It appears that the longer I wait before getting into a bath the more her suspicion bar increases. I walk by a few baths, dipping my toes in each. Certainly, that can't be that strange of behavior. What if the temperature is off one day? You never know when your body will crave a certain temperature. I look back at Poppy and see that she does not share my ideas and perspective on this.

"Seriously, what are you waiting for. And what are you doing dipping your toes in? Get. In. The. Bath!" she shouts and shoves me into one of the baths. As I am scrambling, trying to get my feet beneath me she doesn't give me a chance. She gets into the bath on top of me and shoves on my head with one of her feet, her other foot is standing on my back. I am effectively trapped. To make matters worse, the bath temperature is uncomfortably hot. If I am to drown, can't I at least drown in a bath of a comfortable temperature?

Obviously, I am not thinking clearly as the air bubbles out of my lips. I didn't even have time to take a deep breath before I was shoved down in the bath. While down here I wonder to myself why Poppy is acting like this. This can't be normal. If she had this bad of anger issues, there wouldn't be an Aria in this story as she would have died already.

I try to scratch at Poppy's legs, and I see that I do scratch her deeply as there is a little cloud of blood surrounding her legs. This causes her to slam down on my head multiple times. I try to block my head, but my vision is blurry, and I can't move my body very well anymore. I feel so sleepy. I decide that I should stop fighting. Either I will go back to my world, or re-spawn at the checkpoint. I shouldn't be afraid.

Who isn't afraid to die though, even if they have died before? It isn't like you can really get used to the experience. Or can you? I hope that I don't find out the answer to that particular question, as I don't believe I will like it very much. I open my mouth and breathe. It isn't completely my choice at this point. My body demands oxygen so much that no matter how I fight it, thinking in the back of my mind there might be a way to fight against Poppy, I know I have lost.

My world goes black, and I see what looks like a screen pop up. Death by Drowning is written across it. Thanks screen, I know that I died by drowning. I know this because I had to experience it! And it was unpleasant! I can't decide if it was more or less unpleasant than being stabbed to death. The fact that those two things have happened so closely together for me that I can compare them disturbs me.

"Alias, are you around? I died again. I think we should talk." I say.

"You died again already? That makes me wish that I could set up a tutorial day for you. Have you practice being Aria."

"You are the god of this world, why can't you do that?"

"Because I don't control all the people living in this world. They are all corrupted and beyond my control. I am hoping that by having you in this world those you interact with will become people again, and not just creatures prone to snapping and murdering you."

"Why are they so comfortable with, and willing to kill me? That doesn't make sense. And what do you mean by corrupted?"

"Their personalities were corrupted. The god before me got tired of this world and decided to do his best to destroy it. When it didn't fully work, he handed the world off to me."

"So you didn't create this world."

"I did not." he replies.

"It's creator abandoned this world." I state, confirming his words.

"He did." he confirms.

"And you brought me here to help fix this world by bringing people back to themselves?" I ask.

"Seems you got the gist of it. I guess you didn't really need a tutorial at all!"

"No. This is garbage! Why me? I am not special! I am not blessed, or particularly smart!" I shout.

"You are special because you care about this world and its people. If you didn't then you wouldn't be trying so hard to find the hidden route. And take back you not being particularly smart. Now that I have brought you into my world, I know all about you. And what happened, it wasn't your fault."

"We are not talking about that right now." I tell him, my voice going cold. I wasn't in that world anymore, not in that life. And if he could bring Snowy here, then I wouldn't even care if I never went back to it at all. Even though I was constantly dying here.

He stares at me quietly for a moment. "Okay. I won't bring it up right now. After a number of deaths, you may change your mind and need a longer break. And I shall give it to you. Maybe. Depends on if I can or not. I honestly don't know the limits of my own power. Oh well!"

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

His oh well was a little too chipper for this situation.

"How am I supposed to bring back people's original personalities?" I ask. This really seems like something that I need to know.

"Raise their affection meters." he says as though that should be the most obvious thing in the world. It is not the most obvious thing in the world, though I was wondering what the affection bar was for.

"Well, back to it!" he says.

"Wait! Which bath do I choose? If I don't know then I will end up right back here!"

"Hmm. I suppose you are right about that. Can't have you die again immediately after all. Very well. Aria likes the bath in the back left corner. She says that it makes her feel safe because it is out of the way and the perfect temperature. The servants make sure that out of all the baths in the room, that one if kept at that exact temperature."

"Why have the other baths at all then?"

"The different maids and servants also use those baths and like them at different temperatures. Aria threw a fit one day about making sure that they always have the ability to have an enjoyable bath." he tells me.

It is beginning to sounds as though Aria does care for some people. If she has a heart than why does everyone hate her so much? Why does she bully others when she seems to genuinely care for others? Something isn't adding up.

"Try to stay alive for more than an hour!" I hear Alias say to me as he gently touches my back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well Aria, what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to get in the bath?" Poppy asks. I reply before her suspicion bar is able to increase.

"Of course I am getting in. I just wanted to pause for a moment to breathe in the smell of the baths. The flowers floating on top of some of them smell extra lovely today for some reason." After saying that, I walk over to the bath that Alias had pointed out to me and slip into it.

It seems that Aria and I have the same taste in baths as it is the perfect temperature. I feel all of my muscles relaxing and it feels as though my stress is slowly melting away. Poppy gets into a bath in the middle of the room. I was a bit grateful that she didn't get into the bath next to me. I haven't had a moment to myself to sort through everything that has been happening.

I think back to the conversation that I just had with Alias and how he did not tell me that I was special. I guess it is nice that he didn't lie to me. What he did say was the way that I care about the people of this world is special. How does he get me caring about the people from my determination to want to find the hidden route? Maybe he grabbed me by accident and needed a reason to justify why? I don't know, this is all too far beyond me.

I sink down into the water and let me hair splay around me. I glance over at Poppy to see if the suspicion bar had increased. Luckily it hadn't. I don't want to be killed because I am bathing wrong. How annoying would that be.

"Oops, in our hurry to get over here I forgot the scrubs for our hair and skin. How silly of me!" she shouts, then races out of the baths. How odd. Is there a reason she forgot them, or did she actually just forget them. Is there some handsome guy she works with whose eye she is wanting to catch? Honestly, I don't quite understand Poppy.

I close my eyes and feel myself slip into a memory.

"Why do you always bathe in the same order each time?" Poppy asks me.

"Because I like to. I like to wash my hair first because then I can bundle it up and not get any of the body scrubs in it. They are great on my body but not in my hair. And you know how I am about my hair."

"That I do. And you have such lovely hair that I don't blame you for such behaviors." Poppy says. I don't need Poppy to agree with the order in which I do things, but Poppy seems to like to comment on everything.

"Then I shave and wash my body. This is the order that makes the most sense. Then I go over to the small bath that no one uses and wash my face. I like feeling that my face is glowing before we leave."

I feel grateful for the memory. I wonder if Alias somehow was able to send it to me so that I wouldn't die again. Drowning was not a good experience and I would very much like to not have to experience it again. Ever.

While Poppy is still away, I let my mind continue to wander. Back to my old life. Was I ever going to return there? Was time paused? Did someone stalk me and feed Sugar? She really is the sweetest bunny. I remember the day that I first got her.

It was a cold day out and I was taking a walk. I had been crying a lot and the tears were freezing to my face. I had gotten too cold and stopped into the nearest open store. It just happened to be an animal store. I walked around and used the sights of all of the sweet animals to soothe the hurt that was burning inside of me. The betrayal and violation I felt.

You know what won't violate you? Animals. They will be kind and sweet natured if you raise them with kindness and love. There was nothing in my lease that said I couldn't have a pet. Maybe it would be a good idea to get one? I didn't have anything set up for an animal though.

This pet store didn't have any dogs or cats, but I was okay with that. If they weren't there, then I wasn't meant to get one. Obviously. I enjoy letting fate dictate things in my life. Maybe this would be one of those things to let it decide?

I walk up and down the aisles and look over at all the various critters contained within the cages. Hamsters, chinchillas, ferrets. None of them felt right. Then I saw her. Sitting alone in a large cage. A small, white bunny. She looked so tiny in the enclosure that I am sure was meant to contain a littler of bunnies. Why was she left behind?

As I stared at her an employee came over to me and asked if I wanted to hold her. Of course I did!

"Yes please." I told them and they took her out of the cage and put her into my arms. They guided me on the correct way to hold her. Holding that sweet little bunny in my arms made all of my problems melt away. I knew that I would be bringing her home with me.

I call a Smoober and had them pick me up. While they were on their way over I had the store employee help me get together everything I would need.

I wonder if Alias will send her to this world if I bring everyone back to themselves, or will he send me home? Either way Snowy is the only thing I miss about that life. There are so many things that I had to give up, things that were out of my control. My career, my school, my aspirations. Sugar was one of the few things in my life that I got to choose.

Poppy comes back into the room and brings my bottles over to me. I close my eyes for just a brief moment to remember what color bottle was what.

"Thank you Poppy. Did you remember to bring my hair towel?"

"Of course I did. I haven't forgotten it in weeks!" she sets it down alongside of the bottles.

'Yes. You do take rather good care of me don't you." I tell her, and add to myself 'when you aren't killing me'. I see her affection bar rise. It seems that she likes to be praised. I will have to remember this, although I feel praising her too often would be in bad taste and make her suspicious of me.

"Would you like me to wash your hair?" she asks me.

"No thank you. But you can style it if you wish." I tell her.

"Oh! You are going to let me style it? You said that you are going to go walk around town today. Is there anyone in particular that has caught your eye? Anyone you are planning to make and use a love potion on?"

"Of course I haven't fallen for anyone. You know that I would tell you first. I just want you to do my hair as I like the way you style it. You are ever so skilled at it." Again I see her affection bar rise. Why does it have to raise so slowly?

"Now then." I tell her. "I would like to wash myself."

"Of course. I should go do the same."

And with that we both stick to our individual baths and scrub and wash and rinse. The smells from the scrubs are rather wonderful. Mine smell like jasmine and roses. I look in the bottle and see that there are crushed up flowers in it. How interesting. No wonder they smells so good.