Chapter 259: Chapter 259: Early Winter Sea Bathing

According to Maxwell, this isolated island was uninhabited, and while it had a cottage for accommodation, the manager was only going there once a month to clean it so it was mostly unmanaged.

That naturally meant that there were no food reserves there. There was apparently water well behind it so we shouldn’t have any problems water-wise, but we really had to procure food by nightfall.

There was a sandy beach nearby so we could go for a swim, but whether we’d have time for that was another matter.

“And so, this is my villa. It has been periodically cleaned, but it is still mostly abandoned so we have a lot of work to do.” “It looks a bit dusty, though?” “It does seem to need cleaning.” “I’ll go prepare our beds then.” “Food… We don’t have it, huh. Let’s make do with the ingredients that we brought with us tonight.”

After we were guided to the cottage located a little away from the beach, we all started to move separately the moment we went inside.

Michelle and Ledina went on to get rid of the dust that had accumulated for almost a month.

Cloud went to air the beddings and expose them to sunlight to prepare for the night, while Finia started making preliminary arrangements with the ingredients that we bought along.

We had lunchboxes prepared for the day so it wasn’t a problem, but other than that we only had preserved food. They would take extra effort to use in normal cooking.

Seeing the girl trio head to the well to get water while Cloud proceeded to carry out the beddings from every room, Maxwell let out a groan in admiration.

“They move very well. You seem to have educated them well, Reid.” “We aren’t alone here, so call me Nicole. And they had a good disposition since the start, so you can expect great things in the future.” “So, what are you going to do?” “Hm…?”

Now that he mentioned it, only Maxwell and I were standing and doing nothing. Though that was because I had something else to do.

First I sat on the empty chair and took out a memo from my shoulder bag. As I leaned down to read it, the shoulder strap emphasized my chest a little. My chest was growing favorably despite my wishes. Still, setting that aside.

“Based on the God of Destruction’s Advice, we need two materials. For the shampoo ingredient, we need the mucus of a creature called floating wakame or something it seems?” “I know about that. It is a seaweed-type monster that floats on the sea levels when night comes.” “It’s a monster!?” “They stick to the bottom of the ships traveling at night, dissolving the wood to eat it and drill holes into the bilge.” “That’s quite a nuisance…”

Apparently, they used the mucus covering their bodies to dissolve the wood. If we remove the mucus down to the epidermis, dilute it and use it as a shampoo, it would become a detergent that was kind to the skin.

The grains of the fine powder would hold the sliminess and would clean the skin down to the pores. Moreover, that slime would even act as a moisturizer and improve the hair condition.

“They make frequent appearances at night, but we might not find one at daytime.” “Then, let’s do cleaning and lodging preparations, then go collect them after we eat at night.” “That sounds adequate.” “Are we going to the sea tonight?”

Michelle who was darting around seemed to have overheard our conversation. We haven’t done any night activities at all. I was of course experienced with it, but Michelle and Letina were still kids so going out at night would worry their parents.

Even Cloud would make the orphanage sisters worry, so he was refraining from it too aside from our special training sessions. In other words, this would be their first adventure into the world of the night.

“That’s right. The monsters we are looking for only appear at night it seems.” “Ohh, a night adventure to the sea, huh? I’m looking forward to it!” “Yeah, me too.”

Particularly to see Finia and Michelle in their swimsuits. We had to hunt monsters in the sea, so everyone has prepared their swimsuits.

I’ve seen Letina’s swimsuit during our academy lessons, but since my schedules were different from Michelle and Finia never really left home, I’ve rarely seen them in swimsuits.

I have been blessed with a good opportunity now, so my hype was sky-high. Still, it was a little out of season to make full use of it.

“Let us finish the cleaning quickly, eat lunch, then do a short trip to the sea and come back to sleep until evening, then eat dinner and head back there.”

After listening to me list today’s schedule, Michelle pushed her hands up and answered cheerfully.

“Ah, so we’ll be swimming after lunch!” “We’re just going to check the place, okay? We’ll stay there for two hours at most.” “That’s more than enough time! Now you have a chance to show your new swimsuit.” “To whom? Besides I only have the academy swimsuit with me.” “I mean Cloud of course.” “It’s not like I’m into him, you know?”

In the first place, Michelle was the one who got along with Cloud the most. I was just training him and nothing else. However, it seems that she misunderstood our relationship.

“There you go agaaain. If you don’t be more honest, I’ll go ahead and steal him, you know?” “I mean, be my guest.” “Grr, you’re so stubborn.”

Lately, she’s been interested in love affairs, but I suppose this was what you called puberty. Seeing her stop her hands, Letina gave a sharp rebuke.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Hey, we have to get this place cleaned already or we are going to end up eating lunch in this dust.” “Ugh, okaay.”

Her expression turned grim after imagining it and then returned back to cleaning.

“…In the first place, I’d rather not swim in this season, you know?” “Raum has a stable temperature, so swimming is not out of the question… However, I reckon it would not feel that good.”

It was already December, so the temperature started to fall. Being surrounded by forests, Raum was relatively stable with the temperatures, so while it felt chilly it wasn’t exactly cold. So if you wanted to swim, there was nothing stopping you, really.

“It’s gonna give us goosebumps for sure, huh?” “I do not want to head to that world just yet.” “How are we planning to beat the monsters though?” “I will just use magic to walk on water…” “Let’s go with that then?”

If we can walk on water, there would be no fear of drowning either, and the water’s coldness would be no concern either. However, Maxwell remained frowning.

“The effect of this spell extends to everything the individual has on hand… And that means that our weapons would also be unable to get inside the water.” “That’s…” “Before we manage to land an attack on the Floating Wakame, our weapons would get repelled by water.” “That’s no good!” “That is the case, so let us use a spell to help hold the breath underwater. I will teach you so try your best to remember.” “So I’ll be using it, huh? And we have to swim, after all, huh…”

Before that, I had to check whether we could swim there. Michelle, Letina, and naturally, Cloud, could all swim, but whether they could in this water temperature was another question.

Not to mention, this was their first sea. It was better to do a little test before jumping into the sea unprepared.