“I need it by next week, understand?”

the boss said once again the torture of being embarrassed in front of my colleagues as he waved his hand away towards me. His gesture commenced the unspeakable truth behind his dissatisfaction with the business proposal she's been working on day and night for the upcoming conference. Getting sluggish as I went back to my desk, a loud thump broke in the silence where she sits.

” You got scolded again didn't you?”

one of her office mates said, tapping the folder on top of her head to cheer her up while she replied with a sluggish smile on her lips.  Soon, she was determined to finish the task given to her and made it in time before the boss scolded her another time. The incident was like every other normal day inside the office which didn’t faze everyone one bit as they are used to it. The long tiring day has reached an end, thankfully for Samira, she managed to finish all the necessary documents needed for tomorrow’s upcoming presentation for the newly hired employees’ orientation. A long and fulfilling sigh escaped the young woman’s lips as it signifies the freedom she beholds after all the hard work she has given for the main task of the day.

**“Cheers!!” **

Upon the clashing of the glasses, they cheered happily. She and her colleagues thought of drinking after work on the assumption that tomorrow will be another day as slaves to their company. After having a few drinks with them, the feelings that weigh in her chest from earlier fade as the night goes on, and soon will have to end drunk away with her sorrows for tomorrow’s beginning.

“Well, it was such a nice time as always hanging out with you guys. See you all tomorrow again”

were her last words before blacking out. It was a bit hazy in her memories, but the clear stagnant darkness was visible in her last breath.

The warmth she fell to her back was her bloodbath covered with a crimson red silhouette. There was a faint wailing of the siren and also people around her surrounding the stretcher as if she was badly hurt. Little does she know, there was an incident that took place near the building where she currently works. It was in a split second, but she managed to remember everything vividly with the few moments of her unconsciousness. It began when she was walking home just after the drinking party with her colleagues. They were happy and cheerful, singing and dancing as soon as they got inside the karaoke room, each of which had their turn into selecting a song and singing it. While taking her time to spend it with the others, she received a phone call from her relatives asking the date she will visit them again during the weekends. Looking at her wristwatch, she answered reluctantly as if never wanting to go the next day as she scheduled.

**“Alright\, I will try to get there tomorrow. I’m with friends right now\, I’ll call you back again. Okay\, bye” **

She hung up after the phone call and went back inside to resume singing as it was her turn. Thus, after a long night spent wasting themselves, she went over to pick up something she left at the reception. Just as she was in a hurry, a shining bright light surrounded her that shunned the surface. It was incredible how it managed to get closer to her in a blink of an eye, after which she cannot remember what happened in that one incident. Now in the present, she is lying down on the stretcher where the doctors and nurses were frantically stressing out themselves. She was slowly fading from her conscious thought as the time she had when she was living a peaceful life as a child loved by her parents flashed through her very eyes, a small teardrop began to take surface at the sides of her eyes dripping down continuously down her cheeks as the sheets were drenched.

***‘I don’t wanna die yet\, please oh god I still have much to accomplish at least let me have my peaceful days as a housewife with a loving man’ ***

At that moment she had her final wishes as she blacked out. A little shimmer shone upon the darkness where she resides, like the milky way into space that has never-ending hollowness into the pitch darkness. There are string-like lights that surround her in a form that resembles a ball of light as the other lights flickered until they faded into existence. A soft voice surfaced echoing from a distance not too far for the ball of light, it was talking to it as if it had known its origin.

‘Fear not your physical body is only at a state of unconsciousness, if you help me and complete this mission I will take you back from where you belong’

That is what the voice said which left it into utter confusion and speechless little green orb. Meanwhile, as the orb continues to flow into the distance the reality and the dimension that connects both slowly close themselves. The doorway is becoming thin by the moment the little shining orb swims its way towards the milky way.

“Wake up please...come back to us”

a faint voice that seems familiar comes from a man who was worried about her. She was still unconscious like she was in a certain coma, it has been a few days and no progress has been reported. On certain occasions, fingertips will start twitching, unable to make a full movement of their entire arms. Once again, the subconscious mind wanders off around the surface now filled with lights in different colors each.

“Mom, I am here, can't you hear me? I could hear you all!”

whatever it takes her to reach out to them is no use and just a waste of energy if she ever has one which is left here in the dark crying.

For the past few days, I mourned and whimpered to my sorrows as she suffered from being unable to touch the ones she loved. As she was now desperately in need of help and refuge, she sought the voice once more and pleaded as it mentioned something about a “mission” and the thing she desired most at the moment.

“Hey, whoever you are, answer me. If I do what you want, will you get me back to my own body ?”

it asked, swirling around in circles in hopes that the mysterious voice would answer it. Fortunately, it appeared willingly for the second time in the form of a woman with white robes and white silk that covered her face entirely. The presence became intimidating as it was rendered speechless by its appearance.

‘Alright, I will help you out whoever you may be ..but you must fulfill your end of the bargain’

It didn’t take long, and yet she was now feeling an entirely new body in which it regained its vision, which was blurry still. Adjusting to its surroundings, fully awake the small being scanned through the surrounding area seeing the ceiling, which looked cramped and a soaking feeling beneath its chin.

“Where am I?”

whispered from the back of its mind, completely confused about the current turn of events. The young lad had thought perhaps she was in a daydream awaiting her time to come and make its way towards the gate of heavens or hell. The constant thinking made its headache as no one had the answers it seeks that time, yet it only speaks to itself blindly. Soon, there was someone who entered the wooden vehicle.

“It was for a moment but I knew something felt different. It's a good thing I checked earlier ''

I am reborn into another dimension that the voice had mentioned earlier. The other lights that I saw were different dimensions of the world we lived in which I am unaware of myself. At first glimpse, one could notice that there was something off about it, with its distinguished features distorting itself and the cracks at each doorway. As the child was lost in thought, the person who entered the carriage as she thought was one of her acquaintances dressed in clothing that people use for cosplaying. Fortunately, some fragments of the memories of this body were still intact that I can recognize this kid even if it was my first time meeting him.

“What are you looking at? Get your *** up and help us prepare the food and set up camp”

He said as he took the tray he was holding down and slid next to me, assuming it was my breakfast for that day. It only consists of one loaf of bread and mushroom soup. Without further question, I am really in another world. Maybe I got knocked out pretty bad that I was dreaming a fantasy world where carriages and demi-humans exist. As I continue to gather information for own sake of this mysterious timeline, I came across the understanding that I am not dreaming. It has been 3 days since I have come to this world, I managed to try and convince myself that I was just in a long dream or like a coma but it was not working. The first day I thought that after sleeping on the rock-solid ground inside the tent, I would magically wake up to the real world. But that is not the case at all, and so up to this day, I am still finding ways to persuade myself that everything will be back to normal until a certain incident happens that I could not explain at all on my own.

“Alright attention! There will be a grand festival in the next kingdom we will perform. The king himself asked us this grand favor to be of entertainment for him. You lots shouldn’t screw this up, understand?”

The bulky man stood up front, as he looked like the ringleader of this place. Everyone was on edge by his words which sounded firm and absolute law. His words are the main rules of this place. And while we were traveling, the other ladies had come to fix me up beautifully. Although in my opinion, there is no way that I could be more beautiful than I am myself.

“There, you’re all dolled up now”

Says the woman who just finished doing my hair up and sticking all sorts of ornaments and beads over my face and hair. Afterwhich, the other lady gave me this weird costume in which they both are wearing. This is not some ordinary entertainer’s camp but this perhaps is widely known as one of those traveling stars or something as I thought. And while I was lost in my thoughts, the two seemed to be having fun dressing me up. I felt a little chill behind me and the next thing I know, this dress has so many fucking windows to reveal my fats and it’s even in those areas where I hid them well under baggy clothes and loose jeans.

“Oh my, look at our pretty Ivy. No one could compare to your fitting figure as the next star dancer of our troupe!”

The two young ladies held a large mirror in front of me and with bewilderment, I was in utter shock when I looked at my reflection for the first time since I woke up in this mysterious place. And the name they call me feels awkward hearing it, this person I’m in was called Ivy Etoile and based on her memories, she is good at dancing and was always praised by her seniors for her diligence and flexibility. She has crimson red hair, with its length around her waist, and deep green emerald eyes that shine brightly like gems.

“T-thank you..”

I said, stuttering at the appearance before me with awe and glistening eyes.

“Is this...really me?”

I would murmur to myself, realizing at that moment that I was a different person as soon as I stepped foot into this other dimension. The memories of my past life are still intact but they are mixed in with the owner of this body which occasionally gives me a headache. Right there where I stood, my chest felt heavy as I cried in tears that the two who appeared to be admiring my beauty shifted into worried and anxious faces. It lasted for a while, and then Emma came inside to console me afterward.

“you’re such a cry baby as always Ivy”

This voice, it’s Emma’s! She is Ivy’s friend growing up in this place. They both met here after losing their parents and had each other’s backs as they grew up together around 6 years in counting. If I am correct in calculating, I am now 18 years old only a few months ahead of her. She went inside the tent and hugged me tightly as I calmed down and explained to her what happened, a plausible excuse leaving out the important details of my past life of course. I decided that I could only trust myself and no one else.

“Sorry and thank you as always Emma”

Soon the carriage had arrived at the gate and entrance of the empire in which we are invited to perform. As a custom tradition of the kingdom, only the ringleader and his fellow companionship are allowed to have an audience with the king.

Dale, the leader of the small group, showed the royal seal that has been stamped into the invitation letter as a passage and the small wood-like plaque to the guards and eventually let us pass by.

“We’re here, quickly set up the stage. I want it up when I come back then we’re having dinner after. Tomorrow is the day of the festivities to celebrate the birth of the crown prince”

That is what he said before leaving us there, setting everything up. When I looked up above, all I ever saw was the vast amount of clear white sky. It was a perfect day to take a stroll and relax underneath the shades of a tree where the warm breeze touches one’s skin in a field of grass.

“Hey stop daydreaming there and help us unpack these stuff”

Emma brutally smacked the back of my head as she carried along with her some cloaks and other materials in setting up their booth. In all the stalls that are there, theirs was the most extravagant one where the king personally sent them an invite through his messengers after hearing the marvelous performance they did in the last empire they attended.

Soon, Dale and the others came back and all the staff had their dinner together inside a large tent set up just next to the stage. Tonight was said to be the last preparation for tomorrow’s celebration and so Dale told us to save up energy for the grand opening tomorrow as they welcome the knights who were expected to return from their victorious expedition.

Emma and I, rehearsed for the opening dance together with the other ladies all dolled up to impress the nobles and most importantly, the king himself and other members of the royal family.

“I wonder how the royal family looks like”

“Isn’t it obvious enough? Of course, they’re gorgeous! I heard the crown prince has this radiance that shines brighter than the sun and melts the eyes of the young ladies”

“Isn’t it the same with the knights? I wouldn’t mind being escorted by one if I happen to have a chance”

“Oh my, you all are a bunch of newbies. Don’t you know that the appeal of a mysterious mage is more than enough to be grateful for? Imagine a night full of excitement and magic”

Oh man, even in this world you really can’t get rid of human nature and habits huh. I was not surprised that girls in this world are also fangirling with handsome-looking men. I mean, don’t we all? I started to chuckle and then finally caught my attention this familiar description of my favorite mage character in one of the books I used to read a lot. It was titled, ‘The Four Rose and the Butterfly’ which was a romance fantasy visual novel well known to women and teenagers in my world. I remember keeping the book in the center of my collection and the book mark’s tail which was one of its merch and other stuff I bought as I got addicted to the story and the different routes when I read them.

“Hey, I will go help gather the other kids back to the tent, they told me earlier to come to fetch them up as soon as the sunsets. I’ll be back before the performance I promise”

“Okay, make sure to bring those triplet rascals here okay and be on time”

Emma said as I don't have anything in mind to wander off to an unfamiliar place anyway. I tried calling out their names and thankfully I caught them playing just nearby an alleyway.

“Hey you dimwits what are you doing--ack- Oh I’m sorry”

“Ah no no, it was partly my fault. Are you alright?”

My eyes widened as I lifted my head to see who was the person that I bumped into the crowd. It was a face as radiant and beautiful as a sculpted statue, and beside her was a mysterious-looking man which resembled a lone wolf, his demeanor exudes this familiar aura for me like I have known him for a while even though it was my first time seeing them both. Strangely they felt a familiar presence to me that I clenched my hand near my chest as I felt a little pain throbbing inside my chest.

“Let’s go”

Says the man who pulled the woman’s wrists as if to protect her from any harm, I was somewhat speechless standing there, and only was I awoken when one of the kids pulled my sleeves.

“Hey ugly just standing there makes you, even more, uglier than usual”

With disgust, the kids teased me more and more that I got roped up into their little game.

“Alright enough playtime or Dale will come to get you himself”

As we came back, I was lost in thoughts and let the kids go on before me. Unfortunately, it was not the same with me since there’s a sudden swarm of people that happened to crowd the streets and welcome the knights and the return of the crown prince.