*

As we were having our lunch, there was a knock on our front door, my father got up from his seat and went toward the door, he then unlocked the door, before seeing who it was, and as soon as he opened it, we were greeted with the stray dog.

After seeing him, my father called me and said, "Son, your old friend has come to visit you", while laughing.

I came and I saw him, my father then said to me, "Should we adopt him?".

I said "Won't it be a problem, because of the -", as I was saying it, we heard a loud sound, it came from near our house, I saw my father's expression, it was unchanged, My mother then called both of us back, my father went to the table, and as I said bye to the dog, and came back to the table, the dog started to follow me.

My cat saw the dog and started to walk toward me, happily, and the cat too wanted to play with the dog.

My father saw it and said, look honey we have a new family, even the great Incarnation of the devil has accepted him.

'Incarnation of the Evil' was the name of our cat.

My mother kept silent and my little brother was happy, seeing all of us happy, Mother had a little smile as we ate in peace.

The cat then turned around us, it was to guide the dog, as a good member of our family, the cat, took its duty to guide the new member.

After lunch Father asked whether I wanted to visit the tax office, it was the place where all the matter on tax was done, from the death of a family to a birth everything had to be recorded there.

We were going to adopt a dog, the one which came to our house, so we had to give it a name, check its health, get some scolding from the workers, and make it register under my family as a pet.

My father then said, "Honey, I will visit the tax office along with our son, is it ok? with my mother". After getting Mother's permission, I and father got on the journey to the office, and we started to walk.

As we reached the city area, there were many buildings, from inns to taverns, from commercial buildings to government buildings for the Patrolling Guards.

From the entrance of Enmath, the capital of Rugia, my father, held his hand for a tram, which was also called a streetcar and trolley car, by the public, like me and my father.

A tram slowed its speed seeing us, but after viewing our clothes, it started to speed up, it was because that tram was specially for the middle class or if needed, for the nobles and royals.

Trams for the middle class and lower class had bulky black colored engines, and they were powered by Charcoal.

I was wearing a white shirt and full-length trousers.

Stolen story; please report.

As we continued walking, a middle-aged person stopped his carriage in front of us, His gaze fell on us before he started saying, "Leon, step onto the carriage with your father". Confused by him and his attire along with the fact that I did not know that person.

I looked at him like he was crazy, but in my mind, there was a little sound which was like get on, and my father looked at me as if he thought I knew that man, so he was asking us, the people surrounding us looked at us, my father left a nervous laugh and accepted his kindness.

After we got in, we noticed that his cart had two rows of seats, each row could hold three people, and they were made to face each other.

My father and I sat on the second row while the man was enjoying his wine, suddenly I noticed something, his eyes did not glow like that of the butcher.

I tried to see out the window, but the man noticed it and said to my father, "Mister, aren't the sunlight a little too much, should we open the blinds?".

As soon as the blinds were closed, he started to enjoy his drink again, just then the lamp inside the cart lit open, this time I saw the drink as red as blood, it might been because of a book which I had read some times ago, which followed similar concept and my father asked whether it was some sort of artifact.

My father liked artifacts, and even though they were expensive he saved his money to buy them as I did for books, my mother always joked about my father and I had similar interests in collecting.

He then ignored my father and looked at me, "Believe yourself and nothing else, the things which seem normal are not"

As I said it I looked at my father, I just turned my eye to the right side, where my father sat, he was listening to the man's words, one by one, I understood why, it was because not become an enemy of them and to not make them angry.

As the man was about to say something else the driver of the carriage said, "We are near the office, Master"

Afterward, we left his carriage, and we bid each other farewell, saying if fate let us meet again, let us meet.

****

As my body started to glow, I started to feel sick, my body was not adjusting to the change, and as I felt uncomfortable, I held my friend's hands, but before they could do something I got pulled over to the owner's chamber, it was the room of Mr. Aren, he teleported me and there was Thomas near him, was it their plan to trap me? I thought, but before I could do anything, Mr. Aren said "Thomas, you said you wanted to say something, that you wanted to apologize"

He wanted to apologize to me, I accepted his apologies and I got teleported to my room again, as I thought about it, I realized something, my memory had been altered, for a spell to work, the person who had used it had to use something for the magic to work.

A person could use things like, wait what was it? I thought hard

I asked my friend to lend me his notes, from the beginning.

After reading it my doubt became clear, I was not the original, I was a clone, a replacement for the body, and my soul was trapped in the body. Or so I thought.

The different types of ways to output magic were,

i) The person could chant and pray to the gods and goddesses.

ii) A person could burn her/his lifespan for magic.

iii) Burning other people's souls for magic.

iv) Sacrificing humans and animals.

v) Using the layer produced by a species of animals called Lucotian.

Now after seeing me read the beginning books, my one friend took the book from my hand and started to ask me some questions.

Now answer, he said,

"What is a Lucotian?" he questioned.

"A Lucotian is a being that has sharp fangs and claws, it tries to imitate humans but as it does not have the mind to think naturally, it tries to apply chanting but as it can't it creates a large amount of a special gas called Magium," I answered.