"Name: Harlequin. Age: 19. Occupation: Circus performer/Reporter/part-time chef. Status: Alive.
I'm going to change your status now to temporarily dead. Of course you understand why." A woman wearing a mask said, looking at the young man that sat in a chair in front of her.
The young man's hair was very short, barely one inch long and very dirty. Probably because of the way the officers dragged him to bring him here.
Harley looked up at the woman, revealing his light purple eyes. The woman was clearly stunned, looking at them.
"I understand." Two simple words came from the young man's mouth, making the lady snap out of her daze.
"Are you married? Do you have family that you want to say goodbye to?" The woman asked but Harley only laughed bitterly.
"Oh I wish. As you can see from my profile madam warden, I'm nothing but a hardened labour worker with no home." Harley said, relaxing his head well on the chair to stare at the woman in front of him.
'How did I go from reincarnation to this? As if getting put in the worst place isn't enough.' He swallowed.
He had died while writing a comment for a novel on what was called a phone. He didn't remember much about his old world, but he was reborn in this one as a baby left to die on a random area.
Luckily for him someone found him and sold him off to a wonderful woman who takes cares of lost children.
Well... Having to fight for food everyday with the woman's excuse of training hardened men. He ran away after finding out that she experiments with them at a certain age.
He went to an orphanage and lived there for the shelter, everyday he cursed the one who gave birth to him and threw him out.
But the more he grew, learning about this world and the existence of magic, he kept wondering if his reincarnation was at all natural.
And now he was marked by the harvest itself and was about to embark on a trial to decide whether he becomes a warden or not.
Harley raised a brow at the warden in front of him.
The golden mask she wore had a single horizontal slit on it which he guessed was for seeing but he couldn't see anything through the slit which unsettled him.
"I can see that you escaped the slums at the age of 15 to work under a master. And you're nearly a middle class citizen by now. That's quite a feat." The woman seemed genuinely astonished, judging from her tone.
Harley couldn't tell if she was astonished by how poor his background is or if she is fascinated by the fact that he has been trying to make a life for himself.
"I like you."
"Eh?" Harley raised his head, looking at the woman in front of him with a dumbfounded expression.
All of a sudden she folded the tab, gesturing for him to stand up and follow her, and she walked out of the office.
With a tired sigh, he stood up walking into a new, wide hallway that made Harley shocked to the teeth.
There were magically floating doors all over the place. And majority of them were chained to the ground or to the walls. Each door was unique and had different shapes and sizes.
"If you can survive the Harvest's trial, I'll be waiting for you." The woman said, walking close to him.
Looking at the back of his palm, she saw a straight line running up his arm from the back of his wrist and Harley gritted his teeth, seeing the mark that might end his life.
...
The Harvest was an occurrence that has been going on for generations. The skies turned black all of a sudden, an eternal night sky. Along with this occurrence, people in this world began to wake up with these black marks at the back of their palms.
Anyone marked by the Harvest was sent into a magical trial where they have to complete a task. Those who succeed would come back with supernatural power, becoming wardens while those who don't survive would open a door to hellish creatures to come through from another mystical world.
The fact that it was all so strange for a hardworking man like Harley wasn't the reason why he seemed as if he had already given up.
It was the fact that there was a less than 30% chance of anyone coming back alive. He could also guess that that was why most of the doors here were chained.
...
"It's time." The female warden said, standing back.
Harley stared at the golden mask on her face and frowned, looking forward. All of a sudden, a white door seemed to come into existence with a white light, forming the shape edge to edge.
Harley raised a brow, seeing a plain white door with a single, red horizontal arc on it that kind of resembled a smile.
'So this is the 'Wardens door' that allows wardens to travel worlds. Mine looks... Stupid.' He yawned, looking at the surface of the plain door.
It was two metres tall, releasing a bunch of light smoke which was cold air from its entire body.
The door opened slowly, revealing a dark space within.
Harley turned around one last time to look at the warden woman, and then he looked at the entrance of this hall, where two men with aggressive looking police uniforms and guns were stationed.
"Do you want to die?" The woman's stern voice reached his ears, making him raise a brow.
"No?"
She nodded walking towards him.
"Good." With a nudge, she pushed him into the door with enough force to send him flying in, all he heard was his own screams as he lost consciousness.