Chapter 48: Bath & Tea

Jen walks into the drying room and places her clean clothing on a bench, then takes a towel from a shelf on the wall and places it next to her clothing. She takes her jacket and top off, then her pants and socks. They’re nice by commoner standards, but Jen saw a lot of lovely clothing earlier.

“I wonder what Alfred bought for me..” she mumbles while looking at the clothing.

Jen looks down at her body clad in undergarments, which are also rather plain compared to what she saw earlier.

“And who are those women to Alfred?” Jen asks herself, “he spent a small fortune and bought full wardrobes for multiple girls, but he avoided anything that’d be revealing.”

She shakes her head like she’s not allowed to think that way before removing what remains of her clothes. Jen shivers slightly and walks into the bathing area. The stone floor is cold against her feet, but the steam on her ankles is warm. She walks along the right wall of showers and stops under the middle shower head. As Alfred did earlier, she clicks the spell stone at the base into line, and hot water flows down over her.

“Ahhh, it’s such a nice temperature,” she says.

Jen lets the falling water soak her hair before turning her face into the stream. She turns and lets the water flow down her back while she takes a bar of hair soap off the wall. She turns the soap over in her left hand while taking down her ponytail with her right. Jen’s dark hair flows down most of her back before she reaches up to lather it in soap.

“Smells fresh.. and sharp.. I feel like it’s made with a prickly plant,” Jen says.

Her dark hair is white with soap, and her white skin is pink from the hot water before she grabs the body soap. Jen scrubs her face gently, then works her way down every nook and cranny of her body with the bar. She holds it to her chest delicately while she stands under the hot water and rinses off.

“Alfred might use this bar..” she mumbles while the water washes over her.

Jen places the soap down hurriedly and turns the shower off by moving its spell stone out of line. She looks around the room. At the line of showers she’s in, the massive hot water tub in the center of the room, and the cold water tub past it. Grey stone outlines everything, and the floor is slightly grated. Water runs to the low spots and drains into spatial storage.

“It’s so.. comfortable,” Jen says and takes a long, deep breath.

She walks to the edge of the hot water tub and places her right foot onto the first step inside it.

“It’s warmer than the shower,” she notes.

Jen steps all the way in and then lowers herself until her neckline is at the water. She picks up her hair and places it outside the tub, then slinks back into the bench-like seating that runs along the outside of the tub.

“It’s so nice.. I’ve never heard of a hot water tub being so large, and it never cools since the water is always being resupplied..”

Jen moves her arms back and forth beneath the water’s surface, she makes small waves that splash against her face, making her tilt her head up to the ceiling.

“Why do I feel guilty?” she asks the ceiling, herself, and anyone who may be listening.

Her body is comfortable, maybe more comfortable than it’s ever been, but her mind is uneasy. Jen sits in the bath for a while before moving to sit on the edge of the tub with only her feet in the water. She cools off that way while glancing at the cold water tub, but never switches. Jen walks to her clean clothing and picks up the towel she left out. She dries herself thoroughly and slips into the fresh clothes. She takes a deep breath and is filled with the scent of the hair soap she’s unaccustomed to.

***
Hmm, I bet she’s going to stay in the bath too long and feel dizzy – I’ll make something cold and not so alcoholic this time.

I brew a small batch of tea while Jen takes her bath. I’m not the biggest tea drinker, but there are plants here that smell like chamomile from my last life. I was always on some sort of miserable medication in that life, and chamomile tea was one of the few things that helped me feel calm when everything else felt disgusting. I’m glad this new body is so hearty.

The tea brews for around five minutes before I remove the leaves and pour it into glasses with ice and a touch of honey. It’s also quite good with a cream liqueur, but I haven’t worked on distillation or liquors yet. Maybe once the monster continent is fully explored.

I sit on the couch with the glasses in front of me when Jen walks out of the drying area. Her cheeks are tinted pink, but her skin is glowing, and her normally shiny hair is reflecting enough light to start a fire.

“How was it?” I ask with a pleasant smile.

Jen sits next to me and answers.

“Incredible.. do you have something like that back home?” she asks, but I shake my head.

“I converted my dorm bathing area to have hot water and a drain, but this house has the best bathing experience you’ll find in this world,” I answer with a smirk.

“It felt that way,” Jen says quietly before smiling, “it really was nice.”

I hand her a cup of the iced tea.

“Cold tea is nice after a hot bath, and these leaves won’t keep you up,” I say.

Jen accepts the beverage and takes a large drink from it.

“Ahh..”

I’m partial to the food noises people make, but there’s something to be said for bath and tea noises as well. It makes me feel just as nice.

I drink from my own cup. Good chamomile tea almost feels thicker than a normal tea, and this one comes close. The honey is a little unnecessary, but it’s tasty all the same.

“Do you need anything before we sleep?” I ask abruptly and turn to Jen.

Jen’s cupping the drink in both hands and sipping it like a child with a glass of juice when she looks back at me.

“No, I don’t need anything,” she says with a sweet smile, “which room should I sleep in?” she asks.

“There are guest rooms all over, you can sleep in the ones past this room or any of the ones upstairs,” I say while motioning at the two doors past the living area, then the stairs, “it shouldn’t feel too cold in any of them, but you can just crawl into bed with me if it gets chilly,” I add sarcastically.

Jen’s face is partially hidden behind her cup, but her cheeks turn a shade pinker.

“Aha, right.. I’ll sleep down here in the first room,” she replies shyly.

“Sounds good, if you need anything, you can come upstairs and bang on my door, my bedroom is all the way on the left,” I say while standing, “goodnight, Jen,” I add with a soft smile.

“Goodnight, Alfred,” Jen replies from behind her cup.