Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Five – Those Who Do Not Work

Luckily for me, Otrea didn’t demand I return home immediately after learning I’d become a demigod. If anything, she almost seemed disinterested in the most recent change to my body.

For her part, Eurycelia also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when our ‘spider call’ with Otrea ended and no demands had been made of us. I didn’t know if she simply feared having to return to Otrea’s side, or if perhaps her recent infatuation with me was to blame. Eurycelia seemed the type to view Otrea as competition, especially since she’d referred to me as one of her pets.

“Master Bernice,” Kyra returned after putting the spider somewhere far away from me. “Have you bathed yet?”

“I haven’t,” I replied with warming cheeks.

After sleeping for over a week, I probably stink! I can’t believe I forgot to bathe before going to acquire food. Ugh… I hope there aren’t rumors around town about a stinky bunnygirl.

“Then would you like to accompany me to the spring bath in the basement? Maybe after you get clean we could play a game? I just finished polishing the pieces for a new one.”

“Lady Bernice has already decided to spend her day with me learning [Utility Magic],” Eurycelia interjected. “She doesn’t have time to play games.”

“She spends all her time learning things,” Kyra retorted. “Master needs rest and relaxation just like everyone else. She never gets time to play games with me.”

“She spent ten days resting, she doesn’t need any more rest.”

“Recovering from pain isn’t relaxing! If she doesn’t have some fun her brain will melt.”

“Learning can be fun! It’s obvious someone with the berserker class wouldn’t understand, but most people feel a wave of euphoria after learning new magic.”

“Master Bernice! Please tell this… small-horned fiend that you’re going to play games with me.”

“Lady Bernice, we already agreed you’d learn [Utility Magic] today, please inform your undead of this!”

Are they fighting over me? … Seriously?

“Kyra’s time is limited. How about the three of us take a bath together, then I’ll play a game with her and once we’re done you can teach me [Utility Magic]? That way everyone can be happy.”

“You won’t learn anything if you don’t dedicate yourself.” Eurycelia pouted.

“I guess… but I feel terrible for neglecting Kyra. She doesn’t have anyone else to play with Euri.”

Eurycelia widened her eyes at me, while her mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish. “What did you just say?”

Seriously… You’re a councilwoman, listening to people has to be half the job.

“I said she doesn’t have anyone else to play with.”

“After that?”

Ah, she didn’t like the nickname.

“I called you ‘Euri’, should I have not?”

Eurycelia’s cheeks reddened. “I like it. Euri huh. Yay!”

“I can’t be the first person to give you a nickname.”

Eurycelia is too many syllables for someone to not try to shorten it somehow.

“Most people call me Celia. Or well… they used to.” Eurycelia smiled wryly. “I have yet to grow close to anyone in Ciriczar.”

“Would you rather I use Celia then?”

“Please… don’t. Euri is fine, I prefer it actually. It’s cute, I’m very happy.”

Please heart, please stop pounding so hard in my chest. It’s getting difficult to breathe.

“Well then… let’s go bathe?”

“Yes!”

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Eurycelia and I followed Kyra to the basement where the hot spring bath was located. Much like the rest of the house, even after two centuries of disuse it looked as though it’d been maintained daily. The water was crystal clear with a thin sheet of steam hovering over its surface. While blue, green, and purple crystals glowed above it coloring it in their hues.

“Wow.” I muttered as Kyra and Eurycelia began to undress. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Even to us, this place is overkill.” Eurycelia laughed. Positioning herself so her back was pointed away from Kyra.

“This is all I’ve ever known,” Kyra added. “Though from Adelita’s thoughts I know it isn’t usual.”

“You and Adelita can speak with one another subconsciously?” I asked discarding my dress and slipping into the warm water.

“Yes,” Kyra replied stepping into the bath behind me. “It takes a small amount of our magic to do so, so we don’t exactly get to speak freely. But if one of us believes something is important enough to get the other’s input, it is worth the expenditure.”

Eurycelia was last in the bath, quickly crouching down to obscure her body from the shoulders down in the water.

Is she trying to hide her tail from Kyra?

“Lady Bernice, let me wash your back.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Kyra giggled. “This bath is even more magical than the ones Master Otrea usually makes. Not only is the water self-cleaning, but it also magically pulls away grime and dirt from your body. It’s a masterpiece in magical bath design. Of all the baths in the manor, this is the only one with that quality.”

“Why aren’t the others like this one?” I asked curious as to why Otrea would ever make something less than perfect.

“Probably the same reason I’m her only undead,” Kyra replied after pondering my question for a moment. “Sometimes it is not the magic that is difficult. Rather the items needed are too rare and valuable for even Master Otrea to get in large supply.”

“How rare coul—”

A distressed squeak escaped my throat as Eurycelia wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her chest into my back. “You’re giving up training time for this, stop asking questions. If you’re supposed to be relaxing, then relax.”

Turning my head to the side I could just barely make out Eurycelia’s pouty cheeks in my peripheral vision. As Kyra moved closer to us, gazing warily at Eurycelia.

“I’m not asking important questions, sating my curiosity could be seen as a form of relaxation.” I mumbled.

Eurycelia didn’t reply, she might’ve not even heard me. Instead, she simply leaned her head forward and pressed her cheek against the damp fur of my ear. The warmth of her breath creating a tickling sensation in my ear, and causing an uncomfortable heat to pool in my lower belly.

“Seriously you sleep with her every night, back off a bit!” Kyra huffed. Before Eurycelia could even respond the undead girl had reached out and wrapped her hand around one of Eurycelia’s orange horns.

A surprised squeal resounded in my ear as Eurycelia’s body shook. Releasing me she attempted to pull away from Kyra’s grasp, yet the latter girl wasn’t having any of it. She clenched down firmly on the horn and wasn’t about to let it go.

“Please stop!” Eurycelia yelped. Her face turning red as tears streaked down her face. “My horns are sensitive!”

“Sensitive how?” A devilish glint appeared in Kyra’s eyes as she roughly rubbed her thumb on the tip of Eurycelia’s horn. Causing a violent shiver to rock the girl’s body, as an erotic moan escaped her throat.

Wow… her horns are as bad as my ears, poor girl.

“I really think you should stop Kyra.”

“Yes Master Bernice.” Kyra released Eurycelia’s horns and moved away in the bath. To her credit, Kyra actually seemed rather embarrassed she’d let things go so far. And after the two girls had taken a second to regain their composure, she apologized to Eurycelia.

Something tells me acting out in fits of emotion and then apologizing is typical of Kyra.

“Hey… how does someone get a class like Berserker anyway? I kind of understand most of the classes I’ve seen, as they seem to all be based around certain studies of magic. Or they’re specific to a kind of job. Berserker however, doesn’t sound like something you’d get just by going about your day to day life.”

“Berserkers have to be more brawn than brain,” Eurycelia mumbled gazing warily in Kyra’s direction. “They’re warriors who follow no code and act purely on emotion. If something makes them angry, they break it, simple enough.”

“I would argue that our code is our emotions. Master Bernice is the only person who spent any time play games with me in years. Who didn’t either threaten to break one of the pieces or wasn’t forced to live in my head. So when I think of her,” Kyra placed a hand over her heart, “my chest is full of warm fuzzy feelings. This feeling is important, it’s worth protecting. Since Master Bernice is the one causing it, she’s worth protecting. That’s all I need, and that is a berserker’s code. Protect the warm fuzzy feeling, destroy the murky icky feelings.”

So… D&D Barbarian, got it.

“Well, we’re clean now, ready to play a game Kyra?”

“Yes, Master!” Kyra beamed, and I could almost swear the room became twice as bright as it’d been moments ago.