I was Betrayed then Reincarnated as a Kitsune - Chapter 273: A Taste of Dwarven Culture

[Luna POV]

When I woke up the next morning, I witnessed something very sweet.  Velvet had her arms wrapped around Soleil while Soleil had her tail wrapped around Velvet’s waist.

‘How cute.’

{I agree.  While I do love having multiple tails, sometimes I miss only having one.  Especially in a situation like that one.}

‘I completely get what you mean.  Multiple tails get in the way sometimes and it’s annoying modifying my clothes every time I get a new one.  But I don’t regret getting more in the slightest.’

{I’m just glad you thought up that quickchange thing when it comes to certain activities.  It’d be such a turn off to watch you struggle removing your underwear.}

‘Praise be to my inventory skill, though I guess I can at least wear illusory clothes underneath my normal clothes too.  Decisions, decisions.’

{I’m all for whatever you choose to do.}

At that moment, Soleil started to move around.  I saw her eyes open, but they were still clouded with sleep, meaning this was half-asleep Soleil.

‘This’ll be fun to watch.’

{Indeed, though now I’m curious about what would happen if they were both half-asleep.}

‘I hope to find out one day.’

My half-conscious sister looked around the room for a second before her eyes fell on Velvet’s sleeping face.  A sloppy smile then spread across her face.  She unwrapped her tails from around Velvet’s waist and then moved Velvet’s head to her chest where she started to stroke her head.

“Ehehehehe.  My precious Velvet, all for me.” (Soleil)

Soleil closed her eyes again and started to hum a song that we both heard a lot when we were little before she drifted off to sleep again.

‘That was adorable.’

{It was, though I half expected her to start kissing Velvet as well.}

‘Same.’

{By the way, when are you going to heal your noses?}

‘I’m honestly a bit reluctant to at the moment.  I don’t know if any sewer smell attached itself to us and we didn’t bathe last night.’

{Then why don’t you wake those two up and go take a bath?}

‘Might as well.  I kind of want to see what these dwarven baths are like since Skadi spoke about them.’

I got up from the bed and went to shake the other two awake.

“Oi.  Wake up, we have something to do.” (Luna)

Nothing happened when I shook them but some unintelligible grumbling so I went with the next best method.  I moved two of my tails and tickled their noses.  They couldn’t smell anything, but that wouldn’t stop them from sneezing.

“Achoo!” (Soleil)

“Well, that’s one up.” (Luna)

“Big sis?” (Soleil)

Since this method wasn’t working on Velvet, I just put a finger on the back of her neck and used a small amount of ice magic.

“COLD!” (Velvet)

“And there’s the other one.” (Luna)

“What was that for!?” (Velvet)

“To wake you up.  Get up, we’re going to take a bath before I heal our noses.” (Luna)

“Oh right.  I was wondering why I couldn’t smell anything.” (Soleil)

“How do you forget you something like that?” (Velvet)

“Maybe she still isn’t fully awake.  Velvet, kiss her and see what happens.” (Luna)

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” (Velvet)

Velvet stole Soleil’s lips.  Soleil’s eyes went wide for a second before she leaned into the kiss.  When the separated, their lips were still connected by a silver string.

“You fully awake now, Soleil?” (Luna)

“Yeah…I think Velvet should wake me up like that more often.” (Soleil)

“That can be arranged, all you need to do is ask.” (Velvet)

“For the record, it’d be the other way around a lot more often.  I mean, out of all of our party, the two hardest to wake up in the morning are Velvet and I, and that only depends on if I actually sleep and everyone else wakes up before me.” (Luna)

“Big sis, you know what mom and Lady Amagi will say if you don’t sleep.” (Soleil)

“Yes, that’s why I have been…for the most part.” (Luna)

“And I’m not that hard to wake up.  If anything the person that is hardest to wake up is either Ophidia or Mio.” (Velvet)

“I’ll give you that one on Ophidia, but Mio is actually extremely easy to wake up.  All you have to do is call her name and maybe shake her a little.  Anyway, let’s go and ask where we take a bath at here.” (Luna)

The two got up from the bed they were laying on and we left the room and went to the front desk of the inn.  We asked the innkeeper there where we go to take a bath and she gave us directions to a place that was supposedly good and not visited by locals all that much, so we would most likely have that place all to ourselves for a good while.

When we left the inn and started making our way to our destination, I started to hear something in my head that was different from the usual prayers I normally ignored.

‘—ter.  Master, can you hear me?’ (Ophidia)

‘Ophidia?  How?’ (Luna)

‘Oh, good.  Skadi told me that as your Apostle I should be able to contact you like this without going through the box.  But that’s not important, can you pick us up now?’ (Ophidia)

‘In a bit, let us get to where we are going first and then I’ll come and get you two.’ (Luna)

‘Alright, we’ll be waiting at the dock area.’ (Ophidia)

“Big sis, what’s up?” (Soleil)

“Well, aside from something I didn’t know I could do yet, Skadi and Ophidia are ready for me to pick them up.” (Luna)

“What is the first thing?” (Velvet)

“Apparently, I can talk with Ophidia from here with telepathy since she is my Apostle.  I guess that means that goes for you two as well.” (Luna)

“That’s cool.” (Velvet)

“It really is.  Though I do wish I could do the same with mom, dad, and the others back home.” (Luna)

{Have you actually tried that since you got your seventh tail?}

‘Why would that matter?’ (Luna)

{Well, you still haven’t figured out what kind of thing you could do now that you got your seventh tail, so I thought you should at least try that.  What’s the worst that could happen?}

‘Good point, I’ll try later.’ (Luna)

Several more minutes of walking later, we arrived at our destination.  The dwarven bathhouse we were standing in front of looked like it was carved out of the wall of the cave we were in.  The entrance looked a little like a pantheon from ancient Greece only instead of marble it was just grey stone.  When we went inside the scenery changed into an almost Japanese style hot spring complete with red and blue cloths covering the doors to the men’s and women’s side of the establishment.

‘Again, with the clashing of aesthetics.  It’s something I’ll never get used to, no matter how long I live in this world.’ (Luna)

{Don’t say that.  You’d be surprised to see what you get used to when you live long enough.}

‘Noted.’ (Luna)

“This looks like a nice place.” (Velvet)

“I agree, and I think those curtains are enchanted or something because no matter how hard I try, I can’t hear anything from behind them.” (Soleil)

“Same.  But I guess that’s a good thing.  Anyway, you two go in first, I’ll go pick up Skadi and Ophidia.  Be right back.” (Luna)

I gave them a small wave and then teleported away.  When I arrived at my pirate island’s docks, I almost appeared on top of Skadi.

“That was almost bad.” (Luna)

“I agree.  I’ve seen what happens when someone teleports into the same spot as another person and it’s not a pretty sight.” (Skadi)

“Ok, I don’t want any more details on that.  Are you two ready?” (Luna)

“Yes.” (Skadi)

“Yes, master.  By the way, where are you going to teleport us to?” (Ophidia)

“Well, we were on our way to a bathhouse when you contacted me.  So that’s where we’re starting the day.” (Luna)

“I was wondering what that smell coming from you was.” (Ophidia)

“So, I really do stink.  Good thing I didn’t heal my nose yet.” (Luna)

“Do we even want to know?” (Skadi)

“I’ll tell you when we get there.  Let’s go now.” (Luna)

I grabbed the two of them by the arms and teleported back to the bathhouse.  The three of us then went behind the red curtain and started to undress.  I put my dirty clothes into my inventory and placed a clean set in the basket next to Velvet and Soleil’s stuff before walking into the bathroom proper.  It still looked like a Japanese hot spring resort from an anime only more old fashioned.  I quickly washed my body at the washing area before going over to the tub and sinking into it.

“Aaaaahhhhh.  Just like a hot spring.” (Luna)

“Yeah.  It’s quite nice.” (Velvet)

“I agree.  And sitting in a tub this big kind of reminds me of when I was little and mom would get you to take a bath with me, big sis.  Though the ones at the shrine weren’t as big as this.” (Soleil)

“It really does feel like those times.” (Luna)

Skadi and Ophidia then walked over and sank into the water.

“Mmmmm.  It’s hard to beat dwarven baths.” (Skadi)

“Master, I request that when you remodel the floating island, you add at least one large bath like this.” (Ophidia)

“Alright.  I’ll see what I can do, though I feel like I’ll have enough room for more than just one.” (Luna)

“Yes, that sounds delightful, now, can you tell us what you did yesterday?” (Skadi)

“Oh, just destroyed a thieves guild since we could.” (Luna)

“Yeah.  It was based in the sewers of the city, but that was really the only downside of that whole pastime.” (Soleil)

“And the part where I almost fell in a few times.” (Velvet)

“You almost fell in a few times?” (Luna)

“Yeah.  A few spots were too wet, and I almost slipped into the sewer water.  I’m more surprised you two didn’t have any problems like that.” (Velvet)

“Wait, so just because you could, you destroyed a thieves guild?  And you didn’t invite us?” (Skadi)

“Well, if you two weren’t away the whole day, you could have joined us.” (Luna)

“That’s actually on me, I kind of fell back asleep when I teleported us off the ship.” (Ophidia)

“Eh, it’s not like it was a big deal.  Not really as exciting as some of the other things we’ve done, but it was enough to get the boredom out of my system.” (Luna)

I then leaned back and closed my eyes as I soaked in the water.  We all relaxed there for a while before we decided it was time to leave.  We all got out and dried off.  After getting dressed again, we left the bathhouse and decided what we should do for the rest of the day.  After a lengthy discussion, we decided to go around the city to let Ophidia and Skadi get a feel for the country of dwarves before moving further into the country.

Chaos Realm:

Again with the eyes?

Order: Yes.  Even though I trust you completely, I must still take precautions.  In-chan made it very clear that even the most faithful of husbands can get wandering eyes.

What would she know?  She doesn’t even like men in the first place.  At least not in that way.  And though that is true for mortals, I have enough respect for you as well as Luna and her party members to not peek at them in this situation.

Order: You make a good point.

Thanks for removing your hands, but what’s with this situation now?

Order: First, I just want you to only see me right now, that’s why I’m sitting in your lap.  Second, stop playing the fool, you know exactly what I’m doing and the reasons behind my actions.

Both of these statements are true.  I just wanted to see what it was like to act like one of those clueless people for a change.

Order: And your verdict on it?

It’s dumb and I am positive I will cringe at even thinking of trying that act in a few years.

Order: Then let me replace that memory with a better one.