Until this day, I'm still having this muddle feeling as if my life were running by a repeating story.

Unknown voices and whispers filled my ears, abruptly pulling my consciousness back to that fateful day, the side street where I was buried beneath the yelling of onlookers, crying babies, when I was frozen in place, waiting for that truck to go by... Before I could shake out those memories and go back to my easing black.

I furrowed my brows when that blinding sunray came shining through my tired eyelids. Slowly shifting on my bed, I roughly rubbed my face and my painful eye sockets to help myself sober. I turned to face the wall clock across from my bed and saw that I still had an hour until my work time.

My bedroom, on the third floor of the government building, has been my workspace since I began working as a public service Magician Knight at Frieden, the capital of Fruchtboden Kingdom, three years ago, and it still feels almost exactly like the day I moved my belongings here, full of soft and pleasant woody scents.

It has been 14 years since I reincarnated as a new person, tumbling into this anomalous world that people call Alteravita.

Passing through my working desk, I headed towards the bathroom and washed my face, puzzled when I recognized the bizarre colour on my hair and my eyes as I caught myself in the mirror. It's silver white, as pure as the snowland in a quiet snowy day, lying a pair of such lurid scarlet rubies... and I continued, brushing my teeth, untangling my hair with that damn wooden comb in difficulty, how unluckily, I had a quick cold shower, got myself dressed properly in some way... The same old habits I had repeated over and over again, just to make sure that what I had experienced for decades here wasn't any lunatic dream.

I'm such a good person to keep myself intact, I thought, even if my mind wasn't as sane as I thought at all.

Getting out of the bathroom, I misguidedly tripped my feet over the nearby outway, almost forgetting to put my right earring on.

Magicians are pitifully unmanageable without their Spellrings. I clicked my tongue and unconsciously recalled the memory of that old lecturer, tapping her teaching stick with utmost seriousness and bothersomeness when she taught our first important lesson of being a Magician. I tried to calm myself down, grab my Spellring, and cautiously put it on.

Spellrings are handcrafted trinkets designed to contain Magicians' available magic in a specific and limited amount of time, conveniently directing our magic spells to a controllable level without unstabilizing our magic circuits. Thinking of the past, I knew most of my peers suggested each other wear it as simple rings to avoid any unnecessary damage. Yet when I saw such excruciating and exquisite, sparkling raspberry-red ruby earring that matched my eye colour, I couldn't help but forthright slamming my coin bag on that cash register, even if it cost half of my internship salary at that time. I still haven't regretted that choice to this day, thankfully.

With a pair of leather running boots, a baggy jogger, a short-sleeved tunic, and a simple leather belt to tuck my clothes in neatly, I tied my hair up in a low ponytail and got out of my room, locking the doors before going to jog around the town.

***

"Oh my Aleina Goddess! I couldn't believe that I would have a chance to actually meet the notorious Lyve Evayesha! Is it true that the rumours about you being one of the best from Lehenald City are true?! I heard that you are also one of the rarest Magicians Knights to graduate the program earlier than most of your peers! There is no way that you got that mesmerising colour on your hair and your eyes! You got that from the Mutation Experiment or that such beautiful white hair of yours was completely natural? I am so sorry but I can't help but have curiosity!.."

I stiflingly stuffed an enormous spoonful of chicken curry into my mouth when one of my two rookie subordinates, Carstina Raykova, giggled while showering me with questions after questions ceaselessly.

She looks like a very lovely young girl, yet her enthusiasm left me speechless.

With her rosy cheeks, her vivid, sparkling olive-green eyes that tinted with amber sunlights, and her honey-glazed brunette hair, her presence alone had already brightened up the whole dining table where we sat. Overwhelmed by her lively and unrelenting attitude, I was frustrated and unable to have my breakfast in peace after a long, fatigued jog in the morning.

Slowly chewing the tasty food of one of my favourite diners in Frieden, the downstairs cafeteria of the Fruchtboden government building, I unconsciously rummaged through my past, remembering the awareness that people had rumours of me when I was still studying at the Fruchtboden Magician Academy.

Most of it was related to the fact that I was a Mutant.

It is not uncommon for people to always have such distinct eyes between the Gifted and the Mutated since the dawn of time, when humanity had the accessibility to use magic.

The Gifted ones are children who were granted priceless gifts by the Goddess Aleina, possessing their magic from birth. The first and later generations of Magicians.

The Mutants, however, are usually orphans who were being sold by ruthless adults to the Magician Cults. They would desperately fight for their lives in uncountable experiments that mutated their genes and forcefully awakened their magic abilities with alarmingly poor survival rates and their potential side sacrifices.

These Magician Cults should have long been banished by the royalties of the surrounding kingdoms due to the fact that their working style was just inapposite to child trafficking, yet their profits were unbelievably irresistible when these Magician Cults had become one of the most stable resources, providing potentially numerous generations of Magicians to almost every kingdom in the Sterblich Commonwealth of Humanity.

I was surprised to myself that I still have moments of omitting this conspicuous monstrosity of this world since I had thought many times that I wouldn't forget its twisted nature, coming from my bad experiences most of my childhood in Alteravita.

And thus was founded the Kingdom of Devlikan, the infamously brutal birthplace of the Magician Knights, the trading centre of Kingdoms' Magicians, and the place I once vaguely called home while still an orphan.

Getting rid of my crisising thoughts from living in such a world, I redirected my vision to two of my assistants.

Carstina was still chattering with her so-called new friend, the good-looking young guy with smooth, earthy soil-brown skin, and under his kiss-curled ebony hair lay a pair of abnormally fulgurated golden eyes. He has not even introduced himself to his new superior yet, only given the littlest responds bluntly and even seems to be entirely ignoring his peers.

That must be Akif Ebrahem, I thought.

Although all Magicians shared some unusual traits in common, such as vibrant eye colours and, in some rare cases, intensive hair colours contrasting to the majority of ordinary, unmagic ones.

This Akif guy, who clearly came from the deserted Khardunen Kingdom, is undeniably coming from a high-status background, I thought, glancing swiftly through the noticeably large amounts of his golden bracelets glossingly around his wrists.

Even though he almost appeared like a spoiled brat kid who couldn't handle holding himself tight while feeling queasy in disgusting monsters-hunting situations, he might always manage to muster the last bit of manly pride to end up suffering through it regardless of the repercussions.

... And he is also the kind of guy who would over-prepare for everyone and sulkily mumble to his pals while really taking charge of the situation and solving the issues.

My suspicions were validated when, in the midst of Carstina's fear after spilling food on herself, Akif brusquely cleaned her shirt with his costly handkerchief. Additionally, he returned his handkerchief to his pocket, maybe for washing it later, I surmised. Thus, it appeared that this young man was not a frivolous person unlike the stereotypical, ignorant affluent folks that live in Frieden City on a daily basis.

"What are you looking at, auntie?" He turned to me annoyingly when enduring too much of my freaky stare.

I choked.

"HUH!! !! How disrespectful you are to your superior!" I gasped in offensiveness.

"You look old enough to be an auntie."

"I am not that old, young man!" I waved the spoon in front of him angrily, but then immediately withdrew my hand, awaring my not-so-appropriated action.

"I'm only twenty-five!" I yelled.

"That's old." Akif bluntly replied.

"How old are you to have the right to call me old?!"

"Twenty-two."

"...That's it, I'm speechless with your illogical logic."

I immediately ended the quarrel, cleaning spotlessly the remains of the chicken curry on my plate.

Abruptly, a gentle strains of a mandolin could be heard in the distance, followed by the sound of a male voice singing:

"O brave warrior and companion of yours,

losing your life, resisting destiny!

Regret your oath to your beloved!

And she, your everlasting sweetheart,

who has just begun to search for you in heartbreaking vain..."

"What a horrific song to start this morning with." I grimaced while cleaning my food tray.

As if everyone admitted the same thoughts, echoes of complaining spread in the dining room with the bard. Some of them were too brazen to even attempt to hurl leftovers at him, yet, he was sensible enough to immediately start a new cheerful song right away.

Before his words started to make sense in my head, I had already bid farewell for the time being to my two new partners and gone to my upstairs bedroom changing to my appropriate uniform.

***

I tucked my familiar sword into my belt, smoothing out the wrinkles on my uniform.

Our uniform was a set of a white, stand-collar military double-breasted coat with just enough amount of accessories, a black patent leather belt with a gold plated metal buckle, engraved with delicate details connected to a sword holder, a pair of black trousers with a pair of black gloves, and a decent dark leather boots, dyed in dark tavern brown.

It was a pleasant day with bright sunshine and gentle breezes flowing through the trees' and tiled brick buildings' shadows.

Once I had wrapped my hair around my back up and secured it in my typical low bun on one side, I strode downstairs and saw both Carstina and Akif were already waiting for me.

Unconsciously rubbing my hands together when I started my work time, I spoke:

"Now that we are gonna gettin down to business, I will introduce myself again. I will now be your new superior, Magician Knight of Frieden, unit number 24 of the Royal Magic Knight Order of Fruchtboden Kingdom - Lyve Evayesha. As you already know, I had received letters from one of my old friends, Mikael Mendoza, also your former superior who unfortunately didn't make it on time due his issues in Lawinreich. He had written to arrive as soon as possible in the next two days and until then, I will be in charge to take care of the two of you. Please spill out some useful personal information that could help me dealing with troubles happening in this town so we could get back to work as soon as possible."

I crossed my arms.

"Carstina Raykova of Itzaseazrtn Camp, Lainoah Harbor, Devlikan. I'm also a Magician Knight, professionalise in elemental and healing magic." The girl introduced herself with a hopeful voice.

Why does she keep staring at me like that? I was puzzled.

"Akif Ebrahem of Yhtamiean, Khadunen, a psychic magician and a martial artist." The young man chinned up a bit in a nonchalant way.

Khadunen's martial artist? You gotta be kidding me. I thought.

"Your psychic ability might be quite useful if we are gonna work in the upcoming Court of Causation." I pondered.

"Already?" Carstina dumbfounded.

"Not exactly, not yet." I replied.

At that exact moment, a woman's scream suddenly rang out from inside the house.

The three of us peered.

From afar, we saw the two individuals were fighting, a guy pointing at a lady who was brandishing a knife and shouting obscenities, and bystanders were frustrated, attempting to pull them away.

"Speak of the devil", I said, "we have a case."