The Law of Conservation Causation:

"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Thy debt will be fulfilled, yet beware of casting the unrightful sin upon the innocents. Since the vicious circle of animosity could only result in demise."

Maalik 4:13 - 66

***

"You should have shut your bloody hellmouth by now, you filthy witch!"

"I would rather die than to exploit black magic while I can cut your skull in two with this goddamn blade, you fucking cheater murder!"

I slowly took out a scroll with a fancy pen and the ink container, ignoring sentence after sentence filled with words of abomination between the woman and the man, and put my writing utensils on the desk.

Gently rotating the corner of the unfold-flat paper and the expensive fountain pen (which I was gifted by a nobleman) perpendicular to the table surface with utmost meticulousness, I shifted my gaze up to the couple.

These two folks made a fuss right in front of a government building, frightening everyone to the point where they had to run towards the couple, preventing the two of them from making a new crime scene right in the freakin 'daylight of our office building.

Judging by the fact that the incident only happened after I changed my uniform, it was evident that this man intentionally provoked the woman only after ensuring people would protect him once he sought rescue.

That's actually quite a smart move, despite his stupidity, which led to this disaster. I thought.

Since peasants truly had no obligation to aid others, it was accepted conduct to go down the street as a regular citizen and act as though a murder had occurred right in front of their eyes.

However, there are differences with being Magician Knights, especially when serving in the public service. One of our foremost rules as Magician Knights was not to turn a deaf ear to our people once they had spoken for our help. Guards and our people are everywhere, so it is always confirmed to have support when something terrible happens.

But until then, no cries for help equals no rescue.

The rest of dead bodies would be taken in charge by full-wages-paid, unmagic labourers who do public service work for the kingdom. These people had already risked their lives dealing with other Inhuman races without magical insurance, so I would say offering a worthy salary was a thoughtful choice.

"Hey woman! Lock this bloody feral witch up for me or she's gonna kill me, you hear that!?"

His impertinent voice jolted me back from my contemplation.

"Ain't those words kinda expired now these days?" Akif raised his eyebrows while putting a hand on his hip, standing on the left of my side.

We were both gathered in my office, on the fourth floor of this building, dealing with this new nuisance. It was unbelievable to get stuck in here doing work at the beginning of our morning. I was so ready to get out of the house to get some fresh air, but then life just went like that, throwing things that you had been begging desperately to avoid, as always.

Hearing small laughs filled with awkwardness and uncomfort from Carstina, I lifted my chin up from my interlocked hands that were propping on the table.

"Could both of you please at least try to be professional here? Cuz I gotta have a lot of tasks going on today." I complained. "I don't give a damn about your positions in this town since both of you two had enough foolishness to cause a scene in front of our freaking Knights. So as a person with a higher intelligence, I'm capable enough of generosity to give the two of you my slightest piece of patience."

Sarcastically ending my words, I uncapped the pen and dipped it in ink, scribbling down the paper with the date and contents of the report.

"Starting from the beginning, your name, sir?"

I shifted my eyes up and pointed the tip of my pen in his direction. His face was red from furious and sweaty with irritation.

"Eagor Grimton, the oldest son of the Grimton merchant family." The man was trying so hard to look condescending.

"Right, and you, ma'am?" I shifted to the lady's side.

"His soon-to-be former wife, Roza Grimton." She replied in an annoyed tone.

Finishing their names on the report, I asked, "Tell me the full story", I squinted my eyes at him, "of how you, sir, pissed up your wife so badly that she ended up bringing a knife to a government building, just to slit your throat."

"Because he was busying fucking with his mistress while my daughter was in a terrible ill!" Roza screamed loudly, "And that man let my daughter die in agony of not seeing his father the last time before she returned to Heaven!" She cried out.

"Goddess Aleina blesses her poor soul, Miss Grimton." I expressed my condolences, handing her my handkerchief.

"Thank you." Roza sniffly took it and weepingly wiped the corner of her eyes.

Unexpectedly, the man let out a bitter laugh.

"Hah! Look at this whore trying to act as a victim while she was the culprit of this madness!" Mr. Grimton shouted in discontent. "Don't you dare hide all your witchcraft! Iowyn and E- She would never leave me without reasons! Yet just after you went signing the deal with that jerk, that fucking incident happened!" Eagor slammed his fist on my table.

Without blinking and driving my glance out of the couple, I still can sense my Khadunese Magician was just in time holding back his startling before it got out of his skin, freezing.

Demons' contracts.

"Woman," Master Grimton turned to me, "please arrest this guilty beldame because she was the real killer in this story!"

"You treacherous motherfucker!" The lady instantly almost jumped on the man just to tear him apart, before I even figured out that I should already be offended by the word the man called me.

Although, I honestly didn't mind it much, of such redundant emotions.

Luckily, Carstina immediately blocked the woman from getting out of her chair with her shiny emerald-carved wand. "No acts of violence are allowed in the administrative agency, ma'am." Carstina spoke with difficult calmness.

The green light radiated from the gemstone on her Spellring wand softly flashed over my eyes.

I continued.

"It's best if we can get this case to the Causation Court, lady Roza and Mr. Grimton", raising my left hand, I signalled the two of them to remain seated. "Bloodshed here is troublesome, even if that was how everything was always solved. However, this chaos can be rearranged into a more... civilised way," I continued, "by sorting out your case in front of the Court, your innocence and guilt will be testified at the witness of the public, including the church and the nobility."

I finished the report and closed the pen cap.

I rotated and slid the paper in front of them, placing a pocket-sized fingerprint red ink pad right aside with it.

As well as what I had expected from their behaviour before, both of them were instantly frightened and hesitant to sign the paper. They were almost completely wordless, anxiously averted their eyes from my confronted gaze.

I intertwined my fingers and cocked my head.

"Because both Ms. Grimton and Mr. Grimton here show signs of concealing the truth, and we had already recorded your act of disturbing the order of the administrative agency," I said.

"You're now placed under our supervision to serve our provisional sentence in preparation for your upcoming trial."

I took back the scroll and the pad.

"No! You don't have the right to do that! I demand to cancel the order!"

"This is nonsense!"

The couple both panicked, interrupting each other's words, fighting against my words fiercely.

But it was already too late when our guards had already rushed in.

"Please detain these two people for their acts of disrupting state agencies." I got out of my seat and cleaned my working table, then turned to the guards, "We got code 4 in this situation, please contact other Magicians Knights in our unit as soon as possible."

"Roger that." Both of them nodded and arrested the two people to the detention house.

While the woman ferociously refused to obey the order, the man seemed to have no such repulse. It was understandable, hence, temporary detention means separating both of these people, which is no difference from giving him a life assurance against the possibility of being killed by her.

I had already projected this situation since the moment they came to my room as my colleagues gave me this case, resulting in my current action.

However, the dramatic story between these two wasn't the main reason why I chose to arrest them, but it involves a much more important issue.

After my call, one of my coworkers came in. A tall ginger-haired man with coffee-coloured eyes who wore the same uniform as mine.

He both nodded at Akif and Carstina first, exchanging with my new subordinates some greeting gestures before returning to my direction.

"Comrade Cedoric Perthran." I greeted.

"Comrade Lyve Evayesha." He rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"A Code 4 situation already?" He raised his voice just a bit, in concern.

"Unfortunately, it is." I sighed.

We gave each other a long pause.

"...I really don't want to recall what happened last month, but we really should notify our superiors. This might not be just some mistakes in our immigration management anymore." Cedoric knitted his brows.

"I can see that." I rubbed my face in exhaustion.

Because things happening in the government's building properties would not be on the list of the unmagic labourers' concerns, according to the law, we were given full responsibilities taking care of our offices.

Last month, we had already suffered enough massacres of peasants falling out right in front of our sight, and the works to clean our building's cafeteria from the blood and corpses with those disgusting and strong foul smells were either burdensome, backbreaking, and a real pain in the ass.

In fact, we had already done everything we could at that time, but life always worked like that. Sometimes people had a bunch of dirty tricks up their sleeves, and then those victims died right before our eyes in the most unexpected way.

"Just last month we had already dealt with over fifteen demons in total, and we only caught just more than half of them." His voice was filled with worry. "Three Magicians of our units had died, even when we even rented an Elf Healer Magician, Goddess Ailena blessed all of them..." He turned away, hiding his face. "It felt like yesterday."

"I know," I said, looking at my shoes, "Cedoric, if you don't mind, please warn everyone in our unit about this." I looked up to him. "I will file a report to our superiors and try my best, seeing what I can do about this." I patted his shoulder.

"Thank you." Cedoric looked at me with pain yet full of sincere gratitude. "Even when we have no clue why such a talented Magician Knight like you chose to join our unit, we are always grateful to have you here."

He continued.

"You helped us solve lots of cases and defeat lots of powerful demons, and honestly, I'm not really sure each of us has enough to repay you." He held my arm that was resting on his shoulder, the way us companions always do it with each other.

"Don't be," I said, "serving my home is my honour, and I don't need to pay for it."

I have my reasons.

"Of course, except for having a place to sleep and enough salary to have my meals here." I chuckled.

Cedoric burst out a soft laugh in response, "Of course! If that's all you wanted, then our chefs had already saved the best dishes for you, captain." He smiled.

"Then it's already fulfilled my delight." I replied with sincerity and amusement.

After a couple of words exchanging with each other, Cedoric went away to continue his job, leaving me alone with my two assistants.

We actually waited for him to be gone from our floor before uniting our glances.

"It seems like there are lots of concerning things goin' on recently..." Carstina spoke.

"I thought it was how it always was before?" Akif raised his question.

In result, Carstina just gave him a depressed look: "Khadunen, your kingdom, is undoubtedly considered to be the greatest place to live, but it doesn't mean that everywhere else was that terrible."

Sensing that he had accidentally hurted his friend, Akif immediately changed his attitude and lowered his eyes in guilt, "Uh... sorry."

Carstina sighed softly. "It's okay, you apologised. I really don't mind it at all."

Akif nervously rubbing his neck.

Poor kid.

"So... lady Roza had made a deal with a demon, correct?" Akif asked.

"High possibility, yes." I replied.

"... I'm so sorry for your loss." Carstina gave me a gaze of compassion.

I knew that Carstine was a compassionate person, yet she seemed to tend to take care of other people more than I thought.

"It's okay, things couldn't change back in time anymore." I calmed her down. "We need to move on to resolve this situation once and for the future." I said.

"... It looks like things aren't that simple, to be honest." Akif crossed his arms, slightly lifting his chin towards me.

"Quiet clearly, it does." I pondered.

Because not everyone is either gifted with magic or too unfortunate to be kidnapped and experimented on by the Magician Cult, mostly curses and black magic spells were coming from the demons who succeeded to overcross our borderline citadels, despite our strict control on accepting immigrants to our kingdom. They searched for human greed and hatred, offering people the deals they came up with to take their Hearts and Souls.

Some of the victims ended up becoming Heartless, some of them eventually died from losing their Souls.

I found it hard to find out whether the Heartless were lucky or not, but they were living without the ability to ever feel higher emotions, such as sympathy and happiness, ever again.

"Even though I wished to solve this case right now, we had a complaint from the master of the Thornfort family." I gestured for Akif and Carstina to pack up, "He had already requested for my arrival yesterday so we can't set his situation aside. It was about his cattle being killed brutally, causing him troubles in food supplies for his hotels and tap houses."

"Sounds like the Damned creatures would do those things." Carstina spoke.

"Yea, definitely." Akif carried his bag on his shoulder.

"Easy deducing those stories is one thing," I put my dark-coloured cloak on, "but figuring out why Kaius Thornfort wanted to meet us at his house while he could already come here by himself is another thing."

"Maybe because his dignity was too high to even move out of his house just to meet pitying people's servers like us?" Akif raised his eyebrows.

"That would be the case, except that this man actually used to live on the streets before becoming one of the most successful hotel owners in this area." I opened the door. "And I have quite a good relationship with this admirable master. Can't ruin it." I smiled.

"Yea, yea, whatever." Akif snorted while Carstina slapped on his shoulder for his attitude and nervously whispered to him, keeping his manners.

"...Please show us the way, captain." Carstina used that title to call me for the first time.

The three of us walked out of the room and went down the road.

***

"In Alteravita, people didn't die of poverty and hunger.

People died from maniacs who dared to play with fire—the superior magic for us mortals to just need to be used in such a wrong way, and death would be cast upon us. How ironic when the dead are luckier than the living, who had to breathe with their uncompleted bodies until their souls left their tormented vessels.

People died when someone unfortunately angered the arrogant nobles with their ridiculous, superior dignity but whose emotional intelligence was not equal to a piece of bread from the labourers. Just a wave of their hand could cause an entire village to be burned down in flames.

People died because someone accidentally made an unfair trade with powerful demons, so that they don't have to work yet still have money flowing into their pockets, or becoming the most beautiful person in the village. But they never read the deals to the end to know that they had to pay a much more exorbitant price: their children, their parents, their Souls, their Hearts, or even their entire families to exchange, just a few later when their contracts were completed.

People die from daring to go into the Mystique Forest to hunt Faeries, thinking that their flesh could bring immortality without knowing the rumour itself was a trap, so humans could voluntarily walk in their plates and become their delicious meal. They die from overdosing on Stardust, the addictive drug from the Faeries that once used will be craved forever.

People died when they offended each other, made enemies of each other, and cursed each other to death with black magic.

In some miraculous way, people here never have to worry about the lack of food and clothing at all.

They didn't die of poverty or hunger. They died because of stupidity, greed, envy, pride, and hatred.

Yet I can't figure out why these kingdoms still exist in peace after all these years. Maybe a certain king has made a contract with a powerful demon in exchange for peace and wealth for his kingdom? Or perhaps the gods found our corrupted nature rather enticing and entertaining, so they protected us for the sake of themselves?

After more than fourteen years I have lived here, will this temporary peaceful world break out into wars?

Will then I be able to start my journey and fulfil my destiny? Will I ever find the stairways to Heaven?

I still can't have satisfactory answers to those mysteries.

However,...

As long as I still feel that Alteravita wasn't that hard to live as how I was in my old world... I feel that continuing to live here was not really a concern at all."

Lyve Evayesha's Diary, September 7, 1589, After the Gathering.