Chapter 90: The Fairy Entered My Bath Time [Part 1]

Chapter 90. The Fairy Entered My Bath Time [Part 1]

The first bite nearly made me emotional for an entirely different reason.

Actual food.

Hot food.

I hadn’t eaten properly all day. Breakfast and lunch had mostly become pastries and fruit because I’d been distracted preparing for Hollowgrave. Then I’d survived on dried fruit, dried meat, water, and whatever stubbornness could be classified as a food group.

I took another bite.

Then another.

Nobody questioned me.

That surprised me.

I had expected an interrogation the moment I sat down, but Ariel merely refilled my drink when the cup became low. Lily pushed the meat closer whenever I finished a portion. Seris watched me occasionally, probably still checking for signs of hidden injuries. Nia quietly stole one vegetable from my plate and received a look from Ariel before innocently returning two. Liora replaced the dirty cloth with another and continued cleaning the blood from the side of my wrist.

They simply let me eat.

Peacefully.

That might have been the strangest part of the entire evening.

Nobody demanded an explanation while I was halfway through chewing. Nobody asked how many monsters I’d fought, why my clothes looked as though something had attempted to digest me, or why I’d returned several hours later than expected. They simply kept food within reach and let me concentrate on the extremely important task of convincing my stomach that starvation was no longer imminent.

By the time I finally put my utensils down, the amount of food I’d consumed was mildly embarrassing.

Worth it, though.

I leaned back with a satisfied breath.

"Okay. Now I’m taking a bath."

This time nobody objected.

Seris glanced at the dried blood still staining my clothes. "Use the large bathroom. You might need more than a normal bath tonight."

"That sounded insulting."

"It was an observation,"she added.

I looked down at myself. Fair.

Nia’s tail swayed behind her chair. "She’s politely saying you stink."

"I fought monsters all day," I reasoned.

"Yes. We can smell your victory."

I stared at her.

Nia smiled sweetly.

Before leaving the dining room, I opened my Dimensional Ring and removed the remaining food supplies I’d packed for Hollowgrave. Dried meat, fruit, bread, and several untouched provisions appeared on the table.

Lily immediately started checking them. "You barely ate any of this."

"I was busy."

"Busy fighting?"

"Mostly."

My damaged outer clothes followed. I pulled the remaining ruined layers from my Dimensional Ring and dropped them into a separate pile for the servants to inspect later. Some might be salvageable. Others had graduated from clothing into historical evidence of poor decisions.

Then I escaped before Lily could inventory exactly how little food I’d consumed.

The large bathroom was in the older section of the estate.

Calling it a bathroom was somewhat misleading. It resembled a private medicinal chamber built around an enormous stone tub. The room itself was spacious enough that several people could move around comfortably, with pale marble floors, shelves for medicinal herbs and oils, and mana lamps casting warm golden light across the walls.

Rey’s memories surfaced the moment I entered.

This room hadn’t originally been designed for relaxation.

The tub had once been filled with cold Holy Water.

Whenever Rey’s curse became particularly violent, servants would fill it nearly to the edge and he would soak inside for hours, sometimes until his skin became pale and numb. The Holy Water couldn’t remove the Dark Lord’s curse, but it suppressed its activity enough to prevent the corruption from spreading farther through his body.

Sometimes it helped.

Sometimes Rey simply sat here shivering while black veins crawled beneath his skin and everyone outside waited to discover whether he’d still be himself when he emerged.

Cheerful memories.

I looked at the tub now.

Steam drifted lazily from ordinary warm water.

I smiled faintly.

Much better.

I cleaned myself thoroughly before entering because there was absolutely no universe in which I intended to turn the bathwater into diluted monster soup.

Blood disappeared beneath running water.

Mud followed.

Then sweat.

I washed my hair twice before I became convinced Hollowgrave had finally stopped clinging to me.

Only then did I approach the large tub.

And stop.

Flowers.

There were flowers everywhere.

Petals covered the surface in ridiculous quantities. White, pale pink, violet, soft yellow. Some floated individually while several smaller blossoms remained intact, releasing a sweet herbal fragrance into the steam.

I recognized the scent immediately.

Lily.

Apparently my fairy wife had declared war on monster odor and deployed the entire garden.

I stepped into the water.

Heat climbed slowly over my legs.

Then my waist.

Then my chest.

I lowered myself until the water reached my shoulders. "Ahhhhh..."

The sound escaped me before I could stop it.

I stared at the ceiling.

That had been an old-man sound.

A deeply satisfied old-man sound.

I didn’t care.

After spending an entire day running, fighting, dodging claws, getting thrown around by monsters, discovering artifacts capable of ruining civilizations, rescuing noblewomen, carrying said noblewoman down a mountain, and then flying home...

This was heaven.

Actual heaven.

If the Light Temple possessed something better than this, perhaps I’d reconsider corrupting their Holy Relic.

No. Actually, I wouldn’t.

But I’d steal their bath.

My eyes closed.

Warmth seeped into muscles I hadn’t realized were aching. The Crimson Vitality Elixir had kept me functioning, and Abyssal Reinforcement had prevented several attacks from turning my bones into decorative fragments, but neither changed the fact that I’d abused this body all day.

My shoulders relaxed.

The back of my head rested against the tub.

For several wonderful minutes, I did absolutely nothing.

Then I heard footsteps.

Soft ones.

I didn’t open my eyes.

They approached across the marble floor before stopping beside the tub.

The floral fragrance became slightly stronger.

I smiled. "Lily..."

I opened my eyes.

There she was.

My fairy wife stood beside the tub with her golden-green hair falling loosely around her shoulders. Her translucent wings caught the warm mana-light behind her, scattering faint colors across the steam.

She had changed since dinner.

Her dress was lighter now, soft and comfortable rather than formal, though naturally Lily somehow managed to make comfortable look suspiciously pretty. The neckline rested delicately against her skin, and the warm steam had already painted the faintest pink across her cheeks.