The water’s great, isn’t it?

“Who are you?”

Maki’s severe voice sounded. That being said, Maki and Chiharu weren’t wearing anything. So it was still an awkward situation.

“I’m Ramo.”
“I’m Moa.”
“Alectro.”
“Erulian.”

They introduced themselves eagerly.

“I’m not asking for your names!”

Maki shouted.

“But you just did.”
“If you say, ‘who are you?’”
“Then of course, we’ll tell you are names.”
“Exactly.”

Could anything be more annoying? Maki sighed deeply.

“Listen to me, alright? In the human world, it’s a crime to look while a woman is taking a bath. And so when I said ‘who’ I was talking about someone suspicious. What are you?”
“I see. For that, I am sorry.”

The birdfolk apologized. However, they did not go anywhere. Maki’s head was boiling now.

“Look here…”
“AHHH!!”

Chiharu’s scream overlapped with Maki’s words. Well, it was more of a shout than a scream.

“GAAHH! Ga! Gyaaah!”
“You sure have a low voice, Chiharu.”
“You do it too, Maki!”
“Fine! Gyaaahhh!”

The four birdfolk looked a little frantic as Sauro, Saikania, and the others came flying down. Maki turned to look at Chiharu.

“Sauro came for us!”
“Gyaah!”
“Chiharu?”
“Sauro isn’t wearing clothes!”
“Woah! Neither is Saikania! Gyaaah!!’

It must be said, for Sauro and Saikania’s sake, that while they were not wearing clothes, they covered themselves with their feathers. Beastkin were able to conveniently transform.

“Ramo, Alectro. What are you doing!”
“Bah! It’s Sauro.”

The bird person called Ramo said with disgust. That was when large gray and golden dogs jumped out. They flew high in the air towards the birdfolk. Oh, the birdfolk dodged them. The dogs landed lightly on the ground.

“Rasche! So cool!”
“No! It’s Zynis and Ortha!”

And then finally, Alyssa came in her human form, and assessed the situation. Then she brought them towels.

“Stop this already! How shameless do you have to be to disturb the Saintesses while they are taking a bath!”

Her voice cut through the chaos and everyone paused to look at her.

“Very good. You are all calm now. Maki, Chiharu. Come over here.”

She said as she spread out the huge towels in front of them.

“Uh, Alyssa…”
“Thank you, Alyssa.”
“Yes, now come over here.”

And though she was spreading the towels, everyone was still present. If they got out and were wrapped up in the towel, they would have to be naked in front of everyone.

“Anyway, can you all leave now?”

Maki said. Ortha seemed to finally realize as she urged Zynis and signaled to Saikania. Saikania shouted at Sauro and he dragged away the other birdfolk. The place was finally quiet.

“Finally some peace.”
“I wanted to stay a little longer.”

Alyssa looked at them with amusement and said,

“You don’t have to get out if you don’t want to. I will guard the place you. Or would women be a problem too?”
“Not at all. I wouldn’t even mind Saikania or Ortha. I just don’t want any strangers here. Especially not any men.”

Maki said with a shrug. Then she sank back into the water. They had really not been able to soak in the water for long.

“Still, that was an impressive scream, Chiharu.”
“Yes, I realized that it’s impossible to suddenly scream and sound cute.”

Chiharu said with a look of disappointment.

“Still, it seemed like they weren’t going anywhere no matter how much Maki-chan berated them. And so I thought that we had no choice but to call the others and make a big scene.”
“Yes, I can’t really kick anyone when I’m naked.”
“Our defense ability is too low when taking a bath.”

They said. And then Alyssa lifted her skirt so that she could soak her feet in the water.

“Ahh, it really is wonderful.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Right?”

As they relaxed like this in the water, Alyssa began to mutter to them.

“We beastfolk can change our shape, so we have a tendency of forgetting the importance of clothes.”
“I see. Well, that does make sense.”
“But even then, we do have values that we share with you. Like men and women having separate baths, and that you are not supposed to try and look. But when it comes to birdfolk…”

They had immediately known it wasn’t Sauro, as they had brown feathers. These birdfolk had helped them in Highland, and were as fun-loving as Sauro. However, none of these were the ones they had met back then.

“There are legends of all kinds of races living in the beast lands long ago. But now it is just three, dogfolk, birdfolk, and us catfolk.”

Alyssa said as she splashed at the water with her feet. Maki and Chiharu also got out and then sat down near the edge so that they could dangle their feet in the water. The cool wind felt nice on their warmed bodies.

“There is quite a variety in coats for dogs and cats. But only two colors for the birdfolk. The ones with white feathers like to fly long distances. While the brown feathers generally live in smaller areas.”
“Ahh. So there really are only two types.”
“The chief is chosen from among both tribes. Whoever is considered the most brilliant of that generation. Of course, that will be Sauro and Saikania. No one could deny that.”
“I find that hard to believe.”

Maki said. Chiharu felt the same way.

“The younger birdfolk like that they are so free. However, there are some who don’t. Like the ones you just saw.”

Alyssa said with a sigh.

“There are people like that everywhere. Sauro is free, but he has his limits. But these other birdfolk cannot tell freedom apart from lawlessness. They think that birdfolk must be free without limits.”
“So they’re delinquents.”
“They sure are.”

Alyssa looked at them curiously.

“What do you mean?”
“Uh…like young people who are unsatisfied with life and end up succumbing to bad temptations?”

Chiharu said. She wasn’t quite sure herself.

“No, I wouldn’t describe them like that. They don’t have a shred of doubt about the way they live. They don’t care if they inconvenience others, as long as they have fun. The only saving grace is that there are not too many of them.”
“Yes, they were kind of a nuisance.”
“I would say ‘very.’”

Of course, they had been quite shocked by Sauro and Saikania who jumped in as well. Chiharu had even turned a little red. Though, there were feathers covering things. Barely.

“It’s starting to get a little hot.”
“We should get out now.”

The two could not even take a bath without an incident occurring.

Next Chapter

Two Saints wander off into a Different World