This Is Treatment by Means of Bathing, Continued

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/35/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Hafuu~… I’m coming back to life~…”

I let it slip as I soaked in the tub, stretching my arms and legs freely.
No, really, I had completely forgotten, but stretching out and soaking in hot water feels good.
It feels as if the blood flow through the whole body improves and various things are washed along.

After that I had washed everyone’s backs as asked.
At the end, then what about my back somehow became a problem, and a scramble was held among Kira and Gerda and Nora.
In the end Dorothea washed it… I do not remember why it came to that.

At any rate, I had safely, peacefully obtained the peace of soaking in the tub.

“Yes. Soaking in a spacious tub like this is a good thing as well.”

Of course the Demon King was soaking in the same tub.
…She really does float in the water, I see. No, I don’t know what I mean.

With the Demon King in the same tub, everyone else was soaking in the same tub as well.
With washed hair gathered in towels, it felt somehow fresh, different from usual.
And… a splendid sight. No, I don’t know what I mean.

Tasting paradise in a double sense, I looked up at the sky.
Yes. This tub was open-air. There was an indoor one as well, but now we were all enjoying the open-air bath.
In this town, where besides monsters there were basically only women, there was not that much need to be wary of peeping.
Of course there was a proper wall.
And of course there were no high buildings around, so the sense of openness was more than a Japanese super sento.
That felt good.

“Fuaa~… it’s warming…”
“Yes. That, somehow, feels good.”

Gerda answered Kira’s murmur.
Incidentally, Kira to my left, Gerda to my right.
I was being sandwiched, for some reason. Why.

“And this lemon smells nice.”

Nora had a lemon in her hand, looking at it in a way that felt like observation.
In the hot water flowing into this bath I had put the sodium hypochlorite from before, for disinfection.
Because the water would be kept warm a long time I had put it in a little strong, and as expected the smell was a bit noticeable.
So to mask that, and… I had a feeling it would be good for the skin, somehow, I had put in several lemons.
Eventually I might make bath additives with essential oils and such.

“Hmh. It is a true pity Grace could not come.”
“Is Lady Grace busy today as well?”
“Yes. There is a class at the school today. She is there.
It is she, of all people, I would have take it slowly like this.”

Fuu, the Demon King sighed.
People learned enough to teach letters were, as a rule, in reasonably important work.
In this country short of hands, not being able to turn people who can teach toward education was one of the worries of the moment.
They were sent as sacrifices to begin with; the great majority were fair of face and low of station—that is, with little cultivation or learning.
I am sorry, but I, one of the few exceptions, have work as an apothecary and cannot help.

But indeed, I wanted there to be time when body and heart could rest.

“Ah, then, why not make a bath at the castle as well?
A small one, wide enough for the two of you to enter at leisure.”
“Ho hoh? For two, is it. I had not thought of that.”
“Ah, that’s good. We’d be glad to do it as well?”

The Demon King bit at my suggestion, and Nora was eager as well.
But suddenly the Demon King’s face turned thoughtful.

“No. I am glad you would say so.
But first after it has spread to the whole; I will not mix public and private.
And more than anything, Grace would not be pleased.”

Ho hoh.

“She says so, Nora.”
“I see. If that’s how it is, we’ll have to make them at full power, full open.”

Ah, she’s motivated. Extremely motivated.
Well, of course. Told a thing like that, there is no way you would not be motivated.
At our reaction the Demon King showed a rarely troubled face.

“The feeling is welcome, but safety and soundness first, you understand?
You are not to force yourselves, by any means.”
“Yes, of course. We’ll finish without a single injury.
We can hardly increase Doctor Asha’s work, either.”
“No, more than my work, please, really, do it safely?”
“I know, I know.”

She was nodding, yes, yes, but did she really know?

 

Well.
The next day, when Nora told this talk at the site, everyone rose to it, and they shortened an already fast schedule further, and built the planned number of public baths with no accidents and no injuries among them all.
This, well, I thought could not be helped.

After various such things, thoroughly warmed, we got out of the bath.
Before returning to the changing room we wiped our bodies roughly with the towels we had, then went to the changing room.
We wiped our bodies thoroughly with bath towels, put on simple clothes like bathrobes, and went on wiping our hair.

“Like this, first you cover the whole head with a towel, and have it take the water with a light rubbing with the pads of the fingers, or a gentle pressing of the towel.”
“Hmh. I see.”

Behind the Demon King, who nodded, magnanimous, as she listened, Dorothea was already wiping hair with the strength I had said.
As expected of a capable secretary; she already understood that this work must not be done papa-tto.

“And when you’ve finished wiping, you have the hair itself take the water by tapping it lightly with the towel like this.”
“This is… quite a lot of work…”

As she said it, Kira went pon pon with unused hands.
Yes~ Kira has long hair too, so it’s a lot of work.
Or rather, everyone here has long hair.
Nasti and Elma have theirs cut around the shoulders, though.

“When the water is mostly gone, you dry it with this dryer, and you’re done.
Ah, be careful not to overdry.”
“I see. This is also something you asked Nora for the other day?”
“That’s right. I thought, why go to the trouble just to dry hair, but here it makes sense.
If you don’t dry it quick, it gets in the way after.”
“Yes~. And it becomes a source of catching a chill, and catching a cold from that would be a problem.
Also, drying it quick makes the hair nicer.”

Gerda stared at the dryer intently.
This, too, was something made with a flame stone and another magic stone, a wind-crying stone, that put out hot wind like a dryer.
As expected of trusted, proven dwarf quality: handling the same as a dryer I knew, or better.
The magic consumption seemed a little large, though… that part was the same as the dryers over there as well.

“Then, Your Majesty, I shall see to your hair.”
“Yes. I leave it to you.”

Suddenly I looked toward the voice.
Dorothea was running a comb through the Demon King’s hair and applying scented oil.
…And Dorothea’s hair was still wet.

“Dorothea, it’s not good to leave it wet, so I’ll wipe it for you.”
“Eh? Eh, yes, I do not mind, but…”
“Hmh. It is well. You are always run ragged looking after me; let yourself be looked after now and then.
Come, I am quite enough already.”

I had thought to wipe while she was seeing to the Demon King’s hair, but the Demon King had been considerate.
So I took her at her word, had Dorothea sit, and wiped her hair quickly, but carefully.
Dorothea sitting neatly on the chair, looking somehow uncomfortable, was quite cute.
Was this what they call gap moe?
She is usually a sharp, put-together person, so this reaction was fresh.

“Nice… I want it done too.”
“Ah, do you? Then I’ll do it for you next time.”

When I said that to Kira’s envious voice, she nodded hard, looking happy.
Lately Kira had started clinging like this now and then.
I thought that itself was a good thing, and I wanted her to show herself little by little.

While we were at that, I finished drying Dorothea’s hair as well. Then, let’s see.

“And from here is optional, but if possible… you apply this to the skin, tapping lightly, pon pon, or spread this thinly on top of that.”

What I took out as I said it was lotion.
In fact, that I had made the soap by the kettle-boiled method rather than the cold-process method often used in handmade soap was partly for this.

After making soap, a trihydric higher alcohol, glycerin, is produced.
It is something often used as a material in homemade lotion.
It has a moisturizing effect, and is effective for giving the skin moisture.
I applied the lotion made by thinning this glycerin with water and adding herbs and such.

And the other was a moisturizing cream.
This I had made by mixing beeswax and olive oil and emulsifying them, adding a little glycerin as well, and thinning with water.
You coat skin moistened by the lotion and raise the moisturizing effect.

“Wah… my cheeks go puni puni.”
“Indeed, this is clearly different.”

Kira was checking the condition of her skin, looking a little happy; Gerda, looking convinced.
Hmm, perhaps because their skin was in order, their pretty-girl-ness and beauty-ness had gone up further!
Just looking makes my cheeks loosen… no, no.

“I see… by bathing in numbers like this, various exchanges are born as well.”
“As expected of your insight. There is even a phrase, ‘naked association.'”

In fact, doing this, I felt I had grown closer not only to Kira and Gerda but to Dorothea, with whom I did not usually have much exchange.
Did a little sense of the extraordinary promote exchange? I thought.

“After that, once the sweat has settled you change, rest a little in the rest room, and go home: that is the basic flow.”
“Yes. I have confirmed that this facility is a truly meaningful thing.
I look forward to it spreading.”

So saying, the Demon King smiled, looking satisfied.

She had been too satisfied, and later she would start showing her face now and then, incognito, at bathing facilities here and there in town.
But Dorothea was with her, and her overflowing aura did not hide at all, so she was completely found out, they say.