Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Hold on!
I blinked, doubting my own ears.
“…Huh?”
What did she just say?
“No, wait a second.”
I told you two to stop heating water separately and wash together. With Erica.
So why on earth did you think you’d be going in with me?
“Uh, uhh…? Ca, Camelia? What are you talking about?”
My voice cracked in the most pathetic way.
Startled, I staggered backward and nearly slammed my waist into the edge of the table.
“No, I mean—! I still have things to sort out, and I need to check the ledger! R-right! Erica! You can just wash with Erica!”
Trying not to hurt her after she had clearly gathered a great deal of courage, I fumbled out excuse after excuse.
Camelia fiddled with the edge of her towel, lowering her gaze to the floor. Her pale shoulders trembled.
“B-but…”
She spoke in a small, shrinking voice.
“Erica… fell asleep right after dinner. She said she was tired from guarding the house today…”
“W-what? That brat is already asleep?!”
“Yes… And the water… it’s already heated to just the right temperature…”
She glanced up at me with reddened eyes.
Drops of water slid down from her damp platinum hair, tracing along her collarbone.
“Y-you said… heating water costs a lot. It would be a waste for me to use it alone. So…”
Those eyes.
Embarrassed to the extreme, yet stubbornly trying not to look away.
Gulp.
My throat moved on its own.
Something that had been sleeping inside me began whispering in my ear.
“Hey, you’re the one who said it, right? You should follow through.”
“What’s the big deal? People living under the same roof saving water by bathing together?”
“It’s rational. Efficient!”
But I clenched my lips and shook my head hard.
“Get a grip, you idiot!”
A young man and woman, both in their prime, entering a cramped bathroom together naked?
No matter what, something would happen.
I prided myself on not being a beast ruled by instinct, but I couldn’t trust myself completely.
If something did happen in there…
…
I’m an investor. The one running this household.
If I laid a hand on my precious top-tier blue chip, all the trust I’ve built would shatter in an instant, not to mention any chance of proper emotional management.
If you get blinded by small gains, you lose something bigger.
“Cough!”
Suppressing the turmoil boiling inside me, I forced on a stern expression and cleared my throat.
“Ca, Camelia. Today is… the first day we’re trying to save money. I dropped that on you too suddenly, so it’s only fair you wash comfortably on your own today.”
“Ah…”
“From tomorrow, I’ll make sure to wake Erica up, so just wash alone today. Don’t worry about the cost tonight. Use as much water as you need.”
A firm refusal.
But instead of nodding obediently, Camelia’s expression stiffened.
The redness drained from her face in an instant, turning pale. Her gaze trembled, lost.
“Um… Nasus.”
“Yeah?”
“Could it be…”
Her thin lips trembled.
Curling in on herself like someone who had committed a terrible sin, she clutched the towel tighter around her body.
“Could it be… that you don’t like me?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? Why would I dislike you?”
“B-but…”
The emotions welling in her eyes quietly collapsed.
“My body… is covered in scars… It’s ugly… So… maybe bathing with me is unpleasant for you…”
Wait, what?!
How did that conclusion come out of this?
The trauma from the torture and abuse she suffered in the past.
She had twisted my refusal into something caused by her “unsightly body.”
“Camelia! I’ve never once thought your body was—”
Just as I hurriedly waved my hands to explain—
Flash!
My vision shattered.
“—Ugh!”
The warm steam of the bathroom, the tearful Camelia before me—everything vanished in an instant.
And what spread before my eyes was hell.
A gray sky wept blood.
Crumbled walls, a city in flames.
At the center of the ruins—
“Camelia…?”
She floated in the air.
Not the sacred, noble archmage I had seen in my first vision.
Her platinum hair was tangled with blood and ash, engulfed in a vortex of pitch-black mana.
Screeeeeech—!!
Dozens of massive beasts lunged at her.
Camelia didn’t move a single inch.
Boom—!!
A crimson beam erupted from her fingertips, splitting the earth.
The beasts exploded into chunks of flesh.
At the same time, dozens of innocent people caught in the aftermath were erased without even being able to scream.
“Aaaaah! Save me!”
“M-monster!!”
Screams filled the air.
But in Camelia’s eyes—
There was nothing.
No sorrow.
No anger.
No mercy.
Only an endless abyss.
Indiscriminate slaughter.
Magic that crushed and destroyed everything alive.
“That’s…”
As I stood frozen in shock—
Camelia’s empty gaze slowly turned toward me.
And then—
Her blood-stained lips twisted into a cold smile.
“Gasp—!!”
I sucked in a sharp breath as my vision snapped back.
The horrific afterimage of slaughter drained away like a receding tide.
The suffocating dread faded, replaced by the familiar sight of our shabby ceiling.
And—
“Nasus? Are you alright? You suddenly screamed and collapsed…”
Right in front of me, Camelia looked down with worried eyes.
“What… was that…?”
The vision I had just seen.
Camelia drenched in blood, tearing apart beasts and people like a puppet devoid of emotion.
That gentle, kind girl becoming something like that?
Cold sweat ran down my spine as I stared at her blankly.
…
But the heavy swirl of confusion and dread didn’t last long.
Slide.
“Huh?!”
As she rushed toward me in concern, her body leaning forward—
The knot of her thin towel came undone.
The cloth, barely clinging to her form, surrendered to gravity and slipped down.
The forbidden area hidden beneath revealed itself, bold and unguarded, invading my vision.
“—!!!”
The horrific vision from before was already gone, replaced by something else entirely.
“Camelia, your towel! Your towel!!”
“Huh? My towel— ah.”
Her eyes dropped to her chest.
Then widened to their limit.
“U-ueeh?!”
With a dazed scream, her face turned crimson all the way to the tips of her hair.
Steam practically rose from her head.
“Kyahhh! D-d-don’t look!!”
She snatched the towel back up and wrapped herself tightly, then scrambled backward like a startled hamster.
Bang!!
The bathroom door slammed shut with a loud crash.
“……”
Left alone, I stared blankly at the closed door.
From inside came her muffled whining, along with frantic splashing.
But seriously…
Just moments ago, she was blushing and insisting we bathe together to save money.
And now, just because her towel slipped a little, she ran like the world ended?
Something’s… something’s off here…
“Well… asking to bathe together must’ve taken a lot of courage for her.”
I slowly sank to the floor and rubbed my face.
As the noise faded, cold reason crept back in.
“That vision…”
The third fragment of the future I had seen.
The first— a noble archmage who saved the world.
The second— a simple, happy housewife in a countryside home.
And the third—
An indiscriminate force of destruction.
A broken weapon that annihilated beasts and people alike.
“Why does her future keep changing like a stock graph swinging wildly with every major event?”
“Is it branching whenever something triggers the trauma carved deep inside her?”
I didn’t know yet.
But one thing was certain.
If I let go of her hand—
That vision might become reality.
No, forget the end of the world…
“That’s bad for business.”
A berserk archmage that destroys friend and foe alike?
That doesn’t sell.
I’m not letting my heavily invested asset turn into worthless trash.
…
So what do I need to do for Camelia?
Well, she clearly hates showing her scars to others.
Then the answer’s simple.
I just need to work harder and earn more money—
So she can always bathe alone comfortably.
…
Phew.
Good thing I didn’t go into that bathroom.