The sun rose, illuminating our small hideout at the base of the tree. I woke up with Sarah and Alicia hugging my arms tightly, while Diane and Justine were on top of my chest, pressing down on my torso with their breasts.

Above my head was Erina, curled up in a fetal position and snoring close to my ear, and from what I could see, Camula was in a similar situation, only at my feet.

"Hehe, Master’s stinky feet smell so good..." I heard the voice of my Demonic Slime.

"Diane. Justine." I tried to wake the two young women on top of me, but neither of them moved.

The two of them must have been pretty tired because of yesterday. Diane, especially, who had spent last night helping me against Vulcan, must have been exhausted.

My two wives, unlike Erina, who was snoring, had light, silent breathing, displaying an unwavering tranquility. The way their contrasting hair colors rested so close together reminded me of the yin-yang symbol, a perfect harmony at the cost of my mobility.

This chaotic way of waking up was far too bizarre for my taste. Despite the weight on top of me, fortunately, I managed to move my arms, which I used to stroke Sarah’s head so I could wake her up.

"Hey, Sarah. Wake up," I said to her in a somewhat hurried voice, since the pressure on top of me was uncomfortable.

"Eh?" Sarah didn’t open her eyes, but answered me in a sleepy voice, "It’s already morning?"

"That’s right, it’s already morning!"

"Hmm." Sarah made a lazy sound in her throat, adjusting her face against my arm. "Let me sleep just a little longer..."

"No, Sarah. I need you. You’re the only one who can wake up all the others and get me out of here."

Still resisting, Sarah pushed herself up with both arms. Her red hair was messy, and saliva was dripping from one corner of her lips.

"Hey, you bunch of lazybones! Let’s waake up!" Sarah spoke in an irritated yet tired way, so sleepy that some words came out wrong from her mouth.

’Hey, you’re not in a much better position than they are...’ I thought to myself, but even so, Sarah managed to help me wake up my other wives.

"Good morning, Rick," Diane said to me, rubbing her eyes to help herself wake up, and Justine also sat up, making the same gesture.

Little by little, all of them opened their eyes and wished me good morning, like flowers blooming in the sunlight. I gave each of them an affectionate kiss to start another day on our journey.

"So how long will it take us to reach the next city?" Alicia asked.

"I believe it will take one day of travel without any detours. I’d like us to stop for a while to train you and Camula. If we do that, we’ll stay one more day in the forest and arrive in Backwater City in the early hours of the morning."

In my opinion, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Either way, if we reached Backwater that same day, we would arrive too late and too tired to do anything relevant for our investigation.

And besides, I had good reason to believe there were other monsters in that forest, and those creatures could be used to level up the party members who were lagging behind the most.

What harm would a little grinding do before heading to a city full of Silver Fang members, where there was also the possibility of encountering a Night Apostle? I couldn’t take that risk, especially knowing who I might run into there.

As for me, I believe I can deal with the problem, but I’d like my Valkyries to be stronger in case something unexpected happens.

"I don’t have a problem with that," Alicia said, but I could see that something was bothering her. "But could we stop by a river or a lake? It would be really nice if we could take a bath after..."

I imagined she was going to say something like, "After we were covered in semen," but I understood before Alicia had finished the sentence.

"No problem, no problem. I remember there being a river nearby, so we can bathe there."

Usually, we could clean ourselves with ease, but because of our game with honey and all the sex we’d had, I also thought it would be better for us to take a bath and wash away the excess filth before entering the new city.

All of them seemed to like the decision and nodded in agreement with the plan. Then we decided to head for the river.

I followed the path described in SCRL. After a few steps, the trees became sparser and the vegetation less dense than before, allowing us to see the blue sky without much difficulty.

After walking for about 10 minutes, following the damp wind that caressed my face, we finally reached our destination. It was a river with clear, clean water and several rounded stones along the bank, a natural landscape as beautiful as the lake we had seen before reaching Greenville.

"Take off your clothes!" Sarah said to me, hurriedly tugging at my shirt.

"Hey, are you that eager to play again?" I said playfully.

"No, you dummy. Let’s take this chance to wash our clothes here too, since you plan to train Alicia and Camula. I believe we can dry them easily in this sun. If not, a nearby campfire can help."

We washed our bodies in the refreshing water. The temperature was perfect, and the breeze brushing against my skin made me relax as I bathed with the sun warming my face. The only things I could hear were the sound of the birds and, of course, the voices of my Valkyries in the distance.

I had already cleaned myself enough, so I decided to lie back in the river with my eyes closed while my naked body floated in the gentle current. I was so at peace that I let them have their fun, but I could hear their voices getting closer.

"Rick..." I heard Alicia’s voice calling me, a little shy at that moment.

I shifted from the position I was in and turned towards her, with the others nearby as well. My eyes widened at what I saw next.

"So, what do you think?" Justine asked me, standing with the other young women. All of them stood in front of me with flushed faces, showing off their new clothes.

"We cleaned ourselves, so we decided to try them on," Diane said in a somewhat nervous voice.

"That Leila girl’s mother offered them to us as a reward for the rescue," Sarah said, unable to look me in the eye. "What do you think?"

I was speechless. All of them were wearing clothes that resembled beach bikinis, with a white bra-like top and panties of the same color below, covered by a long skirt. All of them looked dazzling, showing off their natural beauty.

"They look great on you. You’re all beautiful, without a doubt," I answered frankly.

"I-I see. Ahem! Good to know," Sarah said, not wanting to admit defeat.

Including my tsundere, all of them seemed very happy with my answer.

"I’m so happy to hear that, Master!"

Some more than others.

"Come here! That compliment of yours deserves a nice big hug~" Camula said, preparing to throw herself on top of me and embrace me.

Sarah was about to stop her, holding Camula back, "Hey, hey. Don’t overdo—"

By the time Sarah noticed her mistake, her hand had returned with a piece of white fabric. Sarah’s hands had slipped over Camula’s body, and instead of holding her back, Sarah had ended up grabbing her bra.

I didn’t have a problem with Camula’s breasts or get nervous about them, since my memory of them was still very fresh because of last night, but I was certainly surprised to see them bouncing naked right in front of me.

"Eh?" The pink-haired girl was shocked when her bra suddenly came off.

She turned towards Sarah.

"S-Sorry, Camula, that was a—"

"You tried to embarrass me in front of Master—"

"Of course not! It was an accident!"

I couldn’t see Camula’s face, but judging by the aura around her, she was certainly irritated.

Sarah looked so embarrassed and so unwilling to fight Camula that I wondered if Camula had some secret skill that inflicted fear on her opponents.

Despite Sarah’s excuses, Camula didn’t seem to calm down. With a quick movement, she advanced towards the Swordmaster, trying to untie the knot of Sarah’s bra.

"W-What are you trying to do?!" Sarah asked with a high-pitched scream.

"Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to get revenge for this shame!" Camula replied.

Alicia sighed. "But it’s not like we don’t already know what you look like naked."

"True." Justine agreed with the princess, who was beside her.

The two of them were quite calm as they watched what was happening to Sarah, and they didn’t notice Erina behind them untying the knots of their bras.

"Kyaaah!" Alicia let out an embarrassed scream when she noticed that her bra had suddenly fallen off.

Justine covered her chest with her arm and noticed her childhood friend right away.

"Erina, you damn pervert!"

Diane also got angry. "Hey, don’t forget that Alicia is still the princess of this kingdom!"

"You’re too nervous, Miss Royal Guard," Erina said carelessly. "What’s wrong with having some fun?"

Erina then scooped up water with her hands and threw it at Justine and Diane’s faces.

Although the water was refreshing, it didn’t make the two of them any calmer.

"You’re dead!!" both of them said in unison, running after Erina, who kept throwing water at them.