Leonel willed himself to calm down and he entered his own room, leaving Aina to herself.
Now that he thought about it, he really had left her alone for quite a while. It made sense that she would find something to do. Who knew when the last time she had a time to relax was?
Leonel couldn’t help but smile.
Back in the Joan Zone, Aina never needed to bathe due to her military-type uniform. Its self-cleaning function made sure she wouldn’t need to worry about it. So, this was the first time Leonel had experienced this sort of feeling.
What started as him forcefully suppressing the lewd thoughts of a young man became him appreciating the sound of the moving water in a silent but sweet peace. It had become less about the fact Aina was washing herself and more about that she trusted him enough to do so.
Maybe he was just overthinking it. There was always a chance that he was. But, the thought still brought him peace of mind.
“Oh… You’re back, I hope you don’t mind I…”
Aina’s voice woke Leonel from his odd peaceful state.
He looked up toward her and smiled. The slight embarrassment on Aina’s face made his smile somewhat brighter. He could see that she hadn’t really thought about it before choosing to bathe here. Knowing Aina, if she had thought it through, she wouldn’t feel embarrassed in the slightest.
That realization only made him happier. It was like an unconditional trust even she wasn’t aware she had for him.
Leonel’s brows raised as he stood from his bed and walked to the door he had left open.
“The swelling, it’s gone down. Were the waters helpful to you?”
Leonel realized this immediately. Before, the swelling and inflammation of Aina’s scars was quite bad. It was to the point that it seemed they might burst with a foul liquid at any moment. In fact, he could hardly see the features of her real face because of this.
What Leonel didn’t know was that this always happened after Aina used the effect of the curse to help her training. The impact was even more exaggerated after she ingested the Fifth Dimensional Abyss Panther blood.
Usually, it would take months for the swelling to eventually die down. But, this time, it didn’t seem to want to go away at all and left her in a perpetual state of pain and itchiness. Surprisingly, though, the Cleansing Waters of the Segmented Cube’s Abode Setting quelled this swelling almost immediately.
Aina lowered her head, avoiding Leonel’s gaze.
“… Mm.”
Leonel didn’t mind this much at all. In fact, he was even happier that he could be of help.
“All of the water in the Segmented Cube comes out as Cleansing Waters, take as much as you want to bathe or drink.”
Aina’s eyes widened. “… I can’t do that, it’s too valuable.”
Leonel raised an eyebrow. “Is it? This Abode seems to make an endless supply of it.”
Aina was speechless toward Leonel’s ignorance.
She looked up with a glare Leonel was familiar with seeing. Usually, she only used this look when she was reprimanding him.
“Cleansing Waters are incredibly rare. It can only be produced by a person with a very special Innate Water Force Node. Even for such a person, it’s a hard task to form even a single cup of it. Other than that, it can only be produced naturally at the convergence of Seven Purities.”
Leonel blinked, not really understanding what much of that meant, especially the Seven Purities part. All he knew was that he used this water for everything from taking a bath to brushing his teeth to drinking a glass of water.
In fact, though he didn’t check for obvious reasons, he was pretty sure his toilet water was made of it too.
Leonel waved a hand. “Never mind that. Seriously, take as much as you want. There’s no need to suffer in silence when I’m here.”
Aina’s glare became somewhat vacant for a moment as though she was shocked to hear such words.
She stared blankly at Leonel, getting lost in her thoughts for a moment.
Leonel met her gaze as though trying to convey his meaning and determination through his eyes.
After the swelling lessened, Leonel could see the true structure of Aina’s face. He burned the image into his mind, not only because he was infatuated with her looks, but because this was the first time he was truly seeing the real her.
This was the woman, in all his madness, that he had sworn to hitch his life to.
Maybe to this day he still didn’t know the exact reason. But, didn’t they say that in this new world the future could influence the past? Leonel liked to believe that maybe he was less crazy than many believed and that an undying devotion his future self felt was what drove him now.
However, this only gave Leonel motivation. What shook him to his core was maybe if it wasn’t a future love that caused his current feelings, but a future regret…
What if he lost Aina in the future? What if the feelings of hurt, anger, and helplessness were so powerful that they pierced through the veil of reality and returned to his younger self, driving him to not repeat the same mistake again?
This was probably the first time Leonel even admitted these things to himself, but something was screaming to him that it wasn’t just love that drove him to this level of madness.
He had said it himself before, hate drove far more than love did. Negativity fueled more than positivity, evil disseminated far more than good.
For Leonel to feel this way, he knew that it wasn’t a simple matter of love.
Leonel reached a hand toward Aina’s face. The action shook her from her stupor. Her body involuntarily trembled as though wanting to take a step back. But, for some odd reason, her feet seem rooted in place.
Leonel smiled a somewhat sad smile. It carried a weight that was far beyond his years and an emotion that was far more complex than he was willing to feel. Seeing it, Aina felt as though she too had been thrust into an all new world, one she also wasn’t quite ready for.
Leonel’s hand brushed by Aina’s face and touched her flowing black hair.
A slight rush of Force surrounded the two and Aina, who had become completely lost in Leonel’s smile, barely registered the fact the air had grown much hotter all of a sudden.
In the blink of an eye, Aina’s wet hair became dry and Leonel retracted his hand.
“Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold, right?”
Leonel grinned, his normal childish look returning. Whatever weight his gaze once held vanished, making Aina’s knees feel somewhat weak. Out of her control, she fell forward only to be stopped by Leonel’s broad chest.
Leonel was stunned for a moment, but he didn’t let her escape like she wanted to.
His arms wrapped around her back, enveloping her small frame.
Aina froze for a long while. But in the end, her small hands gripped the sides of Leonel’s shirt.
A peaceful silence took hold of the Segmented Cube. As the clouds continued to rumble and Earth seemed to become ever more chaotic, the two seemed oblivious.