Chapter 52: Was there a trap in the lavatory!!?

“What are you doing here, Philia-san!?”

“No need to worry. There are very little differences between male and female elves. Moreover, we are like brothers and sisters here, so we often bathe in the nude together.”

While explaining so, Philia-san was taking off her clothes.

“That’s fine and all, but that can’t be applied to us humans!”

I quickly turned away and shouted so.

Sure, I always bathe with Selen and Millia, but that didn’t mean I was used to bathing with naked women.

However, my complaint went unheeded. Philia-san, now naked, proceeded to submerge herself in the water.

The other female elves followed her lead.

“““…this feels so good!”””

Those were the first words they said.

“So, this is what an open-air bath feels like? It’s so refreshing. And even though it’s so open, I still feel secure here. What a marvelous thing.”

I—who was at one corner of the bath so that I could avoid the women—asked something.

“Bathing in a river is quite dangerous, isn’t it?”

“Naturally. There are monsters who live in and around the river, after all. As a precaution, we sprinkle a liquid that the monsters don’t like, but there would still be times where a monster attacks us. In fact, every year, without fail, some of us will get wounded while taking a bath. And sometimes, there will be deaths too.”

That’s a river within that monster-infested forest for you.

“Yet, you have something like this within the village…”

“At the moment though, these are the only open-air baths we have in the village. That said, every home does have their own regular-sized bath. An alternative especially for those who want to bathe somewhere bigger is to use any of the two public bathhouses we have.”

Perhaps due to being pleased with the open-air bath, the elves spent nearly an hour bathing.

I felt light-headed already, so I got out first.

Now that they were cleaned and refreshed, we resumed our conversation in the living room.

“Mad grizzlies rarely form groups, but even alone, they’re formidable monsters that can take on multiple orcs. If Selen’s group didn’t arrive back then, our damages would have been far greater. For that, I’d like to give my thanks again.”

The other elves, who were not as wary now, nodded to what Philia-san said.

“Lest I forget, they even escorted our injured back. Because of that, none of our people died.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Please take this as a token of our gratitude.”

Philia-san said so and then handed to me a container which had about ten small bottles. The bottles themselves contained some kind of liquid.

“Are these…are these potions???”

Potions were medicine that could be considered dreamlike.

They say that drinking it would cause your wounds to recover so much faster than they naturally would.

However, methods on how to make it have been lost, meaning those made in past were all that was available.

“Elves have been passing down the way to make the potions from generation to generation.”

“Even so, are you sure we can have these valuable potions? 10 valuable potions, at that…”

“To thank you for saving the lives of my fellow elves, these potions are reasonable gifts. After all, no number of potions can bring back the dead to life.”

Afterward, I asked the elves to dine with us so that they could experience the food here in the village.

However, because they might not want to attract more attention from the villagers, I decided to hold the dinner party here in my estate.

“Sorry, but may I use the lavatory first?”

“Of course. It’s the first door of that corridor.”

“Thank you.”

I guided her to that corridor, but after a little while…

“Nuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

I suddenly heard a voice from the restroom.

Thinking something happened to Philia-san, I hurried to the corridor. She had just gone outside of the restroom when I arrived. However, everything that she wore for the lower half of her body, even her unmentionables, was down by her feet. In other words, Philia-san was out in the corridor with her lower half fully exposed.

“Philia-san!?”

“My, my butt! Something attacked my butt!”

“Huh!?”

The other elves arrived just then.

“Commander!? Was there a trap in the lavatory!!?”

“How dare they do that to the commander!”

While guarding her bottom, Philia-san had fallen into floor of the corridor.

Hearing what she just said and then seeing her like this, the other elves grew angry.

As for me, I peered into the restroom and understood what caused this situation.

“I-it’s not like that! You see, this toilet has function where if you press a button—that one over there—water will come out to wash your bottom.”

“““Huh?”””