On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

"This is amazing. It is bigger than my hut that I have come to love," I remark as I look around. "Just out of curiosity, what was this room used for?"

"My bedroom."

"I see, so--wait...your bedroom?"

Valeria, who has taken her mask off, looks at me with a quirked eyebrow. "Yes, it was. Now, it is OUR bedroom."

The emphasis makes me caress my chin. I feel like she is declaring that she has the upper hand in the competition that I didn\'t know they were having. Since I am a humble person, I make sure that what I think about is what happens. I turn to the girls and find them slightly uncomfortable.

\'Mother, thy son hath become popular,\' I think funnily before shaking my head faintly.

To be honest, I don\'t feel that excited knowing that they have a crush on me. I know their circumstances, so I can tell what they may confuse with love.

Abigail and Gabriela are my friends since I was still on Earth. I am the only person they can entrust their lives to, so there is a high chance that they mistake the comfort they find in relying on me as love.

Lunea and Winerva joined my side because of their circumstances. Both of them were only given two choices--die or heed my word to live. I am using them for my goal. I tell them to do things they normally won\'t do while making it as if I am not forcing them.

After spending days with me, they saw the \'good\' part about me and decided to ignore my flaws. By the time they know it, they had fallen in love with me. They are unaware that it is just their minds playing tricks on them. This "love" is nothing but a cover-up for their fear of getting cast away and dying. They suffer from Stockholm Syndrome--how can I be happy about that?

"Now that we already know where our rooms are, why don\'t we clean ourselves before having a feast together? It has been a long journey--we haven\'t had a proper clean-up for quite some time, have we?" Millonia suggests, gaining everyone\'s attention.

"Right. I also miss our garden," I remark.

Millonia turns her surprised eyes at me. She then looks at me with the \'are you joking?\' look and I just shrug at that. I have gotten used to taking a bath together with Valeria and her. They used to be my only female friends, so our habit has managed to twist my view. Thanks to them, I think bathing together with females is normal.

Putting that aside; anyway, I don\'t understand why Millonia immediately thinks I am going to ask the girls to take a bath with me. My remark may insinuate that but she must know that the girls are not aware of that. After all, the only women who will correlate the garden with bathing together are Valeria and her.

"Oh, I have heard from Millonia that the scenery there is amazing. I can\'t wait to enjoy it while immersing myself in the river!" Lunea remarks.

"Yes, I am curious too," Abigail adds.

"Ku-Ku-Ku. I can\'t wait to see Layland\'s uncovered body!" Gabriela chimes in.

Millonia slaps her forehead and sighs helplessly. I now see what is happening. Millonia must have told them about our habit of bathing together. I don\'t know for whatever reason and I don\'t think I want to know. Considering her nature, she must have done that just to get a reaction out of the girls.

My head turns to Winerva as I recall that she was the only person who found the idea of bathing together with someone of the opposite sex repulsive. I am soon disappointed, though, because she also looks expectant.

I wonder what happened to her for the past month that we have spent journeying but I soon forget it. Battlefield does a lot of things to someone; maybe, her infatuation with me has revived.

"I didn\'t say that we should take a bath together," I state, just to make it clear.

"Yeah, but you are going to take a bath, aren\'t you? We will join you," Gabriela responds, prompting the girls to nod.

Shrugging helplessly, I turn to Valeria. The beautiful woman looks at me neutrally, screaming \'I am not amused\' with her eyes. I smile wryly, prompting her to shake her head faintly. She then takes my hand and takes all of us to the garden.

Determined as they may be, the girls hesitate to take off their clothes when we reach the river. They watch me, Valeria, and Millonia as we get naked in a second and immerse ourselves in the river, probably wondering if we still have shame.

They don\'t remain in that state for a long time, though. As soon as Valeria sits on my lap and Millonia starts washing my hair, Winerva joins us. She still keeps her distance but she doesn\'t look as embarrassed as she used to be. Soon enough, the rest of the girls also join us.

Splash!

"Woah...there is so much Mana in the river!" Lunea exclaims as she immerses herself in the water. "This is incredible! Any plants that are watered with this will produce fruits in a day."

That piece of information makes me wonder if Vibiane already knows about it. She extremely loves fruits, so if she already knows, she must have a garden of fruits somewhere near the castle.

"That kid is something else," Millonia remarks. "She can always be herself in any given situation. Here she has someone\'s di--genital to see yet she focuses on the water instead."

"That is one of her qualities," I comment.

"Heh...you seem to be fond of her."

"She is a precious pawn."

Millonia clicks her tongue and massages my scalp furiously. I let her be and watch as Gabriela and the slightly embarrassed Abigail who is covering her bare chest come closer. They stop before us and say nothing for a few seconds as they look at us awkwardly. They only stop acting awkwardly when Millonia and Valeria offer to wash their hair for them.

I am left sitting alone as I watch them have their hair washed. Gabriela and Abigail seem to be extremely curious about Valeria, so they talk to her a lot. Valeria responds to them kindly. She seems to be also interested in them; I assume she has already figured out they also came from Earth.

Slosh! Slosh!

My attention is taken away from the four women by the sound of the water movement before me. I turn my head in that direction and find the embarrassed yet excited Lunea coming at me.

She sits on my lap and gestures at her head. "I also like a hair wash too. Can you do that for me?"

"...sure."

I rinse her hair with water before applying shampoo to it and massaging her scalp. Winerva comes at this moment.

"C-Can I join?"

"...sure."

She sits before Lunea, prompting Lunea to immediately wash her hair. A smile unintentionally creeps up my face as the scene reminds me so much of the first time Valeria, Millonia, and I took a bath together.

By the time I know it, the chatter coming from Valeria and the others\' direction has stopped. I turn my head to them and find them looking at me neutrally. "Seriously, this guy?" they say with their eyes. I act clueless and reply to their look with the \'I thought we all agreed to this\' look.

"Oh..." Lunea yelps quietly, attracting my attention.

"Is something the matter?" I ask in wonder.

"Uh...that...your...is poking my...uh..."

"Oh. Don\'t worry, it\'s flaccid; it won\'t do anything to you."

"Hey, what the fuck are you guys doing there?" Millonia immediately exclaims.

"Chill. I am not having an erection."

"Layland..." Valeria trails off as she stares at me in disdain.

"I do a lot of crazy things but I don\'t condone non-consensual sex. The day I do that will be the day this world ends for I have lost my mind."

Valeria blinks her eyes before clearing her throat rather uncomfortably. I wonder what bothers her for a second before realizing what she did to me on my first day of training.

She must consider that as non-consensual, which it, technically, was since she didn\'t ask me first before doing it. I still gave her my consent through my body language, though. For her to feel guilty, she must either have missed it or not consider it as one. Either way, I have to tell her that she did nothing wrong later.

We ended up spending two hours in the river. Most of which was spent on breaking the barrier between the girls and Valeria. We also talked about interesting happenings in our journey. Valeria listened to it keenly before expressing that she would like to have a journey with me one day.

We are now walking to the dining room to have a feast. The dining room is a public place, so anyone can enter it as long as they are a Warrior. Valeria did offer to bring us to the Banquet Room but I refused since I wouldn\'t be able to meet anyone there. Unlike the dining room, after all, it can only be entered by some selected few.

"We are going to eat in the same room Monsters and Demons eat. I wonder how that feels," Lunea remarks.

"You are about to figure it out," Millonia casually responds.

Creak.

The door to the dining room is opened. I can see some familiar faces there but I can\'t help frowning because of the atmosphere.

"Well, look whom we have here."

I soon figure out why everyone inside is being cautious. A wild horse is in the room.