Am I The Villain?

10. Bath Time!

"Fuaah~" I let out a sigh of relief.

My tired body is now submerged in decently hot water. Steam rises from the surface and condensate themselves on the wall like morning dew. I gently wipe and massage my skin.

It took quite some time to convince that damn butler that I can clean myself. He keep insisting to join in and help me wash as it is "his duty as a servant". But that's just unacceptable. After I both literally and figuratively kicked him out of the bath, he said to just shout his name when I need help. His name was something like Norn or Norm, something like that. I didn't care enough to pay attention.

The bath itself is massive. It's a swimming pool!

No, that's exaggerating. It's more like a public bath. Like a Japanese onsen. Or rather, considering the setting of this world, one of those ancient greek public bath. Only with a massive ceiling, and also very deep.

What seems to be ceramic tiles cover the ground and wall. The obnoxiously high ceiling was tall enough to create artificial clouds. Calm reflexive water fills the massive pools with steam rising up. On the edges of the pool, majestic statues of exquisite beasts stand tall every so often. From the mouth of these statues, hot water flows out into the pools.

I'm only inside one of the smaller pool, though. Looks like this one was designed for human. The depth is just tall enough that I could fully submerge myself if I sit down and slouch my back. The larger pool is easily deeper than 5 meters. I wonder where they got this much hot water...

You know what? It's probably magic.

I shut out everything in the world, released my exoskeleton suit and just relaxed my body. I'm still sealing in my mana, though.

By the way, I've decided to rename the clouds into mana. It seems to be the correct term for it. 

There's still this one sensation I'm feeling though. It appeared after my meeting with Yorheim. I can sense everything in this palace. I can feel every living creature in here. I can see every room, used or not. I can move the hallways and teleport anything within the palace wherever I please. This must be what he meant when he said he's giving this palace to me.

This palace is not mine though. Lana, or rather, her family owns it. I'm not gonna just take it from them. Don't get me wrong, I'll still use this place. There are some vacant rooms that looks like nobody have ever visited before. Actually, 9 out of 10 room in this palace is not used. This place is even larger than it looks. I think I could live here for a while.

There are some interesting places in this palace.

The first one is the throne room where Yorheim died. I don't know why, but I can feel a deep connection to that room. Almost like a part of my soul is left behind in that room. The feel of the throne room is exactly like how the river bank where I woke up felt like. I can't exactly put it to words. It's indescribable. 

I do have some idea on what's going on. I think it's a checkpoint.

I'm not going to test it, but I believe when I die once again I would revive in the throne room instead of the river bank. I'm not planning on dying anytime soon, though.

The other room is a treasure room. The reason I said it's interesting is not because it's filled with mountains of gold and objects filled with mana. Instead, it's interesting because I've notice that there is no way to get into it. The hallways will never redirect themselves to the treasure room. In fact, there is no door to the room in the first place. Only the person who has full control of the palace, Yorheim and I, can enter it.

Like I said, inside the room is mountains of gold and what I assume to be magical artifacts. I'll visit it later.

Looking at it, there are many people in this palace. Military soldiers are training in the courtyard. A lot of people are gathering in rooms, writing on desks. There are even some people dressed in shabby clothing talking to other more sharply dressed people sitting behind desks. Must be some kind of receptionists.