I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 11

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 11

"Please don't be sad, Mr. Flippers. You can play with the ball again next time we go train," I tried to cheer up the penguin who waddled slowly behind me while looking down at the floor.

Escaping the dodging arena took way longer than it should have thanks to the two pranksters throwing balls at me as I tried to navigate out. Despite their best efforts and possibly to their disappointment, I somehow got out unscathed. Afterward, the penguin attempted to bring one of those golden spheres out with him to play with later, however, it somehow teleported back inside the room every time he passed through the door.Nêww chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com sure we'll go back there together soon, little one. There might even be something for you to play with in the bath," Julia added.

"... I'm not sure I want to know what you're referring to," I muttered taking a step away from the elf girl.

"It sounds like someone super seriously needs a punch, doesn't he?" the elf girl asked rhetorically with an innocent smile on her face.

"If you keep smiling like that I might let you throw one."

"Ew..." it was the elf's turn to take a step away from me.

"Hey- that was a joke! I'm not into that kind of stuff I swear," I defended myself as I rescinded the step I used to move away earlier, "Besides, you can't punch me even if you tried- you saw those sick dodges yourself,"

"Oh really~" the elf girl grinned and quickly threw a weak punch toward my head to test me.

It was both predictable and purposely inaccurate, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. I effortlessly turned my body, caught her wrist, and pulled her close to me in one smooth motion. The elf girl's face immediately turned red and she looked away in a pitiful attempt to hide it.

"If you wanted a hug, you could've just asked," I teased.

We stood there in silence for a moment as Mr. Flippers looked up at us blankly.

"... You smell," she mumbled.

"Ah-"

I let go of the embarrassed elf who took a step away, but a smile appeared on my face as I couldn't help but notice her distance to me stayed a lot closer than it was prior to the punch.

"Well we are going to the showers for a reason," I finished.

Indeed, I worked up a bit of sweat after that training. The penguin and I originally planned to meet Julia at the bathhouse after using the training facility, so I didn't reserve my energy and went all out with my swinging. Technically speaking, even if I held back in the sword practice, these two would've exhausted me anyway with their antics in the dodging area.

The bathhouse was right next door to the training facility, so it may seem weird that we were able to have such a long conversation on the way. There were two reasons for this: the penguin and the sheer size of the training facility.

Mr. Flippers was waddling while pulling a massive bag of sadness behind him due to losing the sphere, which made him follow us at a snail's pace. Eventually, I was forced to pick up the sulking penguin and carry the tiny creature the rest of the way.

Thanks to the dueling arena in the training facility, there had to be a massive gap between the two entrances. It was roughly the length of a football field between them. Of course, we quickly closed this gap after I began carrying the penguin.

"Squawk."

"Don't be jealous, Mr. Flippers. For all we know, you might have a six-pack hiding under all those feathers." I joked.

This somehow seemed to cheer up the little creature who straightened his posture with a smug look on his face. I somehow managed to hold back my laughter as we began making our way toward the baths.

We quickly reached our destination and to my surprise, instead of one giant bath, there were actually three different baths all next to one another. This area seemed to fit the natural theme hinted at by the fountain with giant rocks completely covered in plant life being used to separate each individual pool of water. The shape of each bath was slightly different from one another but they all seemed to mimic the look of a natural spring and were supplied water through a stream in the back.

According to Julia, each bath was a different temperature: the leftmost one was cold, the middle one was a bit warm, and the right one was hot. Steam was very clearly rising from the right bath and a quick dip of my hand let me estimate it was a bit above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and comparable to a hot tub. Though a few creatures relaxed in the middle and right baths, the left one was completely open so we let Mr. Flippers swim around for a bit.

"You weren't lying- the little guy is a crazy swimmer!" Julia couldn't hold back her astonishment seeing how fast he did laps under the water.

"I told you! Penguins can actually swim much faster than this, but the bath is a bit too small for that. We're definitely going to need to bring him back here often."

Although he fought us a bit when we eventually tried to get him out, Mr. Flippers looked insanely happy and refreshed after finally getting to swim again. Any remaining thoughts about losing the sphere seemed to vanish from his penguin brain and he was in a good mood as we made our way to our final destination: the sauna.

"Here it is!" Julia announced to the closed wooden door in front of us, "I was super curious about what's in here, but I wanted to wait for you two before I looked inside."

"You've never seen a sauna before? How'd you know we had to wear towels in there?"

"Well, everyone I saw go in there was wearing one so I just assumed it was some sort of rule..." she muttered.

"I guess that makes sense," I paused and looked down at the small penguin at my side, "Saunas are pretty hot though, so I don't think Mr. Flippers can stay in there too long."

"That's okay. We don't need to be there for long, I mainly just wanted to check it out with you guys since I kinda did the rest alone. Let's go in!"

With that settled, Julia opened the door and a flow of white steam flowed out of the entrance.

Yeah, this really might not be the best for the penguin. It's too-

My thoughts were cut short by a pair of flippers holding onto the back of my leg.

"Hey, what's wrong Mr. Flippers? Are you hiding from the steam?" I asked the slightly shaking penguin.

There was no answer.

I peeked into the sauna through the open door and quickly locked eyes with a red scaley figure sitting on a wooden bench in front of us.

"God dangit."