“Ahh~ I forgot how nice this was~” I said as I sunk into the steamy water.

  Luci entered just after me, sitting close enough for our shoulders to be touching despite the bath being big enough for more than ten people to comfortably share.

  “I had gotten used to it before, but after two months of adventuring without a normal bath, I think I can definitely appreciate this even more now,” Luci agreed. Suddenly, she started resting her head on my shoulder. “Mm~ It's even better like this though.”

  “Mhm,” I agreed, sitting in silence for a moment to enjoy the feeling.

  Left to my thoughts, I realized this was the first time since I got my memories back that I was able to really pay attention to my body outside of changing clothes, so I thought to do just that.

  Looking down at myself, I realized it might be a little challenging to do that, since I couldn't see much other than the two mounds of fat floating on the water. I usually wrap my chest in bandage-like cloth to keep them out of the way during combat, but it's times like this when I can see just how… inconvenienced I am.

  “Hm…” I cupped them in my hands, as if weighing them.

  And now that I have my memories back, I can't help but curse them, remembering how easy it was as a guy without having to deal with these

  “Mira? Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah. I'm just a little jealous, I guess,” I briefly gnced over at Luci's. “I wish I could be as small as you. These things are just so annoying…”

  “Oh. Um, I'm not really sure what to say to that,” she picked her head up, looking into my eyes. “Usually I'd be mad, but at the same time… people usually don't say that they want a chest like mine. It's a little funny, honestly, how I've always wished mine could grow but you - who's got the best pair imaginable - want smaller.”

  “A little bit. I just- I dunno,” I shook my head. “Even before I had my memories back I always found them to be too impractical.”

  “How about this,” she said, moving around until I was facing her back. “You learn to love your body - or at least tolerate it - and I show you how practical they are.”

  As she finished saying that, she leaned back, resting her head on me.

  “Use number one: they make great pillows for your favorite Elf!”

  “Yeah, you're right,” I said, hugging her stomach and pulling her closer. “I'm still not sure about it, but if it's for you, I'm sure I can manage. Thanks for that.”

  “Anytime. I'm always happy to show you some other uses as well~”

  “O-Oh, um… I don't know if I'm ready fir something like that…” I could feel my face heating up, and it wasn't because of the water.

  “We interrupting anything?” a voice said from the entrance. Looking over, it was a certain white-haired Kitsune, along with the other two.

  “Not at all, come on in!” Luci said, completely unphased that someone else heard that.

  I, for one, had all but shut down from the embarrassment.

  A minute ter, the other three girls were settled into the bath. Ina and Shimo ended up in a simir position, with Shimo holding Ina in her p. Setsuna was off to a side by herself.

  “This is nice~” Shimo said. “Setsuna. We need one of these in the vilge~”

  “I know, right?” she responded, sinking into the water. “I said the same thing earlier.”

  “You know…” Ina chimed in. “I may have to agree with you for once, Shimo.”

  “That settles it, then! When we get back, our first priority it to set up a Japanese style hot spring! Actually… maybe a jacuzzi would be better,” she closed her eyes deep in thought.

  Luci looked up at me.

  “Um, what's a jacuzzi?”

  “Let's see…” I began. “Basically like this, only smaller. It also usually jets of water coming in to create bubbles. I've never used one, but I've heared they're amazing.”

  “I'll take your word for it.”

  There was silence for a moment, and like st time, I started thinking. This time, however, it was about the implications of a jacuzzi. That's when I had an idea.

  “I think I might be able to recreate the effect of one, actually.”

  “You can?” Luci asked, surprised.

  Instead of answering with words, I started testing my idea.

  The first tier Wind spell, Burst, doesn't have an incantation, so it can be used pretty quickly in succession. And as I discovered the hard way the first time I cast it, the amount of mana used affects the size of the spell. So in theory, if I use as little mana as possible and cast it as fast as I can, I can recreate the bubble effect from a jacuzzi.

  To my surprise, it worked, and hundreds of tiny bubbles began to pop on the surface of the water. This method does cost a good amount of mana to maintain, but I've noticed that my total mana capacity has gone up recently, so it's not much of a problem.

  “Mira… How are you doing this?” Luci was very confused.

  “Burst. If I use as little mana as possible while repeatedly casting it, it does this, I guess,” I shrugged.

  “Um, I don't think magic usually works like that. Stop for a moment.”

  I did as she asked, and she tried the same thing. She was somewhat successful, getting her Bursts to be the same size, but she wasn't nearly as fast. Only creating a few every second. After about fifteen seconds, she stopped.

  “How did you do it so fast? Not to mention the mana upkeep. That used up probably a quarter of my mana!”

  “I'm not too sure. I think I probably used a simir amount of my own.”

  “Hah…” she sighed. “I guess that st part makes sense, at least.”

  “Huh? How so?”

  “Do you not know how mana capacity works?” Ina calmly asked, somehow keeping her composure as if she wasn't being hugged like a big teddy bear. “I'll go ahead and tell you. When you begin using a new tier of magic, your body will adjust to take in more mana to accommodate for the higher costing spells. Of course, genetic magic is a little different. For that, your mana capacity would grow simirly, only instead with higher tier spell, it would grow with the amount of the pseudo-spells genetic magic user's create, as well as the cost.”

  “Pseudo-spells?”

  “Mhm,” Luci affirmed. “They're not really spells, but more like specific effects we want our magic to have. For example, you've seen how sometimes I shoot an arrow that makes giant roots come out of the ground and attack things for me. That's a good example of it. I could manually focus to make my magic work, but if I do something enough, it'll get to the point where I can make it happen with a single thought as if I were using a real spell without an incantation. So far though, I only have the one.”

  “That's basically all you need to know about that,” Ina agreed. “Back to mana capacity, what I already mentioned isn't all there is to it. Circling back to when Luci said it makes sense that you can maintain whatever it was you were doing for so long compared to her, that has to do with your affinity for all six elements. Every element a mage can use only increases the amount of times they can reach a new tier. Genetic magic users will usually not have much higher capacity than a mage with one affinity, but with enough time and effort put into making more pseudo-spells, we'll usually end up with simir capacities to those with four elements. So, to answer your original question, you have a little less than five times the mana capacity Luci does.”

  “Huh. I guess that actually does make a lot of sense.”

  The five of us spent a while longer in the bath, soaking mostly in silence, but occasionally a small conversation would come up. It was fun, and before I knew it, it was time for dinner.

  Alpy376