The place we arrived at was the bathhouse located closest to the academy in the city. It is quite large, and since it is the nearest location to the academy, I’ve heard that the academy students often use it. Since the dormitory only has showers instead of a bathhouse, if one wants to take a bath, they have no choice but to go outside the academy.
“Yeah. It’s a bathhouse, right? Why?”
That was Anne’s question about what the problem was. Sure, after finishing exercise, going to a bathhouse with friends is fine. I too used to join other colleagues in the guild’s bathhouse after training during my days as an assassin. However, after coming to the academy, I have only been using the personal shower in my single room instead of the shared shower that mostly four-person room students use.
It is much more comfortable, and naturally, there is no need to worry about being seen. No matter how much my body has become that of a woman, and even though I have already grown accustomed to seeing my own body, seeing another woman’s body is a different story. Of course, even if I were to secretly or openly look at other women’s bodies, no one would suspect me. But I’m not the type of person who can brush off such things without a conscience.
Moreover, the biggest reason why I absolutely do not use public showers or a bathhouse is something else entirely.
“Um… There’s a pretty nice cafe we went to last time? How about we go there?”
“Really? Then let’s quickly go in the bathhouse and then go!”
It won’t do. In Anne’s mind, going into the bathhouse is already a foregone conclusion.
“Either way, even if we go into the bathhouse, we won’t have clothes to change into, so it’s the same feeling, right? So why don’t we…”
“Ah, the bathhouse here mainly serves the academy students, so they use Clean Magic to wash the clothes too, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
Yuli’s response immediately sunk my last hope. Even though Clean Magic is a low-level spell, using it as a service for business—it must be enough to say that it’s somewhat successful commerce in the academy city?
Holding onto my last glimmer of hope, I spoke to Selian.
“Selian, you said earlier that it didn’t matter as long as it was somewhere I wanted to go, right? So let’s go to the cafe…”
Before I could finish, Selian was shaking her head vigorously. The force with which she shook her head was quite frightening. Selian’s face was turning red, and in a somewhat excited voice, she opened her mouth.
“No! I also… I also want to go into the bathhouse because the sweat bothers me! Yes!”
There was no sign of an escape path. As I hesitated, unable to decide, Anne grabbed my hand and pulled me into the bathhouse.
*
After paying the fee at the counter, we entered the changing room. I stood as close to the locker as possible to minimize my field of vision. The thought of other girls seeing my naked body made me feel embarrassed from the perspective of my former male self, but remembering that the body others saw was not my old body but the same woman’s body, there was nothing particularly strange about it.
I couldn’t just stand there, so I took off my jacket and hung it up. Then, one by one, I unbuttoned my blouse and slowly took it off.
Next, I went downwards. I unzipped my skirt and slowly took it off. All that remained was my underwear.
Now that I had gotten used to putting on and taking off my bra, I moved my hand behind my back and unclasped the hook. As I did, the two perky breasts that had been concealed revealed themselves. Though it was my body, I was unsure whether I felt embarrassed looking at another woman’s body or embarrassed that others were seeing this body; my face felt flushed.
To enter the bathhouse, I had to be naked. Thus, it was obvious that I needed to take off my remaining panties. However, while the other clothes slipped off easily, I hesitated to take off my panties.
It wasn’t simply because I felt embarrassed about showing it to others.
“I’ll go in first!”
“Ah!”
Already finished with her clothes, Anne lightly slapped my back and went trotting towards the bath. The contact of bare skin, brushing against the unfamiliar sensation along my back, made a sound escape my lips. Glancing back, I noticed Selian, who had only just removed her jacket, staring at me intently. Her face was flushed.
…The one feeling embarrassed here should be me.
Anyway, now that only my panties remained, I was fatefully bound to take them off. However, I had to covertly hide the Master-Slave Mark engraved on my lower abdomen. Whether it was affected by the magic of transformation or my body being reconstructed, the shape and position of the Master-Slave Mark had changed from the simple circular design to a heart shape with something wing-like extending from it. The position, which had been on my chest, had moved to my lower abdomen. Thanks to its size and position being just barely covered by my panties, I had managed to hide it until now. However, the current situation, where I needed to be completely naked, was quite dangerous.
There weren’t many uses for the Master-Slave Mark, but those marked by it were mostly people from the shadows. The most common usage was in slave trading, but it was also utilized in assassin guilds like mine, where betrayal was feared.
If Selian were to discover the Master-Slave Mark etched on me, it would provide enough evidence for her to suspect that I was an assassin dispatched to kill her.
Thus, I held up the towel I had brought to cover my front and swiftly yanked off my panties.
Checking around to see if anyone noticed, I noticed Yuli was just taking off her panties, so I quickly turned away, and Selian was still staring at me without having taken off her clothes. However, she wore a somewhat displeased expression. I wondered why it was so strange to cover my front with a towel while it was just women together, but as I looked around, I noticed that although there were few, I wasn’t the only one doing so. So there was no problem. Thankfully, there was no sign that she had noticed the Master-Slave Mark.
“Uh, then I’ll go in first?”
I was sure I hadn’t been caught, but I could feel Selian’s gaze firmly on me as I headed towards the bath. It’s okay, it’s okay, I repeated to myself, trying to ignore her stare as I entered the bath.
As I stepped into the bath, I felt the unique warmth and humidity on my skin. Sensitive skin reacts sharply even to such things.
Indeed, since this bathhouse primarily serves academy students, I saw many kids who looked like students. To avoid looking at their bodies, I relaxed my eyes and intentionally blurred my focus. I wasn’t bold or accustomed enough to look boldly at other people’s naked bodies yet.
Out of the blurred sight, I spotted a small red-haired kid energetically switching between the cold bath and the hot bath. No matter how much Anne might act like a child, she wouldn’t behave like that. So the little red-haired kid in my blurred vision couldn’t possibly be Anne.
…At least, I want to believe that.
Leaving behind the unidentifiable little red-haired kid, I went to the showerhead in the farthest corner, separated by partitions, to wash my body. I could only temporarily place my towel aside, but as long as I didn’t turn my body, the risk of exposing the mark on my lower abdomen was very low. Still, just to be safe, I lathered up some foam to cover my lower abdomen.
“El?”
While I was diligently washing my body, I heard Anne’s voice behind me. Anticipating Anne’s playful antics, I was ready when her hand dug into my armpit. Since I anticipated this, I quickly lowered my arm and grabbed her hand between my armpits. I expected her to tickle me.
However, Anne’s actions went a step further than I anticipated.
“Hyak!”
Anne’s hand, which had gone into my armpit, kneaded my perky breast. Unlike when I would do it myself, I felt a new sensation that tickled my entire body, and I was taken aback. After a moment of panic, feeling an inexplicable sensation, I pushed Anne’s hand away and covered my breasts with both hands.
“W-What are you doing…!”
“But El’s breasts look just right in my hands, soft, and I was curious~ Don’t you think so, Yuli? Selian?”
Anne turned to Yuli and Selian, who were sitting next to us for support.
Yuli and Selian nodded at Anne’s words.
“…Can I touch them too?”
“I-I want to as well…”
Rather than stopping Anne’s actions, they seemed to be nudged to join in, fidgeting with their bodies. Their beautiful bodies caught my eye, but I was too frightened by their gazes on me to care. Wondering if this kind of physical contact was natural among women, I glanced around to see if there were any other groups of friends behaving like us, but I didn’t see anyone acting that way.
“It’s… not possible, right?!”
“Oh! Then let’s just wash each other’s backs! That’s okay, right?”
“…If we’re just washing backs.”
Fearing that my breasts might not be mine any longer, I quickly accepted Anne’s suggestion. Then I caught a glimpse of Yuli’s and Selian’s faces, who looked somewhat disappointed. Why are they acting like this about my breasts?
Eventually, we sat down in the order of Anne, Yuli, me, and Selian to wash each other’s backs. I placed the towel over my thighs to cover my lower abdomen just in case, but since we were only facing each other’s backs, there was no risk of exposing the Master-Slave Mark.
As I washed Yuli’s smooth back with the towel, every time Selian’s hand touched my back over the towel, I couldn’t help but tremble unintentionally, wondering what I was doing at that moment. How did my circumstances become like this…? In fact, despite having been in a future where I could have ended up with blood on my hands, this future, where I was washing another girl’s back in a woman’s body, was much better. However, the problem was that my mindset felt pitifully fragile.
After washing each other’s backs, I turned to wash Selian’s back, who was sitting alone at the back and hadn’t washed her back yet. Unlike Yuli’s back, Selian’s back was firm and muscular. I could feel how much effort Selian had put in.
We tossed some water on each other and all entered one of the empty small baths located in the corner. I couldn’t put the towel into the water, but I managed to slowly sink my body into the water while still precariously covering my body with the towel. After all, my mark wouldn’t be visible past the rippling surface, so I was safe now. However, I had to be cautious when getting out of the water again.
But I realized my assumption that I was safe was naive. As I was comfortably having a conversation without needing to turn my gaze since I was in the water up to my chest, Anne ducked her head underwater. I tried to let it pass as inevitable, knowing that I had seen her antics before.
“Fuha!”
After holding her breath for a while, Anne popped up from the water and gasped for air.
“How was it? I held it for quite a while, right?”
“Anne, you shouldn’t do that; it could disturb others.”
Selian admonished Anne with a gentle voice. Thankfully we were in a small bath, but if there had been other people around, it would have definitely been a nuisance. Of course, since Anne isn’t without common sense, she wouldn’t act like that when other people were present.
…Right?
As I was having such useless thoughts, Anne tilted her head and spoke to me.
“By the way, El, did you hurt your belly?”
“Uh…? What do you mean…?”
“But it looks like there’s an injury on your belly or something?”
“H-Haha… That can’t be. You must have seen it wrong. If I were injured, I would know.”
The thing running down my neck was not water droplets, but rather beads of sweat.
“Is that so?”
Fortunately, Anne let it slide. At times like this, I was thankful for her straightforward personality.
“Uh, should we head out then? At this rate, the cafe will close.”
“Ah~ I agree! I agree!”
“Wow, has the time gone by so quickly? Let’s head out.”
Thankfully, Anne and Yuli glanced at the clock hanging in the bath and agreed with my suggestion as we made our way to the changing room.
In the meantime, Selian looked somewhat dissatisfied, glancing at me as if she was reluctant to leave the bath. But according to the principle of majority rule, she had no justification for opposing it!
Still, just in case, I got up quickly from my seat and headed towards the exit of the bath, of course, covering myself with the towel. Selian, who had been feeling regretful, followed me outside without opposing my move as I stood up.
When we returned to the changing room and opened the locker, it was indeed enchanted with Clean Magic; the clothes I had put inside were nicely dried. The most urgent one was my panties. As long as I wore the panties, I could at least cover the mark. So, the moment I picked up the panties, Yuli, who was changing clothes in the locker next to mine, reached her hand out from behind me and grabbed my breast, just like Anne had done.
“Eh!”
“Hyah!”
However, unlike with Anne, I was caught off guard by Yuli’s unexpected attack and ended up dropping the towel and panties I was holding. Since her hand had reached from the right, I naturally turned my body to the left to brush her hand away, but the direction was poor.
To my left was Selian’s locker. Naturally, Selian met my gaze, and then her eyes naturally followed the falling towel downwards.
Quickly, I covered my chest with one arm while using the other hand to cover my lower abdomen. However, no matter how fast I tried to move, I couldn’t move faster than the eyes. She must have seen it. Especially the one person I didn’t want to see it—Selian.
“…Did you see?”
She probably did, but I asked in a dying voice, holding onto a futile hope. However, Selian remained silent. But I could tell that her silence was indeed an answer. Selian had definitely seen the Master-Slave Mark on my lower abdomen and harbored doubts and disappointment about me.
I quickly picked up the panties from the floor to prevent anyone else from noticing and cautiously glanced at Selian. Her gaze was still directed at my body, making it impossible for our eyes to meet.
What should I say as an excuse? How can I get past this? Should I flee tomorrow, even if it means being a fugitive?
As my mind was racing with various thoughts, finally, Selian opened her mouth.
“I…”
Huh?
“I want to touch it too…”
Thank goodness. It seemed she hadn’t seen it. But that’s not the point—
“Of course, that’s not okay!!!”
This is separate from that!
