I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 234

There was one thing I didn’t know.

“We’ve been using the public bathhouse in Crossroads after every battle. We need to wash off the monster blood and dirt from our bodies.”

All the mercenaries except me wash up at the public bathhouse after every defense battle.

In the process, the male and female mercenaries have become quite close.

So, this hot spring visit isn’t a big deal for the party members.

They even went to the public bathhouse together just the day before yesterday!

“Why didn’t you call me?!”

I cried out with a tearful face.

Is this what it’s like to be an outcast as a superior?! Is that it?!

“You guys have been bonding without me! I’m a little upset, you know?!”

“Your Highness has a private bath in the mansion. The public bathhouse isn’t bad, but it’s crowded and busy…” Damian added, looking embarrassed at Lucas’s words.

“Your Highness has also been in the capital for a while recently… We just got used to going to the bathhouse by ourselves.”

“Sniff, is this what they mean by ‘out of sight, out of mind’…?”

“Ah, we’ll definitely call you next time! Please don’t cry, Your Highness!”

I thought they were like little kids who wouldn’t eat without me, but it turns out I was the only one who thought that.

They were bonding and doing well on their own without me.

I suddenly felt like I was watching my younger siblings grow up so fast, which made me feel uneasy.

Anyway, the four of us entered the men’s hot spring.

“Whoa…!”

“It’s so big…”

Looking around the facility, not only the party members but also I was amazed with my mouth open.

The public bathhouse in Crossroads is quite large to accommodate thousands of soldiers. But this place was incomparable in size.

‘It’s much bigger than Bugok Hawaii…!’

The biggest water park facility I’ve ever been to is Bugok Hawaii, so it’s a bit sad that this is my only comparison… Anyway!

A huge hot bath with hot steam rising, a cold bath decorated like a waterfall, clear streams of water gushing from lion heads carved everywhere.

Magical lights shining from the ceiling, and the tiles on the floor reflecting the light with a glossy sheen…

It was unbelievably well-maintained for a hot spring facility in a city that had already been destroyed. Isn’t this magic civilization a scam?

“Woohoo! I’m going in first!”

Kuilran, who had quickly thrown off his clothes, ran towards the bath.

Hey! Don’t you know the manners of showering first?! Even in a fantasy world, there are things you should follow!

Kuilran jumped straight into the cold bath first. Splash-!

“It’s coooold!”

He immediately jumped out. What are you doing, you fool?

“Ugh, ugh, ugh! I’m freezing to death! I need to get into the warm water quickly!”

Kuilran, shivering, quickly jumped into the hot bath this time. Splash!

“It’s hooooot!”

He jumped out again right after. What are you doing, you idiot? It’s not like the hot and cold baths that old people often do at the neighborhood bathhouse.

After being frozen and boiled repeatedly, Kuilran finally found a lukewarm bath and crawled into it.

The rest of us also found baths with suitable temperatures and soaked ourselves.

“Phew~!”

Kuilran, who was being showered with hot water from the lion head carvings, shook his head.

Water droplets splashed everywhere along his long red braided hair.

“This feels so good! It feels like my cold is completely gone!”

“Hey, long hair. Don’t flick so much. The water is splashing all the way over here.”

When I scolded him, Kuilran grinned and started twisting around, splashing water everywhere. You mountain bandit! Enough already!

“…By the way, you’re in really good shape, Kuilran.”

His whole body seemed to be covered in dense muscles.

Plus, he’s over 2m tall, so his proportions are great. He looks like a Greek statue.

When I was amazed, Kuilran laughed and showed off his clear six-pack.

“Hahaha! I make a living with this body! Especially these abs are my pride! If I show them off and say, ‘You can use them as a washboard,’ no woman can resist!”

Seriously, does that old-fashioned pickup line actually work? I guess his muscles are responsible for the plausibility.

“I wish you would work on your inner self as well, not just your appearance…”

With those muscles, he’s so fragile. Please live up to your appearance.

“…”

“Hmm? Lucas?”

At that moment, I saw Lucas glaring fiercely at Kuilran. What’s wrong?

Swish!

Lucas silently got out of the bath and… suddenly started doing abdominal exercises. What are you doing?

Lucas, who was suddenly doing side crunches on the bathhouse floor, then started doing push-ups.

No, I always see one guy exercising in the bathhouse, but I didn’t know you were that type?

Lucas said in a very serious voice.

“I will train. So I won’t lose.”

“Huh?”

“I will make these abs more prominent…”

Lucas’s bright blue eyes flashed with a ghostly aura.

“I will stab them to death.”

“…Who?”

No, more than that, with abs? Stab? Is that even possible?

Lucas also has a great muscular body like a knight, but seeing Kuilran’s body like a bodybuilder, he must have felt some inferiority.

To me, who doesn’t know much about muscles, they look the same…

“Hooeeeee. Soooo goood.”

Damian was floating in the hot bath, making a sound like his soul was leaving his body.

He doesn’t have much muscle, but he’s sleek without any fat. Eat a lot and gain some weight.

‘Hmm, am I the only one with some fat…’

After looking at the three of them, I looked down at my own body. I have the most oily body among them.

Ash’s body isn’t bad objectively, but compared to those two walking David statues over there, it’s a bit… yeah.

There’s a bit of fat on my arms and sides.

“But this oiliness is like a symbol of a strategist who struggles at his desk…”

I muttered to myself, convinced myself, and nodded my head.

It can’t be helped that I don’t have much muscle! There’s a limit for office workers! Honestly, I hate exercising!

So, we were all relaxing in our respective baths, or building muscles, peacefully.

I was closing my eyes and resting, feeling the buffs of stamina and magic regeneration given by the magic city’s hot spring.

Ukkyaaaaaaaa!

Suddenly, a scream was heard from afar. The direction was the women’s bath. Startled, everyone jumped up from their spots.

“That scream is…”

“It’s Evangeline!”

“Did something happen?!”

We hurriedly got out of the bath, roughly wiped ourselves, put on our clothes, and rushed outside.

The men’s and women’s baths were connected by a lounge in between.

As we rushed into the lounge, Evangeline was also running out of the women’s bath and into the lounge.

“Ukkyaaaaaaa! Help meeeeeee!”

“What’s wrong, Evangeline!”

Evangeline, who was in a panic, ran to me, hugged me, and started crying.

“Waaaaah! Senpaiiiiii! In the women’s bath! In the women’s bathhhhh!”

“Calm down and tell me slowly, what happened?”

I tried to calm Evangeline down by holding her shoulders, but then I noticed Evangeline’s outfit.

She had quickly put on a shirt and pants, but she hadn’t buttoned them properly, so her white belly was clearly visible.

It was plump.

Her small belly button was exposed, and her belly was plump and shiny. It reminded me of the round belly of a puppy I had when I was little.

I suddenly thought of Princess Yoon, with whom I had a scandal (?) in the capital.

The ivory-colored princess who uses German suplexes [a wrestling move].

She boasted that she was amazing when she took off her clothes, and then showed off her amazing 11-shaped abs before leaving. I still don’t know why she showed them to me.

Anyway, unlike Princess Yoon, Kuilran, or Lucas… Evangeline’s belly was shiny instead of muscular, unlike a front-line character.

I muttered without realizing it.

“Your belly is surprisingly plump and cute, Evangeline…”

“Huh?”

Her round emerald eyes, which had been teary, widened, and she quickly looked down at her belly.

“Uh… uh… ah?”

Immediately, her face turned a shocking shade of red, and she quickly threw her fist forward.

“Don’t say such rude things so casually-!”

“Kuhuk.”

The other party members quickly caught me as I was knocked away by her punch.

Evangeline pointed at me and quickly covered her belly.

“Th-this is! I was about to go into the bath, but I suddenly got too hungry! I ate the lunch box I brought a little while ago, so that’s why it’s like this!”

“Uh-huh, okay. I see…”

“And because I was in the hot bath! I also thought of the eggs and honey water I secretly brought! I ate a little while soaking in the bath, so it just got a little round!”

No, you brought eggs too? Eggs are a must for bathhouses and saunas.

“I’m not plump! Take that back!”

Anyway, it doesn’t seem like you have the sexy-dynamite-hot body you were claiming.

If I tease her more, I might actually get killed, so I’ll stop.

“Okay. Let’s put this topic aside for now, and tell me what happened that made you scream?”

“Ah, that’s right!”

Evangeline, whose face had turned pale, pointed wildly towards the women’s bath.

“G-g-ghost!”

Huh?

“There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost in the women’s bath!”

Evangeline shouted desperately, but I chuckled.

“Haha, you’re saying cute things, Evangeline. There’s no such thing as a ghost in the world…”

…No, this is a fantasy world.

And it’s a monster field in the first place. It’s a dungeon full of monsters, so there might be ghosts.

‘The hot spring facility is supposed to be a monster-free zone? How did a ghost-type monster get in?’

Evangeline began to explain what had happened in the women’s bath to me, who was puzzled.

***

A little while ago. The women’s bath.

Soaking in the hot bath, Evangeline, with her cheeks flushed…

Crunch, crunch.

…was eating a boiled egg.

It seemed that the hot spring here did have the effect of restoring the body.

Her appetite, which had decreased while she was sick, was now flourishing.

‘The eggs are delicious, and it feels like my body is getting better, but…’

Evangeline thought to herself, tidying her platinum blonde hair that was tied up.

‘It’s lonely being alone…’

She was all alone in this large bath.

Evangeline wiggled her toes, lifting her small feet above the water, and made an ‘hmm-‘ sound.

‘Should I have brought Junior unnie? Oh, right, Junior unnie doesn’t like showing her bare body because of her burns…’

Excluding Junior, then who else could she bring?

‘Lily unnie? No, she doesn’t want to come to the dungeon anymore… Saintess Margherita? She also doesn’t like fighting on the front lines. Lady Reina? She’s uncomfortable with me…’

Evangeline counted the candidates, folding her small wet fingers, and soon realized that there were not enough female heroes to come to the dungeon with her.

‘It would be nice if there were more female members on the front lines…’

She suddenly remembered the Crossroads female hero mercenary meeting she had called last time.

She had gotten along well with the maid-dressed swordswoman who had joined for a while, and they had played well all night.

‘Elise, was it? She could come to the front lines with me. I wonder if she’ll come to Crossroads…’

Not just Elise.

Evangeline wished that more female heroes would join, go to the front lines with her, and play with her. She repeated this in her mind.

She was only sixteen years old.

A child who wanted to play a lot.

It was the girl’s honest desire to have more like-minded female friends, even if they weren’t her peers.

“Huh?”

That’s when it happened.

Evangeline, who was blowing bubbles with her mouth submerged in the water and splashing her short legs, saw something…

Floating.

It was floating up.

Floating, floating.

In the bath, a woman with long hair, without a sound…

“Huh?”

Evangeline, who thought she was alone, froze in surprise, her eyes wide open.

The long-haired woman, who had risen from the bottom of the bath to the surface, was slumped over, and then suddenly.

Twitch!

She moved her body.

Swishhhhh…!

And with water splashing everywhere, she stood straight in the middle of the bath.

“…”

“…”

Silence fell.

Evangeline was frozen and unable to move, and the woman who had stood up also did not move.

In the middle of the woman’s hair, which was tangled with water, her eyes flickered.

“U…”

And finally,

“Ukkyaaaaaaaa?!”

Evangeline screamed.

“It’s a ghosttttt!”