Event: Witch Trial. Dress Code: Casual.

I bumped my head on the doorframe on the way out, only furthering the realisation that my body was different, that it wasn’t mine. I was used to being quite short, and this looked like a pretty tall doorway. There was a good chance I was almost one and a third times as tall as I would have expected to be… this would take some getting used to.

But it actually didn’t feel too bad.

Sure, it hurt and there were some marks on my legs and arms from the chains scraping against them and my muscles hurt and I was weirdly exhausted for no obvious reason and my feet were ice cold after walking barefoot on ice-cold stone for several minutes and I was sore all over and I just realised I was really hungry because my stomach made some noise in protest at not getting enough food.

But other than that? I actually kind of liked this body. I may have lost what I had worked for , but I was still pretty and I was still a girl and even despite some of the rough treatment the new me seemingly had been through I also appeared to be in pretty decent shape, at least as far as fitness went. Even if there admittedly were a lot of small annoyances that seemed to come with the body.

If the physical aspects were all there was to it, that was where my verdict would have ended, and I would have rated my new body a solid eight out of ten.

But there were unfortunately some other circumstances to consider too. Circumstances, which brought it down from an eight all the way to a one. A zero if you considered that part of the rating scale.

You see, this new vessel of mine apparently came with some pretty heavy baggage.

The two guards pushed me along to some kind of huge courtroom, with the one peculiar feature that the entire thing was outside for no apparent reason, with tall grass and all kinds of crazy flowers growing over parts of it to boot.

While it seemed doubtful I would ever have the opportunity, this was certainly not how I would design a courtroom if I got the chance. I’d at the very least certainly pick some much nicer, prettier, and cuter flowers, not these gigantic wild ones that looked like they had just been left to grow whichever way they wanted to for centuries.

As much as the decor wasn’t to my liking, that was sadly not the main problem I faced.

I was led forward to the middle of the very impromptu court — all the benches and furniture were made of wood and still looked exactly like what you would expect to find in a normal courtroom despite the somewhat wild decoration that adorned them, by the way — and positioned right in front of what I presumed to be the witness stand.

“With this, the trial can at last begin… not that it seems likely to become a particularly lengthy affair”, an elderly woman stated a few meters in front of me, seated at what probably was the judge’s bench.

“We are gathered here today”, she went on ”for the trial of infamous witch Maria Darkfire, whom I doubt needs any introduction.”

I didn’t have to wonder who the heck “Maria Darkfire” was for long. The… judge? gestured towards me as she said the name. I didn’t have any idea who this Darkfire(what a pretentious name) was supposed to be, but based on all the gazes that soon were turned toward me — did I neglect to mention that there was an absurdly huge audience watching the whole thing? — there wasn’t really much doubt that everyone here thought I was… whoever that person was supposed to be.

The judge proceeded.

“She is too be tried for multiple charges of murder, attempted murder, theft, arson, and treason. If declared guilty, she will be sentenced with the death penalty with no further delay."

If there was any one moment that really drove home that I was in another world, that I wasn’t back home anymore, then this was probably it.

And that whole “death penalty” thing? That was kind of my main issue with this new body of mine. I didn’t really like how it came with a built in high risk of immediate execution… With no delay… So, like, right after this trial was over? So I had no idea what was going on, and if I was declared guilty I would be immediately killed…

“Before we formally begin the trial, I would like to note that we have a special guest today. The royal princess herself is attending this trial, and will serve an integral part in today’s proceedings.”

A girl wearing a fancy red dress adorned with some silver ribbons walked up from… where had she showed up from, actually?

Anyway, I was too lost in thought to see her make her entrance, but she walked right up to where I was standing. Like, seriously really close, to the point where I almost could smell her. In fact I actually could. She was using some kind of perfume that smelled of… strawberries? Her blonde hair was seriously long, reaching a fair distance below her butt, and the smell was clearly emanating from it(her hair, of course).

By the looks of it, the princess was probably two or three years younger than myself… after taking a closer look… no, at most two. Maybe just one? At least I could confidently say she was younger than myself. That she was standing right in front of me made it clear she was a fair amount shorter in stature than I was, as well as somewhat lacking in certain assets, but by the looks of it she was probably still not that much younger than myself though. Also, there was a small mole on her right cheek, but that hardly felt like a relevant detail.

Perhaps my first thought should have been something about the danger I faced. About how this girl probably held my fate in her hands, and my death could come at the behest of her slightest whim.

Instead the words “witch trial” from earlier and an image of what I was wearing flashed through my mind, and the first thing that went through my mind was “wow, witches sure dress casually in this world”.

That thought was soon followed by “wow, the princess sure is cute”. Possess a proper sense of urgency, I clearly did not.