Chapter One

Deep in the forest stood a lone mansion with it's grand appearance looking out of place in such lush forest where no one lives. Despite it's grand appearance, there was no one moving in the residence. Well, before this, that is.

"BOOOOM!"

Such large explosion made many small creature running away from the manor. and the sound actually came from one of the emty room. It was the door of a sleeping cabin in one the room was kicked from the inside and flew across the room to be imbedded into the wall. From the smoking sleeping cabin, a furious voice shouting profanities came from inside and a little girl, no more than 17-18 year old came out with her small and slender body, her face was small with pointed chin, big chestnut shaped blue sky eyes and small pink lips. Her face was full of innocence but that small mouth spit out things that no naive and innocent girl would say.

"FUCK! Fucking ass roasted in hell! Which rascal blew up the experiment room downstairs!!! Dare to do dangerous experimentation on 26th floor, I'll skin that hairy kid alive!! And which blind bastard dared to put this old man in a coffin. He'd better hide deep or this old man will hang him from the Zeire Tower(which is the highest tower recorded in the world)!!"

After propping up her body from the giant 'coffin', she finally saw the things in the room and frowned. "Bloody hell. Where the fu-" she stopped her words when she finally realized that something was wrong.

Xavius, one of the 13 Great Archmage in the world, the great magician who made great contribution to the magic world, while in public, a dignified old man, in private, leader in the pranking group, a great man, looked at his, excuse me, her small frail hand with smooth translucent skin in a daze when he realize his, ahem, her rough voice sounded different. Milky cat different.

"…"

A hard punch hit her in the face, so hard that she collapsed to the side of the sleeping cabin.

"Ow." Xavius held her reddening cheek dazedly, holding back the pain on the cheek. "It's not a dream."

A normal person reaction in this case, from being a man to being a girl would have been horrified. But, in this case. A 'mad' magician reaction would be...

"…"

"…"

"…"

"AAAHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I've become a girl! Oh my Harry's beard, this is so fascinating! Ohhhhhhhhh! This is so interesting! This is so interesting! This is so interesting! AHAHAHAHA"

Yes. This is the reaction of a 'mad' magician towards new discovery. Rather than being horrified having experienced the missing bird like a normal person, they would somehow always focus on something else than a normal person would.

Jumping out from the sleeping cabin and landed next to it, Xavius looked at the imbedded door deep in the wall and inspected the body one by one and wowed. "This body is so amazing. It's so small and dainty like fragile doll but actually hides such an explosion of strength.

What's more, it could actually bear the soul of my level which is unheard of."

Only the original body can bear the burden of the heavy soul. If the soul is stuffed inside another body, it would only die at an even faster rate as the soul and body doesn't fit.

Back in the Dark Age when Dark Mage was uncontrolled and wild, they did many illegal experiments and fitting a soul into a different body was high in demand. From beast to plant, human to non-human and finally they moved the experiments to other non-alive object. Countless deaths was sacrificed all for that experiment alone and it was proven over time that no matter what kind of body you made, as long as it is not 100% fit as the original body of the soul, it would only end in failure and the body would shut down in just a few months without magic help and a few years with the help of magic.

In other words, it's a dead end. After the Council was build, these kind of experiments was banned and once found was ordered to be executed on the spot.

Xavius fisted her fist and looked at it in contemplation. "It's weird but I don't feel uncomfortable or anything. In fact, it feels as comfortable as my old bones was."

This is indeed weird. As a high leveled magician, his soul pressure is even heavier than others but this body actually fits him, her, 100%. This is definitely something to be noted.

"Scan." blue light particles appeared and warped her whole body. What popped up in Xavius mind made him raise his eyebrows in surprise. "Well, this is a surprise."

"It's a puppet."

Puppet. Like the name, is not a human but a man made body made from all sorts of materials and would only move by the order of the master. The stronger the material, the more powerful the puppets are.

Because they are not alive, even without a soul, the body does not need any supplement nor would it grow. Just like children's toy.

It also means the inside of the body is hollow. What made this body unique is that although this body is a puppet but surprisingly there are organs, bones and muscle in this body, just like a normal person would. Even the brain has it, although it was made from some type of high level material, it is undeniable that it can be used as a brain. What's more, all these organs, muscle, bones and meat, it is all working in order. Even blood.

Xavius touched the swollen cheek and still felt the pain from punching herself hard in the face. "Even the pain nerve is complete." She murmured.

Xavius moved her hand to the sunlight and felt the heat and was even more amazed.

"Such delicate work. This proves that the Puppeteer must be an even higher leveled than old Fidora."

Fidora Lancerli was hailed as the genius puppeteer in the history but even he couldn't do this kind of delicate and detailed work.

Xavius grinned wryly to himself. "That old bastard was right. As long as the body and soul fit 100%, they can live in the body practically forever without fear of aging."

But then again, for a magician, looking young isn't a problem for them. As long as they are a powerful magician, they can live long enough. Changing their shells would only cut their lifespan short. Only those dark mage, who had too much curiosity in soul and body would find it interesting.

But although Fidora Lancerli wasn't interested with changing body, he made a possible theory that was accepted by the whole magician community.

"Now then, let's have a look at this face." With a snap of her fingers, a block of thick ice appeared and reflected her image and made Xavius stunned. She cupped her cheeks in wonder with eyes wide. "Oya, oya. This face. This face is just. GOLD." she sighed dreamily.

"Woahhhhhh. Just look at how cute this is! This face is just so cute! Definitely can kill those old bastards in one strike."

He really wasn't kidding.

Xavius hand lifted the bangs to completely see the face and was really surprised. Small love shaped face, big eyes shaped like a cat, thick, long and curled like butterfly wings golden eyelashes, sky blue eyes shines with light violet encasing the black diamond pupils, small light pink lips smiling and the long golden hair that almost reaches the floor tied into two long braid.

"But really." Xavius leaned her face close with black lines hanging. "Just looking at this face, I can guess a little bit about the puppeteer."

Lining the face with her fingers, the shape of her eyes, the mouth, nose, ears, all of it, it reveals the maker's personality although not all but enough for him to go by and make that face because it's the type of person he, ahem, she, least like.

"A perfectionist at it's glory, I would say." Xavius snorted. "Even though puppeteer do treat their puppets like their babies but to make the whole body complete without any blemishes or mistake with organs all working in order, all of it points to one. Such delicate work, only these type of people would have the patience to finish it."

"Even Old Fidora, who was said to cherish his puppet more than his life, would hardly go this far in sculpting the puppet's body."

Remembering the only human shaped puppet made by Fidora, it definitely wasn't as exquisite as this one although the face was handsome but you can still see that it's not real zoranian but a doll.

"This puppet is probably his most proud work in his whole life." Xavius murmured distractedly.

She straightened her body and looked around the room that only has bare necessities without any signs of zorains in the whole house.

Searching around while mumbling, "Since this is his most proud work, it's impossible for him to just leave his 'baby' neglected."

"Then where am I?"

Almost on cue, roars from all kinds of big creatures resounded through the forest, reaching the mansion.

Xavius took quick steps and opened the window, the cool wind blew fresh air into the room that had been closed all year round and leaned her head out while taking a huge breath. Feeling the abundance of magic particles in the air, this place is definitely a heaven for magician to be.

Such big noise was made by two group of big creatures far, far away from the manor, looking like they were competing for territory. Both of the group of different had different advantages and disadvantages but these creatures that rely on instinct fought brutally without giving the opponent any chances. Such bloody and invigorating scene took him back to the time when he was free from position that chains him to a desk and had wild and dangerous fight in the wild with both the Zorains and the other creatures.

Xavius looked out at the forest and having a glimpse of those creatures, gave him some clue as to what kind world this is. This place is also a heaven for madmen like them, is what she figured out.

"New terrain, new vegetation, new monster." She smiled wildly with a hint of craze in her eyes flashing brightly. "New materials."

"Hahahahaha! This is so good! I was getting bored with my experiments. Now that there's a lot of new things, I won't have to be afraid of things getting stale."

"Ha! If those old bastards knew what a big bargain I got, they'd be green faced for weeks!"

Though she said that, when she tried contacting those old bastards with magic runes, wanting to boast about his luck but couldn't get through, it was still a bit sad.

"I wonder if I'm still in the same world…" she whispered with a wry smile hanging on her face watching the floating runes that doesn't respond.

Snapping herself from it, she glanced at the almost transparent dome particles covering the mansion. Sticking her eyes on it, she figured that it's probably a protective cover. What made her curious though, is how is it working without a person as a medium.

Looking closely at the room, it can be seen that all the things inside are advanced.

Stroking her chin, Xavius missed the touch of beard he had from the last life, Xavius thought about some of the 'new technology' proposed by the young people back then. Although the old magician doesn't criticize the new invented things, they can also see that some of the 'new tech' are more towards lazy.

As the old saying goes, lazy people are great because they can create and invent new things to make their life easier.

Inspecting these interesting invention in the whole mansion took her almost half of the day to finish. She especially liked the 'bed' that she had kicked. Very soft and bouncy, making her not wanting to lift her body after laying down. But after all, she can't stay here forever.

Surprisingly, although the furniture was futuristic-que, the building itself was more towards the old antique style, making her easier to become familiar.

It's just that this house is without any zorainian or even live creature. Even the furniture was of bare minimum without giving off any clues to what the owner is like. This mansion feels more like an inn than a home is what she felt.

Resting her chin on her hand which was set on the handrail of the second floor, Xavius took on a pensive look.

"Was I abandoned?"

"Nah. It can't be." She quickly shook her head in denial. "Looking at how much effort he went to make this puppet, it's impossible to abandon."

A certain demon whispered in her ear: What if this puppet was sold to someone else. After all, it's not just the puppeteer that can control a puppet.

Snapped. She looked up in realization. "Fuck. Is that it!"

"But why didn't I feel any sort of contract in this body? Did it malfunction because I went into this body? But that doesn't sound right."

Xavius smiled slyly: "In any case, since I was placed here, this house will be in my use. If the 'master' comes back, I'll just talk to him about cooperation."

Whether it's a happy cooperation or not, is not in her consideration.

"Now then. Let's go check what makes that barrier operate." She said while stretching her body and making her way outside.