civilwarnovels Chapter 1004 The Last Routine 183
Chapter 1004 The Last Routine 183
Chapter 1004 The Last Routine 183
That day, Darkness and Megumin, to reward Alice for her busy work, were heading to the hot springs of Alcanredia—
Alice was delighted to hear this and thanked them, saying, "I rarely have the chance to soak in hot springs, I'm really looking forward to it! Thank you both so much."
As a princess of a nation, she rarely had the opportunity to go out and play, and things like soaking in hot springs were even less likely. Of course, as she grew older, some restrictions were gradually lifted, but Claire always accompanied her on her outings, so she rarely went out with friends like Megumin and Darkness.
“Judging from the map, we’re almost there…” Darkness kept looking at the map in his hand, and then said to Alice with an apologetic look, “I’m sorry to have made you walk such a long way.”
"No, please don't mind it." Alice shook her head slightly and said with a smile, "Because this time, I'm also traveling incognito."
There are many issues surrounding the princess's travels. If someone with ulterior motives finds out, it could lead to danger. Therefore, Alice is traveling as the granddaughter of a silk merchant, while Megumin and Darkness are acting as her bodyguards, which is quite similar in some ways.
Huihui found it a bit strange and asked, "Speaking of which, didn't Miss Claire say anything this time? It seems she couldn't come today because of something else..."
Claire would never remain silent about such matters, and she would always follow Alice wherever she went, but this time she seemed quite calm, which was rather strange.
"She said that if Lalatina were with her, she could say goodbye with a clear conscience. I don't know if it was just her imagination, but her voice was trembling and her eyes were moist..."
Claire might distrust anyone, but she would never distrust Darkness… no, the loyalty of the Darkness family, known as the kingdom's thorn in its side. Perhaps that's why she didn't come along. But that guy might think Alice preferred being with Darkness and be heartbroken.
"Well... she must have endured a lot."
Huihui wholeheartedly agreed.
A pang of sympathy for Claire rose in his heart, and he looked awkwardly at Darkness. Darkness himself also gave an awkward twitch of the corner of his mouth and said, "Alright, alright... Lady Claire has entrusted Lady Alice to me, so as her guard, I'll act without slacking off."
“Speaking of things to be careful about… Alcanredia is the stronghold of the Axis Cult.” Huihui warned Alice very seriously, “They will try every means to recruit people into the cult, so no matter what kind of paper they hand you, you must never sign it.”
“If anything happens, I will take the blame for you. I will endure whatever treatment you receive!” Darkness echoed, as if this trip was not to soak in a hot spring but to the execution ground. Alice was stunned and began to feel nervous and scared.
However, upon arriving in Alcanredia, they discovered that this was not the case. Alice asked somewhat strangely, "All sorts of people are welcoming us. Is this really a dangerous place?"
"We can't let our guard down." Huihui had already learned this lesson, so she said very seriously, "Up to this point, we've only been doing preparatory work before persuasion—"
"Come on, take a look! When you go to the hot springs, be sure to bring this 'Axis Order Essence'!! Dissolve it in the hot spring, and it has many effects such as relieving shoulder pain and restoring fatigue! And the beautiful girl's—"
Before he could finish speaking, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd: Cecily. She was giving a passionate speech, and what she was selling was clearly bath salts.
Darkness was somewhat tempted, and said with a puzzled look, "Is that a bath product? I'm really interested in what Cecily is selling..." After all, she had previously bought a large amount of bath products that were very rare in the capital, but Aqua had purified them all.
"It's amazing how it helps with fatigue recovery! Can I buy some for Claire as a souvenir?" The last question was directed at Megumin, since Alice couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't be given some random documents when buying things from the Axis cultists.
"Please don't do that!" Huihui resolutely refused. "It definitely won't end well."
In her limited life, there was only one thing she understood: never get involved with the Axis cultists, or she would be the one to get hurt... although they would become like this, to a large extent, for their own reasons.
"Oh oh oh——————"
"You just mentioned 'beautiful girl'?!"
"We have no choice but to go for it!"
"Take advantage of this opportunity!!"
Many customers excitedly purchased bath salts from Cecily, who herself beamed and shouted, "Great! Thank you for your purchase!!"
Seeing the guests getting increasingly frantic, Huihui grabbed Alice and Darkness's hands, and even though the two were very concerned about the bath salts, they walked towards the reserved hot spring without looking back.
And then we arrived at the hot spring.
"Ah...what a wonderful hot spring..."
Alice groaned with pleasure as she spoke.
"Seriously, my body is almost melting."
"It nourished my body, which was exhausted from the mission..."
Darkness and Megumin said the same thing.
Upon hearing this, Alice excitedly exclaimed, "Please let me hear your adventure stories, Miss Megumin! What kind of missions did you undertake?"
"As usual, trouble keeps piling up," Megumin muttered instinctively, complaining, "Aqua is crying out, Darkness is charging at the enemy..."
The story of defeating Jizo has been told for a long time, which is why they come to soak in the hot springs to relieve stress.
"That's because Megumin released the Explosion Magic prematurely, right?" Darkness explained somewhat unwillingly, "Because of that, the monsters became active, and I had no choice but to...!"
"If you only rushed in because you had no other choice, you seem quite happy about it?"
"I...I wasn't happy at all!"
The two were interacting.
Seeing this, Alice chuckled softly and said, "Hehe, Lalatina's face is all red."
"It's just because I soaked in the hot springs... Lady Alice, you should also be careful." Darkness awkwardly changed the subject.
"Yes, it is getting a bit hot, so I'll go outside first—"
“Ahhhh——————”
Just as Alice was about to leave, she suddenly heard a scream coming from next door. Darkness immediately stood up, her eyes sharp as she looked towards the source of the sound, and said, "That sound... what's going on!?"
"It must be coming from outside," Alice said alertly. "Let's go check it out!"
"Wait, Alice! Are we just going to go out like this? We need to at least have weapons!"
Huihui quickly said that.
Each of the three carried a weapon, but still wrapped themselves in bath towels and ran towards the source of the sound, quickly discovering the monster that had appeared by the bathtub.
"W-Why are there slimes in a place like this!?" Darkness's face became slightly agitated upon seeing them, and he couldn't help but groan, "If I get tangled up in these squishy things... at first my body won't be able to move freely, and before I know it, my whole body will be enveloped in slime, and it will be difficult to breathe... Ahh, stop, stop! This can't go on...!!"
"Darkness, this is not the time for wishful thinking!" Megumin was already used to her reaction and shouted loudly as usual, "Hurry up and get your weapons ready!"
"Waaaaah... How... How could it have turned out like this..."
One of the female customers also turned pale and was terrified.
"I know a little bit, but we'll talk about that later! Everyone, let's go!"
"Oh!!" x2
Although its appearance in the bathhouse caused some initial panic, it was a slime after all, not a formidable enemy, and was defeated in just a few moves.
"We defeated it successfully." Alice looked at the slime gradually dissipating and said with some confusion, "But, what are these monsters...?"
"Ladies, thank you! As a token of my appreciation, this soap—"
"No need." Huihui coldly refused the girl who looked like an Axis cultist's thanks, and questioned, "Compared to this, why are there so many slimes in a place like this?"
"What?! I...I don't know! I didn't do it!"
"...This is obviously very suspicious. Let's listen carefully."
Then the group realized why there were so many slimes in the bathtub—it was all someone's doing. So the three of them quickly got dressed and went out into the street to find the culprit.
"Come on over, the super popular Axis Cult Elixir! You'll regret it if you don't buy it here! It relieves shoulder pain and restores energy! It even has the effect of melting away a beautiful girl's clothes, to confirm this—"
She constantly encouraged the tourists around her to buy so-called Aksis cult items.
“…I knew it.” Darkness sighed upon seeing the guy and called out, “Cecily, are you free?”
"Huh? What's wrong with everyone? Have we finally made up our minds to join the Axis Cult—"
"how could it be possible."
Huihui rolled her eyes and said, "I have something to ask you about that Axis Cult member. A lot of slimes suddenly appeared in the forest just now, and it seems to be because of that bath product. After inquiring, I learned that it seems to be a female Axis cult member who accidentally dropped it into the pond while transporting it in a large container."
"So, the Slime God appeared and that's what he said?" Cecily spread her hands, each holding a small bottle, and said, "What you dropped was Gold Bath Potion, or—"
"No!" Megumin retorted excitedly to her constant joking remarks, "There are a lot of slimes! Besides, what is a slime god anyway!"
“What! That’s amazing!” Cecily exclaimed, her eyes wide. “It’s true that the raw material is powdered jelly slime, but I don’t think this has anything to do with it…”
"No, that's definitely the reason... They were thrown into the water in large quantities, which caused them to mutate!"
Even Huihui felt somewhat angry and helpless at her denial.
Alice chimed in, saying, "That Axis woman said it's some kind of powder that can melt a beautiful girl's clothes, so she wants to repackage it and sell it..."
"Want to resell it?! Unforgivable!!!"
Cecily shouted angrily.
Alice was a little surprised and asked, "Um... what happened with the clothes melting?"
"That's just a promotional slogan," Cecily said shamelessly. "If you say that, everyone will buy a lot..."
She didn't take the deception seriously at all, but considering that was the nature of the Axis followers, she quickly accepted it. However, according to the usual pattern, the more deceptive the act, the more likely it was to backfire.
"Hey! Cecily!!"
See, here it is.
Several customers stormed over, waving the bath salts they had just bought, and loudly demanded, "We bought this because they said it would melt our clothes, but it doesn't work at all! How are you going to compensate us?!"
"—I didn't make any assertions!" Cecily retorted, unconcerned. "I only said, 'Whether it works or not...' that's all. It's your fault for misunderstanding; you'll only be disappointed if you have expectations!"
She argued back with the customer without any politeness, but what she said was actually true. She wasn't making false claims; she was just trying to get the customer to buy the product and try it themselves, but ultimately nothing happened.
"...Still such a terrible person."
Huihui rolled her eyes.
"I'm very sorry," Darkness said apologetically. "I was supposed to let Lady Alice rest, but instead I've troubled you instead."
“No, I’m very happy.” Alice smiled and shook her head, saying, “Don’t worry about it. Oh, but keep it a secret from Claire.”
"Hehe, I understand, thank you."
Darkness laughed and said the same thing, after all, Claire couldn't stand this kind of thing, especially being attacked while soaking in a hot spring, she would go crazy.
"So, how about we cheer up and go soak in a hot spring again?"
Huihui suggested.
“Let’s do it that way!” Alice agreed, saying, “Please let me hear more of the story!”
So the three of them returned to the hot spring.
the next day.
Alice, back at the palace, met and spoke with Claire.
"Lady Alice, how was your day at the hot springs in Alcanredia? If the residents there caused you any unpleasantness, put them to trial immediately—"
"No, no, that's not true. Claire is worrying too much. Soaking in the hot spring with Megumin and Lalatina really helped to relieve all my fatigue."
"I'm so envious... cough cough, that's great!"
Claire forced a smile, but inwardly she kept thinking: Damn it, why couldn't I have come with you that day...? It's not important at all, is it?
"Oh, right!" Alice exclaimed, suddenly remembering something. "Speaking of which, Miss Cecily gave us a special soap as a souvenir. It seems to have some benefits. I'm really looking forward to my bath tonight!"
"Axis soap...?" Claire said suspiciously. "As royalty, using such strange things, I wonder what will happen—"
"...No, is that not allowed?"
"Only this once!!"
Claire, being soft-hearted, agreed.
(End of this chapter)