Laine rarely did pointless things, so there must have been a reason why he ran from the Chaos World to the doorstep of neighboring Hemenu, circled around, and then sent his humanity back.
Just as the doomed Pallas could not be born under the unilateral shroud of the power of Chaos, Laine could not possibly divide his own humanity within the world, which would have been nothing more than self-deception. Of course, he could do so in the Spirit Realm—but the very idea of a mortal flying out from the Spirit Realm was hardly reasonable.
That being said, although Laine had split his divinity and humanity, he was, in fact, quite aware of himself. The division might not have been as complete as imagined, with the most evident example being that the Chaos World itself could still detect the connection between the two, as well as his currently intact memory.
Truly mortal souls would not be able to carry the 'mysteries' that Laine knew of. Having once seen the true form of the Flesh Mother Tree, if replaced with a purely mortal entity, this memory would likely animate within his thoughts and assimilate him into a part of itself. At best, and with some luck, he would become a fanatical follower of a cult.
"It's not a big issue, I just wanted to become a complete Great Divine Power... This level of division of humanity should be sufficient," he mused.
With a little trickery to erase his own traces, Laine climbed out of the pit. Facing the morning sun, he took a deep breath of fresh air.
As a deity, it had been many years since he had done such a thing...
When he lost the major influence of divinity, his spirit also felt much lighter. It was like something heavy had been lifted. At that moment, Laine felt as if he had returned to the time before he came to this world when he was still a mortal.
He had a sense of humor and enjoyed jokes, relished fine food and beautiful scenery, felt compassion for the misfortunes happening before his eyes, and took pleasure in the admiration and praise of others.
Laine didn't know whether this was good or bad, but he was willing to give it a try. However, with his transformation, that part of him far across time and space, no longer burdened by humanity, would probably change as well and become a true 'God'.
The heavens and the earth are not benevolent; they treat all beings as straw dogs. The sacred is not benevolent; it treats all life as straw dogs. Everything below the self is equal throughout life, like specks of dust.
"Huh—based on the memory I just reviewed, Turingen City should be in this direction."
"But before that, I need to change clothes first."
Strictly speaking, Laine was without clothes at the moment. The 'robe' that had aroused greed was actually fake, a manifestation of scattered time-space powers, which is why it exhibited a mingling of silver-white and golden patterns.
But just like the gradually deteriorating crystalline shell, this false robe would not last long and would soon dissipate into nothing.
So, if he didn't want to end up running stark naked through the suburbs of the city on his first day of birth... Laine frowned slightly, regretting that his earlier actions had been a bit rough.
A while later, already dressed in the attire of a local farmer, Laine weighed the three silver coins he had found. On one side, there was the image of an unrecognizable middle-aged man, and on the reverse, a miniature version of the Acropolis of Athens.
According to what he had seen in his memories, gold, silver, and copper were still the main currencies in human-populated areas of the continent. Although uncertain whether the convergence of fate played a role, gold and silver inherently held mystical value, so it wasn't surprising to see such a situation.
As for the value of currency, taking silver coins as an example, this currency known as 'Drachma,' 'Silver Drachma,' came in two denominations, large and small.
The smaller variant's exchange rate with copper coins varied between 75 and 130, fluctuating up and down depending on the country and region—some small nations skimped on production, while others like Olympia cast their coins large and heavy to showcase their noble status, even if it cost them.
The larger denomination, briefly referred to as the larger Silver Drachma or Stamped Large Silver Coin, had an exchange rate of about one to five with the smaller denomination. Starting from the large Silver Drachma, the image stamped on the face of the coin was no longer the symbol of the country's King but the head of a Deity, the origin of the term 'stamped image.'
Hence, the small denomination silver coins and copper coins were subject to private minting, but such counterfeiting was easily eradicated for these large denominations. Large-scale divine image minting would almost certainly attract the attention of deities, but small-scale private minting wouldn't cover its costs.
"Tsk, changes are everywhere. I wonder how long it has been since 'I left'... It's been more than eight hundred years of the New Chronicle, but that's recorded from the founding of Athens. Who knows when Athens was actually established."
"And this feeling... Even the God of Sun has been replaced, huh? Well, at least it's not red, and there's no tree growing on it," he muttered under his breath.
Internally grumbling, Laine looked at the large pit he had created with a bit of a headache, knowing it wouldn't be easy to fill.
"Forget it, I'll bury these two guys and then head to the city. With the speed of information transmission in this era, by the time the anomaly here is discovered, I'll be long gone..."
After roughly discerning the direction, Laine headed toward the nearest dirt road.
The sun was high in the sky, and the summer sun was always so blistering.
Outside Turingen City, on a tributary of the Wila River, many residents had gathered to fetch water. The sunlight shone down, casting a twilight on the clear river.