59 — Rurin's Lair

Rurin’s lair was being built smoothly.

As winter approached and it became increasingly cold, the dwarves had already shown over 80% completion.

So, thinking it was a good time to start using the completed rooms, I began inspecting the lair.

The dragon lair is divided into two main floors: the first and the second.

Entering the lair from the dining hall, you first encounter a huge hall. In the hall, there is a grand staircase leading to the second floor and a large entrance that leads to the interior of the first floor. That large entrance leads to the dragon’s main chamber.

On the first floor, there is a large room where Rurin can polymorph into a dragon without any issues.

It is the dragon’s main chamber.

Rurin said she disliked being in dragon form when with me, but this room was still the most basic part of the lair.

This large room, where the dragon’s true body can remain, is made of marble on all sides. And there’s a huge carpet laid out.

On the ceiling, an enormous and splendid chandelier sparkles. That sparkling chandelier is adorned with jewels.

However, since it is the main chamber, it had nothing else in it.

Beyond the dragon’s main chamber is a place where Rurin and I once drilled through a hill to cook ramen. That area, where we discovered an underground water vein, is now a bathhouse.

A large hot spring bath.

Strictly speaking, it’s not a hot spring, but it’s still a storm of water heated by magic from underground.

“Oh, you! This place is nice. It’s cold outside, but it’s warm here!”

“Yes, that’s right. This is the best bathhouse, using all of our dwarven technology!”

The young dwarf, who guided us to the bathhouse, started introducing it with awkward human speech.

“Hmm, I like it. Can you leave us now? I want to take a look around, and it might take a while, so you can attend to other tasks.”

“Ah, understood!”

The young dwarf, intimidated by Rurin, kept his back bent at a 90-degree angle and hurriedly left the bathhouse.

In the center, there is a large round bath. It is decorated with a bamboo grove around it. Magical lights shine above it.

The atmosphere is superb.

Below the large bath, there are two more baths. One is a cold bath, and the other is an herbal bath.

The herbal bath uses a rare herb called Berara, one of the most expensive herbs in this world, which helps with blood circulation and makes the skin smooth and white.

Normally, a polymorphed dragon’s skin is greatly influenced by the original skin tissue. A dragon’s skin, which can be likened to reptilian scales, is rough and has more pores, so when polymorphed into a human, it retains that texture.

However, Rurin was a young dragon and a reclusive dragon who spent most of her time in the lair, so her skin was relatively good.

“Rurin, this is the herbal bath. It will make your skin much better…”

Splash!

Rurin jumped into the herbal bath before I could even finish speaking.

“Puhaha! You, is that true? Then I will live here!”

“No, if you stay too long, your body will get swollen and your skin will be ruined, Dragon.”

“Then can I drink it?”

The dragon, with a curious expression, started drinking the herbal bath water. So I picked her up and dragged her out.

“It’s not tasty… It’s bitter…”

She frowned at me. Her clothes were completely soaked, looking like a drenched rat.

“That’s probably because the effect doesn’t work when you eat it. Herbs have two effects: those that work when ingested and those that work when applied. So, let your skin benefit from it. Don’t eat it.”

“Is that so? Even if it works when eaten, I don’t want to eat it!”

“Sigh.”

I left the dragon alone and started walking around the footpath. Paths were made around the large bath, cold bath, and herbal bath, and the floor was covered with stones of various sizes to provide acupressure effects. It’s great for blood circulation.

But it’s too painful. Did I place the stones too densely?

“Ouch!”

Rurin followed me but stepped out after about a second.

This time, I sympathized with Rurin’s action. Even I couldn’t endure it for long and stepped out.

Isn’t there some room for improvement? It’s too painful. Or is there something wrong with my health? I pondered for a moment but then shrugged it off and went into the large bath.

The central large bath is hot and wide. The herbal bath is lukewarm. Each has a different temperature.

When I entered the large bath, Rurin followed. At first, she dipped her feet in, got startled by the heat, and stepped out. After a while, she dipped her feet in again, and once she got used to it, she slowly came in and splashed water at me.

Whenever she laughed, the diamond earrings I gave her recently swung and sparkled. With her hair tied up, the earrings stood out more than usual. They gave off a mysterious charm whenever Rurin laughed.

“You… It’s hot. Ugh.”

“You see the steam rising from the water?”

“I see it.”

“If you open your pores a lot and then go into the herbal bath, it will be even better.”

“Oh?”

Rurin, who was about to sneak out because it was hot, came back in and soaked her body at my words.

“By the way, do dragons care about their skin?”

“It’s an era where even dragons care about skin beauty. Rough ones don’t look good.”

Rurin nodded as if it was obvious.

What an amazing era.

Rurin then went into the herbal bath as I suggested. She kept submerging her face in the water and coming back up, as if her face was important.

Anyway, if I were to evaluate the bathhouse, it was big and I liked it very much. The dwarves are indeed reliable workers.

After enjoying the bath for a while, I went up to the second floor, dripping water.

On the second floor, the room at the front is the dressing room. Rurin and I entered that room.

The structure was inspired by modern luxury clothing stores. It’s called a dressing room, but it looks like a giant clothing store. The clothes I’ve collected so far couldn’t keep up with the size of the room.

I took out a large towel and placed it on Rurin’s head. The towel completely covered Rurin’s body. It was funny to see only her legs.

Taking advantage of Rurin’s obscured view, I quickly dried myself and changed clothes.

“That’s the underwear I washed for you!”

“That was a long time ago!”

I failed. The dragon removed the towel and started laughing before I could put my pants on.

“Wasn’t it just the other day!”

It wasn’t just the other day. Anyway, it was a dragon’s sense of time. Since they live for thousands of years, a year feels like just the other day to a dragon.

“How can you dry your hair so roughly?”

“I don’t know.”

Rurin handed me the towel. What does she mean she doesn’t know? It’s obviously a planned action asking me to do it.

Squeak, squeak.

I still do it for her, though.

“Did you shampoo? Your black hair is also my memory, so you need to take good care of it.”

“Why do you ask when you did it?”

“That’s right.”

After drying her hair carefully, I dried her body too. At times like this, she stays still. Still. It’s not the first or second time.

“Pick some clothes out and get dressed.”

“Now that I have more than four outfits, I have a different dilemma. Hehe. I’m rich in clothes!”

Rurin walked around excitedly picking out clothes. A small monster called Bellaria, caught from the northern lands, wandered around.

It’s a monster tasked with managing the dressing room.

It controls the temperature and humidity to keep the clothes in optimal condition. This monster dislikes being too dry or too humid, so it naturally maintains the appropriate temperature and humidity around itself.

If you can make it obey you, it’s a very useful monster.

After Rurin got dressed, we left the dressing room. Then we headed to the food storage room. There was work to be done there too.

“Rurin, can you cast a time-stopping spell on this room? The range is a bit wide, but since your mana has been overflowing due to the dragon orb recently, it should be possible, right?”

“Is that so? I’m not sure. But if you want it, I’ll try!”

Rurin closed her eyes and began to concentrate. It’s not every day you see Rurin being serious.

I hurried out of the food storage room. Soon, the entire room was enveloped in a blue light.

Even for a dragon, time-stopping magic isn’t easy. Beads of sweat began to form on Rurin’s forehead.

But she didn’t think of giving up. Time passed. The strenuous struggle continued for over 20 minutes.

“Phew! Hehe, it’s done!”

Around the 30-minute mark, Rurin wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and exhaled. With this, time had stopped inside the vast food storage room.

It could now be taken out and used in its fresh state anytime.

“Oh, amazing! Thank you.”

“You! If you’re thankful, come here!”

Rurin spread her arms and shouted. It meant she wanted a hug.

In such cases, I had no choice but to hug her. She successfully cast a difficult spell without any complaints.

I hugged Rurin from the front. When I patted her back, she wrapped her arms around my back and stamped her feet.

“Now, we can put all sorts of seasonal ingredients here. Hehe.”

“I’m not very interested, but that sounds right!”

After hugging Rurin for a while, I let go. She protested with a whine, but there was still much to be done.

“Stop your silly wriggling and follow me. We need to look around the lair first.”

Next is the distillery room. It’s as important as the food storage room.

The reason it’s managed separately from the food storage is that distilled liquor actually gets better with time.

Distilled liquors, like whiskey, develop deeper flavors and richer aromas the longer they age.

This room houses many oak barrels. Summoned from modern times, these oak casks are my treasures. They contain aging whiskey.

They range from over 100 years old, to 80 years, to 50 years, from the time they were summoned from the modern world.

The older they are, the more gold bars they require for equivalent exchange. Anyway, they’re treasures.

In addition to that, there are various rooms on this second floor. There’s Rurin’s room, which is quite spacious, my room, a treasure room, and more.

Since it’s still under construction, there will be more to explain later. I took one oak cask and went up to the dining hall.

Besides the purpose of inspecting the lair, which is 80% complete, I needed this oak barrel.

Soaking uba in aged top-quality whiskey makes it incredibly luxurious. The whiskey’s effect not only makes the uba unbelievably tender but also infuses it with a unique aroma.

It’s an extremely extravagant luxury, as the price of the whiskey used to soak the uba is far more expensive than the uba itself.

“Rurin, tonight’s dinner will be truly delicious roasted meat.”

I told Rurin, who had worked hard using the time-stopping spell. Rurin’s eyes began to sparkle with curiosity about what truly delicious roasted meat was.