Episode 22

I anxiously tapped the table, keeping my eyes on the inn’s entrance.

The clock’s hour hand already pointed to 9 o’clock.
The monotonous ticking of the alarm clock only added to the anxiety that had blossomed in my heart.

Although I hadn’t set a specific return time, hadn’t I told them to be back before nightfall? If they remembered my words correctly, shouldn’t they be back by now?
Even if a child lacking self-control wouldn’t understand, it made no sense to me that they hadn’t returned yet, especially with Rihanna by their side.
The excitement of the festival never seemed to wane, even as the night deepened, but my worry only grew with time.

The meal that the landlady had painstakingly prepared had long since gone cold.
I had sought as much understanding as possible, even though we received it quite late.
Noah and Olivia sat beside me, yawning and tapping their feet restlessly, looking bored.

How long had we been waiting for them?

Finally, with a tinkling sound of a bell, Rihanna appeared.
On either side of her stood Stella and Elia, wearing expressions of joy that contrasted with Rihanna’s.

As soon as she entered, Rihanna let out a long sigh and began to speak, almost muttering.

“Sorry… We’re a bit late…”

I sprang up from my seat and approached Rihanna.
At first glance, my pace might have seemed threatening, but that wasn’t my intention.
I gently grasped her shoulders and asked in a worried tone.

“Did something happen?”

Seeing her safe and sound, I felt relieved, but I needed to hear the reason for her delay.

Rihanna’s face appeared more tired than usual.

“It’s nothing special. The kids are just so energetic… It’s hard to keep up with them. I must be getting old.”

It seemed unlikely for her to say such things, considering she was still in her 20s and should be active.
I even imagined feeling the sharp gaze of the landlady from the kitchen.
If it was simply because she was late playing with the kids, I could forgive everything.

I gently patted Rihanna’s head, as I usually do with the children, as she struggled to smile.

“Really? It’s been a while since Elia played outside until she got tired. It seems she really likes you.”

I glanced at Elia and Stella, who had linked arms with me, and asked.

“Did you have fun playing with her?”

Elia nodded vigorously in response.

“Yeah! Playing with Sister was fun!”

The usually quiet Elia showing such a strong reaction made me reconsider Rihanna. Could she possibly have a talent for childcare? It’s no easy task to earn the affection of children who are pure but sometimes stubborn.

“That’s good to hear.”

After gently removing Stella, who had moved from linking arms to snuggling against me like a puppy, I turned my gaze to the dining table and asked.

“Do you want to eat now?”

Though it had cooled, it still tasted quite good.
Rihanna nodded, but Stella and Elia shook their heads.
It was unusual to see the kids skip a meal, so I asked again in a puzzled tone.

“Stella and Elia, aren’t you both going to eat?”

They both nodded in unison and answered.

“No, we’re not hungry. Sister bought us something to eat.”

“Really? How should I apologize for that…?”

I did give Rihanna a bit of money, but it was meant for her own use in the festival. I felt sorry for making her feel responsible for the kids’ meals when I could have covered that.
As she sat in front of the food, Rihanna saw me reaching for my wallet and waved her hand in refusal.

“It’s okay! I bought it because I wanted to buy something for them, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Really?”

“We’ll go up and rest first, so take your time eating.”

As I stepped onto the stairs to go upstairs, a thought crossed my mind. I wanted to give Rihanna, who was exhausted from playing with the kids, some good news.

“Oh, and if you go out the back, there’s an open-air bath. There’s no time limit, so use it whenever you feel like it.”

During our travels, Rihanna showed a particular fondness for soaking in baths. Whenever she saw an outdoor hot spring, she’d beg Leon to stop by, and when choosing accommodations, she’d prioritize places with open-air baths or hot springs and check the bathroom conditions first.
Rihanna’s eyes sparkled like a child’s as she quickly asked back.

“Really?”

I smiled, lifting the corners of my mouth, and nodded.

Leaving the instantly cheered-up Rihanna on the first floor, I returned to the room, stretched, and naturally headed for the sofa.

There were two bunk beds, but I intended to give the beds to the kids and sleep on the sofa myself.

As I sat on the sofa, unable to resist the drowsiness, letting out a big yawn, Stella and Elia approached and spoke to me.

“Dad, can we go wash up?”

I hadn’t noticed earlier, but it seemed they were slightly sweaty from playing outside.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Even though I gave my permission, for some reason, they didn’t leave and instead stared at me as if they had something to say.

“What’s wrong?”

“Can Dad come with us?”

If they still looked like they did four years ago, at the age of four, I would have gladly taken them, but that’s not the case now, is it?
A fully grown adult woman’s figure and face. Going into a hot spring with such women? Never mind the tug of war between my desires and reason in my heart, if someone saw us going in together, I’d be immediately reported to the guards.

In the first place, mixed bathing is prohibited in this inn’s hot spring.

When I shook my head, disappointment immediately appeared on the children’s faces, so I quickly offered an alternative.

“Well, how about asking your Sister to go with you?”

“Sister?”

The children looked at each other’s faces, then soon smiled brightly and nodded.

“Yeah! Then we’ll go to Sister.”

For some reason, even Noah and Olivia, who had just bathed, followed them out.
Do they also want to play with Rihanna?
It’s a good thing to have a wide circle of relationships. Hoping they would become even closer, I lay on the sofa and closed my eyes for a moment.

“Ah… I feel alive…”

Rihanna, who had struggled in the Demon King’s Castle for four years and couldn’t wash properly during that time, was finally soaking in the bath, her tired body melting away.
The warmth filling her body… it was a precious time that could not be exchanged for anything. If possible, she wanted to die in here.

She hummed a tune and entrusted herself to the heat of the bath, but that peace did not last long.
The door at the back opened, and a familiar voice was heard.

“I wanted to go in with Dad…”

“We can’t help it. Mixed bathing isn’t allowed here.”

“Should we ask to be taken to an inn with mixed bathing next time?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea! First, we can thoroughly wash Dad, and then naturally ask him to wash us.”

“Oh, that sounds nice? With Dad’s big, gentle hands on our chests or butts…”

The quiet and atmospheric outdoor bath quickly became noisy with women exposing their vulgar desires without reserve; Rihanna shivered at the sudden intrusion of four nightmares more than the discomfort of having her solitary time disturbed.

The elves, looking around, spotted Rihanna and walked straight towards her.

“Sister, there you are.”

“What? Were you doing it alone, leaving us behind?”

Seeing the elves enter the bath naked, Rihanna involuntarily gasped.

“Gasp…!”

She couldn’t look away.

It was her first time seeing the naked bodies of elves, but they were like a beautiful masterpiece.
Smooth skin unlike any human body, a perfect figure as if crafted by a god, unlike her own unimpressive body.
Embarrassed to show her own body, Rihanna stretched her legs out, completely hiding herself in the bath.

The elves, unconcerned, naturally formed a circle around her.

Surrounded by bursting voluptuousness and sweet fragrance in the blink of an eye, Rihanna couldn’t find a place to rest her eyes.

Olivia, who had been staring intently at Rihanna’s slender body, began to speak with a bashful smile.

“Your chest is smaller than I thought, Sister.”

“Wh-wh-what?”

Caught off guard by the sudden critique of her figure, she was too flustered to respond properly.

Her face, which had turned red in an instant, was not due to the heat of the bath. It was a mix of shame, embarrassment, and confusion that was all too visible on her face.

It might be a bit small, but she considered it average. Isn’t it the perfect size for a man’s hand?
The elves in front of her were just absurdly large.

Before she knew it, Olivia had turned around, grasping Rihanna’s chest, and commented as if appraising it.

“Yeah, it’s definitely small.”

A startled moan escaped from Rihanna’s mouth as her chest was suddenly grabbed.

“Haah…?!”

“Dad likes bigger chests, so it’s our victory, right?”

Victory or not, she never had the leisure or thought to harbor feelings for Ain against them.
What the elves were doing was a kind of confirmation kill. A tacit signal for her not to harbor any impure feelings for Ain, as they were superior anyway and she should just back off.

But that wasn’t the problem.

‘Why are these brats so skilled…?!’

According to Ain, aren’t these elves supposed to be under four years old? But this technique…!
It felt like four strong eels, no, slippery eels were wriggling freely across her chest.
She never imagined her first experience of caressing would be taken by another woman.

Rihanna curled up and, with a face soaked in embarrassment, managed to plead.

“Y-you can stop touching now.”

Only then did Olivia release her grip on Rihanna’s chest and smiled, revealing her white teeth.

“Ah, have we touched your chest too much? Then you can touch our chest too, Sister.”

Is this something a person with normal thinking would say?

Stella nodded a couple of times as if she understood, agreeing with Olivia’s opinion.

“Our puppy, since you worked hard today, this much can definitely be allowed.”

If she refused, who knows what might happen?
And she hated being the only one to go through it.

Rihanna approached Noah, whom she thought was the most docile among them.

Noah, the elf with the largest chest, was overwhelmingly alluring up close, with vivid enchantment.

Swallowing her saliva, she raised her trembling hand as if she had a tremor and carefully squeezed Noah’s chest.

There was a resilience that seemed like her fingers would bounce off, but with a slight pressure, they were gently received as if nothing happened.
It was like touching a well-crafted porcelain, with smooth skin, the buried fingers enveloped by a soft warmth, and the warmth starting from the fingers spreading throughout the body.

The initial rejection Rihanna felt vanished without a trace, and before she knew it, she brought her face closer, absorbed in touching her chest.

‘Is this a chest…? What was I aware of all this time then…?’

Even though she was a woman, there was a dangerous addictiveness that made her want to keep touching the chest. She felt she understood a bit why men were so obsessed with chests.

As time passed, Rihanna’s touch became increasingly rough.
As Noah, who hadn’t uttered a word, began to blush, and just as a moan was about to escape her lips, Stella grabbed Rihanna’s wrist and grinned.

“That’s enough. How was it? Satisfying enough as a reward?”

It was dangerous.

She realized just before taking the wrong path.
If she had heard Noah’s groan directly, she might have crossed an irreversible line.

Her head, filled with blood, started to spin, and her body signaled that any more bathing was dangerous.
Parting with the children who showed signs of wanting to continue bathing, Rihanna returned to her room and plopped onto the bed, recalling the vivid image of Noah’s chest imprinted on her hand.

The cool night air entered through the window, and outside, the hum of people excited by the festival could be heard.

She thought she would never experience this pleasant sensation again…

Lost in sentiment, she looked at the window and suddenly remembered.

‘But did I actually go and open the window?’

No, she didn’t remember opening the window.
Something was wrong.

The moment this realization hit, the lights suddenly went out, and someone lurking in the darkness pressed down on Rihanna’s body.
She wanted to scream, but the chilling sensation near her neck stopped her.

“Shh.”

A chilling touch on her neck, an oddly gentle voice contrasting with the overwhelming force that made resistance unthinkable.
Rihanna’s eyes, accustomed to the darkness, quickly identified the figure.

In disbelief, she quietly called out the name in a trembling voice.

“…Helga?”