“Waaaaaaah… Nothing beats a warm bath after a hard day of work. I feel like I’m melting.” A refreshing shower to scrub off the dirt and blood on my skin and scales. The damp air that warmed your body with every breath, and the festive atmosphere of laughing girls and panting garms. It all came together when we allowed our bodies to rest in the rejuvenating hot spring inside our [Room].

I then breathed in, holding my breath before submerging my head underwater. With my face fully covered in scalding water and the sound of moving water entering my ears, I relaxed there and simply enjoyed the tranquil silence. After probably ten seconds, I raised my head out of the spring, wiped the water from my face, and then combed my hair back with my hands.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah…” I sighed with a wide smile.

“Hestia, do not do that, it is not healthy for you to overheat inside a hot spring,” Saori suddenly began to scold me, but I simply laughed it off.

“Yeah, as if. You know full well I can’t overheat myself while my sun core is active. Considering that I’m the one responsible for heating the water for our hot spring, I know better than anybody how hot it can become.”

Since our hot spring was artificially made — which really made it more of a giant bath than a hot spring — and didn’t have a proper heating system in place, we needed someone to heat the water up before a bath. Ever since we departed from Griffonpeak, I’ve been managing it by lighting a fire to warm everything up, but today, I was testing to see if my catalyst could take over that job.

I still need to test some other things out. This isn’t perfect, yet.

“Fair enough,” Saori responded with a shrug before returning to leaning against the pool’s edge.

Looking down, I noticed that her skin was bare from her shoulders down to her feet. In her [Huminization Lv. 8] form, Saori’s body was mostly pink skin aside from her wolf ears, forearms, forelegs, and tail, which were all covered in black and white fur. She didn’t like having her body covered in fur outside of those areas, so she was perpetually in her level eight form, unlike me, who was comfortable with level seven.

Looking down at my own body, I was just as naked as Saori. The only difference was that my racial features showed more than hers. Scales were more prominent on my body. My arms, from the hands to my shoulders; from my feet to my knees; from my back down to my waist, only leaving my chest and stomach bare; and finally my tail and wings. Crimson scales covered them all.

Now, even if this wasn’t technically an onsen — a hot spring — I was too used to the rules of one to not follow it. It did take me a couple of visits to get used to it, but Mama and my Japanese relatives did try their best for me to get used to the customs.

Nowadays, I barely feel any shame in going around naked, thanks to my experience in the Belzac forest. Of course, I had enough common sense to wear clothes in public, especially since it made me feel cuter, but it no longer bothered me to go without. Besides, while I was in my dragon form, I technically was naked, right? Nothing to feel weird about.

I then looked around, noticing Tasianna tying Ellaine’s long hair up so they wouldn’t get soaked in the water. Unlike Tasianna who was used to showing nude, Ellaine was wearing a towel to cover most of her torso and hips. Sure, towels might not be allowed in a Japanese hot spring, but we didn’t care here. If it made her more comfortable, so be it.

We had others joining us, of course. Song and Sarasa, the two female garms of the pack, were soaking one half of their bodies while keeping the others on the edge of the pool, looking content with their eyes closed. Muraina looked like she was at peace with Whisperia grooming her hair, unconcerned that she was naked since the hot springs managed by the dwarves and dragonewts apparently had similar rules to the Japanese ones, most likely due to the Revolution Queen’s influence.

But that wasn’t all. We also had one more companion, a companion floating on a wooden bowl as its body was covered by a cocoon made from mana. It was Shoyi, Saori’s slime.

“Have you planned out an evolution path for Shoyi yet, Saori?” I poked at its mana cocoon. When a monster evolves, mana from their body is dissipated to form a cocoon to protect them from attacks with its sturdiness determined by how much mana they have. That’s why evolving usually leaves you hungry afterward, since your body needs to use up nutrients to restore the lost mana.

“Not really. The tamer system does not have an evolution chart or something similar available as a reference, sadly. I can suggest an evolution when they evolve, but since Shoyi only had a single option with that lackluster skillset of his, there wasn’t much I could do.” Saori frowned as she explained that to me. “Its next form will be an F rank [Shadow Slime]. The ‘lesser’ prefix will be gone, but it will not change anything else.”

“Don’t worry about it, Saori. When I evolved into my F rank form, the two choices I got were either to become a drake or a dragon. Dull choices, even when I had [Holy Magic] and [Fire Magic]. Now, when I evolved into my E rank form, that was when I got the mutation which allowed me to get my current skill set.” I was speaking of my [Young Spark Fire Dragon] evolution.

I continued, “You’ll have ten levels to train Shoyi up, so it should give you some time to help it level up skills not related to waste removal. Like a skill that helps it control its individual globules, if it exists and isn’t just a racial feature. Hmm, too bad I didn’t take the time to appraise that slime in Belzac in detail.” My body shook as I remembered that eldritch-like slime I met occupying an elven hunter’s shack.

As Saori and I talked about Shoyi’s future prospects, Muraina suddenly interjected herself in the discussion. “Hold on, now that I think about it… If Shoyi is evolving now and requires a whole day to evolve, what about the toilets? You aren’t using a sewage system, since this is a subspace, so you are relying on the slime to clean everything, right?”

That was when the full picture of the situation dawned on us. Tasianna, Ellaine, and I widened our eyes as we looked at Saori for answers, to which she shrugged. “Go outside and find a bush.”

It was a simple answer, but devastating for Ellaine.

“N-No, why?! And here I thought I don’t have to go out and go ‘flower picking,’ again. Incredible…” Ellaine looked disheartened at the idea of doing her business outside in the forest, again. If you thought about it, since Saori, Tasianna, and I weren't too apprehensive of that idea, living in a forest truly had rid us of a lot of our more delicate and civilized hangups.

That said, comparing Saori and Ellaine with Tasianna and Muraina is pretty easy, huh? I never expected elves and fairies to be so flat.

As asking about such a thing was probably a bit rude, I just forgot about it and accepted this fact. However, in the next moment, a chill went down my spine as a voice appeared in my head.

[“Hey, Muraina, do you mind telling me how a person with your curves is so lacking in the chest area? What a bit of a waste, if you ask dear ol me, hikhikhik.”] A lustful laugh, the kind that could send your hairs standing up just by hearing it. I turned over to the source of this laughter — Klea’Hatma.

“Ahh, I see, so this is the demon of lust the lore books spoke about, hm? Without a doubt, I can feel some sort of desire seeping out from those rings. Very intriguing, even for my age.” As Muraina looked at the two spell rings placed behind a mini barrier of [Sanctuary], her eyes sparkled. The demon, on the other hand, retorted with a clear “You like what you see, dear?”

Keeping secrets wasn’t anything new for Aurora, considering how I still wasn’t completely truthful to the public of my dragon origins. Saori and Tasianna, too, hadn’t divulged their true identities to the vast majority of the people we’ve met on our journey. With the inclusion of Ellaine and Klea’Hatma, it was clear we would add an additional secret to our list.

But, on the first day of Ellaine using her newly acquired powers, it was found out by somebody outside Ellaine’s friends or our immediate circle of trust. Muraina was still only an acquaintance, after all. We tried to hide it, but she found out when she followed us from the shadows, and while she wasn’t making an effort to find out about it, Ellaine didn’t want to lie.

Apparently, Muraina’s speech about “alliances cannot be made on top piles of deception” really affected Ellaine. We’d already told some people outside our party about it — Ellaine’s parents — and, with how Ellaine was trying to act more and more like the ideal knight she had in mind, she thought it would be best to come clean and hope Muraina could be trusted. A bit naive, but I respected that in her.

Well, there hasn’t been any reason for us to completely distrust her. Gael is acquainted with her, and apparently Farron and Yorshka, too. If Muraina was a problem, Yorshka would have undoubtedly warned me about her, if I understood my niece’s disposition to me properly.

“Hmm, well to answer your question, it’s just part of an elven woman’s biology, like how our ears are sharper than the human’s,” Muraina stated, answering Klea’Hatma’s question. “The breast of a human and some types of beastmen women develop during their adolescence from what I understand. On the other hand, for us elves, our chest enlarges only if we are pregnant and will lessen with every breastfeeding until they become ‘flat’ again. This trait is also inherited to beastmen with predominantly elven blood.”

[“Truly?! Hmm, and here I thought having breasts was the way to go to seduce men and women alike. Why, when I still had my humanoid form, I made sure to morph it into something attractive to as many people as possible. Interesting to learn that there are different kinds of fetishes in this world.”] Klea’Hatma was beginning to talk the way you would expect from a lust demon, acting pretty similar to a succubus. [“Then, why is Tasianna’s chest so small in her fairy form as well?”]

“Why are you asking something like that?!” Tasianna shouted, flustered at the question. “Urgh, Lady Hestia, it was a mistake bringing her with us. Even if we all are naked, there is no reason to talk about everything. Besides, we fairies cannot give birth so why would breasts be needed in the first place? Miss Muraina, being flat is not shameful, right?”

“Oh, having a smaller chest does make archery far easier. Nothing to block the bowstring.”

“See! There is nothing to be ashamed about!” Tasianna went over to Muraina and patted her on her shoulder. Klea’Hatma’s “Oooooh, I see~” sounded as if she found a target to tease.

Honestly, why are we speaking about breasts all of a sudden? Couldn’t we have just enjoyed a peaceful bath?

However, this wasn’t where it ended. Klea’Hatma wasn’t afraid or ashamed of expressing her interest in all of this, considering this was the first time we allowed her to accompany us into the bath instead of placing her in my storage. I was beginning to regret it, but I guess it did make everything livelier.

But then, a loud shout came from over the wooden wall separating the women's section of the hot spring from the men’s area.

“BY CRUSTACIA, CAN YOU WOMEN SHUT UP AND JUST ENJOY THE HOT SPRING?!” It was Grimnir’s voice. “I’m trying to relax here. I don’t want to constantly hear you lasses talk about BREASTS and your SIZES! Do you have any idea how uncomfortable that makes me? Next time, I should add a sound barrier rune!”

“““…””” Everybody was quiet.

[“Booo, what a bore.”] But the demon didn’t say anything else, finally silenced with the awkwardness in the air.

We weren't bathing alone. We should have been more considerate. Grimnir, Uno, and Quatre were bathing with us, just that we were separated by a single wall. You were supposed to be quiet and respectful in a hot spring, so it made sense why he had to shout.

As everything cooled down, Muraina suddenly wanted to inform us about the Quest rewards. “After assessing the situation with my own eyes, I’ve decided it would be proper to qualify the last Quest as A rank. The number of enemies we had to fight would have devastated any normal B rank party without a doubt. Congratulations, Aurora just earned an A rank point and four Bs.”

“Huh, seriously? You aren’t doing this to garner our favor, right?” I asked, doubting her intentions for a bit.

Muraina shook her head, though. “Even if you were my princess and the Elven King had ordered me to do so, I would not have granted you any such favors. The hunter’s guild is independent of the monarch and leaders of all countries. Compare the bolushzu Quest with the geisenlarg infestation, would you have given the same rewards for the both?”

I shook my head. A single B rank party would have probably dealt with the bolushzi, but no way could they kill that many geisenlarg soldiers while fighting that queen. For the best results, the hunter’s guild suggests an A rank party undertake experienced B rank monsters. Of course, this was only a suggestion. Hunters weren’t supposed to accept Quest with only a single five-man party, but were encouraged to form a group of parties since it increased life expectancy.

Even with Muraina, we were still just a single party. Sure, we might be abnormal, but still, we were easily surrounded if I reflected on the fight. After seeing how exhausted Ellaine and Grimnir were after that battle in that colony, it wouldn’t be correct to grade the geisenlarg fight as B rank.

As I explained this thought to Muraina, Ellaine suddenly had a realization. “Hold on a second, if I do the math correctly, the bolushzi Quest should be enough for Hestia, Saori, and Tasianna to rank up to C rank with nine C rank points in, correct? Master Grimnir would gain 18 C points, due to the conversion from B points to C, totaling to 54 C points from the 70 needed. While I would… have 36D ranks. Four away from making it to C rank. Uhm, how much is the conversion rate from A to D, Muraina?”

Calculator head!

“Unfortunately, you cannot convert A rank quests to lower rank points,” Muraina said, prompting an inquisitive “Why?” from us all. “A rank is like a badge of honor of sorts. To rank up from B to A, you are required to gain 50 B rank points and a minimum of ten A rank points. As you cannot convert B rank points to A, the only way to gain A rank points is through doing Quests. It is the guild’s method of ensuring that only the best are promoted to A rank.”

Muraina explained how it would be impossible for the A and S ranks to gain a certain amount of prestige when you could just gain lower ranked points and convert them into A rank. This was something the hunter guild learned years after it was founded when somebody was tenacious enough to mostly farm out C rank Quests to make it to A rank.

Rules and requirements were set to ensure that the acquisition of A rank was a privilege only the best of the best could achieve. B ranks were pretty common, unlike the A and especially the S ranks. In other words, if you wanted to rank up to A rank, you had to take on Quests like the geisenlarg one. You had to prove yourself worthy.

“Well, it wouldn’t have been a problem if you couldn’t solve the issue. I heard that a wandering A rank party was recently in Cedaraille, so I probably could have called for them. Even then, I could have just done it myself, haha!” she laughed after boasting of her own abilities. “Hmm, from the reports, the rachonoid would have probably been considered an A rank Quest if there was enough time to issue it formally. Sadly, it wasn’t, so please be content with ranking up to C rank and gaining an A point for your future opportunities.”

We did celebrate and informed Grimnir about it over the wall, but he simply scolded us for being loud again. From the tone of his voice, Saori guessed he was tipsy from drinking in the hot spring.

“Hmm, that is fine and all, but you probably wanted to say something else, right? You could have told us all this when we came back to Griffonpeak,” Saori assumed, to which Muraina nodded.

“True. Urgent Quests can be issued to anybody regardless of rank, but that isn’t the case for normal ones. Your little mistake after fighting that wyvern caused a bunch of monster spawnings, so I wanted to ask you if you wanted to undertake some of them for me? The hunter’s guild is occupied with work, but there are a few monsters I want experts to tackle.”

“Our range of work?”

“Greenveil, Lecartiglio, Olivus, and Morgiana. The Griffonpeak area is secured with all the knights and hunters around.”

“Hmm, wouldn't that be perfect for your ‘tour,’ Lady Hestia? You and Miss Saori were talking about moving around Artorias to perform more concerts,” Tasianna brought up, causing us to agree. To gain more fans for [The Light]’s milestones, I had to be more active.

However, there was something we had to solve.

“Ellaine, would it be okay for you to take time off from the academy to join us?” We didn’t want too much of a rank disparity between all of us, so Saori preferred it if we all worked together on these Quests. With Ellaine only needing four more D ranks to join us in C rank, it was also a perfect time for us to farm up Job levels, again.

“Probably not, Hestia. Father probably wouldn’t like it, so he won’t support it, and without his approval, I cannot even ask the professors to give me a break.”

Oh, right. Her father wants her to attend school, huh? Stupid good parenting!

But then, an idea sprang into my mind. “Then, why don’t we speak with Lady Thyra herself? The principal of the royal academy. I can probably get us an appointment by using my status.”

“… You really are getting used to your role, huh, Hestia?” I couldn’t disagree with Saori’s remark. It was true, especially since I’d also recently arranged for Muraina and me to meet with the king the moment we returned to Griffonpeak.

After having dinner together, where Muraina, Saori, and Grimnir got absolutely drunk, we went to bed for the night. The next morning, Ellaine, Muraina, and I left the RV, leaving the rest of Aurora to drive back by themselves, I cast [Unheilge Engel] and created two seats for my two passengers to sit on.

With Ellaine having to get back to Griffonpeak for classes, I activated my rocket boosters and made Ellaine and Muraina regret flying with Hestia Airlines. The best flying service to cause you to puke!