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Chapter 1

“Sir you need to give us the verdict now.”
Ethan felt his left arm being held and shaken continuously. He opened his eyes to a blurry one.
“Kill that which!”
“ Sir, sir, you need to give us the verdict now.”
Ethan felt his left arm being held and shaken continuously. He opened his eyes to a blurry vision before him. Ethan was a tall young man with dark hair and green eyes. His hair was combed back sleekly, and he always wore a loose t shirt and jeans with sneakers. His face constantly had an expression of seriousness as he was a determined student pursuing his engineering. Like his parents, Ethan had always dreamed of becoming a successful engineer, and he had worked hard day and night for the last one year. Ethan was extremely attractive. All the girls in his school admired him, but even had never cared enough to be any attention to them. He wasn't interested because he was dedicated to studying hard and making his parents proud.
Ethan lived with his parents in Kansas City, Missouri, in a two BHK department that his dad could afford. They were not very well off but they were a happy, little family because Ethan's Mom always said they had everything they needed.
But Ethan wasn't around a familiar setting. His swivel chair and desk were missing, and so was his bed and other belongings. In fact, he wasn't in his room at all. Ethan had opened his eyes to something completely unexpected. Around him were rows of small brick houses around public square that was crowded, and gallows that were erected in the middle of a public square. He was seated on an elevated platform in a cold, hard iron chair across the square. Sitting alongside him were a group of people whose gazes were fixated upon him. Among them were a few young women dressed in long loose gowns, busy giggling among themselves.
A towering man standing behind Ethan spoke in a loud voice, “Sir, your verdict?”
Shocked and confused, Ethan had no clue what was going on. It seemed like he was the king or ruler of some town in the medieval era. Although the entire situation seemed mysteriously familiar to him, Ethan had no clue what the verdict was about. Was this a dream? He's and tried to squint at the crowd full of people that looked eager to watch the trial and see the felon get killed. But it did not seem like a dream. The entire situation was way too real. And had too many details for it to be a mere vision. Suddenly, something really irregular caught his attention.
The Gallows of two pillars extended upwards for about four meters from a raised base. The top ends of the two pillars were connected by a cross beam which was embedded with rusty metal rings for a thick yellow hemp rope to travel through. One end of the rope was tied to the frame of the gallow and the other end was tied around someone's neck. Ethan screened the felon acutely. The person's frame looks rather small for a man so Ethan assumed that it was a woman the woman's hands were tied in her entire body was covered. Her ankle the only bony part with her skin showing had scars and bloody marks everywhere.
Ethan looked at the petite woman with astonishment. He then looked around cluelessly and turned towards the big man that had spoken earlier.
“Excuse me. Who is that woman? Why is she being executed? And why are all these people waiting to watch this horrible…”
“Sir, in case you forgot, we're in the middle of crucifying the witch of Esther city. Please give us your verdict so that we can proceed with the killing,” the big man spoke in a low and stern voice. His face looked emotionless and it seemed like he was waiting to watch the woman get killed just like all the other people standing in the public square.
Ethan had woken up to an era before civilization where witches and wizards were quite common. He was amidst a raging war between humankind and demon kind where the demons had continuously attacked and troubled the human world, destroying all their buildings and killing innocent people. The demons were immortal, and so the humans hadn't been able to defeat the demons and wipe them out completely from the human world. However, to Ethan's knowledge, witches and wizards were usually blamed for mishaps and disasters and crucified.
For what it seemed, another innocent witch was put to trial and Ethan was not going to let that happen. Besides, Ethan did not know how the felony was charged and for what reasons, so Ethan did not want to take a chance. It was getting dark and Ethan sat on his iron throne, clueless and scared. He did not want to be the cause of the innocent woman's death, but he had no idea what to say. Everything seemed quite hazy, and the people were beginning to get restless.
“Kill that witch! We don't support evil! She's a demon! She's a monster, kill her, kill her!” The people shouted as they pelting stones and eagerly waited for the execution to take place.
Ethan looked around and saw the crowd going crazy. He then looked at the tied criminal and felt very sorry for the little woman. He had no idea who the woman was, or why she was charged for treason, and he wanted to get her out of this trial as soon as possible to end this trauma happening around him. Ethan shut his eyes tightly with fear and thought hard. He had to find a solution and a way out, or else the people were going to pelt stones and hurt the woman even more, probably even kill her. He could hear the woman squealing with pain and whimpering. And it was occurring to Ethan that he had to come up with a plan soon.
“Sir,” the minister spoke in his deep voice, “We have to finish the execution before sunset as per the law.”
“What law?” Ethan looked at the minister angrily. “Does your law ask you to kill innocent citizens in front of huge crowds of people that are waiting to fulfill their dark desires by watching and enjoying death?”
Suddenly Ethan thought of an idea. He was the ruler and if anything happened to him, the execution wouldn't proceed. He stopped talking and pretended to lose his consciousness. He stumbled down his iron chair and hit the ground with a thud. The crowd had become quiet. All the people had stopped shouting and they were now looking at Ethan on the ground. The minister rushed to his side as the crowd went into an uproar. He tried to wake Ethan up several times but he wouldn't move. He then took two steps forward and face the crowd as he announced,
“Our dear King has lost his consciousness. The trial shall be postponed.”