Published at 7th of May 2023 7:54 pm

Chapter 320: Relaxing At The Pool

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

「Al, is it like this?」

「Un, right that’s it. Something like that」

Asmo paddles and deftly kick as he continues to move forward in the water.

It looks like he has already grapes the trick after I show them the example of how to swim in less than tens of minutes.

On the other hand, the other guy is.....

「Uohh! I’m gonna sink! Ubeeh, the water enters my nose......!」

Even before he can reach ten meters, he had already sunk.

「Ah, Al! Give me the board! I’m drowning!」

「Yea, here」

Since Torr was about to drown on his own, I throw the board to give it to him.

Immediately after that, Torr managed to move toward the board and lean on it by moving his limbs around somehow.

「It seems like Torr won’t be able to swim at all. Even though Asmo was able to swim easily」

At the place where my finger points, Asmo was already swimming smoothly after grasping the trick of a breaststroke. He was doing it while always keeping his face on the surface like when doing a dog paddle and it appears that he can do a breaststroke that way.

「Why can that fatty float while the light me is sinking?」

Perhaps he heard Torr complaining like that as Asmo turn around and starts to swim this way.

「Swimming has nothing to do with whether you’re heavy or light!」

「Waaah! Waー don’t try to take the board away from me! I still can’t swim yet!」

Indeed, and Asmo completely showed us that the difference in weight does not matter in swimming. Although from the start, it can be said that Asmo is someone with good motor coordination.

「Darn it, why am I sinking」

「Your limbs are moving clumsily and you’re weak at paddling and kicking the water」

And besides, I think he’s trying to breathe in too much air that he’s raising his upper body too much. So of course he’s going to sink.

「Okay. Then it will be fine if I just paddle and kick the water stronger than before!」

When gave him some advice, Torr dives into the water again and attempts to do a breaststroke.

However, his limbs were still moving uncoordinated and he was unable to take a breath before he even managed to move ten meters and sink.

It’s like I was watching a frog that can’t swim.

「Hey, Al! Help me!」

As I’m thinking like that while looking into the distance, Torr was struggling to ask for help. Can’t be helped, I use Psychic to give him the board.

「Buhaa! I can only move forward a bit」

「You can immediately get better you know. You have to keep on practicing until you get the hang of it 」

「But well, I can do it immediately since I have great reflexes,」

Just when I console Torr, Asmo continues to agitate him while calmly swimming away in front of us.

What a detestable remark and face as usual. Despite knowing that his words were not directed at me, they still made me a little irritated.

「Darn it! I’ll definitely be able to swim!」

After shouting that, Torr starts to dive into the water again.

It will inevitably be me who will have to help him so he won’t drown, do I really have to stay here all along to look after him?

For now, I will just swim alongside him, and shall I also teach him how to tread water so he won’t drown himself?

◆

After patiently accompanying Torr in his practice to swim for some time.

「I did it! I did it Al! I can swim to the middle of the pool!」

He didn’t swim from the edge of the pool to the other edge, but Torr can finally swim to the middle of the pool stably.

「It’s true. You made some progress from the beginning where you weren’t even able to swim forward for thirty meters」

「Hahaa! Thirty meters is just the past」

The ‘past’ you’re talking about was still less than an hour from now, you know. Oh well, from the perspective of someone who managed to swim to some extent, I guess it was something like exposing their shameful dark history, huh?

Though, even now, Torr’s swimming is still somewhat clumsy and unreliable to see. Oh well, He can now tread in water and do a simple flutter kick, so he should not drown so easily anymore. After that, he will have no choice but to make adjustments and learned them by himself.

「Ooohh! There’s something like a huge pool of water over here!」

「Hmm, Alfried-sama is here, after all, so he must’ve made it with magic」

Now then, I’ve also done coaching Torr and when I was thinking of taking a little break, Roomba and Gates came from downstream.

「Oーi, Al. What are you doing?」

「I made a wider place like a river and cool off while playing around」

「Ooh, that sounds nice. There are no stones lying around, and it looks wide」

「Can we also enter?」

「Un, sure」

Then Roomba and Gates start to take off their clothes in a flash when I nod.

It’d be fine if it were kids, but if two muscular old men were to enter the pool like this, the dirtiness felt seeing that scene will jump up many times.

「Ooーsh, I’ll jump in then」

「Aah!」

The two of them approach us without anything covering their privates. Their imposing walks make us feel like they are warriors who have experienced many battles.

「……amazing. That Roomba guy, is he a monster or what」

「I’ve never seen anything like that」

Torr and Asmo tremble in fear and said that, maybe they’ve seen the thing between Roomba’s groin.

I already know about it since I took a bath together with him back in Kagura.

I don’t want to take a long look and explain it, but let’s just say that Roomba’s private is also Roomba-sized.

「Buh, on the other hand, what’s with Gates’? Doesn’t it look crooked like his chin?」

「Don’t you dare laugh at other’s chin and privates! That’s rude, brat!」

Gates jumps into the pool in our direction, guess he heard about Torr making fun of him.

「Uwaaa! The ‘chin’ is coming! Run!」

Saying ‘chin’ like that, that’s harsh. I have also teased Gate’s chin before, but I never said it so direct like that.

As I leave the place so I won’t get dragged into their antics, Gates lands to where we are.

Huh? That reminds me, I wonder if Gates can swim? Unlike the river, this pool is quite deep though...... Oh well, you must’ve master-ed swimming if you’re an adventurer.....

「Uooohhh!? Wha, what is this!? Abababah, my foot! I can’t feel the bottom!」

He can’t. His face, ――nah, Gates is struggling and moving his limbs, splashing water around, with his chin sticking out from the surface of the water.

「Hahahaha, what the heck, old man Gates. Even though you’re a former adventurer, you can't swim!」

Even though he himself can’t swim one hour ago, he ignore that fact and pointed his finger and Gates while laughing.

「Ju, just because you’re an adventurer doesn’t mean that you can swim! You have to avoid a dangerous place like underwater――Habghabgh, rather than that, please help me!」

「Ehー? But, old man Gates will just attack me, right? Even though I help you, then you will directly attack me after that」

「I won’t! I won’t attack you, so hurry up! Obhobghobgh!」

「Can’t be helped then!」

After getting Gates's promise that he won’t attack him, Torr hands him the board.

Are you a demon or what?

Ah, that’s right. Since Gates can’t swim, so Roomba will most likely be the same and struggle in the water.

「Ahー, sure enough, being inside the water feels good」

When I hurriedly turn around to look at Roomba, I saw Roomba doing a dog paddle.

「Eh? Roomba can swim?」

Telling that someone can swim just by doing a dog paddle is kinda subtle, but Roomba can actually move around like that without sinking.

「Ooh, I picked up swimming while playing around in the huge river when I travel around, y’know? Rather, I was also swimming when I catch the eels back in Kagura, don’t you remember?」

After Roomba said that, I start to remember about it.

That was right. Just as he said, he was catching eels barehanded while swimming smoothly with Kojirou.

「Ah, that’s right. I see, you started to learn it after traveling to various places, huh」

「Yeah, well. And besides, there are also requests of subjugating river or sea monsters, so I’ll be in trouble if I can’t swim」

Huh? But Gates said that we should avoid those kinds of places, what does that mean then?

After hearing what Roomba said, we quietly stare at Gates.

「Could it be, Gates. That was just an excuse since you wanted to hide the fact that you can’t swim?」

「How pathetic!」

「Tha, that’s not it! I didn’t use that as an excuse! To begin with, subjugation requests in seas or rivers have great differences compared to subjugation requests in terms of the strength of the monsters and terrain! You won’t take such requests or get near those places if you’re not a strong adventurer like Roomba, and since we don’t take such requests, there’s no need for us to be able to swim! 」

Gates hurriedly explained himself after being told like that by Torr and Asmo.

「Is that true? Roomba?」

「Yeah. At any rate, when you’re underwater, it’s hard to move around so it becomes difficult to fight monsters underwater. Unless you have the strength like the members of the Silver Wind party or are able to cooperate with other adventurers well, it will be difficult to subjugate monsters in the sea or river」

And when I ask him, Roomba tells me about the situation among adventurers while lightly floating on his back.

Setting his appearance aside, it seems like what he said is true.

「Then, in other words, old man Gates is weak so you can’t swim, huh?」

「I, I just can’t swim since there was no need to」

Torr’s inconsiderate words make Gates to be about to vomit blood.

「Stop it Torr. Gates will end up looking pathetic if you compare him to the monster-like Roomba」

「You’re also the same, aren’t you? You’re making all the other magicians cry, y’know」

Just when I was covering for Gates, Roomba said that to me with a complaining tone for some reason.

I never made any magician cry before, though?

Oh well, whatever. Let’s just enjoy the pool rather than think of such a thing.

Looking at Roomba who is floating in the air like that, made me want to do that too.

I stop treading the water, release the strength in my limbs, and fall backward.

As I spread both of my arms and legs like when you’re doing a banzai pose, I was able to float on my back.

Just surrendering your body to the water and following the current without going against it feels pleasant.

There’s no need to exert any strength in your limbs and you won’t feel tired at all, it’s the best. It also feels pleasant to have your whole body enveloped in water.

I lightly float on the water while staring at the perfectly clear blue skies and white clouds.

「Dowaaa! Don’t surprise me like that Al! I thought it was a drowned body or something!」

「Calling me a drowned body, that’s awful of you」

「No, but, it was a little scary to see someone with dead-looking eyes floating right next to you」

Although I retort to him, even Roomba - who is also floating next to me - tells me that.

Leaving Torr aside, Roomba says what he exactly sees, so it’s sad since I understand that it’s a fact.

So the figure of me floating in the water really looks like a drowned body, huh?

「But, that looks kinda fun! I will also try it!」

「Me too」

「……it was just floating, even I might be able to do that」

After saying those lines, Torr, Asmo, and Gates start to copy Roomba and me.

「Ohー, this feels nice」

「Owaaah, wait, why! I’m gonna sink! Or rather, old man Gates, that looks disgusting don’t cling to me!」

「I can’t help it, you know. I’m gonna sink if I don’t hold on to anything after all」

Asmo spreads out his limbs like me and Roomba, balancing himself well, and thus, it looks like he managed to completely float.

「Why does this guy with a sticking-out stomach can float while we’re sinking」

Torr grumbles while slapping Asmo’s white, bulging stomach hatefully.

Actually, there is a mass of air inside his belly, so that might be the reason he has buoyancy.

「It’ll be easier to float if you spread out your limbs and stick out your stomach a little, you know」

「You for real」

When I give them such advice, Torr and Gates - who was leaning on Torr - start to try it out.

They spread their arms and legs, then gently float.

「Ooh, I’m floating! And it’s easy that you don’t have to swim with this!」

「It feels as though I’m sleeping on a bed of water」

It seems like they managed to float successfully.

「Ahhー, feel’s good」

「Right」

We just float in the wide pool, without swimming. This is nice.

Spending the time leisurely while staring at the flowing clouds and cold water wrapping around your bodies.

Even if I don’t use Ice magic every day, there is also this natural manner to cool off. I feel like since I’ve been able to actually feel like this.

「Ah, the refreshing coolness of nature is also not bad either」

here

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