“It’s a required subject during physical training.”
Hetor’s voice held no compromise.
“...Swimming?”
Hetor’s voice held no compromise.
“...Swimming?”
“Right. Since we’ll be traveling by boat all day, it’d be good to learn swimming... Good.”
“Why learn swimming if you’re going by boat? It’s not dangerous unless someone pushes you.”
“!”
Melanie had just returned from the hot springs and was exhausted, so she wasn’t particularly interested in Hetor’s suggestion.
“Can’t we do it tomorrow afternoon?”
“Do you think the ocean is as safe as land?”
Hetor raised his voice without realizing it.
“If someone pushes you during the day, they’ll at least see you. What if it happens at night? Your hair is already dark.”
“Well, if someone pushes me, you find them and take revenge. Is that okay?”
Melanie threw herself onto the bed.
Hetor snapped.
“Do you think someone has too much time on their hands?”
“Then why are you doing this?”
"Yeah, we don't have much time to spare, so why am I doing this?"
Hetor himself couldn't understand.
But Melanie's joking question sent a gentle ripple through his chest.
"Aren't you doing this because you still have feelings for me?"
"..."
Hetor, unable to readily answer Melanie's question, began to scare her with extremely unlikely scenarios.
"A storm could hit while we're en route, or we could hit a reef and sink."
"Ugh, that's not possible."
"Or maybe you come out to the stalls at night to get some fresh air, stumble, and fall into the sea. What would you do then?"
Hetor lashed out, seeing Melanie looking up at him in fear.
"Don't say such terrible things!"
"I wouldn't know if I was right there with you, but what would you do if you were to wander around like a colt without me and fall overboard?"
Even though she can't swim.
Hector kept talking without pause, spewing it out as if delivering a speech.
Melanie listened intently to Hetor, like a model student attentive to every word her teacher gave her. Then, with a determined expression, she said,
“Then I must learn! But there’s something else I want to learn besides swimming. Tell me that too. Then I’ll go.”
She abruptly rose from the bed and made a deal.
“...I think you’re mistaken. This isn’t a deal.”
Hetor, seeing Melanie’s brightened expression, finally asked what she wanted.
“What do you want to learn?”
“That... I’ll tell you later.”
Her expression suggested a hidden agenda, but Hetor, feeling annoyed, didn’t press any further.
“But where do you want to go swimming?”
“If you go into the palace forest, won’t there be any stream water? Change your clothes.”
“I hate the cold! Even in the middle of summer, I can’t go into stream water, and you’re going to throw me in stream water on a cool autumn night?”
Melanie pretended to shiver, and Hetor muttered quietly,
“I can’t help it. Then we have to go there.”
“Where...?”
***
Hetor placed the basket and oil lamp he had brought from Melanie’s quarters on the floor.
The basket contained his own change of clothes, as well as an extra dress and towel for her to change into after swimming.
“Let’s get started.”
Hetor took off his uniform jacket and placed it on the floor.
“This is the spa... You’re teaching me how to swim here?”
Melanie had been skeptical until Hetor headed toward the cypress forest.
“You said you didn’t like the cold.”
Hetor entered the spa first and extended his hand to Melanie.
He didn’t want to, but he had already dismissed all the attendants, so there was no one to take her side, no matter how much she protested.
Melanie took off her shoes, took Hetor’s hand, and entered the spa.
Hetor pulled her hand.
“It’d be better to go deeper.”
“Can’t you just teach me here?”
“If you’re going to learn, you should go to a deep place.”
“It’s still a little scary... Oh my!”
When Melanie stopped, Hetor lifted her up and waded through the water to the deeper water.
"You're not going to die. Don't be ridiculous."
Hetor lowered her down to just below her chest.
"It's best to start from this depth. Try to float like this. Keep your head underwater."
Hetor grabbed both of her hands and said.
Melanie took a deep breath and dipped her head into the water.
“Haa, you have to float both feet too. Who would put their head in the water?”
“My body won’t float. What do I do? Huh? What are you doing?”
Melanie’s body slumped flat on the surface of the hot spring water.
“I’ll hold on to you, so kick your feet and move forward. Keep your hands out in front of you.”
Hetor lifted her waist and legs to the side and said,
“Like this?”
Melanie eagerly kicked her feet, following the pose Hetor had shown her.
“Yes. Keep going.”
Perhaps because her body was naturally light, Melanie floated well for the first time.
About 30 minutes passed.
When Hetor gently released her waist and legs, she remained in that position and didn’t sink.
Fortunately, she seemed to have a talent for swimming, even if she wasn’t good at swordsmanship.
Melanie, resilient from the footwork, swam closer and closer to the highest point of the spa.
Hetor completely removed his hands from her body and watched her.
After a moment, she raised her head, gasping for breath, and exclaimed excitedly,
"I'm doing pretty well for a first time, right? Let me go now. I think I can do it on my own."
"You're doing it alone right now. Just keep doing it."
"...What?"
Melanie turned her head in the direction of Hetor's voice.
Really?
I was really swimming alone, wasn't I?
She was quite a distance from where Hetor was standing.
"But I thought you said this place wasn't a place where feet could touch?"
She remembered what a knight had said when she'd visited the spa earlier in the day.
Panicked, Melanie lowered her feet without realizing it.
There was no way her feet could touch the bottom.
She struggled, her head submerged, then emerged.
"Wh-how scary...whoa!"
She panicked, flailing her arms, but the more she did, the more water entered her mouth and nose.
"Shit."
Hetor swam to where she was and scooped her up as she disappeared underwater.
“Hey, wake up! Do you hear me?”
He slung Melanie over his shoulder and repeatedly patted her back.
She’d only been underwater for a few seconds, but was she already unconscious?
A strange thought crossed his mind, but self-reproach outweighed it.
He climbed out of the spa and laid the sagging Melanie flat on the floor.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he lifted Melanie’s chin, parted her lips, and breathed into her.
“Whew!”
He breathed in a few more breaths, then pressed his hands against her chest.
Then...
“Ouch! My breastbone is going to break!”
Melanie closed her eyes, caressing her pit of the stomach with her hand. She met Hetor’s eyes, then lowered her hand and closed her eyes again.
“...You didn’t faint, did you?”
Hetor’s words made her squeeze her eyes tighter.
“Get up and sit down. Can’t you hear me? I said Get up!”
His shock turned to bewilderment, then finally anger.
Hetor tapped Melanie's arm, but she didn't budge.
Out of frustration, Hetor threw her back into the hot springs.
"Uh-huh! What are you doing!"
Melanie shouted with a loud scraping sound.
"Are you finally coming to your senses? Why did you pretend to faint?"
"I was startled when my feet couldn't touch the ground. And I got wet! But... we just kissed, right?"
Melanie asked, playing with her lips.
"You pretended to drown on purpose?"
To kiss like that?
"Why are you looking at me so fiercely? It was just a joke."
"What are you going to do with a guy like me?"
Ugh, I'll get married like Her Highness Rosie.
Even as the Queen of an island nation teeming with barbarians, it'll still be a hundred times better than being a pure imperial concubine.
But Melanie couldn't bring herself to reveal her grand dream.
Instead, she let her emotions show.
“I want to experience love too, why?”
As she said the words, she felt sad.
“His Majesty has never been interested in me. Even Her Highness Rosie became the Princess of the Pasha Empire. And this is still a secret, but Her Highness Catherine is also in a relationship with Count Ethan, the head of the palace blacksmith shop...”
“!”
“Only I am not, only me!”
“...So. Am I the one you finally chose?”
Hetor burst out laughing, dumbfounded.
“His Majesty, he's not that tight-fisted. All he needs is Her Highness Zelda. So, if I find someone I like, he’ll let me go like Her Highness Rosie.”
“Why are you saying that to me? Melanie, just mess around.”
You don’t even know what kind of person I am...
Hetor frowned, ruffling the back of his hair.
“Do you hate me? Why? Because I’m stupid?”
She wasn’t stupid. She just didn’t think much of it.
Hetor shook his head unconsciously at Melanie’s words.
“Or because I’m not pretty?”
“Enough.”
He flinched at the words he blurted out without realizing it.
Melanie, who had been chattering loudly, also fell silent.
Hetor broke the silence by reentering the hot springs.
“Just keep swimming.”
“Teach me something other than swimming. You promised me before you came here.”
“What do you want to learn?”
“How to kiss...?”
“Did you drink so much water that you lost your mind?”
“We just kissed, but tell me again.”
Melanie spoke uncharacteristically and checked hia reaction.
Hetor stared intently into her eyes and snorted.
How could you even consider that a kiss?
“Who blows a lot of air into their mouths when they kiss?”
“Really?”
“You don’t need air when you kiss. This is all you need.”
“What kind? ...Ugh!”
A dry sensation flowed between Melanie’s lips.
It felt like her entire mouth was being immersed in a hot spring.
Her first kiss had been incredibly hot and rough.
***
I was deeply troubled.
I thought and thought.
Should I tell Linel about what happened at the hot springs today, or should I live up to the saying that ignorance is bliss and keep it a secret for the rest of my life?
If the concubines were people he would never see again, I wouldn’t have told him about today.
But since they were people he would see again in the palace, it could never be a secret.
Someone might run into him on a walk and playfully greet him with a "Peekaboo, Your Majesty?" Or a concubine might approach him, performing the same shoulder dance he'd done.
So, I waited for him to return to his quarters after his evening duties. Just as Linel emerged from his shower, slowly untied the laces of his robe, and was about to kiss me, I forcefully pushed him away.
Instead of kissing, I held his hands and calmly recounted Moni's exploits at the spa while she was inside him.
Even though I'd only mentioned the most crucial details, he was deeply distressed.
After he'd emptied half of his bottle of liquor, he summoned all his aides to the bedroom.
"Everyone, sit down."
Linel commanded, taking a seat in the middle of the bedroom floor.
Sharon, Raphael, and the troublemaking young wyvern looked at each other and down at him, sitting cross-legged on the marble floor.
The heat seemed to rise from above him, like a hot spring.
"Zelda, bring a cushion and sit down."
Even though he was angry, I was grateful that he was still looking after me.
“I should bring a cushion, too, Moiya~.”
“Bring mine too.”
“You guys just sit down!”
Linel’s anger echoed throughout the bedroom.
The two innocent humans collapsed on the floor, while the young wyverns who had caused the accident dove under the bed, retrieved their own cushions, and sat down on them.
No one had told them to kneel, but the fact that they were both kneeling suggested they were aware of their mistake.
They must have sensed Linel’s considerable displeasure and were making the slightest effort to please him.
They didn’t seem to be deeply remorseful.
Everyone, including Raphael, another victim, and Sharon, who had been caught off guard, sat in a circle.
“We got a tip.”
His single word sent a wave of tension through the circle.
“I heard I danced at the hot springs?”
“Aww! You were really excited, Moni~.”
Moni, unable to read the atmosphere, raised her arms and shook her shoulders.
Linel swallowed hard and mentioned his next atrocity.
“And as if that wasn’t enough, I even played peek-a-boo with the concubines... right?”
“Everyone was having so much fun, the atmosphere was really great, wasn’t it, Moya~?”
Linel gritted his teeth, his eyes knowing exactly what he must have looked like.
He took a moment to lower his head and sigh deeply.
During that moment, Moiya opened his eyes wide and whispered to Sharon,
“Sharon, look me in the eye. Did you flirt with me?”
Sharon shook her head from side to side with a look of injustice on her face, then stopped when our eyes met.
Moiya, who caught that moment, asked me with a look of resentment.
“...Are you the informant, Master?!”
“Quiet.”
Thankfully, he cut Moni off and continued sternly.
“The informant isn’t important. What’s important is that you two insulted me in front of the concubines today.”
“It wasn’t indignation, you just showed your chest muscles?”
“Ugh-.”
I frowned at Moiya, who seemed to be sensing the mood, then losing it, and gave her a hint.
“But I’m being treated unfairly, right, Moiya~? Moni was the one who danced and played peek-a-boo. Why are you turning your blue eyes on me, too?”
“You pushed me, you. Entered my body.”
Raphael took this opportunity to hit Moiya on the head with a hammer and scolded him.
“Ohhhh?! You’re a human, but you hit this great wyvern? Kwaaak-!”
Moiya, enraged, suddenly breathed fire at Raphael.
“Ugh!”
Raphael quickly threw his body back and dodged the flames, but the flames from Moiya’s mouth traveled quite a distance.
The flames faintly touched Raphael’s clothes.
“...Huh, huh? Oh, no!!”
The tip of the flames Moiya had breathed ended up right at Raphael’s zipper.
The imperial’s open pants began to burn.
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