A little while later...

  Steam seeped out through the silver bamboo-like walls that mostly encased the would-be wallless silver-wood gazebo; a copious amount of steam flowed out from the one opening, acting as a makeshift blind for the door hole in the bamboo wall.

  "Ahhhh, this is it; nothing beats the warm embrace of hot spring water getting at every nook and cranny of my tail," Lizu remarked in bliss as she peacefully wagged her tail, wafting the steamy water around it with just enough force to make it spill out of the bath a little. The tiny tsunamis swept across the bath, riding up the thin and barely punctual hairs of Enetha's upper body that stood up on end from the all-encompassing heat. The temperature that the dragolyte chose for the bath was almost obnoxious: not hot enough to do any physical damage, but just hot enough to inflict mental debuffs on the unacustomed.

  Forced to bristle, the girl's tiny hairs ushered the princess to shiver, opposed to how it worked in other living creatures, and cool her body down.

  "If you say so," Enetha spoke, deadpanned to no end. The princess kept her back against the side with the majority of her cloth-like tendrils flush against the floor beside the bath. With her tendrils out of the bath and free to dry, Enetha silently grumbled about the state her tendrils were in, while the notion of it being Lizu's fault never broke past the princess's complaining.

  Although she'd expected a lacklustre response, Lizu hadn't anticipated it to be so bare-bones and non-existent, perhaps even calling it by either of those terms was too much of a stretch.

  "What's with that response?" Lizu murmured softly as she ran a foot across the air-exposed bits of her tail to smush the clumps of soap on it before stating, "And, you've been sitting in the shallowest part of the bath for the longest time."

  Enetha scoffed faintly at the question and remark combo, while flexing her back in such a way that it resembled how a cat would when trying to slam their tail against the floor in anger.

  However, nothing became of her back flexing; her tendrils had become too heavy to lift after all.

  "Usually, so I don't have to consciously hold them up, my attendants lift them so I can fully relax when bathing," Enetha explained, making sure to emphasise how immensely she hated getting her cloth-like appendages even slightly wet, let alone as soaked as they currently were. She especially expressed, to a compulsive level, if she had the option, she gladly let a slime monster clean her body rather than risk getting her tendrils wet.

  Lizu wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. So, she helplessly and awkwardly giggled at such an adamant display of disdain from someone. It was so potent that Lizu felt some strength leave her body; to an extent, her tail movements slowed enough for the thrashing water to calm, as she recalled getting a similar sentiment from her older sisters, only with actual clothing. "Is it really that bad? Also, don't say such strange things, Inkaro might try that idea."

  Enetha completely missed the part about how Lizu alluded to Inkaro doing something involving slimes.

  Almost annoyed she had to explain her position any further than she already had, expecting the initial explanation to suffice, Enetha was about to emotionally burst, not that her face showed it. But, despite her annoyance, she managed to keep it from boiling over, thanks to the hot bath she was unwillingly forced to partake in, which was presently making her head a little fuzzy.

  "Have you ever worn soggy clothes? Now imagine that feeling under your skin."

  Lizu giggled, less awkwardly this time and to a somewhat condescending degree as she watched the overheating-induced blush forming on the princess's face with amused glee. "Point taken."

  Slowly but surely, Lizu's giggling slowed until it teetered out completely.

  "Can I be frank with you? Or at least at you?"

  Enetha perked up, not enough for her tendrils to move, but enough to show that the sudden appearance of vulnerability from Lizu wasn't lost on her. She peered over, almost not believing the girl called 'The Indomitable Dragon' could ever be emotionally open with anyone other than maybe Inkaro. It was so sudden. Enetha had to wonder, was the girl just pulling her leg by acting all soft and emotionally available to make her drop her guard?

  But she had to stay strong; she could not allow herself to appear flustered before anyone. So, with a brave face that looked like her usual expressionless one, Enetha spoke with the confidence of someone shoved onto a stage and forced to perform to a live audience for the first time. "Err... yeah?"

  "Thanks," Lizu said with the last bit of reservation she had before sitting up straight, disturbing the waters once again as she moved.

  Lizu held her head low, allowing the bubbles of the bath to consume her up to her shoulders, as she retreated downwards, crestfallen. "It was hard for me not to notice, with my speciality for observation."

  "Back when we were kids, I could never shake the feeling that deep down, Inkaro was secretly heartbroken about his low mana tolerance; you know, like a normal kid should've been. But no, he had to be all cute and be himself by treating it like some sort of challenge to stick it to whoever gave him that tolerance... but I digress. Then things just spiralled from there, and things ended up with the two of us spilling the beans on whatever new magic ideas that came to mind to each other."

  "But recently..."

  "Hmm?" Enetha murmured softly, choosing not to speak or ask any follow-up questions, so as not to mess up Lizu's pace or train of thought, or to risk inhaling too much steam. Enetha did like how it was honey-scented at the very least.

  "...he's started hiding some magical research: Like his... ring magic.". Catching herself from spilling too much, Lizu buffered out a surface-level description of the thing she was referring to so as not to sound suspicious. Enetha tilted her head a little, confused at the odd spacing stuck between Lizu's words, wondering if Lizu had attempted to say the name, only to give up before she could embarrass herself. She could relate to that, tripping over her words when trying to say the name of her country's national tapestry in her native language, only for jumbled garbles to come out of her mouth instead.

  "It feels like a string between us has become so frayed that it snapped. Or perhaps he believes I wouldn't be able to understand it..."

  "Or... that you physically can't do it, so he wanted to save your feelings by acting aloof until he fixed it?" Enetha added as she pitterpattered her hands against the water's ripples, trying to act quite aloof herself.

  "Maybe... maybe not, but it doesn't change the fact I want to know!"

  Lizu wondered how she should phrase the next part of her venting. But as she thought, something broke her train of thought; a familiar bee-tuned chant. It was unmistakable.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Inkaro hadn't, had he? Did the guy really figure out how to make convenient teleportation magic and decide not to use it so she could have super easy access to honey when she was back home? The idea did give credence to Enetha's proposal. Lizu shook her head, dismissing the idea that Inkaro had hidden it from her maliciously, and reasoned that only two things could possibly be the true answer: he'd only finished it recently, so never had the chance to tell her, or her sisters must've spun a fib to Inkaro that Lizu wasn't allowed such ease of access to honey. The second option, the part about her having access to honey— objectively true.

  She could only groan at the ideas, followed by the water of the already hot bath letting out a concerning hissing sound. Aided by the sound, Enetha jumped out of shock as she felt the lower half of her body becoming uncomfortably warm under the influence of the hot spring's hiking temperature.

  Even as her face reddened, the princess knew she should unquestionably get out, but her legs just refused to move. Why? Because they currently had as much strength as jelly, after being heated up past its chemical-binding limits. The heat wasn't unbearable, just uncomfortable; the issue that was pressing Enetha more was how the heat was getting to her and slowly building up in her mind, clouding it. If she wasn't careful, she might say something she shouldn't in front of people.

  While Enetha was busy not passing out, some nearby doors opened, and Lizu snapped her head around, eyes filled with enough anger to leave her pouting.

  But then, Lizu's heart squealed as the doll-sized beegirls began to filter out of the house like little soldiers on a mission, which instantly soothed her soul as she fell hopelessly under the influence of their cuteness; any semblance of her prior concern or anguish melted away into a forgotten goop of jumbled thoughts. She mindlessly watched them pass by like the mini-parade she saw them as.

  Lightly sighing, finally getting her fill of the group's presence, Lizu cancelled her act of looking over her shoulder and sank back into the cooling bath, sinking so far in fact that only her face remained exposed, as water simply overflowed from the bath from how fast the big-tailed girl moved.

  "Oh, the beegirls want Nuli to make them a hive again," Lizu said off-handedly, speaking with a chipper tone only seen in retired individuals watching the newer generation of people coming up with wacky ideas. With her mood improving, the bubbling of the water settled, reverting to their usual state and sparing Enetha from becoming a supersized rabbit leg for some soup.

  "A-gain?" Enetha murmured somewhat groggily as she felt her head spin. The mind of the princess had become an utter mess, at the mercy of the heat ever-present around her; it had got so bad she didn't even register the presence of the fuzzy-bodied girls approaching the bath: their march in perfect coordination with each other as they lined up behind Enetha and crouched down in preparation to do something.

  "Bee-hove, bee-ho, bee-hove." The group of beegirls, with fur patterns that resembled bathing towels, hoisted Enetha's tendrils off the floor and over their heads to ensure maximum air exposure to increase drying speeds, or so Inkaro's mother explained to them.

  "Put.Me.Down," Nuenala wailed, voicing her disaproval at being carried like an ornamental idol by some other beegirls. Her opinion on her treatment from the beegirls was clear for any to see; she hated it with every fibre of her being, the levels of her embarrassment would've been much higher if Inkaro hadn't been preoccupied by that girl she'd never seen before.

  In fact, Nuenala was on the verge of small tears by how much she hated it, only made worse by how she couldn't retaliate against the girls: they were too cute and smol to punch, pinching their cheeks was the most pain she'd willingly inflict on any of them, but doing so at present was impossible.

  The little beegirls looked at one another, befuddled like lost lambs. They were sure the queen mentioned that the person who accompanied Inkaro on his journey to the mysterious thing known as an academy was the one who helped build the main hive, so she should be given special treatment. The knowledge and orders only served to confuse the beegirls: why was the hive builder so angry at being carried like the queen would?

  "But, Master Nuenala, if we were to build a hive here on our own, it would end up clashing with the aesthetics thingy. Then, the queen would be sad because Lady Lizu gets sad when aesthetics are broken," the beegirls chanted in unison, playing up the disheartened kid act. At the same time, Lizu felt personally slighted by the implication that she still got upset over petty things, like when she was a kid. The pangs of cringe were strong, stronger than cramps after sitting mildly out of the norm, even.

  By the time Lizu managed to quell the blossoming blush on her cheeks, Nuenala had already succumbed to temptation and let the beegirls' words go to her head.

  "Well, if only I can handle it, then carry away; at least, until school starts in a bit," Nuenala proclaimed boldly, her tone so obnoxiously pretentious it bordered on parody and self-deprecatory, as the beegirls continued to carry her further down the garden.

  Enetha watched with a deadpanned glare, somehow more expressionless than her usual neutral face, as she was subjected to the sight of the mini-crowd-surfing act. Whether the expression was born from genuine apathy or not would never be known, because the girl's brain was so utterly fried from the heat that she wouldn't be able to recall the moment she got to a remotely cooler area. Grumbling it out softly, Enetha spoke, "Are all the people from Inkaro's village pushovers for praise?"

  "No... just those two," Lizu explained with a somewhat joking tone that was somehow comforting to Enetha's ears; the only way she could describe it was how a cat that started standoffish became familiar enough to allow petting or snuggling. Petting? Is Lizuranti a cat? Snuggle her?

  Enetha slapped her face, which Lizu assumed was the girl splashing water on her face. The princess adamantly vetoed the ideas running rampant in the court of her mind, denying that Lizu would ever allow such a thing. As she struggled mentally, something became glaringly clear to Enetha; she realised the heat must really be getting to her if she was having such thoughts now.

  Beegirls, huh?

  Only then did it click in her mind. How did she not notice them sooner? They were literally holding onto her, and she could feel them lifting up her tendrils with their tiny, fuzzy hands. It was such a shock that the princess didn't even bother to question how they could, let alone the why behind their collective actions. Enetha did a double-take to check; yep, beegirls the size of dolls were marching and flying about the place, and helping her tendrils dry faster. "What the..., what are they?"

  Lizu dismissively shrugged.

  "Transformed Alunaki Bees. It happened years ago, now Inkaro already has decades of parenting experience from having to suddenly look after that bratty queen one and the other five original ones."

  The response was so nonchalant it left the princess speechless, and she just chose to leave it at that. She wasn't about to open that can of worms: biological transmutation that is. She stared forward, blankly. Any semblance of a foggy mind gone, replaced with a single question: "Could Inkaro make her taller? How soft are Lizu's-"

  Moving on pure instinct, Enetha punched herself in the face to stop herself from finishing that thought. Lizu widened her eyes to the max at the sudden violent act, wondering if she'd missed something; she was flabbergasted to say the least, extra so as Enetha had managed to knock herself out cold and inadvertently launched herself right into the dragolyte's chest.

  "Wha?" Lizu mumbled as she lifted the unconscious Enetha out of the bath by employing her tail, which the princess so graciously positioned herself on top of. She eyed the princess for any injuries, other than the fist-shaped indent on her cheek. "I hope this isn't an omen... Inkaro punched himself the first time we bathed together as well... I think? Hard to say, remembering something from eight years ago."

  "Are you talking to yourself again?" Inkaro stated in a snarky tone as he popped his head through the steam filling the way in and out of the enclosed outdoor bath. "And for the record, I slipped, not punched myself."

  "Still no class or sense to knock, there is a girl in here who isn't me," Lizu remarked, matching Inkaro's crass tone of voice, hoping to elicit a response out of him that at least bordered on humility or embarrassment.

  However, much within her expectations, Inkaro wasn't fazed in the least by Lizu's attempts to fluster him. "Speaking of class, ours starts in fifteen minutes, bath-hogger."

  "Ah...". That was all her brain allowed her to muster as a sign of acknowledgement. If she were a computer, she'd unquestionably be blue-screening right now at receiving the news about how little time she had left before school started. The steam coming off her head didn't help the mental image in Inkaro's mind, as it reminded him of an overheating machine about to combust into flames or pop.

  "Ah, indeed," Inkaro joked before hopping to the side, followed by a blurring object shooting past him that left a wall of water behind as she passed through the door-shaped hole, like the water couldn't physically leave.