Akatsuki Translations

Echelle had never felt any sentiment regarding her appearance.

To be precise, she never had the luxury to think about it in the first place.

During her childhood, she was mostly bullied and tormented at home. She hardly had any opportunities to talk with friends. Therefore, there was no one to compare herself to. In the first place, she didn’t have such leeway.

After joining the Sun Knights, she started learning makeup as she was often looked down upon as a child by her colleagues, but honestly, she didn’t think she was very good at it. When Kalkara did it for her, she looked beautiful, but even when she did it herself, she didn’t feel there was much difference.

In fact, it seemed that she was in quite a terrible state, and she was often laughed at behind her back by her colleagues, but Echelle didn’t pay much attention to it. She was indifferent. She had a set of values that were far from what one would expect from a girl holding a Temple rank.

However, lately, she had been significantly changing those values.

“My, Diz-sama. Your hair is so shiny,” Shizuku complimented.

“That’s because Jenna uses good oil on it. I think Shizuku’s is even more amazing. Your skin,” Diz replied.

“I found a good medicinal solution in the Last. It seems that even magical researchers care about beauty,” Shizuku said.

In front of Echelle, golden and silver glitters swayed.

Amid the steam, their exposed skin and swaying figures seemed sensual even to someone of the same gender. Her own bright red hair, which was not well-groomed, didn’t shimmer and sway like that.

“Echelle-sama?” Shizuku approached her. The silver glitter swayed. And in front of her eyes, a large mass swayed.

“What’s the matter?” Shizuku asked.

“…Shizuku,” Echelle said.

“Yes?” Shizuku responded.

“How did you grow these?” Echelle grabbed the large swaying mass in front of her with both hands.

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【Dragon-Devoured Uuga】 Great Bath

Its existence was confirmed shortly after the liberation of Uuga.

Standing tall in the residential district of the city, it was, frankly speaking, the epitome of luxury. Uuga had a water source called the 【True Sea Crystal】, which was thought to be a relic of the dungeon and would endlessly gush out water if left unchecked. However, although the water spilling from the crystal was inexhaustible, it was not in large quantities. Small amounts of water would continually accumulate little by little.

Therefore, water should be used sparingly, and if one needed to remove dirt from their body or clothes, using purification magic would suffice.

Nevertheless, the reason for the existence of a place like the great bath, which consumed a large amount of water, was probably due to the intentions of the designers of this place, the Caraleigh family.

In making Uuga the residential area of the king, there was no way they would neglect a place for their own comfort. That much was evident from the luxurious and gorgeous interior.

And currently, the masters of Uuga were Ur and his party. Honestly, they were somewhat at a loss with the extravagant and luxurious items.

However, it would be a waste not to utilize something that was already available. In the first place, when checking the operation of Uuga, they had to inspect the usability of this facility as well—that was the pretext many people used. In reality, while maintaining cleanliness of the body could be achieved to a certain extent with purification magic alone, there were those who wished to use the great bath to soothe their bodies.

As a result of the discussion, it was decided that the bath would be opened once a week.

Today was that day. The Nameless residents of Uuga, the attendants, the White Serpent, and even the members of the Envy Knight Order stationed there, as well as Ur and the others, all gathered in this spacious public bath to soothe their bodies.

In a corner of that great bath, Echelle grabbed Shizuku’s breasts.

“Echelle. Stop it,” Lynne stopped Echelle, who was grabbing Shizuku’s breasts with both hands. Shizuku, the one being grabbed, didn’t seem particularly embarrassed or troubled and was smiling cheerfully.

“I don’t recall trying to grow them specifically,” Shizuku said.

“If they grow without doing anything, then why are our breasts like this?” Echelle asked.

“Can you please not involve me? Seriously, don’t involve me,” Lynne tried to distance herself from this unintelligent conversation.

“But considering the hobbit race, Lynne actually has a pretty good figure, don’t you think?”

《Yeah~, pretty girl, pretty girl~~》

Diz, who was sitting on the edge of the bathtub with Akane, pointed out with amusement, and Echelle glared at Lynne with a tearful expression. Lynne looked at the two with a resentful expression, but they were laughing very cheerfully.

“Could you please stop stirring things up for fun, Diz-sama, Akane-sama?” Shizuku asked.

《But it’s not a lie~~, 》 Akane said.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just so fun to have conversations between girls,” Diz laughed. Considering her great duty as the Hero of the【Seven Heavens】, she probably had few opportunities to have such close and friendly exchanges due to her busy schedule. Akane, too, must have had her own struggles, given the peculiarities of her body.

Thinking about it, Lynne wanted to respect their feelings, but she wished it could be at a time other than during such a stupid conversation.

“When it comes to having a good figure, Diz-sama is not inferior either,” Jenna, who had been taking care of Diz’s hair and making it shiny, claimed in response from behind Diz. Now that she mentioned it, it was true that Diz’s body was also beautiful. The parts that should stand out did so properly, and the parts that should be slim were nicely tucked in.

However, there was something more noticeable about her body.

“But I’m covered in scars,” Diz said.

《This one, from Lust?》 Akane asked.

“Yeah, from the time when my stomach was about to be ripped open in the Last,” Diz replied.

Just as she said, her body was covered in scars. Various scars, large and small, were left on her body. Some of them were so large that they seemed to bisect her upper and lower body, which was quite remarkable.

It was clear how intense the battles they had been through were.

“That is also beautiful,” Jenna confidently asserted. It was fanatical, but Lynne agreed with her. The deep and numerous scars were all proof that they had risked their lives to protect their world. She didn’t find them ugly at all.

Shizuku, who was watching from the side, probably shared the same opinion. She gently touched the scars on Diz’s body with her fingers and asked, “Due to the nature of my work, I also get injured often, but do you not erase the scars?”

“There’s no end to it. I keep my face clean since I appear in public, but if things settle down a bit, I might consider erasing them once,” Diz replied.

Of course, there was magic that could not only heal scars but also erase them. Treating large scars would be expensive, but given her position, it should be possible for her. Lynne thought to herself that it might be a bit shallow to feel that it would be a waste to erase the traces of her battles.

“Magic, huh…” Echelle murmured.

“Just to let you know, there’s no such convenient thing as magic to enlarge a specific part of the human body,” Diz said.

“There isn’t?!” Echelle exclaimed.

“Healing injuries is a simple action of 【restoring to one’s original state】, but changing a part of the body falls under the realm of 【body manipulation】. It’s too dangerous,” Diz explained.

Transferring excess fat to desired locations or eliminating it was a magic that both men and women dreamed of. If it were easy, it would have become common long ago, and fat people would have disappeared from this world.

The fact that it hadn’t become common was proof of its difficulty. There were indeed people researching it at Lautaro Magic Academy, but accidents were so frequent that student research had to be suspended.

“Give it up. And why are you so obsessed with it anyway? It’s not like you have a body shape that warrants such despair,” Lynne said.

From Lynne’s perspective, Echelle’s body also had a splendid feminine roundness to it. She wasn’t sloppily fat either. Certainly, comparing herself to someone extraordinary like Shizuku could drive one crazy, but it shouldn’t be something to depreciate herself to that extent.

However, for some reason, Echelle seemed dispirited. She lowered her head and muttered softly, “…I wonder if Ur likes it.”

Lynne thought to herself that she had stepped on an unnecessary landmine.

“Well, it seems Ur-sama likes big breasts, doesn’t he?” Shizuku said, triggering a chain explosion. This place was hell.

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

Meanwhile, in the men’s bath

“………”

“………”

“………”

“………”

“………”

Ur, Rock, Jain, Eckstein, and Black.

The five of them, like the other visitors, were fully immersed in the bathtub in silence. It wasn’t that there was no conversation or that it was awkward. They were simply silent, entrusting their bodies to the bathtub. Even the talkative Black was now just letting his body sway in the water.

With his gaze wandering into the void, Ur muttered, “…This is paradise.”

At those words, everyone present silently agreed.