Interlude: Playing in the Water!
Meanwhile, at another time in a different location...
Before lunchtime, in the square of the spirit folk village, Masato, Aki, Arslan, Vera, and Latifa — as well as the other children of the village — were playing tag together.
“Masato’s it!”
“Wah, run away!”
But it wasn’t to be dismissed as a mere children’s game; the village children had enhanced their bodies with spirit arts and were running around at a tremendous speed.
“...Seven, eight, nine, ten! Okay — ready or not, here I come!” Masato counted to ten seconds before looking around the square.
There, a short distance away, Vera laughed happily as she clapped her hands, provoking Masato. “Haha! You can’t catch me!”
“Hey hey, Masato! I’m over here!” Arslan yelled over at Masato with a smug expression.
“Ha! Here I come!” Masato said with a combative grin, making a show of chasing Vera before chasing Arslan, too. His movement speed surpassed the limits of a regular human.
“Oh, you’re finally here!”
Masato’s secret lay in the armband he was wearing. It was a magic artifact imbued with a slightly less powerful body enhancement sorcery that Masato and Aki used, since they couldn’t use spirit arts.
It was a type of artifact that, while it required a little essence control in order to use it and it couldn’t stand up against Arslan and Vera’s natural werebeast abilities, Masato was able to put out the same speeds as the other village children. Because of that speed, it felt much more fun than a regular game of tag — Masato was completely enraptured by the charms of this world’s tag.
“Hehehe, you’ve finally started using that artifact to its full potential. That’s a nice speed you’re going at.” Arslan moved to a corner of the square and climbed a tree with light movements, looking down at Masato, who chased him from behind.
“That’s because I’m training everyday! Today’s the day I’ll finally catch you!” Masato stopped at the foot of the tree and looked up at Arslan with a wicked grin.
“Heh. You’re fifty years too early to be thinking about catching me!” Arslan said, jumping over to the next tree. He continued to jump from tree to tree, moving nimbly. Masato slowly followed behind him, looking up above.
“Laters!” Arslan grinned and jumped down from the tree.
“Ah, wait!” Masato suddenly burst into a dash towards where Arslan had landed. However, Arslan’s destination had been a spring directly connected to the square.
“Whoo!” Arslan landed smoothly on the surface of the water. The water splashed outwards everywhere, but he remained unsubmerged.
“Whoa!” Meanwhile, Masato fell into the water with quite a big splash.
“Hehehe.” Arslan splashed about as he walked on the surface of the water, looking down at Masato submerged in the water. Bubbles were rising up to the surface, but there was no sign of Masato coming back up.
“...Hah!” After a moment, Masato leaped out of the water with force, lunging to catch Arslan.
However, Arslan had already foreseen Masato’s plan, evading Masato’s hand with a graceful hop. “There you are!”
“Dammit!” Masato said in frustration.
“You kept looking upwards and failed to notice your surroundings, Masato,” Arslan advised with a smug face.
“If only I could walk on water too...” Masato muttered with envy.
“Hehe, top class spirit arts users don’t choose their battlefields. Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to walk on water with a few more years of training too, Masato. Your ability in spirit arts won’t improve if you keep relying on artifacts, so keep at it,” Arslan said boastfully.
“What are you doing lecturing others for?” Sara, the silver werewolf, appeared out of nowhere and spoke exasperatedly.
“O-Ooh?! Don’t scare me like that, Sara.” Arslan said, his whole body flinching. He hadn’t realized Sara was so close by.
“You keep at your training, too,” Sara giggled, walking over the water to where Masato and Arslan were.
“...Wow. When Sara walks across the water, it doesn’t splash everywhere like with Arslan,” Masato said with admiration. Unlike Arslan, who had walked over the water noisily, Sara’s footsteps on the water only sent out a small ripple instead of giant splashes.
“Huh? Hmm, but it splashes when I run,” Sara said, kicking the water before speeding up. The water snapped away sharply at the same time Sara vanished.
“O-Ooh!” Masato cheered. Sara stood still on the water a short distance away.
“D-Don’t steal the limelight from me, Sara.” Arslan pouted with slight embarrassment.
“Ahaha, sorry,” she apologized with a faint smile. “I came to get Masato. It’s time for lunch.”
“Oh, is it that time already?!” Masato’s expression brightened.
“Hurry up, Sara!” Vera, Latifa, and Aki had come to the bank of the spring and were calling for Sara.
“Okay, give me a minute! Ah, that’s right. I was thinking of going to the pools after lunch. Did you guys want to come too? It’s gotten warmer lately, and I want to try on my new swimsuit.”
Vera and the others looked at each other. “We’ll go!” they all responded happily.
“Ooh, I want to go too!”
“Me too!”
Masato and Arslan also raised their hands enthusiastically.
“Sure, but you know the pools are separated by gender, right?” It was almost as though Sara was asking, Do you still want to come? The pools in the village were split into men’s, women’s, and one for families.
Masato and Arslan looked at each other. “Y-Yeah...”
They both nodded, their shoulders slightly lower than before.
? ?
Shortly after lunch...
“It’s pool time!” Vera, the werewolf, cheered cutely. She ran towards the pool fully intent on leaping in, holding onto Latifa and Aki in each hand as she did.
“Aaah! Wait, Vera!” Aki followed, voice muddled with confusion.
“Ahaha, there’s no stopping Vera when she’s like this.” Latifa laughed merrily.
“Get ready, you two! One, two, jump!” Vera tugged the two girls on each side of her closer and took a huge leap; the swimsuit-clad girls were soaring through the air, with Vera in the lead. They landed in the water with a splash.
“Pwah!” After a moment, the three all surfaced at once, gasping deeply for fresh air.
“Puhah! That felt good!” Vera laughed happily, shaking her head from side to side. The countless water droplets on her trademark wolf ears went scattering everywhere.
“Geez, Vera. That’s cold.” Aki turned her face away while laughing happily, guarding herself against the onslaught of water droplets.
“Ehehe. But it feels nice.” Latifa simply closed her eyes as she accepted those water droplets. Her ears twitched and vibrated with joy.
“Did you girls get in already? You know, just because no one else is around doesn’t mean you can skip your warm up stretches, right?” Sara arrived at the pool behind Vera and the others, glaring down at the girls already in the water questioningly. Behind her were Miharu, Orphia, and Alma.
“O-Of course, we did it on our way here. N-Now, it’s time for a battle! Let’s go, Aki, Latifa!” Vera said shamelessly, wading through the water with a breaststroke.
“We made sure to do it! Don’t worry, Sara!” Latifa yelled back, following Vera.
“Ahaha, Vera’s just a little rash at times,” Aki muttered with a faint smile. Bringing up the rear, Sara sighed tiredly,
“Geez, that’s so suspicious.”
“Fufu, we should stretch and get in, too. This is such a wonderful place to swim in, after all.” Miharu laughed in amusement, a childish look in her eye as she spoke.
The girls were in a half-cavern spring that the dwarves had remodeled into a natural pool. Trees grew all around the surrounding area, and the water was beautifully clear, illuminated by the sparkling sunlight shining through the gaps of the ceiling. It was a very fantasy-like space, freeing even Miharu from her usual sisterly responsibilities and allowing her to feel excited.
“You’re right.” Alma the elder dwarf giggled and nodded before beginning to stretch.
“Fufu, then me, too. One, two, three, four...” The high elf Orphia bent and flexed her limbs.
“Okay!” Miharu began her warm up exercises, too, prompting Sara to imitate her and the others.
...Hmph, Miharu’s figure really is great. Orphia’s isn’t bad, too. Alma’s shorter than me, yet I feel her chest size isn’t that much different to mine... Sara grumbled to herself as she observed the other girls’ bodies. She had gone bathing with the girls present before, but seeing them in their swimsuits like this had a different charm compared to seeing them naked.
“What is it, Sara?” Alma asked, noticing her gaze.
“N-No, it’s nothing. I won’t lose!” Sara shook her head and squeaked, clenching her fists to encourage herself.
“Hm? Well, whatever. These swimsuits based on the design of the swimsuit Miharu brought are very comfortable to wear. The fact that there’s as much skin exposed as wearing underwear bothers me a little, but it’s cute and easy to move around in the water.” Alma cocked her head curiously before twisting her body around to see her own swimsuit.
The swimsuits the girls were wearing right now were made in the village and based off the design of the swimsuit Miharu bought at the Ricca Guild. Their designs were all very modern and cute.
“Yeah. But it’s a little too embarrassing to wear in front of boys. It’s good that we have gender-designated pools,” Orphia agreed with a giggle.
Until now, the swimsuits available in the village for women only consisted of a loose white underrobe that also served as a bathrobe, so the amount of skin exposure would be quite a shock before any male.
Miharu sensed the cultural difference and started to speak in amusement. “Fufu, in the world we were in, we’d wear these swimsuits to shared spaces between boys and girls.”
“...Isn’t it embarrassing?” Sara asked seriously, looking at Miharu.
“Hmm... I guess I kind of felt like that? That’s why I never went to play in those kinds of places after I got older... But there are lots of people that don’t mind that kind of thing, I think?” Miharu replied with a shy smile, tilting her head.
“I see, so Miharu finds it embarrassing... Well, you don’t have to worry about the opposite gender here, so let’s swim to our heart’s content. This should be enough warm ups for now,” Sara suggested.
“Come on! Aren’t you getting in yet?! Let’s play together!” Latifa waved her arm from the water.
“All right, we’re coming!” Sara replied on behalf of the others.
They enjoyed themselves for two full hours with breaks in between and returned home before sun down. Then, as they were changing back in the changing rooms, Latifa spoke up with a giggle.
“When Onii-chan gets back, let’s do that again! I want to show him my swimsuit figure!” she said with a carefree smile on her face.
“Huh?!” the other girls said with shocked expressions.
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