Volume 7 Chapter 19 The First Cry of Steam, and the Golden Stirring (Part ②)
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The bathhouse had grown even noisier. Women of the household filed in from the changing room, one after another. Naked backs and hips moved through the steam, silver light touching each figure as they slid one by one into the water. Silver and platinum hair spread across the surface; the splash of water and the sound of laughter mixed among the rocks.
Melis passed through the steam, her golden hair falling down her back, her full breasts swaying with each step. She glanced his way and gave a soft laugh—the look of a woman who remembered the night. This was not the face she wore in the workshop. This was the face of a woman who knew him.
On the left, where Leaf and Fei had gone off, Lara slipped in. She had moved from beside Sylvia without a sound. Her golden tail, beneath the surface, coiled loosely around his waist.
”…My King. May I sit beside you?”
”Yeah. Come here.”
He gave a small nod. Lara leaned in as she settled, her lips meeting his. In the steam, her small tongue slipped into his mouth, curling around his own. Her sweet breath brushed his nose. When their lips parted slowly, she pressed her cheek to his shoulder with a satisfied sigh, the tip of her tail swaying contentedly beneath the water.
At his feet, Mina still toyed with his fingers, her breath hot and shallow. Beyond her, Serena’s long black hair spread across the water’s surface. She sat apart, eyes closed behind a rock, only her white breasts floating softly in the steam. She did not glance toward the men’s bath, where her husband might be. But the angle of her body, like a compass needle, pointed straight toward him.
”Hey, Fiona, did you hear? The Spirit King gave Sylvia-sama a ring! It’s all anyone in the village is talking about!”
Odette’s bright voice rang out from across the bath.
As if on cue, whispers of “the ring” and “Sylvia-sama” spread through the water like ripples from a dropped stone. Eyes turned to Sylvia’s left hand, then returned to sheepish laughter.
”Come on, right over here.”
He followed Greta’s voice. She and Pomo were guiding Mireille by her thin shoulders into the water. The illness that had weakened her body was slowly giving way to new flesh. Color had returned to her cheeks as she bathed, and she smiled with a bashful warmth.
”Your color’s better. Stay in a little longer.”
”Yes… thank you.”
Beyond them, Elumina turned in the water and reached a hand toward Rosetta. Twin strands of flaxen hair swayed in the silver light of the lightstones. Same hair, same pale skin. Elumina’s chest still held the fullness of a woman who had borne a child, and from Rosetta’s white back, the curve of a slender waist flowed into the full line of her hips.
From beyond the wall came the muffled roar of the men’s bath—Gael’s booming voice and Gauz’s low laughter shaking the stone. He couldn’t make out the words, but they were having a good time over there as well.
In the women’s bath, Odette picked up another topic; Fiona played along with exaggerated agreement. Greta’s laughter joined in, someone splashed, and Mimi and Rene’s high-pitched giggles echoed back from behind the rocks.
Looking around, he saw the long ears of elves rising like a forest through the steam. The silver-white glow of the lightstones danced on the water’s surface, illuminating countless bare bodies in pale relief. Silver, platinum, gold, flaxen. Wet hair fanned across the water; laughter, splashing, and the breath of women dissolved into the open night air. The steam rose, carrying that light with it, spiraling slowly up toward the canopy of the World Tree.
…But at the edge of all that noise.
The steam near the changing room shifted, just slightly.
One by one, the voices faltered.
Someone stopped speaking. Another turned, noticed, and fell silent. Soon, only the faint sound of water lapping against stone remained.
From within the steam, two figures emerged.
The woman in front had hair of pure silver that fell to her heels. Her slender legs parted the water with each step. Her body was lean, without excess—from her long neck to her shoulders, arms, and fingertips, she moved like a single elegant branch extending toward the water’s edge.
Behind her came a woman whose white-silver hair rippled in waves, her full breasts and hips swaying heavily with every step, pushing the water aside. Though her eyes behind her glasses were cast down, her body alone seemed to moisten the air around her.
Serafina and Erland .
As they moved through the water, no one spoke. The women of the household parted silently, like water splitting around a stone.
When they reached him, Serafina knelt slowly in the bath.
”My King. Forgive this impropriety—that I should share the same water as one so high.”
”Yeah. Come in.”
Serafina lowered herself into the water, and Erland settled beside her. Their two silver heads of hair swayed together in the steam, as if woven together.
A silence stretched between them. Then Serafina looked up at him.
”My King. When an elf’s womb reaches its sixth moon, the life she carries awakens to the breath of the spirit.”
In the moonlight depths of Serafina’s eyes lay an endless depth of time.
”If any of the seeds you planted has taken root… then soon, even I shall see that light.”
Serafina closed her eyes quietly.
As if receiving that quiet silence, Erland spoke.
”…Five months have passed since the Inheritance Ritual. I have counted every day since that moment.”
Mina’s hand, which had been playing with his toes, stopped. She touched her own flat stomach, gently. Beside her, Liana watched him with the same eyes—the eyes of a woman hoping for the same future.
”I could do nothing but wait… for the day your seed would bring the first cry of new life back to this village. I have only kept counting.”
It was not the voice of an elder. It was the voice of a woman who had watched this village fade, and could now only wait.
”Yeah… . It’s finally time.”
Lara’s tail, still pressed against his shoulder, swayed slowly, as if in prayer.
”…I’m so glad we brought you here. That square will have a future again, won’t it?”
Sylvia pressed close to his right arm and murmured. Through the fullness of her breast pressed against him, he could feel the quiet beat of her heart.
He reached out gently beneath the water and placed his palm on Sylvia’s smooth thigh. She wrapped both hands around his, cradling it with tenderness.
Neither of them moved beyond that.
He thought of the square’s white cobblestones. Children with elven blood running through them, laughing and chasing each other across that open space. Sylvia would smile. Serafina would narrow her eyes with warmth. The women of the household would take each other’s hands and share their joy.
He had never seen that sight. But for one brief moment, it rose vividly beyond the steam—and then faded silently into the star-scattered night sky.
He stepped out of the bath, dried off, and wrapped himself in light clothes.
The night wind brushed his skin, still warm from the hot water, with a pleasant coolness.
Beside him, Sylvia combed through her damp platinum hair with her fingers, guiding it forward over her shoulder. A single droplet slid down her shoulder and soaked into her garment.
”Let’s head back.”
”Yes, Ryuichi-sama.”
They left the bathhouse together and walked the quiet path toward the square.
The insects sang. The air smelled of damp moss and old bark. Through gaps in the World Tree’s canopy, stray starlight trickled down in broken beams.
Sylvia matched his pace, her shoulder brushing his arm with each step, carrying the clean warmth of her just-bathed skin.
It was a silent return, like any other.
Then, suddenly, the path beneath his feet grew bright.
He stopped and looked up.
The vast canopy above them was glowing—a soft, golden light seeping from within. One golden speck drifted down, then another, like glowing snow, silent.
”What the… ?”
Beside him, Sylvia had stopped too. Beneath her platinum lashes, her pale green eyes reflected the falling gold of the canopy.
”Perhaps the World Tree is… rejoicing.”
”Maybe so.”
He answered, but he did not move. He kept looking up at the night sky.
He knew this light. He had seen it before. It was exactly the same radiance as that night.
Five months ago, the moment he had poured his seed into Serafina’s deepest place, the World Tree had lit the darkness gold. When he stepped outside the shrine, the forest had been filled with particles of light, the elves had knelt at the miracle, and the whole world had seemed to breathe again.
But this was fundamentally different.
He had done nothing. No one was praying. There had been no ritual, no union. He had only walked back from the bath.
Yet the light above did not dim—it only grew stronger.
As they walked on, the golden particles did not stop. At first they had drifted like scattered embers; now they flowed like a great river through the night air—silent, endless, spilling from beyond the canopy. They touched his hair, his clothes, and burst into faint sparks.
”It’s… going on too long,” he muttered.
Sylvia’s fingers gripped his arm, hard.
”…Yes. That night’s glow did not last this long.”
The gentle smile that had been on her face moments ago was gone.
”The World Tree has only ever shone like this once—when you completed the ritual in the Sanctuary. But now…”
She broke off and looked up at the canopy, where the golden light was growing stronger.
”…It’s growing stronger.”
The insects that had been so loud moments ago had fallen silent, as if swept away into the distance.
In their place came a low sound. Not something he heard—something he felt, through the soles of his feet, traveling through the earth into the marrow of his bones.
Throb, and.
A heavy pulse, like something vast and slow stirring beneath the ground.
He looked down.
Through the moss. Through the soil. Along the roots of the World Tree, a faint golden light was spreading up like a web.
Again, the earth throbbed.
”Ryuichi-sama…!”
Sylvia’s voice cracked, uncharacteristically sharp. He followed her trembling finger.
Rising from the side of the path was a thick root of the World Tree. On its hard bark surface, glowing channels now crawled—networks of luminescent veins he had never seen before.
Not one. Countless veins, spreading like a web.
They were not plant vessels. They looked, unmistakably, like blood vessels. Each as thick as a man’s arm, moving beneath the bark in a way that was almost living.
Inside each thick vein, something like golden sap flowed—slowly, but with building speed. The conduits swelled in waves, then contracted with force, each pulse pushing the light further onward.
”What… is this? What’s starting… ?”
No one answered.
The light raining down from the canopy now turned the forest night into something like noon. Golden particles touched his cheeks, clung to his lashes, burst against the shoulders of his robe.
And beneath his feet, the pulse of the earth was impossible to ignore—clear, rhythmic, shaking the world itself.
The earth sounded again.
He looked up. Ahead of him, deep in the forest to either side, every massive root pushing through the mossy ground bore the same golden veins. In some places, veins as thick as a woman’s torso pulsed beneath the bark, swelling and contracting, driving the brilliant light ever onward.
It was as if the World Tree had suddenly remembered the countless blood vessels that had slumbered within it—and was now rushing golden blood through every vein in the village’s earth.
Sylvia’s grip on his arm tightened further. Her fingertips trembled.
”…Ryuichi-sama.”
—
Summary:
The bathhouse intimacy dissolves as Ryuichi and Sylvia walk home through the quiet forest. Golden light begins falling from the World Tree’s canopy, and the earth itself develops a pulsing heartbeat, revealing glowing veins beneath the bark—a phenomenon different from the ritual five months ago, and one that is intensifying without any apparent cause.
—
Trivia:
Serafina and Erland’s entrance silences the entire bathhouse, showing their authority among the elves.
Lara’s tail coils around Ryuichi under the water, displaying possessive affection.
Serena is married but still orients her body toward Ryuichi like a compass needle.
The World Tree’s golden light first appeared five months ago after Ryuichi’s seed was planted in Serafina.
The current golden phenomenon occurs without any ritual or union—Ryuichi simply walked back from the bath.
The golden veins beneath the bark resemble blood vessels, not plant conduits.
Sylvia’s composure cracks when the earth’s pulse begins, showing her fear.
The light particles are described as luminous snow, soundless and endless.
The golden veins are as thick as a woman’s torso in some places.
The World Tree appears to be rushing golden blood through the entire village’s earth.
Notes:
• Melis – This voluptuous, 160cm elf-dwarf blacksmith and guard is 127 years old, sporting a high blonde ponytail, low-cut tunic, and grease-stained apron. Aristocratic yet teasing and seductive, she is married to Kulum but infatuated with Ryuichi. His essence altered her eyes into thermal sensors, letting this tracking specialist detect enemy heat and magic across zero-visibility battlefields.
• Sylvia – A platinum-haired, jade-eyed Elven commander and advisor with a gentle smile and disciplined posture. Ryuichi’s devoted partner and liaison, she shares an intimate, spiritual bond with him. Carrying the Spirit King’s ring, she is an observant protector who deploys white heat rays, holds a sisterly bond with Lara, and fondly remembers her past village while quietly watching over her comrades.
• Lara – An aristocratic Fox-kin strategist with golden hair, a curvaceous body, porcelain skin, and long eyelashes framing a cold, analytical gaze. Once a proud virgin defeated by the protagonist, she is now a submissive servant who calls him King. Sitting legs crossed with her lustrous tail wrapped around her chair, she evaluates threats to calmly orchestrate ruthless strikes with spatial awareness.
• Fei – An elven archer who completely unifies himself with the trees to fire lethal arrows at enemy blind spots.
• King – A powerful, authoritative male lead who possesses immense physical strength and magic. He commands absolute loyalty and submission from the inhabitants of the Silver Moon Village.
• Serena – A voluptuous Japanese-style Elf warrior with lustrous black hair tied at her neck and a loose kimono dress. Married to Nils alongside Elara, she experiences physical manifestations of arousal near him and coordinates ground-based earth magic, firing stone projectiles at immobilized enemies. However, she secretly harbors a deep, hidden longing for the Spirit King.
• Mina – A petite, rich-figured Elf sister and devoted attendant who clings affectionately to Ryuichi. She sleeps in his shared bedroom, warms his cold hands, and offers him a canteen inside the barrier. Aside from her overnight processing role and doting nature, she is a skilled garrison archer and mage wielding thermal combat spells that reflect her unusually high body temperature.
• Spirit King – The protagonist and absolute ruler is a male who serves as the sole, detached source of mana for an Elf village ritual. Possessing limitless stamina and dominant magical abilities, he can heal others and completely reconstruct the physical forms of those he subdues.
• Odette – A woman with an active, lively personality who spends her time washing clothes in the river. She is prone to gossip, enjoys romantic developments, and maintains a highly expressive and spirited demeanor.
• Mireille – A magic user who crouches by fallen soldiers to freeze their internal fluids instantly via frost magic.
• Elumina – The mother of Rosetta. She is mature, youthful in appearance, and displays hidden, intense desires.
• Rosetta – A young woman with flaxen hair, daughter of Elumina, who is overtly physically affectionate. She takes great pleasure in the newfound cleanliness and comfort of her village.
• Gael – A robust, mud-covered Elf warrior and stonemason from Silver Moon Village. This thick-built, boisterous field foreman wields a warhammer and commands tree roots against enemies. Deeply loyal to the Spirit King who spared him, he is openly proud and protective of his wife, Elara, balancing his military devotion to the Crown with a vigilant pride in his marriage and village duties.
• Gauz – A massive, steel-furred feline commander with a golden mane, brawny arms, and a deep, resonant voice. This battle-hardened, hyper-durable warrior wields the axe Agito, systematically obliterating the despised Empire army with deep tactical experience. Arrogant yet fiercely loyal, he submits only to the protagonist. Tied to a past security failure, he is now a scarred, charred runaway.
• Mimi – A petite, agile white Rabbit-kin tracker from the Hundred-Beast Federation with ruby eyes. Clad in an oversized shirt, her battered body is stained with fluid and blood. She acts as a mana-voice intermediary, tracking heartbeats despite fearing violence. Intensely emotional and reactive to magic, this submissive girl is deeply attached to her master, clutching his clothes.
• Rene – A pure-hearted, fragile Elf archer and energetic child of the household harem. Identifiable by her messy chestnut hair, amber eyes, and a morning bedhead, she is a timid yet lively girl who loves splashing in water. She clings to the protagonist for safety and seeks their attention as a parent figure. While fear triggers raw Mana bursts, intimate rituals designate her as a blissful healing item.
• Serafina – An elegant, silver-haired Elf High Priestess and shrine maiden with 1,200 years of history. Clad in white robes with moonlight eyes that captivate the protagonist, she serves Lady Pearl and Ryuichi as a devoted handmaiden managing his household. This calm, powerful sacred mage offers philosophical insights on human greed, yet fears advanced technology while guarding the sealed domain.
• Erland – A 320-year-old elven Village Elder and sharp-featured tactician with glasses, long silver hair, elegant manners, and a bewitching voice. Accompanying Serafina, she guides and protects her deity, the Spirit King. Wielding a staff and folding fan, she uses earth magic and powerful barriers to capture prisoners, torn between maintaining village order and her intense devotion.
• Liana – A refined elf maid and sister attendant who serves the protagonist with quiet, serene movements. Beneath her precise demeanor and impeccably braided, shoulder-length silver hair lies a deep olfactory obsession. Fiercely loyal to her master but cold to others, she disdains corruption and uses high-pressure water magic, archery, and a dagger, calmly wiping away blood while hunting survivors.
• Ryuichi – A towering, muscular 40-year-old Spirit King with Japanese past-life memories, short dark hair, black eyes, and a beard. He leads a diverse group and rules an elf village using powerful black, glass, gravity, and barrier magic. Composed yet occasionally teasing, this commanding mentor protects his beloved Sylvia while pragmatically valuing companions Anna and Erika.
• Ryu – A man with Interdimensional Magic who leads a growing household. He acts as a provider and protector for his slaves, while maintaining a pragmatic and blunt personality.
• Ben – Struan’s son and Torben’s nephew, this young man served as a callous guide at their base, assisting in the family’s slave-trading enterprise. After confessing to his role in Mia’s death, he was bound by Stone Ball magic and drowned by Ryuichi. His corpse was later stored in the Interdimensional Space as a trophy of the protagonist’s retribution.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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