Glenn rubbed his reddened cheek, grimacing as he felt the stinging hand imprint. Steam enveloped the dimly lit bathhouse, shrouding the ceiling in hazy obscurity as he lay in the warm water. A sigh escaped his lips, and he shook his head in incomprehension.

"Why did no one tell me these were shared baths?" He muttered through his clenched teeth.

"Why would they bother separating males and females, though? That would be boring," Diamanes mocked Glenn, enjoying the bath himself. Glenn had taken the bandages covering his left, purple hand off, trusting the steam to hide the presence of this annoying parasite.

Glenn's mind drifted back to the encounter with the woman who had entered the bath earlier, her presence as fleeting as her sudden appearance. Though he hadn't seen much through the steam, he could tell she was exceptionally beautiful, not to mention her, um, "consequential attributes."

He chuckled dejectedly while glancing at his left hand. He thought back to that beautiful, mint-smelling stranger, and shook his head with a wry smile.

‘...I don’t think I’ll ever be able to enjoy privacy with someone else, not with Diamanes living in my left hand…’ He sighed as he leaned back in the water. The thought of a romantic adventure with a mysterious, hot woman had certainly crossed his mind, but it wasn’t worth it. His main goal was still to find a way back to Earth, after all. He couldn’t afford to create that kind of relationship.

It would be too cruel for the other party…

“...Falling in love and entangling one’s fate with another will only invariably end up in tears and pain,” Diamanes said with a sarcastically, yet poetic tone, “...Time is much better invested trying to reach the Third Circle, after all.”

Glenn snorted and clenched his left hand shut.

“Of course, you had to bring that up…” He drew a deep breath before sinking deeper into the soothing bathwater, completely submerging his head to cleanse his hair thoroughly. After another fifteen minutes of relaxation, he reluctantly emerged from the bath. His clothes, still as stained and tattered as when he left them earlier, were lying in a locker nearby.

Glenn grimaced and only dressed in his pants and boots, as those were still kind of usable. He looked at the blood-stained black coat and clicked his tongue.

“...No way I’m putting this thing on again,” He decided, enjoying the scent of cleanliness coming off him. Still, he glanced at the ruined coat reluctantly.

‘Why can’t I just fix and clean them up with magic…?’ Glenn thought as he took the clothes to a nearby trash can. He suddenly paused and looked at the black coat.

“Wait.” Glenn blinked, “....Why don’t I try doing just that? Maybe I can fix the coat.”

He tossed the coat onto a nearby table inside the changing room. The other Fixers came and went, paying little attention to his activities. With a glance, he made sure that Diamanes was well hidden under the bandages on his left hand, away from prying eyes in the steam. Glenn moistened his lips and put his hair back in place, looking at the coat with a puzzled expression.

“...How the hell am I supposed to do that, though?” He muttered. Mana was a tool that made the impossible possible. Could he just…ask the Mana to clean up the clothes? How? He couldn’t talk to the Mana, it wasn’t a living being, after all.

…Or was it? Glenn shook these thoughts off; he wasn’t ready to think about such perplexing, philosophical subjects.

“First, let’s try cleaning them up…” He said softly as deep blue Mana twirled around his hands. He envisioned the spell, as Redan taught him. The first step would be to identify and separate what was considered filth, and what wasn’t. The second would be to make these impurities disappear.

It was just a bit harder than he expected. Creating a spell from an understandable concept was pretty easy, like for his Magic Bullet or Arcane Auger. He just had to imagine each of these and manipulate the Mana accordingly. But if he just willed for the Mana to simply 'clean' the clothes, he had a feeling that it would work a little too well, and the garments would disappear completely, along with all the dirt and blood on them.

Receiving one too many weird stares, he decided to pack up the coat and head into his room. Walking with only pants and boots on felt a bit weird, but he didn't care anymore about these kinds of things.

“...And it’s not like I’m ugly,” Glenn chuckled in satisfaction as he glanced down at his chiseled abs.

'Pervert,' Diamanes chimed in with a disdainful, yet sarcastic tone.

Glenn ignored the entity as he entered his room and laid the damaged clothes on the floor. These garments held sentimental value, being the first to make him feel like an actual human instead of a...well, dead soldier. He did steal them from a dead guy, technically, but he didn’t rip them directly from his corpse. May Jefferson Howard rest in peace. Glenn slapped his cheeks and concentrated back on the subject at hand.

"Whatever, I'll just take it as improving my understanding and control of Mana." He muttered as he gave up on making sure the clothes would survive the spell. It wasn’t like they were worth anything at the moment anyway.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He deliberated the details of this new spell for nearly an hour, his room became his makeshift laboratory. Each element of the spell had to be considered carefully to avoid destructive mishaps, even though he was almost certain it wouldn’t work.

Finally, with his theory in place, Glenn decided it was time to put it into practice. He looked down at the blood-stained black coat and gathered his focus. He conjured the spell, vividly picturing each step in his mind and directing the Mana to obey his will. At first, it seemed to work perfectly. A shadowy cloud enveloped the coat, consuming the bloodstains and filth.

However, the moment the final impurities vanished, the coat’s fabric dissolved and melted away, devoured by the Mana.

Glenn rubbed his temples, grappling with a growing headache.

“...This is a little disappointing,” He sighed in frustration. Crafting a functional cleaning spell was proving to be more challenging than he had anticipated. He cast one last despondent glance at the spot his coat was previously, before heaving another sigh of disappointment.

‘...You know, I did notice a few Fixers going around shirtless. Even though you don’t have the same massive muscles as they did, it should still be fine, right?’ Diamanes laughed as he proposed a solution. Glenn bit on his lips before smacking them.

“I don’t think I have a choice anyway…” Glenn steeled himself and stood up. He wanted to go check the Library out, and that’s exactly what he was going to do. He had the afternoon free, and he wasn't going to take a contract while looking like some sort of barbarian. He chose to use the opportunity to fill up his knowledge blanks, and perhaps look for books on magic.

…Yeah, books on magic would be nice, even more, if they could help him get his Third Circle. THe sooner he was done with that, the sooner Diamanes will shut up about it.

Glenn left his room only to find himself face to face with his neighbor, who had similarly just emerged from her room. She wore a white, hooded robe that concealed her figure, the hood drawn low over her deep, marine blue eyes and raven-black hair.

No, this can't be a coincidence anymore.' Glenn almost blurted out loud, incredulous.

'Oh oh, maybe Fate pulled you together, seeing how often you cross her path,' Diamanes quipped mockingly within Glenn's mind.

The woman stared at Glenn defiantly, and he returned her stare with the same intensity. An awkward silence hung between them for a few seconds before the woman wordlessly retreated into her room, closing the door behind her.

Puzzled, Glenn lingered for a moment before heading to the Library.

'Talk about some weird moments.'

Diamanes snickered in Glenn's mind, offering no further commentary.

After walking for a few minutes, he arrived in front of the Library. He entered with assured steps, trying not to show how awkward he felt. He arrived in front of the counter, where a seemingly bored man was playing with a pen.

"Excuse me, where can I find the history section?" Glenn asked politely.

The librarian pointed in a rather lackluster manner toward one side of the library, sparing no energy on additional words. Glenn nodded awkwardly in thanks before proceeding to the indicated section. The word 'History' was prominently displayed on the bookshelf, housing an extensive collection of books.

The bookshelf towered at least five meters high, highlighting the Library's extravagant scale. Glenn gazed upward, noticing a skylight in the glass ceiling, which bathed the counter and adjacent floors in natural light.

Shaking his head in disbelief at the opulence of the Cleaner's Workshop, Glenn looked at the shelves in search of a compelling title. Something peculiar soon caught his attention—a majority of the books were authored by someone named Exan. Intrigued, he selected a few of Exan's works.

Among them were "Munirp and its Legends," "Magiconomicon, 7th Edition," and "Studies of Munirp's Populations, 4th Edition." These hefty tomes promised to fill the gaps in his knowledge. Choosing an unoccupied desk, Glenn made himself comfortable, opting to begin with "Munirp and its Legends", as it was the smallest one comparatively.

The moment he opened the book, Glenn’s jaw dropped and his heart missed a beat. There, written in bold black ink on pristine white paper, was a phrase in a familiar language—English. It was not the Common Tongue of this world that he automatically understood thanks to some mysterious reason, but genuine English.

'Wait, what? You're not the only Fallen One in this world? What a surprise,' Diamanes mocked Glenn's astonishment with a hint of sarcasm.

Glenn ignored the entity as he began reading the first lines, "It has now been exactly fifty years since I found myself stranded in this world. I've tried everything. I've forgotten most of the English I knew and need my previous books to help myself with this damned language. Common Tongue is so much simpler now… I thought I was stronger and more special than the rest, and that I would be able to do everything I wanted to. A young man’s dream of some sort…"

Glenn's eyes trembled with bewilderment as he continued reading, his face paling with each word.

“No…” He muttered in disbelief and horror.

Written with a trembling, tired hand, that line was the nail in the coffin.

"There's no hope. I can't go back. No one can."

Glenn turned the page, disappointed to find the rest of the text in the Common Tongue. He glanced at the other books and hastily opened the "Magiconomicon, 7th Edition." Once again, he encountered a line in English.

"Well, it's been forty-five years now. I wonder if writing all this bullshit in English serves a purpose. Hah! Those stupid nobles think I've hidden some kind of treasure in these texts since I'm putting one at the beginning of each book. But no, it's just my place to vent, haha. I think I'm going mad. BUT! There is still hope. I can still try and access this place. I'm way stronger now. I'll keep you updated, dear readers."

The line ceased abruptly. Glenn rubbed his eyes, struggling to comprehend the revelation before him. There was another person like him in this world—well, at least there had been. Glenn did not know the book's age or whether 'Exan' was still alive. Regardless, he couldn't help but hope for the latter.

He turned his attention to the third book, the "4th Edition of Munirp's Populations." Once again, a few lines in English graced the first page.

"Well, what's to say? Sixty years. I also celebrated my seventy-fifth birthday three months ago. I never thought things would go so fast. Luna helped a lot. The fact that I gave up that time also helped a lot. This was only a fool's enterprise. Anyway, I'm happy now. I have a life. Everything is well."

Glenn closed the book, leaning back in his chair as he swallowed audibly.

“That guy…” He muttered as he buried his face in his hands, “...That guy spent sixty years in this world, and still couldn’t find a way back? Shit…”

What was he supposed to do now?