Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

On our way to the bathhouse, we had a few odd gazes and whatnot from people here but we didn't mind it. Their facial expressions were unreadable to me. [Soothsayer] could probably tell but that had nothing to do with me! Hopefully those weren't lewd stares because that would have been awkward.

Now that the skies had darkened, the streets were now lit with colorful crystals of some sort. If I had to guess, they were probably using magic. Whatever the case, the city scene had completely changed from just two hours ago, now into a night wonderland. Beautiful lights blanketed the entire mountain. Everything here was new to me, as if I had just stepped into another world once again.

"Is this place beautiful?" I whispered to Smoothie.

She nodded, "Yes."

Once we showed the bathhouse staff my green pass, we were allowed in without any fee. Interestingly enough, the bathhouse was split by gender. I didn't see the point of that since they were all furry to me. Frankly, I couldn't even tell the different between a male ferret from a female ferret for the life of me. Well, if they let me carefully inspect their private parts, I might be able to differentiate. Anyway, I kind of wished these people had at least humanoid faces.

I stumbled when we reached the bathes, "Which one? I'm confused."

"Mother, just come with me," she tugged my arm.

"Good idea. It's too early to advocate for mixed bathes."

Inside were lockers, washing stations, and large bath tubs. Surprisingly, the place was quite clean. Originally I was expecting them to shed lots of hairs and whatnot but there were actually very little of it.

"Smoothie, need help?"

"Yes please!"

"Yeah right, you know how to wash even if I don't teach you. Do it yourself."

"Aww... Pretty please?"

"Not going to work this time!"

Meanwhile, I was absorbing the water coming through the water pump. This was the easiest way to get my fill of water to keep all my clones happy. Recently, the weather hadn't been friendly to those plant bodies living at my originating place. As I was absorbing all that fresh and clean water, my thought branched off.

Ah crap, if a forest fire comes now, most of my clones will get wiped. Smoothie too. I better do something soon. Those stupid elves, I doubt they'll keep the fires away wherever they're harvesting my strawberries.  

After washing myself, I dipped myself in the warm bath where several others were already soaking themselves. There were plenty of spaces around for me to sit.

So much fur.

That was my take on it. They probably thought I was some pitiful furless creature. On the bright side, there were no bust size competitions here, not that I would lose anyway. [Transformation] was a cheat, a hack, even if it wasn't omnipotent.  

I wonder. If I merge with my clones and let |bewitching| trait do a makeover, would I become furry too? Hmm... A furry strawberry is a moldy strawberry. Nope. Not a good idea.

"A fey!" One of them exclaimed. A few others turned their heads and stared at me.

O hey, isn't it rude to stare in the bath? Are you all craving strawberries?

I kind of wondered how much of my status they could see. When I started in this world, I could hardly see anything on my status. If I had to guess, they probably couldn't see all my abilities until level 30 and above.  

"Hi," I replied. At the same time, I looked around to see if anyone had less fur.

Oh there, a monkey? Monkeys are cool. Ook!

"Mother, you shouldn't stare, no?" Smoothie reproved as she made her way to me.

"Sorry."

Why am I apologizing? Is this called "being civilized"? Have I conformed due to societal pressure? No. Way. Me? How I have stooped so low! I'm sorry, monkey. I won't look at you anymore. That beauty of yours is beyond my comprehension.

Somehow, her words affected more than just me. Those who were staring at me had all looked away.

"Smoothie, you shouldn't talk in bath."

"Okay."

Then I whispered to her, "Is it fine to soak your wings in warm water?"

"Why not? This isn't the first time," she whispered back.

"You know, I can't grow large clones freely around here. If your wings get damaged, you'll have trouble flying again."

"It's fine. If that happens, you'll help me smooth them out, right?" She beamed a cheerful grin.

This brat!

Well, our wings were too light to submerge underwater anyway. Sometimes, having wings was kind of a nuisance. I removed my lower wings via [transformation] but Smoothie was stuck with them unless they get trimmed.

"Want me to rip them off?"

"No!"

"Shhh... You're too loud." I placed my index finger over my mouth.

"I'll yell 'child abuse'." She replied with a pouty sad face.

Those wings were hers were actually getting in her way. Currently she was crouching in the bath with her wings pointing upward which looked really uncomfortable.

"You should try gaining a transformation ability on your next evolution," I suggested.

"I don't have such luxury to practice it but I can try with your plant bodies."

"Maybe you can learn some magic?"

"Who will teach me?"

"Let's ask Kanoko when we get back. We can go visit a library to learn about this world. How about it?"

"Okay."

"I'm done here. I'll go get changed and wait for you at the entrance. Take your time and get comfortable," I chuckled.

"I will."

Making plans was my forte, or so I believed. After we returned to our room back at the embassy hall, I noticed that those light crystals didn't automatically dim themselves. This was the perfect excuse!

"Smoothie, stay here, I'm going to ask Kanoko how these lights work and where the library is."

"Okay."

Once I was sure I was out of her sight, I teleported near her plant body where I had prepared a strawberry. A small jungle was still a jungle but none of the plants here were hostile to me. As I moved around, I shifted my plant bodies to create a passage for myself. Differentiating her body from mine was quite simple. Her plant body didn't respond to my command directly.

"Oh hey, you little critters are still around."

The little beetles were still crawling around, but mostly on the outer edges of this small jungle. They were just barely visible, illuminated by starlight. Compared to the last time I saw them, they hadn't grown much. I was kind of surprised they had survived for this long. Right now, some of them had reached level 9 while majority were level 1's or basically newborns.

"Well, I have things to attend to. Try not to eat too much strawberries, okay?"

I made my way to Smoothie's humongous plant body.

If this is supposed to be a level 22 fey plant, just how big will level 50 be?

To ensure my hands didn't get dirty or injured, I synthesized chitin gloves to cover my hands. I actually thought quite highly of this creation! Perhaps even the military could use them as light armors.

Using my fancy new gloves, I ripped a few leaves and stems off and shoved them into my mouth. That would definitely be suicidal for anyone else but me, not to mention the pain involved. Using [transformation] and [synthesis], I created storage spaces in my body to store these parts. Although it wasn't possible to create clones for her, I could still preserve her plant body within my fey body. There was no rule against it. As long as I didn't merge with my plant bodies, they shouldn't be absorbed.

Maybe it's time to grow breasts? Extra storage is always welcomed.

I thought hard about it!

Would that be too suspicious? I'll blame it on Kanoko! She had a bust for some reason. I'm definitely not envious, definitely not!

In the end, I decided against it. The alibi wouldn't match if I did it now. In any case, I stuffed more than enough of Smoothie's plant body within my fey body. Should a forest fire be large enough to destroy even the deepest roots, she should be safe as long as my fey body was safe given that I kept providing necessary resources to sustain those remains. Why I went so far for a brat was beyond me.

Just to be sure, I didn't hesitate to dig out a tiny piece of her plant body's root and swallowed it whole. Dirt didn't taste good but it was worth it.

Plan perfect. I'm good to go.

I readjusted all my plant bodies here to erase any trace that I ever walked through this jungle. Those gloves disappeared through [absorption]. It was but a simple task. I was never here, capish.

Once I did all I needed to do, including destroying evidences within maybe 15 minutes or so, I returned to the embassy hall. Although the embassy hall was now closed, there were still some staff who lived here on the second floor. The door to the staff room was open. 

Knock. Knock.

"Excuse me."

"Yes? How can I help you?" A ferretfolk answered.

"Can you teach me how to operate the light crystals? I don't know how to shut them off."

"You can't shut them completely. To dim them, just tap them twice like this with your intent."

"Oh okay. Is that it?"

"Yes. It's the same for brightening them."

"Thank you. Another thing, is there a library in the city?"

"Yes, in fact, there are several. But they're not open to public. You have to be a registered scholar or official to enter."

"Never mind."

I think I did everything I needed to do. Alibi, perfect!

After that, I returned to our room where Smoothie was waiting.