Keishi sighed.

"Why am I following these two girls like a stalker?" Keishi is wondering about that right now. Aina and Meldy are walking in front of him with a 2-meter distance, while he is walking behind them.

After talking for a while about miscellaneous things, Meldy insisted that Keishi smelt bad and "your dirtiness could infect Aina-sama", as Meldy put it that way. Keishi couldn't do anything to change her mind, and was forced to keep the distance from them like an idiot.

"Your dress' collar is a little loose, Aina-sama."

Keishi saw Meldy noticing Aina's collar looseness and moved close to Aina to fix it with some professional and gentle gestures. Keishi is wondering whether her gestures are a little too gentle. It almost looks like a lover's act.

He also noticed that her eyes look a little romantic, but he told himself that maybe he was only imagining things. She was showing off the etiquette of a gentleman. Aina even looks a little bit flustered.

Keishi doesn't know that the reason Aina is so bashful is that Meldy is unusually clingy to her today. She gets much closer to Aina when she talks to her, and her voice has become a little possessive. Meldy felt that Keishi was here to take Aina away from her, so she was creating a zone around Aina and trying to keep Keishi outside that zone.

"Meldy-tan, are you a little weird today? What has gotten into you...?" Aina asked awkwardly.

"What I am doing is a pure act of protection, a sincere will stemming from worrying, to put it simply, needed actions that shows responsibility, Aina the princess-sama."

The maid told her this with a dead serious tone.

"Could you stop saying those complicated words so suddenly? You are not like your own usual self, Meldy-tan." Aina smiled unnaturally again.

"It can't be helped, Aina-sama. Kitanaishi appeared out of nowhere and started to harass you. It's the duty of any maid to protect their master with blood, violence and resolution, Aina-sama."

"Who appeared out of nowhere? Aina took me here from another world! And are you seriously planning to kill me? And what's with that Dirty Keishi nickname?"

Keishi just needed to say something to save himself from the trouble that seemed to be getting bigger. He also understood that Meldy was giving him a nickname that meant Dirty Keishi, and that can't be pleasant.

"You are really thinking that I don't know you came from another world? Why haven't you shown some gratitude for the fact that I helped Aina-sama set up the magic circle instead? Jeez, kids these days' brains are kinda bad."

Meldy said all these words so fast that it was hard for Keishi to hear all of them, with a slightly scornful tone.

"So you really helped... I do appreciate your help, but can't you show some respect and stop going around saying people are stupid?"

Keishi is clearly annoyed. "This girl really knows how to annoy people, huh"

"Anyway, I've led you to the bathroom already. As the maid who is responsible for the absolute cleanliness of every corner of this castle, I would like to gently force you to get in here right now. Please enjoy yourself."

"What's with the "gently force" thing? You either force someone or gently tell someone to do something. Anyway, doesn't this look really nice? And the smell is heavenly."

Keishi looks at the huge bathroom that is stemming with hot air. The warm water was lined with some kind of emerald-blue blocks of stones, and there were yellow flowers blooming around it. Other aspects of it are quite similar to a Japanese onsen at first glance.

"Because Aina-sama ordered me to make a really nice bath for you, I wasted some of my time doing it. Feel grateful."

"Meldy, can't you be a little more honest with yourself? I know you did this really carefully and with a lot of dedication on your own to welcome him... Anyway, I have some business to attend to. See you, Keishi!"

Aina just told them some words and walked away. Looking at how quickly Aina went, Keishi realizes that being a princess is actually hard work. But he doesn't need to worry about that right now. He walked in and began to discover around.

Meldy just closed the door of the bathroom and stood outside.

It wasn't long before Keishi could relax and drop his own body into the water.

"Ahhh."

He only realized how exhausting it was to travel to another world after being able to relax a bit. His muscles and head are now under no stress and he feels that his force is leaving his body.

Also, he feels that the water has some kind of healing power that is making his head light. It feels like the world is getting brighter and some kind of delightful energy is gently sinking into his flesh. It almost feels magical.

"Hey Meldy, are you still there?"

Keishi kinda raised his voice, hoping that Meldy is still waiting outside.

"What's the matter, Kitanaishi?"

The beautiful voice of Meldy resonated in the bathroom and made the scene become a little whimsical. Keishi also feels that her voice is now a lot less stern and more relaxed than before. He can also feel a slight warmth of care from her voice. "Maybe because I'm not near Aina? That's why Meldy can feel that Aina is safe now?"

"I'm now Keishi because I'm not dirty anymore. What did you put into this water? It kinda feels good."

"Oh, that is actually healing water."

"Healing water?"

"The water that can heal your injuries and ease your mind. When I concentrate and touch a body of water, I can change it into healing water. It's a really useful skill."

"Really? That is actually quite amazing!"

"Yeah. Aina-sama asked me to make some for you to bathe in one month ago."

"One month ago?"

"Yeah. She is basically an airhead, but she really cares about everyone in the country. And she even cares about strangers like you, that's why you get to enjoy this."

"The healing water really makes my head feel high! I feel that all my stress has gone away."

"It has the power to suck out negative things. I usually use it to make healing tea."

"Healing tea?"

"Healing tea is just tea with a high concentration of mana. It makes you feel better faster than taking baths. Soldiers carry them to recover stamina."

"High concentration? Could you explain?"

"When I spend a lot of time infusing mana into a cup of tea, its healing effect is greater than a cup of tea that I only spend three seconds on. A higher effect was achieved thanks to high concentration. It's similar to a cup of water with a lot of sugar and one with little sugar. The high concentration of sugar made it sweeter than the other one."

"Oh... I don't know much about mana, but I guess mana kind of seeps into the tea and more mana makes a difference."

Keishi learned about the concept of mana in anime and games, but he had never heard that mana can have different concentrations. Knowing a mana expert really helps, he thought.

"Exactly. Aina asked me to brew some tea for you too. How would you like it to be?"

"Ah... just normal tea is okay. I'm not picky. By the way, I saw some weird grey air flowing into your teapot. Did I imagine things?"

"You have unexpectedly good eyes, don't you? Well, that was the dust in the castle being sucked into the teapot. That's the way I clean this place up."

"Huh? I haven't understood it well yet, but is it like a vacuum cleaner which sucks the dust into it?"

When Keishi thinks about what Meldy said, he imagines his mother using the vacuum cleaner to suck all the dust from his house. "So the weird grey air was the dust?"

"What is a vacuum cleaner?"

"Well, you know, it's a machine that uses air to suck dust into it. Kind of like a black hole."

"Hmm, so your machine uses wind magic to suck the dust. Interesting. I've never thought that wind magic could be used that way. Anyway, I created super concentrated healing tea in this teapot. Because of the high concentration, its power to suck negative things is extremely strong. It's so strong that the dust around the castle is sucked into it."

Keishi lowers his head and tries to imagine what Meldy was referring to. He thought about magnets that he learned in physics. Basically, the stronger the magnet is, the more stuff it can suck. He thought the "super concentrated healing tea" is basically just a very powerful magnet.

"Well, I don't think that a vacuum cleaner uses wind magic... Anyway, I would like to ask you something."

"What would the hero like to know?"

"You really get a lot more polite when I'm not around Aina... So, I would like to ask about her. What is she like?"

"What do you mean by 'What is she like?', do you want to know about her favorite food, her favorite game, or how clumsy she is when she frequently tripped over rocks in her own garden?"

"I didn't need to know about the last part, but please tell me everything!"

Keishi naturally wants to know more about what type of girl Aina actually is. He would like to understand this world's Aina better.

"Hmm... Do you think that Aina is quite lively?"

"Uh... yeah? I think so."

"She is not like that with everyone. She usually wears a stern face around most people, and it has been like that ever since she was a little kid. She only warms up with her best friend and her Dad. By 'her best friend', I mean me."

"Oh... so you have known each other since childhood."

"I would rather say I have been her maid since that time. But she didn't have the chance to talk with a lot of people because the King was being over-protective. He was worried about dangerous people who could harm her."

Keishi just listened patiently.

"You could say that the fact that she didn't have friends was the reason she grew up to become a serious person. She ended up reading books all day, but she was happy about that. Being a royal member, she could read all the books that were not affordable for the normal citizens, so she felt grateful."

"But isn't that kind of lonely?" "Well, I was around but she usually got bored of talking with me quite fast. She would cry if I was not around for several days, but she was usually okay alone. She liked to discover new knowledge and would try to make weird drug recipes that she read from books. Sometimes they exploded and she just laughed about it."

"She wasn't injured or something?"

"Aina had an unusually strong body, that was one of the good things about her. So she only got small scratches that healed very fast. Last year, when she was experimenting with drugs, she found that she could open a portal by mixing some weird herbs with her saliva. So that's why you are here."

"That's kinda an awesome way to discover the way to go to another world."

"I appreciate the fact that she succeeded in her crazy dream of bringing a hero here, but don't misunderstand. Don't think that you can make Aina-sama yours."

Keishi suddenly heard a loud sound. The door was forcefully opened by Meldy!

"Ah?"

"Because Aina-sama is mine, and mine only! Remember that."

"Could you show some shame and don't forcefully break into a boy's bath?!"