Changing Room—Baruma walked to the entrance. Just as he was about to part the curtain and peek through a gap, the other person happened to be heading into the bathroom. Baruma quickly dodged and pressed against the wall; the other’s bangs nearly struck the protruding part of his mask.
This guy was… a human youth, a male whose features resembled a woman. His name was… Cass Benor. Baruma tapped his head, recalling his subordinate’s report. What caught his eye was a blue swirl of hair.
“Whoa!”
Although the other couldn’t perceive him, Baruma could feel the other’s breath, words, and sweat. One could say this was the only drawback of the Invisibility Technique, or perhaps its greatest advantage. The reason Baruma had dodged was that physically, they could touch. For instance, Baruma’s sweat, words, and breath were imperceptible to others; if someone touched Baruma, they could, but it felt like hitting an air wall.
Simply put, in this space, Baruma could perfectly sense when he touched others.
‘Even if I’m drenched in sweat and let out a fart, the Foxmen’s proud sense of smell won’t detect me at all. They won’t leave any evidence, I just need to be careful not to go too far.’
Baruma felt proud of his exquisite magic.
‘The greatest advantage is being able to touch others, so naturally I can do some extra things. I remember last month, the scene was the Grand Bathhouse. I was sitting in the hot spring pool, and a female Foxman sat down. She thought she was sitting on a strange stone, kept touching it with her hand, marveling that the stone could bounce.’ Remembering this, Baruma laughed out loud.
But when he saw that Cass was still examining the corner of the bathroom, Baruma’s mouth immediately curved downward multiple arcs. ‘What bad luck, why isn’t this guy leaving?’
‘Tch, I’ve seen plenty of men. If those two clan young ladies had come instead, especially the orange-haired one, I’d really like to see what milk-deficient breasts look like.’
A pink sword materialized in Cass’s hand, and his gaze turned to Baruma.
‘What?! Did he find me?’
Startled, Baruma quickly backed away, careful not to step on anything, and placed his hand back on the crystal ball. The gaze lingered on Baruma for only a short time before shifting away, and the other began moving around the bathroom again.
“How is it? Any abnormalities?” Cass muttered to himself while squatting on the ground, checking the floor cracks, not looking this way at all.
‘…Looks like he didn’t find me.’ Baruma sighed in relief, a false alarm. ‘This guy is surprisingly vigilant. I thought he was smelling Wa Luolan’s bathwater stains from two years ago, quite an advanced pervert. Come to think of it, there’s no way to smell it, since this room is regularly cleaned…’
“No way! Don’t talk nonsense!”
Cass spoke suddenly very loudly, startling Baruma so much his heart shrank.
“S-Slioque and I bathing together outdoors?! No way, it’s not like we’re a passionate couple. Wait, if I use the reason that ‘we’re both the same gender,’ he might not refuse.”
“Ugh—!!”
Cass bashfully bowed his head and swung his sword wildly, nearly hitting Baruma, who accidentally twisted his waist by putting too much force into dodging.
‘Ouch… Who is he talking to, with all his startlements? Can he also talk to dead spirits? Is he just mentally unstable?’
Feeling that staying to watch any longer would get him hurt, Baruma supported his waist and poured magic into the crystal ball. The scene turned back to the orange-yellow lit space.
Combining the Formation Shifting Technique, Devouring Magic, and Invisibility Technique, with the help of those two human siblings, the Secret Space was finally completed at the beginning of last month after years of Baruma’s secret construction. Baruma gave this complex magical project a nice name—Parlais, meaning paradise or heavenly island.
Although currently Parlais only worked in Valoran’s House and the women’s bath at the Grand Bathhouse, and the actual activity space was only 10 square meters, which was the size of Baruma’s original room—he couldn’t go beyond that range. But he believed that with perseverance and persistence, he could eventually build it up to the Elves’ Fourth Floor, and the activity space would expand to become his personal true paradise.
Originally, Kali had also contributed to the construction of this space, although he had been kept in the dark, thinking he was helping Baruma build a defense barrier. Unfortunately, he died early and never retrieved the Legendary Sword hidden on the Second Floor mentioned in the revelation. He was very good at stealth; with him, it would have been easy to expand the usable scenes to the Snake-kin side, but now he is of no use.
Baruma had always wanted to change the transfer scene to Walmor’s bathroom, but the Chieftain’s house was too heavily guarded, and he never had a chance to enter and modify it. Coincidentally, Valoran’s House had been empty, so he first converted it into part of the paradise.
‘Just you wait, when I become the Chieftain, Walmor, you won’t be able to refuse.’
The bearded old man let out a lecherous laugh, took off his clothes one by one, took out some incense from the storage room, and scrubbed his fur, which was mainly black with gray accents. He didn’t take off the red Fierce Beast Mask. After completing the preparations, he touched the crystal ball, and the scene turned back to the bathroom in Valoran’s House. Fortunately, the blue-haired youth was no longer there.
‘Heh heh heh, tonight’s little snack is my good niece. Let Uncle see how much you’ve grown in these two years.’
At this moment, Baruma, naked, transformed into a beast lurking in the bathroom, waiting for its prey to arrive.
When it was completely dark, Cass finished checking the second floor except for Wa Luolan’s room.
“I searched with the magic detector, but there was no magical fluctuation, nor any suspicious equipment. I think there’s no need to worry about any ‘Bath Monster’ or anything like that. We can stay here at ease.”
Bried nodded slightly. “C-Cass, you really are cautious. Although I think that’s fine too.”
“One should always stay vigilant.” Bried, on the other hand, checked both Cass’s room and her own room for the night.
“Not really, Teacher taught me.” Cass scratched his cheek sheepishly. Seeing the loose hairs stuck in Kersey’s pink hair, he said gallantly, “Ladies first for bathing. Call me when you’re done.”
Cass went straight back to his room.
“Bathing… well, we walked all day, so my body is sticky.” Kersey pulled up her collar and sniffed, saying, “It smells strong,” but Bried didn’t smell any sweat odor; instead, there was a unique feminine scent.
The two then entered the room they would stay in for the night, took out their luggage from the Ring Chart, and set it down.
“Bried, why don’t you go first? You’ve been fighting Monsters all day and must have sweated a lot.”
“It’s fine, this amount of exercise isn’t as tiring as my morning training. Kersey, you go ahead. I want to maintain my sword.”
“Well… okay, I’ll take you up on that. I’ll try to be quick.”
Kersey quickly reached for her pure white Priestess Robe. With each button she undid, the fullness usually hidden beneath the white dress, faintly tinged with pink, became more obvious. Bried watched with envious eyes, while calmly placing the silver-gray scabbard at her waist aside, thinking herself composed.
‘Luckily she didn’t suggest bathing together or something, or it would put a lot of pressure on Bried. But this is also what Bried liked about her; no matter how close they were, Kersey always maintained a certain distance from others. At least, that’s what she thought.’
Finally, Kersey returned the Priestess Robe to the Ring Chart, changed into a short-sleeved shirt and shorts pajamas, tied her hair into a small ponytail with a rubber band, revealing her snow-white neck. She took a grass-colored towel from her backpack, rolled it into a ball and held it to her chest. When the door was halfway open, she suddenly stopped.
“Bried, if possible, don’t eat in the room. I’m afraid it will attract insects.”
“Is that the main point? I wouldn’t eat Bread in the room, it ruins the taste.”
Hearing the reply, Kersey finally walked out of the room with light steps.
Bried felt the bed. It was very hard, completely different from the spring beds at home.
‘I should have bought a mattress; it’s not like the Ring Chart couldn’t fit it. Kersey probably can’t sleep well on this.’
Bried didn’t mind the hardness; she had done mountain training before and had slept directly on rocks. The bed was wiped clean, and she used the blankets delivered by Nuo Yi to pad it a bit for cushion, and also made Kersey’s bed.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from the hallway, and Kersey opened the door and came back in, with a towel on her head and still wearing the same clothes. Bried asked with a look, and Kersey responded with an awkward laugh:
“I forgot to take my bathing gear… I can’t do without it.”
At the same time, she rummaged in her bag and fished out a hand-carried bath pouch.
“So many things? I just use one type of body wash that doubles as shampoo, moisturizer, and conditioner. I think it’s even drinkable.”
“Haha, that’s not funny… Wait, Bried, are you serious?” Kersey stopped moving and showed an incredulous expression.
“That’s how it’s always been.”
“You’re too careless. Don’t act like a boy, okay? Those all-in-one products have basically zero nourishing effect. After you bathe, I’ll lend you my cream and give you a proper treatment.”
‘That kind of stuff, whatever.’
Bried first oiled her Rapier, applied a coat of Luminescent Powder, and after finishing the maintenance, she took off her ponytail hair tie, lay down on the hard bed with her hands behind her head, and stared blankly at the ceiling. It was so clean that not even dust or cobwebs could be seen. The room was indeed nice, it was just that the hardware facilities weren’t great.
When touring the village, Nuo Yi provided intelligence that the Vampire was quite strong. Everyone who encountered her would be knocked down without exception, and she also had two servants, one with black hair and one with blond hair. The black-haired servant could use earth magic, which was quite troublesome for the Foxmen, who were mainly close-combat Warriors. More intelligence would be obtained at the Vampire subjugation meeting to be held tomorrow.
Wa Luolan, as the Chieftain’s daughter, was not allowed to attend. Because the meeting was called by Baruma and his supporters. Obviously, they were afraid of sharing intelligence, afraid that Wa Luolan would steal the credit. He’s such a petty old man.
“Ah, shoot.”
Thinking that she hadn’t yet informed her equally elderly parents of her safety today, Bried raised the Ring Chart on her arm and opened the window. Her parents had left several messages—the top new message flashed with the number of messages.
The nickname was “Melancholy of Solitude,” but with an additional line of notes. The profile picture was no longer a melancholy anime avatar, but a seagull, as if randomly searched from an online image library. Perhaps it was the reflection from the window, perhaps she had widened her eyes, but Bried’s eyes lit up as she eagerly opened the message.
At that moment, Kersey had an extra towel draped over her shoulder, and she finally left the room carrying, besides the bath pouch, various oddly shaped hair and skin care products that Bried had never seen.
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