This feeling isn't so bad either.

With a heavy thud, the wooden door was slammed shut, shutting out the biting cold wind behind them.

As soon as they entered the house, the chill that had been temporarily suppressed by their physical exertion and tension instantly surged back.

Their soaked clothes clung tightly to their skin, continuously draining away their body heat.

"Quick! Felsy, take off your wet clothes right now."

Lynch said this while frantically peeling off his own wet coat and tossing it onto the floor.

His tone was urgent and serious, driven entirely by his professional instinct as a healer.

"Falling into the water in this kind of weather is no joke. If you don't dry off and get warm immediately, the cold will seep into your body, and the foundation we've spent months painstakingly building up will be completely ruined."

Saying that, he closed the distance to Felsy in a few strides and instinctively reached out, wanting to help her undo the top button of her collar, which had grown tight from the water.

Felsy stiffened all over.

Standing in the shadows of the entryway, her wet silver hair was still dripping. Her purple eyes were clouded with a layer of mist from the cold, making her look incredibly pitiful and delicate.

When Lynch's fingers brushed against the freezing skin of her collarbone, she flinched slightly like a startled fawn, but she didn't pull away. Instead, an astonishing flush of crimson instantly bloomed across her pale cheeks.

That slight flinch instantly cooled Lynch's feverish brain.

His hand froze in midair as he looked at the young woman before him, taking in her shy and seemingly... submissive expression.

"What am I doing..."

Lynch suddenly snapped back to reality.

Although they were husband and wife, and though they usually had intimate contact like hugging and massages, those interactions were strictly "therapeutic" in nature.

But right now, if he were to just reach out and undress her...

Even if the goal was to save her, in this conservative alternate world, it seemed a bit too provocative for a married couple who had yet to consummate their marriage.

"S-sorry!"

Lynch retracted his hand as if he had been shocked. He scratched his head awkwardly, his gaze darting around, too afraid to look at her.

"Well... I was just too anxious. Can you take them off yourself? I'll go find you a dry towel and some fresh clothes."

After saying that, to avoid suspicion and to hide his momentarily racing heart, Lynch quickly turned around. With his back to Felsy, he stood there with a ramrod-straight posture, like an elementary school student being punished.

"Change by yourself. I won't look."

There was a two-second silence behind him.

Actually...

Felsy wasn't actually opposed to it.

But since Lynch was so... well, shy, there was nothing she could do. She couldn't exactly take the initiative and ask Lynch to undress her, could she? That would feel too weird.

With a barely perceptible sigh, Felsy had no choice but to do it herself.

Soon after, a series of extremely faint sounds drifted over, sounding exceptionally clear in the quiet room.

Rustle...

It was the friction of damp fabric peeling away from skin.

Plop.

It was the heavy thud of a waterlogged dress dropping onto the floor.

Although Lynch kept his eyes fixed on the string of dried chili peppers hanging on the wall, his ears hopelessly perked up.

As a hot-blooded Tier 2 Elite, his hearing was far sharper than before.

He could even mentally picture every movement based on the sounds: she raised her arms... the skirt slipped down... she was untying the ribbons of her undergarments...

"Calm down! Lynch, you are an upright apothecary! You are a man free from vulgar tastes!"

"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form..."

Lynch frantically recited the index of the Herbal Compendium in his mind, trying to suppress the restless heat rising within his body.

But this was pure torture.

That feeling of being able to hear but not see, and even being able to smell the faint fragrance wafting through the air, tested a man's willpower far more than seeing it directly.

"No, I need to find something to do."

Lynch took a deep breath and said loudly, "Um... Felsy, dry yourself off first! I'll go boil some water! At a time like this, you have to take a hot bath to drive away the cold!"

After saying that, he bolted into the adjacent bathroom and washroom as if a magical beast were chasing him.

...

In the living room.

Felsy stood barefoot on the wooden floor, wrapped in Lynch's large, dry bath towel.

She watched Lynch's somewhat pathetic, fleeing figure. Her initially shy expression gradually froze, and a hint of confusion, or even... a faint trace of disappointment, appeared between her brows.

She looked down at herself.

Although she was a bit thin, her skin was fair and delicate, and her curves had gradually regained some of their shape.

"Why... did he run away?"

Felsy bit her lip, a wave of inexplicable sourness welling up in her heart.

In that brief moment earlier, when his hand touched her collar, she had actually mentally prepared herself.

After all, he had jumped into the river to save her. After all, he was her husband.

Deep down, she had little resistance to what might have happened next; rather, she harbored a faint thought that... if it was him, it would be okay.

Yet, he had recoiled as if his hand had been burned, and he ran off without even daring to take another glance.

"Could it be... because this body still isn't attractive enough?"

"Is it because the scars on it are too ugly? Or is it because I'm not plump enough?"

As a witch who had once looked down upon the world, Felsy had never doubted her own charm. But at this moment, she had become insecure and anxious, just like an ordinary girl experiencing her first love.

"Idiot."

Felsy pulled the bath towel tighter around herself. It was completely imbued with Lynch's scent.

"An idiot with dirty thoughts but no guts."

...

In the bathroom, hot steam billowed.

Lynch didn't use ordinary firewood to heat the water; that would be too slow.

As a man possessing a system cheat, he directly applied the principles of his recently learned Arcane Burst: Modified. By generating intense heat through magical friction, he quickly heated a large barrel of water to the perfect temperature.

He tossed a handful of mugwort and a few slices of ginger into the water, along with two chopped Buena No. 1 fruits. The cold-dispelling effect of this stuff was a hundred times that of ordinary ginger soup.

"The water is ready!"

Lynch moved the large wooden tub, which was big enough to fit one person, behind the folding screen. He tested the water temperature and then shouted toward the door.

After a short while, Felsy walked in.

She had already changed into a dry nightgown. Her hair was wrapped in a towel, and her cheeks were flushed red.

"Hurry up and get in to soak."

Lynch pointed at the wooden tub, his eyes clear. "I added a special cold-dispelling herbal pack in there. Soak until you start sweating slightly. I'll go boil some ginger soup for you."

Felsy looked at the steaming wooden tub radiating a medicinal fragrance, and then looked at Lynch, who was bustling about and hadn't even had the chance to change out of his wet clothes yet.

His hair was still dripping, and his lips were a bit purple. He was clearly freezing as well.

Yet, he was still taking care of her first.

Felsy's heart felt as if it had been submerged in warm water, melting into a puddle of softness.

She walked up to Lynch without saying a word, simply reaching out to gently undo the buttons of his soaked shirt.

"Eh?" Lynch paused, startled. "Felsy?"

"You're wet, too."

Felsy's voice was very soft, but it carried an undeniable insistence. "Together... I mean, you need to dry off quickly, too."

Her fingers were a little cold, but her movements were very gentle.

When his shirt was removed, revealing Lynch's chest—which, though not heavily built, had well-defined muscles—Felsy's gaze lingered for a second before she quickly looked away.

Grabbing a towel, she quickly but clumsily wiped Lynch's body a few times.

"I'm going to take a bath."

She turned around and walked briskly behind the folding screen, her footsteps seeming a little flustered.

"Take care of yourself... too."

The sound of entering the water came from behind the screen.

Splash—

Listening to the sound of the water, Lynch touched his chest; it was burning hot.

"This... this is way too unfair."

Lynch smiled foolishly and shook his head, quickly drying his body and changing into dry clothes.

Although there was no substantial progress, this feeling of caring for and looking after each other...

It really wasn't bad at all.

Behind the screen, Felsy, soaking in the warm medicinal water, buried half her face in the water, revealing only a pair of curved eyes.

The surface of the water reflected her expression at this moment.

No longer that cold, world-destroying witch.

But a happy woman deeply in love, whose heart would flutter at a small gesture from her husband.

"This feeling..."

"Seems... not bad either."