When we think of dreams, the most logical person could say, they are your repressed desires left roaming in your head. Something you think a lot about. Or someone, you want to be with. Dreams.. such a magical concept. And yet, my dreams seem to have taken an offense to be categorized in such a narrow genre. The moment I close my eyes, logic flies right out the window. Of the hundreds of strange stories my subconscious has woven, one tops all in its surreal experience and weirdness.

I find myself on a high-backed chair made for giants. Shackled loosely, as if for formality. A stadium of far too many chairs surrounds me. A wall covers the periphery, going all the way up to the top in a dome. At its peak, exactly above me, a circle is engraved in what appears to be ancient runes of some sort. A replica of which I find on the floor below my stone chair.

I see blurry faces conferring among themselves in hushed voices.

'Ehm...Is the culprit awake? It's time then.' the blurry face at the head of the high table opposite me says in a confident voice. With a snap of his fingers, gears jump to action in opening a hole in the ceiling, right where the runes converged to. A thick beam of moonlight descends onto me, unraveling the night sky above.

My vague vision clears up a bit. And yet, the faces remain foggy.

'Prisoner A-912B, you are charged with attempted stealing of the restricted Royal tome "ultima magika," betraying the trust laid on you as the apprentice to Royal Magi. In addition to seducing the Royal Princess in helping you acquire the said ancient tome. What say you in your defense to such an abhorrent act?'

"Ah..um..there might be a slight misunderstanding? I mean, I'm flattered that you'd rate him so highly, but with all due respect to the Magical court, does it sound logical that an apprentice enchanter should be capable of bypassing the wards as easily as that? Not to mention a commoner of no particular uniqueness, apparently seducing the most beautiful highborn girl of the Fey realm? My memories are a bit jumbled but that doesn't sound right?" I hear an elderly voice on the far left of the high table questioning with a slight confusion blended in their voice.

There is a murmur of assent to the reasoning among the spectators, I see a few heads even nodding, and yet the Judge remains stoically unmoved.

'We shall be the judge of that,' says a booming authoritative voice above the whispers from the immediate right of the head judge on the high table. With a slight rise of his bony palms, the floor is lava. Literally. There is no dramatic fluorescent flash, no fancy flourish, from one moment to another, it just is.

"Eayyyahhhheee—"...

Before I could shatter the eardrums of all present with a squeal of a live roasted pig, my voice cuts off midway.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The engraved runes left ignored on the floor form a translucent circular barrier between me and the red hot flood of doom.

"...H-huh" I exhale in tremendous disbelief.

Well... if you have that, you needn't worry about the loose shackles now, do you?

I shiver despite the excessive heat radiating from the molten elements lapping at the edges of the runes. My giant iron chair remains unusually cold and uncomfortable still, despite it all. It centers on me as the rounds of interrogation begin. Five minutes in, and I know it for what it is. Meaningless, uphill battle. The odds were never in my favor. Neither were the judges quite as impartial as one would hope. With each round of questions, the glow of concentrically layered runes dies an inch, and the lava gains ground. In the moments before the heat is unbearable, as the lava threatens to consume me whole, mere handspan from my naked feet, a miracle happens.

The door bangs open and in comes floating the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life. With a literal glow in her emerald green eyes and a furious expression on her face.

"What is the meaning of this??" Whispers the center of attention in a deceptively calm voice.

'We-well.. you see your highness.. uh...Princess.. this wretch here—'

"Quiet!! You will not address the chosen one so casually!" Snaps the apparently Princess in a voice that used to be obeyed immediately.

'Chosen—' stutters the head judge reeling back instantly.

She ignores the stunned silence permeated in the hall and floats over to me, bypassing the wards as if they weren't there, the lava unable to harm even her enchanted dress let alone herself.

"There there.. my dear.. what have they done to you?" The Princess coos in a soothing voice. "You cannot be hurt like this, you are hoping against the evil. Heroes are supposed to die on a battlefield, in a dual to death with the Demon King himself. Taking him with them and making way for the new hope to take root." She whispers.

At that moment, my fuzzy mind finally sobers up. Three things I notice immediately; the Princess is the only person I see, all the judges even spectators have much more comfortable chairs than me, and the Lava is gone, leaving no trace behind of its presence.

"Th-thank you... ehm..um... Miss Princess? Just.. one question. What do you mean by like, heroes are supposed to die, it's not like it's... a fixed match or something right? Haha..." I ask hesitantly clearing up my throat a bit.

"Well.. after the deal with the tyranny of the first transmigrated otherworldly Hero, it kind of is... But hey! You get to die for a noble cause!" She beams with gleaming eyes of unwavering finality.

"Listen.. thanks for the rescue and all that.. but, I'd rather not die at all, thank you," I say, trying to get up from the chair.

Suddenly the loose shackles start restraining me before I could make my attempt. The Princess draws near my ear, and speaks in her ethereal tone,

"You speak as if it was an option for you to choose, my love"

The cruel curl of lips is the last thing I see before I pass out, only to wake up terrified and sweating profusely on my bed in a one-bedroom bachelor's apartment in a small town in India. For once, immensely grateful for my boring 9 to 5 life.

Dreams can be weird. There is rarely ever any logic to my dreams, yet sometimes, they can be strangely grounding. They can teach you the value of what you already have. Sometimes your desires and dreams are better left to remain a fantasy. After all, not all dreams are good. Some can be nightmares.