Seth's mouth collapsed into a frown; never would he have imagined he would have caused Isaac's death. He thought that Isaac might get a warning or something but no, life hit him hard, and the cruel reality of experience freaks came to wake him up.
At last, the Knight came over to Seth and looked at his ID. He then looked at Seth and said, “Sorry you had to see that Isaac but a good reminder about keeping your ID on you at all times never harmed anyone, or, I guess, this time it did.”
His laughing felt like mockery to Seth.
`This is my fault `He’s laughing at you.` `You did this
Seth felt an accumulation of guilt and regret over all his actions today and for once, he just wanted it over with, so, as he saw Isaacs's grey eyes looking into him, judging him for the injustice that he caused, Seth felt into an unconscious state.
Looking at the unconscious youth beside him, the Knight laughed even harder knowing he scared the boy to this degree. He felt so powerful, so manly, at this showing of power so as a kindness he placed the ID necklace around the boy's neck and placed him in that shit carriage himself.
Thinking about the charity he had just done the nameless Knight rose onwards to the next carriage that needed to be inspected. Little did he know the wrath he had just invoked upon the city that he was born and raised in, Darter, The Dark City Of The Water.
Seth’s vision was dark. His head was the cage for some maniacal beast called his brain and like a caged beast, it was trying to escape, away from the pain, from the guilt.
Yet the bars held still, and eventually the beast grew tired. Finally, it fell into a deep sleep and rational thought decided it was time to wake up.
Lights, like the dawn of creation, entered Seth’s eyeballs all at once temporarily blinding the poor man, but through the pain, he gained knowledge of his surroundings.
Stone roads with cobbled housing showed the scene of a much more sophisticated society. `Have I reincarnated again?` Seth thought as he quickly checked his body.
Patting himself down and checking a few key areas, it seemed that he was still the same Seth as he had been before. Seth looked around a bit in confusion as he thought about his memories before he got here.
Painful flashbacks of before told him the tale that brought him here and, after checking his Inner Soul Area, he confirmed for certainty that it was the body of Seth that he was possessing.
Now done internally he looked around to gather information on the outside.
His first thought was that this was a city, the sprawling houses and streets that looked to never end did suggest an extremely urban environment, but he needed proof.
Walking around a bit, he found a few bakeries, several inns, too many taverns to even count and a barbershop which he promptly walked into. Before this, his mother cut his hair with the same scissors that cut fabric, so his hair was never done properly, but more important than that was he needed a makeover.
As he walked into the building a bell rang, which made Seth jump in shock. `Seems the technology is more advanced than I previously thought`. As Seth recovered, the patrons sat in the waiting seats looked at him in disgust.
“Look at this street urchin, and did he jump at the bell ringing just now ha-ha, poor thing, I guess he may have never heard one before.” A mocking tone and a demeaning glare combined to take a jab at Seth.
Seth, waking up out of his stupor, glanced at the one who spoke and looked down at his clothes. Then he silently took a spare chair and sat down.
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“Wait a second, did this brat just ignore me?” Said a patron with far too much self-worth. Luckily for Seth not all people in this fine establishment had egos the size of Mars.
“Don’t worry about it, Perhaps he can’t hear or perhaps he just can’t speak. Either way, it’s not worth it for such a fine gentleman such as yourself to bother with such a person. Am I right?” A man wearing fine leather spoke this time, with such a refined tone that one would expect this man to be a nobleman.
Listening to his tone and looking at the man’s clothes, the egoist decided to fight another day, “Fair enough, I shall spare this young boy from my wrath at your behest, he wasn’t worth it anyway.”
As the room returned to light chatter, Seth glanced at his saviour, the refined man. Inside this sweaty waiting room, with several chairs lined on either side and a door assumably leading to the barber's workroom, the refined man was sitting comfortably on a chair. Yet, if one looked closer, one would notice that his posture was immaculate and even the way he held the book looked immaculate.
Seth was suspicious. But, for now, he had nothing to do with this man. What he needed to do now was change his appearance and that was why he was here. Add that to a bit of looking around and he had himself a plan: nowhere in that plan were the words `find trouble`.
So, eyes down to the wooden floorboards, Seth patiently sat until he was called by the receptionist, who sat in the last chair behind a desk.
She looked at Seth with a wide grin but with boredom in her eyes, but at least there was no disdain or Seth's plan may have failed.
“What are you looking for, the prices were on the signboard outside, and we don’t do anything for free, we are running a business after all.” The lady was nice, and Seth noticed her usage of the word `we` but did not read into it too much but kept it noted in the case for later.
He had read the pricing before he came in, so he spoke clearly, “Just a simple cut, nothing fancy. Should be two silver unless my eyes have played tricks on me.”
Seth pulled 2 Silver coins from a hidden compartment in his water skin and handed the woman the coins.
“Alrighty, Jack will see you now.”
Seth thanked the woman and felt his now near-empty compartment. He had 2 silver and 8 bronze coins left and that was hardly enough for any more than 3 weeks of standard living.
That was for later though, for now, Seth walked into the barber's room to find a large, reclined leather chair and a man with gleaming scissors standing by the window.
“Ah hello there, seems you are new. That's always nice. Now lay down and tell me what you’re here for.”
Cutting the nonsense, Seth sat down and calmly explained what he needed doing. Going from fairly long to short he decided on a layered cut with thick short hair.
Deciding to multi-task he decided to interrogate the poor barber whilst he was doing his job.
“So, what do you think about this city.” Asked Seth.
“You new? Yeah, so do you want to touristy answer or the real one.” The barber tilted his head to the side and asked Seth to move his head a bit so he could cut it easier.
“Real one and go into as much detail as possible”. Relied on Seth
The first thing Seth learnt about was about the 2 dominating clans that controlled the city, The Baskerville Family which was a highly levelled family with rumours of their family head being in the upper 80s. The other major faction in the area was The Abyssal Sect which actually founded the city and had rumours of the highest-level person, apart from legends, with their leader at 96. Supposably the two guilds were at odds with each other as they fought for domination and profits.
In the name of experience `winning` always brought a good amount of experience so this seemed like reliable knowledge.
Seth doubted the rest of the news though, such a high-level person was unfathomable in power that his mind blanked when he tried to imagine it: all that came up when he did was from film and anime and those were not reliable sources.
Seth also learned about some important things if he wanted to live in the city, mainly the City Sect which ran pretty much everything to do with housing and the main food and drink places.
After the barber slipped his card into Seth's pocket, he looked into the mirror to see a new man. Free of guilt and shame on the outside, Seth decided to find a place to stay at least semi-permanently. Walking around various paved roads, still, in jagged clothing, Seth found himself the City Sect and paid 1 silver for a rental house that was small but decent enough for Seth.
Finally arriving at his new home, Seth chucked off his clothes and threw himself into the hay bed. Night came faster than he imagined and with all the wandering he did he wore out even the sun.
Seth thought endlessly about why he came here and what he should do now, and for a while, he just thought and thought. It wasn’t until he thought of his miserable death that he decided to become a God.
He still remembered death, though it seems those memories were cloudy, and luckily so, as they were all screaming of insanity. When he felt those screams of pain, he felt an endless desire for life. Having died Seth appreciated life far more than your ordinary man, but it wasn't like he could blame people for not understanding the gift they had been given. You can never appreciate that which you've never not had.
Seth still struggled to understand inequality, but that was a heavy subject and immortality was Seth’s priority right now. So, he planned some practice for tomorrow and a visit to the clothing store and like that, the day was done, and sleep came calling.