A building that functioned as Necessarius's women's dorm existed in the London Borough of Lambeth.
From looks alone, it did not differ much from a common stone apartment building. Unlike wooden buildings, it was harder to judge a stone building's age from how it looked. This building had a history that was measured in centuries, but no one would imagine it from looking at it. The facility was polished nicely and maintained carefully.
It had not been turned into a fortress like Lambeth Palace where the Archbishop lived. It had instead been prepared as a building that could be easily replaced if it was ever destroyed. However, it had never once been completely destroyed. It was a prime target for any enemy magic cabals that knew what it was, but every plan to do so had been crushed before it could be carried out. For that reason, the building implicitly declared Necessarius's records of victories. You could call it obvious bait.
Now then…
While it was early afternoon in Japan, it was late night in London.
Despite being in England's capital, the building was still wrapped in the cradle of nighttime due to being away from any of the main streets. However, a single window had light shining through it as if someone was staying up late.
It was the changing room.
It was located next to the large bath, so it was quite large itself. In one corner lay an empty cardboard box as large as a classroom desk. A user's manual, warranty information, and other papers were scattered along the floor.
It all belonged to a washing machine.
The user's manual said it was made in Academy City.
The electronic device did not suit the otherwise old appearance of the dorm.
"Why does the Archbishop accept these annoyingly complicated devices?" said Kanzaki Kaori with a displeased look as she connected the ground wire.
She was a woman with black hair in a ponytail long enough to reach her waist. She normally wore an active outfit made up of a T-shirt with the side tied off so that her midriff was exposed and a pair of jeans with one leg cut off at the thigh. However, she currently wore a simple yukata. Her ridiculously long Japanese sword was leaning against the wall nearby.
They had previously used a washing machine that vibrated so hard it looked like it would start spewing smoke any second, but it had finally broken not long before. It seemed even that Archbishop was willing to listen to the appeals of her subordinates.
The new washing machine had arrived that evening, but it was a cutting edge AI-equipped fully-automatic model. Kanzaki and the others had little contact with machinery, so it was similar to coming into contact with some strange advanced culture to them. While reading through the user's manual with a puzzled look and trying this and that, night had fallen.
Kanzaki was so immersed in the work because earlier that day she had discovered a cardboard box sent from Tsuchimikado in Japan. It had contained a maid uniform + α (It was a fallen angel set containing an angel's halo and wings) and she wanted to focus on something else to forget all about it.
"But Lady Laura said the cutting edge A-something drum would make all our difficult washing jobs a breeze," said Orsola Aquinas with a smile.
She was a nun who had been part of the Roman Catholic Church until not too long ago and she wore a black nun's habit that covered everything from her hair to her feet. Her body was as nice as Kanzaki's, but Orsola had a rounder overall feel to her while Kanzaki had a tenser feel.
She was not the only former member of the Roman Catholic Church there. The impudent Agnese Sanctis, the strongly dutiful Lucia, and Angelene who had a sweet tooth and had difficulty waking up in the morning were there as well.
They seemed to have no intention of converting to the Anglican Church. Instead, they said they were creating a new sect of the Roman Catholic Church in London since there were 250 of them. That would likely cause trouble if Lidvia Lorenzetti who was imprisoned in the Tower of London heard about it, but Laura Stuart seemed fairly relaxed about it all. Apparently the Amakusa Church fell under the category of a small sect as well.
In addition to those 5 was Sherry Cromwell, a genuine member of the Anglican Church. She had horribly damaged blonde hair and light brown skin. She was normally quite fond of wearing gothic lolita outfits, but she was currently wearing a thin negligee. The sleepwear had two layers, so the lines of her body could be seen through the thin material but the details could not be seen. It was similar to having her body hidden behind a layer of steam.
Sherry managed the Royal Academy of Arts, so she was using a chisel to carve a chess piece out of the small piece of marble in her hand while mostly ignoring the conversation. The small shavings gathered around her shoulder and created a small ball. It seemed to be an application of her golem Ellis.
With her gaze lowered on the chess piece she was making, Sherry said, "Can't you just wash your clothes in a river?"
"I could manage just fine with a washboard, but washing in the river causes problems for the environment," replied Kanzaki as she pushed the washing machine to the wall after successfully connecting the ground.
Sherry could just leave the work to her golem Ellis and Kanzaki had the tremendous strength of one of the world's fewer than 20 Saints, so they did not mind. However, the thought made the others' faces stiffen a bit.
"Okay, setting up the earthquake resistance reinforcements and lightning resistance equipment took some time, but it should be fine to power up now."
Kanzaki pressed a large button, but all this achieved was causing countless numbers and symbols to display on the small water resistant LCD screen.
Kanzaki remained completely expressionless for a moment and then said, "How about we just wash everything by hand?"
"N-no! Try for just a bit longer!!" objected Angelene while half in tears. She was the weakest of the group. "We're almost there! Th-the fully automatic washing machine is just a step away! My arms already feel like they're about to fall off just from carrying the clothes to the other building's washing machine while we waited for this to arrive!! Th-there's no way I could wash clothes by hand!!"
From the look of Angelene's small hands, the day she was in charge of the laundry under a hand washing system would be the day she died.
Orsola looked down at the user's manual and said, "Kanzaki, Kanzaki. According the manual, the machine should take care of everything after you press the wash button."
"?"
"It says if you put detergent in the small box there, the machine will analyze its components and automatically regulate the amount of water and detergent based on the weight of the laundry. It fills, rinses, drains, and dries all on its own."
"What an annoying setup. It would be a lot simpler if you could just measure out the detergent yourself."
Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene all had the thought "But you only have to press one button" at almost the exact same time, but they remained silent as they were newcomers to the dorm.
Orsola banged her hand on the new washing machine.
"If this machine is really so convenient, I want to see it run."
"…Orsola, it's the middle of the night. Is this really any time to be running a washing machine?" asked Kanzaki in annoyance, but Orsola merely pointed at the user's manual.
"It says here it is made to run silently so it can be used at night."
"It says something about phons and decibels, but do you really understand what it means? Also, the laundry for today has already been put into storage."
They were in the women's dorm for members of Necessarius. A single pattern or stitch of their clothes could have magical symbolism included. Those clothes could function as either weapons or armor, so they could not simply be tossed into a laundry basket. A "fight" could break out between the defensive functions of the clothes. The spells used could have compatibility issues between denomination and sect, so it was standard practice to take that into consideration while washing them.
While continuing to carve the chess piece, Sherry spoke up with an annoyed tone of voice.
"The storage has three layers of magical locks protecting it, right? Undoing all that would be bad enough, but relocking it afterwards would be even worse."
Upon hearing that, Kanzaki's face lit up and she straightened her back.
"Okay, if we don't have any laundry, we can't use the washing machine. We have to be up early tomorrow, so let's turn out the lights and get to sleep."
"Oh, but we do have some laundry here," said Orsola as she immediately started to strip off her habit.
With a shocked look, Kanzaki said, "W-we do not need to make more laundry for no reason! This is setting a bad example for the newcomers. You three, please do not start following Orsola's example as if that is the custom here!!"
"Now, now. Japan's yukata is made to be very easily removed. The coloring on the obi is very beautiful."
"Stop grabbing at my obi and listen to what I'm saying!!"
By the time Kanzaki tried to stop Orsola, the indigo obi wrapped around her waist had already been undone. It then fell to the floor. The front of the yukata opened like a coat with all the buttons undone.
"Oh, dear." Orsola's eyes opened wide. "Kanzaki, do you not wear underwear?"
"You don't wear underwear with a yukata!!"
She hid her body behind hands that held the explosive physical strength of a Saint, so not even Orsola was able to steal the actual yukata from her.
Orsola gave up on that and started gathering other clothes.
"But what am I supposed to wear while I sleep?"
"Sister Agnese, you will just strip down to your underwear when you get sleepy anyway."
After some discussion of that type, Orsola managed to gather her own clothes, Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene's habits, and Kanzaki's obi. She tossed them all into the washing machine, closed the clear lid, and pressed the large "wash" button.
As advertised, water filled the washing machine's tub, and the laundry began spinning around with movements that created no noticeable vibrations. Instead of the normal drum shape, the tub was a sphere so it could rotate in all 360 degrees. It was an amazing washing machine just to look at.
"Ohh! It really is quiet!"
Orsola let out a cry like a child in front of a roller coaster. Agnese, Angelene, and Lucia watched the washing machine run from over her shoulder. They were treating it the way color televisions were when they were first developed. It was a very strange sight as they were all in their underwear.
"…Did you steal my obi just because you wanted to see this?"
Kanzaki alone was disheartened, but then Sherry suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, you from the Far East sect."
"I'm currently something like a runaway ninja, but what do you want?"
"Did you actually read the user's manual?"
"?"
Kanzaki looked over at Sherry. With an annoyed look, the brown woman wearing a double-layer negligee moved the chisel to point at the user's manual lying on the floor.
"It says to take anything with colors that will run and separate them from the normal clothes. Will your dyed obi be okay in with everything else?"
"Gyaaahhh!!" screamed Kanzaki as she ran over to the washing machine.
That Saint looked like she was about to strike the washing machine head on. The four former Roman Catholic nuns in their underwear tried to stop her with all their might, but Kanzaki Kaori used her tremendous physical ability to slip past them and cling to the washing machine's control panel.
"St-stop! Where's the stop button!?"
Kanzaki frantically searched for it, but she knew next to nothing about machines and was panicked on top of that. The button had to be right there, but she could not find it.
Meanwhile, the laundry continued spinning around in the washing machine.
"My!" exclaimed Orsola as she watched the laundry through the clear lid. "I can see the stains coming right off of Kanzaki's obi!!"
"That's just the color washing out! Curse you, you vanguard of scientific culture!!"
Kanzaki could stand it no longer, so she half-forced the clear lid open while the washing machine was running.
But it was a cutting edge cubic washing machine tub that rotated in all 360 degrees.
In the blink of an eye, Kanzaki Kaori was covered in a huge amount of water flung due to centrifugal force. She was left dripping wet with see-through clothes.
"W-wow. You really aren't wearing any underwear…"
As soon as Angelene made that careless comment, the Priestess let out a wail and broke down crying.