Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 8

Short Story:

Rudeus’s Summer

WE ARRIVED IN EASTPORT. When I stepped off the boat, I was in the King Dragon Kingdom. There were customs officials, and as they checked our luggage, they charged us a toll. But so long as you paid the required fees, it was no trouble. Eris, Ruijerd, and I went out into the port. Now we were only a stone’s throw away from the Central Continent and the Asura Kingdom.

“Huh…?” I’d just set off down the street to look for somewhere to stay when a street stall caught my attention. The goods on display were made of cloth—cloth with very little surface area. That’s right, it was an underwear store.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea. I wasn’t interested in underwear or anything. It was just the material these were made out of, you know, I hadn’t seen it much before, so it got my attention. And it got my attention to see a shop in the middle of the street that only sold underwear, too. Street stalls that dealt in clothes usually focused on travel gear and made underwear with whatever fabric they had left over.

That being the case, I went over to talk to the stall-keeper. “Hey, Mister. Don’t see many shops selling underwear in a place like this.”

“Oho. If you don’t know what these are, you must be travelers, eh?”

“That’s right. We came from Millis on our way to Asura.”

“That right? Well, listen here. This isn’t underwear. It’s swimwear.”

Swimwear?! Did he say “swimwear”?! 

It couldn’t be. This world didn’t have so much as the concept of swimwear. When you went to play at the river, it was lolicon paradise. 

“When you go in the water with your clothes on, they get in the way, which makes it hard to swim, right? But underwear goes see-through, and that’s embarrassing—and never mind going naked! This swimwear here was developed for folk like that.”

“Swimming…? Are there pools here?”

“In this town, there’s a bit of coast that was given to a fisherman long ago by the Seafolk after he saved their king. It’s not big enough that you can make a living off fishing it, and trouble’s come between the humans and the seafolk enough times that you can’t even fish for fun. But monsters hardly ever go there, so these days fishermen, adventurers, and the like use it for swimming practice.”

“Wow.” It wasn’t quite like the pools I knew, but they had somewhere for people to swim in the ocean. I was also looking at a display of swimwear made from seriously tiny pieces of fabric. And behind me, her eyes lighting up as she learned that you could swim in the sea here, was Eris. In that moment, we shared a common dream.

“I’ll take one, Mister.”

“Pleasure doing business,” the man said with a toothy grin.

The scorching days of summer had arrived. The temperature was rising in my heart too. Before me was a white, sandy beach, the blue ocean, and the bright yellow sun. The red seashells poking out of the sparkling sand completed the picture. The fisherman who thought he’d have this beach—or the king who’d decided to give it to him—would have looked at this beautiful beach and pictured lovers walking arm in arm or something, for sure. Tragically, the scene in front of me only had single men and women sweating through their swimming practice.

But lo! Upon that very beach there appeared a single flower! Wearing the black bikini I’d bought her, with her red hair tied back in a ponytail, came Eris!

Man, it had been a mission. Eris had not been keen. She was like, “I want to swim in the sea, yeah, but in that swimsuit? It’s basically underwear!” I’d talked her around, then had her get changed, and now, at long last, I was blessed with this wonderful world!

Eris’s boobs and butt had developed a fair bit. Her belly button was charming, and her legs were long and slender. I’m a simple man—just looking at her was good enough for me.

Are you settling for good enough? Time to step into a new world of satisfaction! 

I went over to Eris. We had watermelons to split, waves to chase, and sunsets to watch as we whispered “je t’aime” to one another—there’s a ton of fun to be had at the beach.

“Rudeus! I’m going swimming!”

“Not so fast, Eris,” I told her. “You have to warm up first. What if your leg cramps up in the water?”

But Eris wasn’t listening. She could see paradise. With the great expanse of ocean before her, she couldn’t wait to dive in. Her heart was already in the ocean, the starfish were twinkling, you get the idea.

“Ruijerd! Teach me how to swim! I’m off!”

“Eris, I said wait!” Before Eris could run off, I tried to grab her shoulder. But either I misjudged the distance, or Eris moved, because my fingers slipped straight through empty air, then caught on the knot at the back of Eris’s swimsuit. Perhaps she hadn’t tied it tight enough. The knot came undone, and her swimsuit went fluttering to the ground. 

“Hey…! What the hell!”

Care to guess what I got an eyeful of next? Eris’s two soft hills with their cherry-pink peaks, perhaps? 

Nope. All I saw was her tightly clenched fist.

So I took Eris’s Boreas Punch straight to the face and blacked out. While I was out cold, Eris had a fantastic time enjoying everything the beach had to offer. And with that, summer came to a close.