Chapter 68: The Philosophy of the Bathhouse

When Liv slowly woke up again, she found herself lying in the large bathhouse situated between the embassy and the back mountain.

Her eyes fluttered open dizzily.

The warm water reached her shoulders as she leaned against the edge of the pool.

Clean clothes had been placed nearby.

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Tess and Julia were also in the bath with her.

Tess was washing her arms, acting as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

Julia was a bit more reserved, seemingly checking the details of her face through the reflection in the bathwater.

She let out a soft, faint sigh.

‘What on earth is going on?!’

Furthermore, the bathwater wasn’t blue at all, and there was no white mist surrounding the pool to obscure everything!

Tess seemed to notice Liv’s strange expression.

“What is it, Liv? Isn’t it perfectly normal for girls to bathe together?”

Yes, yes, in a certain sense it was very normal.

Just like the large public bathhouses in Landingst, men bathed with men and women bathed with women.

Otherwise, how could it be considered normal?

‘But both of you have confessed to me! Tess, you forcibly kissed me, pinned me to the ground, and even put a bracelet on me so you could always know my location???’

‘And Julia, didn’t you say you were going to pursue me right in front of your own father? Didn’t you take advantage of me while helping me change my clothes? Didn’t you kiss me?’

‘Who is the hunter, and who is the prey?’

Waves of turmoil crashed through Liv’s heart.

She wanted to shrink back into the bath, but she realized once again that the water wasn’t blue; it couldn’t hide anything.

Julia tried to explain, though it felt like she was overcompensating: “Liv, it is mainly because we were both sweating a lot from training just now. It would be far too much trouble to have the maids heat water separately for every room’s bathtub. So, we just decided to soak here. The heated water is delivered through pipes, making it much more convenient.”

Looking at Julia, who was trying her best to appear sincere, Liv almost believed her.

‘Sister Julia, she’s so big.’

She was like Volcano Island in the Southern Archipelago.

Though the island’s surface area was small, revealing only the tip of the volcano, it was said that the underwater portion was steep and towering, as majestic as a high mountain.

Julia noticed Liv staring at her and couldn’t help but grow nervous.

‘Did Liv notice the slight wrinkles at the corners of my eyes?’

‘Does she already dislike me for being an old woman?’

‘No matter how you look at it, Tess’s deceptive appearance is just too wicked. She might even be older than me.’

‘Was that pearl cream I bought last time useless? The salesman praised it to high heaven!’

Liv saw Julia looking at her nervously.

‘Does she think I have no manners for staring there?’

How exactly was a queen supposed to maintain court etiquette while bathing with a noblewoman from another country?

Liv forced herself to calm down and turned her head to look at Tess on the other side.

‘Ugh, smaller.’

Tess was like the Sea God’s Rock near the Aurelia continent.

Standing in the shallow waters beside the mainland, it was upright and rounded, as if it were a divine miracle.

Seeing Liv staring at her, Tess immediately approached with a mischievous smirk.

“Do you want Tess to help the Queen?”

Liv quickly pushed Tess away.

“No, I can do it myself. I’ve learned how to do this properly.”

Julia also leaned in.

“She is right. As a girl, you cannot simply splash some water around like a man and call it a day. Or go to a bathhouse and have some old lady scrub you with a coarse sponge; that is very damaging to the skin. You must learn how to clean and care for yourself every day.”

With that, Julia brought over some soft soap, intending to help Liv clean up.

Starting from the neck, Julia patiently worked the soft soap into a lather and then gently glided it over Liv’s porcelain skin.

She made sure to leave the foam on the skin without applying any pressure, fearing she might leave red marks.

Of course, when the soft soap passed over certain areas, unavoidable pressure would occur due to the various slopes or angles of the curves.

In any case, these things were inevitable.

That was what Julia thought.

That was also what Tess thought.

But Liv didn’t seem to think so; she did not respect these objective circumstances.

Liv clenched her teeth, a suppressed tremor escaping from her nose.

This continued until she was covered in foam.

She was like the Sacred Snow Mountain of Frostwave; although its relative height was not great, it was covered in snow year-round, appearing holy and flawless.

Tess snatched the soft soap away, declaring it was her turn.

“Liv, sit up on the edge of the bath. I’ll help you lather up.”

“Tess, stop it!”

“Oh, come on. Let me see if you’ve been bathing properly.”

“No, Tess!”

Tess placed the soap on the edge, her last trace of a smile vanishing as she turned serious.

“Listen to me and sit up!”

Liv shielded her body, her voice trembling with a plea for mercy.

“Don’t!”

In the next second, Tess rose directly out of the water and lifted Liv bodily from the bath.

Julia grabbed Liv’s feet and gently massaged the arches.

Liv’s body instantly went soft.

Then, Tess began to apply the foam as she pleased.

Tess brushed across the flat valleys, marveling at the perfect curves.

Even her navel was filled with soap suds.

Naturally, just as we can naturally derive a necessary transition from one point to another based on the a priori nature of certain situations, what was being displayed here was a phenomenon—a convergence of introspective intuition.

Based on the interaction between this introspective intuition and the phenomenon, as the actions deepened, this phenomenon became a collective observation for those present.

They had always been there, but for Liv, a life of daily use without self-reflection was not enough to awaken her focus on “existence.”

She was submerged in the mundane; everything was so natural that it did not merit sensitivity.

But only at this moment did “existence” truly “manifest.”

For the first time, Liv truly “saw.”

For the first time, she was “awakened.”

It turned out it had been there all along.

It was awakened based on “communicative action,” confirmed in the realm of public consciousness, and ultimately became a consensus based on communication.

Of course, Liv, who was gradually shifting from an object to a self-confirmed subject, had already fainted again.

Who knows why?

It’s so hard to guess.

Julia and Tess had no choice but to take on the task of rinsing the bubbles off her.

Everything seemed so beautiful.

…

That night, when Liv woke up again, she was lying in the large bed of the Queen’s Suite.

‘Why does something ridiculous happen every single time I wake up??’

For instance, right now, Tess and Julia had set up bedrolls on the floor right next to her bed.

“Liv, your body is too weak. You couldn’t even handle a few minutes before you fainted.”

“Yeah, this version of Liv is just weak.”

Therefore, Tess and Julia had decided that they would sleep on the floor in Liv’s bedroom every night from now on.

Their primary reason was to protect Liv, as Landingst was not particularly safe these days.

Besides, Liv’s constitution was so frail.

What if she fainted in her sleep one night?

Fortunately, these were just nonsense excuses they had made up in their heads.

If they had said them out loud, it would have been far too hilarious.

Liv wasn’t laughing.

She looked at Tess and Julia, who seemed to want to laugh desperately.

They were trying hard to keep the corners of their mouths down, forcing an expression full of worry, but their eyes were already crinkled into crescents.

‘Fine, so these are the Queen’s guards?’

‘Every single one of you wants to harm this Queen!’

Wearing her pajamas, Liv dove straight under the quilt and covered her head.