novelraw Chapter 181: Swimwear
Chapter 181: Swimwear
At the foot of the Klein Mountains, amidst the embellishment of verdant trees, a crooked stream of water passed through this expanse of green, flowing ceaselessly towards the sea in the south.
The overall flow of the Klein River was steady. The river channel appeared extremely straight on the map, and lacked obvious obstacles. Because of this, among the nine rivers of Saint-Nazareth, it was considered the one with the fastest current.
Even for such a river, near the Klein Mountains... meaning the upstream portion, there were still several tiny river bends dotting it.
Once a river had a river bend, the flow speed of the river water there would also significantly slow down quite a bit. Such a location couldn't be more suitable for use as a venue for Jasmine's combat training.
Ever since finalizing the plan to conduct combat training in the water yesterday, Fisher began to consider the issue of where to train. The best place was of course Lake Naris not far from here, but that was royal territory, guarded by soldiers everywhere. The cost was too high and not taken into consideration.
And originally, the Klein River wasn't considered because the flow speed there was fast, and the river channel was both narrow and shallow. Fisher was afraid Jasmine wouldn't be able to let loose. However, Xi Yate said there were many places upstream of this river that were extremely suitable. Only then did Fisher change his mind.
The river bend she mentioned was found for them by Xi Yate, who possessed richer outdoor experience. She discovered it previously when resting near her own camp. Now it could exactly be put to use.
It figured she also had a camp in the mountains, but compared to the one Fisher built, it was much more inferior. Exactly as Xi Yate herself said, that camp was basically a clumsy product constructed from a few tree branches and some leaves. At most, it was just enough to rest one's feet a bit in the afternoon and at night.
The plan was finalized at night. Roughly by the time they woke up early the next morning, Xi Yate used the pork leftover from yesterday intermixed with wild vegetables to boil a bit of soup to drink. The leftovers they couldn't finish could only all be thrown away, otherwise by the time they brought it back it would all be stinky.
After finishing breakfast, Xi Yate took Fisher and Jasmine toward the river bend below to conduct training. Along the way, Xi Yate's steps were rapid; her clear hoofbeats could be heard throughout the entire mountain."The water here is very deep, oh. It should be extremely suitable for you to perform."
Arriving by the river, Fisher roughly sized up the depth of this river bend. The water flow in the river bend wasn't considered murky, and it was about six or seven meters deep, which should also barely be enough for Jasmine to use.
This time, Xi Yate was responsible for taking the role of the training teacher. She seemed to not have served as someone else's teacher for a very long time, appearing quite excited at this moment.
Jasmine hadn't even made any moves yet, but she conversely started doing warm-up exercises first. While doing them, her ponytail abruptly flicked up, and only then did she realizing after the fact that she couldn't enter the water, so there was no need to be this hyper...
After all, she was merely a Centaur!
Looking at the river water in front of her, Jasmine suddenly thought of something. Consequently, she cautiously reached out and tugged at Fisher's sleeve. Waiting until Fisher turned his head to look at her, she blushing profusely asked softly.
"Fisher... what should I wear for training in a bit?"
Fisher cast a glance at the dress on her body, and also remembered that it seemed she only had one cloak in the carriage. There were absolutely no extra clothes to give her to use for entering the water for training.
Thinking about it now, as an ocean demi-human, the biggest difficulty Jasmine encountered every time was never how to conceal her identity, but rather the predicament of having no clothes to wear.
Moreover, her body was even more "proud" than ordinary females, so sizing was also an extremely massive problem. It was impossible for all her clothes to be custom-ordered for her by Fisher; that would waste too much time.
After considering for a few seconds, Fisher looked at the quiet surroundings, raised his walking stick, and said to Jasmine.
"How about this, you train here with Xi Yate, and I'll stay slightly further away to stand guard and watch the surroundings to prevent people from coming over. This way you won't need to consider the issue of clothing."
Actually, it was basically impossible for anyone to come here. Fisher could entirely set up a large-range defensive magic. Coincidentally, almost all the magics on his walking stick had been used at least once; only this defensive magic never had a chance to be used.
Ever since the carriage was taken away, it seemed he had no valuable things either, making it appear entirely unnecessary to use this magic.
Once hearing Fisher was going to leave, Jasmine immediately pursed her lips, shook her head, and said.
"No! It still... it still has to be Fisher being here. I don't know why, but if... if Fisher is here, I might be able to become a bit braver..."
She raised her eyes and cautiously cast a glance at Fisher, arduously and rapidly finishing such a long string of words, as if afraid Fisher would leave.
That pretty and timid appearance, cute exactly like a small animal hiding in shyness, was also like a burning match, instantly igniting the dry firewood situated in Fisher's lower abdomen, threatening to swallow him whole.
Jasmine was simply too cute; this point was something no one could deny. Who could refuse such a timid and cute orca girl?
One second after hearing her words, Fisher's gaze turned dark, and his fingers lifted slightly. The lifting motion carried his entire arm upward a bit, as if wanting to grab Jasmine's body in front of him...
But before he even started any concrete action, Xi Yate behind them stood by the river water, waved at Fisher, and shouted to them simultaneously.
"Hey, are you guys still not ready? I'm already prepared, oh!"
Jasmine's face reddened. She responded with an evasive gaze, "Coming right now." Only at this moment did Fisher discover her fingers were also curled a bit towards his direction, as if loosely grasping something.
Jasmine swung her whale tail and walked toward the riverside. Fisher once again silently blew out a long breath of hot air. This was already an unknown number of times he felt it was somewhat hard to endure.
It had been an unknown amount of time since Eliog left, but for Fisher, this period of time seemed exceptionally long. Every day beside Jasmine was exceptionally tormenting.
A sense of responsibility made him unable to easily make a move against that completely defenseless girl in front of him. Setting aside her terrifying idea of wanting to knock him out and take him back to the sea, Jasmine was essentially still a pure girl. This made Fisher's thought of wanting to devour her accompanied by an inescapable sense of guilt.
Speaking of which, was it exactly because of the reproduction ability bonus bestowed upon him by the Demi-Human Completion Handbook that resulted in such a consequence, or was he by nature exactly this kind of detestable gentleman filled with greedy original sin?
This question unexpectedly stumped Fisher, this scholar, at once. As he thought, he sat on a stone not far away, incidentally taking out the "chief culprit"—the Demi-Human Completion Handbook—from his embrace.
The golden radiance within the Demi-Human Completion Handbook flowed wantonly, colorful like a fairy tale book filled with relaxed fantasy, calling up the demi-human data of the several sub-categories he had obtained previously.
Dragon-kin, Witch-kin, Demon-kin, and the most recent Whale-kin...
Right, if it was Xi Yate, could he also bind her? It seemed he had already conducted quite a lot of research on her last night, and obtained quite a few results...
[Centaur-kin Remaining Research Subjects: 0/1]
[Bindable Subject: Xi Yate, Adult Centaur-kin]
Fisher considered for a bit and still gave it up. He was still facing the two big bosses, Black and Lensis. Right now was absolutely not a time period where he could casually conduct academic research. He wasn't in a hurry at this moment either; he had better wait until matters settled down later to try and research this demi-human species called Centaurs.
[Whale-kin Biological Research Progress: 37%]
[Whale-kin Sociological Research Progress: 22%]
[Distance to next unlock reward: Biological or Sociological Research Progress reaches 50%]
Looking at the illusory text floating up before his eyes, Fisher shook his head. It seemed that if he didn't conduct "in-depth biological research" with this group of demi-human ladies, the biological research progress would be extremely slow. This was the result obtained after comparing Jasmine and his research experience with the previous two demi-human ladies, except for that fellow Renee, because he stayed with her for quite a long time.
Thinking of this, in his heart Fisher tossed the fault of generating excessive reproduction desire and extreme thirst for ladies to the Demi-Human Completion Handbook.
The handbook in his embrace slowly heated up, unknown what meaning it wanted to express, but Fisher had already placed his gaze on the Whale-kin training not far away.
The two of them had hidden behind the bushes that blocked the line of sight, seemingly Jasmine went to change clothes.
"Is this really okay? If it really doesn't work, just letting Fisher go somewhere else to stand guard is fine..."
"No, absolutely not! I... I need Fisher to be here..."
"Eh? Like this, oh..."
Facing Xi Yate's auntie smile brimming with profound meaning, Jasmine bashfully lowered her head, wearing an embarrassed appearance. Those who didn't know would think she was the delicate little wife of some gentleman.
However, because she needed to enter the water for training in a bit, it was of course impossible for Jasmine to enter the river water wearing a dress. Therefore, Jasmine directly chose to wear her underwear to use as a training swimsuit.
Originally, Xi Yate felt using this as a swimsuit was extremely inappropriate, because underwear would very easily fall off in the water. It would be better to let Fisher walk further away, turning the combat training into a "ladies only venue."
But when Jasmine hid in a place Fisher couldn't see and took off her dress, Xi Yate looked at the tightly bound undergarment. The corners of her mouth that had just raised up a bit stiffened.
This... this is at least two sizes too small, right?
If it's bound extremely tightly, she could indeed try using it as a swimsuit...
"B-because this is the largest size I could buy..."
Meeting Xi Yate's stiff line of sight, Jasmine subconsciously covered her chest, explaining as such.
Xi Yate lowered her head mechanically, but could only see the horse hooves beneath her across a wide expanse of flat land. Originally, when wearing the attire of Naris ladies, the gap wasn't this massive. Right now, what she was wearing was tight-fitting hunting clothes; it was simply the difference between heaven and earth.
"Tsk."
She let out such a sound that was imperceptible. When Jasmine looked at her in confusion, Xi Yate shook her head and sighed again, saying to her.
"Then let's go with this. It should also be usable. Walk out and let him see first. You should care about his gaze very much, right?"
"Eh... eh?"
Jasmine covered her body in a panic. This time, not only were her cheeks red, but even the fair skin on her body began to be dyed with cherry color.
"Do... Do I really have to let Fisher see?"
"If you don't let him see, why want him to stay here?"
"C-Can't you just let me get into the water first? This way... this way..."
Xi Yate was about to be left speechless by Jasmine's behavior of deceiving herself. As a female, she knew at a glance what this Whale-kin was thinking.
Clearly she really wanted that person's gaze to remain on her the whole time, clearly she really wanted him to look at her and then praise her beauty, yet she bashfully felt her heartbeat accelerate, exactly like she was going to die of shame.
Hah, you think I wouldn't understand this kind of thought of yours?
Xi Yate was somewhat sour. Taking advantage of a moment Jasmine wasn't paying attention, she pushed her and walked out of the bushes. Originally, Jasmine's physical strength was massive, but pushed by the force of the Centaur girl Xi Yate, she walked out half-heartedly, letting Fisher not far away see her perfectly.
"Ta-da, we're ready to start training, oh! Jasmine, quickly go over there and do warm-up exercises..."
Pushed by Xi Yate, Jasmine moved a bit closer to Fisher's side. Jasmine bashfully covered her body and stealthily cast a glance at Fisher, yet discovered he was gentlemanly looking at the water surface, not looking at her. For a moment, Jasmine also didn't know whether she should be happy or disappointed...
If... if only Fisher could look at me the entire time... that would be great.
Thinking to this point, Jasmine reached out and patted her own face, slapping herself to be a bit more clear-headed.
Jasmine! Combat training is about to start, and you're still letting your imagination run wild!
If I truly want Fisher to keep looking at me, I should work even harder to solve the problem of my inability to balance. I have to be strong enough to find my aunt. Would Fisher really like a cowardly and incompetent me?
Jasmine took a deep breath, subsequently wiggled her body, and slowly walked to the riverside. Looking at the quietly flowing water within, she gently reached out her hand and placed it inside. Afterwards, she gently closed her eyes, feeling the fluctuation of the water flow, as if this water region had formed a resonance with her.
Towards the ocean, towards water, this origin of life, the symbol of Lord Ramastia. As living creatures in the world, one must maintain respect for it no matter what.
Jasmine had slowly entered the state for combat training, but Fisher still gentlemanly looked at the lake surface, motionless like a steam engine that had stopped operating.
Actually, the very first glance just after Jasmine came out, Fisher had seen it. But he only dared to take one glance. If he continued to look, Fisher felt he was truly going to explode, the uncontrollable kind.
He looked at that quiet river, yet his inner heart was irritable and restless like magma, as if unable to endure devouring her.
A long, long time passed. He sighed, conducting a second reflection on his previous conclusion.
Fisher felt that pushing all the fault onto the Demi-Human Completion Handbook was unfair. Probably it could only account for seventy to eighty percent of the proportion; he himself ought to be somewhat responsible as well.
Just as he thought of this point, the Demi-Human Completion Handbook in his embrace generated a little heat again, as if expressing an implication of "gratification." Supposedly, if it had a mouth, the words spoken would definitely carry a fragrant scent as well, right?
What a pity, the Completion Handbook seemingly had no consciousness. The reason it heated up was because knowledge and thoughts regarding the Whale-kin constantly rotated in Fisher's mind, and the Demi-Human Completion Handbook merely honestly recorded them, nothing more.