The Sinners' Queen

It was a female voice, sweet and caring, but very distant. As distant as a memory slowly being lost in time...

"My prince! Come here, your sister wants to hear about the King of the Jungle! You join us here so that I won"t have to tell this story twice. Haha."

The voice sounded out near his ears and because the tone was very joyful, he was sure a smile was adorning that voice owner"s face when she said this.

All of a sudden, he saw a younger version of him, a naive and lovely eleven-year-old boy. The boy happily went to the smiling woman"s side and after hugging her, he sat next to his cute eight-year-old sister.

The next moment was spent by them in peals of laughter and smiles. From time to time, the mother was making faces and gesturing in the air in order to match the scenes from the picture book. The two kids were giggling at their beautiful and kind mother"s disastrous acting. Sometimes the boy was making rude remarks, questioning why her lines were different from the book. The mother would only laugh and pinch her son"s cheeks.

"My princess, don"t ever take after your big brother, okay?" she told the laughing girl.

"M-Mom, I"m just saying the truth. When you sway your hands in the air, you look like a tree, not an eagle!"

"Oh my! The other cheek is not red enough. Come here, my prince, I"ll make it even for you!"

"Awww! So cute! Mother is forcefully making brother blush." The little girl remarked giggle as she watched the woman disregard her brother"s protest and pinch his cheeks.

"Cough. Alright, time is precious so let me continue. So after the Lion King talked with the Greatest and Most Handsome Ent, the human kid is finally allowed to stay in the beautiful kingdom called the Great Jungle. There are many animals and mystical fairies there who helped him to grow into a handsome and valiant warrior. Because he"s the most valiant among them all, he is the only one clothed in beast skin..."

The scene was just too lovely, as heart-warming as the sunlight gently spilling over the mother"s bright expression. Her eyes were full of love as she stared at her kids engrossed by the story.

As he recalled all of these, he tried his hardest to etch every detail in his mind. But later he realized it was just a distant dream. Due to this, he repeatedly wished to just never wake up and to forever remain in that scene. He missed the "him" of that time. He missed the flood of love and joy he used to receive daily before that particular day...

Unfortunately, as that particular memory played, he was also reminded why this very peaceful scene had devolved into a mere fragment of the past...

The scene playing he was seeing did not change, but after a few minutes, a person arrived and joined them. It was the father. And like the mother, there was also a bright smile on his face. As he faced his family, his eyes alone showed how blessed and lucky he felt for having a beautiful and caring wife, and two angelic kids.

In a sense, anyone seeing this could say they were a happy family. If every family in the world could be a half happy as them, the world would have been way better.

Unfortunately, there was still no perfect family in the world. No matter how fortunate they seemed to be, a problem would still arise here and then. This was also true for this family. Because even if these four people were content on how things were currently going on for them, it was not necessarily the same with the others.

Days after this scene, the apartment unit next to this happy family was occupied by a not-so-newly married couple. And there was a problem with this couple"s relations.h.i.+p! The husband was very p.r.o.ne to violence and not a single day pa.s.sed that he did not beat his wife.

One night, the wife could no longer stand the domestic violence so she fled next door. When his kind parents saw her so black-and-blue, crying and s.h.i.+vering from the trauma she suffered, they became soft-hearted and did not hesitate to take her in.

They fed her and listened to her cries and outburst. Even he and his sister were hugging her and comforting her. They were so moved by her story and tears that when the guy returned from work and demanded his wife, they refused to hand her over.

However, the man was crazier than they had thought. To force the woman to go back, he made serious threats against his family. The man marched into the adjacent unit, and when he went back, a molotov c.o.c.ktail was already in his hands, saying he would throw it at them if the woman continued resisting.

Back then, he was too young to know how and why things easily escalated into this mess.

He just remembered that the woman was too traumatized. Even the young him could see and it was easy to a.s.sume that she had been experiencing this domestic violence for years if she was this reluctant.

The battered wife was too afraid to go back to her husband. So she continued hiding behind his parents. He became a bit worried, but he still believed his parents would be able to solve this conflict.

That time, the six of them were at their apartment unit"s front yard. When his father and mother heard her pleading cries, they told him to run into the house with his sister. If he guessed correctly, they still wanted to negotiate or talk it out with the man. However, they wanted the two kids out of the picture so they would be safe in case the angry man did something bad.

But exactly what did the incensed guy do?

It was already too late when they discovered that he was someone with many loose screws in his head. Too late because instead of having a polite conversation with his parents, the man threw the Molotov in their direction. Even now, he couldn"t forget the fire that immediately broke out after.

It was a fire that started from him.

Yes! The Molotov ended up landing and exploding right in front of him, probably a step away from him. He and his sister were immediately engulfed by the fire. Since both of them were just kids who never experienced pain greater than a p.r.i.c.k from a needle, they were too immature and were more inclined to mind the sudden pain that a.s.saulted them than to think of what could help douse the fire. They only screamed and hoped for their parents to save them.

But then, his panicking parents who tried to come over and rescue them were stabbed to death by the madman!

As he, the boy, cried for help and rolled on the lawn hoping it would help alleviate the searing pain and put out the fire, he saw his mother crying and crawling towards them. The explosion had severely injured her too. But instead of worrying for herself, she kept shouting their names and for somebody to help her kids and husband. She was loudly screaming until the madman caught up with her and heartlessly stabbed the long knife in his hands to her neck and back.

When she stopped moving, that was when he also saw his unmoving father lying a little further.

Then he realized, his parents were already dead. His sister had also already stopped crying. She either had lost consciousness or died.

He, too, was dying...

And what about the beaten wife who they tried to help? The one who sparked their family"s tragedy?

As the fire kept on torturing him and depriving him of air, he saw her standing near the man. She was mysteriously unhurt. The weakness and trembling she showed earlier were gone. Actually, he could swear, he witnessed the injuries in her body healing rapidly! Moments later, the bruises and wounds on her vanished like they were just an illusion!

He perfectly remembered what the madman said after,

"Alright! The notification"s finally here! Task "destroy a perfect family" completed! Whoaah! I"m so happy! My Original will surely like the number of points rewarded!"

Of course, that time, he didn"t understand more than half of what he spouted.

But while the madman kept laughing and blurting out incomprehensible words, he was crying. Because despite being young, he was not that clueless about what happened. At least, he"s smart enough to realize that his family had been played!

He didn"t know the exact specifics, but it was obvious to his eyes that the couple schemed against his family! And they did, for the sake of this something called "mission"!

Many "whys" then played in his mind. Why them? Why his family? Why target them? Why can"t they just target others?

Why can"t they just die?

While watching them walk away from the burning house, great hatred started sprouting within his young heart. As he thought of how the happy days with his parents and sister would be forever gone, he couldn"t control the hatred, unwillingness, sadness, and resentment that started welling up from within. He couldn"t accept what just happened!

He wanted to live! To take revenge! And kill the couple who led his family to this disaster!

The more tears rushed down his burned eyes, the more this desire echoed in his heart and mind.

He wanted to live in order to kill them! He kept on repeating to himself.

Then finally, when only two or three breaths worth of life remained on him, he heard a voice speaking to his brain about desires and opportunities. It had come from her mother"s phone lying two or three meters away from him.

He couldn"t remember what happened after.

But because of it, he managed to live.

His sanity and morality slowly died, but he couldn"t care less. All he knew, he had survived, and a year later, he finally managed to kill that madman and his Original.

Days then pa.s.sed with him living a life without direction. To be honest, were it not for the system telling him about what an ultimate host could do, he might have ended his life there and then so that he could be with his parents and sister in the next world.

Thankfully, it did tell him.

It was what gave him a new drive in life and made him continue living.

After that, three years swiftly pa.s.sed and now he was now one of the few Level 5 hosts in the world...

....