Riang was scrubbing her body clean under her robe and then used the soap to wash her face. She then splashed water all over herself to rinse all of the bubbles.
Oslan was also doing the same, but at a much slower pace.
He was more meticulous, and carefully reached to scrub every nook and cranny of his body. Unlike Riang, Oslan could be the one who is more 'feminine' in a traditional sense.
However, in the continent of Adhaesit, such gender norms were not apparent. The only genders were strong and weak.
As Oslan splashed himself with water, his back was hit with a small wave created by Riang.
*Splash!*
Flipping his head back, Oslan's initial surprise turned into a smirk seeing Riang's playful face.
"Oh, you've done it now… don't regret this." Oslan struck the water, sending heavy splatters of water to hit Riang like falling arrows.
As expected, Riang didn't back down. "Why do you think I started this then?" Riang splashed the water back, fully accepting the water battle.
While the two played, Owen sat on the corner, pretending to sleep.
In reality, he was pondering over his next course of action. A lot of things must be revised after a lot of contemplation.
Owen's mind worked differently from people.
It was more organized and powerful, his imaginations were more vivid than dreams. In fact, although his body was half submerged in the bathtub, his mind was elsewhere.
He stood on the highest floor of a school, leaning forward on an iron railing to prevent anyone from falling over. He also wore his usual ying-yang white hoodie and pants with embroidered black flames.
From such height, one would be able to see a lot of popular landmarks of Hemptonburg alongside the scattered houses and buildings throughout the city.
Only in this case, there were no other people besides Owen.
He watched the orange sunset on the horizon, but it never went down. Actually, it never will. Owen prefers seeing it this way.
The bright hue that it laid upon the city gave it a unique vibe that he enjoyed.
Owen looked up, the clouds didn't shift at all. But once he thought about it, the clouds began to move dynamically. It was as if someone played a time lapse video of the sky.
As he did so, a kid who looked similar to Owen hopped on the railing and sat on top of it. His feet dangled freely, with seemingly no regard for his own safety.
The boy faced away from the sunset while Owen looked at it directly. From that alone, there was already a difference between them.
Owen didn't even look at him as he asked, "What do you want?"
"To survive? What else could I want?" The boy put it bluntly.
"You haven't changed one bit."
"So did you... Fighting Gurmed was a death sentence, I don't get why you didn't run away."
"I won in the end, didn't I?"
"If I didn't help when you were getting your butt kicked, you and I should be dead by now."
Owen shifted his eyes downward before he gazed at the sunset once more.
"I guess you're right."
The kid looked over to his right and stared at Owen, unblinking.
"That's new."
Owen held the metal railing with his left hand. The cool sensation that he got was like he never lost it to begin with.
"I know what you're going to say. Any knowledge of the game is practically useless and I should depend more on my gift, isn't that right?"
The boy seemed used to this kind of conversation. He rested his face on his hand even though his elbow had nothing to rest on.
It was quite an unstable posture.
"Since you know what to do, why don't you do it?"
Images of his childhood flashed before his eyes. Owen replied, "It doesn't make me feel human… I believe I don't have to explain it to you for the thousandth time?"
"Spare me the monologue."
"Heh, sure."
Looking around, the kid surmised the surroundings and noticed that it was familiar. Very familiar…
"Out of all places, why did you choose to go here?"
Owen stood there silently. He kept his eyes fixated on the sunset as long as half a minute before he gave him a reply.
"I've actually been thinking…"
"Go on."
"If I want to live through this world, I may have to rely on your help."
"I'm shocked." The boy said with a deadpan expression. "Weren't you rejecting that notion heavily during that time when you were practicing against Yuhmbir?"
"Yes, and I'm a hypocrite. Is that what you want to hear?"
"No, I just wanted to know when this change occurred."
"Not too long ago.. I recalled multiple times where I could have died."
"Hmm… During that encounter with Yuhmbir, you should have kept running. With Iovoi, that was merely bad luck, so I don't think I can blame you much."
The kid chuckled. "Actually, I think I can… Your purpose was to kill Luram for experience points and look where that got you. You're lucky the gamble paid off. And lastly, with Gurmed, you should have just asked Riang and Oslan to back you up instead of asking them to run away."
Owen stood up from his relaxed posture and without even looking at the boy, he said with a hint of frustration. "Look, I am not you. I will do what I want, my way… Also, weren't you the one who goaded me to do those?"
"I'm you, I'm also a hypocrite." The boy smiled. However, without his eyes moving, it looked doll-like.
"But that's besides the point... I could have given us a better start if you stopped supressing me so much. So why don't you just let your ability shine more? Let 'me' do something once in a while." The boy's smile faded in an instant as he spoke.
"It's fine when it comes to games, but in real life-"
"Owen, what do you mean? This is a game." The boy cut him off.
Owen stared deeply into the sunset for thirty seconds before turning around. He then decided to sit on top of the railing, dangerously close to the edge.
Owen: "…"
With a sigh, he asked the boy, "Alright, fine… How do we do this?" He asked.
"I just need you to listen."
"I'm all ears." Owen shrugged.
There was silence between them for a second or two.
"First, let's go and look at all of our resources.."
"Our main strength is given to us through debuffs. After you didn't eat, sleep or drink for a month, your body began to give out several debuffs that would have proven fatal if you didn't have the ability class to invert status effects."
"Since it works like this, it makes us immune to them, and any kind of disease and sickness is making us stronger instead. Because of this, I suggest consuming poison, bacteria infested food and cursed artifacts."
Owen yawned. "That seems like a given."
Nodding once, the boy picked up where he left. "Our next course of action is to stop trying to kill anyone who is stronger than you. I honestly find it hard to understand why you decided to fight Gurmed despite the stat difference."
Owen's face changed into something that said, 'what are you looking at me for?'
"What? It makes perfect sense. He's struck with a fear debuff and Riang didn't die, making her quest remain viable for completion." Owen thought that his actions were the best ones to take.
But that was just a thought. He sighed and glanced at the sunset behind him.
"Are you sure you told them to run because you don't want the quest rewards to disappear, or is it because you think of them as people? That's why you care about them, don't you?"
Owen hesitated. "It's…. hard not to… Even if you keep telling me to treat them as parts of a game, I can't help but think differently."
"Then why did you have no qualms with killing Yuhmbir? Why didn't that hesitation appear when you killed Luram and Gurmed?"
Owen smiled self-deprecatingly. "Aren't we hypocrites? Why is that even a surprise..."
The boy scoffed in a light-hearted manner. "Then let's be truthful this time."
Placing his hand over the kid's head, Owen nodded. "I won't promise anything."
The boy continued, completely ignoring Owen's hand ruffling his hair.
The boy held up two fingers. "Next, when dealing with people, I suggest that you should refrain from killing anyone yet. Mysteriea is a different place compared to Wiunlen.. Try to blend in more." The moment the boy spoke about blending in, he made his two fingers cross to really get his point across.
"You were the one who told me to kill Luram when I saw that he is an illegal courier. Maybe I'm not the only one who changed.." Owen's point could be seen from just his tone.
"That's why we're going to change our plans… I've learned my lesson not to follow anyone sketchy, no matter how easy it is to kill them… Appearances can be deceiving."
"Surprising… Iovoi scared you that much?"
The boy touched his chin to think for a second. "I have no understanding when it comes to the concept of fear. I respond to the world in the best way possible.. That is how your gift works."
"... The gift to discern flaws." The boy added.
Owen smirked like he heard something funny. "Mhm… The only flaw you had was that you tried to get around people systematically… Unfortunately for you, humans don't work that way."
The boy pointed to Owen and then himself. "That's why you shall be the one who does the interacting, while I do the more action intensive work.. I don't have the capability to understand nor care."
"Wow.." With sarcasm oozing from this one word, Owen also clapped twice.
The boy ignored it completely though.
"You can take my words rudely if you want, but all I'm doing is preserving your life.. That's why you should be the one who takes care of the talking."
As if finding it ridiculous, Owen's brows scrunched up. "Now you realize your mistake? You stood by the game's rules and assessed everyone like an NPC."
Knowing that Owen was deliberately talking about this, the boy knew what to do.
"Yes, I've learned from my mistake."
Owen saw that the boy was willing to give in. He felt a little bit better now. "It always satisfies me to see that you're wrong at times."
Disregarding what Owen said, the boy spoke once more, saying, "Now that we agreed on the division of work, it is crucial that you become a Sylloctate and gain money. Once we have a stable source of funds, armor and weapons are no longer difficult to get our hands on."
"Especially potions… I suggest buying poison potions, weakness potions, and body breaker potions to increase our defense. Honestly, our game style hasn't deviated from the warrior class that much." The boy explained.
Owen didn't take the information too seriously. "I kinda thought about that one a long way back."
The boy nodded. "Mhm.. Also, since Jiun Vertesi is in this city, try to learn more about him. And since I'm talking about combat now, I suggest learning more techniques because I cannot keep up with enemies way above our level with just flaw discernment alone."
"You were barely keeping up with Gurmed during that time." Owen remembered that during that fight, he felt as if he was moving on impulse rather than his own control.
"Not me, 'We' were barely keeping up with him. It's because even though our gift is amazing, unless there's ample information about a certain something, I cannot discern its flaws." The boy looked at Owen with a blank expression. However, there was contempt beneath that face of his.
"Owen, we're not all knowing. If we were a bit more trained in fighting, I'm sure I would have seen a lot of flaws in Gurmed's fighting style and taken advantage of them during the fight." The boy added.
Owen sucked up a lot of cool air until it filled his lungs.
He then breathed out audibly.
"So, that's it for the game plan?"
"Mhm.. Hopefully you listened." The boy stopped propping his face up using his hand and held the railing for balance.
Not that it was important.
Although Owen clearly did not like the boy, times were different.
He nonchalantly spoke, "I'd be lying if I didn't.. Basically all I have to do is to continue on with an unhealthy lifestyle, don't piss anyone off, don't kill people, treat people like people, get a job and buy armor and other crap, learn skills and get better at fighting. Is that all?"
The boy nodded. "Yes, that seems to be all for now.. I'll also take your words into consideration and apply it to the route to Silmoun.. Do more research about the environment separating the two kingdoms."
"Why?" Being the same person, Owen didn't need to ask, but it just felt right.
The boy knew this, but still chose to explain. "I'm thinking that since our knowledge of the game's environment isn't going to be much help here, we should not refer to it as often… This is a reminder for you, of course."
"Simple enough.." Owen said without much reaction.
The sunset behind him began to sink into darkness, replacing the sky with somewhat of a grayish blue gradient.
"Can I go now?" It was only this time when Owen decided to look at the boy.
The boy hopped off the railing and jumped back to the school's rooftop. He began to walk towards the door leading to the stairs and said, "I was never in control of you.. That question is pointless."
The door creaked as it closed, the boy was no longer available in Owen's view.
With a calm voice, Owen looked up one last time. "... Alright."
Owen then leaned backwards, his body weight slipped off the metal railings from the school balcony, Owen fell ten stories until his body met the ground.
As gravity pulled him down, he didn't feel fear or anticipation. His face remained serene.
When he landed, his head was the one who faced the hardest amount of force which caused his skull to break apart. His bones fractured and his muscles contorted messily as crimson liquid splattered everywhere alongside his organs.
The pain that he felt was so vivid that it could be passed off as reality.
But that was something that he was used to.
After that, he woke up…
Opening his eyes, he saw Riang and Oslan were talking amongst themselves.
Oslan immediately noticed his eye movement and said, "Riang, Owen's awake."
Giving him a glance, she asked, "Perfect timing, I already finished taking a bath."
"That fast?" Owen must have lost track of time. "Alright, I'll just take my bath with extra haste then.."
"We can wait." Riang shrugged.
Owen got out of the tub and took the hard soap bar and began to clean his body with it. Reaching under the towel, he scrubbed his chest and his back clean.
Using a fragrant mixture of oils extracted from plants and flowers, he used it to wash his hair. He even felt the difference between the damaged half of his face from the right half.
Owen exhaled softly. It just reminded him of how much he already lost.
…
It didn't take long, the three of them got back out promptly.
"So great~! That bath was relaxing… Phew, I feel like a new person entirely…" Riang said while stretching her arms out as they walked through the hallway.
Soon, they walked within Lorca's perimeter. He was still sitting with legs up without a care in the world.
Owen happened to glance at him. He didn't underestimate Lorca at all after seeing his level.
Yuhmbir and Gurmed are both painful reminders.
"Hm…" Lorca met Owen's eyes after sensing his gaze.
Owen quickly averted his eyes away as if he merely happened to look at his general direction.
Before the three of them could walk out of the bathhouse, Lorca suddenly spoke.
"Tourist with the black hair, Jiun Vertesi is going to be teaching martial arts at the city square in a week." After saying that, he just went back to reading the city newspaper about a scandal regarding a noble's affair.
Owen stopped in his tracks.
He turned around with suspicious unblinking eyes, assessing why Lorca would give out this information to him randomly. Owen then saw that it wasn't inherently bad and revealed a kind smile. "I appreciate it."
Lorca waved his hand as if to say that he didn't mind.
When Owen went through the door, Oslan asked him by the side.
"What was that all about?" Oslan looked back at Lorca.
"No clue…. However, at least we now know where we can get payment for protection in Tarmat." Owen tapped his pocket.
"For the… Kejlar man?" Riang uttered Kejlar's name in a hushed tone just in case calling out a criminal's name would attract unnecessary attention.
Owen nodded. "Precisely for the Kejlar man."
"But that's going to happen a week later, right? So that shouldn't be a concern for us at the moment." Oslan took account of the matters at hand.
"Yeah, let's go to the Sylloctation Governance Guild. Unless you guys are hungry, there should be no interruptions this time, right?" Owen was already feeling like they wasted enough time.
His logical side was already urging him to get there as quickly as possible while he told it to shut up.
Riang and Oslan shook their heads.
"Let's go then." Owen gestured for them to follow him.
— Syllocation Governance Guild, Mysteriea City Branch…
Ofhin Courren sat down behind the reception table as he wrote down the woman's registration to become a Sylloctate.
Ofhin had fair skin and three moles in a triangle pattern in his left temple. He had soft lips, long eyelashes, rosy cheeks coupled with kind and gentle mannerisms. His chest had some mass which allowed one to grasp it with their hand firmly. It was evident even under his red uniform since his black buttoned up shirt wrapped around it tightly.
He also has black hair styled in a way that his forehead was exposed while still having luscious and flowy hair. He had a ponytail tied up using red string with silver ball ornaments called a 'Fruwal.' Those who wore a fruwal indicates meticulousness because of how difficult it was to tie alone.
A fruwal is tied with a bird knot if one were to tie it themselves, a hand knot if one had another person, most often to be a family member or a close friend to tie it for them, or a heart knot if one is engaged or married.
Ofhin had a heart knot.
He smiled after taking care of the woman's registration to be a Sylloctate. "Thank you for your registration, have a wonderful day."
The woman returned the kind sentiment and walked off to the nearby receptionist to get her membership card. That was only when Ofhin gave out a soft sigh as he leaned back on his chair.
The female receptionist finished working on the woman's card by using a printer. And not just any printer. It makes use of three types of ink and it even has security measures in place by using a basic yet complex soul energy rune-based method.
The card itself is made of a firm material to ensure that it wouldn't break easily.
After that, the woman's registration is finished.
As Ofhin rested on his chair, he felt someone wrap their arms around his slim waist.
He was initially shocked until he felt someone's face resting on his nape.
"Plaona my dear…" Ofhin held the person's hands and turned his head around.
Plaona Courren, his wife, smiled at him and gave him a peck on the nose. Unlike Ofhin's delicate aura, Plaona was more… masculine in Earth's terms.
She also had black hair and a ponytail with a heart knotted fruwal. Her shoulders were broad and her hands were large and rough. Yet, it gave Ofhin a strong and dependable feeling.
"Is my dear husband tired?" Plaona moved her hands to his shoulders and began massaging them for him.
Ofhin gave out a satisfied moan. "Not really…. The woman earlier had the proper documents. Her physical information was on point, soul energy, mental statistics, health status and medical information were all complete. Because of that, it makes the monotonous routine easier."
"That's great then… It makes my heart feel at ease knowing my beloved isn't stressed." Plaona cheekily said.
"Oh, you." Ofhin lightly tapped the back of Plaona's head.
"…"
"Are we interrupting something?" Owen coughed after being made to wait in the midst of this intimate 'session'.