I Picked Up the Greatest Villain in the Story

3.

“How is it? Doesn’t your hair smell nice now?”

Jian squeezed the water out of his hair with a towel and subtly offered his crown to the child. A soft and sweet coconut scent wafted gently.

The child smelled strongly of sewer waste. Especially the smell coming from the matted hair full of dust was so pungent it stung the nose, and couldn’t be described as pleasant by any means.

Even if one had become desensitized to smells, they should still be able to distinguish between good and unpleasant odors.

If the child refused even after this, Jian had no intention of forcing them to wash. He was simply doing his best for the child’s health.

“Would you like to try it yourself?”

He thought it would be better for the child to do it themselves rather than having him touch them. He casually handed over the shower head with water trickling out.

The child blinked a few times before grasping the shower head with maple leaf-like hands. Then, just as Jian had done, they held the part where the water flowed to their crown.

The water wetting their hair covered their face as well. It was fine now since it wasn’t soapy water, but it would surely sting their eyes if they washed like this after lathering up, so Jian explained the method.

“Tilt your head back slightly so water doesn’t get in your eyes.”

There was also the method of bowing the head as Jian had done, but thinking it might be difficult for a young child, he mimicked tilting his head back.

Like a decalcomania, the child tilted their head back and lost balance. Startled, Jian quickly slipped his arm between the child and the bathtub.

Thanks to this, instead of hitting the hard bathtub, the child fell into Jian’s arms. Contrary to his expectation that they would immediately get up, disliking being touched on the head, the child comfortably rested their neck on Jian’s arm.

The eyes looking up from below shone pitch black. They were swollen now, but Jian had a feeling they would be incredibly cute once the swelling subsided.

“I’ll support you with my arm like this. Try to lather up and scrub.”

Jian stretched out his right arm to grab the shampoo bottle. When he gestured with his hand, the child hesitated before extending both hands.

Snow-white shampoo liquid pooled in the tiny palms. After repeatedly clenching and unclenching their fists for a moment, the child brought their slightly lathered palms to their crown.

Jian bit his lip at the sight of the two hands placed on the head like a bee landing. He had always been weak for cute things.

To the extent that his only joys in his harsh life were reading novels and looking for cute videos.

The child was trying their best in their own way, but the lather was forming slowly.

The area being scrubbed was also limited to around the crown, and it seemed like it would take dozens of repetitions to wash away all the dust caked in layers on the hair.

“May I help you?”

Even as he spoke, Jian tensed all his muscles, worried the child might struggle again. He didn’t mind getting hurt himself, but he was anxious about the child bumping into something.

The child just blinked their eyes silently at Jian’s offer. Then they sat up and rubbed their lathered crown against Jian’s arm.

Judging from their earlier screams, it seemed they could make sounds, but the child acted as if they couldn’t speak. Jian’s lips curved up slightly at this wordless language of permission.

He felt proud that the child seemed to be opening up to him little by little.

With a touch as soft as a feather landing, he rubbed the child’s crown. Unlike before, the child quietly entrusted their head to him and stared up at Jian’s concentrated face.

Jian focused so intently that sweat beaded on the bridge of his nose as he washed the child’s scalp and hair with lather.

The child’s expression gradually became dreamy. Just looking at their face, he could tell. That they were feeling extremely refreshed.

One time wasn’t enough, so he added shampoo and lathered up again, intermittently spraying water on the hair.

When he pushed back the hair covering the face behind the forehead, a small face was fully revealed.

The eyes were swollen with dark bruises, and one cheek was puffed up like a lump, but it couldn’t completely hide the delicate features.

‘Where on earth would anyone hit a child like this?’

Jian’s brow furrowed deeply. He should have pulverized that person’s face too.

There are many devilish people in the world you shouldn’t associate with, but among them, Jian considered those who abused and used violence against helpless and weak children to be the worst.

Now he felt a throbbing pain in one of his perfectly fine arms. When Jian was five years old, he too had been severely beaten by his uncle, twisting one of his arms.

Due to not receiving proper treatment, even as an adult, explicit traces of abuse remained on his arm, causing him to often wear long sleeves even in summer.

‘I should buy a wound healing potion.’

Despite the high cost of living and the threat of monsters, there were many good points compared to the previous world.

A prime example was that people’s living standards had risen several levels due to various by-products from dungeons. Among them, wound healing potions were one of the items people rated as the best.

Although a bottle half the size of a palm cost a million won, most internal and external injuries disappeared without a trace when using the potion.

It was too heartbreaking to just watch and wait for the child’s wounds to heal naturally.

“It feels really refreshing, right? Now I’ll rinse off the lather.”

Once the rich lather sufficiently covered the hair, Jian reached out one arm to grab the shower hose. The child’s dreamy gaze sharpened.

“Close your eyes in case the soap gets in, okay?”

Jian whispered in a gentle voice, making eye contact with the child. The child blinked a few times before obediently closing their eyes. Lukewarm water streams wet the child’s hair and crown.

Jian’s clothes got wet too. It was now meaningless to distinguish which of the two had taken a shower.

Even though he looked like a drowned rat, seeing the child gradually getting cleaner filled his face with a smile.

After rinsing off all the lather, he carefully applied conditioner and washed it off once more. When he brought a towel to dry off the moisture, the child smelled the same as him.

Finding it fascinating, the child grabbed their own hair, brought it close to their nose, and sniffed it repeatedly.

While the child played with their hair, Jian dissolved body wash in the water that had filled the bathtub and created lather.

He also brought a round shower ball and squeezed some solution onto it. By now, the child had stretched out both legs and was making an intrigued expression, trying to catch the white cloud-like foam with their hands.

“Now, let’s use this to scrub your arms, legs, and belly.”

Jian handed the shower ball to the child. Seeing their questioning look, Jian demonstrated by rubbing the shower ball against his own arm.

The child began to awkwardly wash their body using the shower ball. Watching the small hand firmly grasp the shower ball and move diligently just made Jian feel proud.

The bath finally ended after quite some time. After wrapping the child in a towel and sending them out to the living room, Jian quickly showered as well.

Worried about leaving the child alone, he came out wearing just a shower robe and saw the child crouched right in front of the door. He had left them sitting on the sofa, but when had they come back here?

“I should have come out sooner. Come here.”

When he bent down and spread his arms, the child wrapped their arms around his neck. A small sigh escaped at the overly light weight.

He took the child to the bedroom and searched for lotion. Fortunately, he usually used an inexpensive but gentle product.

He sat the child on the bed and knelt in front of them. As he was about to apply lotion to their face, his fingertips shrank back from the skin bruised in various colors.

“Tell me if it hurts, okay?”

He was concerned about the expressionless face of a child who should be crying and wailing with such injuries. Being insensitive to pain meant that the child’s life had been riddled with violence so far.

He put some lotion on his hand and applied it to the child’s cheeks and forehead. Perhaps their wariness had eased during the bath, as the child accepted Jian’s touch without any particular resistance.

After the face, he applied lotion to their arms and legs, and felt an intense gaze on the back of his hand. The bloodstains had stopped, but scabs had formed along the wounds.

‘I should heal this too.’

In fact, this level of injury was nothing to Jian. But thinking that the child might feel guilty every time they saw these wounds, it seemed better to treat them.

“I’ll bring some clothes. Wait here for a moment.”

After applying all the lotion, he pulled over a blanket and wrapped it around the child’s body. There was no way he had children’s clothes in the house, but he intended to at least put the smallest t-shirt on them.

Various items they would need immediately came to mind. As he headed towards the room with the wardrobe, he heard a dragging sound.