Chapter 12: 1.12 Mandatory bath chapter

We had decided to call it a day and make our way to her home. It had not been one of the stone buildings that I had expected it to be. Instead, we made our way around the big tree that had a large entrance without any doors in place. On the other side, we had to take the road that was leading to the north exit of the village. It was only a few houses out of the center. 

We arrived at a huge stone building, possibly bigger than any of the other stone buildings in the center of the village. I wouldn't know I could not see this before from the forest overlooking the village, the tree had blocked the view. The door was a large two-part gate-style door that gave me castle vibes. It also had a small window that someone from the inside could see through after sliding it open. The doors were adorned by two large knockers in the shapes of metal rings that were set in an iron leaf.  

Velariah put down a bag and used one of the knockers to make our presence known.  

A few seconds later the slide in front of the window was slid open and a pair of eyes appeared.  

''Ah, lady Velariah, welcome home. How have you been? I heard some disturbing news earlier.'' 

''I'm fine Elly, please open both doors.''  

''Both doors but wh-''  

I saw her eyes move to me. 

''Oh.'' 

Wait, what? That was all? No shock? No gasp?  

She was a professional. 

The window was shut again and the large doors opened to allow us in. A young black-haired elf was standing at the side in a maid outfit. She didn't do the typical bow that I was expecting but I had the feeling Velariah would hate it if she did. She probably had learned not to bow for her a long time ago. 

Velariah picked up the bags again and put them down inside. 

The inside of the hallway was nothing special it was a square area with another large double door leading into the next area. Two smaller doors were located to the left and right of where we entered. The floor was made up of large square grey stones. The only notable thing about this hallway was the armor racks that were positioned right next to the double doors leading into the next door.  

There were four of those in total, two of them had a harness and two were empty.  

The maid that went by the name Elly helped Velariah out of her armor and put the pieces on the wooden stand. When they were done Velariah was standing there in leather boots, brown linen trousers, and a white shirt that matched her hair painstakingly well.  

She had a smile on her face as she stretched.  

''Ahh, that feels good.'' 

Yeah, I can imagine that. Chain vests and hardened leather weren't exactly the clothing you would see humans wear in the streets in my world. I had actually walked over to the stand to see how much the chain vest weighed that she wore for two days straight now.  

Yeah, that was heavy. How had she even managed to run so much in that? If she wasn't going to get at least gold rank I would call the system rigged.  

''I wouldn't know, never had to wear armor before,'' I said after I had put the chain vest back on the stand. 

''You don't wear armor back at your place?'' She said as she was stretching her arms and legs. 

I think she deliberately used ''your place'' instead of ''your world'' as to not confuse Elly who was still watching us. 

''Nobody does,'' I replied. 

''Odd.'' She had simply said as she moved over to the large double doors and threw them open.  

She walked back after putting her palm against her forehead. 

''I'm sorry for not introducing you two. Elly, this is Elania. Elania this is Elly. 

I took a hand out from under the red sheet and shook hers. 

''Nice to meet you.'' I greeted her. 

''Nice to meet you too, miss Elania.'' She replied politely.  

"Elly, do you mind taking these bags to the main bathroom?'' Velariah asked the maid. 

''Certainly, mistress,'' Elly replied as she took the bags and walked through the large doors.  

After that Velariah led me into the next room which was a lot more open. A long table was placed in the center on a red carpet with twelve chairs to the sides and one at the head, each chair had a leather seat, armrests, and a luxurious look. All those chairs actually made me wonder if it was purely for family or for formal meetings. How many members did she have in her family, anyway? So far, I had only met her father.  

In the far front was a burning fireplace with a chimney reaching up. To the right of the fireplace, about 2 meters out was another door, one I wouldn't fit through. Several more doors were located on the right wall of this room but I wouldn't have to bother with what was behind them. Maybe Velariah would be kind enough to tell me some day so I wouldn't be completely left in the dark. 

She took me to the left side of the room to a set of double doors to the left. Elly just walked out as we arrived. 

''One of the bathrooms is here, make yourself at home. You can even spend the night in there if you want, it's got a lock and all. I will have some pillows brought down here later.''  

Multiple bathrooms? Talk about showing off. I'm pretty sure the wealth of a person was measured by the number of bathrooms they had.  

''Thanks a lot, Vel.''  

I hadn’t even said it on purpose but she somehow didn't seem to mind me calling her by her nickname this time.  

''I'm going straight to the other bathroom myself. I stink.'' She said with a half-smile.  

''Heh, at least you don't have much to wash. Look at all these extra parts I have to clean!'' I said half-jokingly.  

''That's your problem now, if you need sponges and soap, you can find them in the cabinet under the sink. I'll be off now, I'll talk to you later.'' She started to walk off when I called for her. 

''Velariah?''  

She turned around. ''Yes?'' 

''About tomorrow, there are a few things I want to discuss can we do that after we're done?'' 

''Sure, no problem.'' She continued to walk off and walked through one of the doors on the right. 

I walked to the bathroom doors and opened them.  

The sight of a luxurious bathroom filled my vision. As luxurious as a bathroom in the Middle Ages would get, anyway. The room was quite big and it had more than enough space to fit me and everything my heart desired in it. In the right-back corner was an immense wooden bathtub that resembled a jacuzzi. It would be more than enough to fit everything of me in. This was going to be heaven. 

I closed the doors and locked them with the large key in one of the doors, it seemed to lock both doors. Then I turned around to see what this bathroom looked like.  

To the right of the tub was a square mirror on the wall above a sink. A cabinet with towels and accessories was beneath that. Now that I thought about it, I had never seen myself in a mirror before. Not with this new body at least. Next to the cabinet were the two bags of clothes that Velariah had bought for me.  

Further to the right was a wooden pull chain toilet. This didn't seem so primitive as I had expected. I was honestly expecting a simple hole in the ground or something. To be fair, a hole in the ground may actually fit me best. I still had no idea what would happen if I ever had to do a number 2 with this body, I feared the worst... 

This room was lighted by a chandelier that adorned the ceiling. The chandelier held up multiple orbs that each emitted a light that was not too bright to the eyes but still illuminated the entire room well. 

No longer able to suppress my curiosity I walked over to the mirror. I wondered if I was the prettiest of them all.  

I couldn’t believe it. I actually made that joke in my head but I had to admit I was surprisingly pretty. The red irises were slightly off-putting but nothing took away from my face. My round eyes with red eyebrows would be the bane of many cosmetic companies. My eyelashes were long and seductive, I'm pretty sure women back on earth would have killed for those. Beneath the grime from the forest and the battle with the Saibon boar, my skin was soft and supple. My small nose added to the cuteness of an otherwise unblemished face.  

My red hair was a mess and covered my ears. From the length, I could already tell it was going to be a pain to get that sorted out properly.  

I had rarely cared about appearances on Earth besides the absolutely necessary parts, and my hair of course. But seeing my face now, I had to admit that whatever god put me here really put their effort into reshaping my face into that of one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. Their character editing skills were evident. My face combined with this honey-sweet voice of mine would probably have had the guys, perhaps even the ladies swooning over me. 

It was a damn shame that that particular god had a cruel sense of humor. If it had been limited to my face and hair, I doubt I would have minded as much as I did. Instead, they decided to give me an extra set of arms and if that wasn't enough, they also added an extra six legs and more freaky stuff, because apparently, they could. One thing was for sure, anyone that would have been attracted to me would certainly keep their distance now. 

I grabbed a towel and a bar of soap from the open part of the cabinet. In one of the cabinet compartments stood a basket, I pulled it out to see exactly what was in it.  

Eureka! 

I had found a comb. There was also a sponge that I tossed into the tub and a toenail clipper which I doubted I'd need. I hesitated for a moment before I pulled out another sponge. 

'Might as well use those extra arms.' I joked in my mind. I figured I would be scrubbing for a while. 

Thinking about arms. I pulled off the red sheet to take a look at my once immobilized arm. The pain had completely faded and I found I could move it freely again. I swung it through the air making a few circles just to make sure. Even though I did not like the guy, his magic seemed to be effective. Yay for alternative medicine! 

It was time to get down to business. I pulled three rolled-up towels from a cabinet compartment and put them in the sink. Undressing was a breeze considering there was only the coconut bra that was half destroyed as it was. I would be happy to say goodbye to that. With that thought, I tossed it away to the ground. I took off my adventurer tag and dropped it in the sink as well.  

I stepped into the bathtub and tried to figure out how this faucet worked. It had an iron cylinder with two rotary ends which I assumed were for hot and cold water.  

I rotated one end and found out that nothing happened. I tried rotating it in the other direction and still, nothing happened.  

Just my luck, this thing is broken. 

I tried turning the other end of the cylinder hoping to at least get either hot or cold water, hell, anything would do. I was met with lukewarm water when I did. That was odd, I was expecting either scalding hot or freezing cold. 

Wait a second, don’t tell me... 

I was familiar with the concept but my old apartment on Earth wasn't luxurious enough to include such a thing.  

I turned the other end again and found that the water temperature gradually increased as I turned. 

''Oohhhhhh Yesss.'' I actually said out loud. A thermostatic faucet. This world was getting better by the minute.  

How they had managed to do this I didn't know. These people would have the possibility of surpassing Earthen technology if given several hundred years more, on this area they already had.  

I might even start to enjoy life here, or at least the quality-of-life additions that magic and things like this faucet provided. This home was obviously far above the average living standards, though. If I wanted to live like this, I would probably have to find a decent way to make money. I knew my previous life's knowledge should be able to have a hand in that, the problem was avoiding exposure.  

I put the temperature to fairly warm, almost hot, I was going to enjoy every minute of this.  

I used a sponge to clean the worst dirt off my human body and face before I put the stopper in the plug and allowed the tub to fill up slowly.  

Boy, was that a terrible idea.  

I had started to clean my ''feet'' and legs which were hard to do because whenever I rubbed the sponge against the hairs my legs spasmed in reflex. I had to keep hold of them with my arms and clean them with my other arms.  

The water was slowly rising and was filled up with dirt, grime, and a couple of small twigs.  

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I sighed as I unplugged the stopper and allowed the dirty water to drain.  

This might even be more work than I thought it was going to be. 

I decided to clean my hair as the water drained as well, knowing that it would probably be in a just as bad or even worse state. I turned out to be right in that regard.  

With all that out of the way, I re-plugged the drain and lowered my body down to the bottom of the tub, trying to relax.  

I'm pretty sure it took half an hour to fill the entirety of this huge tub but I was enjoying every second of the warm water slowly rising up my back as I leaned with my chest against the edge.  

While the water filled the tub I noticed my abdomen rise as the water did. For some reason, my behind floated on the water. It was good to know that I wouldn't sink like a brick if I ever got in deep water, but it was quite inconvenient right now. It seemed l would have to learn to swim as well, eventually. To any onlookers, that was going to look hilarious or frightening to the bone. I chuckled.  

I couldn't believe this body. I have never seen a spider swim. I liked to believe they couldn't. I hoped I was simply an exception, not the standard. 

I grabbed the rose-scented bar of soap and started scrubbing everything. Yes, everything. Gotta take care of proper body hygiene after all.  

Maybe cleaning the spider parts was a bit unnecessary but I decided to clean it as best I could. Especially the area where the arrows had struck my behind, even though it was healed quite nicely, was cleaned as best I could to prevent infections. Better be safe than sorry. I doubted antibiotics were a thing in this world and I would rather not be relying on there being some kind of magic to solve the issue.  

I heard a knock on the door. 

''Elania, are you finished?'' Velariah's voice was heard. 

Was she in a hurry or what? 

''Nope!'' I answered with a happy voice.  

I was going to enjoy this for as long as I could.  

''Alright, I'll be in here if you need me.'' I heard a chair scrape across the floor. 

Ugh, I really didn't want to leave the warmth that was this heavenly bath.  

I washed my hair as best I could with the block of soap. There was no shampoo but I supposed this would have to do. I wondered if shampoo was a thing in this world and whether I could make it. I had read the shampoo bottle plenty of times while waiting for it to do its work for lack of having anything better to do. Sodium Laureth Sulfate was usually the first thing in the ingredient list so it was probably important. It was a shame that I had not the slightest clue what it actually was. I mean, I was a nerd but that was beyond my scope.  

After soaking and taking in the warmth with my entire body for a while, I decided it was enough. I carefully cleaned my face and unplugged the stopper.  

The wooden bathtub was slippery but my new legs had no issues stepping out. To be fair, even if I slipped there were many more legs to prevent me from falling. No more slipups in the bathroom, was somewhat of a nice prospect. I may have hurt my bum more than once trying to get out of the small tub I had back at home.  

Then came the labor-intensive task of drying my body with the towels. I had assumed that three would be enough earlier on. I was once again proven wrong when I tossed away the fourth and grabbed the fifth and last one. Fortunately, that turned out to be the exact amount I would need.  

With the last towel wrapped around me, I anxiously picked up one of the bags of clothes.  

A few shirts were folded inside and when I took them out, several bras came into view.  

I didn’t know what to think. I was trying one on, a black one with a not too intricate design. The good news was that she had picked the correct size. The bad news was that I had no idea how these straps worked. It seemed to be a low cross strap on the back because of the extra set of arms being in the way of normal ones. My worst nightmare had become reality as I struggled to get them closed. I had no idea how this worked and I probably needed help to get it done properly.  

Fuck. 

I had briefly considered going without one but quickly denounced that idea. Even if they had been reduced in size, these were still easily D-cup and far too visible through a shirt. 

I inwardly screamed. Why did I have to fall prey to the most stereotypical anime plotlines? 

Screw you cruel gods! 

I knocked on the door.  

''Velariah? You there?'' 

''Yeah, what's up?'' 

''I am afraid I am going to need some help here,'' I spoke, ashamed because of my situation. 

I heard the chair scrape the floor again and steps coming my way.  

I unlocked the door and peeked around the corner.  

Velariah was wearing clothing that seemed much more comfortable than what she wore before. She was wearing blue linen trousers that allowed for much more free movement compared to the brown ones she wore earlier. They had seemed pretty tightly wrapped around her legs. Her upper body was covered with a red shirt that was also made of linen. This shirt accentuated her curves in a much more defined manner, I could see why she didn't wear this before.  

When she entered the room, I closed the door again. I still had the bra cupping my breasts so fortunately, I didn't flash her. I just needed help with those stupid straps, and a way to do it myself... 

Seeing my struggle, she took hold of the straps without saying a word. I was thankful for that. It reminded me of when I had a hairdresser that would just keep quiet. I much preferred that over one who would try to make small talk all the time. I really wasn't into that. 

''There, all done.'' She said with a straight face. I had to admire her professionalism once again. I had expected her to tease me about this until I went crazy. 

I walked over to the mirror to get an idea of how everything fit into place and it seemed I had been right before; they were very low cross straps. I took good notice of how everything was connected so that I could hopefully do it by myself next time.  

I took the first shirt that I could find, a plain dark red one, and unfolded it.  

As I expected it had been refitted to suit me. Two holes for my second set of arms were located under the sleeves, and part of the underside of the back was missing. The front was longer and I had an idea why. 

I put it on and found that the front fell down over the part where hair covered my private area but didn’t quite reach my pedipalps. On the backside, it stopped perfectly when it hit the exoskeleton of my abdomen. I had to admit that I felt special to have something specifically tailored for my needs, I could see why these clothes had been so expensive, relatively speaking.  

''You look happy.'' Velariah broke the silence. 

''I finally got some proper clothes, what did you expect?'' 

It's true. I was indeed quite happy now that I was presentable.  

One could say I had been lucky so far, and maybe there was a degree of truth to it. I had, after all, bought these clothes with shady money that I found on some person that tried to kill me. To that degree, I would agree that I had been fairly lucky, but one would also have to remember that it had literally cost me an arm. I mean, I had three more but still! I would not want to go through that pain again, ever.  

''So, what did you want to talk about?'' The elf asked, referring to what I had told her before taking a bath. 

I grabbed a comb and started to work on my long scarlet hair. 

''I wanted to know and ask a few things about tomorrow.'' 

''Go for it, I'm all ears.'' 

Heh, it was funny because her ears were like seven times the size of mine. 

After careful deliberation, we had come up with somewhat of a plan for the next day. Velariah had her trials and I had this quest that I wanted to work on as soon as possible. 

We had decided to go on simple reconnaissance first before getting ourselves into actual danger. Yes, we. Velariah would have her first three sparring matches in the morning and if she got through those as the winner, she would have several more later in the afternoon. There were a couple of hours in between that we would use to check what info we could get from the farmer that posted the quest. 

I had suggested buying armor first but Velariah had assured me we should be safe as long as we didn’t go too deep in the nearby forest. The Lore keeper had mentioned that this supposed ''demon'' had made the goats run uncontrollably until it was expelled. I didn't think it would be too dangerous if that was all it did. 

I wondered if this was one of those quests where you had to cleanse a certain area with some kind of fancy ritual to break the bond connecting the demon to this plane of existence. We should take a good look at the area and see if anything was out of the ordinary. 

Regarding breakfast the next day, it would be served in the room next door in the morning. I doubted I'd need to eat any; I haven't felt hungry since coming to this world. It actually made me wonder if there was something wrong with my hunger receptors. I guessed as long as I didn't gain weight, I would be fine?  

I finished up combing my hair and I felt liberated at last. Shame I would have to do it again in the morning. Long hair sure was a hassle, yet I just couldn't part with it.  

''What do you do with the towels?'' I asked as I put the comb back in the basket. 

''I'll have Elly take those to be cleaned. Where did you want to sleep?'' She crossed her arms and leaned against the door. 

''In here is fine, if that's okay with you.'' I looked at her expectantly.  

''Sure, I'll knock on the door when breakfast is served.''  

Velariah opened the doors. ''Also, I've got some stuff here for you. 

Oh, now I was curious. 

On the other side of the doors against the wall were enough pillows to make a decently sized pillow fort. Apparently, they didn't really have a bed they could easily get here, and even if they could I doubt it would fit me. Why did they even have this many pillows? There were about twenty of them spread out.  

I picked up a few and found them soft to the touch. Some were filled with feathers, others were filled with what I believed was wool.  

I could make this work. 

Elly walked back into the room and Velariah had asked her to get the towels to the washing area. In the meantime, I tossed the pillows into the other room. If the temperature stayed the way it was, I technically wouldn't need covers, I just had never slept without them, well, up until I woke up in that cave. Even on hot summer nights, I needed covers, even if they were the thinnest, it made me feel much more comfortable and safer.  

I inwardly laughed as I thought about that. What was I trying to hide from back then? Was it the monsters lurking in the shadows that would grab my feet if I hung them over the edge of my bed? 

Bitch please, I was the monster now. Come at me. These lesser monsters had nothing on me! 

Once everything was in the room, I decided to call it a day and see if I could sleep. Having to stay up all night sucked now that I would have nothing to do. I bid Elly and Velariah good night as Elly was on her way out with the towels. They mimicked the gesture and I closed the door and locked it.  

On her way out Velariah had informed me that I could turn the lights off by simply clapping. That was convenient, I hadn't seen a light switch anywhere so I was starting to wonder how that worked. 

I clapped, accidentally using all four hands.  

The lights went off and then on again. 

Oops. 

I repeated it with only one set of hands this time. 

That did the trick. 

I jumped into my ''nest''. That was an odd thought. 

What a day. 

I felt exhaustion wash over me as I tried to make myself comfortable in the pillow pile. It seemed I would have no trouble sleeping tonight. I undressed the shirt, tossed it in a random direction, and fell asleep in the softness.

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