It wouldn’t all end up in the same place. It was possible that even things that had been stored in the same location could be washed dozens or hundreds of meters apart from each other, then later buried by mud and silt. The two tunnels in question seemed like completely different places, but they had been going the same direction, at the same depth. Which meant maybe the layers of earth around them had been deposited at about the same time.
So what if that “coffin” and Hikaru-san’s choker had once been in the same place? Heck, what if they belonged together? It was a dizzying idea. But when two strange things happened at the same time, it was probably more logical to assume they were connected than that they weren’t. For example...
“You mean, like, maybe by putting on that choker, Hikaru-san awakened whatever was in that coffin...? And maybe he turned into a girl as a side effect? No, or maybe...”
“What? What are you talking about?” Petralka asked, furrowing her finely shaped eyebrows at me.
“I just thought of something,” I said, but Romilda didn’t look any less worried or Petralka any less perplexed.
...How had this happened? I tried to suppress a shiver as I watched the steam rise into the air. I struggled to grasp what was happening to me. Well, it should have been obvious; it was simple enough. I just couldn’t rationally accept it.
“Whassa matter, Hikaru-sama?” A cute face appeared right in front of me, sending ripples along the surface of the water I was currently submerged in. The short hair, the floppy ears, and the innocent smile made for the perfect image of a dog-like beast girl. The faint ridiculousness of what she did and said made her seem just like a big, sweet dog that had been aggressively anthropomorphized.
Everything below the neck looked properly like a wild animal, muscular limbs and taut body—except for the bust and behind, which had the perfect amount of swell. It was obviously a woman’s body. A woman’s naked body. And a well-endowed one at that.
“N-N-Nothing...!” I answered quickly. I looked away from her and tried to make some space between us.
“Hikaru-sama?” Elvia looked puzzled by my reaction. Geez, this girl was... too open. Or she had no shame or something. Yes, my body, or at least my legs, had been dirty, and she wasn’t wrong that I needed a bath. But there was no need for her to get in with me. After Elvia had dragged me, naked, relentlessly through the hallway, we’d arrived at the changing room, where she’d unhesitatingly torn off her own clothes and then pulled me straight into the bath. And so we found ourselves here.
I let out a long breath, trying to do anything I could to stave off the rising heat in my body—not to mention my ever-increasing blood pressure as my heart got more and more out of control. For the time being, at least I could pretend my face was red because of the hot bath. Not that Elvia seemed to notice anyway.
“It’s nothing,” I repeated, and then sank down until I was submerged almost up to my nose.
My guess was that Elvia wasn’t even thinking of me as a man. She was never exactly shy about sex—maybe it had something to do with going into heat on a regular basis, the way beast people did—but she also had a deep-seated respect, almost reverence, for Shinichi-san. Her behavior towards him notwithstanding, I didn’t think she was so cavalier that she would go showing off her naked body to just any guy. That seemed evident enough just from watching her.
I paused. There was a sort of distant ache in my chest, almost a pain. Like if I didn’t take care to breathe deeply, I would run out of oxygen. My heart kept pounding away, and I started to feel like my face and body were even hotter than the water.
This body was really getting to be a lot of trouble. I couldn’t control it through sheer willpower anymore.
“Had a nice soak, Hikaru-sama?” Elvia asked, splashing in the water like a child.
“Er, yeah, I guess...”
“Great! Time to help you wash up, then!”
“Huh? No, you don’t have to—”
Washing, of course, was why we were in the bath in the first place. Actually, you were supposed to wash before you got in. But, reluctant to sit there naked in front of Elvia, I’d lunged for the tub as soon as we arrived.
“It’s like—I mean, it’s not that it isn’t a good idea, but—”
“They asked me to take care of you, Hikaru-sama,” Elvia said proudly.
“No, listen, I’m pretty sure they meant, like, as my bodyguard—”
“We’ll wash over there.” Then she dove underwater, leaving behind only a little bubble.
I was just thinking Huh? when I felt her grab hold of me, reservations and all.
“Hey—hold on—” I was so shaken that I could hardly get out more than a word or two. Aw, man. It turned out I was no better than Shinichi-san. Pathetic. The feeling of Elvia’s soft chest pressing against my midriff threw my entire mental system completely out of whack.
Elvia, seeming completely oblivious to my discombobulation, held me tight with both arms and lifted me easily out of the water. The closest thing I could do to fighting back was to kick helplessly at the air. But of course, it didn’t make any difference against the sheer physical power of a werewolf.
“Okay, just sit right here.” Elvia plopped me happily onto a stool.
“F-Forget about it, okay, Elvia? I’ll do it myself!”
“Ya don’t have to worry so much! I’ll get you nice and clean!”
Whoever had trusted Elvia with me—Minori-san, Myusel,
