Musou Knight: Crow of Cinders-Chapter 74: Side Effect?

Chapter 74 – Side Effect?

"Stop that, freak. I’d rather rest today. Well, are you bathing or not? I’m calling dibs on the middle tub!"

Lia burst into laughter. "Oh, I see. You want to peek at us from both sides, right? I don’t mind. You can even fondle them if you like."

Tempting, but I passed.

Meanwhile, Lenitia peeked at us, trembling like a scaredy cat. She watched me undress and wash.

Minutes later, she mustered her courage, stripped, and jumped into her tub like a kid at a pool. Her butt hit the bottom, splashing water everywhere.

Lia tried to sneak into mine, but I kicked her away. She pouted and used her own.

Finally, I relaxed. I grabbed soap and scrubbed my skin and hair. Dirt and foam turned the water brown.

Then the bathtub shone. Everyone froze.

Impurities condensed into a black ball, floating on the water. I picked it up, sniffed it.

Smelled like poop. I tossed it out the window. Sorry to whoever finds that.

"They’re giving us royal bathtubs?!" Lenitia exclaimed.

"...What’s that?" I asked.

"They’re artifacts! One of these costs 10,000 gold coins in Constantia! More expensive than our castle’s budget!"

Poor girl. Country bumpkin vibes, despite being a princess.

"Isn’t this just a container with auto-cleaning?"

"No! You bumpkin! It generates infinite hot water if you put a musou coin in the socket!"

A battery-powered water machine?

Wait. Wouldn’t that mean Invidia had infinite water supply? One of these could support an entire army.

But could I break it? For science?

Tempting, but I refrained. Breaking a priceless artifact on day one would get me expelled.

I finished bathing first. As I dressed, I noticed Lenitia staring. She hadn’t realized Lia was dying of laughter.

Ah, such innocence. So pure. Must bully.

No. Her mentality was unstable. A push might break her. I should treat her like a patient with severe depression.

So I ignored the peeping. I turned toward her, startling her. She dove into the tub to hide her shame.

Teasing done, I left. Exhausted, I collapsed onto the bed.

Ah, heaven.

My consciousness drifted.

.

I dreamed.

Buried under magma slime, just like my first day in this world. It felt too real.

Softness, fragrance, smoothness, bouncy. The experience was all too vivid. As I touched it, the slime touched back.

Something was wrong. It felt like my youth... wet dreams.

Wet dream?

Oh, shit. No. No. NO!

I forced my eyes open, escaping the dopamine-pumping dream. I saw nothing but darkness.

Soft breaths grazed my face. Moonlight revealed Lia sleeping on top of me, lips pressed to my cheek.

To my right, Lenitia lay on her back, and her fingers locked with mine.

"Haiya."

I realized what the side effect was.

It was bad.

Very bad.

And very wet.

My clothes were soaked. Lia’s pajamas clung to her, both of us drenched in sticky, black sweat, which exuded the same stench as the bath’s black ball.

Lenitia too. Her clothes were stained black.

Was this the cocktail’s side effect?

Energy surged in my abdomen, hypersensitive to every touch. Lia shifted, and her stomach brushed mine.

This could’ve been a hentai scene, but I wasn’t in the mood. The sweat was killing me.

I pushed myself out of bed and rushed to the bathroom.

Minutes later, Lia and Lenitia joined me.

No one spoke. We were too busy scrubbing away the foul stain from our skin.

.

The next morning, we bathed again just to make sure no stain or smell lingered. After breakfast, the maids delivered forgotten items from our mansion.

One of them explained, "Head maid Dorothy has informed us about your transfer. All necessary belongings for the academy are here. She also commissioned craftsmen to deliver wooden weapons and training dummies. They will arrive by the end of the day, and more will be delivered weekly."

As expected, Dorothy had taken notes on everything I did. Did she also learn about my abilities and the spawning mechanism?

The thought was concerning, but there was nothing I could do if the secret had already been exposed. I didn’t have a counter-intelligence network or troops to control the spread of information. Besides, Paul Xess had already witnessed it firsthand.

At this point, I was ready to be summoned by Louis Zen again. Fortunately, he had been sent to the frontline, which gave me time to mentally prepare.

As I thought of Paul, the maids brought in an additional crate.

A crate.

A CRATE!

Whoops. Excuse me.

Inside lay a black mist sword and a large pile of gold coins.

The maid elaborated, "These are gold coins and other valuables from the wager duels. Lord Paul Xess has already handled the aftermath and dealt with the Marquis issues. There will be no prosecution or predicaments regarding the incident."

How kind of him. Or rather... did he become a buffer for me?

Still, if these coins were the prize from those duels, where were the musou coins?

"I only see gold coins. Where are the others?" I asked.

The maid replied, "According to General Paul Xess, he will be taking them as you are presently unable to use them. Nevertheless, he has graciously offered to trade you gold coins of equal value for your musou coins, so you won’t incur any loss."

In short, Paul stole the musou coins from me.

Damn swindler.

The maid shifted her gaze to Lia and Lenitia, then grinned and turned away.

"Please do not forget the pin. We shall excuse ourselves."

They exited together.

I looked at Lia and Lenitia, realizing why the maids had sneaked glances at them.

After excreting impurities last night, everyone’s skin was smooth and spotless. Their healthy forms and balanced proportions glowed under the sunlight. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

In addition, my body had grown slightly bigger. My eye level had risen from Lia’s nose to her eye-level. I was still shorter than her, though.

Just you wait. My growth spurt will come.

We picked our weapons. Since we would be taking swordsmanship class, I grabbed the black mist sword and left the blue halberd at home. Lenitia and Lia, however, pocketed gold coins instead of choosing weapons from the racks the maids had prepared.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Collecting war funds," Lenitia coughed.

"War funds?"

"We’ll shop for our swords ourselves. We already asked the maids, and they said we could purchase spare weapons for the classes."

Lia added, "Instead of using our real weapons, it’s better to buy expendable ones for training. Cheaper to maintain."

Such was the mindset of military women from a poor country. I pitied them, but they made sense.

"Alright. I’ll follow you. How much per sword?"

"One gold coin for a crude steel sword. Very expensive," Lia sighed.

"..."

I quietly switched my weapon to black mist sword. For a spare, I purchased a crude steel sword from the maid outside our room. They quickly brought us five swords. Lia and Lenitia took two each, and the remaining one was mine.

Ready for the new day, we returned to Solus’s class once more.