Rebuild World (WN)

you were renting before you were hospitalized.
You need to look for a place to sleep first before you can take a rest, you know?”

Akira stopped, Alpha was right.
It was already past the stay duration in that inn.
Everything that he left behind inside his room, including all his medicines and ammo, would have been confiscated by the inn.

“…So I should look for a place to stay now, huh? Well, I’m sure I can find one though.”

The day had already gone dark, there was a good chance that all the good rooms were already taken.
The only rooms that he could still find would be either cheap rooms with only showers or super luxury rooms, but Akira had no plans to stay in such a room.
Although he wanted to take a bath, it was not like he had enough surplus money to waste on a luxury room.

When Akira imagined himself walking around in the lower district in the middle of the night looking for a good place to rest, it made him lose all motivation to leave.
Since he was already thinking of going back home to take a good rest, it made him way less motivated when he thought that he had to carry his heavy rucksack while walking through the lower district.

Sheryl noticed that slight change in Akira and asked him.

“Akira, what’s wrong?”

“Well, I just realized that it’s already late but I still have to look for a place to stay.”

Judging from Akira’s voice and behaviour, Sheryl knew that he really did not want to do that.

“If it’s alright with you, you can stay for a night in my room.
Although it doesn’t have furniture like in an inn, at least, it has a bed to sleep.”

“Are you sure? But I want to take a good long bath too…”

Sponsored Content

Akira was not sure what to do.
He was wondering if it was a better idea to take Sheryl’s offer rather than walking through the lower district when it was already dark and relatively dangerous.
He knew that it had been so long since the last time he took a bath, the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to take a bath, and that made him lean more towards looking somewhere to stay in the lower district.

Sheryl, who had recovered her calm, could understand what was going through Akira’s mind.
Thus, she gave him a suggestion, although she knew that he would refuse it anyway.

“Want to go with me? We can take our time enjoying the bath before others come to use it.
We have a big bath, you can even extend your hands and legs in it.
And I’m sure there’s no one stupid enough in this gang to steal your belongings.
If it still worries you, you can place your belongings near the bath and you can watch over them through the transparent glass.”

Akira hesitated.
The biggest reason why he hesitated was because he was worried about his belongings.
He was inside Sheryl’s base and not in the slum city alley, so he did not know just how safe this place was.
His hesitation showed that to a certain extent.
He thought this place was safe, but at the same time, he also thought that it was not.
He was in a dilemma.

Sheryl’s words did reduce his worry, but it was not enough to make him decide on what to do.

Since it seemed that Akira would not be able to decide anytime soon, Alpha also gave him an extra push to make his decision.

“If you’re worried about getting attacked, rest easy.
I’ll be watching your surroundings just like always.
You’ll be able to know immediately if someone steals your belongings.”

“Is that so? Then it should be okay, right?”

Sheryl then said something that caused Akira to quickly make his decision.

“Our bath time is getting shorter right now… so…?”

Sheryl looked at Akira’s expression and knew his answer before he could even say anything.

—*—*—*—

Akira dipped inside the big bath in Sheryl’s base.
He extended his legs and arms as he sunk himself up to his neck and surrendered his whole body to the pleasure of the warm bath.

He could feel tiredness, which should have not been inside his body after all the treatments that he received, melting into the water.
Whether it was his psychical tiredness or just an illusion, it did not change the fact that he was being healed.

He left all of his belongings in the changing room.
And in order to make sure that no one would try to snatch them, Erio and Alicia were keeping watch outside the changing room.

A guard was always present there when Sheryl or other girls were taking a bath.
There were already cases where some children tried to peek, and of course, those children were already kicked out from Sheryl’s gang.

As Akira was looking forward with his numbed mind, he could see Sheryl washing her body in front of him.
He had already washed his body with the soap that he borrowed from Sheryl before getting into the bath.
Although they had more or less started washing their bodies at the same time, Sheryl was taking a considerably longer time than him.

Akira wondered for an instant if there was really a need to wash that rigorously, but his question was quickly swallowed by the pleasure from the bath and vanished.
After all, for him, it was not an important question.

Sheryl took very good care in washing her body and her hair.
She understood very well that her appearance was an indispensable asset in order to get the upper hand during a negotiation.
As such, she put a lot of effort into polishing her body.

The cosmetics and the soap that Sheryl received the other day from Katsuragi were luxurious goods judging from the slum city’s standard, and she was using those goods to polish her appearance.
Thanks to that, she was able to regain the beautiful hair and skin that she had lost because of the poor living condition in the slum city.

The hot water raised the beauty and charm of Sheryl’s l.u.s.trous skin.
It was beautiful enough to make the young boys of the slum city bet all the great benefits that they got from joining Sheryl’s gang just to get a peek of her beauty.

Now then, since they lost their bet when they were caught peeking, not only were they unable to see Sheryl’s beautiful n.a.k.e.d body, they were also kicked out from the gang with nothing but the clothes that they were wearing.
If they were still alive, they would be deeply regretting their decision, but also thinking that they should have at least sneaked a peek before getting kicked out from the gang.

The source of this_chapter; lightnov‌elworld.c‍om

After she finished washing her body, Sheryl went towards the bath.
Akira quickly turned his gaze to her out of reflex since something within his views suddenly moved.
Sheryl, who felt his gaze, blushed as she walked to the bath.

Despite the fact that Sheryl had given her consent for Akira to take a bath together with her, she still felt embarrassed having someone of the same age and opposite gender looking at her n.a.k.e.d body.
But even so, she did not show any hesitation nor did she try to hide her body with her hands as she walked to the bath.
Although she was embarrassed, she still dipped herself into the bath as if she was showing off her beautiful and near-perfect body to Akira.

Sheryl watched closely how Akira reacted.
His gaze was just simply following an object that was moving within his field of view, thus after she stopped making any big moves, his gaze returned to the empty space in front of him.
With the exception of one part, to be more precise, her chest area, she was actually pretty confident about her body.
That was why Sheryl was quite shocked when Akira barely made any reactions as if he had no interest in her body at all.

Sheryl embarrassedly asked Akira.

“…Uhm… What do you think?”

Akira looked around before replying.

“…It’s huge.”

Some of Akira’s consciousness had already melted into the warm water.
Thus when Sheryl asked him that question, he could only use his half-working brain to interpret it and answer back while still in his dazed state.

Sheryl, who still had her brain working normally, understood why Akira even came up with such an answer.
Although she had embarrassedly asked him such a question, he thought that she was asking about his impression of the bathroom, and he answered back saying that he was pretty much impressed by its size.

Sponsored Content

She was a bit depressed when she realized that her body, which she was so confident of, was turned into mere decoration inside the bathroom.
She sunk deeper into the bath, some bubbles came out from her mouth which was under the water, which seemed like she was badmouthing Akira.

[…I did say that the bathroom is big, so he should have known that before, right?]

Sheryl was pouting while staring at Akira.
From her gaze, Akira realized that he might have said something bad.
But with half of his consciousness taken away by the warm water, he could not correctly interpret her question nor come up with the correct reaction.

Whenever Akira took a bath in his inn, Alpha was always together with him.
Although it was only an image, he was already used to taking a bath together with someone else.
That was one of the reasons why he was barely bothered at all by Sheryl, who was taking a bath together with him right now.

Akira was, to a certain extent, already used to taking a bath together with an extremely beautiful and charming girl.
Because of that, his s.e.x.u.a.l drive was extremely low.
This might be the result of Alpha’s anti-honeytrap training.
Or maybe it was simply because, for Akira, nothing could beat the pleasure of the warm bath.

Judging from Akira’s reaction, it seemed that the time that she spent polishing her body after telling Akira that he could do anything with her was all for vain.
Sheryl let out a big sigh as she understood that fact.

She decided to move on and looked at Akira who was enjoying the bath.
Since Akira was surrendering his whole body to the pleasure of the bath, it seemed like he had completely dropped his guard.
The Akira in front of her right now did not seem like a skilled Hunter who could easily pay someone 10,000,000 Aurum.
His fully relaxed expression made him look like one of those common young boys that she could find anywhere in the slum.

Looking at the relaxed Akira, Sheryl thought that if he really was one of those common young boys, she might be able to solve most of her problems if she used her body to seduce him.
If she took Akira’s hand and guided it along her body, or entangled her legs with Akira’s and put her lips on his, Akira should at least get aroused.
She believed that her body should be charming enough for most members of the opposite gender.
If her assumption was true, then deep inside, Akira might actually not hate this idea.

Sheryl imagined what would happen if she pushed herself to Akira.
She thought that he would accept it while only resisting verbally.
Akira’s seemingly defenceless state caused her to be less cautious as her imaginations and assumptions leaned more towards good-case scenarios.
These abnormal thoughts corroded Sheryl’s judgement.
Although she herself was not aware of it, she was actually in an aroused state.

When Sheryl extended her hand and tried to reach Akira, she noticed that he was staring at her.

Akira locked his cold gaze at Sheryl.
He was carefully observing her moves and judging whether the person in front of him posed a danger to him or not.

Akira could subconsciously feel some kind of suspicious intent from Sheryl, although it was not malice, it was definitely not benevolence.
Because of that, he quickly snapped back to his senses.

Sheryl was immediately frozen in place.
The common young boy in front of her completely vanished, and in its place, she could see a cold-blooded young Hunter who would kill without even a shred of hesitation.
All the optimistic imaginations that were inside her mind a few seconds ago were completely erased.
Then, in the very next moment, Akira’s gaze turned back to normal.

Akira himself did not realize his change.
So from his perspective, it only looked like Sheryl was about to move and then suddenly stopped.

Akira made a puzzled face as he asked Sheryl.

“What’s wrong?”

“A-ah, it’s nothing.”

“Hm? I see.”

Akira ignored the fact that Sheryl was stuttering when she answered back as he once again focused on enjoying the bath.
Akira’s expression loosened and returned back to before.
As he once more relaxed his body, his consciousness once again melted into the warm water.

Sheryl felt relieved when she saw that, it seemed that Akira’s mood had returned back to normal.

[…That was dangerous, that was so stupid of me.
If seduction worked on Akira, he would have been seduced a long time ago.
I should be more careful.]

Sheryl then tried to imagine what would have happened if she had pushed herself on Akira.
In her imagination, she saw him quickly grabbing her by her throat and pressing her against the floor.
Seeing such a scene, she then decided to stop herself from imagining any further than this.

[…As I thought, my only choice is either to make Akira take the initiative or getting his permission first before trying to seduce him.]

Sheryl thought it was already good enough for now that Akira was willing to get in a bath together with her.

And so Sheryl decided to spend the rest of her bathing time to just enjoy the bath and recover from all the tiredness she acc.u.mulated from the day’s work.

Silavin: Hmm… well, it is to be expected.
Now, I kinda wonder if Sheryl actually has feeling for Akira or not.
Whether their relationship is strictly business.
I am aware that Akira does not see it as strictly business (inclusive of the luck aspect).

On the other hand, if Sheryl simply was honest about caring about his well being, I’m pretty sure their relationship would have settled pretty quickly.

Index

Try the lightnov‎elworld.c‌om platform_for the most advanced_reading experience.