Show me yours first

In any story, there's a stage and backstage. The stage of a story is the part where the author shows a small part of her story world and the main character through a lens that is usually called a point of view. Everything that happens on the stage revolves around the main character.

Author adjusts the lens as he guides the readers into seeing the world and the life of the main character while he controls the amount of information that is released to the reader.

Now, there's backstage. Most important things don't happen on the stage. It happens on the back of the stage. Say, there's an emperor who wants war on backstage and the stage shows some foreshadowing that gives us a hint that the emperor is planning to have a war. However, the main character doesn't know. Sometimes, even the readers don't know.

A crappy author would decide that you should only see fluff while the emperor prepares for the war. You enjoy the fluff, get your panties wet during the snu-snu moments, and fantasize about things that only happen in fiction.

'You like to read these crappy books because you want to fantasize about the things that you can never have. These books make up for your boring reality. These books have twisted your expectations of a real man. You drool over fictional characters but you won't look at a real man,' My younger brother had chastised me once, 'and these authors make your wallet thinner by manipulating your mindset and making you addicted.'

I was twenty-eight and my brother was twenty-five back then. I kneed my brother's balls. He had to go to the hospital and stay overnight. Sadly, his ability to continue his demented genes didn't go away. I received a huge scolding from my mother but my father gave me a thumbs up and a wide smile.

My father and I are always on the same wavelength while my mother and my siblings are from a different planet altogether. Sometimes I wonder how my father and mother decided that they could be life partners. It wasn't an arranged marriage either.

Though I want a rich and handsome man, I know that the world is imperfect. My minimum criteria for a life partner is that he should be able to understand my jokes and he must be good looking. If we don't get along, at least I won't feel like crying while I kiss his face. I hate awkward silences. Imagine telling jokes to someone who doesn't have an IQ to understand them. He should be smart enough to understand.

Viessa Vorn and King Kaige were the part of the stage where the author made them do snu-snu to win readers' hearts. As for me and the emperor, we were part of the backstage.

The novel was one-thousand chapters long. King Kaige ended the engagement with Aloisia Anneliese Bloodworth around the 300th chapter.

Between 300th and 350th chapters, a series of uninterested events happened. Aloisia ran away from the kingdom. Kaige gave a 'shoot at sight' order. For some chapters, Viessa was feeling bad. Then, Kaige was pacifying her. The author turned him into an ideal alpha man who protects and cares for his woman from an abusive and possessive air conditioner male lead. But I could always see through the wordplay. Kaige was still a shitty man. But Viessa wasn't any better.

Maybe it is a law that all airheads must attract toxic alpha men.

He married Viessa between 350-400 chapters. The author went highly detailed in smutty scenes and fluffy moments.

For the next few hundreds of chapters, the web novel focussed on their relationships and some OP things that Viessa could do. There were cute moments with their kids. Some idiots would always try to separate them. It went on a repeat until the emperor attacked at around the 900th chapter.

The next 100 chapters changed everything.

Viessa died of magic overuse. Kaige went crazy. Emperor won.

Viessa's and Kaige's son was killed at the city's square. Aloisia hid the mad Kaige and raped him. She got pregnant and gave birth to another boy. Later, she killed the emperor and ruled as a regent.

So, I was at around the 300th chapter -- the part where Aloisia ran away.

How many years passed between the 300th and 1000th chapters?

Fucking Author also did a time-skip.

It shouldn't be less than five years.

I wondered what would happen to my real body if I lived here for five years. Would I go back to the moment I fell asleep in my room if I finished my missions?

I hoped it was like that.

Meanwhile, the soldiers behind me were gossiping like neighbourhood aunties.

"What is she doing with her fingers?"

I was counting the time span of the novel.

"I think that she's weaving a dark spell."

Intelligence is also important for survival. Then again, jellyfishes don't have a brain because they don't need to process complex thoughts. Idiots aren't completely without hope in our big world.

"Doesn't she completely look like a Mara?"

I was sitting on the ground, cross-legged whilst twirling my fingers around strands of my yellow hair. When I said yellow, it meant it. It was not strawberry blonde like my original hair or other shades of blonde. It was yellow as yellow hay in a field.

It was really a fictional world.

"All of them died." The second soldier was called Tyyn. They were avoiding using their names, but one fellow accidentally uttered his name. "She's from another kingdom. Maybe they have people with hair like that there."

I let out a heavy sigh. They were so dumb that I felt bad for them. Come on! I was found near the area where everyone from the Mara tribe jumped to their death. They still thought that I was some duke's daughter. Basically, I was surrounded by jellyfishes.

The emperor returned with the commander. As usual, the emperor looked like he was taking a stroll in a cemetery. He was an epitome of evil. I had no idea how he could keep a poker face ninety-nine percent of the time.

However, the commander didn't look good. His thick eyebrows were pulled together. His dark hair was a little messy and his lips were split. There was a cut on his cheekbone and his nose was crooked.

Did they have a fight? I glanced at the emperor. He didn't have a single wound. The emperor met my gaze, studying me ominously. I wondered what he was planning.

His gaze stopped on my chest.

"You pervert!" I covered my chest. "What are you looking at? No freebies here! Show me yours first."

I read in the books that the emperor was sexy. Nobody could blame me for not trying.

The commander coughed as if he was choking.

The emperor took off his cloak and tossed it on me. "Make sure to cover your head or I will chop it off."

Perhaps, it's better not to flirt with a guy who had killed me twice.