“Mmm, Master, let me wash your back.”
“Yes, yes. Customer, how about like this?”
“Mmm, it’s really good.”
At Marie’s instruction, Hanako and Fuuko, who were covered in mud, were ordered to take a bath and went straight to the bathroom at Kent’s house. At that time, Hanako insisted that she wouldn’t go in unless she was with Kent, so Kent involuntarily agreed to accompany her. Kent was washing Hanako’s body thoroughly in the washing area of the bathroom.
“It’s unfair that Hanako gets washed by Master all the time!”
“Yes, yes, I’ll rinse you now.”
“Hyaaa, the soap got in my eyes!”
Next to them, Catherine was washing Fuuko. Because they were washing at the same time, the four of them were crowded together in the washing area of the bathroom, and the work proceeded in a somewhat cramped condition. Although it’s unknown what they were doing or where they were, Hanako and Fuuko were extremely dirty. They weren’t in a state where they could be lightly washed and moved to the bathtub. Kent and Catherine cooperated to thoroughly wash off the dirt from their bodies before they entered the bath.
“Catherine, thank you for helping me.”
“It is the Saintess’s duty to be involved with fairies, so please don’t mind.”
“Mmm, you’re a liar.”
“The Saintess of this country is a liar. You should just honestly say you wanted to go in with Master.”
“Wh-what?! Th-th-that’s not true! Washing fairies is also the Saintess’s job!”
When Kent thanked Catherine for her help, Hanako and Fuuko teased Catherine.
“Alright, is this okay? Hanako, it’s finished. You should get in the bathtub quickly and warm up.”
“Mmm, I will.”
“Fuuko, it’s finished too. Please soak in the bathtub and get warm.”
“Hmph, I guess I have no choice.”
Kent and Catherine finished washing Hanako and Fuuko and told them to get into the bathtub.
“Well then, next is you, Kent.”
“Eh?”
“Yes, yes, please turn around.”
“Oh, okay.”
Kent and Catherine had also taken off their clothes so they wouldn’t get wet when washing. Kent had intended to wash himself, but he turned his back to Catherine when she offered.
“Here I go. Hiyah!”
“Why are you trying to wash my front from behind?”
Catherine lathered the body soap and applied it to her body, then hugged him from behind. Her hands reached forward and began washing his chest and abdomen.
“My mother often does this for you, so I thought you might like it, but did you not like it?”
“I-it’s not that I disliked it, but…”
Kent embraced the feeling of Catherine’s soft skin on his back, and although he didn’t dislike it, he was tormented by guilt.
“Ahaha, Master is blushing.”
“Hey, be quiet.”
Fuuko, seeing Kent’s expression, teased him, making him embarrassed and silencing Fuuko.
“So, the two of you, where have you been and what have you been doing?”
Kent, managing to maintain his composure through Catherine’s physical contact, got into the bathtub. Afterward, Catherine washed herself, and Kent, Catherine, Hanako, and Fuuko soaked in the bathtub, close together. Once they had settled down, Catherine asked Hanako and Fuuko where they had been.
“Mmm, we were filling in the holes that this one opened.”
“You’re the one who opened the holes!”
“Could it be the large holes that appeared in the flat areas a little way from the castle?”
“Mmm, probably.”
When Hanako spoke about filling the holes, Catherine confirmed with her, based on information she had as a Saintess.
“But wasn’t the Kingdom’s investigation team already at the site?”
“Hmph, we made the Kingdom’s agents disappear.”
“Fuuko, did you do it?”
Catherine had already received information that the Kingdom’s investigation team had entered and was investigating the large holes. When she asked what happened to those people, Fuuko replied that she made them disappear. Hearing this, Kent, thinking they might have killed them needlessly, hastily asked.
“Hanako did the deed, so I have nothing to do with it. Master, please don’t look at me with such a scary face. Sniffle.”
“Hanako, is that true?”
Fuuko replied that Hanako was the one who carried it out. Kent, though not consciously aware of it, seemed to have been making a scary face at Fuuko, and she was on the verge of tears. Kent asked Hanako if what Fuuko said was true.
“Mmm, it’s true that we made them disappear. I didn’t want them to see the work, and to prevent them from getting hurt, I teleported them to the castle’s courtyard.”
“Whoa, you just used Teleportation Magic? You surprised me.”
When Hanako explained that she had merely teleported the investigation team with Teleportation Magic and had not harmed them, Kent breathed a sigh of relief.
“It would be dangerous for people and animals to fall into such large holes as reported, so thank you for filling them in.”
“Mmm.”
“Ugh.”
Catherine also felt it was dangerous for people and animals to fall into the large holes that remained open in the flat land. However, knowing they had been safely filled, she praised them and patted them on the head.
“I haven’t told the higher-ups about Fuuko’s true identity yet, so I came along to confirm what she’d been doing, and it’s good that I got some useful information.”
“Hah, you got rejected by Master.”
Catherine hadn’t come to take a bath with Kent. She had only come to confirm where Hanako and Fuuko had been. Since Fuuko’s true identity was a secret, she seized this opportunity when only those who knew the situation were gathered. Fuuko, having learned the true reason, teased Kent.
“There’s no way I would reject Kent. Fuuko, what are you saying?”
“Ow, ow, it hurts, it hurts, forgive me! Huff, huff, as expected of the Kingdom’s Saintess. To be able to damage me like this, amazing.”
Catherine pressed her knuckles into Fuuko’s temples on both sides. Fuuko cried out in pain.
“Kent and I are close enough to do this to each other. *Hmph*.”
“W-wait, Catherine, if you hug me, the water will overflow.”
To deny what Fuuko had said, Catherine hugged Kent. Kent found the sensation of their skin touching to be pleasant, and to distract himself, he said the water was overflowing from the bathtub as an excuse.
“Wha- even I can do that much to Master!”
“Mmm, I can too.”
“Wait, if the three of you hug me at once, I’ll drown! *Gurgle gurgle gurgle*”
“Kyaaah, Kent, hold on!”
“Mmm, I’m drowning. I’ll give you artificial respiration.”
“Hmph, both of you are exaggerating. You’re not going to die from this! … A-are you okay?”
Fuuko and Hanako, driven by rivalry with Catherine, hugged Kent. When the three of them piled on him at once, Kent couldn’t support them and sank into the bathtub with bubbles rising.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“Kent, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“Mmm, I couldn’t do artificial respiration.”
“Phew, that’s good. The two of you, b-be careful!”
Kent immediately moved and surfaced, having only been underwater for a short time and not in mortal danger. Catherine apologized profusely, Hanako looked disappointed that she couldn’t perform artificial respiration, and Fuuko looked relieved.
*Rumble rumble rumble*
“Mmm, I’m hungry.”
“I forgot I was starving!”
With their relief, loud noises came from Hanako and Fuuko’s stomachs.
“Did you work without eating anything?”
“Mmm, we get hungry, but we don’t die if we don’t eat.”
“That’s right. But it was tough being forced to fill the holes on an empty stomach. Give me offerings!”
“There are a lot of breads that didn’t turn out well at the shop, so you can eat as much as you like after you get out of the bath.”
Hanako and Fuuko seemed to have worked without eating anything while they were away, and they complained of hunger. Fortunately, there were a large number of failed loaves of bread at the shop, so Kent told them they could eat as much as they wanted after leaving the bath.
