Chapter Text
“IT’S BEEN CANCELED?!”
The screech of tires was the last thing she heard after uttering such an unfortunate set of last words.
Before she died, the young woman had been attending a community college in hopes of eventually transferring to a university to pursue the field of astronomy. She’d grown up obsessed with the night sky as a kid, maybe because she’d spent a lot of time hiding outside when her parents would argue after her dad got home from work in the evening. She became overly familiar with the sky visible to her naked eye, so she resolved to one day discover stars that she couldn’t see.
It took a lot of part-time work through high school, and keeping up an outstanding GPA. But she’d managed to have enough money saved up for tuition at a small local college. It wasn’t where she wanted to be, but it was a stepping stone to her real goal. She spent most of her time either studying in the library, applying for scholarships, or doing one of her many part-time jobs. One of such jobs was doing phony horoscopes for the locals. When she was still in high school, someone had heard she was studying astronomy and mistook it for astrology. She was going to get angry about it, at least until girls started paying her to read their fortunes.
And so, she’d watched some videos on how to read tarot cards and rented some books about palm reading. Suddenly she was every girl’s go to for relationship advice or what color they should avoid wearing next week to be able to pass their exams. She herself didn’t believe the phony nonsense she was telling people, but, if she was getting paid, she would pretend as much as she needed to for the repeat customers to keep coming back. Now that she was in college, she’d go to a park nearby her campus and set up a blanket with all kinds of mystical bullshit items she’d bought to sell the gimmick. Business was surprisingly good, at least among gullible teens and senile old women.
One of said gullible teens was a regular of hers, and one day she’d asked the young woman, “Hey, have you ever read ‘I Will Become the Abyss Princess’?” She didn’t have time for foolish fantasy novels, but her curiosity got the best of her, so she asked the girl what it was about.
That was probably her first mistake. Once she’d read the first chapter of the web novel, she was hooked. Suddenly, if she wasn’t at one of her part-time jobs or in the middle of her studies, the young woman was reading the latest chapter of “I Will Become the Abyss Princess.” She even sat and reread old chapters, giggling with excitement when her favorite character did just about anything.
The novel was about an abused princess named Lumine in the historical fantasy nation of Khaenri'ah. In the story, Lumine suffers greatly at the hands of the servants and other nobles in her kingdom after she is blamed for her mother dying in childbirth, all while her older twin brother, Aether, is praised as the crown prince. Her only light is her brother who still shows her affection, that is until their coming-of-age ceremony when Aether is poisoned and she is framed as the culprit. She narrowly manages to escape her execution thanks to the help of her knight, and afterwards she runs away to a foreign nation where she gathers a group of capable allies to exact revenge on the people who hurt her and her brother. The story had taken a dramatic turn when Lumine awoke to magical, holy powers of light and her allies were each confessing their love to her in a typical reverse-harem plotline. The young reader was excited to find out what would come next, hoping that Lumine would finally figure out which of her enemies had framed her and get her revenge.
Except that next chapter would never come.
It would just so happen, that one day after returning home from one of her jobs, the young woman would open her phone to check for new updates. What greeted her instead, was a farewell message from the author, explaining how they had lost motivation to continue the story due to their health declining and financial stress. There would be no more chapters for “I Will Become the Abyss Princess.” The young woman was beyond devastated and lost focus on reality long enough to walk out into the street while the light was green. The loud honking only pulled her out of her daze just before the impact. And like that, her life was snuffed out before she ever got to pursue any of her goals. All because of a stupid story.
“I’m really just cursed for faking my predictions all those years, aren’t I?” A pre-teen girl sighed as she sat on the side of a road, dressed in ratty clothes, her long, black hair tangled and matted. Just a couple days ago she’d been trying to steal a single sunsettia fruit, only to get caught. Frightened by the shopkeep yelling at her, she’d run off, but tripped and tumbled into a merchant’s crates. Hitting her head, the girl was flooded with memories of her past life in a modern world, and one thing stuck out to her among all the details.
“WHY AM I POOR IN THIS LIFE TOO!?”
Her shout had echoed throughout the marketplace. Embarrassed, she’d scurried off to some alleyway to hide. Now, she sat and tried to ignore the knawing and growling of her empty stomach. Having awakened her past life memories hadn’t really done anything to help her. All her knowledge she’d had before really did her no good here. Despite being able to understand the language when it was spoken to her, she couldn’t read it to save her life. She’d thought about using her fortune telling skills to make money, but this was a world where real magic existed. She wasn’t likely to get far with phony fortunes.
The girl pushed a pebble with her finger. The only thing she had was her name, Mona. Someone had given it to her, but surprisingly despite being able to remember her past life, Mona couldn’t remember anything from before a certain point in her new life. Not that it had to be that important, chances were that she wasn’t some daughter of a fallen aristocrat or an illegitimate child to a king. Those things only happened in novels. In reality, she was probably just some prostitute’s unwanted brat.
“You know, I didn’t believe in karma, but maybe that’s what landed me here.” She grumbled. At this rate, she was likely to die of starvation or some disease before she could make anything of herself. Maybe that was for the best, if karma was real perhaps it would take pity on a child who hadn’t even lived her life yet. Except that same kid had also tried to steal food, karma might not look too kindly on that.
Mona let out a heavy sigh, standing up and starting to walk, “I’m pretty much screwed.” She mumbled while staring at her feet.
“WATCH OUT!!”
The girl would look up. If getting hit by a car wasn’t good enough in her past life, now she was going to get hit by a carriage! She yelped, falling backwards just in time for the carriage to skid past her and come to a halt. She had narrowly escaped being caught under the wheels. Mona’s weak little heart felt like it was going to give out from the shock alone.
“Are you alright?”
The street rat looked up to see a heavenly face peeking out of the carriage door. A girl about her age with hair that shined like the sun and eyes that glittered like gold. Despite her hair having been cut into an unsightly bob, her saintly aura was enough to make her beautiful no matter what she was wearing. She reminded Mona of her favorite character, Princess—
“Princess Lumine!” The coachman barked, “get back inside this instant!”
The girl flinched, “Y-yes sir…”
Sir? If she’s a princess, shouldn’t he be the one addressing her formally and not the other way around? And that was when the realization hit her like that car. Princess Lumine? As in, my beloved Princess Lumine?
It was too good to be true, but the more she looked at the young princess the more she realized it had to be true. And judging by the unfortunate haircut, this had to be just before Lumine’s 13th birthday party in the novel, and immediately after a maid cuts off the princess’ long hair in a fit of jealousy. More specifically, this was the scene where, while on the way to be fitted for a gown for her birthday, her carriage would run over and kill an innocent commoner. The people would fault her with the blame, instead of the coachman, and the nobles would use it as an excuse to call her a serial murderer. Because of it, her birthday celebration was canceled to avoid gossip spreading.
Wait, does that mean I am the unnamed commoner who was killed? Can I not catch a break, universe!? Is what Mona was thinking, but it was obvious she’d managed to narrowly avoid that fate. Maybe, now that she would live, Lumine wouldn’t have to suffer the jeering of people blaming her for manslaughter that wasn’t even her fault to begin with. Again.
Wait just one minute here.
The street rat had an idea. Suddenly, she ran up to the princess, grabbing her dainty hands in her own dirty ones. “Your highness! I’ve seen your future!”
“P-pardon…?” Lumine would try to pull away but Mona held her hands tighter. If Lumine had actually been a treasured princess, Mona would already have lost her head just now. But her coachman had gotten distracted by a pair of giggling women, and her faithful knight was stuck at drill practice.
“I’ve also seen your past, I know everything about you, your highness. And all that you’ve suffered. Please, if you take me with you, I can help you avoid a terrible, terrible fate!” Mona rambled in the best way she could. She’d often used a similar tactic to draw in new customers to her fortune telling. And yet, for once, it wasn’t just a lie to make money. She had a chance to help her favorite character! “I can help you get revenge for the wrongs you’ve suffered!”
“Revenge…? I…” The timid princess was clearly off-put by the declaration, and likely didn’t believe a word being said to her. After all, she’d been lied to many times in the past so that nobles could make a fool out of her.
Mona had to think carefully, how could she convince her? She glanced at the princess’ hair, before gripping her hands tighter. “Your hair! I saw the maid who cut your hair! She had damaged brown hair and poor skin. She was only supposed to trim the ends, but she grabbed a fistful and began to chop away at it.”
“H-huh-“
“And when she was through, she said to you, ‘Look, now you’re just as ugly as me.’”
Mona had finished, but as she did, she watched as tears welled up in Lumine’s golden eyes. “A-ah wait- I didn’t mean to upset you I- I really do mean to help you, princess! I know that you’re on your way to a dress shop because the head lady-in-waiting wouldn’t call the dressmaker to the palace.“ Lumine’s tears began to spill over her cheeks, and Mona reached out to wipe them away. “P-please don’t cry, your highness, I’m sorry if I upset you-“
“How do you know?”
“Huh?”
The princess sniffled, rubbing her eyes, “How do you know all those things? That’s impossible…”
“Th-that’s because…” She thought for a moment. “That’s because I’m a great mage! I was blessed with foresight at birth, gifted with it so that I could help you, your highness!”
“You… really want to help me…?” It was heart breaking, that this girl of almost thirteen was so broken that she was becoming emotional as if she was still only eight. Mona gripped her hands again, seafoam green eyes gazing into gold.
“Yes! You have my word! And if you still don’t believe me, go to the dress shop, there will be lots of dresses for you to pick from, one will be a sky blue ballgown with white flowers adorning the skirt. However, the dressmaker will insist you buy the wine-red dress that does not flatter your highness’ delicate features. Don’t give in and buy the one that you like!” Just as Mona finished speaking, the coachman would finally notice the commotion.
“Oi! Back the fuck off you filthy mutt! And get inside the carriage, princess! Right fuckin’ now!” He shouted. Lumine winced, and Mona would let go of her hands.
“If you find my words to be true, come back here, Mona Megistus will be waiting for you!”
And wait she would. After Lumine’s carriage had left, Mona wouldn’t see her again. She figured maybe she’d been wrong about the dresses. That’s entirely possible. “I should have asked for money for food instead of preaching that I’m a fortune telling mage. At least I wouldn’t still be hungry right now.”
It had been a week already, and Mona was pretty much sure she’d failed at convincing Lumine of anything. All she’d done is make her favorite character cry. Wow, that made her feel horrible. Maybe there was a reason she’d gotten reincarnated as a beggar.
Despite the fact Lumine hadn’t come back, Mona couldn’t drag herself away from that street, mainly wandering around the alleys of the same shops, just in case maybe the princess would send someone, or perhaps she’d gotten held up by meddling servants again. Though when she thought of it like that, she realized how ridiculous it would be for Lumine to even be able to leave the palace on her own. Mona had read the whole story up to its latest chapter, and Lumine was never once allowed to leave or order servants around all the way up until the day she was framed for poisoning her brother.
She also wondered if maybe the name she’d given was just a little too shady. Mona was her real name after all, but the Megistus part was something she’d pulled from her past life memories. When she was a phony fortune teller, she had used that as her pseudonym to keep people from tracking her down if they figured out her party tricks. It was a fake name there and probably sounded equally as fake here. Though, Mona Megistus did have a nice ring to it when she’d said it. She had thought anyways.
GrrrggRRGgrggg…!
Her stomach made the loud noise that caused her to hug her midsection. “Shhhh!! You’re embarrassing me!” She complained, but that didn’t stop her from feeling any less empty.
“That does sound pretty embarrassing.” The voice of a mature woman got Mona’s attention, “Sounds like you’re pretty hungry.”
The girl looked up, finding the face of the woman was obscured by the shadow of her large brimmed, pointed hat. She was tall, with a mature figure and…well…breasts that Mona, who was on the verge of puberty, envied. She had long, navy blue hair that flowed freely down her back, but was decorated with shiny objects that would make soft clinking noises when they collided with each other.
“Who are you?” The girl asked suspiciously, clearly the woman was a witch. She was searching her memories for someone in the novel with this lady’s appearance.
The woman would chuckle, kneeling to Mona’s level, and tipping her hat back to reveal her face. She looked more aged than Mona had imagined, with wrinkles already appearing around her eyes and mouth, but she didn’t look old really. Her eyes were pale blue, and her pupils were shaped like four-point stars and betrayed an aura of cheekiness. “You can call me Master. Congratulations, Mona Megistus, you’ve been accepted into the Hexenzirkel.”