Chapter 44: Chapter 36: A Warm Shower and Meal, what could be better?

“La la la la la la la la la. ♫”

First a relaxing bath a few days ago and now a refreshing shower. The water droplets falling onto my face and skin felt so liberating, as if all the dirt and stress just washed away. And all of this at no risk of overusing our water supply. What could I say, but these past days have been the best of my life~

[“Take as much mana as you want, Tasianna,”] I said while washing my hair and horns, tapping my tail happily on the ground.

My new travel companion, Tasianna, was casting [Greater Create Water] right now to create a ball of water, allowing it to drizzle down on me like a shower. After I warmed it up with some fire, the shower was so similar to whatever you would use at a normal home. It was brilliant.

As Tasianna explained, fairies couldn’t accumulate arcane corruption, so it really didn’t matter how long she kept this spell up. This shower could last as long as I had mana for her. However, there was something else she brought to our party, something so important Saori jokingly told Tasianna how much she loved her. I did, too! And for What?

Shampoo.

Tasianna knew how to make shampoo using materials you could find in the forest. Apparently, her fairy village produced a lot of floral products to trade with whatever wares wandering elves would bring in. I couldn’t thank her enough for this.

The feeling of cleanliness as the aromatic, viscous liquid touched my hair, cleansing the dirt, grime, and unpleasantness away, restoring the silky touch my hair once had. It didn’t foam much, but the small bubbles it created was satisfying to my felt good to be squeaky clean, again. You only really valued the luxury of shampoo after going without it for six months.

[“Thank you very much, Princess Hestia,”] Tasianna gave an energetic answer, clearly expressing a sense of pride with how delighted I was about the shower.

It has been two days since we rescued Tasianna from the clutches of those trolls. After accepting Tasianna into the party, I immediately fell asleep from the fatigue of the day. Considering I was directly hit by the projectile of an artillery weapon and also tossed around like a play toy, I think merely falling asleep for a day was acceptable, right?

After I woke up from that one night, Saori decided to evolve as she had made up her mind for an evolution choice as I was sleeping. That gave me and Tasianna a good amount of time to talk about things.

At first, I was extremely apprehensive with Tasianna addressing me with “Princess Hestia.” It was the same reason I gave Saori, but while Saori only did it jokingly now, Tasianna was extremely inflexible in this as she was thought for nearly 60 years of serving the royal family to call princesses princesses.

While I was okay with playing along with Saori’s role-play — we even enacted a whole ball scene, where Saori learned [Royal Etiquette] and I learned she had rarely ever danced before — hearing it from Tasianna felt awkward. She spoke and addressed me as if I was a being far above her, placed on a pedestal, you could say.

I wanted this to be a friendship but Tasianna thought of herself as a servant, my retainer. It should have been obvious considering Tasianna was the maid and attendant of a royal family member for most of her life. She didn’t know better than to treat royalty with reverence and respect.

For her, addressing me without showing me the utmost devotion was not an option. I actually abused a bit of my “authority” to force her into doing it but that just caused more problems than it was worth.

She wouldn’t stop fidgeting around like a fly. Constantly asking, “Princ…H-Hestia, do you need me to do something?”, or, “No, I can do that for you. Please allow me to do that, Princ… Hestia!”. She just couldn’t stay still. She just couldn’t, and I felt bad.

That was when I had to choose what was less annoying. Being called “Princess Hestia” but having my new companion feel comfortable; or being casual with each other but having an annoying fly zoom around me.

At this point, it wasn’t worth arguing about it. I chose the former on the sole condition that she would slowly adapt to our party’s dynamic. The intention was to gradually have her become comfortable enough around me, so she would simply call me by my name. I had to look it through her perspective, and being patient was a good thing amongst friends. I wanted to become good friends with her, after all.

After that was settled, my wish came true and we actually got along pretty well from then on. Not only could she make shampoo but her tea was probably one of the best I ever tasted, like it was godly level. I was a tea and coffee girl, but she was making me love tea even more now.

On the other hand, cooking wasn’t her specialty though, as she was around the size of my palm. She never cooked for somebody my size before, and was mostly a vegetarian, and while I was okay with greens, I didn’t want them everyday. However, she made for a good cooking assistant, although she did tell me princesses weren’t expected to do menial task like cooking, and she would do everything for me if the circumstances weren’t so inconvenient for her.

I probably had to get used to the “princess” part eventually. I had to. It was very likely this would be common sense in this world, and I personally didn't want to enforce the values I learned on Earth to this new world. I didn’t know it yet, and all I knew about it came from Tasianna, and she only knew her village and the elven capital.

You are reading story A Dragon Idol’s Reincarnation Tale at novel35.com

This was my new life. I had decided to do my best to adapt to it once I reached civilization. I wanted to act more mature. That was why Tasianna’s behavior towards me was a good way for me to learn about cultures. If I wanted to make the idol culture part of this world, I needed to learn what people thought of such ideas first. I couldn’t become a full-fledged idol if nobody appreciated it.

Outside of this, I also had a talk with Tasianna about my title [The Light] and its corresponding title [Hestia’s Retainer]. From there, I learned Tasianna’s description sounded different from what I knew from Saori.

This was Saori’s.

<Hestia’s Retainer: A title given to a person that has sworn loyalty or fealty for a person with the title [The Light]. This title allows the owner to be aware of the other party’s condition, even when they are separated. This option can be disconnected by the other party’s choice. Grants the owner of this title certain benefits from the sworn person’s titles or skills. Received benefits include: Reduced SP cost for skill acquirement and improvement>

And this was Tasianna’s.

<Hestia’s Retainer: A title given to a person that has sworn loyalty or fealty for a person with the title [The Light]. This title allows the owner to be aware of the other party’s condition, even when they are separated. This option can be disconnected by the other party’s choice. Grants the owner of this title certain benefits from the sworn person’s titles or skills. Received benefits include: Access to the SP System, Reduced SP cost for skill acquirement and improvement, Skill proficiency increase during combat, Experience Increase>

It should’ve been obvious as my access to the SP System came from [Otherworldly Reincarnator], however, I didn’t expect to be able to share it with others. Tasianna had access to the SP system. It made me really wonder what this Aurena was planning to give me such a broken effect.

It was another reason for my headaches, but our party's potential just increased with this. It also meant I had to hide this fact from strangers. The SP System was powerful, game-breaking even. If we ever invited another member into the party then it should only be someone we could trust 200 percent.

After my shower, I dried myself off by using [Aerokinesis] and [Pyrokinesis] to create a hairdryer, or body dryer, and put back on the one-piece Saori made for me. Tasianna wanted to help me put my dress on but was too weak to actually help.

Being in high spirits from showering, I did a handspring and landed in front of Saori, who was cooking our breakfast. “Saori, asa gohan wa nan desu ka~?” (Saori, what’s for breakfast~?) I spoke in Japanese here.

While preparing what looks to be stew, Saori blinked a couple times in succession until she gave a sigh in exasperation. She then opened her own space storage and gave me two pieces of smallclothes, clearly a bra and panty.

“Please, put these on before doing anything flashy,” she said with a facepalm before returning back to cooking.

It took me a second to realize what she meant with this, but the realization was enough to make my head dizzy from the blood rushing up to my head. I quickly headed back to the impromptu shower to put on my underwear. Tasianna wanted to help me put them on, stating “I have to help Princess Hestia put her clothes on,” but was quickly caught and persuaded to stay by Saori. I could see her pout after she was once again denied a chance to “serve” me.

Sheesh, she doesn’t act her age at all…

As Tasianna said, fairies aged mentally very slowly, which I probably considered was due to hormones and why fairies were “mischievous,” as she called the majority of her race. The same was also the case with elves, who she described could act like brats even at the age of 100. For example, Tasianna might be 87-years-old, but from how she acted and looked, she seemed like an adolescent girl around 19.

[“… The stew smells wonderful, Madam Saori,”] Her energetic but small voice came over the impromptu shower’s walls.

[“Thank you, Miss Tasianna. I do hope the taste will be to your liking.”] A calmer voice could also be heard, clearly Saori’s, while I started undressing.

After the initial slow start, both of my companions seemed to have hit it off, vibrantly talking with each other about this world’s history. Saori was already interested in it during Tasianna’s story, but now that we had a Peolyncian inhabitant here with us, Saori wanted to milk Tasianna for info as soon as possible.

I felt a bit jealous. I wanted to be part of the conversation, too. My companions were enjoying each other’s company, while I was putting on underwear. Sadly, that was how it was. In the meantime, I used this chance to re-organize my thoughts on Saori recent evolution. I barely had any time to do so this morning.