1 1. The Beginning

'Ah, this is life!'

Mona thought as she glanced at the mirror right across her bed reflecting a 24-year-old lady wearing pajamas and a chubby face, still slouching on her bed in the middle of the day. The sun is already high up in the sky, yet the lady is still holding her phone and reading novels while dozing off from time to time.

She was currently reading a romance novel that she started last night. And even though it was already noon, Mona hadn't gotten up in bed yet. Why? She was unemployed.

'Blame the overpopulation and the lack of job vacancies on that,' she thought to herself.

She was not a lethargic and unintelligent human, okay? She had a degree! A degree! Which she realized doesn't do much in real life.

So....there she was, with no friends aside from her imagination. No work aside from reading, eating, pissing, and sleeping. She considers herself a huge parasite living off of her parent's house. She meant it, literally! A parasite! It's because she doesn't do much at all. She is a lazy bitch and she's aware of that.

Well, she decided to get up, or else her mom would go barge into her room to check if her daughter was still breathing.

Mona got up and reached the charger to charge her phone, but then she suddenly felt dizzy and her head felt like it became heavier. When she thought that it was probably just caused by abrupt movement, she continued walking out of her room again.

The hallway to the living room greeted her, Mona felt the floor like it had already been swept off since she was walking barefoot. She remembered kicking off her slippers last night because of getting excited at the novel she was reading, and now she's too lazy to look for it.

She walked unsteadily.

Her vision was unfocused and she knew that something was wrong with her condition. She panicked and began calling out to someone while trying to make it to the living room. But after taking one step, she found herself falling.

As her body slammed on the floor, her screaming echoed in the hallways.

Before she lost consciousness, the last things she heard were footsteps and someone's voice yelling a lazy bitch's name...

***

"....to the guillotine."

What was that?

"Wake her up. It wouldn't be fun executing someone who's sleeping."

The hell?

Before Mona could react to that psychopathic statement, she felt coldness enter her system.

'I feel wet,' Mona thought. 'And sticky.'

She smelled a nauseating odor of sewage mixed with rusted metals, she felt like she even tasted iron on her lips. She slowly opened her eyes and saw darkness, then light gradually filled her vision followed by a head looking down at her, a man standing in front wearing a cold expression.

Another man is standing on her left holding a bucket which she figured was the bastard who made her wet. Then on her right was another man looking like a knight staring down at her as well.

"She's awake. Drag her." Said the man in the front.

Mona, 'Wait. Drag who?'

Then she was dragged.

Mona wanted to shout, 'Why?! Why the fuck?! What the hell?!'

But she could not. Her throat seems parched and it hurts even with the slightest movement on her neck. She also felt her lips were dry and on cracks.

'What is this? What is happening?'

Her mind was a mess. An utter mess. She kept thinking about what in the world was happening. Why was she being dragged with three dashing men in knight's costumes with real-looking swords on their waists? Why were her hands cuffed in silver metal?

Why was she walking barefooted on this dirty cold bricked floor? Why was she.... wait, barefooted?

The thought of being barefoot reminded her of something, like lightning flashing to give light in a blackout canvas, memories flashed on her mind as well.

She was walking barefoot in her parent's hallway! When she suddenly...passed out?

'Wait. Could this be a dream?!'

She tried to recall her reality but her thoughts were cut off by a loud cheering. A cheer that horrifies her even in her dream.

"Execute the witch! Execute the evil!"

Crowds of people were gathered in an open plaza where a pile of large wood, nailed together with a huge shiny blade above and a plank put sideways that has a curve the size of a neck on its middle, is standing atop a five-step elevated platform. The platform on which Mona is stepping right now.

'Okay. This is a dream, girl. Calm down. Take it easy. Get it over with. You'll wake up soon!'

Mona was forced on her knees and her long chubby neck fit on the curve perfectly. She kept her eyes on the crowds shouting her death. She felt so aggrieved right now. She felt like this dream she was having was due to her unending mooching off to her parents and her lack of effort and diligence in getting her life better.

But the fact that she felt aggrieved on that, made her think that she deserved this dream.

'Death to the sloth! End the parasite! Execute the lazy bitch!', is what Mona thought they should be shouting since this is her dream.

She looked up and immediately regretted it. She just saw the blade ready to cut her down anytime. This was just her dream, she knew that. But knowing that the blade above her would behead her and the images of ancient execution she read in books and watched on dramas replaying in her mind brought shivers down her spine.

She looked around and saw another dashing man, wearing clothes like the clothes of the noble people she saw on Manhwas in the medieval era. She was going to continue feasting her eyes on the man's appearance when a voice interrupted her.

"Luna Evangeline Vandross, you were proven guilty of arson, murder, and human trafficking."

'Okay. Who the fuck is Luna Evangeline Vandross? Surely, not me?', Mona thought as she looked at the man wearing a knight costume reading something like a..... scroll?

"The sins you have committed, your victims and so the people of this empire had sentenced you to death. You will be executed today," the knight continued.

'Ah, I can see that, at least. No need to tell me,' She thought trying to lighten her mood. She thought that there was no way she'd feel pain in her dream, or that perhaps she would wake up once the blade was going to cut her head at the last second.

Like a wake-up moment in the middle of an ongoing nightmare.

"Any last words?"

'Uhm. I was asked for my last words. So, I guess,' she thought before exhaling and gathering bits of the little strength she had in her voice and said, "Bravo! For a well-delivered speech, dear product of my dream!"

The man's face, who delivered the speech, grimaced at her words. But she didn't care, because she thought that this weird dream of hers was kind of getting longer, more realistic and so vivid that it made her doubt if this was still a dream or if she had been transmigrated or reincarnated on a criminal's body.

But of course, that thought is extremely impossible. That only happens in novels. So, she gathered her confidence and flashed her smile so perfectly.

The crowds were perplexed. Some even look shocked, perhaps they thought Mona looked so gorgeous. She even heard someone shout 'crazy'! Mona smiled more. Finally closed her eyes just after she saw the knight gesturing to someone to cut the rope.

She took a deep breath. After this, she will wake up. She promised herself, that once she woke up from this dream, she would get off of her bed to her alarm at six in the morning instead of just turning it off and sleeping again, she would start looking for a job earnestly and would lose weight, she swears!

'So please, please...be this a dream I could wake up at.'

The sound of a sword slashing the air entered her ears. And something cold like a metal long submerged in water touched her neck....and she just knew.

She fucked up.