"Hey Anthousai!"

Orphne called out to a fairy with beige wings.

After the talk with the elder finished, I continued to enjoy the feast as the fairies grew progressively more drunk of that mead-like drink they were having, and eventually the party ended with most of the participants knocked out cold. Most, because I couldn't get drunk if I couldn't drink liqueur in the first place.

Standing around in the aftermath felt weird, like being the lone survivor of some great disaster. I was surrounded by still bodies and all sorts of trash scattered about.

The fact that some of the bodies simply floated around despite being unconscious was a little surreal though. It seemed like floating really was a zero effort thing for these creatures, though most of them drifted to whatever surface they ended up landing on.

As there really wasn't much for me to do, I spent the night cleaning things up and playing with the spirits who also were unable to enjoy the act of getting drunk like myself. The ground was covered with sparkling dust, but I left that alone. I had no idea what to do with it in the first place.

I enjoyed a meal of charge boar blood myself, though I was starting to crave drinking the blood of something strong.

When morning came, things moved slowly as I helped nurse everyone as they dealt with their hangovers. As much as I missed getting drunk, not being able to get hangovers was a nice trade off, though that was literally only because I couldn't drink in the first place.

It was around noon when Orphne had recovered enough to be able to do as Aurae had asked her.

And thus, we had arrived at the home of a fairy tailor.

Calling it a home though was probably pretty generous. What I had found was a collection of sticks and branches interwoven and secured at the base of a large tree branch. Large leaves were suspended over the simple platform with more leaves forming simplified walls over what I presumed was some sort of frame made of more sticks.

Compared to everything else aside from the elders' home, the house was quite large, though the reason became quite apparent at a glance. There were an assortment of random things poking out through the gaps of the leaves. From coloured leaves to stalks of various fibres, the place looked more like a temporary warehouse than someone's home.

And a lone fairy came out of that warehouse's entrance after being called by Orphne.

Despite how plain her wings were, she was wearing a dark red and blue flowing dress that resembled diagonally interwoven ribbons in the shape of a one-piece that extended far past her feet. In fact, the skirt alone was as long as Orphne was tall. Her sleeves were also quite wide, as they drooped down past her wrists despite their total length being quite normal.

"Ooh, Orphne! You finally gonna get a new dress? How about one shaped like a lotus flower?"

"Erk, no, I'm fine. The one who needs new cloths is this one!"

"Ooh! You're the one who made those tasty treats, yes?"

"Umm, yea."

Anthousai rushed up so close I went cross-eyed just to look at her.

As always, these fairies didn't understand the concept of personal space. Or common sense. Then again, I probably didn't have any common sense according to the people of this world, so I wasn't really one to say much on that point.

"Ooh! Then in commemoration, how about a dress in the shape of that wonderful flan!"

"Please no."

I thought this was supposed to be compensation or a reward or something. Not a punishment.

"I just want a new robe. Preferably something similar, black, and thick enough to block the sun's rays. If you can make it tough enough to resist light magic too, then I'd appreciate it."

"Ooh! So you want protection as well? That'll be easy! But you sure you want something boring like that? I think a flan would look great. Or how about a lily of the valley?"

"Just something simple. Please."

Something like that would just be too embarrassing to wear, ruining the whole point of getting new clothes.

"Oh, I do have some material you can use as well if it'll help. Here."

I pulled out a few bolts of spider silk I had gathered in the dungeon so long ago.

"Ooh! Hunter spider silk? Very strong! Very light! Very stretchy! It'll make good armour!"

That sounded pretty good. Though I hadn't really realized that it was stretchy as well. I tried pulling a bit on my sleeve, but couldn't really tell very well.

Chances were, I was just bad at spinning or weaving or whatever.

"Umm, and if you can, could you make me some underwear as well?"

In my three years of this new life, I couldn't say that I had a single decent set of underwear even once, and if this fairy was actually a really good tailor, I wanted to get all the basics, even if it took a bit of time and resources.

"Ooh, I can do that! With the hunter spider silk too?"

"Umm, yea. It'll be really soft on the skin and stretch out well, right?"

"Ooh, yea! It will!"

"In that case..."

Since the opportunity was there, I went and took full advantage of it by first describing the sort of underwear I wanted, then went and drew some rough sketches on a piece of bark. It took a bit of time and I was a bit vague on the details, as it wasn't like I've ever owned or even touched a proper set of women's underwear before, but it seemed like she got the idea.

I was glad that she seemed to understand. It would be nice to finally get a proper bra rather than letting my chest go free as a bird or pent them up with a chest wrap. Something unrestrictive yet would contain this large bust of mine would be really nice.

"Ooh, that's interesting. But if they're skintight, I need to take some measurements."

"Umm, sure. What do I need to do?"

"Ooh! Just stay still!"

And before I could say anything, the eager fairy dove below me and entered the bottom of my robes.

"Wah?!"

She quickly made her way up to my hips and started to touch around.

"Ooh. This is in the way!"

Suddenly there was a quick jerk and the sound of a soft ruffle reached my ears from below.

Looking down, I saw my pants just laying there on the ground far below us.

"Wait! Wha...? Hya?! No, wait! Stop!"

Suddenly something warm and soft started touching all around my hips and thighs. I so desperately wanted to swat at the tickling sensations, but the though that I could seriously injure or kill this fairy prevented me from taking any real actions.

"Ooh! So soft! So smooth! So bouncy!"

I couldn't help but wonder if this weird creature had forgotten what she intruded into my clothes for in the first place.

Finally she finished all her weird touching and moved further up, climbing up my belly like some sort of worm. This time, she didn't bother removing anything and simply wiggled her way around my upper body.

"Ooh! This is so soft too! So bouncy! Really bouncy!"

(Why do you need to go in between my tits in the first place?!)

I really wanted to retort, but at the same time I wasn't sure if this was really necessary or not. It wasn't like I had ever been fitted for a bra before, and this time it was being made from scratch for what was possibly the first in this world.

(No, a lot of this is probably far from necessary.)

It was obvious she was at least half playing around. Even still, all this touching didn't fail to make my face feel like a boiled octopus.

Eventually, though not nearly quickly enough, the beige winged fairy squeezed her way out from the neck of my robes and exploded out with a small puff of shimmering dust. When I pulled my neck out and looked down, I could see that same dust covering my chest.

I hoped that it would wash off.

"Is that everything then? Can I go?"

"Ooh yea. Come back later!"

Anthousai enthusiastically waved me off before carrying the bolts of spider silk back to her home.

"Wow! You're smooth like us! Not hairy like those humans!"

"Wah?!"

I jammed both hands in between my legs before closing them tight, yet I had a strong suspicion that this pose wasn't actually that helpful. I didn't think it was possible, but my face grew even hotter than before.

Unwilling to risk any more, I slowly drifted back down to the ground before I put my pants back on the best I could without further exposing myself.

"Lemme see the top too!"

Orphne dove down towards my neck, but I grabbed her leg before she could get inside.

"That's enough! You don't need to grope me too!"

"That's unfair! You let Anthousai look and touch!"

"That's because she needed to measure me. You don't need to!"

"Fine!"

The fairy pouted with her cheeks puffed out, but I was glad she at least stopped trying anything further.

[What does she mean by hairy like a human?]

[Erk!]

[My daddy had a beard and his arms were hairy, but my mommy wasn't like that. You're a woman like mommy so of course you wouldn't be hairy.]

[Umm, yea.]

[But did that fairy think all humans are hairy?]

[I dunno. Maybe she didn't know many humans?]

[Maybe. Wait, but wouldn't she have known just by looking at your face? Women don't have beards so she should know that not all humans are hairy.]

[That's...]

[And she only said that when she looked at your legs. Do you know why?]

[Umm...]

It was embarrassing. Really embarrassing. I didn't know if it was normal for vampires or unique to me, but the fact that I was bald there was something I had deliberately tried to avoid thinking about. Or rather, I had a surprisingly little amount of bodily hair in general, like as if I was some sort of preteen.

Of course Alicia wouldn't understand, since she died before she could even start growing any.

It was probably stupid, but it didn't make the fact any less embarrassing for me.

[Maybe she was talking about leg hair? Human women normally have a bit of hair on their legs when they get older so maybe that was what she was talking about?]

[Really? But I don't think you have hair on your legs, right?]

[I don't, but that's because I'm not human.]

[I see.]

It seemed like I managed to convince Alicia.

Frankly speaking, it might not really be a subject that I needed to avoid for her. Or rather, there wasn't really any need for that, but it was still embarrassing to talk about. And if Alicia really did get reborn as a vampire, chances were that she'd have the same condition as I did.

Regardless, it was something that she didn't need to know yet, perhaps even ever.

 

"Aaah! It's good to be home!"

I reached for the ceiling as I stretched my body.

It wasn't like my body was feeling sore or anything, but it felt appropriate.

After talking with Orphne a bit more, I parted ways after promising to meet up again the next day and finally made my way home.

The little fluffballs refused to even get close to the dungeon entrance like usual, so I had to part with them unfortunately. It would be nice if most of them stayed in the area at least.

With Claret riding my shoulders like usual, I touched the fountain and teleported us to the 85th floor fountain room. The sight of my old furniture still standing there where I had left them already felt nostalgic and I quickly went and flung myself onto my bed, burying my face in the soft pillow.

*Cough cough!*

But rather than enjoying the warm softness, dust poofed up all around.

It hadn't been that long, but to have thought that so much dust would have accumulated in an unused room.

My mood was quickly fouled.

I needed to take a bath.

But there was no way I could enjoy that until everything was cleaned so I had some nice, clean furniture to relax on after my bath.

"Claret, can you get off for a bit?"

"Yes Master."

Disappointment dripped from her voice but the greater spirit obeyed immediately.

I quickly built up a large tub and filled it with water then grabbed the sheets and coverings from the bed and couch. They all were dropped into the tub along with my clothes, as I might as well wash all that at the same time.

My hand went into my bag, but I clicked my tongue when I remembered that I was out of soap.

It wasn't like there was some convenience store where I could buy more nearby or something, so I had no choice but to go without until I could make more.

With a sigh, I stuck my arms into the cold water and worked all the laundry before pulling them out one at a time and dried them before returning them to their place. My clothes were carefully placed on the bed.

Once I was done, I tossed the old water and refilled the tub with hot water and entered it.

Even without soap it was nice to soak in the hot water.

My body slowly slipped further and further into the tub and eventually even my head was submerged. I pulled my hair under with me before letting out a steady stream of bubbles and I watch them race to the surface and pop.

It didn't take long though, before empty lungs forced me to resurface again.

I ran my fingers through my hair as while leaning back against the wall of the tub.

So many things had happened since I last left this place.

I met so many people, seen so many places, did so many things.

There were also so many things for me to think about as well, and so many more things I had to do now that I knew what I knew.

But on top of that, there were still way more things I needed to learn as well.

(Maybe Aurae can tell me all the things I need to know about this world?)

The gratitude she had shown and the sincerity she showed in wanting to protect the fluffballs suggested that I could probably trust her. That the fairies in general were probably pretty trustworthy.

At least they probably wouldn't consciously betray that trust. Doing it by accident is probably quite different, but asking them about common knowledge couldn't bring any greater threats than what they already knew.

There was the possibility that I was being too trusting or even being deceived, but the fact that those fairies risked their lives to get to this Hourai Mountain for the sake of the fluffballs strongly suggested that they were trustworthy at least when it came to their desires and beliefs. And obviously those desires had protecting the fluffballs and enjoying themselves at the very top of their list.

(Maybe I should make flans and other treats for them a regular thing.)

If I ingratiated myself as something important to those fairies, the chances that they would actively try to protect my secrets and my interests would skyrocket.

It was something that would take a lot of time, a lot of quite valuable time I could be using to reviving Alicia and strengthening myself.

...

(But those fairies were so cute when they're eating their desserts.)

The fact that such a thing was even a factor was quite frivolous, but giving myself proper breaks was important as well. All work all the time would stress me out and lower my efficiency quite a bit.

It was definite then, I would put in the time to make them some treats here and there. Hopefully I could get their help in it though. Once the rest arrive, there was no way I could feed all of them on my own.

I might have just been justifying my decision, but I had no mind to go back on it.

And it would be helpful to have more allies. A fairy settlement would be great as an early warning system if some strange outsider would happen to show up out of nowhere.

I just hoped that anyone after me would at least chase after the fairies that ran.

For that matter, it was important to make sure that they knew that I was targeted and for them to avoid fighting them. The elder was probably pretty strong, but anyone sent after me after Sarah would likely be much stronger than her.

There was a lot of things I needed to talk about.

(Maybe I should prepare something for when we meet tomorrow?)

Yesterday was flan. The fairies seemed to really like it, and it probably wasn't just the fact that it was sweet.

So something bouncy would probably be good.

(Maybe something jelly like?)

Pectin could be easily derived from apples, so it was a possibility. Alternatively, if I wanted to avoid the apple flavour, I could make gelatin from fresh animal skins. If I remembered right, it was mostly made from collagen. That was the same thing as the supposedly active ingredient in those so-called health bone broths as well.

My gaze drifted down and was filled with a pair of large orbs floating in front of my face.

(...)

And it was supposed to be the thing that maintained the shape of those things as well.

But collagen was broken up in the stomach into its base material, which just amino acids. The same thing that happened to any protein source that was eaten if I remembered right.

It did make me wonder where I was getting all of my protein though. Blood probably wasn't a good source of it, though I had no specific knowledge on that front so I wasn't 100% sure. Then again, even if blood was a poor source of protein, it was possible that vampire bodies were just really efficient with its protein usage.

But that would spark the question with other nutrients as well then. Things like various vitamins and minerals. But at the same time, I might have just been wrong, and blood was actually a great source of pretty much every nutrient. All nutrients had to pass through the blood stream to reach where they were needed in the first place. So while it was possible that the amount of nutrients in the blood stream at any one time might not have been a lot, it could have just been enough.

(...Theorizing the sciences with virtually no way to confirm anything is stupid.)

It was only after I had wasted so much time thinking about such things that I realized my mistake.

There were likely no tools in this world that could examine what I was theorizing, and hence no way to even approach discovering if what I came up with was the truth or not.

And yet, it wasn't like I could help it, so I could only sigh and do my best to turn my thoughts elsewhere.

My gaze rose up to the ceiling as my eyes half closed. I sunk a little deeper into the makeshift bath tub to completely submerge my shoulders and my head ended up rolling to the side.

The figure of Claret idly floating nearby filled my sight. She was staring at me, but her expression suggested she was bored.

Now that I thought about it, I had bathed in front of my familiar quite a few times, but never once did she join me.

It didn't do that my own familiar never bothered to enjoy a proper bath.

(Well, it's not really proper since there's no soap, but oh well.)

"Why don't you join me Claret?"

"Join you?"

"Yea. Let's have a bath together."

The spirit floated over and looked down at the steaming water.

"What's the point of a bath anyways, Master?"

(So we're starting there?)

"A bath is something you take to get rid of any dirt and sweat from your body."

"But I'm a spirit. Dirt just passes through my body and I can't sweat just like you. You go through all this effort just to get rid of dirt?"

Her head tilted to the side.

"It's also pretty relaxing. It feels nice to warm up your body with hot water. Why don't you [Materialize] and try it yourself? There's enough room for the both of us."

Claret looked down again at the water before looking at me again.

"Is that alright, Master?"

"I just said it was."

"Okay."

The dark spirit activated her skill and lifted her body above the lip of the tub.

"Wait!"

She froze while looking at me.

"You need to take your clothes off first."

"Alright Master."

She looked down at her sleeve before giving a small nod.

Next thing I knew, her outfit faded as if it was being dissolved, and only when it was completely gone did she finish her motion and entered the tub. The water rippled as the level rose and some of it spilled over the edge.

My eyes were glued on my bathing partner.

Claret had probably seen me nude countless times already thanks to my bathing habits, but it took me a moment to realize this was the first time I had seen her body under those clothes.

The dark spirit sitting across from me had quite the respectable figure. Her white skin was free of any blemishes, her limbs were thin yet her muscles were clearly defined even if they weren't particularly big. Her assets, both above and below, were definitely respectable. A bit more than just respectable.

It was a little sad I had never noticed that due to her loose fitting robes.

(Just how much do I really know about her?)

Claret wasn't really one to talk about herself, unless if it was important as part of her stories about her previous master. But the fact that I didn't really know how she looked below the head didn't sit well with me.

Especially as we basically lived together.

Especially as she was family.

But there was one thing I had learned which gave me a strange amount of relief: she was as bald as a cue ball.

"So how is it?"

"It's warm?"

I frowned at her response.

It might have been because she had never really gotten a chance to get used to taking baths. Or maybe the lack of soap was a big problem, as just hot water wouldn't be enough to make her feel clean and pretty.

But I had another way to make her enjoy this bath.

"Okay then. Come here."

I sat up and gestured with both hands stretched out.

Her face lit up like a hundred watt light bulb and she dove into my chest. The water splashed around and a part of my mind worried that the newly cleaned furs might have gotten wet again.

Claret pressed her face against my collar bone as she gave her entire self to me. I wrapped one hand around the small of her back to keep her steady and the other lightly splashed some water on her head before I lightly combed her wet hair with my fingers.

"How about you Alicia? You enjoying this bath?"

[Mmmm...]

(If she was still human, she'd have fallen asleep by this point, I guess.)

Not forgetting to maintain the water's temperature, I closed my eyes and enjoyed my bath together with my family.