered city”.

Such benefits even extended to such a semi-pioneer town like this. Not all houses of course, but it was not uncommon for somewhat wealthier houses to have complete water and sewage systems. This seemed to be one of those places, albeit minimal, and seemed to be no more inconvenient than the public bathhouses of the original world.

I reached the washing area, taking great care not to slip on my feet. When I touched the stone that seemed to play the role of a switch, I felt a little magic power absorbed from the palm of my hand. This was a device that used the magic power of the person who touched it to produce hot water using a built-in mechanism. A little while after touching the stone, a gush of hot water from the shower came out…

“…Hyah?!”

..or rather, cold water came out. Was it common here to be cold and surprised at first?

I immediately checked the water with my hand until it’s warm and let the sponge soak up the hot water. Then I took a small amount of something that looked like body soap, let it lather for a while, and then gently rubbed the surface of my body with it when it was sufficiently foamy.

……Come to think of it, it’d been several weeks since I’d washed my body in such a luxurious way using plenty of hot water. It felt better than I expected, and I couldn’t help but start humming a tune. With this body, I could sing in higher keys than before without any problem, so it’s quite fun to sing what I couldn’t in my original body. There shouldn’t be much difference in terms of hygiene from when I was magically purifying myself, but when I did this, it was as if fatigue was flowing from the area where I had rubbed it.

“… Why are you strolling in here so casually?!”

Reiji-san sank his body into the bathtub and only stuck his head out. By the way, Nii-sama was taking a half-body bath with a cool face.

Yes, this hot spring was a mixed bath.

Although it was not obvious at first, the entrance was divided into men’s and women’s sections, but as soon as I went a little further inside, the wall separating the two sections disappeared, leaving a “concave” structure that allowed people to come and go as they pleased.

“Um… I felt lonely in such a large bath all by myself… and it’s my long-awaited hot spring trip, so I want to bath together like before… is that not okay?”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be a little wary! Don’t you think anything of being seen by a man with that body!”

At his words, I put a finger to my chin and thought for a moment. Well, it’s not that I wasn’t ashamed of it. I strongly resisted being seen in front of the stones, and now my back was turned because I was in the washroom, but when I moved, I covered the important parts with a towel, and so on. But.

“Reiji-san has always said ‘we’ve bathed together so many times that I don’t care about seeing you naked’, so I decided not to mind it either.”

I resumed washing my body, humming an appropriate tune again. I couldn’t wait to soak in the hot spring myself.

“AAAAAARGH!! Who, who the hell said it?! Dammit! I’ll beat the snot out of whoever said that! Wait, was that me?! Curses!”

It was followed by the sound of something hard hitting the rock. What was happening…?

“Well, calm yourself, Reiji.”

“Why are you so calm with this, Saul?! Normally you’d be pissed off for exposing your sister’s naked body to other people!”

“Yes, but I think I’d reward you for your hard work the other day.”

“Did you mistake reward with torture, dumbass?!”

Behind me I heard what sounded like a heated argument.

“… I’m sorry if I’m intruding you if I stay here… I’ll go over there now…”

It’s lonely to be alone in the spacious bath, but if that didn’t allow Reiji-san to rest, then I had to give up on my desire.

“Uh… It’s not like you’re intruding or anything… but I’m a man, you know?! Aren’t you afraid of exposing yourself so defenselessly?!”

I blinked a few times at those words. Certainly, it hadn’t been that long since what’d happened, and I was afraid of what would happen if my body was exposed to the male gaze, but.

“I trust you, Reiji-san.”

I turned toward those two and said that. It was a little embarrassing to say it, so I concealed it with a smile.

“………………”

Oh, my.

Reiji-san, who had been standing up before I knew it, was frozen and flapping his mouth. What happened? His face was bright red, and I wonder if he was upset.

“……Do whatever you please already.”

Reiji-san sank into the hot water, looking away as if he had given up.

Then, after a long time, and with the help of Nii-sama, I finished washing my long hair and had it put back together, I finally had my long-awaited bath.

“Ahhh… It’s paradise…”

I scooped up the murky and milky water into my hands. The slightly thick and viscous water was smooth and gentle to the touch, sliding down the hands and arms, tickling the armpits, and falling into the bathtub. The falling water reflected and sparkled in the sunlight, and the warm bath after a long time under the surrounding snowy forest and the open blue sky was so comfortable that my whole body seemed to melt away.

“You seem to be perfectly fine with bathing even though you hated it so much before.”

“I’ve already given up with this body…”

I clasped my hands together and stretched my arms out above my head. After a moment, my arms relaxed and fell into the warm water.

In fact, I just didn’t have the guts to look directly at the changed female body, and once I saw it, it didn’t matter anymore. I stopped thinking and rested my back against the rocks on the edge of the bathtub.

Really, I didn’t know why I had been so stubborn, this feeling was much more important to me.

“There’s a saying that… many people have trouble getting into the bath, but few regret it… I think it’s right.”

“She’s completely into this huh.”

“Well, she’s a big fan of hot spring even when she was ‘Onii-chan’.”

They were talking to each other, but what was being said didn’t enter my head. Tiredness seemed to melt out of my whole body, and something euphoric seemed to seep in instead to fill it. Ahhh.

“Now that I think about it…”

“… What’s up?”

“What’s the matter, Nii-sama?”

“If our current bodies are based on the game, then what could the parts not displayed in the game be based on?”

“Isn’t that a dirty joke?!”

Now that it’d been brought up, I was certainly curious about it. Unlike other body parts, those parts couldn’t be created in the game.

“Let me see… Back in our world, all those years ago, probably when he was in high school… Reiji-san loved bragging about it while we were in the bath…”

Could the body on the other side reflect the one on this side? If so, the suspicious thing would be the calibration for physique recognition at the first login. But if that was the case, Saul-niisama and I were of different genders from the other side.

“Hey, Iris, are you even aware that you just said something outrageous…?”

“What do you mean… Oh.”

“Don’t ‘Oh’ with me! You know what you look like right now, don’t you?!”

What do I look like…? (gasps)

My hazy head quickly became clear, and my face boiled red like it was going to explode. Ah, aaah, d-did I really say… that?! Oh no!

“T-That was really a silly thing to say, wasn’t it?! But it’s really amazing that I don’t feel any discomfort from looking at Reiji-san’s current body at all!”

“Stop, you’re making it even worse! I don’t want to hear that coming from you of all people!”

As we were struggling, a hand was suddenly placed on our shoulder from behind us.

The black presence, which I could see even without turning my head, cooled my thoughts, and even though I was in a hot spring, I began to break out in a cold sweat. Fearfully, I turned around.

“Well then, looks like I heard something that I can’t ignore.”

The Devil was here.

“…Erm, Saul-niisama, your hand… and your face too, you’re scaring me.”

The hand on my shoulder was gradually getting stronger and stronger, as if trying to make sure to never let me escape. It even hurt a little.

“Iris, when we created our characters, we didn’t exchange them when we logged in for the first time, right?”

“Y-Yes.”

It was like that for a few days, no?

In other words, Nii-sama… no, Ayame was suspecting that the “current” me here was…

“……Oookay. Let me take a look. There’s something I must confirm. I don’t wish to do something you don’t want to, Iris, but this is different. My dignity is at stake here.”

“Hyah?! W-wait, h-help me, Reiji-sa…!!”

“… Sorry, I can’t help you if Saul’s like that.”

The hand that reached out for salvation was beaten down mercilessly.

I was easily held up and dragged behind a rock, my body laid bare without any resistance…

I couldn’t become a bride anymore… (sobs)