Aletha pointed her finger at Ubel and whined as if she were a child.
"Ubel's being mean!"
Alai raised an eyebrow of curiosity, leaning over to Ubel. She asked, crossing her arms.
"Oh, so what did he say?"
Ubel slammed his fist on the table and snickered at Aletha, shaking his head with a light chuckle.
"I mentioned something about her hair problem, and she grew a temper with me. Childish if I say so myself."
Alai squinted her eyes at Aletha and turned her head curiously, scratching her head.
"Hair problem…?" Turns out, Ubel was right. Aletha was so fixated on the house's interior aesthetic that she never realized her hair was a complete mess. Her strands all over her bangs were a complete mess, and her hair covered most of her face like a veil. Alai then took a moment to ponder and recollect her visions.
(Now that he mentioned it…)
The staining problem of Aletha's hair had not gone unnoticed by Alai. She remembered the girl's white hair twirling around and covering her face during the chase at Gushy Geysers, and how it was in the way most of the time during battles, making them unnecessarily complex.
Garnering all her thoughts in one place, Alai nodded her head in agreement with Aletha, saying with a tone of certainty.
"Yeah, Ubel's right. Aletha, your hair is becoming a problem." Alai informed her of the truth, and Aletha reacted with disbelief. "It's getting all over the place, and it has almost cost you your life. If you've ever had your hair like that during the race, you'll never win. It will just fly around in your eyes, and you might as well trip and fall."
"I… Is it really that bad?" Aletha tremblingly muttered as she touched her messy bristles of hair.
"Yes. But no need to panic about it. There's an easy solution!" Alai answered optimistically as she got up from her chair and ran to the hallway. "Hold on, let me grab something from my bedroom real quick."
Alai left Aletha and Ubel in complete silence shortly afterward.
Upon her departure, Aletha secretively leveled a menacing, glowering look at Ubel. Instead of replying, the young man immediately backfired Aletha's pitiful stare with an even more penetrating gaze that probed through her soul, urging her to stop.
After the intimidating staring contest, Alai returned to the dining room with a black hair tie clenched in her palms. Aletha hurriedly hid her stare and looked back at Alai, cocking her brow in confusion.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
Alai quickly ambled over behind Aletha and ultimately ignored her question. She slid the chair she was seated on away from the table toward the window before steering it over and grabbing onto Aletha's hair.
Aletha instantly reacted with an irritated growl, feeling Alai's fingers skim over her messy white hair. But just as she tried to move away, Alai pulled Aletha back to the wooden chair, forced her still, and whispered.
"Don't move."
"Alright, fine," Aletha said as she took a deep sigh of defeat and lost control all over Alai.
After she stopped complaining like a baby, Alai focused on her task.
She gently combed Aletha's hair with her soft fingers, straightening up and securing each silky tassel with a hair tie. As she was doing this, Alai turned the chair away from the window to avoid ruining the surprise and continued to tie up Aletha's beautiful, straight, white hair.
"Your hair is so pretty, Aletha. It's so clean and vibrant. I thought only old people had white hair. But even then, it isn't as silky soft as yours." She complimented as Aletha rooted herself in the chair. "It seems to fix itself the moment I try to straighten it magically. There's no dirt, mud, or any mess in it. Did you take a shower?"
"No…" Aletha replied, arms tight to the body in suspicion.
The reply in return caused Alai to back up from her in shock.
"Really?!" She exclaimed disbelievingly, biting her lip. "So is your hair like magic or something? Because I am sure I saw dirt cover it when we were fighting those monsters."
Aletha shrugged and made a crooked smile of uncertainty, opening her posture to a more welcoming stance.
"Maybe. I don't know."
"Well, it seems that's the case," Alai added as she finished styling Aletha's hair, turning the chair and her body back to face the clear, reflective window in the dining room. "You're lucky! I don't think any woman I've encountered other than you has ever had such a trait. Take care of it, okay?"
After a few more seconds of finishing up, Alai patted Aletha's back humbly and informed her as Ubel stumbled and tripped in shock.
"Almost there… Annnnd, done! Check it out!"
A silence entered the dining room.
Aletha gazed at her reflection in the mirror and was taken aback by what she saw.
She blinked rapidly, turning over and fidgeting with the dangling ponytail, tail wagging back and forth on her head. Then, she rubbed her eyes to ensure that the person she had seen in the reflection in the window was still her.
Although it wasn't as apparent as an actual mirror, Aletha could catch every vivid detail of her appearance in complete form. Her eyes sparkled with awe as she posed by the window, turning her head back and forth to examine every detail, from her ponytail to her attire.
After moments of thorough investigation, Aletha launched herself up onto her tiptoes into the ceiling with excitement, making a wide grin of wonder and squealing and hooting.
"Oh. My. Goodness! I look…" As Alai bumped her shoulder over to Aletha, making eye contact with her with confidence, Aletha's scream reached every corner of the house. "... amazing!" She said, twinkling with her new hairstyle.
Taking the new style into account, Ubel took a glance and changed his attitude, chuckling at the euphoric response Aletha had given everyone.
"Fascinating. You look completely different from the girl I just saw now." Ubel commented on Aletha, trying to take another glance. He rubbed his eyes to see if this was the same girl he had saved before. "If it weren't for your attire, I would have mistaken you for a different person."
"Really?" Aletha said, still fixated on her ponytail.
"Absolutely. Now that I think of it, you should get a better fit. Perhaps, a shift in style?" Ubel recommended as he took another sip from his glass. "Maybe make your skin breathe and change your attire so that it could support the bag you carry around. That way, you can simultaneously carry more and feel more flexible as you battle, run, etcetera."
Aletha grinned cheerfully and smiled at him once more.
"Okay!"
Alai, on the other hand, stepped away from the dining table, trying to suppress her laughter at the overwhelming reaction Aletha presented. She couldn't believe someone could be so excited about something as simple as changing a hairstyle.
(I can't believe someone could be that excited about changing a hairstyle.) Alai thought as she grabbed food from the cabinets. (Well, now that I think of it. Everyone can be fixated about something.)
Although she was far away from the dining room, Alai kept Ubel's recommendation to heart, considering making another outfit for Aletha the next day. As she prepared the ingredients on the counter, Alai eagerly asked Aletha from across the kitchen.
"So, what do you think? Is your hair still in the way?" Alai asked from across the kitchen as she prepared to cook the ingredients.
"Nope!" Aletha replied, keeping her eyes fixed on the reflection of the window. "This is all that I can ask for! Thank you!"
Alai couldn't help but grin at the gratitude and expression Aletha gave her.
. . .
Now with the hair-situation pushed out of the way, Aletha could finally focus more on her curiosities when it came to the monsters of this world and her memories.
As they waited patiently for Alai to serve their meal, Aletha took the initiative to discuss her concerns with Ubel, fidgeting with her long ponytail as she did so.
"So, Ubel. Where did you get that claymore from? I never knew you had that." Aletha asked, turning over to her side.
Ubel lifted a grin at her and smiled at the thought of the question, proudly replying in return.
"Oh, that? Well, I received that Claymore from the southern cold nation of Astait." He answered as Aletha's eyes smoldered with intensity and curiosity. Ubel maintained an open body posture and, with a relaxed smile, rubbed his hand self-consciously through his hair as his answer turned into a story.
"When I was young, my father gave me this prized possession and a pack of magical wolves to defend myself from the dangerous ice monsters and mutated beings lurking in the coldest areas of Astait. Both my parents were against industrialization and the intentions of the Queen of that nation, so we lived in a warm, humble village around a circle of giant icicles, where monsters thrived the most."
As Aletha imagined the scenario unfolding in her head, she commented on Ubel in a seriously attentive tone.
"Ooo, interesting. So you came from Astait?"
"Indeed," Ubel said, turning over to the window, and changing his expression to one of sorrow. "People of that nation claimed me to be the perfect individual—a striking appearance, no flaws or diseases, and no dents at all. I never understood it at first, but I realized what they were coming from. To them, I was perfect. However, as I grew up, I came to a hard conclusion…"
Upon his words, a silence fell in the dining room. The sounds of Alai's cooking came from the table, with shrill, high-pitched noises of steam and knives slamming against a cutting board. Aletha leaned in, feeling an urge to ask, wanting to learn more about Ubel and the nation of Astait.
"What? What's the conclusion?" She asked, focusing on Ubel's eyes.
Hearing Aletha's question, Ubel closed his eyes and recollected the memories that had grappled and strained him throughout his life.
"... it's that you cannot be perfect," he replied as he regathered mementos of the frigid, blizzard-smothered snowy mountains of his home nation. "Perfection is just a delusion to make everything and everyone with it seem like a flawless object. There is no such thing as 'true' perfection."
After silence enveloped the scene, Ubel got something off his chest.
"Ever since I was reincarnated into this world as a baby, I have known this truth. Harsh reality swooped over me through these passing years..."