Chapter 7:

Chapter 7 Bathhouse Diplomacy

I Don’t Take Bull from Anyone, Not Even a Demon Lord


Using metal drums nearly the size of two men, Kai began filling them with water, stoking fires underneath. Skye and Helena watched as steam rose into the cool air.

The hiss and pop of burning wood punctuated the silence. Heat rippled off the metal barrels, sending warm currents into the chilly dusk. Sparks snapped upward in quick bursts, dying midair.

“This… is a bath,” Kai finally announced.

Helena blinked. Skye stared, her ears twitching in confusion. A bead of water dripped from a stray lock of her hair, hissing as it landed on the drum’s heated rim.

Kai explained the concept, detailing the benefits of heated water, cleanliness, and relaxation. His voice took on a rhythm somewhere between an exasperated teacher and an eager salesman. Still, Helena remained skeptical.

“A bath?” Helena scoffed. “You mean just… sitting in hot water?” She gestured helplessly. “And wasting wood and water for it?”

“It’s not a waste if it keeps your joints from locking up and the smell of sweat from following you like a curse,” Kai retorted. “It’s for your health. And your dignity.”

So Kai reached into his shoulder bag and produced a small, waxy brick.

Skye’s sensitive nose twitched immediately. The scent—a blend of wildflowers, cool rain, and sun-warmed grass—spread on the rising steam.

She blinked. “That smells… nice.”

Helena laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “This is madness.”

Kai smirked. “Allow me to demonstrate.”

And before anyone could protest, he stripped down and stepped into the steaming water.

Helena nearly dropped the cloth she was folding, fanning herself in embarrassment. “Saints above,” she muttered, eyes squeezing shut.

Skye’s wide eyes betrayed her internal conflict—human men shouldn’t make her feel like this. Her tail flicked once, betraying her confusion, and she tried not to stare at the faint scars visible on Kai’s shoulders, half-hidden by steam.

Kai, however, couldn’t care less. He lowered himself into the drum with a deep sigh, water sloshing over the edge.

“God, that’s good,” he murmured. “Almost makes me forget about… everything.”

Helena scowled, her cheeks still pink. “You’re mad. Truly mad.”

Kai shot her a lazy grin. “Probably.”

Helena and Skye each claimed a drum for themselves, slipping into the steaming water with the waxy soap Kai had provided. The warmth melted away the fatigue of the day, seeping into muscles long held tight. Skye’s breath left her in a soft gasp.

She had expected Kai to sneak glances at them, but he never once turned his head. He simply leaned back, arms draped along the edge of the barrel, eyes half-lidded with relief.

Much to her own surprise, that realization left her… disappointed.

Skye sank lower into the water, foam clinging to her fur. She stared at the ripples spreading across the surface. The soap’s perfume filled her lungs, mingling with the heat that seeped deep into her bones.

“It feels… wonderful,” Helena admitted after a time, voice small. “I haven’t felt this clean in years.”

Skye glanced at her. “It’s like… the dirt is leaving my skin. I didn’t know I could smell like flowers.”

Kai cracked one eye open, a smirk tugging at his mouth. “See? Civilization.”

Helena splashed water at him. “Keep talking, and I’ll drown you in your ‘civilization.’”

They stayed until the fires burned low, night falling around them. When they finally climbed out, the stars were glinting cold and bright, scattered like shards of glass across a velvet sky. Steam curled off their skin as the night air kissed bare shoulders.

Inside, Kai sat alone at a table, eating a simple meal and sipping ale, lost in thought. The day had been long, eventful, and had taken an unexpected turn. He stared at his reflection in the ale, seeing faint flickers of torchlight ripple across the liquid’s surface.

He thought about Skye’s eyes in the bath—wide, hesitant, almost vulnerable. And the way Helena, for all her bravado, had sunk into the water like a woman starved for comfort.

He clenched his jaw. This world wasn’t meant to feel safe. Yet somehow, he’d carved out a single moment of peace tonight. That frightened him more than he cared to admit.

Later that evening, Helena led both Kai and Skye to their rooms. For the first time in what felt like forever, Skye had a space of her own. No cold floors. No sharing cramped quarters with other adventurers. Just a warm, soft bed all to herself.

Yet as she lay there, staring at the ceiling, an unfamiliar sensation crept over her.

Loneliness.

She’d always been surrounded by others—voices, footsteps, orders barked across campfires. Now, the silence pressed in on her like heavy snow.

Her mind drifted to Kai. The sound of his sigh as he’d sunk into hot water. The way he’d kept his eyes firmly averted from her nakedness, even when he had every opportunity not to.

The way his shoulders looked beneath steam, broad and solid, like they could carry any weight.

But the memory of Helena laughing at something he’d said—of the soft color blooming in the woman’s cheeks—kept threading itself through Skye’s thoughts.

Would it be strange to visit him?

She rolled onto her side, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She chewed her lower lip, ears angled back.

Helena was older, beautiful in a different way, human in a way Skye could never be. A slow burn of jealousy curled in Skye’s stomach, hot and ugly. She wanted to claw it out of herself, but it kept growing, rooting itself in places she didn’t understand.

Kai and Helena shared a language she barely spoke—an ease, a familiarity that felt as though it shut Skye out even when she was standing right there.

She hated how much it bothered her. Hated how her mind replayed the way Kai’s voice softened when he spoke to Helena. How he’d smiled, almost gentle. And how Helena, flustered and giggling, had kept brushing imaginary lint off his shoulder.

She hesitated, debating whether to knock on his door, when the sound of footsteps from the hallway caught her attention.

Alarmed, Skye carefully cracked her door open just in time to see Helena stepping out of Kai’s room. The older woman clutched a blanket around herself as she quietly pulled the door shut behind her.

Skye’s chest tightened. A rush of heat spread from her throat to her ears. Anger, embarrassment, and something far sharper tangled in her chest.

Her claws pressed into her palms until her skin ached. She stared at the flicker of torchlight gilding Helena’s hair as the woman slipped away.

Helena paused in the corridor, as if listening, then hurried off, unaware of Skye’s eyes burning holes into her back.

Skye swallowed hard, retreated into her room, and threw herself onto the bed.

“Stupid,” she hissed under her breath. “Stupid, stupid…”

Burying her face in the pillow, she let out a muffled scream, claws sinking into the fabric. She wished she could scrape away the hurt blooming inside her chest. But it pulsed there stubbornly, raw and alive.

Still, as sleep finally claimed her, an aching pang remained lodged in her heart. One thought coiled through her mind, soft as a whisper: Why her… and not me?

Ramen-sensei
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