Epic of Caterpillar

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All was done, the only thing left now was to just walk back to the city. As we finally made our way back to the Palace, we were greeted by the governor, who looked all tired. He had been spending the past hours assessing everything to prepare as quick as possible for the upcoming monster invasion.

We told him we've already defeated two of the menaces, and with the guards as the witnessers, he was quickly amazed as he was told the Oasis was recovered, the jungle surrounding it, the crops, and also the salt dunes becoming a freezing land of ice… which regained its safety. Although they might catch a cold if they're not careful while going through there.

"Y-You've made so many miracles already, goddess-sama! And your friends too, all of you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Above all, I am enchanted by the giant tree in the background! Also the Oasis is filled with fishes! And to boot, the jungle's filled with animals! A-And… well, I am just surprised." He sighed. "A-And of course, the ice field that used to be the salt dunes… We can now extract ice, an incredibly precious and rare resource for us people of the desert! You've already done enough, Kireina-sama, everyone…"

He was gasping for air after saying all of that without taking a breath in between. However, it was clear he was quite thankful of what we had done for him and the people. Nonetheless, this wasn't near as enough as everything yet. We had yet to conquer that one dungeon first, and then we'll feast on the upcoming EXP of the Undead Army.

Once that's done with, the path towards the Genie's Dungeon will be open, and with Elfina's help, using the memories she had, we'll decipher his machinations and crush him, right before crushing the demon king who's just at the side… I am already beginning to suspect they're cooperating too.

"Don't worry about the details! Anyways we want to take a little break so we'll go to the baths, where are they? Also can we get our own rooms?" I wondered.

"But of course! My beautiful servants, come!" The King called, as the people gathered around him and immediately nodded. "Lead them to their beautiful rooms, also to the bathrooms! The rest, let us prepare lunch for them, we must give them the best we can offer!"

Like that, we wandered around the beautiful and luxurious Persian palace, with all their beautiful commodities and then we were led to the baths. There were two separate baths for men and women, surprisingly, so I went with the girls and the boys went their separate ways.

The baths were enormous pools of fresh cold water. I doubt they bath themselves with much warm water at all seeing how hot is in here. So we took a dip into these cold waters, which had chunks of ice, most likely made from magic, floating over them.

"Oh man, now this is what I would call a relaxing time." I sighed in relief.

"It feels a bit awkward to bathe with everyone like this…" Ariant muttered

"Ugh, I wish I could use my giant form, it doesn't feel right to bathe as small little thing. Well, we usually never took baths in my village, there wasn't enough water. Usually we took ashes baths, where we cleansed our bodies using ashes." Said Brunhild.

"Water was too scarce for us as well; baths are a very big commodity we could never really afford ourselves. However we used cactus pulp to clean ourselves. Their juice is good for the skin as well. we usually took a big slice of a meaty and juicy cactus and then simply used it to clean our bodies from dirt and everything else. We ended slightly sticky afterwards, but it really helped at keeping my skin smooth." Sighed Ariant.

"I used to take baths with lady Elfina, I had to always brush her back and wash her long hair…" Sighed Fiere. "Right now I should be doing that, yet she's not here…"

"Ah… Well, you girls really have it hard…" I sighed. "For now the water problem wont ever be an issue again, Brunhild, Ariant. Your people can also wash themselves as much as they want from now on. Brunhild you have some water magic spells, right? I think you could take a normal bath using your giant body as well. Just hide somewhere."

"Ahhh! That sounds perfect. I'll do it later then… But I need to find a big pool. Oh, I could just shape the earth for that, or conjure a stone and shape it with magic! Ah, there's more possibilities than I imagined…." Brunhild was surprised by the wonders of magic. "I could even… completely reconstruct the whole village once I am back, and also make wooden furniture, and also make warm fires for everyone, and cook better and delicious food, and hunt more and better monsters…"

"Your father was already pretty old, have you considered becoming the new chief?" I wondered. "I think you could do good."

"T-The new chief? Me?!" Brunhild was shocked. "But I… I can't do that! I am too young too…"

"Well, eventually everyone will rely on you, so even if you say that you don't want to now, once you grow up and help all those villagers as you said, everyone will ant to make you their chief anyways." I laughed.

"Aahhh… Do you really think so, Kireina-sama?" She wondered. "I am not so sure myself…" She was still doubting.

"Well, you'll eventually find out." Ariant said. "I plan to help out grandma with my brother and protect the village. We'll use the spirits guidance to create new followers of the spirits, so even when we pass away, our villagers and the descendants of them can still call for the spirit's aid in dire situations, or for their assistance in our daily lives."

"Heh, you two really have good convictions." Fiere sighed. "Though, would you mind if I warm the water? Warm water is better to relax muscles."

"Sure!"

FRSSSSH!

And then, Fiere began user he fire magic to boil the water… Well, it certainly feels better.

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