07.33 @#0$%, of calendar xxxx
Let me introduce myself.
My name is Kaleth
The citizen of the capital city, Arnentia kingdom, 20 years old, and unemployed
Given that I just graduated from the academy, I probably should find a job right away, right? That's just how it should be, yet here I am lying in the meadow looking at the bright blue skies.
It's not like I had tons of money, well, I could say I'm a middle-class person.
Sitting up and leaning back into a tree, seeing others go to their job is a pretty good sight... it eases something in my heart that I never knew existed.
The Arnentia kingdom, one of the kingdoms that has existed since ancient times, has its roots so far back that it can't be compared to any other kingdom.
The fact that this kingdom has existed since ancient times is already self-explanatory, as is how the nobles manage it.
"They should've learning managing a country... a country like them..."
What did I even say?
It's funny how this kingdom's history could be traced back into ancient times, given there isn't much of a record, but only a few pieces of record, I mean, they should just record it on the cloud...
"Cloud?" What the fuck was that..?
It seems I've been lying down for too long, standing up, just made me realize it again and again, for how big this city was, the capital city was built based on a pentagon shape.
The flat edge of the bottom was a sea border, it's filled with nothing but water-related things. What else did you expect? Its were the fishermen, an expedition boat for supplies, and such.
The center of the kingdom is a noble place, from the king and queen to the lowest one, which is a baron. It's not like the place we're locked up for commoners, but rather it's heavily guarded, and we could not do a lot of things there as commoners, though.
Well, there's a academy too over nobles' area, it's the top 1 in this kingdom, it's open to the public, but it's definitely hard to compete, the class was separated by class 1 or like fresh junior, till class seventh class, or the last class before graduated. Other than that, most commoners go there for just sightseeing.
While walking on the road isn't that bad, since this place isn't packed with citizens in the morning, cause most of them are working, and also it's hard to get the citizen pass for living inside here, is also one of the reasons.
The capital isn't as big as its history, well, yes.
Because this is just one part of the kingdom, the most logical reason is probably that the smaller the capital, the easier it is to manage.
"It's not even that small, honestly," while looking around the marketplace, that were packed with people buying and selling things.
"This is definitely the only part of this city that was packed up in the morning..."
Half of the lower part of the city was a market area, where you could buy almost anything: food, accessories, clothes, etc, and one of the cheapest foods is definitely the fish, since the lower border is a sea.
The city itself is small compared to the kingdom territory, but it's not that small, it's probably around 80km2. I probably should call it decent-sized rather than small.
"A different perspective will make different things look smaller or bigger..."
Seeing how the fisherman moves their fish, and a lot of ships just stop and go, is pretty much how busy they were.
------
The residential area, where all of the commoners live, is pretty much near the border of this city. Honestly, it's actually pretty good, it's not packed up or built by making the space and game thinner, but rather more like a residential complex rather than a commoner's house.
One of the reasons is that the commoners in this capital city are pretty much middle-class families, cause they were working for a noble, and another reason is how the government manages the city.
Hats off to them
As I walk toward my house... and enter it.
Somehow, for today, when I wake up or even walk around the house... it feels unfamiliar, which I myself can't even explain.
How the living room was neatly arranged, with wooden chairs and tables... how the walls were hung with weapon accessories... How the smell of this house feels completely strange...
Even hearing my own name feels like calling some stranger names.
I thought I was half asleep, so these feelings should disappear soon, but it seems I was wrong.
Entering the room and reading the citizen information that was placed on top of the tables.
Name: Kaleth
Birth: 17 Yi'el of Moonrachia cycle 3001
place of birth: Capital of the Arnentia kingdom
Sex: Male
Last career: graduated from Arnentiasis, studied Magictology
unfamiliar, so unfamiliar
"What is actually happening is because of yesterday's event..?" I sit down on my bed while looking into my windows.
"As far as I know, there is no such side effect of it... I'm probably just tired," as I lie down, and slowly and surely my consciousness fades away.
------
I had a strange dream, a dream where humanity was capable of capturing a picture of the vast universe, exploring the moon, traveling without a horse, and things I can't understand...
It's a dream, yet it feels like I was watching a movie... "What is a movie?"
Watching some kid building a sand castle alone in the chill nighttime, watching someone graduating from a famous school... or university? "What is a university?"
The dreams stretch so long that it feels like a few years have just passed, until...
The end of that person's life... with nothing but covered with a full of fire...
When I woke up, I was covered with a layer of sweat... without realizing I was sleeping for almost 12 hours...
The windows that I haven't locked up, letting the moonlight shower my room with its pale light, when I leave my bed and stand near the windows.
New moon, yeah new moon, a moon where, after a millennium of its life, they would slowly erode, lose its light, and then be broken into pieces, it's a cycle of the moon, and another one will appear.
The new moon would appear shortly after the previous one disappears, it appears within a thin air and eats part of the previous one, while absorbing the mana around it.
Which will make the new one brighter and pulpier.
Yesterday was one of those events, the birth of the new moon, now the world looks much brighter at night with its pale light.
It's what I should have noticed, but as a magictology student... the previous event and today's event feel too coincidental...
A strange phenomenon, where the moon destroyed and rebirthed, a strange, unfamiliar feeling, and weird dreams... I really want to shrug them away... but the unease in my heart just makes me more confused.
And scared.
I still remember the research archive of the cycle of the moon.
It's a phenomenon where a thing will reach its limit, like how any other thing, where every birth will always have its end, it's like how the sun will eat the nearby planet once its fuel runs out.
It's completely normal.
Yeah, it's completely normal.
It's how I tried to hypnotize myself, that everything is normal...
Leaving the bedroom, and staring at the living room makes my headache, this isn't how my living room should be, there shouldn't be any weapon decoration, where is my sofa and the television I had?
As I stumble while walking around the living room, I support myself against the walls.
It's cold... but the only thing I could see is a hellish burning red.
The photo frame that shouldn't exist, somehow appears blurry in the corner of my eyes.
"It's... hurt" as I fell to my knees.
A certain sound makes me panic and look at the ceiling as fast as possible while trying to dodge... despite it's just a cricket sound.
"My eyes hurt..." while my surroundings change their visuals every time my heartbeat, the small modern home, and the small residential wooden house...
My ear ringing... there's also a gentle voice screaming inside my head, an old man singing something, a child's bright voice laughing, and thousands of similar voices. As they were overlapping infinitely, it was so hard to recognize what they were saying.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" covering my ears as tight as I could.
"aaAAagh," trying my best, crawling into the kitchen
With fumbling and trembling hands, I was trying to find the knife in the utensil place like a careless child trying to pick up their toy.
"I-i.. can-t h-handdle... it an..ymore" with a tremble and sobbing voice.
And with that, I stabbed my neck with the knife, the sharp object was pierced til the back of it.
it hurt
its hurts
ITS HURTS
As the blood vessel severed and its blood flowed into my lungs, making it much harder to breathe, I stumbled to the kitchen floor.
Within the cold night air, the knife feels colder, either because I lost too much blood or because it's just because of the nighttime.
With the last breath of mine, followed by a river of blood flooding into my nose and mouth, as how the machine turned off, my consciousness faded without any notice.
------
its black
completely black
I can't see anything, nor walking, I feel like I'm floating away without any direction. Am I flying? Am I falling? I don't even know.
I can't feel my body. This is the place where the soul would go when their physical body dies?
"one, two, three..." counting down until something changed.
Does the time flow here?
"four hundred and eleven... four hundred and twelve..." I don't think so...
Is this what hell is? Torturing the soul of someone until they go insane?
"fifth thousand and three hunder... fifth thousand and three hundred one..."
It's already one hour... it seems our thought is fully focused on counting, given that in reality humans tend to forget once they reach a certain number... I guess without managing body and such, they are fully functioning properly...
...
I don't bother counting anymore, I've managed to imagine what could happen with every single "if" choice of my life, as an Aronn or Kaleth.
I could hear my thoughts scattering, they were thinking about other things. There's one thought that was saying something incomprehensible, there's one thought that's going mad, and there's one who was still counting.
It's already reached "Thirty-one million, six hundred thousand, one"
Is I'm the original thought? I don't know...
The thought continued flowing, within this blank space, until every single one of them was breaking apart, until every piece of them was unable to think properly.
"whata sigma" "haHahhaHAA" "coffee, I need one" "1000-7" "tung tung tung sahur" "god has died" "let me die"...
"let me die" "let me die" "let me die" "let me die" "let me die" "let me die"
"let" "me" "die"
And then, the blank world was filled with pale light, completely shining everything in this space.
------
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the kitchen floor, as if I was waking up from a really long hibernation.
My head hurts
The knife... reflecting the moonlight, somehow I feel the light was much more pale than I remember.
What just happened? The last thing I could recall is stabbing my own neck, but touching the part where it should be cut was nothing but clean and soft skin.
When I pick up the knife, I see my face reflected on it. Have I always had white eyes? I don't know.
Standing inside my own house makes my headache...
So I walked outside, the moon was above my head shining its silvery yet pale light, and the residential area was quiet, since it was probably late in the night.
As I walk toward the outer gate, I meet with its guard, not much talk given that they knew me, as I always do some magic research late in the night, why? It's like how you had a burst of an idea out of nowhere in the late night.
Walking deep into the forest, where I could hear the river flowing, how the breeze gently moves the tree leaves, and how the insects sing their lullaby, filled the entire forest.
After walking for a pretty long distance, I stopped beside the lake in the forest and took out the item I brought from the kitchen, which was a knife.
And just start stabbing my neck again once more, while I seen rabbit jumping in the corner of my eyes.
Why did I even stab my own neck? Why did I want to died?
When the knife made contact with my neck, the one part where it should have pierced my skin, disappeared as if the edge of the knife were teleported and sent it somewhere, while the rest of the knife was still in my hand.
And somehow, the rabbit I saw jumping previously was dead.