Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 494

494: The Happiness on the Mountaintop

“How is the water? Lital-sama.”

“Yes… it is just right, I think. I can feel the warmth.”

Lital-sama answered, while soaking up to her shoulders in the open-air rock bath. To be precise, her neck and her head were the only things out, including her wings.

The deeper part, which was usually partitioned with a rope and a float for safety, was now unpartitioned. Though it was designed to get gradually deeper, since it was a cloudy hot spring, you couldn’t tell where it got deeper.

Lital-sama turned her long neck and looked at me and Liz, who were soaking in the same bath. Liz’s hairstyle was the same as usual, but I had my hair lightly gathered and tied up.

“…I had imagined that an ‘invitation’… was to look at the completed building and to talk.”

“Me too.” Liz chuckled and agreed.

“As the manager, I thought you should enjoy the main attraction of our hot spring.”

“…Well, for Lital-sama, it’s not a special place, and as for the room and the food… so the logic is the hot spring?”

To soak in a warm bath, while looking at the steep peaks with their snow and frozen rock faces, and to gaze at the magnificent land of Listrea in the distance, was a special experience. But for Lital-sama, it was probably a familiar sight.

“As expected of you, Liz. You understand so well.”

As I said that, I felt a little unsatisfied, and I moved closer to Liz, who was beside me, and leaned against her.

“What is it?”

“…No. I’m still not used to the bath being so spacious.”

Liz’s expression was one of exasperation.

“You should get used to it by now.”

She had a point. When I had been living in the mansion, I had enjoyed a spacious bath, so it was even more so. But in the house in the capital, it had been a common thing to take a bath with Liz, in close quarters. I had often been away from home, for construction or for employee scouting, and now I was living in and working as the manager of Lital Hot Springs, but that was still my home. When everyone was here, I would restrain myself, but even here, during the ‘family bath test,’ I would stick close, even though it was spacious.

“That’s true. But you know… I miss you, Liz.”

“…Isn’t it ‘I miss people’?”

I answered Liz, firmly.

“It’s not just anyone.”

“Then what about me?”

Liz and I both looked at Lital-sama. To think that Lital-sama would say such a joke.

“…I’m sorry. Forget it.” Lital-sama, who was looking away, her neck and all.

“No, if you are alright with it, Lital-sama. Shall I go? Or will you come to me?”

Lital-sama returned her gaze.

“…I am a dragon.”

“I am a Greater Wraith.”

Lital-sama blinked. And she narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth slightly.

“…Then I will take you up on your offer. I will go.”

Lital-sama slowly crawled to a shallow area and lay down again.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“Because I am a dragon.”

Her wings were all out of the water, and it was a situation where only her stomach and her limbs were soaked. But as Lital-sama had said, she was a dragon, and a cold of this degree would not harm her. I knew that, and yet, I wondered why I had asked.

I approached and, though with some hesitation, I leaned my back against the scales that covered her stomach.

“…Ah, this will ruin a person…”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Master, what are you saying?”

“No, I’ve ridden on your back before, so I know your scales are warm.”

The silver scales, which were like a glacier and looked a pale blue in the light, were, contrary to their appearance, hot. I wasn’t sure if it was true, but the flame of a dragon was said to be the hottest flame in existence.

A dragon was probably close to a reptile, and a reptile’s body temperature was greatly affected by the ambient temperature. They would become unable to move in a low temperature, and that was why they would hibernate. To have overcome the weakness of a reptile, the cold, by burning the mana that circulated in their body to generate heat—was that an overthinking?

A dragon had no real weaknesses. A level where they would die if their heart was pierced. Larger, and stronger. In return, their reproductive cycle became longer, and they were forced to be few in number.

So, to have done this was probably a first for me.

“The warmth from the place where our skin is touching… it’s like the stiffness is melting away… In a word, it feels so good.”

I didn’t remember if I had ever experienced it on Earth, but I wondered if a rock bath was like this.

“…Does a wraith’s body also get stiff?”

“In my case, in a way. If I were to abandon my ‘human senses,’ then it would be difficult to feel that I was alive, Rebecca said.”

The ‘existence limit’ of an undead. They had no physical lifespan, and they were a race that would reach ‘death’ through the erosion of their mind.

“…If it were you, then I have a feeling you would be full of a sense of being alive, even without your human senses.”

“You’re overestimating me.”

In that case, my skinship with Liz and Rebecca would decrease, and the proportion of conversation might increase. I had a feeling I would gradually seek a stronger stimulation. …The fact that the undead in our group were so fond of me was because I was that ‘strong stimulation,’ wasn’t it? Well, if that was the case, then that was fine.

“Lital-sama, excuse me.”

Liz, too, came to my side and leaned her back against Lital-sama’s scales.

“…Ah, I can understand why Master would be ruined.”

“To say that as if you yourself are not.”

“I am different from Master.”

What a thing to say. The painful part was that I couldn’t deny it.

It was a pleasure to see Liz, who was relaxing, her eyes closed, her shoulders relaxed. In preparation for the opening of ‘Lital Hot Springs,’ as the shadow general manager who surpassed the manager, she had probably been busier than me. Of course, I, too, had been working, from negotiating the purchases to scouting and training the employees, but I had a tendency to leave the details to her.

Liz was the type to be more fulfilled and to shine when she was busy, and all I could do was to reduce her burden as much as possible by taking responsibility, and to praise her in private.

As I looked at her, who was relaxing, her lips curved into a smile, and her long ears were drooping, a feeling of affection—and a mischievous thought—welled up.

True to my heart, I approached her, my presence erased with the technique I had learned from Liz and Shino-san, and I was about to press my lips to hers—

I was caught by Liz, who had opened her eyes with a grin.

I instinctively tried to pull away, but my head was held in her hands, and I couldn’t escape.

“…How did you notice?”

“If you suddenly erase your presence, then it’s only natural to know that you’re planning something.”

“…I see.” My technique of erasing my presence was one thing, but my experience as a user was lacking.

“…You look so disappointed.” Liz’s expression was one of exasperation.

“Because, well.”

“You don’t have to do a surprise attack.”

“That’s… well… that’s true.”

Liz’s words were a sound argument. But I had wanted to see Liz’s bewildered face, when she was kissed in a surprise attack, when it wasn’t the right atmosphere.

“I understand how you feel.”

“Mmm—?!”

And it seemed Liz had felt the same, because she had easily pulled my face closer and had stolen my lips, so naturally. Though Shino-san had scouted me for my assassin skills, I was no match for Liz. Liz could surprise me, and I couldn’t surprise her. That was the reality.

…Was it alright, since I was happy to be on the receiving end of a ‘surprise attack’?

Since we were in the bath, we were both naked, of course, so when I wrapped my arms around Liz’s waist, the feel of her was so raw, so sensual… and the fact that it was a familiar feel filled me with a sweet satisfaction.

Liz broke the kiss and smiled.

“We’re in front of Lital-sama, and you’re so incorrigible.”

“W-wait, wasn’t that you just now…?”

“It was self-defense.”

What was self-defense again? The words ‘excessive defense’ crossed my mind.

I turned to Lital-sama to apologize.

“Um, Lital-sama, I’m sor—?”

Lital-sama had bent her long neck and had brought her mouth, which was covered in warm scales, to my cheek.

“…A kiss on the cheek is a greeting between close female friends, is it not?”

At her unexpected movement, I froze, and Lital-sama narrowed her eyes.

“Though I have known it, this is the first time I have actually done it.”

Well, that was. She was a person who was overflowing with dignity and a sense of humor.

“Then I, too, will return the favor.”

I leaned in, as if to offer Lital-sama’s head, and lightly kissed her cheek. I didn’t know how much sensation a dragon’s scales had, but it seemed my feelings had been conveyed, and Lital-sama laughed, her throat rumbling.

“I have lived a long time, and I thought I knew a lot. …But you have given me many firsts.”

Me too. For me, most of my memories of a dragon were with Lital-sama.

“Daisy, Lizlit. …You two would probably be able to find happiness, no matter what your title.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

As the first in command of the Sixth Army, a supreme commander of the Demon King’s army, the Lord of Disease. And as the manager of Lital Hot Springs, Daisy Finis. If Liz were with me. And if she would protect all that I had gained in this world, with me.

Lital-sama, with a slight hesitation, also leaned her face towards Liz—and Liz, on her own, lightly kissed her cheek. In return, she accepted the dragon’s head on her cheek and laughed.

“I, too, have had many firsts.”

The three of us laughed together.