Chapter 97: Beach Day

-There's a bit of lewd language in this one, but there isn't a sex scene, just proceed with caution-

I woke up with a strange sensation down there.

Unsurprisingly, it was the work of the two that I spent the night together with yesterday.

Thankfully it was still pretty early, so no one had entered this room yet, but once I questioned them, Ellie looked confused and told me that Bea said that dealing with a man's morning wood was just a matter of manners when you sleep together.

I seriously want to criticize her for corrupting Ellie's since I'm the only one who should have that right but I cannot deny that the double cleanup was incredible, so I'll let it pass this time only.

While I was happy with the service, I had to refuse anything further, especially coming from Beatrice.

There were a few things I had to get before letting the girls out of the kingdom today, so I went to buy them.

Once I got back to the kingdom, everyone was already up.

Licia: "Hm... fruits, balls, alcohol, and... snacks? What are you planning?"

Miwen: "Yep, can you make some ice for me? I want to store these in the kingdom."

While I can't get a refrigerator in this place, there are still ways to keep things cool for a long time.

I'll just have to check it once in a while to regenerate the ice, but that much is fine.

Miwen: "Also, you should pick some swimsuits."

Today was going to be hot, even more so considering we were going to-

Licia: "The beach? Isn't that kind of dangerous? What if a monster pops up from the sea?"

The chances certainly aren't zero but...

Miwen: "There haven't been incidents where we're going, and the closest dungeon is some kilometers away. Not to mention, it was cleared a few days ago, I checked."

The matter of ocean monsters is a problem, that cannot be denied. But in the last few years, with a combination of technology and magic, we've been able to clear some areas and even a few dungeons that aren't too deep or isolated in the ocean.

It's basically impossible to say that a beach is completely safe but... it's way better than the open ocean.

Most ships now have to sign an adventurer to help them reach port safely, or at least some kind of escort.

This makes shipping kind of expensive, but it's believed that in a few years, these problems will be solved for the most part.

Still, I did my research, the chances of something happening are very slim, and if they do... we can just run away.

Once we got to touch the sand and feel the heat, most of the girls' reservations dropped.

This place is a bit far from my home, at least to the extent that I had to take a cab.

For this surprise, I couldn't really come back home yesterday, and thus, ended up having to bring them fast food from a place nearby.

Either way, it was worth it to see them having a fun time, I even got something for me too using some kingdom points.

Anna: "Pink? Seriously? You're such a dork."

Miwen: "What can I say? It goes great with my skin tone."

Anna: "Pfft. Whatever you say, O' King In Pink."

Somehow I feel like ever since I changed, the girls started taking me less seriously.

Well, we didn't come here to do anything serious anyway, I simply wanted to have a good time so that's perfect actually.

We had to wait a bit before everything got cold enough, but in the meantime the girls tested the waters to refresh themselves.

However, when it comes to swimming, it seems Bea is surprisingly not too good at it.

She wouldn't really go too far before leaving the water and showing me her wet body.

Miwen: "Yeah, you're hot, I got it already. You don't need to do that every time."

Bea: "Hm... I'm not good with the ocean, my body feels strange and I don't know what to do."

I guess it makes sense she wouldn't have too much control over her body since she's the one who uses it the least among us. Usually she just stays in the back casting her magic, the most amount of exercise she gets is walking through the dungeon.

It's enough to keep her in shape, but it seems like it's her first time at the sea, so she's getting a bit too nervous to float, which is incredible considering her natural-

These thoughts weren't going to go anywhere, so I decided to make good use of my time and help her out.

Miwen: "Let's enter together then, just grab tight to me or use my shoulder..."

Bea: "...Sure."

It's important to keep calm to float, if you move around too much you might disrupt your buoyancy and make you sink.

I know that, and be it floating or swimming, I'm pretty confident in both.

But this girl grabbing me from behind and pulling me to the bottom made it really hard to keep calm.

After almost making me drown two or three times, she finally started to relax, and she could finally float.

Miwen: "Good job... if anything happens, just reset and try to float. As long as you don't go too far I can catch you. Well, you can also just use magic to get away. Now when it comes to swimming and diving you can do it in a bunch of ways..."

And so I tried my best to teach her to swim, and it was surprisingly refreshing to see Bea who always seemed under control out of her depth.

Still, it was a bit tiresome, so I went back to the shore and inside the kingdom to bring a few goodies, namely, ice cream, popsicles, and some things to make a few tropical drinks.

I knew this was going to be a novelty to them since they hadn't given them any yet, but it went even better than expected. So much so that I went away for a while to buy some sensing that the amount we had wouldn't be enough with their current pace.

Now, leaving a bunch of girls alone at the beach might be a bit dangerous, but the place we were at was pretty empty.

Due to the remaining fear from the old days when beaches were more dangerous, the amount of people on a beach has kind of diminished, and so, if you want to find a lot of people, there's going to be a few spots, but if you want to be alone, it's not that hard to find someplace.

As such, it felt like our own little private beach.

When I came back though, a single lonely girl was standing a bit away from everyone under a shade while the others were playing with a volleyball.

Miwen: "Why the long face? Are you not feeling well?"

Mia: "The heat..."

I should've thought about that, she lived on an icy island covered in snow, so she'd obviously have some problems on a summer beach.

Miwen: "Did you put sunscreen like I told you?"

And it's not his only use, as a coward, he always gets nervous when a strong opponent is near, so he's a pretty useful radar.

Miwen: "I don't know what to tell you. There's no meaning in living without enjoying life."

Mia: "... Then why do you keep venturing through the dungeon? And why did you agree to help me out? You could be happy every day if you stopped taking events, settled down on the floor you are, and just... I don't know... lived your life with Claire and Licia..."

Very true. That would be an enviable way of life, now that she put it like that, I almost want to take it.

Still, it's not even worth entertaining that idea.

Our world's prosperity has been built on the indomitable will of men who pushed forward.

If not for the people who first ventured into the dungeon and risked their lives to clear as much of the first floors as possible, I wouldn't even be here today in the first place.

There's a debt we owe to them to keep the torch lit, to march forward, and even go beyond.

Some of the dungeons are classified as hard still rampage every now and then due to a lack of high-rankers.

Not to mention, when a boss room has gimmicks, sometimes it's still only possible to kill the boss after the rampage happens and they leave the room.

While things are under control somehow, there's still a lot to be done before we're completely safe.

And even if that weren't the case, it's a personal matter for me. How could I not find the world I was born in to be interesting? I want to explore and conquer every nook and cranny of it.

I want to see the frontier with my own eyes, and then go past it.

That would make me really happy, but I won't sacrifice everyday happiness for it.

I'm greedy like that. I'm not willing to sacrifice something to obtain another.

Even if a fight breaks out and we have to evacuate the kingdom, I'd be sure to get it back.

And even the results of the Snow White Wolves war... I'm not satisfied with that, so I won't have it. I'll be sure to set things straight, the way I want them to be.

Miwen: "... I don't believe in living a perfect and happy life, but I believe in pursuing happiness whenever you can. Moments like these are fruits of our labor, and if not for the challenges we had to face to get here, then they wouldn't be as good. But you don't have to think too hard about it, just enjoy the good moments as they come and if a challenge arrives, just take them on."

Mia: "... So... just live every moment like it's the last?"

Miwen: "...Not quite, it's important to have objectives too, just don't let the future and the past distract you from the present too much, alright?"

I wish I had paid more attention to my philosophy classes, I'm sure one of the nerds from the past had better answers as to how to live life.

But it's hard to thread my way here, I can only answer with how I live. Being the right or wrong way to live never bothered me much, as long as I enjoy it, there should be no problems.

Miwen: "Also... it might be better to take off your shorts."

While some of the girls would be fine, if she's so weak to the heat, she shouldn't have come with them.

Mia: "You can do it for me..."

Miwen: "Sure...then, I'll apply sunscreen on your cheeks too alright?"

Mia: "You just want to feel my ass..."

Absolutely.

But it's really not the only reason, it's just convenient for me, nothing I can do about that.

Still, her body is very pretty, and it's hard not to get aroused by it when she's in this position.

I'm the man who resisted doing Bea when she showed up in my bedroom with just her underwear though, so I should be able to deal with this much.

Her body is somewhat close to Ellie's, but a size bigger here and there, perhaps Ann'as is a better comparison.

I also like her moans quite a bit, though it's pretty hard to hear them.

To provoke one I had to go out of my way to press a no-no place.

I took my time to finish, but since she had taken off the shorts, there was a bit more surface area for me to cover, so I had her turn around again.

It was a sensitive place quite close to her private parts though...

Miwen: "I tried drying this area, but it's still wet..."

Mia: "I-it's just sweat, it will go away after a while."

Miwen: "Doesn't taste like sweat though."

Of course, I couldn't let her go before messing around a bit. Now, the truth is, I could barely feel anything aside from the taste of the sunscreen on my fingers, but that's not really something she needs to know.

And even though I received my daily dose of verbal abuse from her, I still wanted to go a bit further.

Miwen: "Still, red eh... were you perhaps trying to provoke-"

Mia: "I'm feeling better now so I'll be going. You can have fun on your own."

Miwen: "Sure, you even left me with your shorts."

Mia: "Pervert!"

There will come a day when she manages to win against me, but that day is not today.

Still, it was great to see her regain her energy.

Before she went to play with the girls I also shared the [Heat Resistance] skill with her, which might have made her feel better than the sunscreen.

Now, if there was such a simple solution from the beginning, one might ask why did I take the most troublesome route.

It's such a great mystery... humanity might never arrive at an answer.

The combo might've been too much though, the friendly plat of not letting the ball fall on the ground turned into a straight match between the useful team, composed of Ellie, Licia, and Mia, against the useless team, main members: Anna, Bea and Claire.

The only one truly useless there is Claire since she's the only one who acts like it's not her business when someone asks her to do something.

Still, can't argue there's a world of difference when it comes to the useful team that is always doing something.

As for me, while I didn't participate, I had a great time drinking and watching them play.

Though it was funny seeing Licia and Ellie trying to play while completely drunk.

I warned them that alcohol that doesn't taste like alcohol is the most dangerous, but it seems like they didn't really listen.

Still, this ended up making for a pretty great day-off, so much so that I had to promise the girls that we would come back again one day.