Chương 3

For a garbage alley, the street was quite visually pleasing. The small nooks of litter and grime were easy to ignore. The buildings were constructed of different shades of bricks. Starting black on ground level, the color artistically switched to white as the stories increased, reaching high enough to block most of the evening sun. Not a crack was left on the foundations from receiving my Force Blast, where the uniformed officer of House Ellaris lay unconscious. House Ellaris? What's that? It happened again.

Knowledge appeared in my head. I knew that the insignia on the man's uniform, a flower blooming into a fireball, was from House Ellaris, who controlled all of the city's mages. The grey and red colors belonged to law enforcement—specifically to mage officers. That was common knowledge to anyone in this city, according to the new information in my head. I blinked, taking in the surreal feeling. Earlier, I'd instinctively understood the language being spoken.

With the same intuition, I could now identify the officers. It was a genuinely creepy feeling. Interesting, I thought. Do I have access to my new body's memories? That would have made the most sense. All of this was knowledge the boy would have had. He was born into this language—another new fact I knew was true—and he'd grown up in this city. His parents lived here, around three miles west. We were currently in the outskirts of the city.

The memories, however, did not tell me why the boy was fully masked up right now, escaping from law enforcement. So how screwed am I for murdering a mage officer? My new memories told me I could be looking at the death of my whole family just for what the boy had attempted before I took over. Murdering an officer was the cherry on top. That information was more uncertain. The boy himself wasn't entirely sure. His name was Vora. I'd worn a mask through the entire fight.

As far as Vora knew, this was a smooth escape with no risk of being identified. There were no traces linking him to this mystery crime. Then again, criminals weren't always aware of the thread that ended up in them getting caught. The officers asked me to return a book, I thought. I opened Vora's satchel, finding the whole thing empty, with no signs of any books. The satchel had been loaded with vials and throwable potions, which Vora had all spent during the crime. Was Vora alone during the crime?

The answer was no. Vora had accomplices. Or maybe Vora was the accomplice. Every thought related to the crime felt uncertain and insecure. Who knew where that mystical book was, or why Vora wanted it? I took a deep breath in. What a mess. Damn you, Vora, I also have my personal problems to deal with. Like figuring out whether Trina was also on this same planet. Not to mention, learning what the hell brought me here in the first place.

The presence who appeared in my head on earth spoke English; that much I remember." Found you," the voice had said. Were they still after me? If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. I had no fucking idea. With the information I had now, all I could do was avoid long-distance tracker spells in hopes I wouldn't be caught again. The most immediate issue was to leave the garbage alley.

As silent and peaceful of a spot this was to think, more officers could be arriving at any second, or even just some random dude taking out the trash.

I still had a crime I had to get away with. I'm a regular citizen right now, I thought. If I get rid of this cloak, I can blend in with society. I confirmed that Vora wore clothes underneath the cloak. Everything was sweaty, but he did wear a black shirt and jogging pants. He seemed to have also planned on abandoning the cloak once he got away. Before that, I'd ideally want to sneak a few streets off to the side. If I walked out and revealed my face now, witnesses could see I'd left the crime scene.

I tried to consult Vora's memories for directions, only to find that he was essentially lost in his own city. Fantastic. Walking swiftly, I headed out of the dead end the way Vora had arrived. The alley lit up ahead, opening to a larger street. It wasn't particularly busy at this time of day, a few miles from the city center, but I still feared that citizens would be waiting outside out of curiosity, just like kids on earth watched a crime scene from outside.

That thought led to another bit of knowledge from Vora's memories. In this city, the colors of grey and red were feared. The mage officers held a lot of power, which they were known to abuse. People avoided magic in fear of it, choosing to avoid any streets with mage officers. That meant fewer witnesses. That was something good, at least. I still had to get away from here sneakily.

Running off in a mask would draw too much attention, and nonchalantly walking off of the street would run the risk of neighbors watching the alley from their windows. What spells could I use? I wondered. Invisibility or teleportation would have been convenient had I invented those. Sadly, my magic was far from limitless. I glanced around myself. The only other exits were back doors to the apartment complexes. They weren't shared tenements—Vora knew these buildings were apartments. I got an idea.

Not the best one, but one I could imagine working. In the shadows of the garbage alley, I took off the cloak and mask, revealing my body in tight jogging pants and a black shirt. I ran the risk of being spotted now, but I gambled on Vora's knowledge that nobody would want to enter a street where magic was just blasted. I placed my disguise in its entirety, including the satchel, into a clump. I cast Levitate on it, floating it in space.

Then, forming a globe of red mana on top of that clump, I heated it up with a spell I called Mana Burn. The globe scorched my disguise with a thousand degrees of heat. I kept it up for a few seconds. By the time it ended, nothing but a clump of ash and metal bits from the satchel remained. Now clad in ordinary clothes with my face revealed, I moved to one of the apartments. Holding my palm against the back door, I cast Detect Life. Someone was there. Right outside the door. Shit. This wouldn't work.

I needed an empty building. I moved to a door on the other side. By now, I was abusing the last few drops of mana from my utterly drained core. I still needed enough mana to bypass the lock. If I cast one more Detect Life, that would literally drain me. Need to risk it, I thought, and instead of checking if anyone was inside, I blasted my final bits of mana into the lock, forcing the latch in the lock to move out of the way while simultaneously pulling. The door slid open. Please be empty!

I pleaded, and sneaked in. Closing the door behind me, the lock wasn't broken, clicking shut normally. Thick wooden doors and brick walls formed the hallway. A patterned carpet covered the cold stone floor. Above, a long rectangular lamp ran through the middle of the hallway, lighting it with a greenish glow. Alchemical lamps. On the wall was a noticeboard with adverts and a string of letter-like notes. There were ventilation holes pumping cold air and signs of sophisticated living.

This was by no means a medieval tenement. Most importantly, the hallway was entirely empty. With hasty steps, I made it to the front door, which could be opened from the inside with no key. I opened the door, stretched and yawned, exiting the building. Nobody batted an eye as I embarked on my evening jog out of the crime scene. I appeared on the streets of New Asterra.