Chapter 80: Bath house conversation
Eventually, they secured a special courtyard for three days at a price of thirty thousand coins. Lady Arian subsidized the arrangement down to fifteen thousand, allowing the entire group to stay together comfortably without needing to split across separate accommodations, a small kindness that none of them commented on directly.
Of course, this was mainly done to keep her stubborn children in check when they were out.
Last time the two had gross freedom one of them ended up losing their virginity and bringing the man who. That man had never left since then.
"A hot bath? I’ve never tried one."
Inside the courtyard, dressed in loose, relaxed robes, Ethan’s voice carried a distinct note of exasperation as he glanced toward the steaming water waiting somewhere beyond the walls.
Even in his previous life, he’d skipped company outings entirely, choosing instead to bury himself in school and work, treating leisure as something other people had time for. A hot bath had always fallen somewhere on the long list of experiences he’d never bothered to try, filed away next to vacations he’d never taken and relationships he’d never pursued past something convenient.
This was, apparently, a traditional social outing back on Earth. And somehow, across an entire lifetime, he’d never once participated.
It felt, in a small way, genuinely sad.
"Of course you haven’t. You’re literally a country bumpkin."
Fin laughed, though not unkindly, the amusement clearly aimed at the situation itself rather than Ethan directly.
Even Fin, admittedly, hadn’t experienced a proper hot bath before either, let alone someone raised as a brothel boy stuck within the walls of a remote wilderness stronghold.
Ethan simply wasn’t familiar with the broader realities most young summoners across this world dealt with daily, the constant grind against beast hordes, tension with Demi-humans, and the endless layers of political maneuvering woven throughout an entire kingdom’s noble houses, all of it quietly shaping what counted as normal for people his age here.
Eventually, Ethan agreed to go, joined reluctantly by Ella, who managed to keep a brave face right up until they actually reached the bathhouse itself.
"It’s mixed?"
Her eyes widened sharply the moment she caught sight of women, several of them half undressed, filing casually into the steaming bathhouse ahead, her posture stiffening instantly.
She tensed immediately, scrambling to invent some plausible excuse, and within moments she’d vanished entirely, leaving the rest of them behind without so much as a proper goodbye, her footsteps already fading down the corridor.
"Haha, the two ladies are very sheltered. Our High Regent can be quite protective of her own seed. They talk a big game, but both of them..."
Inside the bathhouse, steam curling lazily around the shoulders of several other young people scattered throughout the water, Fin’s laughter cut through the haze easily, his voice carrying a teasing edge.
He wasn’t entirely wrong. Both girls really were more sheltered than their reputations suggested. Then again, who wouldn’t want to shelter their own children, especially ones as exceptional as Hela and Ella had proven themselves to be, each carrying enough talent and target on their backs to justify a little overprotection.
"I’m more interested in your family, Fin. From what I understand, magic formation masters are extremely rare in this part of the world."
Ethan offered a faint smile, settling deeper into the warm water.
Formations served as one of the most essential tools available for interacting with the world around them. Every chanted spell, in some sense, traced a formation through the air itself. Every summoning ritual relied on a basic circle etched carefully into the ground beforehand.
A true formation master sat at the very core of all of it, the discipline underlying everything else summoners and mages relied on daily, a field of study most people never bothered learning properly, content instead to use spells they didn’t fully understand.
"Family? Ethan, I’m an orphan. Most of us in White Tower are."
Fin muttered the words quietly, sipping warm liquid from a cup carved out of hollowed bamboo, his tone carrying none of the earlier teasing.
Clearly Fin was dead serious here.
"Really?"
Ethan sat with that for a moment, genuinely caught off guard at first, though after turning it over in his mind briefly, understanding settled in fairly quickly.
It made sense, unfortunately. In war-torn regions like this one, entire bloodlines could be wiped out in a single night by nothing more than an unlucky encounter with the wrong beast horde, families reduced to nothing before anyone even had time to send word for help.
That was simply the harsh, unavoidable reality of living somewhere like this.
"Yeah. My formation work was casually taught to me by the Fortune Maker."
Fin added it offhandedly, scooping a small cup of hot water from the bath and pouring it slowly down the back of his neck, letting out a satisfied breath as the warmth settled into tired muscles.
"Fortune Maker? Who is that?"
Ethan asked quickly, sensing an unexpected opening to finally learn something concrete about the mysterious figure who had defended him back in the training chamber.
"I heard my glorious title, who summoned me?!!"
Before Fin could offer anything further, a booming voice erupted without warning, and a rowdy man came crashing into view, wading directly into the center of the spring with all the subtlety of a thrown boulder, water sloshing violently over the edges of the bath.
"Greetings, Leader. Fancy seeing you here."
The man infront of him was a bit on the older side, his features were a bit distinct; the almost elastic tissue in his face making every smile exaggerated and a cross tatto on his forehead.
Who wouldn’t recognize this old fart from a Mile away.
Fin’s smile turned coy instantly, his eyes flicking sideways toward Ethan with clear, deliberate meaning.
The wording had been precise, chosen with obvious care.
Leader.
Not Regent. Not High Regent. Not any of the ranked titles that filled White Tower’s typical hierarchy.
Leader was something else entirely.
The Leader of White Tower.
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