"What do you mean"what"? Show some respect, alright?"
The shock on Stygian's face is embraced by this man's words.
"Didn't I… met you earlier?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
He then gestures Stygian to go away.
"Go, move. I started to regret giving you that apple. Brat."
"Wha…"
So again, with an apple as a starting item, Stygian starts wandering around.
"That's weird… Isn't it just night time earlier? And those sickness… what are they? I thought they were just normal feeling when you… chop someone in half… ugh."
Mentioning it makes Stygian feels unpleasant.
"Understandable. So I probably fainted last night, and then sleepwalked back to the shop? But the shop owner said he didn't meet me before…"
With these weird looking clothes, and very standing out white hair, it's really hard to forget someone like that.
Stygian runs his hand through his hair. Instinctively, he tries to take it off, as he still think that it's a wig.
But can't. He can't take it of, no matter how hard he pulls.
"What? What is wrong with this wig?"
Every single strand feels real on his head. He can't feel the touch between the wig and his head anymore. He tries to pull hearder, but it starts hurting at this point. It's like pulling his own hair.
"Shit. This escalated quickly."
He scratches his head. It feels real. Every inch of the skin on top of his head is real. He now realized that this isn't a wig anymore. But that's not really important at the moment.
"Seems like I've lost the map and the bag of money… That's a fortune, damn it."
Now he has to find another way to get money. Being brought to this world with nothing is tough. People say money isn't everything, but without it, there's nothing you can do.
Stygian keeps walking and rubbing his forehead, until he walks across a familiar alleyway. A recognizeable face got in the corner of his eyes. Immediately, he turn to his side.
"…This is too much."
The group of thief are standing inside that alleyway. In the corner, the same thief leader that he killed yesterday are leaning on the wall.
"What, they respawn now? Like respawn-respawn?"
Stygian is trying to make assumptions here. Whether they're like small creeps that always respawn and stationed in a fixed place, or they're like minions roaming all over the place, and this is their spawnpoint.
"Anything can really happen in another world, huh. Even if it's strange, we'll have to accept it."
Stygian pops out and idea. He walks into the alleyway.
Them thiefs, as soon as they catch a glance at him, quickly draw their blades.
"Who are you? Are you a-"
"Yes, I am. I'm here to take your life."
The menacing voice and scary looking appearance of Stygian makes those thief take a step back. They're clearly cautios now. In an unexplainable way, they feel the boy in front of them is able to take their life.
Stygian is different now. He knows what to do.
"But I gotta say, I'm easy to negotiate. So if you give me a reasonable number, I'll let you all go."
Since respawning happens, Stygian presumes that their rewards are also respawned with them. So if he makes good use, he could rat a fortume out of these people.
Those thiefs don't say anything, but they all turn back and look at their leader. The leader, looking around those men, bursting in a laugh.
"What? Do you know who you're talking to? I'm not just some normal bandits that you can easily threaten and take our money!"
"Now if you put it that way, I sound like a mugger myself…"
The leader gestures his minions to attack him. A few of them sweat it out for a second, then eventually lunge forward.
This time, with a firm swing of the sheathed Yamato, Stygian managed to knock all of them into a nearby wall. Not enough to take away their life, but enough to put them to sleep.
This also works as a threat, as the leader of them has looked at Stygian with a different view.
"What now? Are you gonna get yourself killed by your puny little pride, or just give me a reasonable number, and get to live another day?"
Acing Stygian's threat, the leader spits out a "Tch!" before going through his wooden stacks, and takes a pouch of coins from it.
"Here. These are equivalent up to 10 Ryos. That's all we have."
"Uh…"
Stygian figured out that he literally has no knowledge about this place's economy. Like, absolutely nothing. He also knows that he can just go and ask for prices, but if he's getting scammed he wouldn't have a single clue.
So, he decided to make use of these men.
"…what are the currencies here?"
"What? You are robbing us. Are you seriously right now?"
The clanking sound of the tsuba being lifted off the scabbard sends shivers down the leader's spine. He immediately quits his playful tone.
"Uh… There's three currencies in this country. The first, lowest one are brass coins. Then, the second one are Monme silver coins… the last one are golden Ryo coins."
"And in this bag has 10 Ryos? How much is one Monme and how much is one Ryo?"
"1 Ryo equals 60 Monmes. 1 Monmes equals 50 brass coins."
At this point, the leader and Stygian are talking to each other like they're just some normal pedestrians on the road. It's like nothing have ever happened between them.
"Hm. What is the cost of the economy now? Like, for example, how much is an apple?"
"It varies. Some sell at 1 Monmes, some lower, some higher. They never get higher than 15 brass coins and lower than 5, though."
Stygian thinks for a moment. If he has 10 Ryos, it means he has 30000 brass coins. Heck, never in his life he loves maths like this.
"Damn. Y'all squeezing money from travellers, huh. That's a lot-lot, you know."
"Just take it and leave this place."
The leader speaks in disgust, but Stygian doesn't seems to care.
"Thanks, see ya sometimes."
As soon as Stygian gets out of the alley and go past a wall, the leader finally lets out a sigh. "What an unlucky day…", he thinks to himself. He signals his minions to carry those were unconscious on the ground away.
"See ya sometimes, huh… Just get lost, little brat."
After cursing him, the leader get back to his place, leaning against the wall, waiting for the next victim.
On the other side, with a fortune in his pocket, Stygian begins searching for an inn. In a fantasy world, an inn with a bar is the best way to gather informations. Besides, he also need a place to sleep tonight.
With that thought in his head, he starts roaming on the streets of Ivada. Eventually, a huge building catches his eyes. People entering and leaving continuously, making this a pretty crowded place. There is a big sign at the front, saying "Hoshin Company".
"Woah… That's huge. Is it like a trading center or something?"
Seeing people pouring in and out the doors, the urge of coming in to see what's inside starts growing inside Stygian's mind. But he quickly shakes it away.
"The sun is setting. This can wait. I must hurry."
Putting down the desire to explore this glorious place, he continues walking on the street.
Finally, after a long walk, he found an inn, right before the sun sets. As he opens the door, almost everyone inside were demi humans. Those cat and dog ears point up when they hear the door creaks, but quickly relaxed when they realise it was jus some random boy.
"Is it… is it inn for demi humans only? Am I at the wrong place?"
"No, you aren't. Welcome to my inn."
At the front desk, a slim woman with cat ears appears. She looks no different from a normal human, except for the pair of cat ears that wiggling on her head. There is probably a tail too, but Stygian isn't that dense and inappropriate.
"Oh, hello. Are there any room left?" Stygian asked, as he approaches the front desk.
"Of course. A night here costs 5 Monmes."
Putting the Yamato leaning against the desk, Stygian reaches inside the money pouch, going through inside it a little, and takes out 5 silver coins.
The moment he is about to hand the money to the receptionist, his heart missed a beat.
Literally.
"Urgh!"
Once again, the sickness and sizziness fill up his head.
"Not… again…"
Holding onto the desk and try not to collapse, the pain can clearly be shown on his face. Everyone in the inn noticed him and all seems worried. The receptionist asked him with a rushing voice.
"Mister? Are you okay? Do you need help?"
But Stygian can't answer questions anymore. All of his strengths is drained in matter of seconds. His stomach once again, starts to hurt. The burning feeling into the immerse pain makes him finally ell onto the ground, with one of his hands covering his stomach.
"Why…? Why is this… happening…?"
He mutters to himself. Not that because he wanted to, but because he can only do so. As someone comes and tries to flip him over, his eyes has already blurred. To people that are watching, he is limped, but he is still conscious. Just not for any longer, as memories has already flickered before his eyes.
"This… is impossible… GAHH!"
With the final shout of pain, his recollections quickly flashes, back to the part at the fruits stand.
Once again, his eyesight returns to normal. His pain completely goes away.
He slowly looks down to his right hand, just to meet the red apple fitted inside his palm.
He starts hyperventilating. Fear and panic takes over him. Following with the headache caused by trying to processes what is going on.
"Circus boy, are you okay?"
He didn't answer. Or, to put it in another way, he couldn't. He has nothing left inside his head, except for one question.
"What is going on?"
"Hey! Are you good?"
With trembling steps, Stygian walks forward. He looks exactly like what a depresse man would look like. Weak steps with darkened face, and a pair of dulled eyes. Despite all of that, he still force his body to move.
He has to move. He doesn't know why. He just knows that he has to. This has left the stand owner completely speechless.
"How ungrateful."
Stygian couldn't hear anything at all. His voice echoes all over the place, keeps repeating questions that he can't find answers to.
"What is going on?"
"Did I die?"
"Who attacked me?"
There are no answers that he could find. As he walk past the same alleyway, those same thiefs noticed him. This time, as to them, he looks like a perfect prey.
So, one of them approach him. The thief get closer, them manage to put his hand over Stygian's shoulder.
"Oi, old friend, long time no see! Let's go somewhere private to talk, shall we?"
Almost everyone on the street noticed it, and they know what will happen next. Still, they decided not to care, and just continue their work.
Stygian, at this point, has been seperated from the world. His mind is swirling around those questions that are growing in numbers, to the point that he has no idea what is happening around him.
With all of that to be the greatest chance for the thief, he leads Stygian into the alleyway, where multiple other thiefs are already waiting with their cheap dull blades.
"Yo. Spit out everything you have, and we'll give you a quick death."
But then, seeing Stygian acting like a complete dummy, they feel like they're being mocked. So one of them kick him in the stomach. The kick sent him against a wall, causing his body to be injured. A drop of blood slowly drips from his mouth.
"This dipshit is looking down on us! We must give him a beatdown before we steal him!"
The whole gang hype up after someone's sentence. Almost immediately, they surround Stygian, and start giving him a "rough massage".
Despite his physical body being brutally beating up, his mental self is still wandering around questions. Questions to questions, theories to theories. Everything seems to fall apart, until a single light sparks in his mind.
"What if… everything is rewinded?"
Lights start coming back to his eyes.
"Yes… yes! That makes the most sense! Those thiefs are not respawned, it's only because time is rewinded!"
Having solved the question, even though it's just part of it, brought him back to reality. With a swift movement, he dashes out of the surround circle of thiefs.
"What!"
The thiefs are bewildered. They don't know how can this person moves with that immerse speed, even without a sound.
But there's no time for them anymore, as Stygian has already get into his iaido stance. In a second, he dashes forward, relentlessly slashing everything in his path. The moment he stopped, he stomps his foot down, propel himself back or another dash-and-slash. He repeated the move multiple times, until not a single thief could stand on their foot anymore.
This left the leader shocked. In the matter of seconds, the boy from being a no-brain dummy, transformed into a skilled fighter. Look at the way Stygian slaughtered all of his underlings, he can say that the boy before him isn't just any normal swordsman.
"You… you trickster! You've killed thousands, haven't you! You cruel monster!"
In front of him, the sharp blade of Yamato has already aimed at his heart.
"Everything you have. Now."
"Damn you…"
The leader curses Stygian, but the outcome remains the same. He has no other choice, but to pull out a pouch of money, and throws it in front of the boy.
"Take it, you beast!"
Stygian looks at the pouch, then at the leader. He slowly raises his sword.
"Wait… wait! I did what you want me to do!"
Despite the desperated whine of the leader, Stygian has no intention to stop.
"There must not be loose en-"
His heart stopped, again, for a second.
Inestimable pain struck him again. This time, it's from the lower part of his waist.
"Ghk!"
He drops his Yamato, and fell onto his knees, then onto the ground, in front of the leader's perplexed eyes. The leader is so shocked that he could only sit there and watch the scene, without committing any act.
"AAAARGH!"
Stygian's breath becomes heavy, as his mind becomes light. The pain struck quickly, and haziness takes over him. Through the foggy sight, for the third time, he can see the echoes of his time at this world. Every memories, of every timeline, are flashing in front of his vagued eyesight. At the end of the flashback, with the picture of the fruit stand, his condition returned to normal, as if nothing ever happened.
"Yo, circus boy, consider that my thanks."
Stygian looks at the apple in his hand. The look on his face somehow described that he has already known what's going on. He turn to the fruit stand owner, and ask him a question.
"Hey. How many times have you seen me?"
"Hm? It's the first time. But hey, I'm looking forward to your show."
"…Thank you. I will repay this for you."