Before he had any more time to think about something way above his current level, his door opened. Ber entered the scene, carrying Kaian's promised water. He put it on the ground and left as fast as he had come in.
The tub was more like a bucket in an oval shape. What did Kaian expect from the medieval age? Not anything much better, yet he still got disappointed.
"Let's test this one cut, one mon water."
Kaian put his rags down and submerged himself in the water. It was warm, not pleasant warm, but room temperature warm.
"Mid" he proclaimed, scrubbing himself with a piece of cloth that came with the water. There was also a razor blade and some scissors. He guessed it was for cutting his hair and beard.
Coincidentally, both needed a trim. They would experience how it felt like being a royal in the midst of the french revolution soon.
However, they had to experience washing before that. The dirt started coming off Kaian's body, muddying the water. Slowly, the water became even dirtier than Kaian himself. That was unacceptable.
Kaian dried himself with a towel and because he still wasn't clean, he ordered another water, proudly paying with a mon.
He hopped in when it arrived and moaned as he felt the final parts of dirt got washed off. He put his head inside and washed his hair.
The towel dried his wet hair and when he finally opened his eyes, a flash of blue appeared in his peripheral vision.
Kaian was ready. Vexastone at hand, he changed forms immediately. Nothing. Did he become too cautious?
He changed back into a human at which point he noticed the source of the blue color. His hair.
It had turned deep blue at some point and Kaian felt like a feminist. Nah, that was an overstatement. He felt cool as hell. Mysterious.
Maybe he'd have a chance with women now. Nah, who was he kidding, the only chance he'd have was to die.
Standing out in the medieval world was like asking to get burned on a stake. Even if real magic existed.
Kaian wasn't thrilled, the disguise part of his plan had risen in importance. Though, he could test out the reaction of the villagers and change his plan accordingly.
He could always escape with vexastone anyway. Maybe they'd consider him a chosen one and give him free stuff.
Yes, that was the best option. He'd learn disguises and then he could act independently when inside one. Blue hair was flashy. Nobody would suspect him with brown or other common color.
Kaian started giggling madly and considered changing his name into 'the eminence of the shadows' before his brain reluctantly started working.
He grabbed the razor and started shaving his beard, managing to cut himself in some places. No worries, he'll just use vexastone to repair it later.
As we already established, he wasn't good with a razor and making an even remotely difficult haircut would end in disaster.
For that reason, he cut his hair on the sides and the back, leaving only a few millimeters. The blue locks fell to the ground, resembling an ocean.
As for the top, he shortened it to around 3 centimeters, slicking his hair in the front to the back.
Kaian considered it a good deed, exposing these fashion barbarians to a modern haircut.
Unfortunately, he was fated to not become a barber. Kaian's skills left quite a lot to be desired. He didn't even know what this cut was called, perhaps a fringe cut? He had no idea, asking the barber what he wanted was always a pain.
He reached for his clothes while thinking about the sexism of hair when his hand stopped. He looked at the rags and shuddered. Now that he was clean, even thinking about putting them on was disgusting.
But…. how else would he do it? A grim expression appeared on Kaian's face and he wrapped the towel around his private parts.
[Vexi, Snail]
And so Kaian's adventure to get to a clothing shop began.
It ended just as fast, there was no clothing shop. Thankfully, he had managed to spot an old lady that was sewing up a T-shirt. Surely, she'd have something for Kaian.
She did, surprisingly. She also nearly had a heart attack when Kaian spooked her by appearing close without any clothes. He equipped his new armor (peasant clothes) and reached into the pockets for money, realizing he left it in the inn.
The lady laughed and told him that it was a gift for such a handsome young man. While Kaian thought he was handsome as well, he didn't want to take her stuff for free, heading out to his room for the money.
On the way there, people looked at him curiously and just that. It seemed that there is no "the blue one will bring ruin" prophecy, neat. He easily found the inn and stepped inside. This time, everyone turned to look at him. Kaian felt awesome.
He walked to the stairs, intending to act nonchalant in order to look even cooler, before being stopped by the innkeeper.
"Uh, sorry, sir. But that's where the rooms are, do you want to rent one?" he asked.
Kaian's dumbfoundedness could be felt by everyone in the room.
"I rented one already? We literally spoke minutes ago." Kaian responded, still surprised.
And so was the innkeeper. A funny 'what the fuck' expression appeared on his face for a while. Eventually, it dawned on him and he let Kaian proceed, befuddled.
Kaian quickly took the coins, he already wasted too much time doing nothing. He had recently started feeling like someone is looking at him with not too good of intentions and he didn't like it at all.
He hurried to the village leader, repaying the lady on the way. Not being able to tell which house belonged to the man, he relied on the directions he got from the innkeeper. With this, he didn't need to ask anyone, leaving the person who asked unknown.
His hand knocked on the door and Kaian got asked to come in. He noticed a man older than prime, impressive for a medieval age. He had long sideburns and his hair was gray, looking like a hunter that's past his age. Even more astonishing.
And despite the chances of a medieval age hunter getting old, this wasn't good for Kaian. The chances of him knowing how to read are even smaller. But that wouldn't deter Kaian from asking.
"Hello, are you the leader?"
"Yeah, and you?"
"My name is Kaian, I've come from a village that.. burned down, coming all the way here to find someone that could teach me how to read. You see, my parents wanted me to become a scholar."
"A noble goal. Unfortunately, I'll have to disappoint ya. Nobody here knows how to read, we don't need to."
"I see.. Thank you, Goodbye."
Kaian left with this NPC response, thinking about his backstory that he mentioned here. Did he say something else before? He couldn't remember, hopefully it wouldn't bite him in the ass later.
He started walking again, this time aiming for the active hunter of the village. He guaranteed a learning opportunity. Kaian would get it out of the hunter even if he refused to teach him. No matter what.
Suddenly, Kaian felt that weird staring again, turning around. Nobody.
…
POV: ???
Corpses of people made of stone laid on the ground. There were countless of them, each being different in some way. A lot of them had stone limbs grafted on them, looking more like monsters than humans.
The scarlet blood leaked from various orifices and holes in their bodies, sometimes being replaced by a brown blood-like substitute. It blended in with the color of the surroundings, that being brown as well.
There were many stones around, encased in the vast room full of dead bodies. It looked like a cave, the inside of a body.
And there, in the middle, a dark hooded figure stood, a colorful blend of blood staining her hands and robes. Parts of her body solidified into stone, cracked and falling apart.
Despite her state, she was laughing, screaming about this being the best day of her life.
"Ahahahah, master, look at me! I'll finish your stupid spell and travel into a different universe instead of you! Watch me from the afterlife and cry."
After a while, she managed to calm herself down. Summoning many weird and incomprehensible shapes around her.
They were of many colors, mainly blue, encompassed in circles. Then, they started spinning, sucking in brown-ish gasses from the bodies and the walls. The bodies started falling apart, cracked, turning into dust.
The walls shook, dirt and stones falling from the ceiling. The woman didn't seem to mind it, concentrating on her spells.
After absorbing most of the gas, the spinning slowed down and the circles started merging into one giant triangle.
She reached for it and clenched her fist. Her other hand rose and both aimed at the triangle, pushing it in. It slowly started giving way and moving towards the woman. Her wrists started rotating when it reached the midpoint, shivering more and more the further it went on.
The pyramid turned upside down, becoming inverted. A smile appeared on the woman's face, her goal was in sight.
"FOR TEION!"
One of the bodies stood up and threw itself on the woman, cracked and bleeding, yet alive. Its rocky hand tearing her body apart, destroying the etched spells in her heart.
This final burst of energy proved too much for its damaged body and it fell apart, dying gloriously for its god.
The wounded figure seemed to disagree about the glorious part, though.
"You fucking idiot! You could've just stayed in the fucking pile and I would've left! Your pathethic attempt to harm me didn't even do anything that serious! Haaaaaah!" she shouted at the rocks on the ground. They proved unresponsive.
A furious look mixed with resignation and madness appeared on her face. She would risk it all!
Her hands never stopped pulling on the inverted pyramid, despite the destruction of her mana core. She could stop, interrupt the pyramid, save herself. No. She has gone too far now, it would leave her without her powerful magic, but that was a minor problem.
She rose this far without her knowledge, second time would be even easier. The pyramid touched her body, sending her soul in a different place, different time.
Her body remained, turning into a fleshy pyramid itself. The room shook and multiple of the exact same pyramids showed themselves, crying silently. The pyramid of the woman, unmoving, silent, dead, perfect.
…
"Muahahahaha, I, Agris have successfully traveled into an alternate universe!" a teenage girl said while laughing to herself. Her laughter quickly stopped as she noticed her body and her surroundings.
"What? This- this is my younger body. But what is this place?"
"Cauli, what has gotten into you?" Cole asked.
Agris' eyes widened and she realized what happened. She went back in time. No, that didn't make sense. If that happened she'd be in the village, waiting for her death, ignorant of the true nature of the 'god'.
Thinking of this, she turned to look at the villagers and spoke aloofly. "Tell me who chased you out of the village and I will take revenge for you, cutting our ties for once and for all."
She said this as a test and looked at the reactions of the villagers, she was right. Something changed and the past had gotten altered from its natural course.
It made sense, if she could go back, someone else could as well.
Meanwhile, the villagers remained frozen in shock, Cauli would never say anything like this! And they were correct, Cauli would never say this. But this wasn't Cauli, it was Agris, one of the strongest forces in the world.