It's confession ti, once again. Before this day, I thought the reputation of hot-spring baths was overblown and inflated by dia. Kind of like how ani and manga made an entire generation believe that katanas were the bestest swords that ever sworded in the history of swording, I figured that hot springs would end up similarly over-exaggerated, and soaking in one would be no different from sitting in a bathtub at ho (not that I would know about that either, as I only had a shower).
Yet, despite coming in with expectations so low they were right next to dino fossils, I was completely floored by the experience. Lying in the outdoor pool in the late winter evening, with the Milky Way stretched over the sky above and the hot water making relaxed to the point I felt like I could lt at any second...
"I could definitely get used to this."
But then again, if I did, it would've probably stopped feeling special, so maybe it was best to keep things in moderation.
I wasn't the only one who gained a newfound appreciation for the hot spring either, as Josh let out a satisfied sigh nearby, staring at the starry sky with a peaceful expression. We were in the smaller of the two outdoor baths, and they had the sa kind of Japanese onsen aesthetics as the one in our VIP room; lots of rustic, uncut stones, wooden benches under the water to sit on, and even one of those bamboo things with water trickling into them that periodically made a sharp sound.
While I said it was "smaller", it was only in comparison with the other communal pool, which was currently used by the girls. They were both mixed baths, but since it was only us on the premises, we ended up dividing them up anyway. Also, for the record, while I doubted anyone would've minded if we were skinny-dipping, everyone was still wearing swimsuits into the pools, including the two of us.
Speaking of which, after a while, Josh stopped staring at the sky and turned to .
"Miss Yamako was right. This is great."
"Yamako?" I repeated after him by reflex, and it took an embarrassingly long ti to figure out what he was talking about. "Oh, you an Rinne?"
"Of course I an her."
"Sorry, my bad. I'm just so used to calling her Mountain Girl that I keep forgetting about her cover surna."
"Well, I can't," my friend uttered, followed by a displeased huff. "You told everyone you're related, so nobody at school cares how you address her, but if I accidentally called her by her first na, those four bastards wouldn't leave alone for days."
"Oh, I think I know who you're talking about. If the creepers are bothering you, just report them to Armband Guy. After that whole 'The Gathering' stunt, they should still be on probation."
"I don't know, man. That feels like being a tattler."
"What other option do you have?"
Josh remained silent, seriously considering my entirely rhetorical question for way longer than necessary.
"Weeell… I have superpowers, so I could just beat them up during a break or sothing, right?"
Over the next five seconds, I sent one of the flattest, most two-dinsional deadpan stares at my friend I've ever managed to pull off, but when he didn't react, I was forced to follow it up with a lung-rattling sigh and a facepalm.
"Josh. We live in a civilized society, where governing organizations have a monopoly on violence. They are both endowed with the authority to inflict violence on the people breaking the rules and laws of society, and also to stop people from enacting vigilante justice and inflicting violence on others."
"… So you're saying…?"
"Don't beat them up during school hours, but lure them into a dark alley or sothing where no one can see you, for god's sake."
"Ah, gotcha!"
He flashed a toothy grin, and I waited until he stopped before adding, "Seriously though, talk to Pascal first."
"Fine, fine." He dismissed my nagging with a wave of his hand and fell silent. It lasted for nearly a solid minute, during which I patiently waited for him to speak his mind. I knew the expression on his face all too well; he always looked like that whenever he had sothing on his mind that he really, really wanted to talk about, but didn't know how to broach the subject. I was ready to break the ice if push ca to shove, but after another silent minute, he clumsily cleared his throat and decided to do it himself. "So… Speaking of superpowers and organizations with a monopoly on violence…"
He trailed off, so I prompted him with a curious, "Yes?"
"So… I'm actually pretty good at fighting, aren't I?"
"Are you?"
He apparently didn't expect to say that, and after the first surprise, he indignantly narrowed his eyes.
"Co on, man! I won a whole-ass tournant less than two weeks ago!"
"Yes, but you didn't even make it into the finals of our own tournant," I pointed out in turn, and my friend let out an angry huff and raised his hands, kicking up so water in the process.
"Hey! I thought we were over this! I just had bad matchups, all right?" Fuming, he crossed his arms. "How did you even beat your sister during that whole Arbitration thing? She's like a freaking red hedgehog on amphetamines!"
"You an Sanic?"
"Sanic? Isn't it Sonic?" Josh asked back, his previous indignation evaporating faster than the steam rising from the pool around us.
"No-no. That's the internet parody. Sanic is the red hedgehog mascot that goes really fast, Sonic is the poorly illustrated pointy red blob that shows up in funny and occasionally disturbing videos."
"Huh. You'd think it would be the other way around," he mused, and I shook my head.
"Not really. There's no way a company would try to trademark the na 'Sonic'. It's too generic. It would be like calling a lion character Simba."
"Or Leo," my friend pointed out with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah. That too. By the way, what were we talking about? Sothing about you being good at fighting or sothing."
"Right, that." He paused for a second, probably to collect his thoughts, then tentatively asked, "So… do you rember that orientation day we had at the beginning of last November?"
"Yeah? It's when Angie literally wrote 'la presidenta of a banana republic' under 'Where do you see yourself in ten years?'."
Stifling a chuckle, Josh told , "That was hilarious. Also, kinda your fault."
"I wash my hands of any responsibility. So?"
"So, back then, I was still reeling from all this supernatural crap flying left and right and didn't have any idea what I whould do in the future. At least, until recently."
"Oh? Do go on, don't keep in suspense!"
Josh rolled his eyes at my comnt, then took a deep breath.
"So, I don't exactly have great prospects. With my grades, I would be lucky to get into a university, and I never really had much of a passion for anything."
"What about food?"
"I'm a terrible cook, and people don't really pay you for eating. More importantly, I never thought I had any kind of talent, but it turns out I have a bit of a knack for combat, right?" He stared intently at and refused to continue until I nodded along. "I talked with Roland about this too, and he also agreed. Normally I wouldn't know where to begin making a living with that, but as it just happens, my best pal just founded a brand new organization with a monopoly on ass-kicking, and it's all about beating up bad guys."
"Wait… Are you telling you want to join the Ordo Draconis?"
Josh nodded with the utmost seriousness.
"Yep. I an, Roland said I would certainly make the cut, and they are already looking into recruiting Draconians into the organization to shore up the numbers, so I would fit right in. I an, as far as Elly's dad explained to after the tournant, everyone thinks I'm a distant descendant of so fallen Draconian clan who won the genetic lottery. I think he called it 'bloodline recession'?"
"I'm pretty sure it's 'regression', and… that's actually not a terrible idea." Josh was looking at expectantly, so I explained, "Dad-in-law is right; after what happened at the tournant, everyone's convinced that you're a Draconian. Since the Ordo Draconis is already recruiting them, we could use it as a pretense to hide your tree in our forest, so to speak."
"Right. That would… be useful?"
"Of course, it would be useful. Rember, we're still trying to keep your almighty chosen one status under wraps. The longer everyone's convinced that you're 'just' a Draconian from an unknown bloodline, the better."
"Huh. I expected so resistance to the idea," Josh muttered, then tentatively asked, "Does that an I'm in?"
"Sure. Tell Roland I gave you the green light, and…"
"… And what?" When I didn't answer right away, my friend raised his hands in indignation once again. "Co on, man! You can't just leave hanging like that!"
Ignoring his protest, I let the gears in my brain spin for a while, and only once I was sure my worries weren't unfounded did I point a finger at the guy.
"Before anything else, answer this: How is your relationship going with Angie?"
"Erm… That's kind of out of the blue."
"Nope." I wagged my finger for emphasis. "This is important. Did you two co clear and moved past this silly 'test dating' phase already?"
"Well… uh… I was planning to do it during Valentine's, because it's thematic and stuff, so… I guess my answer is 'not yet'."
I did my best to stifle the groan clawing at my throat and only shook my head instead.
"That's not good. Get it done ASAP, preferably before we go back ho."
"Do I really have to? And what does my love life have to do with anything we talked about until now anyway?"
"More than you would think." Josh raised a skeptical brow at that comnt, so I resolved myself to explain the situation. "Fine. Listen up: you know that the Draconians are really particular about the bloodlines, right?"
"Yes?"
Ignoring how much his answer sounded like a question, I once again pointed at his dense mug.
"Think about who you are, in their eyes. You're a young Draconian who ca out of nowhere, not affiliated with any of the clans, and as your first public act, you not only subdued a rampaging Knight, you also triumphed over both the heiress of the Dracis family and the young master of the Feilong clan in a big tournant specifically designed to draw attention to young talents. At this mont, you're probably the single most desirable bachelor on the island, and I wouldn't be surprised if once the dust settles down, the clans would start throwing every available bachelorette at you."
"That… sounds bad?"
"It is, trust . So, if you want to avoid spending every day dodging pretty Draconian girls throwing themselves at you to have your babies, you better put on your lucky underpants, sit down, resolve your relationship with Angie, and start acting like a lovey-dovey idiot couple in public ASAP."
"Yeah, sure. Because it's just that easy…" Josh scoffed, like I just told him sothing unreasonable, but before I could emphasize how important this was, we were interrupted by the glass door (or rather, the small chine attached to it) making a tinkling noise as Roland and Duncan entered the bath.
"I hope we are not interrupting anything," Mr. Griffon noted as he ca over. He had a bright blue towel slung over his shoulder, but otherwise, he was only wearing swimming trunks, showing off his lean yet well-toned body. He even had a solid six-pack, which made a little jealous, as even though I've been consistently working out, I couldn't quite manage one yet. Duncan, on the other hand, was wearing a speedo, and he was just a silly pose and so body oil away from looking like a young bodybuilder. As for his stomach, he was apparently one of the rare people with an eight-pack, and he was bloody flaunting it.
"'main 'en, gie in th' water! A'am freezin' mah balls aff ower haur!"
"Please excuse the intrusion."
"This is a public bath, you're not intruding anywhere," I told Roland, and made so space for him. Instead, it was Duncan who jumped first into the water.
"Aw! T'is hoot!"
"Of course it is. It's a hot spring," Josh noted with just a hint of schadenfreude, while Roland slowly shook his head.
"You're supposed to slowly imrse yourself in the water, like this."
"Aye, aye. Bite ."
The big guy grumbled, then slipped even deeper into the water, until only his face from the nose up was visible. anwhile, Roland slowly acclimated to the temperature difference and settled down next to .
"I managed to contact Sir Percival."
"That was quick," I noted a touch expectantly.
"As it turned out, Penelope had his e-mail address all along. He told he will arrive on the island soti next week, and that he'll ssage again once he booked his flight." He paused here, as if gauging my reaction, then added, "He asked why you didn't tell him about what happened, and I told him you lost your mories."
"For the record, I still rember the tis when that used to be a big secret," Josh noted on the side, and then followed it up with a shrug when I didn't react.
"Did he ask anything else?"
"No. I believe he will want to discuss what happened in private with you. Conversely, if you wish to ssage him, I can give you his address."
"No need. I'll cross that bridge when the bridge arrives on the island. For now, let rest a bit longer."
"Yeah, coz ye arenae sleepin' tonecht," Duncan chid in between two chuckles.
"Duncan, please," Roland ca to my defense, but I raised a hand to stall him.
"Just leave him be." After saying so, I shifted my posture so that I would be subrsed up to my shoulders, and after successfully resisting the urge to Far Glance at the girls to find out what they had in store for , I softly added, "He's not exactly wrong, you know…"
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