At a high ground, towards the northern side of Klein Kingdom, lies a small village called the Kaina Village.
With a high mountain towards the north, a deep forest towards the east and a mountain range stretching out beyond that.
A great river called Herme going around the village from its west to its south.
Shouts of joy reverberated through this river.
“Brotheeer!”
“Oiii, Hanna.”
“This feels so good!”
A quiet little girl by the name Hanna was floating around on the river, wearing a pink colored swimsuit and a swim ring to assist her.
And the young black-haired man she called brother was lying sprawled on an inflatable boat.
The young man’s name is Jin Nidou. He’s known as Jin to most. Although he can swim, he is definitely not good at it, which is why he was having his share of fun on the boat.
A girl, about the age of 10, was supporting the boat such that it does not capsize.
Her name is Reiko. The ultimate automata in this world, made by Jin.
“Be careful~”
“Got it!”
“Brother Jin, I’m keeping an eye on her so it’s fine.”
“Yeah, thanks, Elsa.”
The girl with platinum-blonde hair, Elsa, was good at swimming. She gripped Hanna’s swim ring and headed for the deep waters.
“Hanna, how about we try going over there a bit?”
“Alright, sis Elsa.”
It was in the middle of July, the midsummer sun was shining down on Kaina village and the average temperature during the day crossed 30 degree celsius.
It was common for the villagers to bring the children out to Herme river for refreshment.
“Fufu, swimming in a river sure is fun, too.”
“Yes, certainly. A quiet lake is nice but a river with a stream feels different.”
The two women were lying on their belly on top of a huge boulder by the shore, basking in the sun. As Herme river’s water temperature can be quite low, one’s body might get too cold unless they sunbathe like this sometime.
As for worries of sunburns, it seems the ultra-violet rays from the sun are low in this latitude, making sunburns much less severe. And on top of that, they were only sunbathing for a short duration as well.
“Berthie, you were quite busy these days too, weren’t you?”
“Yes. Extremely. Although it was a coincidence, I found Adberg and made him my secretary so I can take it easy now.”
“Adberg… Ah, the person who was Elsa’s butler?”
“Oh, you knew too, Ms. Saki? ,…Yes. He fell into despair after being dismissed and so he was spending days in retirement back in his hometown Eksi.
Adberg was Elsa’s butler and cared for her as a grandfather would. He’s a master at martials arts and also has high office skills.
Reinhardt was aware of this and so he had also reached out to have Adberg work under him but it seems Adberg himself had lost his willpower and did not feel up to it.
Seeing how it won’t work out as simply as that, Reinhardt backed off temporarily, devised a plan and went back to invite him, this time with Elsa accompanying him.
His face lit up like never before.
“M-milaaadyyy!!”
He held her hand as he wept. People who did not know about their situation might find this scenario to be strange.
As he had holed up back in his hometown, he did not know about how lively the engineering exhibition turned out to be and thus did not know about Elsa’s return.
“Old man… I’m sorry to have worried you.”
“No, you just being alive and well-that alone makes me glad that I am alive!”
“…Thank you.”
Although he came after Mine, this old man had stuck by Elsa’s side since she was 5 years old.
When Elsa told him it’d help her if he were to stay at Reinhardt’s place, he accepted without a moment’s delay.
“…Even still, I didn’t think such would be master Reinhardt’s condition.”
Saying that, he made his preparations and headed to Kartze village. He is now working hard as Reinhardt’s right-hand man.
“However, because of this, he was left to work alone today.”
“Kufufu, it isn’t hard being a landlord, huh?”
“Certainly. But then there’s the exception.”
Both of them turned towards the river saying that, glancing at Jin, who was riding on the rubber boat at the moment.
“Seriously, there’s no getting bored being with Jin.”
“‘Rubber boat’, was it? It’s quite an interesting boat.”
“Yes, to think such a boat exists.”
Even in Shouro Empire, where ship technology had advanced quite a bit, rubber boats were still not invented. Rubber itself was known yet discovered so it isn’t really a surprise.
“I suppose we should get to swimming ourselves too now. We’ve warmed up quite a bit.”
“Right.”
The two stood up. Saki is slender and 158 centimeters tall. She was wearing an orange-colored one piece swimsuit. Berthie has an outstanding sense of style and is 150 centimeters tall. She was wearing a white one piece swimsuit. The both of them were contrastive.
“I was a bit reluctant on wearing this swimsuit at first but it seems quite nice now that I’ve gotten used to it.”
“Yup, it makes it easier to swim and also feels nice to wear. Apparently, Jin designed these and they were first introduced in Potlock, in the Elias Kingdom.”
“Yes, I’ve also heard about that from Reinhardt. These types of swimsuits will probably be trendy going forward.”
The swimsuits were made with knitting goods weaved with the grand spider’s threads. As Magi Silk was also used in its lining, it felt excellent to the touch as well.
Just to put it out there, normal consumer swimsuits like these would never be made with the grand spider’s threads.
“Ah, Ms. Berthie, and sister Saki.”
“Sis~!”
Elsa, who was wearing a bright green one piece swimsuit, waved at them. Hanna also waved at them.
“Ufufu, Hanna is so cute.”
“Yeah. This village… it’s somewhat healing.”
“A very strange village for sure.”
The two went into the water saying that.
“It’s so nice and cold.”
“Berthie, how ‘bout we race to the shore on the other side?”
“Fine with me.”
The two rushed on.
“…Looks fun.”
A girl watched them compete, feeling a bit jealous. It was the village chief’s niece, Barbara. She was a hopeless swimmer. As such, she was holding onto the swim ring and was floating about. The yellow swimsuit looked great on her.
Her boyfriend Eric is a merchant and so was in his shop at the time. And so she was feeling a little lonely. However,
“…It does feel envious seeing people swim so well, doesn’t it?”
There was another person, holding on to the swim ring just like her. It was Lithia Farheight, wearing a blue swimsuit. The new noble who became Toka village’s landlord just the other day.
She had come to Kaina Village today to consult with Jin but as it was the hottest hour of the day, they all decided to come to Herme river to cool off.
Lithia too, is a hopeless swimmer, and so was borrowing a swim ring from Jin to float in the river.
“I so want to be able to swim…”
Such a mutter leaked out from both of them at the same time.
And the last two were the butler and maid apprentice at Nidou castle, Barrow and Belle. As the two were from Shouro Empire, they were excellent at swimming without exception.
“Sis, bro, you guys are so good at swimming! Can you catch me?”
“Alright, I’ll catch you real quick!”
“I won’t lose!”
“Get over here-”
They were having fun with the children today playing tag on water.
An early afternoon at the Kaina Village.
The sun shone brightly in the cloudless sky, welcoming in the height of summer.