It’s been a month since the last of the seven great mages and the hero’s party reached this island.
Everyone’s looking for their own ways to live here, but it looks like they’re getting used to it.
“Look Mister Arata! Mister Arc! This is my dream, my hot spring!”
“Ooh!”
“Uwah! This is great, Zephir!”
“Fufufu, yes yes!”
The one who is adapting particularly fast is the second seat of the seven great mages, and the one who was basically their manager, Zephir.
Apparently he’s been living with Edinburgh and Wil, and looking after them, but he’s also getting closer to the demon gods.
I hear he’s been busy solving trouble caused by the seven great mages, who all have, let’s say, unique personalities.
I think he just can’t help but feel involved with them.
I was a corporate drone in my previous life, and Zephir was pretty much the same.
Our talk in the hot spring about work was more than enough for me to see him as someone like me.
“Can we really go in?”
“Of course! Heal that everyday tiredness. There are only men here!”
“Ha, hahaha…”
Arc laughs vaguely, because we guys were chased away by the girls who were talking about love. I feel like they’ve been doing that a lot recently.
And since they don’t want guys like me and Arc to hear, Zephir invited us deep into a mountain. Just us guys.
“But isn’t this demon god territory?”
“I received permission from Mister Gyes and the others.”
This is a natural hot spring a little far away from the demon gods’ village. And he’s been secretly working on it with magic, creating this wonderful sight by surrounding it with trees and rocks.
“I used lightning magic to make it so wild monsters don’t enter this area, but… I can’t imagine it will work too well with monsters of this island.”
“It’s fine with me here.”
“Yes, and demon gods patrol this area sometimes, so I managed to finish it without anything destroying it.”
He sounds really happy, and he’s also undressing.
Arc and I see that, and undress too, to get in the water.
“Ahhhhh…”
There are only trees around us.
There’s so much nature, that being naked here gives me a sense of liberation.
“This is the best.”
“Yes.”
Arc and Zephir sound totally relaxed too.
We spend some quiet time, with the only sounds being natural ones, like the trees rustling with the wind and the sounds of bugs.
“By the way Arata, when are you and Reina getting married?”
“Hnn!?”
That was quite the explosive question to throw at me all of a sudden.
“W-what are you…”
“Ah, no. It’s become a talking point between Ceres and Erie, so it got me curious too.”
Surely there’s other things to talk about…
I look to the side, and see Zephir looking like he wants to hear it too. I guess the girls aren’t the only ones wanting to talk about love.
But since even I have similar thoughts in mind, I guess it makes sense for it to become a talking point.
“Reina is family… But we’re not planning to get married for now.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Because the change of environment is scary?”
“Yes… I think Reina would accept, but…”
Maybe it’s the bath that’s making stuff I’ve never told anyone flow out of my mouth so smoothly.
I’ve been living with Reina ever since we met, and we even have a kid, Snow. Tiltue and Luna come over to play, Elga and the others come visit to have drinking parties too…
“I like how things are now.”
“…I see.”
“Yes. Well, you are still young, so I think you should not rush things.”
“What about you, Zephir?”
“Me?”
“Of course.”
I’m curious about how Arc is with Ceres and Erie, but I also want to hear Zephir.
I’m pretty sure he’s been alive for two centuries…
“Do you by any chance like Edinburgh?”
“Hm… Hearing an old man talk would not be interesting.”
“That’s not true! Tell us!”
Arc is more interested than I expected.
Did something happen at home?
“I see… Of course I harbor feelings of affection towards Miss Edinburgh, but not like romantic feelings.”
“It’s different?”
“Yes. If anything, it would be like respect… No, awe…”
Zephir says while looking at the sky, almost as if speaking to himself, and then he gets into his past.
When he was young, before meeting Edinburgh, he thought he was the greatest mage. The greatest genius in history.
But it was then that this reality was broken, and he began to be made into a servant…
“And in the two hundred years that followed, I never surpassed her.”
“Are you trying to dodge the subject all of a sudden?”
“You are imagining things.”
I feel like, maybe due to his age, he can go with the flow when he wants. But I feel like he was telling the truth about not having romantic feelings for Edinburgh.
I wonder what it’s like to spend two hundred years with someone.
And with that thought in my mind, we continue talking about love.
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