The Chair Takes a Shower

Once we finished dinner, Emma collected the bowls, washed them with a water crystal, and left them out to dry. The nights were only ten hours in the summer, but it was more than enough time to remove the moisture.

Rufus pulled out another water crystal and a bar of soap from Emma’s rucksack. “There are a few brushes a little ways from here, so we can wash ourselves over there. It doesn’t seem like there are any beasts in the area, but keep your guards up. I’ll go first, followed by Aster, Ai, the proctor, then Emma when she’s done. Set up where you want to sleep until then,” he said, walking off alone towards the brushes. He should have at least one more person in case of an attack. Just because they couldn’t sense anything didn’t mean the area was safe.

Rufus only took a few minutes to wash himself off. He looked like the very definition of a wet dog as he handed over the supplies to Aster. Aster took the same amount of time as Rufus, though that raised a few questions. How did you clean a morphing body? Would it be easier to make the body masculine? Or would you want the feminine form to know where to focus your efforts, like around the curves and contours? It seemed a lot more complicated than cleaning hair.

Then it was Ai’s turn. She was gone for over an hour; the two suns had already set by the time she got back. Was she cleaning her vines as well? Or maybe she wanted to soak in the water somehow. Honestly, she made less sense than Aster.

Finally, it was my turn. I headed over after Ai tossed me the cleaning supplies. The rag served as the perfect view blocker, so I used some mana to hold it in place. I also put up a quick barrier of mana to sense if anyone got close. The water crystal was starting to lose its color, meaning Ai probably used a lot. It was a waste, but there was still enough for Emma and I, so she was being considerate… probably.

Soaping my body was relatively simple. I rarely got dirty, but washing myself felt nice, so I tried to do it when I had the chance. Next was my hair. Kumari had a weird fascination with proper hair care, so she forced her ‘training’ onto me when she saw how I used to wash mine. The lecture lasted for nearly three days; I passed out immediately after it finished.

First, I warmed up the water with a bit of Fire Magic. You could use cold water, but Kumari forced me to use warm water. Next, I soaped up and gently lathered my hair and scalp. There were other products used to help clean one’s hair and keep it soft, but only nobles and Kumari purchased them. Why should I use those products? No idea, but Kumari definitely told me what they were at one point.

“Ping. Ping.”

Huh? There were a couple of creatures approaching: one from the camp and the other from the forest. I decided to focus on the camp creature first, using my mana to get an outline of the creature creeping up. Their features revealed themselves as they slowly crouched closer…

Ugh, what was Aster doing? She definitely noticed my mana, even with how thin it was. Her head poked above the brush, staring directly at my rag. Was she trying to see what I looked like underneath? That was most likely the case, judging by how she circled around. No matter how hard she tried, she wouldn’t be able to see me. Hopefully, she should give up soon.

While she was distracted, I could take care of the other creature. The beast was perched on a nearby tree, stalking us, so it should be safe to use my mana. I took out another leg from the subspace – one wouldn’t be enough to take it down. With the first, I created a thin, imperceptible blade, even to the surrounding air, using wind magic. Then, with the other, the blade was imbued with space magic. Once Aster had circled around to the other side, I sent it flying towards the beast. I didn’t see or hear what happened, but I was confident of the outcome.

Aster did freeze for a moment when the blade left the rags, but eventually, she got bored and returned to the camp. I dried myself off using a combination of fire and wind magic before putting on my clothes. Then, I pulled the body of the creature out of the subspace. The blade of wind was imbued with two space magic spells: one to allow it to pass through all objects except beasts, and one to transfer the corpse into the subspace.

The beast was basically a gecko the size of an eagle. Even using two legs, there was a bit of resistance on the beast’s skin where the blade hit, which made sense. Geckos were normally E-rank threats, but of this size and quantity of mana, it could easily be a B-rank. The incoming rainstorm was starting to affect the ecosystem, which was bad, but I couldn’t help smiling.

It was exactly what I wanted.