Chapter 17 – A Quiet Night

“Haaah…”

I let out a drained sigh as I soaked in the bathtub. After returning from the Adventurer Guild, I immediately heated the bath. By placing a Magic Stone in the recess in the wall to raise the temperature and adding water from the middle waterway to lower it… that’s how I adjusted it.

Today, I made the water a bit hotter.

Whether it should be called the first time or after a long time, I’m not sure, but I feel the tension and fatigue from delving into the Labyrinth dissolving into the hot water.

—Somehow. Even though I understand it logically, there’s a part of me that… keeps turning things over in my head.

Oh, right. With all the commotion, I completely forgot to get information about the Alchemist. Seriously. I need to get my act together.

I’ll make sure to check properly the next time I show my face at the Guild. Buying furniture, tidying up the garden… There are many things to do, so I mustn’t forget.

“Theodore-sama.”

While looking up at the ceiling and lost in thought, a modest knocking sound echoed from the changing room.

Taking one deep breath, I shifted my mindset.

It’s fine. It’s fine. I can swallow these things too and move forward.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I’ve prepared your change of clothes here.”

We conversed through the door.

“…Thank you. I think you know this, but Grace, please use the bath too.”

If I don’t say this, she might go outside to bathe or make do with ablutions, even though we have Magic Stones at home and can use the bath.

If this were the Count’s household… there would be people who’d persistently say things like it’s outrageous for servants to use the same bath as their master, or that servants must never eat at the same table. Like the steward, or Kathryn.

That might be correct as general common sense, but I have no intention of living such a rigid life even after coming here, and there’s no one to say such things now. As long as they understand it’s necessary for external appearances or propriety, that should be enough. When I was living with Mother, we didn’t have such things either.

“Thank you very much. But, is it really alright?”

“…It’s fine. When I lived with Mother, we did it that way, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s nostalgic.”

On the other side of the door, she seemed to smile a little.

“In the old days, we even bathed together sometimes.”

“…Did we? I don’t really remember.”

“Theodore-sama was very small back then. It’s not strange that you don’t remember.”

That must have been before I was five, huh.

What I remember isn’t so much bathing together as having Grace help me with bathing. And that was only for a short while after I was taken in by the Count’s family.

At the Count’s house, they taught that servants should assist their employer’s children with bathing and changing clothes, and Grace followed that too… but after a while, I told Grace that neither was necessary anymore and refused.

The reason goes without saying. Because the bruises and fresh wounds never ceased. I didn’t want Grace to see such things.

But. I remember well the sad face Grace made when I told her I could do it myself and didn’t need help.

“Ah. If you’d like, shall I wash your back like in the old days?”

That—I wonder? Grace’s voice has the tone of having thought of something good.

…Well, I’m hardly at the age where I need help bathing anymore.

But, the original reason for refusing is gone now. And if it made Grace feel lonely, maybe it’s alright just for today.

“After so long… that might be nice.”

After wrapping the cloth I had on my head around my waist, I sat on the edge of the bath and answered that way.

“Then, excuse me.”

Looking over my shoulder toward the bathroom door, I saw Grace enter the bathroom, having rolled up the sleeves of her maid uniform.

She wet the cloth with hot water, poured liquid soap onto it, worked it into a lather, and carefully washed my back.

It’s called liquid soap, but to be precise, it’s something similar to soap. This is something I bought at the Market on the way back.

From around the 20th floor underground, you can go to an area called the Dusk Forest, where trees called Savona Trees grow wild. Their sap is quite excellent, and when mixed and blended with preferred fragrances or medicines, it can be used just like soap.

“You have a scar on your back.”

“It’s an old one.”

The new bruises should have faded by now.

I have an idea about the scar around where Grace touched.

Her slender fingertips traced over the scar as they touched it.

“Grace… it’s a bit ticklish, you know.”

“…That… I’m sorry.”

Even though she apologized that way, for some reason, she reached around over my shoulder and lightly hugged me.

“…Grace?”

“—I’m sorry. This is also like the old days. Today, the backlash from releasing the Cursed Tool keeps coming back intermittently… and I know that doing this helps me feel calm. Please let me stay like this just a little longer.”

Like the old days, huh. There were times when Grace would hug me after returning from hunting, and we’d sleep together.

My memories from that time are really vague. But I remember Grace. I was anxious, but with Grace, I could sleep peacefully at night.

That was during the period after Mother died and before Father found out. Father was away in Termwills at that time… so he learned of Mother’s death quite late.

Anyway, we didn’t rely on anyone. Did Grace intend to imitate Mother? She’d go into the forest in her Released Form to hunt Monsters and animals… and that’s how we managed to eat.

So that’s the reason why I slept hugged by Grace back then.

I understood it as Grace being anxious herself… or that she was considerate of me, or something like that.

“And… recently, Theodore-sama feels like you’re running off on your own, no matter where. If I don’t do this, it feels like you might go somewhere someday. Please don’t… overdo it, alright?”

Does anxiety… connect to the backlash of the bloodsucking impulse? Am I making Grace overdo it?

Or is Grace saying this but doing this because she thinks I’ve taken mental damage from today’s events?

“I’m not overdoing it. …Grace, you’re the one accompanying me to the Labyrinth and such. If you don’t like it, you can say so.”

She probably wouldn’t approve of me going to the Labyrinth alone. Well, I understand that.

That’s precisely why I want to hear her true feelings properly.

“Even Lisa-sama fought Monsters to supplement her livelihood, didn’t she? I think it’s fine for me to do that too. So I have absolutely no complaints about delving into the Labyrinth itself. Besides, this time I can be with Theodore-sama. I too… am much more satisfied than when I was in that house.”

“Then… that’s good.”

I was hugged from behind for a while, but eventually, Grace moved away and said this.

“Thank you very much. I feel calmer now.”

“Mhm. I feel calmer too.”

“…As I thought, were you brooding over it?”

“…Not to the extent of brooding. It’s the same for you too, right Grace?”

“Yes. I don’t think I was mistaken.”

That’s… the same as Grace too. How much we’re really thinking inside, we probably shouldn’t ask each other outright, and it’s not something we should touch upon either.

It’s probably better to accept things like this and move forward. I don’t want to be on the side that’s taken from, but that doesn’t mean I want to be on the side that takes either. —Because I don’t want to fall to the same level as those people.

Warm water was poured over my shoulders from behind, washing away the soap suds.

“…Shall I wash your hair too?”

“Ah… Well, since we’re at it, please do.”

For today… let’s just pretend we’ve returned to the old days and spend a relaxing time with Grace.

While having my hair washed by Grace, I thought such things.

After this, Grace will probably take a bath too. After that… let’s cook together or something. That part is different from the old days when I relied entirely on Grace.