Lea, The Story of the Magus of the Casiopea Continent
Autumn in the Dream Country

 The sky is not yet dark, and a tinge of orange color is still visible in the western horizon. But from the very beginning of the day, I have been tidying myself up and taking a shower. I started to look at myself in front of the mirror. Our Scorpio City is by the beach, so the heat from the sea tends to be humid and makes anyone sweat actively, so I choose to bathe as often as possible to avoid the body from unpleasant odors.

   I unpacked my mother's coffin, searched around for clothes to wear when singing at the LearoQ bar tonight. I snatched away my annoyance, I had been unpacking the contents of the box for half an hour, but there was none that I thought was appropriate to be worn as a performer at LearoQ tonight. 

   All of my mother's clothes were in fact dresses that intersected simple, not sexy and not impressively luxurious. But I know, even though he lives in a narrow life, but at least someone must have one or two pieces of clothing that deserve to be worn when he attends a party, right?

   In the end after weighing many times, my choice fell on a single piece of Cheongsam, with an elongated line splitting the thighs that would show my legs.

   My mother named Christiana Bartolotta is a Venula race girl from Dorado Country. Like the people of this race, he had a physical appearance with golden colored hair, complete with blue eyeballs as bright as the sky. 

   But in his youth my mother fell in love with my father a young man from the Dorado enemy Negri Hydra. Father was a handsome man with black hair straight as the color of soot, who had yellow skin with eyeballs as dark as night with eyes as sharp as the eyes of an eagle typical of Hydra people. 

   Yes my father was a man of the Han race or tribe - his one-on-one race had a different appearance in our Casiopea Continent. Many people do not like the Han people of the Land of Hydra. Word of the wind was blowing with a bang that told me that the Han people were the descendants of witches.

They are said to be experts in the science of necromancy and incantation. That is why Negri Aquila, despite hating Negri Hydra, never openly invited the land in direct warfare. Magic with warfare is a terrible combination in this time.

   With a blend of the uniqueness of my father's handsome face and my mother's beauty, I have smooth skin like a baby that is clean yellow, straight black hair like the Han race people in general, but my eyes and height follow the lineage of the Venula race. My eyes look tapered like eagle eyes, like the eyes of the Han people, but have light-colored eyes like sky blue.

   With this mixed appearance of mine, whispers among the neighbors - I heard often when I was little, my sharp eyes and black hair - this was a hint that I was going to become a witch.

But I never heeded that kind of nonsense. If only I had magic power, wouldn't I have become a Knight or a Military Officer and lived honorably? Why should I live in distress and hope from the mercy of Adele who works as a peddler of love? Ah. all just bullshit !

******

   In front of that mirror I barely recognized who I was when I wore my mother's Cheongsam dress. It's a little loose, but who will notice? The gazes of the striped-nose men must have been fixed on my legs which looked in contrast to the color of this cheongsam dress.

(Cheongsam Gaun is a typical Han dress. And as the wife of a Han man, my mother was obliged to have this dress, during the tea ceremony when she married first).

   I chose the lip dye that looks the most natural, and still gives a little impression as a good woman, when later singing in LearoQ. Well, although it has dismantled all collections of lip dyes belonging to Adele that have too dramatic colors typical of women at night, the, in the end, I decided to choose the most inconspicuous of all colors, praying that I would not look like a whore.

   I walked along a street lit only with wall lights leading to LearoQ. When I met some women, the housewives who liked to gossip, I hurriedly lowered my face so that the women would not be recognized.

"Was she the new prostitute in LearoQ" the other woman's voice was so loudly uttered as she poked her friend's arm.

"Pity is still so young but choose a shortcut by living a life of being a paid woman"

   My footsteps accelerated more and more while cursing in my heart. 

"Damnu ...Adele's high cellop really makes it difficult for me to quickly disappear from the presence of two women who worship gossip" 

Brak ! 

   I slammed LearoQ's door hard because I was still irritated by the gossip of the two women I met earlier.

"Look who this beautiful girl is.." Mr. Uwais Jardin praised my performance. His hands were wide open and hugged me like an uncle to his uncle. I returned the warmth and hospitality of the man. 

   Meanwhile, I, who was blushing in shame at Mr. Uwais's praise, was unaware of the jealous gazes of some old prostitute who had been Mr. Uwais's men for a dozen years. Catherine for example. The 34-year-old woman scowled at my hair, which she thought was too black to look like a witch.

"You should change the color of your hair to become shiny like the color of Dorado's hair.

Your black hair makes you look a little like a necromancer" Catherine sneered. Catherine then pulled out her naturally wavy golden hair and smelled a kind of horny incense.

   Adele stood up to me while giving me dark eyes that made my face look dramatic.

"Ah.. has Catherine. You're just jealous of Lea's youthfulness and beauty. Lea doesn't want to compete to be a Learoq girl like us. He just came to sing tonight. You know yourself, don't you? None of us has singing talent" Adele tidied up my eye dye. I was horrified to see my eyes look like women dracula - this story I heard from old people's stories about Vampires.

Adele continued combing my black hair that had fallen down, so straight as a waterfall that fell into a river. Said..

"After all, Lea's age is very young and she doesn't want to compete for your customers" said Adele, who now gives her a long black swan feather to reinforce my appearance.

   I noticed my appearance that was getting more and more horrible. As soon as I saw myself, those drunkards must have thought I was a young prostitute.

"Please Adele stop your hands that keep coloring my eyes" I said, clasping Adela's hands and walking towards the small stage.

   Two musicians, Uncle Alain Vaganay, a gramophone player, and Owen Plantier, a young 25-year-old violinist, started playing music when I whispered a song title.

"Autumn in the Land of Dreams. Please play it in C minor" I said.

   Skillful friction of violin strings in Owen Plantier's play. Uncle Alain then chimed in the sound of violin strings with a heart-wrenching rhythm which was then followed by a grieving sound that made this song sound so sad and heart-wrenching.

   I repeated the song Autumn in Dream Country three times with great depth. My eyes were closed as long as I sang - completely living while imagining autumn in a faraway land, and imagining being in love with a handsome prince who would pull him out of this poverty.

   When I finished with this one song, I was surprised to see that so many people had gathered and watched my performance. The sound of applause rattled me, as bottles of wine and whiskey flowed from the storage warehouse, the bar guests began to dissolve in joy.

"When the Harvest Party begins" I told the musician to play the next song. Owen Plantier winked at me, as if to sign him to follow her tonight. I just smiled like a kitten - pretending to be shy but actually liking the handsome guy. 

Seriate.

If you like this story, support the author by giving like and subscribe to this novel for his update notification. Thank ye.