Long ago, there was an island gripped by a cruel fate.
A relentless drought scorched the land, and an unyielding winter chilled its bones.
One by one, the crops withered and died.
The villagers are weakened and desperate, frozing through endless cold nights.
Slowly, the island fell silent. Its villages crumbling into dust and shadow.
Amid this despair, a barren priestess emerged. Her blindfolded eyes held a determination unsoftened by the silence beneath her.
To perform a forbidden ritual and summoning a being unlike god or demon—something otherworldly.
The power she invoked was potent, halting the disasters that had plagued the island for so long.
Centuries slipped by, and the island once dead and forgotten bloomed anew—
A vibrant village nestled near the glowing heart of an active volcano named Cadensia.
*———————*
Near a modest stone house, perched on a hill overlooking the village, a woman seemingly around her early fourties called out cheerfully.
"Dannie, come down here and we will eat our dinner after I'm done washing your clothes." Lira said as her carefree tone ring out from the window of their house.
From inside the house, a voice answers but its fidgety and hesitant.
"Mom, please wait for a moment... will just follow after I'm done finding that!"
"Just come down here! Find it after eating dinner!" Lira reply with a sharp tone.
Hearing the impatient tone of her mother, Dannie hastly scanned everything in her mother's room.
Her fingers sifting quickly through stacks of scattered books and tossed clothes.
Just when she's about to gave up her hand brushed against something rough and thick beneath a pile of fabric.
It was ripped, old and worned notebook, and covered with thick layer of dust. As she carefully pulled it out and blew the dust off as the faded cover starts to reveal itself. "Lira" the title of that book made out of thin fiber of gold.
"Mother said to come downstairs... But I know she won't be finished anytime soon so~" and carefully flipped the book opened.
The handwriting were cursive but aged, and looks that someone had been given time before he/she wrote it.
Flipping the first page carefully, She begins to read:
"For My Dearest Loved One,
Even In The Tangled Hours, This World shall Bend
Here, In A Place Time Refuse To End.
Your Footsteps Fall Like a Whispered Rain,
A Dance Between Thy Joy And Pain.
Stars that Forgot Their Usual Place,
While Time Folds Softly Around Your Face.
Though Distant Roads May Twist And Lack,
I Hold Thy Moment... Waiting For Your Back."
*******
A man named Xam sat alone at the corner café table, with his crumpled resume in hand, his eyes tired and squinting at the screen of his battered phone.
The message stared up at him coldly:
[Subject: Update on your application for assistant manager at company A.
Dear Murillo Xam,
Good day! I would like to inform you that despite your outstanding resume you did not pass the final interview….]
Xam let out a dry laugh
"Wow…what a great way to start my day."
He muttered bitterly, looking at the crowd stroll by with their company IDs swinging like they are a badge of honor.
Xam softly whispered "yeah, nothing screams I got my life together and have a lifetime supply of coffee sticks."
But his early morning hum of the city suddenly break as a sharp muffled sound of his mother's ringtone come from his gaming headset.
"Xam! How many times must I tell you? Get a real j*b! Your life is a joke," she snapped, puffy-cheeked and red-faced as usual.
"You're almost thirty and still mooching off your roommate, playing video games, reading novels, and eating instant noodles. What a total failure."
Xam gritted his teeth, thumbs hovering over the screen as he scrolled through a bleak list of job openings rejected, "not qualified," no calls back, an endless void of digital dead ends.
"Well, Mom... I'm trying, okay? It's not like j*bs are falling from the sky." He mumbled, a little defeated.
"Trying isn't good enough!" she barked.
"You need a plan, a career. You waste your life every day sleeping past noon. If you want, I can introduce you to my friend's nephew he's hiring at the factory. It's honest work."
Xam sighed. "Thank you for your word of confidence. I'll think about it."
Click…
No goodbye. Just the sound of the line cutting out like a guillotine.
He slumped back in his chair. Thirty, unemployed, and with a mother who could assassinate your self-esteem by phone call.
What was he doing wrong? He ran a hand through his hair and forced a smirk.
"Modern life's got to be tougher than this, huh?," he muttered.
He glanced out the window. The street buzzed faintly but unlike his gray neighborhood, the world around him had an odd, melodic undertone, as if the city itself hummed quietly to itself. That wasn't his imagination…
it was... sound? Music?
"Getting delusional. Great."
This continues for a minute. Strangely, none of the people beside him seems to hear that strange music, making him worry and anxious and just then-
His phone buzzed suddenly. A weird notification popped up.
"Goddess Encounter Detected."
Xam blinked out loud. "What the hell is this now?"
Before he could ponder further, a voice snapped in his head. A Shrill, lazy, dripping with irritation.
"Hey hey hey, mortal! Yes, you, unemployed and angst-ridden! I'm Lia, goddess of... whatever!" The voice oozed with sarcasm.
"Ahemgh… You, sir, are about to have a change of fortune, so buckle up…Or don't. I'm kinda feeling lazy today."
Xam blinked in disbelief, dropped his phone, and rubbed his temples.
"Great, now I'm hallucinating. Either that or I'm reading too many fantasy webnovels."
Lia's ghostly laughter tinkled like wind chimes.
"Oh come on, it's me, the goddess of your destiny! You're being reincarnated? Congratulations.
I'm supposed to help you adjust, but I'm too lazy to deal with you… So figure it out yourself.
And, also try not to kill yourself there hehehe…"
Xam leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling. "Wonderful, I get the divine version of customer support'."
"Can't you pick a better word..." the voice teased, then yawned.
He sighed, glancing at the sky as if hoping to find some cosmic sign but only seeing gray clouds melding in with the city's concrete jungle.
"Alright, fine. Whatever this is, I'm ready to get hit by that revered reincarnation truck, you know, the actual one, not like I believe in that." he muttered, waving a hand at the street outside.
Minutes later, Xam stood on the cracked curb, nervously shifting his weight like a newborn deer.
A scruffy cat was perched precariously on the edge of the road, eyes fixed on a shiny, flapping bag caught in a breeze.
Cars rumbled past, indifferent to the small drama unfolding below.
"Hey kitty. Don't do anything dumb," Xam whispered.
As the bag whirlwhipped closer to the cat, Xam lunged instinctively, scooping the creature off the dangerous edge just in time.
The cat wriggled, claws tapping on his forearm, but alive and unscathed.
He smirked, petting the scruffy fur. "You're lucky I don't have a job or you'd be toast."
However, the street hummed once again with its low, musical, like strings tightening in some invisible orchestra.
Then, with no warning, a monstrous rumble blasted through the street behind him.
A huge cargo truck screeched around the corner with a thunderous squeal of brakes and the screech of tires burning pavement.
Xam barely had time to register the danger before a deep voice in his head shouted,
"Move!"
His body reacted too slowly.
THUD!
He slammed down hard on the cobblestones as the world flashed white.
…
..
.
When Xam's eyelids flickered open, a strange silence greeted him.
The air was thick but not polluted… it felt charged with something intangible, something alive.
He blinked up at a sky veiled in twilight. The architecture around him didn't look modern at all.
The streets were cobbled, and the buildings shimmered faintly with the aura of sound.
Massive iron gates hummed softly, and above, some strange plants glowed dimly, bioluminescent in hues of blue and violet. Or some sort of whatever light.
"Where the hell am I?" Xam muttered, struggling upright.
His hands brushed against a workbench cluttered with hammers, anvil, and glowing metal scraps.
His fingers twitched, tingling. His new clothes weren't his as they were worn leather, smeared with soot and ash.
As he flexed his hands, a strange feeling filled him: a quiet void, an absence of sound that felt powerful, like a bubble of energy growing under his skin.
"Oh, this is new,"
Though before he could fully process his current situation, a sharp yowl shattered the calm. He turned to see a ragged cat, likely the same one from a rooftop ledge, dangerously close to the street.
Old reflexes kicked in. Despite everything, Xam bolted across the street, scooping up the cat just as a wagon rattled past.
"Damn... Did I like cats that much?" He softly mutters, shaking his head.
"I went from getting hit by a truck to saving cats in a magical city. So, what next?"
Fortunately or unfortunately, just on cue, a sudden scream pierced the air saying "Help! Somebody! Please!"
Again, Xam's gut clenched. With cat in arms, he sprinted around the corner into a narrow, dark alley where a small figure was cowering.
A teenager, seemingly not older than ten, was backed againts a grimy brick wall, fists bruised and eyes wide with fear.
And then, three towering men loomed over him, faces twisted with menace.
"Leave him alone!" Xam blurted, swelling with misplaced courage. "Get away from the kid!"
The tallest thug sneered and cracked his knuckles. "And who's gonna stop us? You? What's this? Some kind of lame guardian angel?"
Xam swallowed his fear and cracked his knuckles too. "Yeah, something like that."
His first punch was a wild swing that missed by a mile. The thugs laughed, barely bothered.
Xam ducked a heavy blow and stumbled, but almost more surprising was the boy, who had been quiet until now, suddenly pulled a small, wicked dagger from his ragged belt.
Before he could even blink, the kid spun with startling speed and jabbed the blade straight into Xam's back. "Surprise!" the boy grinned, wiping the blade on his sleeve like it was a prank.
Xam's stomach lurched. The pain was sharp and immediate, a burning hot slice of betrayal.
"Wait, you're... part of this gang?!" he wheezed, the world tilting sideways like in a drunken carnival ride.
The thugs burst into laughter, clapping the boy on the back.
"Welcome to Cadensia, stranger," one croaked, amused. "Don't worry, you'll learn fast that kindness gets you stabbed around here."
Xam crumpled to the cobblestones, clutching his bleeding back.
"Well... this is gonna be a rough reincarnation... Is it really considered as reincarnation?" he muttered, blinking stars as the world darkened.
A faint, distant voice tugged from the edges of his mind. "Told you I was lazy…"
And with that, Xam's new life in Cadensia had officially begun -- awkward, painful, and utterly ridiculous.
Or so what I thought...