Charlie certainly had no idea that he had just received yet another 'good guy card'.
After leaving the bathroom, he stepped back into Mahiru's bedroom.
Of course, his return this time was not to do anything inappropriate at all, but rather to open the curtains of the large window that had been tightly shut since yesterday.
Charlie pulled the covering fabric to the side, letting the warm and bright morning sunlight pierce its way inside, driving out the gloomy atmosphere and the stuffy air that had temporarily settled in the room.
After tidying up the mattress bedsheet a bit, which looked rumpled, he walked out to the living room and seated himself on the sofa, preparing to wait for Mahiru to finish her shower.
While leaning back relaxedly, a flash of thought suddenly crossed Charlie's mind.
"By the way... how is that protagonist doing after the incident two days ago?"
Driven by curiosity, he activated the Senrigan ability. In an instant, a visual projection suddenly appeared within his consciousness, spinning interactively as if he were watching a live broadcast on television.
However, the first sight caught by his sense of vision instantly made Charlie knit his brows.
Inside the projection, Amane appeared to be sitting cross-legged on the floor of his room, staring intensely toward the monitor screen while holding a PlayStation 5 controller with both hands.
The man seemed deeply focused on playing a game, as if the mass bombing tragedy that killed tens of thousands of people the day before yesterday had never happened at all.
But, the aspect that Charlie could least ignore was how horrific the condition of the teenage boy's bedroom interior was.
The room was truly very messy and filthy.
Dried-up cup noodle containers litter lay scattered just like that on the wooden floor, side by side with a few empty plastic soda bottles.
On top of the bed, his thick blanket looked rolled up in a mess without ever being folded, while a pile of dirty clothes that had already given off a musty smell was left to mountain up just like that in the corner of the room.
Not far from there, through the opening of the kitchen door which stood ajar, Charlie could see the sink that was already jam-packed with tableware and cookware encrusted with grime because they had never been washed for days.
Seeing that domestic dystopian sight, the term 'pigsty' felt far more accurate to describe the space than a normal residential room belonging to a teenage boy.
Charlie deactivated his Senrigan, then shook his head while murmuring softly in a tone full of ridicule.
"Incredible... how unhealthy the protagonist's lifestyle pattern is if there is no intervention and care from the heroine's side like in the original work's plot line."
"Seeing him continuously consuming instant noodles or instant bento box meals every single day, I guarantee that man will suffer from a chronic digestive tract disease sooner or later."
Charlie changed his sitting position, crossing his legs.
"Furthermore, he almost very rarely goes out of the house unless forced to. His body will lack the intake of vitamin D from sunlight and suffer muscle atrophy because he extremely lacks exercise."
"Fujimiya Amane is truly very lucky because he is blessed with a figure of parents who are very kind-hearted, who are still willing to finance all the living needs of his lazy and useless life from a distance."
Recalling his own past, a nostalgic smile carved itself on Charlie's face.
"Just imagine if that were me in my old life... I am sure my parents would already have brought a thick rattan whip to beat me until black and blue if I dared to act lazy like that."
"It must be said, the pattern of raising children back in the 90s era was indeed very harsh and disciplined, very far different when compared to nowadays' parents who tend to overindulge and soften their children's mentality."
The striking difference between the condition of Mahiru, who was drowning in deep depression, and Amane, who lived lazily without any burden—as if all of yesterday's bloody tragedy had nothing to do with him at all—was, of course, not without reason.
All of that happened because of Elena's doing.
Because Amane was the primary subject of protection who was under Elena's responsibility, Charlie chose not to comment or interfere when his fellow Savior colleague decided to modify the protagonist's memory.
Elena used memory manipulation magic to erase all the horrific details of the hospital bombing from Amane's head.
So, for Amane right now, the national tragedy that killed more than twenty thousand casualties and triggered an international sensation was merely just an ordinary disaster news passing through social media timelines.
The event did not affect his mental condition or his relaxed daily life routine at all.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
A few moments later, Mahiru finally came out of the bathroom with an appearance that looked far fresher, even though lines of sadness still shadowed her eyes.
She sat at the dining table opposite Charlie, and under the man's gaze, Mahiru was forced to spoon the Indonesian-style fried rice of his making slowly until finished for the sake of filling her stomach, which had been empty for two days.
After they finished eating together and Charlie tidied up the dirty plates, he turned to look at Mahiru, who was again hanging her head listlessly in the chair.
"Go into your room and get ready, Mahiru. We are going to go out in a little bit." He said with a tone of voice that accepted no argument.
Mahiru looked up, her eyes radiating a clear refusal.
"I am currently not in the mood to go anywhere, Charlie-kun. I just want to stay at home."
Charlie folded both arms in front of his chest, completely ignoring the refusal from the girl.
"I give you twenty minutes to apply makeup, and prepare whatever you need to bring. After that time is up, I will bring you out of this house, whether you want to or not."
Mahiru's face instantly pouted, looking very displeased with this unilateral coercion.
"That is what you call a dictator! You cannot determine what I have to do arbitrarily like this, Charlie-kun! Besides, outside there is currently an emergency advisory to stay at home, why are you instead—"
"I do not accept complaints." Charlie interrupted with a thin, mysterious smile on his lips. "I will literally drag you out if you are stubborn. So now, the choice is in your hands; do you want to go out in a prepared and beautiful condition, or go out with an as-is state?"
Under that very blunt threat, Mahiru fell silent. She stared intensely toward him with eyes that widened in annoyance.
Charlie, in turn, returned the gaze relaxedly.
The two locked eyes with each other without anyone wanting to yield to one another for one full minute in the middle of the living room's silence.
In the end, Mahiru, who realized that she would never be able to win against the firmness of the man in front of her, snorted in annoyance and turned her face away quickly.
She rose up to stand from the dining chair, stomping her feet intentionally against the floor as she walked back toward her bedroom.
*SLAM!*
Mahiru closed her room door very hard to the point of causing a loud booming sound, a physical gesture that she intentionally did to show Charlie how angry she was right now.
Seeing that reaction, Charlie was not angry at all. He instead chuckled softly where he stood, feeling entertained by the Angel's small rebellion.
"Good grief... even at a time when she is throwing a big tantrum and slamming the door like that, she still continues to look very cute and is not scary at all." He murmured while shaking his head, preparing to wait for his twenty minutes to roll by.
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