Chapter 4 – Cultural

There was no way this was something normal. All living beings inherently had a "natural" way of reproducing. Did they create a spell just to have a way of handling gestation? No, considering what she said, it was probably closer to a ritual. Using sel to create offspring could only be extremely inefficient. Why would anyone do that when one had perfectly fine bodies that had such integrated features in the first place?

"Since when did you, I mean, we, have babies like this?"

"It's always been like that."

There was no way this could be true. Considering how inefficient it was, something must have happened that forced them to switch to that method. Living beings tended to optimize their way of doing things, simply because the ones who couldn't do so were erased by natural selection.

"Ah, but what happened before the Protection isn't clear. We have very little information about that period."

"When was that?"

"Did you skip school altogether? We're in the year 837 so it was 837 years ago, of course. You're so silly."

She chuckled mischievously but her little teasing didn't make me laugh. I looked around the house one more time. Even though it was filled with items I couldn't recognize, there was no doubt that the level of technology here wasn't too different from my world. A civilization this advanced didn't know what a male was and only had 837 years of recorded history? To say this was fishy was a euphemism. There was definitely more to the story than what she knew.

'Wait. Even though she said years, this is what I conceptually translated using sel. Since I don't know anything about this stellar system, one year here could be much longer than a year in my world. It could be shorter too.'

While I was lost in my thoughts, Suuru watched me while fidgeting. After a few seconds, she clapped her hands loudly.

"It's getting late now! I want to chat more with you but I need to wake up early tomorrow for work. Let's clean ourselves and go to sleep. Is that okay with you?"

"Oh… Sure."

I suddenly realized I hadn't had a dark thought since she startled me with her seemingly ridiculous claims. Even though I was still depressed, I couldn't deny that discovering a completely new civilization was somewhat fascinating.

For the first time since the incident, I took a good look at my interlocutor. She had long blonde hair that reached her lower back, together with green eyes. Even though she was seated, I estimated her height to be around half a head lower than mine. Her build was standard and she wouldn't have stuck out anywhere on the streets of a city in my world. Her face was nicely oval, radiating goodwill toward me.

"Thank you again for the food."

"You're welcome. Come, I'll show you to the bathroom."

There was little way to go since it was the room right next to where we were, next to the bedroom. She opened a metallic door and we arrived at a space that was different from what I expected a bathroom to be. The ground was tiled with a smooth rocky material, which felt nice under my feet. The place was small and only had two pieces of furniture. One was a metallic basket and the other one was a metallic basin, which contained a small quantity of water. I noted that most of the furniture was made of metal. Come to think of it, most of the items in the living room were also metallic. Next to the basin was a piece of cloth and a block of what probably was soap, which Suuru pointed at.

"I don't have much water, sorry. We have to do with this for the two of us. You can use this cloth to wash yourself."

"Oh..."

After the small quantity of food, it was about water next. Could it be that on top of being personally poor, this area was also arid and lacking in available water? I once again felt bad for taking something that was probably so precious to her.

"I can go without washing myself for a few days."

"No, no, this isn't sanitary. What if you catch a disease?"

"I'm perfectly healthy."

"No can do."

"…I understand."

They were also aware of hygiene, which was a clear sign of an advanced civilization. This was getting more and more interesting.

Seeing me agreeing, she hummed positively and left the room, closing the door after her. I examined the water again and calculated that I would only be able to wet the cloth a few times if I could only use half of what was available. I started to remove my clothes, or should I say, the remaining clothing I had on me. I only noticed now I didn't have my shoes on anymore. Same with my light jacket. Suuru probably removed them when she nursed me. I only needed to remove my shirt, pants, underwear, and socks to get in my birthday suit.

Handling the soft washcloth with one hand, I placed it in the water before rubbing a bit of soap on it. I then cleaned myself with it, starting with my torso and my arms. For someone like me who was used to taking showers and baths with an abundance of water, this felt like quite the medieval experience, from when people only cleaned themselves in a similar way when their body odor forced them to do so.

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened, making me jump for the second time today. From there, a completely nude Suutu entered as if it were completely natural, with a large smile on her face.

"I couldn't wait until it was my turn. It's been so long since I washed with another girl, hehe."

"W-what the heck are you doing?!"

I, a man who hadn't had any experience with women for as long as my age, was suddenly faced with the sight of one in her most natural appearance for the first time in my life.

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