Swamp Girl! Chapter 39

“Ahhh, I’m coming back to life.”

Who’s that in the bath, sighing deep enough for his soul to come out with it? This guy.

The warmth seeping into my submerged body, and the sensation of the grime on my limbs falling away — I don’t have the words to describe just how nice it felt.

The baths in the fortress were surprisingly high-cla.s.s. s.p.a.cious, too. They were usually used by the soldiers, probably. Although the design was completely devoted to practicality, fortunately, there were proper baths to soak in.

Early afternoon. I imagine that a little later, this room will be packed with the rough soldiers who regularly used it.
That’s why they prepared the baths ahead of time for our use, it seems.

“Ahhhh… This is bliss.”

“……”

Yeah, ‘our use’.

I expected as much, but though the baths are reserved right now, we didn’t have the luxury of going in one at a time. Plus, Leon and the Elite Guard needed to use it too. So no taking our sweet time in here either.

As a result, all three of us went in at once.

Of course, this meant that they’d be exposing their bodies before me, but first off, they didn’t seem to be concerned about it at all, and I myself didn’t feel particularly awkward or excited. I wasn’t embarra.s.sed either, so we happily went in together without incident.

Aira was more developed than her age would suggest — if I were a sleaze, I’d comment on her huge b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which floated to the surface as she soaked. Her pose left nothing to the imagination. Her carefree, childishly naïve face exposed to the air, she was busy enjoying the bath to the fullest. Palmira being Palmira, her flushed face was half-hidden underwater, maybe because of the depth of the pool. She turned her half-submerged face to me.
I’m sure she’s relaxing in her own way. Probably.

But this was actually my first time taking a bath with two other people.
On Leon’s estate, the maids were there, but the three of us entered separately. I’m sure that at that time, in the very awkward event that we all went in together, I might’ve been a little concerned too.
Even so, the three of us have already shared the same s.p.a.ce, already spent several days together. We’re past the stage where we’d care about that stuff. Or rather, at this point, it’s caring that would be embarra.s.sing.

“Hey, so, I wonder we should do about the banquet.”

Relaxed, I decided to consult them about my current troubles.

Right, the banquet.
Maybe if I were attending as a man, I would cut loose and enjoy myself, but because Leon’s already implicitly set things in motion, wouldn’t I have to play a n.o.ble lady? Doubts gnawed at me.

I probably should, I think. But it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I know too little to act the part.
Though I managed to get past Gary earlier, I won’t be able to keep up a perfect facade this time.
What’s more, the entire Elite Guard usually takes part in the recognition ceremony. They might call me ‘Princess’ and stuff, but I’ve been pretty much acting like myself in front of them until now.
It’s going to be really embarra.s.sing to put on such a weird show in front of those guys. I get the feeling that it might even send Rupert into hysterics.

“Ah, how fussy. We seemed to get along with everyone, so it’ll generally be fine, won’t it?”

“gurgle gurgle”

I understand. I was an idiot to ask these two. Palmira and Aira obviously weren’t worried about it either way.
But Aira’s ambivalent response had some merit to it.
I wonder if it’d be alright. Wouldn’t it put Leon on the spot…?
Nah, screw him. Not like it’s my problem.

“Well, I’ll act as appropriate?”

Arriving at a conclusion, I stood up from the bath. It seemed to be gradually coming to a boil.

“Even so, Big Sister. Isn’t your body lovely? I’m jealous… there isn’t a single blemish.”

Aira, still lazily immersed in the water, said something disturbing.

…But then, she wasn’t wrong.
I looked at my hands. They had smooth skin so pale it seemed translucent; ‘alabaster’ captured its essence perfectly.
Although I traced my fingers along my arms to my fingertips, I wasn’t sucked in at all. This is just my opinion, but they’re like a finely-crafted doll’s.
But this is just temporary. Even if it’s pretty much perfect, I’m going cut my ties and abandon it. Being an object of admiration did nothing but complicate my feelings.

“Ei — ”

“Dwahh!”

While I was agonizing, something suddenly leaned on me from behind.
By which I mean Aira. That remarkable duo I mentioned earlier was pushed up against my back. At the same time, two hands circled around to my front, and I found myself being hugged tightly from behind.

“Wah–h–hey! What’re you doing! Let go of me!”

“Heehee, but Big Sister, you’re so pretty. Hey, this is what you do when someone’s troubled, right? Just like when you were with Lord Leon — !”

The terrible two glued to my back pressed against me softly. Though it would be natural, I wasn’t the least bit happy. Just embarra.s.sed. Wait, Aira should be the embarra.s.sed one, not me.
No, I’m still embarra.s.sed. When she reminded me that I did the same thing to Leon, I thought, ‘Quit s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around’ and my eyes saw red.

“Aahhh, just as smooth as I thought… oh, I can’t take it anymore…”

“~~~~–!!”

Stupid Aira’s sigh brushed across my ear.
A fearful s.h.i.+ver ran through me. I fought tooth and nail to break out of Aira’s hold, but I knew I was weaker than her. That was simple fact. It was still gut-wrenching, but it wasn’t as bad as it used to be.

That’s right. I completely forgot, but she pulled something similar back in the slave wagon. Too much happened after that, and it completely slipped my mind.
The hands around me slid along as if tracing the contours of my stomach, before they gradually trailed their way up to my chest.

“Big Sister, your b.r.e.a.s.t.s are nicely shaped, aren’t they~”

“–! Idiot–! You’ve — got a pair — of your own, go rub them — ! — !”

No matter how you slice it, Aira’s indecent hands were doing a fine job of violating me. Something I didn’t want to identify knocked against my brain. Every time I was just about to release my voice along with my strange breathing, I grit my teeth and fought it back.

As this exchange of offense and defense unfolded, I didn’t notice Palmira until her expressionless — or rather, still half-submerged face appeared before my eyes.
For a moment, I tried to get out a cry for help, but when I saw her eyes, more focused than usual, and her face, flushed a deep red that was difficult to explain by the bath alone, I swallowed back my words.

“gurgle gurgle”

‘More of this — !?’
I retorted, growing desperate.
Suddenly, Palmira’s hands lunged straight from the bathtub at me. As I shook, seized by a dark premonition, those two palms made for my che —

“Owowowow! They’re gonna come off! Palmira! They’re gonna — ! Uwah!”

–

–

“I am never getting into a bath with you guys again! You’ll have to drag in my cold, dead body!”

After they toyed with me sufficiently, I raged at them in the dressing room without stopping to take a breath.
As they directly bore the brunt of my fury… they both had satisfied looks on their faces. Aira’s face was strangely bright. And it was obvious that Palmira wasn’t reflecting on her behavior either.

“Whaaaat, but, as your personal maid, from now on, my job is to wash you down to the nooks and crannies, then I’ll take these two hands, and in this place and that — eheheheheowowowowowowowowowi’msorryyyyy–”

As Aira worked herself up too much, I used my fists to give her a full-strength noogie on both sides of her head. Teary-eyed, she whined and apologized, but I didn’t relent a single percent.

“…Both of you looked like you were having so much fun, so — ”

After Aira collapsed, I took the chance to noogie Palmira with the same amount of force. I’m a staunch believer of equal punishment. But even as she got noogied, she excused her actions without expression. There was no value in punis.h.i.+ng her.

“Oh, come on!”

My mood didn’t lighten a single bit, but I decided to let it go for now and get dressed instead. It was dangerous for me to be before them with my defenses low. Especially mentally.
I looked into the basket in the dressing room, only to find my clothes gone.
I scanned my surroundings. I wondered if it was Aira’s doing, but I spotted her still awkwardly squatting down from that noogie. Looks like it wasn’t her. That’s kind of a relief.

Oh, there was something that looked like clothing folded up and placed on top of the shelf.
Without giving it much thought, I picked up… a dress.

A dress.

For me. To wear.
Well, come to think of it, I did wear dresses at Leon’s estate.
But I didn’t know how to put them on. Back then, this was handled by the maids too. I didn’t learn all the ins and outs of putting them on.

There were three of them.
By what criteria were they chosen, or perhaps, by who? The question bothers me, but this frilly black and white one is Palmira’s size, at least.
Then, the red one with the gaping chest definitely goes to Aira.
So by process of elimination, this rather short one in light indigo is mine?

Alright, seriously, who picked these? Leon? Seems like it could only be him.
At the very least, my gut tells me that no one in the fortress would choose these. No, before that, why does a dress like this even exist? That’s the real mystery here.

As I puzzled over it, there was a knock at the dressing room door.
After a moment’s thought, someone flung it open and barreled inside. Someone with a familiar face.

“Hi, long time no see!”

“Irene!”

It was none other than Irene, the person who disappeared from the estate the day after hearing my confession. Sure, it felt like it’d been a while, but actually, it had only been ten days at most.
Apart from that, I was a bit worried about her as someone who was in on my secret, but learning that it was a completely baseless fear was an astounding let-down.

“Just what have you been up to since then?”

“Whoa, what is up with you guys? At least put on some underwear. By the way, what’re you doing over there, Aira?”

Ignoring my question, Irene strolled right in.
Something about the way she only did things at her own pace put me in a nostalgic mood.

“Big Sister hates me, she… against my will…”

Aira said, still sitting on the ground. Hearing that, Irene gave me a look, like ‘Seriously?’

“Are you an idiot? Quit s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around. If anyone got manhandled, it was me.”

My thoughtlessly chosen words deepened the ‘Seriously?’ on Irene’s face.

“Uh — well — more importantly, what did you come here for?”

“Ah, right. Right now, I’m the only woman here, so Lord Leon told me to check on how things were going… so get your b.u.t.ts moving. Don’t tell me I have to dress you? I’m not a maid, you know.”

Irene World, where everything proceeds on Irene’s schedule. It was comfortable, to a certain extent, but bothersome. Although she’d revised her opinion of Irene, even Palmira was now wearing the same expression she had when she called Irene ‘noisy’.

“Anyway, put your underwear on yourselves, okay? I can see that it’s the dresses you’re having trouble with. Ah, and then makeup. You may be a tranny1, but looks are still important.”

“……”

“What?”

“No, nothing.”

It wasn’t nothing. Honestly, I was a little moved that someone remembered the fact that I was a man.
To tell you the truth, I felt like no one around me treated me as a man anymore, not really. In a sense, this was new for me, and unconsciously, my eyes grew hot.

“Hey, hey, hurry up. The men are coming in after this, so there’s no time to take it slow! Ah–, dry your hair properly!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“‘Kay.”

The two of them obediently started to towel off their hair. Irene was obviously cracking the whip, but much as I hated to admit it, she was right. So I followed suit.

“Mm, right, so I returned to the capital first with the First Platoon. A lot happened, and I got stranded here by myself. Well, I guess I was waiting for you?”

For a moment, I didn’t know what she was talking about, then it clicked: it was the answer to my first question. ‘Wasn’t I asking the questions?’ I thought, but it was Irene. I decided to ignore it as best as I could.

“Waiting — for me?”

Towel covering my head, underwear on, I turned back to Irene.

“Right, that’s right. Master… ah, my magic teacher, I mean. I saw him, but when I told him about you, he gave me something to pa.s.s on to you.”

Paying no attention to Irene roughly rubbing the towel against my head, but when she said something I couldn’t overlook, I asked her in a panic,

“You mean, you told him about me?”

“Ah, yeah. Sorry. But it’s Master, I can’t hide anything from him… I did tell him that it was a secret, and he’s also a reliable person, so I don’t think he’s told anyone.”

“Just knowing it’s [your] master is killing my confidence.”

I didn’t know what kind of person this ‘Master’ was, but as much as I didn’t want to, I raised the number of people in on my secret to six.
But this sixth person. Not only did I know nothing about his true nature, what the h.e.l.l was he trying to p.a.w.n off on me?

“I said I was sorry! Look, I haven’t told anyone else. I’ll give you Master’s gift later. Forget that for now, hurry up and change. Airi and Polly, you hurry too.”

My doubts were endless, but in the end, sucked into Irene’s pace, we did as she said.
Because at the end of the day, I knew very well that it was the fastest way.

Author’s Notes
Ero and guro are the flowers of entertainment…
Because it’s a rare occasion, guro aside, I put that kind of scene into the story.
I didn’t think it could fall apart in barely a single chapter.

Footnotes
1. Still haven’t found a decent replacement. Well, Irene is pretty rude, after all. ↵

This kind of skins.h.i.+p has always mystified me. Do people really do this?