Lone: The Wanderer

Book 2: Chapter 30: Bathtub and Pillow Talk

The steamforged bath was, quite honestly, a piece of engineering genius.

Lone didn't know all that much about the intricacies of steamforging just yet. He'd barely even begun to learn the basics from Wilbur but with what little knowledge he did have, he could identify this masterpiece for what it was.

'I wonder how much magic there is in steamforging? None at my level but surely it's required to make mini suns and bathtubs like this, right?' Lone thought. 'You can only get so far with steam power, after all.'

To describe the bathtub it had a large waterfall-like stream coming out of a thin copper bar at the ceiling, just above the foot end of the tub. Right below that was a small drain that was always open.

Somehow, the machinery in the bathtub's walls perfectly regulated both the volume and temperature of the water like a very fancy fountain of some kind.

Lone had no idea if baths like this existed on Earth. He sure as hell didn't own one in his tiny apartment but he'd make it a mission to introduce them to that planet if he ever returned.

Not that he wanted to or even really planned to, but he saw the possibility of it in both his free unique skill slots and in some of Soph and Sophie's still sealed skills like Void Walking.

'Speaking of returning and of Sophie...' Lone glanced over his shoulder at the door to the bedroom. 'It's been about... 35-minutes? Either she's asleep or she's been watching me with Mana Sensing and is getting more and more pissed off.'

He groaned lightly and then slowly stood up, perfectly clean as a whistle now. 'Damn this bath for being so perfect. I was sure some of those bloodstains would need some deep-scrubbing to get out of my hair and my tail fur...'

He spent another 10-minutes slowly drying himself off with a couple of towels. When that was done, he grabbed some loose trousers reminiscent of track-suit bottoms from his Dimensional Storage.

He slipped them on and then opened the door. 'Mmhmm... Still awake. Well, I can't exactly blame her nor be upset. It shows how much she cares... also how much she's upset.'

Lone wordlessly approached the bed and sat down next to Sophie. A few seconds of silence passed before he said, "So... did Breena and Kyuubi make it home okay?"

Not too long ago, in the bedroom part of their suite.

"What's taking him so long?" Sophie whispered to herself while she watched Lone just laze in the bathtub in the other room.

'Maybe he's being careful? Blood in the floof is never good,' Soph suggested with what she thought was both a valid and helpful observation.

Sophie rolled her eyes. 'You are just as big of an issue as he is, Soph. You enable him to act as he does. Stop being such a doormat and perhaps he would actually act sensibly for once.'

She felt Soph tensing up in her mind.

With a small sigh, she thought, 'It is like the fool wishes to die. What brain-addled simpleton accepts a rage-fuelled duel with someone two ranks higher than themselves? A monster we could forgive perhaps. Most lack intelligence but a sapient, thinking, conscious being? People that powerful know of skills and battle habits. They know how to properly engage beyond mere instincts. Lone will die if this continues. You must be on our side in this, Soph.'

'B-But he's really h-hard to kill and he likes fighting...' Soph protested, admittedly, a bit weakly.

'This! This is what we mean! He is not a child but that does not mean we should avoid scolding him for acting like one! He will die and where will that leave us? We are linked to him. More than just by bonds of love, our very being relies on him. When he levels, so, too, do we. When he ranks up, so, too, do we. Beyond mere needs of lust and affection, we cannot let him die foolishly to maintain some semblance of pointless pride!' Sophie yelled at her meeker self.

She immediately felt a tinge of regret when Soph didn't reply but instead started sobbing softly. 'Ha-ah... We just need him to know it is not only his life he gambles with. And we will not let him off until he understands the value of his own existence, fleeting as he may feel it is.'

Not a moment later she saw with that extra perception of hers that Lone was getting out of the bathtub.

She watched keenly and patiently as he hesitantly dried himself then put on a pair of trousers and nothing else.

'W-Why isn't he wearing a shirt?' Soph asked from within Sophie's mind. 'That's... That's quite distracting...'

Sophie didn't dignify herself with an answer. Instead, she focused on not blushing. Truly, idiot or not, Lone's body was very... pleasing to the eye.

He soon exited the bathroom and placed himself next to her on their bed. 'I, uh, I support you, Sophie. I... I do agree but... how are you going to approach this? His teacher definitely spoke to him about this... We, uh, we definitely know more about him than that dwarf but I'm not sure if we can convince him not to be reckless anymore...'

'We are thinking,' Sophie answered a bit snappily.

Soph kept her mental mouth closed after that, not wanting to antagonise her more rational self any further, instead, choosing to trust her and leave everything to her.

Just as Sophie came up with a proper ice-breaker for the coming difficult discussion, Lone spoke. "So... did Breena and Kyuubi make it home okay?"

"Yes. we can feel them. Breena is practising her needleworking in her room and Kyuubi is sleeping atop Breena's bed," Sophie answered plainly.

Lone smiled a bit. "That's good. Uh... how much does Breena know? About today, I mean."

Sophie narrowed her eyes and glanced up at Lone's face. 'Why is he so handsome? This is very distracting. There's still a little bit of water on his forehead. Or is it sweat?'

Swallowing lightly, she replied, "She, much as we, learned of you fighting a B-ranker not entirely willingly. That is all. She knows not that you let yourself get injured so badly that death was the more likely outcome than life."

Lone nodded. "Good. She's been through enough trauma as it is. I think she's starting to open up to me, y'know? She says more than one or two sentences when we have breakfast these days. I'm hopeful she recovers fully."

"Lone," Sophie said seriously, "while we can sympathise with your sentiments towards her, this is not a discussion about Breena. At least, we did not intend it to be."

She watched as Lone brought his hand up to his head and scratch it before chuckling nervously. "Right, right."

He leaned back and scooted up before very skillfully getting under the bedsheets. "Can we cuddle and talk instead of sitting at the foot of the bed?"

"Why?" Sophie asked, just stared at him with an incredulous look on her face.

"Because they aren't mutually exclusive?" At this point, Sophie was half-convinced he was testing her patience. "And... your warmth is comforting?" Now she was sure.

"We will relent but only because it truly is cold. Do not blame us if you cannot flee us striking your face if we get into an argument," Sophie declared as she also got under the sheets.

She didn't quite snuggle up to him as Soph would have but she didn't resist as he wrapped an arm around her and brought her closer to his chest. 'How are his muscles more toned than ours when we are the one who trains endlessly in our free time and all he does day-in-day-out is read or work at that forge?'

She knew smithing could be a surprisingly physically intensive activity, but surely not more so than wearing platemail all day and then training in swordsmanship for five to six hours every evening?

'Again, his body distracts us. Control your lust and fascination, woman,' Sophie ordered herself.

"Lone, you need to change how you react in situations like today," Sophie said plainly and with little-to-no room left to wiggle, though wiggle she assumed he would try.

"You need to be a little bit more specific," Lone stated while he ran his long, slender fingers through her hair. It felt as amazing as it always did but she didn't jerk out of his reach. She wasn't that petty and felt it wouldn't help.

As much as she wanted to punish him by distancing from him physically, the last thing she desired was to hurt him. He was only stroking her head and playing with her golden locks out of habit, not for any other real reason than it felt good for him as well.

He turned his head and basically pressed his nose against hers before elaborating, "I get that you hate how I essentially got slapped around like a wet rag for a while and almost died a few times but what other reaction could I have had that would have made things better?"

"Refusing the duel," Sophie answered. "It would have been as simple as that. And if your childish pride demanded a fight then all you needed to do was kill him. We will hear no arguments from you until you at least explain the full situation to us."

She looked straight into his multicoloured eyes and said, "We love you, Lone. Deeply. As much as we love Soph, even."

She brought one of her small hands up to his face and caressed his cheek lightly. "So please tell us why. Why did a B-ranked dwarf want to kill you and why did you let him try?"

Sophie watched as a complicated expression crossed Lone's face. 'He is doing that thing where he thinks too much before speaking. He should just tell us... What is there to hesitate about?'

"Well," Lone finally said, "to put it simply, the guy was the only survivor of the adventurer group that took the council's request to search for Urd Grun. They found it but it wasn't anything like how it is when Darkness summons me. It was chock-full of monsters, powerful monsters at that. The entire company of dwarves died except for him."

Sophie nodded slowly, inadvertently rubbing her forehead against his. "We see. This dwarf blamed you since the council's request came from your information."

"Right. The cunt bashed me across the head when I got home and knocked me out cold. I woke up in the guild surrounded by pissed-off locals and he was demanding a duel. I tried to refuse, y'know?" Lone claimed. "He refused my refusal so I kind of... well, I thought I'd show that I can't be bullied quite as easily as your regular D-ranker."

Sophie narrowed her eyes. "You should have murdered him."

Lone shook his head. "I don't want to kill thinking talking beings pointlessly. I did more than enough of that in Milindo."

"The man attacked you. He is no child about to be tortured before your very own eyes," Sophie protested. 'Lone, you are such an idiot at times. That dwarf did not deserve your mercy.'

"Yes, he did and yes, he isn't, but I've decided to give him a second chance. If I had used Mental Destruction on him who knows how poorly the guild and the council as a whole would have reacted?" Lone questioned. "Poorly is my best bet."

Sophie looked confused. "We don't understand. Why do you care? This is not our home, Lone. We are staying here briefly to relax, are we not? We think it is high time we leave if you are so afraid of political repercussions for killing a man who so blatantly wishes for your own death."

He seemed to consider her words seriously, a good sign Sophie felt.

"Maybe you're right. I'm not as jaded as you though. I haven't exactly been chased across a world for hundreds of years then treated like you were when you were finally caught. I haven't killed a god either," he said with a charming smile and a short chuckle. "Even if two live inside of me now."

"No, you haven't, so perhaps you should listen to someone who has. All people die at one point or another. Even us. We have no doubts whatsoever that eventually Soph and we shall cease to be, Immortality skill or not," Sophie replied. "Killing that dwarf would have been a mercy in our eyes. He sounds lost already."

"Maybe... Y'know, I'm really glad you're not shouting at me," Lone laughed. "I was pretty worried you'd act as furious as you were on the streets."

Sophie blushed a little. "You are no longer covered in blood and we are simply discussing the matter. We are not unreasonable. You must, however, promise to us that should something like this ever happen to us again, you will kill your attacker. If you do not, we will do it for you."

"Can we compromise?" Lone suggested. "I'd rather not become an arrogant young master killing everyone who tries to glock me in the face, deserved or not."

Sophie raised an eyebrow. "We are listening."

"How about I just get so powerful I can afford to actually give everyone I meet a second chance without worrying if doing so would be harmful to me or mine?" Lone asked.

Sophie sighed faintly. "Fine. To that, we can agree. Until then though, clean up after yourself where possible. The only lives we value are Soph's and yours. We will not lose them easily."

"Haha," Lone chuckled and then kissed her forehead. "Fair enough."

The host has developed the passive skill [Persuasion].

The host has developed the passive skill [Charm Resistance].

Sophie stared blankly. "Ha-ah... of course we did."