At that moment, the dishwasher stopped running—the dishes inside were done. I immediately stood up, took out the clean plates and utensils, then put in the dishes Ethefelis had brought over earlier and started another wash.
That was when I remembered something important: household chores needed to be divided up. There was no way I could do everything myself. And the biggest issue of all was laundry.
When the travel house was designed, the goal had been to keep it as compact as possible, so there was only one washing machine. There was no way I was going to separate laundry by gender—that would be a huge waste of water.
But they were all nobles, and even casual contact between men and women was frowned upon, let alone touching intimate clothing.
Still, it didn't hurt to ask.
"By the way, can you three accept having your clothes seen by someone of the opposite sex? Or touching clothes of the opposite sex?"
"What kind of clothes are you talking about?" Grace asked.
"Underwear."
"I can't. As a noble, I can't casually touch the opposite sex's clothing."
"Ethefelis can't either."
"...Eh?! N-no, no, no, absolutely not!!!"
Grace was a beat late in understanding, and her reaction was huge. If you ever told her a dirty joke, she'd probably short-circuit.
Since all three of them were against it, there was no point forcing the issue. That left only me.
"Then, do you girls mind if I wash your clothes for you? Just so you know, I'd only be touching them because I'm doing laundry—no other thoughts, no interest."
I had to make my position clear. I had no ulterior motives, and I needed them to trust that.
Grace and Ethefelis were silent for a moment. Then Ethefelis spoke first.
"I don't mind."
"...I-I don't mind either!"
Seeing Ethefelis agree, Grace gave in as well, almost like she'd resigned herself to it. Probably because if someone younger than her was fine with it, refusing herself would feel embarrassing.
Just then, Alice came in after finishing her shower, wearing the same priest outfit as before. Did she not have any other clothes, or did she have a lot of identical ones?
"Ms. Grace, what were you talking about? I could hear your voice all the way in the bathroom."
As soon as Alice entered, Ethefelis headed out to take her own shower.
"Was I really that loud? We were talking about laundry. Mr. Karen said he'd take care of washing our clothes."
"Mr. Karen is going to do the laundry? Mr. Karen, then please leave it to me instead. You already cook for us—won't that be too exhausting?"
I hadn't expected the one to show concern for me to be Alice. She was willing, but I hadn't yet asked whether she minded touching men's underwear.
"Really? You'd be touching men's underwear, you know."
"I'll do my best!"
"Alright. Then once everyone's done showering, I'll teach you."
With the laundry issue settled, I changed the topic.
"Alice, don't you have any other clothes? Like normal clothes?"
"I don't. Is there a problem with that?"
"That outfit makes it obvious at a glance that you're a priest. You stand out compared to us. Let's buy you some normal clothes tomorrow."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Of course there's a problem. We're traveling as merchant guards. We don't need a priest."
In this world, priests didn't have healing powers or anything like that. Bringing one along just made people think we were some group fanatically devoted to the Goddess of Fate, praying every day under a priest's guidance.
At that moment, Ethefelis came back from her shower. Like Grace, she was wearing cute pajamas. She walked straight to the sofa and leaned against it lazily.
"Eh? Aren't we supposed to defeat the Demon King?"
Alice voiced her confusion, and I realized she didn't know our surface-level objective yet. I stood up, put the chair back in place, and said,
"Right, you didn't hear yesterday's conversation. Grace, you tell her. I'm going to take a shower."
After saying that, I left the living room. In the washroom, I stripped and stepped into the bathroom, washing away the sweat from the entire day while thinking about Lina and Lani.
After finishing my shower, I came out, changed into blue pajamas, and started the laundry. I'd teach Alice afterward. Once the washing machine began running, I returned to the living room.