Chapter 17: New Acquaintances
Now that the source of the stress that had been weighing down on my heart was gone, I felt like singing, but this was a school attended by aristocrats, and I myself am a noblewoman, so I headed to my room in the dormitory, maintaining my ladylike appearance like a lily flower walking quietly.
“I’m back, Emma.”
“Welcome back, Rachel-sama.”
When I returned to my room, Emma greeted me with a dazzling smile. I felt like hugging Emma and singing to her, as I was happy that I hadn’t been questioned about Martina-jou, and had reached my own personal space, but I held back.
“Rachel-sama, you seem to be in a good mood today. Ah, as you said yesterday, your uniform has been washed.”
Emma showed me the washed uniform.
“Thank you Emma, you were quick.”
I took off the cape coat of my uniform and handed it to Emma.
“Yes, we started first thing in the morning, and more importantly, you’re sweating again today.”
As she was taking off my cape coat, Emma noticed that my blouse was sticking a little to my skin and exclaimed.
It was certainly because Diva-sensei’s call had made me break out in a cold sweat.
“Well, a lot has happened today, so can you do the laundry again tomorrow? I’m going to the dormitory’s public bath after this, so can you give me a change of clothes?”
I want to get rid of the unpleasant things that have been bothering me since yesterday, so today I’m going to the dormitory’s public bath instead of the indoor bathroom.
“I understand, here you go.”
Emma immediately takes out my change of clothes in response to my request.
“Thankyou, Emma. You can go home for today.”
I take my change of clothes and let Emma go out early to thank her for staying late yesterday.
“Thank you very much. Please put your changed clothes in the usual place.”
Emma bows and leaves the room. I also take my bathing set and head to the dormitory’s large bath.
The culture of bathing with others, such as in public baths, developed in the ancient Roman era in my previous life, but with the spread of Christianity, bathing naked with others was considered lewd and banned in medieval Europe. This place also has a historical background similar to medieval Europe, but the culture of public baths has been maintained due to the wishes of the first emperor. Moreover, it somehow has something similar to Japanese bathing culture.
I reach the bath and start preparing for bathing in the changing room. The sight of a clothes basket and a locker with a lock makes me think for a moment that I’ve returned to modern Japan.
After undressing, I put my soap and other hairdressing tools in a basin, and head to the bathhouse while holding a hand towel.. There is a large bath and numerous individual washing areas, and it really does resemble a Japanese bathhouse. As for bathing etiquette, you are not allowed to just jump into the bath, but are told to wash your body before getting in.
I sit down at one of the washing areas and start to wash my body and hair, but when I look at the other bathers, I see someone having someone else wash their hair. I’m sure I’ve seen the person washing their hair dressed as a maid before, so I guess it’s a noble student who’s come to bathe with a maid.
Thinking that if bathing with a maid is permitted, I might invite Emma next time, I finish washing my body and head to the bath.
I dip my toes in the bath and gradually lower my body. As I do this, the water envelops my body, and I feel as if both my body and mind are being liberated. Like this, as the warmth of the water releases the stiffness in my body that I hadn’t even realized I had, I become aware of the great stress I had been under because of Diva-sensei and Allen-ouji.
Stinging
As I was enjoying my bath, I felt a slight pain in my solar plexus. I wondered if the improved circulation was causing my nerves to overreact, but the pain started as a tingling sensation, then turned into a numbing pain, and finally into a tight, constricting pain.
As the pain began to tighten, the sweat that I had been shedding from the heat turned into a greasy sweat from the pain.
“Hey, Rachel, are you okay?”
Leaf, who was bathing with me, hiding in my hair, called out to me worriedly.
“…My solar plexus really hurts… It’s pretty early but I’m getting out…”
I got out of the bathtub and headed to the dressing room. I took a bath towel from the locker, dried myself off while enduring the pain, got changed, sat down on the bench, and put my hand on my sore solar plexus.
“I wonder why my solar plexus hurts… Does it mean stomach pain? I’ve been trying to be careful up until now, but now that I’ve relaxed, maybe the stress-related stomach pain is coming out…”
As I calmly analyzed myself, I felt ashamed of myself for being so weak that I was feeling stomach pain from stress over something like that, even though it was only the beginning of my school life.
“Ummm… are you okay?”
I suddenly heard a voice from behind me.
“Yes?”
As I turned around to answer, I saw two girls who had finished changing after the bath. They didn’t have the tense atmosphere that noble daughters have, so they were probably not noble daughters, but common students.
One was a slender, athletic girl with short red hair and long limbs, resembling a marathon runner, and the other was a plump girl with medium-long brown hair and glasses.
“Huh? Rachel-sa…ma?”
The glasses girl realized who I was, and called me by my name, with gestures she still wasn’t used to using to treat a noble.
Seeing the glasses girl’s gestures, the athletic girl realized I was a noble, and hurriedly bowed her head.
On the surface, this school says that there is no hierarchy among students, and that they should all treat each other equally, but in reality, problems often develop outside of school with their parents, so it is normal for students to be concerned about hierarchy.
“We’re just students, so there’s no need to worry about it. Rather, why do you know about me?”
Currently, I’m a noblewoman, but as I recall, I’ve lived as an ordinary citizen, Reiko, for a long time, so I’d rather be treated normally than be treated like a noblewoman. So, even though I was suffering from a stomachache, I spoke casually and asked her about her knowledge of me.
“It seems that you’ve exchanged words with Allen-ouji and Diva-sensei…”
The athletic girl answered, blushing a little.
‘Aah, it seems that what happened in the classroom stood out as something bad…’
The incident in the classroom stood out as something bad, and thinking about how everyone was looking at me strangely made my stomach churn even more.
“So you’re worried about what happened in the classroom, and that’s what’s making your stomach churn?”
The girl with glasses continued, concerned about my condition.
“Well, yes… I’m honored to be spoken to by Allen-ouji, but to be spoken to in front of his fiancee, Marchioness Koron was kind of…”
I can’t say anything about Diva-sensei because of Lady Martina, but I’ll be honest about Prince Allen.
The glasses girl puts her hand to her chin in response to my answer, thinks for a while, and then speaks.
“I’m majoring in pharmacology, so if you don’t mind, would it be okay if I treated you to some tea to ease your symptoms? I have something that can ease anxiety and tension and calm the mind.”
It was a wish come true.
“Is that okay? I’d love to have some…um, well…”
The two of them knew my name, but I didn’t know theirs yet.
“Oh, my name is Jun Kappaen.”
The glasses girl introduced herself.
“I’m Neese Zonkomick”
The athletic girl introduced herself.
And so, I made my first student acquaintances since coming to this school.
