Chapter 52: Training Camp Night.
[June 23, 9:00 PM]
[You return to the room arranged by Chaldea Hotel, a seaside hotel.]
[It is lights-out time, and you prepare to go to sleep.]
[This time, you are staying in the same hotel as the Greek Class, and the environmental conditions of this hotel are rather poor.]
[The room assigned to you isn't very good: there is no air conditioning, the bedding is quite thick, and there is only one electric fan, which can only be set to oscillate to blow air to everyone.]
[But you still quite like the atmosphere of sleeping outdoors, the lively night of sleeping together with friends in an unfamiliar environment.]
[The night gradually grows deeper...]
Seeing that the time was about right, everyone lay down on their own beds.
"Tristan, could you help light the mosquito coil?"
Eikou yawned tiredly and burrowed into his blanket.
"Also, turn off the lights for me, please. Thanks. Goodnight."
"Why is it always me who has to do all these things?"
Tristan protested with some dissatisfaction.
"Because your spot is closest to the switch, so these things suit you best. If you want to blame something, blame your bad luck."
Eikou said. "Oh, and grab my earphones too, thanks."
"Aren't your earphones in your backpack? That's closer to you, isn't it?"
"That's right, but this time I want to be a lazy dog."
"Hmph—"
From the neighboring room, bursts of dull roaring suddenly came through, as if someone were forcefully pounding the wall.
At first, no one paid much attention to it. But even after the lights were turned off and the three had been lying in bed for a while, the noise next door showed no sign of diminishing.
"..."
And so, quite a long time passed like this.
"…Why is the room next door still making such a racket? It's way too noisy!"
Eikou irritably sat up, that noise being even more infuriating than the heat of the summer night.
"I can't take this anymore, I'm going to check what the hell is going on in the room next door. Just who is it that's still not letting people sleep this late at night?!"
"The room next door belongs to the Greek Class; I heard they'll be joining us in the training camp,"
Gawain explained. "If you can go over there, that would actually be a huge help, because Berserker Heracles should be inside."
"..... So it's Heracles? A ha ha.... then I'm not going."
Eikou smoothly lay back down under the blanket.
"Aren't you always calling yourself Eikoucles? Why are you going silent when you meet the real deal? Shouldn't you go over and greet him or something?"
The two Knights of the Round Table wore expressions of people enjoying the spectacle without fearing trouble.
"Shut up and sleep!"
[You put on noise-canceling earphones, listen to ASMR, and gradually fall asleep.]
[Zzzzzzzzzz...]
[...]
[A long time later...]
[In the dead of night, you suddenly wake up because of the heat.]
[You don't know how long you've been asleep, but when you wake up, you feel a bit short of breath, because you're being pressed down by thick blankets. It's so hot that your entire body is drenched in sweat, and even the bedsheets and pillow underneath have been soaked through.]
[It turns out that while sleeping, Tristan and Gawain had unintentionally kicked all the blankets over to your side.]
In the middle of the night.
"…You two bastards."
Eikou wiped the hot sweat off his head and shoved the blankets back toward the two guys beside him, who were sleeping like the dead.
He glanced at the time; it was already 11 PM, and even the noise from the Greek Class in the next room had completely died down.
"..."
His room—no, the entire hotel—had sunk into silence, faint moonlight filtering softly through the curtains.
But Eikou could no longer fall back asleep.
"Haizz..."
He took off his earphones and wiped the sweat from his face, only to find that there was even more sweat on his hands.
He couldn't take it anymore—this time it was really so hot he was about to go crazy.
The weather was already hot to begin with, and now his whole body was soaked with sweat like this—how was he supposed to sleep?
At this point, the only option was to go take a shower to cool down, Eikou thought to himself.
"When I come back, I'll adjust the fan to blow only toward me and see if the two of you don't die of heat."
He muttered as he reluctantly crawled out of bed.
Even so, Eikou didn't disturb their sleep. When he got out of bed, he didn't turn on the lights, instead groping around in the dark for his toiletries, then quietly stepping out of the room.
The corridor outside the room was pitch-black.
Logically speaking, the hotel corridor should always have its lights on, yet for some reason this hotel seemed to have a short circuit somewhere—there wasn't a single light along the entire long corridor.
The hallway stretched endlessly ahead, dark like a deep pit that wanted to swallow people whole, and the darkness at the far end made Eikou feel a little uneasy.
This hotel really made people feel uneasy in every possible way.
"Could it be that Finn-sensei and the others took kickbacks and deliberately chose such a crappy hotel..."
Eikou muttered like that, holding the basin with his toiletries in both hands as he walked toward the bathroom.
The light in front of the bathroom was actually on.
He carefully checked once more—this was indeed the Men's Bath, no mistake.
Because of Disaster With Women, he had to be especially careful; he absolutely did not want something like a perverted romcom scenario to happen in the middle of the night, like [oh no I couldn't see clearly and went into the wrong place, accidentally entered the Women's Bath and happened to run into a beautiful woman bathing, kyaaa].
Moreover, this place was not like Chaldea Academy. That place was extremely professional about these matters—not only were entries and exits strictly monitored, but they also constantly paid attention to duty schedules and the gender composition of Servants, eliminating all unnecessary disturbances at the root.
But the bathhouse here had no attendant at all at night. If something really did happen, it would truly be impossible to explain clearly.
The last onsen incident had left a deep impression on him; he did not want there to be a second time.
Speaking of which, Disaster With Women showed no signs of triggering tonight—very good. That meant there really was no romantic misfortune tonight.
Just take a thorough bath and go back to sleep quickly, Eikou thought to himself.
The spacious, brightly lit bathhouse was filled with heavy, humid steam, and from one of the shower stalls came the steady sound of running water.
He did not expect that even this late, someone was still bathing; it seemed the other party had also come over to rinse off because it was too hot.
Eikou took off his clothes, stepped into another stall by himself, turned on the shower, squeezed out body wash and shampoo, and began scrubbing his body.
The sound of water continued to come from the neighboring stall.
Faintly, he could even hear the sound of body wash being rubbed over skin.
For a moment, in the vast bathhouse, only the sounds of two people bathing remained.
"Haa..."
Eikou let out a tired yawn, simply rinsed off the body wash on himself, then quickly dried his body with a towel.
But very soon, he suddenly realized a blind spot.
When he had groped his way out in the dark earlier, he had not thought it through and had forgotten to bring a hair dryer...
Eikou heard the sound of water from the neighboring stall suddenly stop, followed by the sound of slippers stepping on the wet tiled floor.
It seemed the person next door had also finished bathing.
"Sorry to bother you… but, the guy in the next stall, could I borrow your hair dryer?"
Holding his wash basin, Eikou hurried out of the stall and asked the person who had just finished bathing next to him.
The next instant, his eyes abruptly widened.
"!"
Within the warm, white haze of steam stood a tall, dark-skinned figure, sturdy like a long spear, with red patterns tattooed across dusky skin.
But it was not a tall, burly man—those rounded curves looked more like a woman.
Wet white hair, a tall and full, alluring figure, a naked body without a single scrap of cloth, transparent water cascading over her, radiating an intense, captivating feminine aura that appeared and disappeared within the steam.
Hearing his voice, she turned her head, and the white beast ears atop her head immediately stood upright.
Clatter.
Eikou failed to keep his grip steady; the basin in his hands slipped free and fell to the floor.
Damn it, is there a female pervert in the men's bath?!
...