Quickly reaching the showers which were thankfully only down the hall, although I would have preferred for them to have been connected to the changing rooms, I began making my way to one of the unoccupied showers further down the room, since I didn’t want to be so close to the entrance where there were quite a few people around. 

 

As I began making my way, Ailya quickly came up to me with a pitter-patter as she looked up at me with her adorable eyes and shily asked:

 

“Ummm, is it okay if we shower together? I used to always take my showers with my mom but…”

 

Seeing Ailya’s usually cheery face become slightly dejected as she went further on with her sentence, all I could think about was what kind of heartless monster would ever deny such an adorable creature any request she made.

 

Putting my hand on her head and patting it, I looked Ailya in the eyes as I let out a gentle smile and said:

 

“Of course you can, Ailya. We’ll take all our showers together if that’s what you want.”

 

At my response, Ailya’s face immediately brightened as a large smile appeared on her face and she released a cute “Nn” before grabbing my hand as the two of us began making our way down to an open shower.

 

No more than a few seconds later, Charlotte came from behind us as she said:

 

“Awww~ How adorable~ Can I also take a shower with you two?”

 

Putting on a cute pleading expression that was obviously fake, Charlotte looked at the two of us as both Ailya and I stared back at her with annoyed expressions. Seeing our faces, Charlotte released a “Ehhh” before saying:

 

“What, you two don’t want to take a shower with me? Or could it be… You don’t want someone to intrude on your alone time! Ho, I see how it is~ Alice is quite young, don’t you think Alex? Aren’t you taking advantage of her? You’re quite something, you know? Ehehehehe~”

 

While Charlotte was clearly trying to tease us, neither Ailya nor I showed any reaction to her words as our contenances showed even more signs of being annoyed. Ignoring the mage’s expression that was souring after seeing her attack being ineffective, I told Charlotte:

 

“It’d be way too cramped to have all three of us in the same shower. Plus, I don’t really feel comfortable showering with someone I don’t know, or actually, anyone at all. Alice is an exception, so I’d prefer for it to just be the two of us.”

 

Seeing me give back such a serious expression, Charlotte pouted as she stuck out her lips and said:

 

“What, have you never been naked in front of anyone before? Not even another girl?”

 

“Aside from my parents, No.”

 

“Tch. Fiiiine, go take your stupid shower by yourselves”

 

With that, Charlotte made her way to one of the nearby open showers before closing the curtain with a bit more strength than needed. Seeing this, I released a sigh before heading down and entering my own shower with Ailya who was still holding my hand.

 

Once we were inside the shower and we closed the curtain, the two of us looked at each other as we both put on awkward smiles and chuckled at nothing in particular as we were finally alone once again. 

 

Grabbing Alice’s shoulder, I turned her around as I told her:

 

“Come on, I’ll wash you.”

 

Looking at the showerhead in front of me, I was once again in absolute amazement at the technology of the world we were in. Deciding to try and understand how they made this, I used [Veritas] to look into the mechanism behind this and immediately noticed that there was a set of three magic cores being used to provide both hot and cold water.

 

Pushing in the lever, since that was what activated the formation surrounding the magic cores, I moved both Ailya and myself away from the range of the water before turning to lever to turn on the water and adjusting it to a slightly cold and refreshing temperature. Once this was done, both me and Ailya got in in order to get wet before we could begin to wash ourselves.

 

Once we were wet, I took one of the bottles of shampoo and put in on Ailya’s hair before beginning to scrub her in a thorough manner. In response, Ailya simply closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling as she began to happily hum a tune. As I enjoyed the rather therapeutic feeling that was washing Ailya’s hair.

 

Deciding to find out what tune she was humming, despite the fact that I knew nothing of the songs or melodies of this world, I asked Ailya:

 

“What are you humming?”

 

“Mhmm mm, Hmm? Ah, it’s a tune my mother used to hum to me whenever she held me.”

 

“Is that so? It’s a lovely tune Ailya”

 

“Nn, it is!”

 

Once, I had finished thoroughly scrubbing her hair, I moved her to where the water was falling and rinsed her hair. Once this was finished, AIlya opened her eyes again and looked at me with imploring eyes that told me that she wanted to also help me in return, but was unable to do so due to a clear issue. Smiling at her, I told her:

 

“Why don’t you help wash my back later.”

 

At my words, a smile appeared on her face as she nodded in affirmation of my suggestion. With that, I took one of the bars of soap and had Ailya spread her arms wide as I began to pass the bar throughout her entire upper body. While I was passing the bar through her sides, Ailya released a giggle that caught my attention as I asked her:

 

“Are you ticklish here?”

 

“Nn, a bit~”

 

Feeling a little playful, I hugged Ailya and began to tickle her sides as Ailya tried to free herself from my grasp. She was unable to however, as she had lost a great deal of her strength due to my tickling. With her laughing in my arms, I felt myself become more emboldened as I continued to tickle the little elf in my arms who was beginning to form a few tears in her eyes as she looked at me with a pleading expression. Deciding that it was enough, I was about to release her when-

 

“Oh my, so this IS why you didn’t want me to be here. Seems like you’re one of those, how dangerous~”

 

Doing a quick 180 to look at Charlotte who had stuck half her body through the curtain, I felt my face redden as I stared at her with wide eyes. Before I could say anything however, Charlotte began to cover her body at my gaze as she said:

 

“Should I be worried about what you’ll do to me?”

 

With those words, I felt my embarrassment subside as a feeling of annoyance once again permeated through my body as I curtly replied:

 

“No.”

 

“Ohhhh~ Am I too old for you?”

 

Seeing the smug smile on Charlotte’s face, I reprimanded myself in my mind for stupidly walking into that one as I released a sigh before tiredly asking:

 

“Why are you here?”

 

“Hmm? Because I’m already done showering, see~”

 

Looking at Charlotte, I saw that her hair was put up in a bun and was dry as opposed to the rest of her body which was still wet. Wondering about something, I decided to ask her:

 

“Did you only dry your hair?”

 

“I never washed it. Kept it dry with magic.”

 

“…” 

 

Hearing her answer, I thought that I really needed to learn the all-purpose magic that she so casually employed every once in a while.

 

After this, Charlotte fully entered our shower as a bad premonition came over me. With her approaching us, I quickly asked her:

 

“Wait, why are you coming in here for?!”

 

“Since you two are clearly nowhere near finished, I came to help you two out. As well as have a nice little chat with the two of you, a nice chat between girls, ehehehe~”