Chapter 32
“Couples-only?”
I couldn't help repeating the receptionist's words because of how suggestive they sounded.
The phrase “couples-only” carried a suggestive feeling no matter where it was used, so they had put it on a bathhouse?
“Yes! It's a new bathing option that Sargadis Public Bathhouse has just launched!”
The receptionist's eyes gleamed as she spoke, like a middle-aged fishing nut reeling in a bite.
“The construction was finally completed after the unfortunate incident last time! It's a separate, isolated bath where couples can wash together!”
What unfortunate incident was she talking about? I hadn't heard anything in particular.
No, whatever the incident was, the fact that she said construction had been completed meant it must have been quite an affair, serious enough to require remodeling. In that case, it might have happened before I came to Sargadis.
Even if they had repaired it with magic, it must have taken several days just to find a mage. They probably hadn't used teleportation, either.
“The fee is 3 coopers for the two of you together! Ah! Don't think it's expensive, okay? You can use it for up to three hours, and there are light fruits and drinks prepared inside, so it's actually rather cheap! The fee might even go up later!”
“Th-three coopers?”
Frang said that while trying to hide her surprise. Since one cooper was enough for three visits to the public bathhouse, the couples-only bath charged nine times as much as a regular bath.
“But three hours? Is there anyone who spends that long washing?”
“You don't think people are only going to wash, do you?”
“…………Ah.”
When I said that to Frang, who had been puzzled, she realized the truth belatedly, just as she had at the inn.
─Scurry.
This time, she fled all the way behind me. Was it because my back was broad? People kept trying to hide behind me.
“Hehe. So, what do you think? I got a quick look around inside before it was completed, and it really was like a bathhouse for nobles! Ah, the tub isn't all that huge, but it can fit four fully grown adults! It's more than enough for two couples to relax in!”
It was a rapid-fire explanation. The merchants around here really were superior versions of subway peddlers.
“…You said 3 coopers?”
“Yes, sir!”
When I showed interest, the two women reacted in opposite ways. Frang was startled and stammered in a small voice.
“N-Nord?! If you want to, I'm always willing, Nord… But I have work today, remember? No matter how sturdy I am, after doing it with you, my back goes weak, so….”
“It's not that. I just have something to say for a moment.”
“Something to say…?”
“Yeah. You and I both passed out last night, so we couldn't have a proper conversation, remember?”
Pillow talk was just as important as the main event. We hadn't had any last night because I had been unable to control my desire and Frang had passed out. So I intended to have it today, at least.
And besides that reason─
“…Frang, you need to wash away the traces left on your body, too. In a situation like that, it's better if no one is watching, right?”
─Wasn't this the perfect place to cleanly wash away the intense traces of last night?
“…Yeah. That's true. Thanks for thinking of me, Nord.”
Frang nodded, apparently understanding what I meant. Her face was still embarrassed, though.
“Hehe. It's nothing.”
We reached an agreement and decided to use the couples-only bath.
“Here are 3 coopers.”
“Ah! Nord! Since I said earlier that I would pay for your bath, I'll pay 2 coopers too!”
“I'll take it from you later. Later.”
A true macho man was supposed to show off financially in front of a woman.
I was a man who dreamed of a harem, the ultimate perfected form of male chauvinism. Even if I didn't treat women harshly as a macho man, it was only right to return the favor by providing for a partner who loved me.
I didn't know whether Frang intended to become my wife in the future, but she had entered into a relationship with me knowing that I was the kind of man who wanted to take several wives. I didn't want to save a few coins when it came to her.
Honestly, fuck, if I couldn't even do this, wouldn't I just be a kept man? If I depended on my wife for my financial ability too, I would be no different from a living dildo. A Flash Dildo Golem.
“Here is the bathroom key.”
The receptionist handed us a key attached to a wooden tag. The bath number was marked on the tag.
“Thank you. Ah, but I didn't bring any towels today. Can I buy some with a bath pass?”
“Oh my, of course.”
“I'll pay for the towels too!”
This time, I owed Frang one. Buying a one-cooper pass just to purchase towels would have been a hassle.
I could simply not take the 2 coopers from her later. With that, we took the key the receptionist had given us and went to the bath.
─Gush-gush-gush-gush.
“It's spacious!”
Frang shouted in surprise when she saw the inside of the bath.
As she said, the bath was larger than I had expected. It was almost as large as a motel room. Only the tub was fairly small. Since all the customers would probably have sex in there, that size was likely the most cost-effective for changing the water every time.
“Nord! Look! There are apples and grapes, and even wine!”
Frang's spirits rose when she saw the table beside the tub. A bowl of fruit and a glass of wine had been placed on the table and covered with a white cloth.
“Indeed. The receptionist wasn't wrong to say it had an air of luxury.”
There was no exaggeration in calling it a noble's bath. But I had a feeling that the price would rise later, or the service would become shoddy. It felt like a newly opened business putting a great deal of effort into its operation at first.
“Amazing. But why did they deliberately make a bath like this?”
Frang said that while touching the table. Even at a glance, the table looked fairly cheap. It was an inexpensive model that could simply be replaced if it started growing mold after rough use.
“Because it wasn't profitable.”
“Is that so?”
“Probably. I heard that in some regions, bathhouse maintenance costs exceed their income, so they only open in the evening.”
During the day, customers were busy working, so there was no profit, while at night, the maintenance costs of candles and such were added. If they cut candle costs by leaving the ceiling open like an open-air bath, peeping toms appeared instead. A miraculous vicious cycle.
“She said they had completely redone it because of some incident earlier, right? Maybe they're trying to increase the number of people who'll use it during the day too.”
If even that failed, they would operate only at night. They were basically telling people to endure the day and come wash at night. They could even open up the ceiling and arrest the voyeuristic perverts and throw them in prison.
Besides that, I heard there were cases where they made up the losses with taxes, like medical insurance. I wondered how many lords actually put that into practice.
Even businessmen in democratic countries foamed at the mouth at the word welfare. In class-based Britannia, it wasn't even worth tiring my mouth over.
“People who can't afford to build a bathhouse at home like nobles do probably still have quite a few dreams of having a private bath like this. Wealthy merchants or Gold Class adventurers, for example.”
“Ah, that makes sense. Come to think of it, Nord is really good at talking─?!”
The end of her sentence turned out like that because Frang, who had turned around, saw me standing there naked.
“Hehe. Why are you surprised? You can't wash while wearing clothes in a bathhouse.”
I stood there proudly in the nude. Maybe it would have been different when we were complete strangers, but now that we had already seen everything there was to see, there was no reason to feel embarrassed about something like this.
“Th-that, that's right. Yeah. I was just startled for a moment.”
Perhaps it was a dwarf's instinct, or perhaps she had been so busy expressing interest in the bathhouse's interior that she had briefly forgotten what kind of place this was. After remembering that this was a place where men and women washed together naked, Frang moved stiffly, like a tin doll with rusted gears.
“…Are you going to watch me take off my clothes?”
“Should I close my eyes for a moment? We're going to wash together from now on, so it is a little strange to be embarrassed, but if you want me to, Frang.”
“No. You don't have to.”
Frang caught her breath and took off her clothes with a resolute expression. When she removed her top, a bra large enough to fit my entire face emerged. Next, she took off her pants and was left in her underwear.
─Jiggle.
When she took off the bra she wore to work, the movement of her liberated breasts was tremendous. Perhaps because the bra had compressed them to keep them from moving, watching their size expand was a great visual delight.
─Glance.
Frang, now wearing only her panties, folded her clothes and put them away before checking my reaction. Then she slowly took off her panties.
“…Ugh. I'm so embarrassed I feel like I'm going to die.”
Her two feet emerged from the underwear one after the other. Frang, now in her natural state, came in front of me. Her small hands struggled to cover her important parts, then slowly lowered.
─Slide.
It sprang upright.
“Hiee….”
Frang let out a strange groan when she saw my penis wake up in real time.
“D-do you want to do it after all? Nord's….”
Unable to bring herself to say the word penis, Frang stammered, shook her head vigorously, and said:
“Anyway, that thing looks like it's suffering quite a lot.”
“Let's do it later. If we start now, I don't think I could stop.”
“…After I come back from work?”
“Yeah. Let's do it as much as we want then.”
“…Yeah.”
Her voice was slightly breathless with anticipation.
─Splash.
That was how we began washing without a single article of clothing on. I ladled water out of the tub and poured it over my body as I said:
“Come here. I'll wash you.”
“Hehe…. It's much more embarrassing in the bright light than it was last night.”
Frang, now relatively accustomed to embarrassment, sat in front of me. I slowly poured water over her shoulders.
‘…But what do I do next?’
I had never washed someone else in my life, so I didn't know. Did I need to say something every time I poured water over her head? Was it really necessary for couples to wash each other in a couples bath?
“…Nord?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I don't know how I'm supposed to wash you.”
Frang looked at me quizzically. Seeing how lovely she looked as she gazed up at me from within my arms, I confessed without thinking.
“Aha. So it's because you've never washed anyone else before?”
Frang spoke as if she understood, then stood up from my arms.
“Then come over here. I'll teach you. I've never done it either, though, so I'll just do it the way my mother used to wash me.”
“Okay.”
I obediently switched positions. Even with our considerable height difference, once I sat down and Frang stood up, our heights were close enough for her to wash me.
─Squish.
And there was a bonus on the side, too. My face relaxed at the full, soft sensation brushing lightly against the top of my head.
“Nord. I'm going to pour water over you. Close your eyes.”
“Yeah.”
Splash─.
Frang's touch was delicate. She tilted the basin and kept pouring an appropriate amount of water over my head, thoroughly wetting my hair while smoothing it back with her hands.
They say lots of people like the feeling of having their hair washed at a salon. If Frang opened a salon, wouldn't people come to get their hair cut just to receive this massage? Her delicate hand movements felt wonderful.
“Don't open your eyes until I tell you, okay?”
Her voice practically radiated maternal affection. I closed my mouth so water wouldn't get in and only nodded.
After thoroughly wetting my hair, Frang shampooed it with the soap she had brought. The sensation of her small, delicate fingers moving across my scalp was heavenly.
Splash─.
“You can open your eyes now, Nord.”
She poured water over me several more times, cleanly washing away the soap. Since water was constantly supplied to the bath through pipes, the level in the tub didn't seem to decrease.
─Scrub-scrub-scrub.
After that, Frang soaped my back with something like a shower towel. She wasn't scrubbing away dead skin, but that only made it feel softer.
Squish. Squish.
Still, the sensation of her breasts brushing against me whenever she moved could definitely be called the main course. The feeling of something like a nipple touching near my shoulder blades made my already erect penis even harder.
“…Want me to wash the front too?”
“…I'd like you to, but I can't. If you touch me there too, my patience won't hold out.”
I scooped up water and roughly rinsed the soap from my back before turning around. This time, it was my turn to wash her.
“Don't get your hopes up. Compared to you and your mother, I'm just a human with poor hand skills.”
“Hehe. I'm happy just from Nord touching me.”
“No, I said don't tempt me.”
“I mean it.”
“How is that not temptation?”
What man in the world could hear a woman say she was happy at his touch and not react? I calmed the dick-anaconda pestering me to do it just once and washed Frang's hair the way she had washed mine.
─Sararack.
…What was this hair? I thought it was water gathered together in the shape of threads. It was unbelievably soft. Was human hair really allowed to feel this silky? Someone with hair as coarse as mine couldn't even have it classified as hair.
“Hehe. Doing this reminds me of old times.”
Frang said that with her eyes closed, enjoying herself.
“Thinking of your mother?”
“That's right. Even back then, while I kept my eyes shut like this, Mother would wash my hair. I was afraid of getting soap in my eyes, so I would pester her to finish quickly.”
“Oh my. I'll do my best to be as careful as possible, Miss Frang.”
“Pffhehe.”
After washing her hair completely, I moved on to her body.
─Slide.
“Ah….”
Frang moaned at the hand that slowly swept down from her shoulder. I soaped her arms and back, then moved my hand beneath her armpit.
“Ahahaha! I-it tickles.”
“We need to clean here too.”
“W-wait! Kyaahahahaha!”
I soaped her armpit and went straight to her breasts. It was as natural as eating rice and drinking soup.
“Ah…♥ Uuh.”
The soapy hand, its friction reduced, stroked her enormous breasts up and down. I carefully cleaned every place that needed it, from the undersides where sweat gathered easily to the cleavage and nipples.
Normally, wasn't it awkward to concentrate on washing areas like these yourself? Even among men, there probably weren't many who spent a long time diligently washing their glans or beneath their balls.
In that sense, leaving it to one's lover was a rather excellent alternative. After all, one could touch a beloved lover's naked body all day long.
─Erect.
The only drawback was that as a man's sexual desire escalated, his alter ego gained strength too. It was a natural law comparable to how the stronger the light, the stronger the darkness.
Marveling at the profundity of the human reproductive instinct, I lightly pinched Frang's nipple.
“Hngh….”
“Hngh….”