NOVEL WEB I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 12
Aside from the red salamander-looking guy, there were two others near him on the wooden bench across from the sauna's entrance.
This first of these two resembled a lamia, a mythological creature with an upper body of a human and the lower half of a snake. Although it was difficult to judge her height due to her sitting down, her posture put her slightly taller than Julia at about 5'6. She did have another five feet worth of tail though, so this number was probably not very accurate. Her tail was a mix of golden and black coloring that contrasted nicely with her red hair and pale skin.
The creature on the other side of the salamander stood out the most: a giant ogre with an absolutely massive frame and light brown skin. He was definitely more chubbier than muscular, but it was clear that enormous strength was hiding under his layers of fat. It was immediately obvious that this ogre was the strongest creature I had seen so far in this academy at least in terms of raw power.
It looks like that idiot made a strong friend. What is he like 6'8? That guy is built like a freaking refrigerator... that would fit pretty well actually. You are what you eat, and clearly he's eaten a few-
"Hello! Would you guys mind coming inside? You are letting the steam out keeping the door open like that..." the lamia girl spoke interrupting my thoughts.
"Ah- right. Sorry about that," I apologized before picking up the still-trembling penguin and walking inside along with Julia.
Maybe it was due to the door being opened, but the sauna did not feel nearly as hot as I expected it to be. I probably wouldn't need to worry about Mr. Flippers too badly, but either way, I did not want to keep him in here longer than a few minutes. Rather than the heat, I was more concerned about the red idiot a few feet in front of me. Our eyes had been locked since the moment the door opened; the tension in the room could be cut by a knife and probably then eaten by the ogre on his right.
"Hey, isn't that-" Julia whispered to me upon following my gaze.
"Yep it's him," I spoke purposely louder than needed to ensure the lizard heard me, "that's the idiot who threw a tantrum over a drop of water on the first day. I wasn't expecting to see him here, but with how lavish this place is, it's pretty refreshing seeing something so pathetic"
My provocation seemed to work as the lizard dude immediately clenched his fist and his glare deepened tenfold meanwhile Julia simply looked at me in awe.
"It sounds like this scaleless twerp needs to learn his place," he spat as he stood up and brandished his claws, "Since you're so desperate to bleed, I'll give you a cut."
"I've never met a guy who shows off his nails more than you do," I mocked.
I handed Mr. Flippers to Julia and took a step towards the salamander.
"You don't scare me, lizard boy," I continued, "Go for the slice, I won't even flinch."
The lizard approached me and raised his arm, but just as the salamander began his swing, a deep voice behind him spoke out.
"Stop it, Levon. We can not attack each other. He is trying to get you punished."
His claw paused an inch away from my neck before he clicked his tongue and backed away. Whether it was due to the fact that he could not fight or because I did not flinch at his feint, the frustration in his eyes grew stronger.
"You're a sly one," the lamia now spoke, "but if you're going to interrupt our time in here, shouldn't you at least introduce yourself first?"
Her voice was calm, yet it had a hint of curiosity and mild annoyance mixed in.
A small sigh escaped my lips and I relaxed my posture a bit.
I guess that's good enough for now.
"I go by Jacob. The elf next to me is Julia and the adorable penguin in her arms is Mr. Flippers," I announced.
"My name is Alishia," the lamia introduced following my lead, "The guy you were just bickering with is Levon and the big guy over there is Ferguson."
Ferguson? That seems a bit weird. I can kind of see where the other two got their name from, but I can't see how this one fits.
I glanced over to the ogre deciding to voice my thoughts, "That's an interesting name. How'd you come up with that?"
"I did not choose it. My race has their names engraved on their skin," He spoke while pointing at a tattoo on his upper left arm.
Wow, that's a cheat. I guess the academy was even more lenient than I thought. Now that he mentions it, I wouldn't be too surprised if my actual name was somewhere in my phone. If they couldn't even bother to remove a tattoo, there's no way it would be taken out of it.
"Did you two also have your old names?" Julia finally spoke out.
"No, Levon and I came up with our own. Ferguson keeping his was a bit unfair."
"That was a coincidence," the ogre argued, "two elves being picked is unfair."
""Eh?""
A small noise of confusion blurted out of both Julia's and my mouth.
Did he just say 'two elves'?
"Oi, I'm not an elf."
"Oh? Was Ferguson wrong?" Alishia asked, "Aside from the gender differences, I don't see anything much different between you two."
"Well... our ears are different," Julia answered quietly.
"... Anything else?"
"Uhhh..." she turned to me and seemed to search for anything else she could say, "No... it's mainly just the ears..."
""...""
No one said a word and the room was enveloped in an awkward silence.
"That's complete bull-"
"Okay, if you're not an elf than what are you?" Alishia spoke as she interrupted Levon.
"I'm the coolest dude to ever-"
"He's a human," Julia answered.
Come on, you could at least try to let me show off...
I looked over towards Julia dejectedly trying to convey my disappointment, but was sadly met with her complete apathy.
She can be so grumpy sometimes.
"Who cares what this pipsqueak is?" Levon spat again, "He'll be dead day one."
"Yeah right. You could send a whole army and I bet you wouldn't be able to kill a single one of my guys."
"Sounds like this wimp is hiding behind his pawns. Too scared to fight me head-on?"
"I'll put you in a freaking terrarium before you could even-"
"Enough!" the ogre stood up and shouted, "All you do is fight. I came to relax, not to hear screams. I am leaving."
With that, he returned to his domain. His towel dropped to the floor now with nothing to be attached to.
There was a another moment of silence as everyone looked at the towel on the ground.
"Tsk, why am I even wasting time talking to this twerp," Levon muttered before also vanishing and giving the towel some company.
I glanced towards the lamia who was the last remaining of the three. Rather than immediately joining them and returning to her domain, she instead went over to the door.
"We were in here for a while, so I guess I should take my leave as well. Unlike those two, I would like to get my clothes first. I am sure we will see each other again soon," she spoke as she left.
Now only Julia, Mr. Flippers, and I remained inside the sauna. We stayed quiet for a moment in an attempt to process the whole interaction that just happened. Eventually, a sigh left the mouth of the elf next to me.
"So, are you going to tell me why you did that?" she asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about..." I pleaded ignorance and looked away.
"Don't play dumb, why did you provoke them so much? I understand that you hate the red one, but you could've gotten yourself killed!"
"... I knew they couldn't actually attack me," I said with a wry smile, "Besides, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass on."
Julia looked at me even more confused.
"An opportunity?"
"Mhm," I explained, "the defenders in the competition will have a huge advantage; I just guaranteed myself homefield advantage over three people."
While most of the creatures have things like claws or fangs to fight, my humans won't really have any of that. At least for the start of the competition, my lifeforms would be extremely weak until they can develop basic weaponry, so invading other realms would be completely off-the-table for me. If I wanted to get wins early, they would have to come to me where the cold could wipe them out. Given their reptile nature, there was no chance lizardmen or lamias would be able to survive. Ogres would be more of a threat, but I doubted that they would be able to traverse the mountain ranges in large numbers.
"... You really are crazy sometimes, you know that?" Julia muttered.
I simply smiled at her reply.
"I personally think 'amazing' is a better word. Anyway, we've been in here way longer than we should have; Mr. Flippers is starting to melt. Let's go let him swim again in the cold bath."
The toasty bird was immediately revitalized and jumped out of Julia's arms with an excited squawk before waddling over to the door.
Julia and I continued to talk as we followed behind the tiny creature. Although there were a few creatures when we walked around before, the bathhouse was completely empty aside from the three of us.
I took another look at the giant fountain covered in plants as we walked past it.
"By the way, did you think about what primary lifeforms you are going to choose?" I asked Julia.
"Yeah, it was pretty easy for me. I just chose moss, grass, and seagrass"
I let out a cough.
Grass AND seagrass? Could she not think of anything else? I know she never went outside of the forest, but there has to be better choices than that...
"What's wrong?" she asked me innocently.
"N-nothing. I also picked moss so I was a bit surprised."
"You picked it too!?" Julia's eyes sparkled a bit, "I knew I made good picks!"
"Y-yeah! You did great, Julia."
Me trash-talking grass? Pfff Never happened. It's not a boring choice at all- not even a little bit!
The sound of a penguin diving into the water ahead of us filled the room and we continued to talk about our choices as he swam.
