The rain continued to fall, the creatures that enjoyed that environment came out of their hiding place to relax and the huge gray clouds in the sky indicated that this would not stop for a long time.
While all that could be seen around, a blond-haired boy had just passed through the door of an inn while in his arms he was carrying a pink-haired girl who had a fish tail instead of legs at the same time that the scream was heard her.
"Yeeey, we arrived safely!"
"Although somewhat wet..."
"And dirty, ahaha." The walk to the inn hadn't been too long, but before more laughter could escape from Pia, both she and Blake were startled by a voice that seemed more concerned than anything else.
"Pia, where were you? Are you okay? How many fingers do you see? Do you still remember where you keep your savings? Tell me where you hide them to be safe!" That worried voice clearly belonged to Sakuya and maybe worry wasn't the right definition, but she expressed it her way.
Sakuya wasn't really lying, it had seemed strange to her that Pia hadn't returned from her daily walk by the lake yet, but after she went outside and saw the rain pouring down, she quickly went to find something to cover herself with to look for her.
She knew what happened to her on rainy days, so she was about to go out as fast as possible to find her, but when she saw how the smiling pinkhead appeared at the entrance, she breathed a sigh of relief and approached her without paying attention to who carried her in his arms.
"Huh? What are savings? Are they tasty?" It was the first thing that came out of Pia as a response letting Sakuya know that she was okay.
"That's right, I forgot that part of you… Ignore what I said. What happened to you? You are covered in mud."
"Well, it all started in the morning when…" And just hearing that, Blake sighed inside him.
'Here we go again...' After he couldn't stop Pia from telling everything she did that day, again, and Sakuya continually nodded trying to understand the whole situation, she finally realized that Blake was there.
"I see, you were very helpful, Blake."
"Yeah, if it wasn't for Blake, I'd still be crawling through the mud trying to get to the inn!"
"I couldn't leave you there seeing the situation you were in, hehe." The situation seemed quite relaxed after explaining everything, but it seemed like it would only last a little while when Sakuya's voice was heard again.
"Although... I see that you enjoy the situation you find yourself in. Don't you, Pia?"
"Situation...?" And as if something hit her, Pia started to get flustered as she made a futile attempt to change the subject. "Hahaha, I think I need to go dry off so I can hide my tail!"
But Sakuya wasn't going to let her go that easily.
"Ohh, why the rush? Don't you want to be in Blake's arms anymore? It's like the story you like so much when the prince takes the mermaid in his arms and then..." But before Sakuya finished her joke, Pia jumped out of Blake's arms and, with great agility, used her tail to propel herself deeper into the inn, not before letting out a scream as she walked away.
"Nooooo, I don't want to lose my voice!" Not even understanding what had really just happened, Blake stayed in the same position as he watched Sakuya hug her stomach trying to contain her laughter.
"You shouldn't bother her so much."
"Oh, come on, it's so funny to see the look on her face, haha. By the way, thanks for bringing her, I always tell her not to get out of it when there are too many clouds in the sky, but she never remembers."
"Maybe it would be a good idea for her to bring an umbrella next time."
"You should do the same too, you ended up all wet and muddy."
"Haha... I'll remember. I think I'll go home." Blake felt that he had nothing else to do, so he was about to go back, but Sakuya's voice stopped him.
"Huh, what are you talking about, I can't let you go in that state, you might get sick."
"It is not a big deal."
"Nonsense, you'd better take a bath to clean yourself up and clean your clothes. Since you helped Pia, you can use the bath and washing, it's the least I can do." Hearing that, Blake remembered that he needed to take a bath and that his clothes were still dirty, so he thought it was not a bad idea.
"Well, thanks, I guess I'll do that."
"You'd better do it, although it hurts me that I can't charge you." And after breaking out in a sweat at what Sakuya said, Blake entered the same door that led to the hot springs. He took off his clothes and put them in the washing before entering the place.
Once he looked around, the first thing that struck him as strange was that no raindrops were falling since there was no roof in the place, but when he looked up, he noticed how the rain seemed to collide with something invisible avoiding what will happen. He thought that it must be something related to magic, so he didn't pay too much attention to it, but once he went back to see the whole place, he came across another peculiar situation.
Right on the wall that separated the boy's bath from the girls', a boy with golden hair was pressing his head against it while a small smile formed on his face. Blake, not understanding what he was doing, approached him while trying to get his attention, but before he even started to speak, an arm went around his neck to drag him down, he could see how the boy made a sign for him to keep quiet.
"Shhhhh... Don't say anything, just enjoy and let your imagination do its work." Those were the words that had come out of Rusk once he felt Blake's presence, and he wasn't going to let things get spoiled.
Blake, not understanding what that meant, thought about asking him what exactly he was doing, but once he paid more attention to the way Rusk put his ear to the wall, he did the same out of simple curiosity and that's when he knew what he was doing.
"Aww... Pia does a great job with the hot springs."
"That's why I adore them, I can get rid of all the stress that Karina causes me."
"Ufufu, I think I can say the same for Sakuya. In the end, I'll end up getting too old from her antics."
"Getting old? Are you making fun of me? We've known each other for several decades and you're still just as young. On the other hand, the years have taken their toll on me." Without realizing it, Blake had not left the wall. Just from the voices he heard, he already knew who these belonged to, and the moment his imagination started working, he couldn't help but think of the beautiful women on the other side of the wall and realize why Rusk had that idiotic grin on his face.