《Five souls, 1 body》


 Chapter 1

    A young adult crossed the streets, absentmindedly looking at the device clutched in his hands, overlooking the truck coming his way.


    Similarly, the driver of the vehicle seemed to be occupied by another matter weighing on his mind, and when both of them finally registered each of their presences, it was far too late.


    With only a few meters between the two, there was simply too little time to move away.


    With a painful screech from another commuter from afar, the two collided, and the man was sent flying, his body wreaked in pain.


    Hitting the ground far away, it was this moment when the pain started to fade, along with his other senses.


    At that very moment, instead of trembling in fear, or wallowing despair, he could only smile bitterly as an out-of-place thought emerged in his mind.


    Staring at the papers that few out of the bag he carried, incapable of looking at any other direction because of his injuries, he could only think, ''I haven''t got to congratulating that child¡­.''


    After that thought, darkness penetrated into his vision as he faded away.


    Soon after, he awoke with a comfortable feeling washing over him, it as was it he was floating in an impeccably long lake, which somehow seemed warm?


    Almost instinctively, he attempted to wriggle his fingers, but nothing happened, even opening his eyes were impossible, not that it was glued shut, it was not there?


    Amusement and curiosity filled him, rather than the dread and fear that should have came because of his death.


    Was he dead? He wasn''t sure. Was he in a coma?


    ''No.'' He thought as a weird feeling came to him.


    He had never felt it before, it wasn''t something he could describe, it was like someone was taking, no, sucking his memories out of him?


    Slowly as time passed, his memories disappeared, from the beginning in a chronological order.


    Perhaps he should have resisted, but instead, he welcomed such an act.


    ''Its much better to forget,'' he thought, as he relinquished his whirling thoughts before succumbing to the enjoyable feeling of floating.


    But before he really did lose all his memories, with only those of the last year of life he had, something foreign collided into him, no, he didn''t have a body, did he?


    ''Wha-?'' He thought, as pieces of memories hit him.


    Examining the said memories, he found it to be completely different from the last memory he had, although now with only one year of memories, he knew instinctively, these memories weren''t his.


    Scenes flashed past his mind(?), as he registered them.


    One was of him(?) crying, tightly hugging a pillow as emotions like loneliness, sadness  washed past him.


    Next was one of him(?) talking to a beautiful middle aged woman, feeling smug and disgusted at the same time.


    Then, it was him(?) running on all fours within in a closed enclosure, surrounded by humans behind glass walls. It''s anger and desolation obvious to him.


    Lastly, it was him(?) cruelly slitting the throat of a seemingly wealthy man seated on a posh chair, with only the emotion of indifference.


    At the last memory, he instinctively thought, ''How disgusting.'' But what he didn''t realise was that as he thought of such words, he didn''t feel a shred of disgust, perhaps his words only influenced by the set of morals he had in his last year of life.


    With all these memories, a tinge of fear appeared, what was going on? Completely contradicting his previous behaviour, he fought the suction like feeling taking away his memories.


    Focusing into what seemed to be nothing, a few sounds could be heard, no, it was voices.


    ''A fifth one! What''s this?!'' A middle aged voice could be heard, similar to the one that belonged to the second memory.


    Noticing the helplessness and confusion in that man''s voice, he relaxed slightly knowing he wasn''t the only confused one here.


    ''I''ve died?'' He muttered, instead of his precious indifference, his non-existent mind started to whirl as he thought of different possibilities.


    ''There''s a possibility that I''m only in a coma, but then why would my memories be taken? Or is it just a illusion my mind has created to kill time?''


    ''Or, I''ve been thrown into the afterlife? But why would I take the memories of others? This isn''t logical¡­''


    ''No shit, where are we?!'' A childish voice complained.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    While the five souls were all confused at their situation, something larger was happening at the  Realm of Gods.


    "Your highness Oris!" A white robed man called out, in his hands clutching onto a stack of crumpled papers.


    Having just entered a room, he was greeted by the sight of 6 gods, all seated around a circular table.


    Instantly, with a wave of his hands, those papers flew neatly towards the table, causing squares and rectangular shaped lights to appear floating on the tables, each carrying a block of text.


    "What''s this?" The man named Oris sighed, his fingers massaging his Temples as he asked, it was obvious this was something troublesome.


    "In Erl¨¦i, before the souls could be cleansed and sent into their new bodies, 5 of them collided, it was a strange situation that shouldn''t have happened!" The servant exclaimed, as if trying to rid himself of the crime he didn''t deserve.


    "If so, the body should have collapsed, so why are you here?" He said impatiently.


    "The body is of a prince''s! The descendent of the fallen Valkyries! With such a background, the body is extremely durable, and is barely capable of housing the five of them!"


    "Then, ki¡ª" "No, Oris, let''s play a game, shall we?"


    Before the god named Oris could speak, a blue haired woman who emanated charm spoke up, her eyes locked onto the presented information before her.


    "¡­.what do you suggest?" Oris asked, glancing at her rather interestedly.


    "Your world has been too boring, don''t you think? Let''s use this child, to revive the blood of the Valkyries and maybe, we''ll have a fun show to watch."


    "Awaken the dormant blood in him?! Have you forgotten the Great War! Do you wish for  another repeat of that?!" A man who had kept silent bellowed, his fist smashing against the table.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    "I have not, don''t forget, I AM the god of knowledge, but what you don''t know is that that war was caused by the farsightedness of him, none of us here will be foolish enough to make that mistake." She retorted, not looking up once from the documents as she did.


    "You are the god of knowledge, not wisdom!" He shouted.


    "And to think you''re the god of war, no one would''ve  known, seeing you right now." She snorted, finally looking up.


    "I''ve lost so many of my apprentices in that war, Felicia, you won''t understand, you never participated in it." He sighed.


    "That''s enough, Sogis, now, Felicia, what do you suggest?" Oris asked with a smile, perhaps he himself also bored of the tranquility ensuing in this world of his.


    "Let''s choose one of those souls each and bless it, along with that body, this is my first time witnessing such a phenomenon, it''ll be a pity if we don''t get to watch such a thing enfold." She replied, picking up one of the papers on the table as the boxed light on top of it disappeared.


    Touching his chin for a moment, Oris burst out in laughter as he readily agreed, "Alright, after all this world is far too boring indeed!"


    Immediately after he finished, she placed the paper in her hand down and said with a smile, "This ones mine, the girl."


    "Then I''ll take him." A childish voice piped up, picking up the paper before him with a mysterious smile, "That conman."


    "This boy''s mine, his nature is really too interesting to me, though he forgotten most of it." Oris said with a laugh.


    "¡­This one." A man clad in darkness spoke, as he pointed to one of the floating boxes.


    "So, the animal''s mine? I supposed it does fit me." A deep voice laughed, it''s owner a man clothed in animal skin, himself carrying the ears and tail of a tiger.


    Alas, everyone chose a soul for themselves, all but that God named Sogis.


    Tilting his head, the animal fur clad man laughed out loud as he mocked, "Come on, stop pouting."


    "I wasn''t, there''s no point in me choosing, they''ve all been taken."


    "It''s not like we''ll mind if you chose one, ya know?"  He replied with a shrug.


    "No need." Sogis spoke, leaning back onto his chair, "I''m satisfied being an onlooker, no responsibilities."


    "Alright, let''s have fun." The woman smiled.


    At that moment, the five souls completely in the dark regarding the conversation held at the realm of gods were all studying their current situations.


    The feeling was still the same, they were still floating aimlessly in a warm embrace, with any senses except for their hearing.


    Right now all that they could hear was the voices of each other.


    After a while each of them regained their bearing and introduced themselves to each other.


    ''Er, I''m James, I died by an accident.''


    ''My name''s Justine, I died by cancer, unfortunately.''


    ''Keith, death by murder, some lady got rea¨Cally, mad at me.''


    ''Grr¡­.''


    ''¡­.Dominon.''


    "Wait!" He shouted, isn''t something strange? What''s with the beast like growl?! But at least now he knew that they were all actually dead, or he''s just in some really weird dream.


    ''Eh?''


    ''This¡­..''


    "Hello! Poor misguided souls, I first would like to extend my sincerest of apologies for the predicament you''re in!" A foreign voice called out.


    ''Another one?!''


    "Fortunately not! Worry not, I''m here to provide some enlightenment." That voice spoke with an annoyingly chirpy voice.


    "You''re all right, all of you are actually dead, and right now all of you are in the cycle of reincarnation but due to some minor incidences, your souls have collided!"


    ''¡­.convenient exposition is convenient indeed...''


    "I''ll wipe the tiger''s memory clean, or it''ll never progress in this life, but because of a request his personality will be roughly the same, please do let it experience most of your first few years of life for it to learn. Well, that''s it, bye!"


    ''Wait a minute!'' James interrupted, but the voice never stopped.


    ''A dream it is, then.'' He sighed, amazed by his imagination.


    ''No no no.'' The childish voice called out, ''It isn''t!''


    As James was caught in his thoughts, a bright light pierced into the darkness.


    ''''''''?!''''''''


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    For Andrea, today was an especially bad day for her, and the city.


    Amongst the 5 births, 4 resulted in stillborns, the entire city had a bad atmosphere to it as the day today was coined the day of death.


    Normally, it wouldn''t scare her as much, with her reputation, if she were to deliver a still born, with her status as the best midwife wielding the two ideal elements, needed for healthcare would only be affected in the slightest.


    But right now, she was delivering the child of the fourth and youngest queen.


    Her forehead glistened with sweat as she softly encouraged the labouring Mother, the news hadn''t reached her ears yet, allowing her to focus solely on giving birth.


    Normally, such an occasion would be a joyous one with many citizens waited outside of the castle, but perhaps of this queen''s status, or the ominous deaths of four children, no one was present.


    Finally, after a long time, the newborn was delivered, and with the wave of her hand, water appeared on the child, washing the waste stuck on him.


    Holding the child up, the midwife was elated to see the rise and fall of the child''s chest, but instead of the usual crying, this child stared at her, his purple eyes radiating intelligence.


    Ignoring the clawing unease in her heart, she turned to congratulate the Mother, "It''s a healthy boy carrying the color of royalty! Congratulations!" She beamed.


    Turning the child over, she revealed the purple haired child''s little wings and the feathers peeking from the back of his ears.


    Covering the naked child in luxurious cloth, she handed the boy to the tired Mother.


    "What shall his name be?" She asked, washing the blood off her hands.


    With a tired smile, the fourth queen spoke, "Virlta."

 Chapter 2

    LAs light entered their vision, each of them were greeted with the appearances of each other.


    They stood in a circle facing each other, but there were only four of them, missing the beast.


    James looked around, Justine was a rather beautiful Asian girl probably barely 160cm tall, with short black hair and a constant smile on her face.


    Next would be the two males, Dominion and Keith. One of them had a lanky pretty boy feeling to him, who was probably keith, with dirty blonde hair and green eyes, it was no wonder he was a flirt.


    The other was a tall black haired man with every inch of his skin covered in dark cloth, revealing only his dull brown eyes.


    Lastly was James himself, who was a simple brown haired man with average looks.


    Currently, he was extremely confused, weren''t he dead? Weren''t he on the path to reincarnation? Why would all four of them be standing in a white room then?


    But before he could ask, Justine spoke, ''Look,'' she whispered, her eyes glued to something behind him.


    Turning around, he saw a large screen(?) showing him strange images.


    It was just like looking through a pair of eyes, currently the owner of those eyes were held by a green haired elf lady, or so he assumed by the look of those pointed ears.


    The lady cleaned the owner off and placed him into the embrace of another beautiful lady, though she was much stranger looking than the elf, with white feathers pointing out from behind her eyes and white hair.


    Behind her was even a pair of wings.


    ''What the¡­.'' Justine muttered.


    The two large ladies conversed with each other, speaking in a strange tongue that had really slurred syllables.


    The lady he assumed to be the Mother looking lovingly at them, before muttering a single word, "Virtla."


    Just like that, their new journey in a new world started.


    In a blink of an eye, five years had flown by, and finally each of their souls have accepted their fate and started to adapt.


    Each of them had already mastered the new language to a considerable degree, and occasionally, when the beast''s soul they named Virtla were asleep, they came out to play, causing the servants to create a weird nickname for the boy, the soul reaper.


    They had created a legend about how the boy had caused the other children to die on that day of death, and that their souls were absorbed by him.


    Changing demeanour so ominously after waking up, occasionally he would disappear and appear randomly around the house, or fly around clacking strangely, or flirt with the maids, but no matter what he did, the last two actions would always be followed by a polite apology.


    Of course, the apologising one would be James, he who had naturally taken up the job of cleaning up after the mess of the other souls.


    But normally, that child was seen to dislike everyone around him, with an aloof aura, he talked rarely with anyone other than the fourth queen.


    That child who was seen as aloof was Virtla, he who regained bits his memory at the age of three disliked humans, and all humanoids.


    With the memory of being locked up since young, never to taste freedom, he was mocked and used as a form of entertainment to humans in a zoo.


    However for some reason he did not dislike the four other souls cohabiting in this body, perhaps because he found mutal comfort in their presences, since they were all victims of this situation, and that they belonged to the same world. How lonely would it be, if all of them were alone.


    Currently at the age of five, the fifth prince Virtla was known as the aloof yet occasionally strange child who dearly treated his Mother well.


    Right now, Virtla sat on his Mother''s lap, while she droned of about how the race he belonged to were high and mighty, her eyes sparkling as she hugged him tightly.


    Despite regaining some of his memories, Virtla loved his Mother in this life, not that the rest did.


    But this time before she could continue, a servant rushed over and informed, "The Third queen is in labour!" Her tone carrying excitement.


    Unlike the rather lukewarm reaction to Virtla''s birth, citizens gathered to celebrate the coming birth of the new child, with the news spread far and wide of the labour.


    ''Ooo, I hope it''s a girl!~'' Justine spoke with excitement.


    ''Considering all five children of the king is male, maybe his luck will turn?'' James added.


    ''If it''s a girl, she''ll turn out to be quite a beauty, seeing how the the third queen herself is so, voluptuous, keke¡­'' An ominous laughter sounded.


    Ignoring all the voices in his mind, Virtla looked up at his Mother and asked, " Mother, do I have to go?"


    With a gentle smile, she nodded, "Unfortunately, it is a form of respect, dear."


    "Alright." He replied, jumping off from her lap with a flap of his wings, walking over to open the door, he headed to where the third queen rested.


    Unlike his Mother, the third queen was a high elf, a woman who had never looked at him without disdain, of course that would be because of how he did not inherit any qualities of the majesty, his Father, unlike the rest of his children.


    She who had given to the second Son that inherited many of his qualities, placed herself of a higher position compared to the fourth queen, who in her eyes, was a failure.


    Such a woman was extremely small and insignificant to Virtla.


    Speaking of the majesty, he was a descendent of a dragon and a human, forming a humanoid creature with horns, wings and a scaly tail.


    When Justine had first seen him, her eyes sparked with light as she forcefully wanted to take control of the body, wanting to touch the scaly skin in her curiousity.


    Of course, almost fortunately, she was stopped from molesting the prided king, like how she did upon seeing different races.


    Once, she even latched onto a beastmen''s tail, forcing the poor maid to stand still as she groped her.


    Later, the rumour of fifth prince''s fondness of beastmen was spread far and wide and during the days of his glory, thousands of beastmen threw themselves at him and amongst them even a beastmen princess of the neighbouring cities, but that was a story for another time.


    Remembering such incidents, a wiry smile appeared on Virtla as he walked, in his mind appearing the sentence she had used to justify herself at that moment, ''It''s not my fault everyone in this world are all beauties and hotties!'' She had protested.


    After a while, they finally arrived where the third queen were, outside the locked door where she was still delivering her child, were the three other princes.


    Amongst them the eldest was only twelve years old, while the fourth was only 4 months older than Virtla.


    Without saying a thing, Virtla sat down.


    Seeing his arrival, none of them greeted him, it wasn''t strange either, the five of them generally avoided each other.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Lastly, the third prince arrived.


    And at that moment, the usual fawning could be heard, ''How adorable~ all these children are all so cute~ a pity they''re all so stoic~''


    With heart shapes in her eyes, she seized every child with a unrelenting gaze, causing cold sweat to pour from all four male souls.


    ''Hey¡­.Jus-Justine,'' Keith started.


    ''Eh? Yes?'' She asked without diverting her eyes from the screen that displayed the view of Virtla.


    With a twitch of his eyelids, Keith took over and slammed the head of Virtla down, removing the four princes from the screen before returning into the room the four of them resided.


    ''Aww~''


    ''You¡­.you won''t marry a guy with this body¡­.would you?''


    ''I wonder?'' She replied halfheartedly, sulking at his actions, then continued with an upset expression with a hint of mocking mixed into it, ''You won''t whore this body out, would you?''


    ''You!''


    ''Ah, I''m sorry!'' Noticing the weigh of her words, she immediately apologised with a sincere, apologetic expression.


    ''¡­it''s fine, after all, you''re a true queen.'' He said with a laugh.


    ''Haha, gigglo.'' With a mysterious smile, she retorted jokingly.


    As they conversed in the white room, a shrill voice sounded, "Congratulations for the safe delivery of the sixth princess!"


    And in that instant, the voice that seemed to be soft, somehow resounded in the entire castle and into the ears of the citizens awaited outside.


    An uproar of cheers resounded, every citizen shouting their hearts out in celebration for the sixth princess.


    ''A princess!'' Justine squealed.


    And after quite a while of celebration and gift receiving, the day concluded quickly for the event tomorrow.


    Tomorrow was the start of each academy''s recruitment period, which lasted only the span of three days, and even the two princes, the fourth and the fifth, were preparing for it.


    Armed with countless knowledge crammed into Virtla''s little mind, and a bit infuriatingly, in the four other souls, they were bound to pass with flying colors.


    They started lessons at the age of 3, in this world, to everyone''s surprise.


    Apparently the children of this world started so early, it was obvious the children here were smarter, but then again the knowledge crammed was of magic, fighting and all sorts of other boring stuff, instead of the classic 1+1=2.


    With a bitter smile, James could only accept the fact that even princes needed to fight, and all of them seriously started to learn, unwilling to lose to children.


    Certainly, all of them with their true ages of 15, 23, 27 and 18 couldn''t just lose to 6 year olds.


    Easily absorbing the information, rumours spread about how the fifth prince was a prodigy seen once a century, but instead of the fame that should follow, his creepy un-childlike actions that appeared after waking up at the mists of nights cancelled it out.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Quickly, the next day came and downed in luxurious training clothes he usually wore when in classes, he came with the fourth prince along with a few servants to the most prestigious academy that accommodated both warriors and mages, their students usually a combination of both.


    The appearances of both princes were extremely eye catching to all of the children here, especially so with the extremely refined and beautiful features the both of them carried.


    One was the fourth prince, rumoured to be extremely kind and gentle, his Mother the second queen, a fairy. Unfortunately, to Justine''s dismay, he instead inherited most of their father''s features, with a pair of horns and dragon like wings behind him, he seemed extremely powerful amongst the children, a pity he lacked to inherit the color of royalty, with only a hint of purple in his green eyes and none in his green hair.


    The other was the fifth prince, rumoured to be an aloof child that carried the air of a king at day, and a complete nutjob at night. It was preached to beastmen children to never go close to him, especially at night.


    However despite the unkind rumours, many were dazzled by his angelic appearance with wings magnificently fluttering at his back while he looked on with indifferent eyes, his purple hair moving ever so slightly.


    But contrary to his appearance, a soul inside that body was rampaging, his indifference only there as he zoned out to stop a certain someone from taking control.


    ''UFUFUFUFU. LOOK ON, I AM MAJESTIC.'' A ominous laughter sounded in the four of their ears as they did their utmost to stop a tragedy from happening.


    ''Oh my, that child, I want him!'' She squealed from time to time, struggling to take control.


    ''Justine!'' James shouted.


    ''Don''t marry a boy! I''ll kill you before that happens! Never!'' Keith screamed restlessly.


    ''Pffft¡ª'' Justine suddenly laughed, ''That won''t happen, I like girls more.''


    ""¡­.""


    ''Afterall, men are dirty and impure, only when they are children are they pure and beautiful, but such a thing will never last, while it will on a girl.'' She droned on, fantasying something as her eyes sparkled.


    However as the body zoned out, it walked aimlessly forward with only a command behind its movement.


    Normally, everyone would move to the side, in fear of offending the princes, but a child did not do so, and accidentally collided with the body.


    With a flash of pain, everyone of the souls focused on the screen as Virtla instantly took control.


    Standing up, he was met with the child he collided with, it was a beastmen boy with the animal type of a cat, his pure blue eyes carrying an apologetic light as he profusely apologised.


    But before Virtla was able to respond, the entire room the souls resided in were turned into a shade of pink and he was thrown off control.


    "Be my bride!" Justine said out loud, her eyes full of sparkles, not noticing the white feathers on her wings and behind her ears changing to a pink hue.


    _________


    Author''s note: I do find the title lacking too, so please do suggest some titles so I can change it. As for the color coding for their speech, treat it as an one time thing, it''s far too tedious to do such a thing on a mobile device, perhaps it would return once the feature and become more mobile friendly T.T

 Chapter 3

    "E-eh?" The boy replied, his eyes widened in shock.


    "I said," she started, picking up his hands with a bright glow sparkling in her eyes, "be my bri-" "I''m very sorry!"


    Suddenly, she let go of his hands mid sentence as she apologised, the feathers of his body changing into a blue hue.


    A convenient function of this clothing was its ability to absorb sweat, completely hiding the fact that cold sweat was pouring down from his back.


    "I am extremely apologetic for my actions, please don''t take them to heart!" He bowed deeply, his image completely different from the two before.


    Wiping the cold sweat that also appeared, the boy returned with a smile, "Is-is that right? It''s alright then."


    ''No no no, marrrrryyyy meeeeeeeee.'' An ominous scream sounded in his mind.


    With a twitch of his eyelid, he replied, "Sorry for bothering you." Before he continued walking as if nothing had happened.


    And in an instant, his feathers changed back to a white color.


    "It''s true¡­..the fifth prince is a complete nutjob¡­."


    "Mommy¡­." A beastmen child cried out.


    "Oh my."


    With the erupting gossip surround them, a vein bursted on his forehead as Virtla clenched his fist.


    ''¡­.Justine.''


    ''Fight me.''


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Afterwards, he gathered at where the first test occurred, which was simply testing one''s potential for magic and element attribution. At this place, there was only children and no adults, perhaps to save space, only children were allowed into the testing grounds.


    The apparatus for this testing was simply a crystal ball and a crystal pillar.


    Standing in line with the usual indifferent expression, he watched the proceedings with only a hint of interest in his eyes.


    In the auditioning children, majority were beastmen while the rest consisted of many other races, despite having mostly beastmen consisting of the population and the fact that this was a war city, many races from neighbouring cities also came to attend this academy.


    It was also a reason for the king''s many wives, which were each a difference race. This city took pleasure in conquering many smaller cities while remaining at a truce with the more powerful and influential other nations, with a signed treaty as documentation.


    Of course, for this city to prosper, it required extremely powerful soldiers and adventurers, and these people could be trained by focusing on their youths'' training, therefore came the existence of this famed academy named Wisan Academy, which was an extremely popular choice for even citizens and royalty of other nations.


    Right now the only royalty here weren''t limited to simply the fourth and the fifth princes of this city.


    Therefore, in front of him, was the third princess of a neighbouring country named the Trilaisea kingdom, with the majority of humans in the population.


    After reincarnating for five years, this was their first time meeting with a human, but somehow, all four of them was completely disinterested.


    Soon, it first came to her turn, and following the instructions given, she covered her eyes and placed her hands onto the shiny orb before her.


    In an instant, the original translucent, milky color in the orb changed to a mix of two shades of blue, as well as a light green.


    Immediately, whispers erupted from the side.


    "Triple Mage, how tragic, the second princess earlier was a dual with light as one of them¡­."


    "The nature element is good but¡­."


    "It clashes with the ice element doesn''t it?"


    In this world, the lesser the elements one attributed to was better, it meant the purity of their attacks, while focusing on an element gives more area for improvement instead of multiple. Some elements, like having water and fire which naturally repelled each other, was the biggest tragedy that could happen to an aspiring Mage, it meant that he wouldn''t never succeed.


    The princess, of obviously shaking, made her way to the pillar like thing, this time, placing both of her hands as she took a deep breath.


    The colors slowly lit up, red, orange, yellow, green,  before stopping at blue, extremely close to crossing the threshold to indigo.


    At that moment, a slight bloody smell waived into their extremely sensitive nose, the princess had chewed her lips bloody.


    Yet again, conversations started amongst the more nosy parents as they whispered back and forth, causing tears to gather at her eyes and fall to the ground.


    As she wallowed in self pity, she was suddenly enveloped in a terrifying aura.


    "Move." A rather high-pitched voice commanded, obviously belonging to a child, but at the same time, to a kingly figure.


    At that moment, all feline beastmen started to tremble innately, it was as if their king just released his aura.


    It was Virtla, of course, who stood behind her. He had gotten bored of waiting for her and decided to move her himself without any pity or mercy. Afterall, he hated humans, or actually any humanoid, wait, he just hated everyone.


    Without turning back, the girl trembled even more, whimpering slightly, annoying him even more.


    It was bothersome enough he had to attend some academy, he only wanted to quickly pray for the time to pass faster, yet there was this girl here.


    Stepping forward, he faced the back of her head with only inches apart as he growled, "Done? Move."


    As if the dumb human finally gotten his message, she moved away, allowing him to access the things before him.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.At this moment, no one spoke, clearly affected by the atmosphere surrounding them, despite the fact that all the children here were mostly from powerful families, no one spoke up.


    Without hesitation, he placed a hand onto the ball before closing his eyes.


    A moment later, he opened them to see a complete lack of change.


    ''Wait wait!'' Justine shouted, ''How could this be?''


    ''We''re just unlucky.'' James replied, shrugging halfheartedly.


    ''No, let me try! The thing I did earlier! I took control, the orb''s job is to test the attribution of the soul!'' Justine argued.


    To the eyes of others, the fifth prince was currently staring in shock at the orb, and immediately the previous atmosphere was instantly gone as people started to mock and snicker.


    "So he isn''t much, huh?"


    "How disappointing, and he was just showing off."


    Without speaking, Virtla ignored the comments of both the spectators and the souls in his body as he walked over to the longer apparatus, placing his hand on it.


    In an instant, the colors reached the highest level, violet.


    "Wha- even so, without an attribute, he can''t do anything!"


    ''Look, if the body has such a high potential of channeling magic, it won''t be logical if we can''t use it!'' Justine refuted.


    ''Even so, you''re not allowed out!'' James scolded.


    ''Then, let me do it? Hehe?'' Keith interrupted as he took over easily with the permission of Virtla.


    Dying the room green as well as their feathers, he disappeared from the room as Virtla took his place.


    Returning to the previous device, he placed his hand there again, and this time the orb changed into a pure grey color.


    "¡­.doll magic?!"


    "Ehh?!"


    ''Ooo, lemme try!'' Justine shouted, but instead, Dominion took over.


    In an instant, it changed into a pure black color.


    "Black magic?! I must be seeing things!"


    Then, it was James'' turn, in accordance to his presence, the orb changed into a transparent tone, without any hint of color.


    "It''s broooookeeeeennnnn!"


    Lastly, Justine came out, and it changed into a pure red color.


    "A normal color!" A child screamed in relief.


    With the testing over, Virtla took over, ignoring the comments from the crowd as he walked over to the dumbfounded testers.


    With himself only slightly taller than the table they sat at, he asked with an indifferent tone, "Do I pass?"


    "A-ah! Yes!" A female invigilator replied, snapping back to her senses.


    Without caring about the results of the fourth prince, he left to the waiting area. Afterall, there was quite some time before the second and last test would be conducted.


    With nothing to do, he decided on walking around aimlessly.


    Treading around with light, almost completely silent steps that he had adopted as a habit from Dominion, he accidentally walked in on a certain third princess crying.


    Without much care, he turned to leave.


    But at that moment, he bumped into the second princess, her position painfully obvious to him with her frilly dress similar to the third princess''s.


    Instead of letting him go past her, she called out, "Virtla, the fifth prince, right? It''s a Honour to meet you." She curtsied with a big smile.


    Despite his dislike, he nodded in return, "My pleasure." Barely grunting out a reply, he walked away.


    ''Aww, so much potential on that child, I''ll have to keep an eye out for her¡­'' Keith''s mumbling could be heard.


    "Wait! How about we go together!" The second princess called out, but he ignored her.


    Soon, they reached the second testing ground, where chairs and tables were laid out, it was a theoretical test.


    Seating down at a random chair, he waited for the signal for the start of the examination, and as quick it started he finished.


    There was a time limit, but if one were to complete it before time was up and were sure of himself, one could pass it up early.


    To their expectations, it was full marks.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    Easily, they managed to enter the academy and receive a special dorm room designed for only himself to reside in, unlike the other rooms which required four students.


    After unpacking his many things, including their tailored weaponry, he laid in the bed ready to go to sleep.


    After receiving news of his passing, he immediately moved over and unpacked, giving him time to rest before classes were allocated tomorrow morning and started in the afternoon.


    As he closed his eyes, a strange feeling washed over him, it was simply excitement with a hint of killing intent? But such a feeling was so negligible, he fell asleep, ignoring such a feeling.


    What he didn''t know at that time, a soul''s strong feelings could affect the others'' mood too.

 Chapter 4

    Awaking just during sunrise the next day, James swiftly walked over to the door, opening it to retrieve the mail that was placed in a box hung on their door.


    Currently, Virtla was still asleep, perhaps influenced by his past life as a tiger, he was especially fond of napping, and during that time James would mostly be controlling the body.


    Tearing it open, instead of receiving a class schedule, it was simply a letter.


    "Dear Virtla,


    Due to your unusual attributes, it would be best if you could head to Ms. Kiori''s office, the administrative staff in charge of your situation, as early as you can for some clarifications we are required to brief you on to make it in time for the afternoon classes.


    Apologies for the inconveniences caused.


    The principal,


    Lukas Ranicla."


    With a sigh, James changed into a comfortable set of clothes and left the room swiftly after he had cleaned himself up. Currently, his feathers were still white as to some extend, Virtla was still in control, instead of taking over, it was like he was assisting in operation of the body.


    Leaving the special dorm, which were made of cobble and wood, it gave a comfortable yet stylish feeling. Of course, those that could live here weren''t simple, even if one was royalty, they may not be able to see live here.


    Slightly jogging, he quickly reached the administrative building for Teachers and staff.


    Reaching the counter, he spoke to an annoyed lady.


    "Kid, what are you doing here? It''s too early, return later!" She shooed without looking up once from her papers.


    Taking out the letter, he placed it on the table with a smile, "I was summoned, will you tell me the office number of this Ms. Kiori?"


    "It''s too early," she snapped, "Come at 10!"


    "I refuse, look, just tell me." James replied with his never changing signature smile, from her words, he easily assumed the person he was supposed to meet with were here.


    Obviously done with this persistent child, she merely stared at her papers without looking up, ignoring his presence.


    "Hey," he started, banging once on the counter, "look up."


    In shock, the lady looked up with anger, "What are you doing!"


    Tipping his toes, he leaned close to the lady, "I''ll find the room myself, where is it? The first or the second floor?"


    As he mentioned the second floor, her brows furrowed, "Second floor, the second room number? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 no, 6, right?"


    Seeing her face twitch slightly when it came to 6, he smiled and left.


    ''Woah, that was cool, teach me!''


    Ignoring Justine''s comment, he quickly made his way to the room with the plate number 26.


    Knocking on the door, he entered without waiting for the person inside to comment.


    Placing the paper on the table, he spoke, "I was summoned."


    "Virtla Asgera? It is a bit early, normally students are supposed to come after 10, you know?" A bespectacled beastmen lady appeared from behind the desk.


    "I apologise, I thought since I''m already here, and since you''re in your office, I might as well settle it." He replied with a shrug.


    "¡­Alright, you''re quite of a special case, you know." She started, leaning over the table to face him, "What exactly is your attribute? Your test results are not really helpful."


    "It would be safe to assume that all that appeared is mine."


    "Is that so? Regardless I''ve prepared documents for your attributes as well as classes, for the dark and fire attributes, since they are quite ordinary, we have classes for them, here''s your schedule." She mumbled as she took out a piece of paper, "For the illusion and doll attributes, we don''t have Teachers to specially cater to you, since it''s quite rare for students with those attributes to appear, we can''t always station a teacher for that one appearance every few years, yanno?"


    Pausing for a while to retrieve some books, she continued, "Here, some books you can use for referral, in your third or fourth year there may be an instructor for you, it depends on your achievements regarding that attribute, since there''s no point hiring an instructor for a no-good attribute you can''t use well."


    "Is that so, then I thank you." He spoke, flipping over the book before gathering everything in his hands, preparing to leave.


    "Hey, before you go, I really want to remind you to not cause trouble, and I don''t know why I feel the need to say this but¡­.don''t kill anyone, okay?"


    "I''ll stop them." He said ambiguously, turning around with a smile on his face.


    As he left the building, a growl was heard from his stomach as Virtla woke up, with a yawn he asked, "What happened?"


    ''Food first I''m starving!'' Justine complained.


    ''The stuff I got is in your hands, just flip over it as we eat.''


    One good thing about sharing a body, was sharing the vision. To those not in control, they could see through the body''s eyes from a television, so to speak if something were in the body''s peripheral vision, those not in control could look at them as the body did other things.


    Taking a plate full of meat as well as a bowl of rice, Virtla dug in as two books were opened at his right and left sides.


    ''Doll magic, can be applied on both corpses and objects, but the former requires both a strong imposing will and soul strength while the latter requires extreme precision when it comes to controlling them.''


    ''Illusionary magic are attacks designed to attack the mind, unnerve the opponents and manipulate the surroundings.''


    With an interesting start to both magics, the two of them, James and Keith were instantly intrigued.


    Currently, it was only nine while the first class for Justine, the fire class, started at 12.


    ''Hey, wood, I need wood lets go back to the room I wanna try something.'' Keith said as he had Virtla turn the page.


    ''You want to make a doll?'' James guessed.


    ''Yea, this attribute is really fitting, I have an interest or two when it comes to dolls and manipulating them.'' He said with a grin.


    "Uh huh." Replied Virtla as he stood up, leaving the cafeteria.


    Flying up to a tree nearby and cutting off a sizeable branch using the knife Dominon had insisted they keep after quite a while of sawing, they quickly returned into the dorm room.


    ''You know how to do this?'' James asked as he watched Keith take control, himself picking up the knife.


    ''Yea, despite how I look, I was a vet.'' He said with a wink, ''It helps with getting the ladies.''


    ''Nn? Shouldn''t the Doctors be the true ladies man?''


    ''Bah!'' He said before ignoring them, ''I''ll make the parts first and we''ll get the glue, without joints it won''t move well.'' He mumbled to himself.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Carving every single detail carefully with the precision, he quickly finished the prototype.


    "This should be fine?" He mumbled as he checked the measurements of each limb and appendage.


    ''Oh my, I''m surprised.'' Justine commented, eying up the parts of the doll.


    ''Its nothing much, after all I said I had a interest about dolls.'' He said with a dismissive laugh.


    ''I didn''t want to disturb you, but we must be going.'' James interrupted.


    ''Eh what time is it?'' Keith asked, turning to the clock, "Fuck! It''s 12:30! Let''s go!"


    Without bothering to go down the stairs, Keith took the bag they had packed yesterday and jumped from the window of his room from the third floor, flying as quick as he could towards the classroom dorms.


    Noticing an opened window, he jumped in as he retracted his open wings, landing inside. And by luck, it was the fire class.


    "Excuse me?" The teacher asked wth raised brows.  It was a red haired, pale skinned young human adult.


    "Eh, I woke up late I apologise, teacher." Justine apologised with a crooked smile and twitching facial muscles.


    Completely betraying their mental ages, everyone sneaked away leaving Justine to settle this mess, under the guise of allowing her handle her own classes.


    With a sigh, the teacher replied, "Whatever, I don''t care, go find a seat. If this happens again, be prepared for the consequences."


    "Yes." She replied as she walked up the stairs of the lecture room like classroom, seating at the back, she took out paper and writing utensils.


    Leaning on her hand, she listened intently at the words of the teacher.


    "You," he started, pointing his chalk at Justine, "Catch up on what happened with Inori, we won''t be wasting other people''s time, Inori, I''m sure you don''t mind, right?" He asked, turning to a bespectacled beastmen girl.


    With her orange striped ears twitching obviously, she replied, "Yes."


    "Now we continue, I left off at the basics, manipulation of fire. As I explained, there are two choices when it comes to elemental magic, either you manipulate, or you chant."


    "Chants for spells will not be given out, it will be earned through doing assignments of the academy you can take up when you''ve reached the age of 12, for now, we will learn the former."


    "Once you are able to manipulate fire to a certain degree, this class will become optional, that means, more time to do assignments, more time to earn tokens to purchase spells and other things."


    Pausing the lesson, he invited everyone to stand up and follow him, leading them to a empty field next to the building.


    Igniting a fire ball in his hands, he spoke, "This, will be your first task. Everyone, please raise your hands and do as I say, imagination and control is the most important thing, so be very careful."


    At this point, Justine who was absentmindedly doodling on the paper they were supposed to use to take notes, she looked up with sparkling eyes.


    Reaching her hands out, she followed the steps the teacher mentioned and quickly, a small red flame appeared in her hands.


    "Its¡­not hot?" She mumbled with interest as she poured more magical power into the flame, slowly turning it into a blue color as it grew in size.


    At this moment, what she didn''t notice was that everyone was looking at her in shock, even the teacher himself.


    But quickly, the growing flame reached the size of a watermelon, alarming the stupefied teacher.


    "Eh! Stop! Throw it!" He quickly shouted.


    ''Justine!''


    As if suddenly pulled from her trance, she snapped back to reality as she noticed the flame in her hands that were already thrice as big as a watermelon.


    In that moment, her eyes shined with a strange light as she threw it towards the ground.


    At that instant, every student ducked for their lives.


    Luckily, the fireball hit the floor without making any contact with others, unluckily, the temperature of the fire was released to the atmosphere in that instant.


    "Ah!!!"


    Screams filled the field as students ran as far as they could, since no one had the water or the ice attribute, no one could do anything.


    As the ball dug into the earth, it melted the ground creating magma.


    Thankfully, it was thrown quite far away, but it still managed to affect them regardless. Even with the strong bodies of this world and the fact that they were fire mages, which granted a certain amount of immunity to fire attacks, they were all affected.


    However, one thing that unnerved everyone present more was that when she instinctively flung the ball, it seemed to have been aimed at the head of the teacher, fortunately, he had dodged by propelling himself with flames coming from his hands, but it was strange and quite scary nonetheless.


    Not sensing the strange atmosphere in the air, she asked, "Does this mean, I don''t have to come anymore?"


    "You!" He shouted, "Of course you do! More so after that accident! Repent for your mistakes!" He was immeasurably furious.


    Instantly, James took over and bowed deeply, "I''m sorry, it was my carelessness that endangered you life."


    "Eh?" A stupefied voice came from the teacher, "Is- is that so? Then please work hard and be more careful, you have great potential." He replied in a daze, shocked at the sudden change in attitude of Virtla.


    "Thank you very much, I will." He replied with a smile.


    Due to the accident, class ended early as students were brought to the clinic of the school near the entrance of the school, supposedly it could be accessed by both citizens and student, but the former had to pay.


    ''Justine, did you throw it, on purpose?'' James asked, to them who watched everything happen through her eyes, her actions seemed awfully on purpose.


    ''Hehe, why would you suspect such a thing? It was an accident~''


    ''¡­''


    Avoiding every question that came her way, the others could no nothing but leave it alone.


    By Keith''s request, they then left for the general store to purchase glue, or slime goo to be exact, which was extremely useful when it came to sticking things together.


    Carefully gluing the parts, his doll was finished. It was a extremely simple wooden doll with a few carved inscriptions that the book had contained.


    Instilling his magic power inside, the doll came to life as it''s limbs waved around.


    "Come on¡­.stand up." He muttered, sweat flowing as he concentrated at the doll.

 Chapter 5

    Ooooo.'' Justine commented, looking at the doll moving realistically.


    "Hehe." Keith rubbed his nose in pride, "I did it."


    While everyone was fascinated, a certain soul was extremely worried.


    At that night when they went to sleep, Dominon took action for the first time, forcefully taking control as he shut away from the room in their mind, shutting away the other personalities.


    "Before its too late!" He cursed.


    Perhaps because of his deeds, he was thrown together in the same body with complete psychos. Was it karma?


    A pyromaniac, a manipulating freak and a insane doctor. He himself was a killer, but unlike the three of them, he never took pleasure, he was simply doing it for money.


    And the scariest thing was, all three of them were never caught.


    A girl who burned her Father and Brother to death, with her foster family as well as all sorts of animals, completely unsuspected by the government due to her cowardly act she had adopted after revealing her sexual assault from her biological family.


    A orphan raised in some perverted family as a toy with the purpose of bringing entertainment in human fighting rings, with the ability to mentally destroy opponents before matches even begun.


    And a boy raised in a rich family as a foster child with an adoptive Mother that never spoke or moved, with the hobby of turning woman into that same state through surgeries he operated himself while living in the shadow of abandonment.


    All three of them were unspeakably dangerous! He had assumed everything to be fine since they seemed to have forgot about their lives in the beginning of their five years, but today, their true selves were revealed to him.


    All three of them, he had to stop!


    He raised the dagger in his hands to his heart, it didn''t matter if he died, but such a thing he cannot allow happen! At least his karma may turn for the better if he killed them!


    But before the dagger could penetrate his chest, an unfamiliar voice called out as the sight of the wooden room they lived in changed to a white room devoid of anything.


    "Don''t do that~" the voice childishly called out, "We''re waiting for a good show, so please don''t ruin it."


    As the voice spoke, a small girl materialised right in front of him.


    "Hi," the girl smiled sheepishly as she waved her hands.


    Wanting to step backwards, he found himself incapable of moving.


    "Ill wipe it, please don''t attempt such a thing again, okay?"


    "AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!"


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    As usual, James woke up on time, during sunrise.


    Tuesday was a day for physical exercise, they all had to gather at ten in the large open field at the back of the academy compound.


    Changing into the the assigned outfit for PE, he leisurely walked to the cafeteria for his breakfast, he always had the habit of eating early in the morning.


    Currently, Virtla was still sleeping along with Justine but Keith and Dominon was awake.


    ''Who will it be? To do the stupid exercise?'' Keith asked lazily, ''I don''t wanna do it so it''s either you, Dominon or Virtla.''


    ''I''ll do it, I''m used to working out.'' James replied.


    ''Is that so? I''ll leave it to you then~ good luck~'' he cheered him on halfheartedly.


    Reaching the cafeteria, he took a bowl of porridge and meat along with vegetables and sat down, taking out the illusion magic book to read as he ate.


    As he did so, Keith was playing around with manipulating the doll. This was something the found out they could do yesterday, when it came to magic, they could cast it without being in control.


    It was quite an amusing yet strange sight for the students that were in the cafeteria, as the famous nutjob prince ate, he read a book and controlled a doll.


    "Mustn''t cross him, huh, I heard that doll magic was hard to master."


    As people gossiped, a burly senior suddenly bursted into the cafeteria, "Virtla Asgera! Come out!" He bellowed.


    Not amused in the slightest, James ignored such a comment as he continued reading and eating.


    After noticing the lack of movement, the senior was instantly enraged as he shouted yet again, "Where are you! I know you''re in here!"


    And in that moment, students pointed at the reading, unamused Virtla seated by himself at a table.


    "You!" The senior shouted, enraged as he stomped heavily towards him, lifting him by the collar of the shirt, "You burned my Brother!"


    "I am extremely sorry." James apologised, slightly annoyed, but that annoyance was instantly replaced as amusement took over.


    "You must really love your Brother, right?" He asked without expecting a reply as he casted his magic for a trial.


    Incapable of knowing which boy it was that was his Brother, James simple made an illusion whereas the entire class was burned, along with the senior himself while casting a illusion on the surrounding students to show a sight of him peacefully negotiating with the senior and succeeding.


    And at the moment it was casted, the senior was dropped to the ground, himself easily twisting his body to land on his feet as the senior cried out.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    "Ah! AAAAHH!!!" He begun shouting, but at that instant, the magic was cancelled as James thanked, "It seems to have worked, thank you very much." He bowed, before turning to his table to pick up his book.


    The doll he could leave, since Keith was constantly controlling it, he didn''t need to mind too much about it.


    Without caring about the silent atmosphere in the cafeteria, he decided to head to one of the benches in the park like portion of this academy, since there was still two hours before PE started, god this academy was huge.


    Seating at a bench, he took out his book as the doll that followed him started exploring the area.


    ''We really should get some memory crystals, if I carve them into small size and embed it into the doll I''ll be able to see through it, how cool will that be?'' He muttered, it was a habit of his when he started thinking.


    ''Or can I get my hands in a corpse? It''ll sound interesting to use...'' He droned on.


    ''Nn?'' Justine woke up, ''If you want dead bodies we can take the assignments the teacher talked about, there should be some Monster subjugations, since it''s a fantasy world, I''ll get to buy some spells with the tokens we earn too.''


    ''That''s a good idea.'' Keith seconded her suggestions.


    ''Rejected.'' James replied.


    ''What? Why?'' Justine asked upsettingly.


    ''Too dangerous.''


    ''But we have me! My fireballs! There''s Dominon too, with his cool assassin skills!'' She refuted.


    ''Firstly, you seem to have forgotten, this body is five years old, secondly, it is clearly stated by the teacher that you can only do assignments after reaching the age of twelve.'' He started lecturing her, ''Do you even listen in class?''


    ''Anyways, we need to build a decent reputation here, in this academy, it''ll make life easier so please stop presenting this body to be a troublemaker. There''s also plenty of benefits when it comes to making friends.''  He continued.


    Occasionally, he would take it upon himself to lecture what seemed to be three kids, himself completely taking a role similar to a Father as he scolded them.


    Thankfully, Dominon seemed to be quite normal (despite being an assassin) he didn''t control the body much and only did so at night to walk and sightsee, but unfortunately he had no interest in communicating with them so he couldn''t have Dominon help him take care of the three children in their mind.


    ''Nn, yes yes.''


    ''Bah!''


    Sighing at the halfhearted replies, he noticed it was time to go and stood up, keeping the book in his bag as he walked towards the training field.


    As he walked there, he noticed the second human princess, thanks to their lack of interest in other people, they never actually cared to learn the names of the people surrounding them.


    With a smile, he walked over to the princess, thinking about how he''ll leave a good impression of a decent child.


    "Um, hello!" He greeted.


    Hearing the voice that terrified her on the day of the academy tests, she jumped a bit in shock as she turned around  warily.


    "I just wanted to apologise for my actions for yesterday." He said with a bow, "I hope you''ll forgive me."


    Shocked at his sudden apology, it took her a while before she hesitantly replied, "I-Its All-Alright!"


    "Then, would it be fine if we were to become friends?" He asked with a charming smile, "I''m Virtla Asgera."


    "Um, my name is Li Tang Xin." She hurriedly greeted.


    ''Eeeeehhhhh! A Chinese sounding name! Can she speak Chinese?!?! Is that the national language of her country!'' Justine shouted.


    Taking over with James''s permission, she asked politely, "Ni Hao?"


    But instead of replying, she tilted her head in curiosity, "What are you talking about? I''m sorry but I can''t seem to understand."


    "Is that so? How disappointing¡­" Justine muttered almost inaudibly as she gave control back to games.


    ''It just sounds Chinese, huh¡­..'' She continued dejectedly, she had thought that she found a comrade.


    "It''s nothing, then Tang Xin, shall we go together?" James asked.


    "If that''s alright with you!" She replied with a smile.


    ''Look, that''s how it''s done, we should make some Friend and improve our reputation.'' James lectured as he walked with the princess.


    ''Yes yes.''


    ''If it''s girls I''ll gladly do it.'' Keith snickered.


    ''You¡­can do it.'' Muttered Virtla, who had woken up halfway through their socialisation.


    He had this natural dislike when it came to talking too much, and when it came to speaking, he had shortened his speeches.


    Sighing silently, he made his way to the field with the princess walking a step slower behind him.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Thank you very much for reading, please leave some comments, and if there''s anywhere I''m lacking, please point it out so I can improve.


    By the way, if you''re already disturbed by the characters, please stop reading, because it''ll only get more disturbing. Also, Domnion has a very small role in the first arc.

 Chapter 6

    With the same unchanging smile on his face, he started small conversations with the young lady behind him, turning around occasionally.


    At that moment, the princess hesitantly asked in a small voice, "Why, are you paying attention to me?"


    "Hmm? That''s because I want to make Friends with you." He replied, turning around to look at the princess staring down at her hands, fiddling with her fingers.


    "Rea-really?" She asked, hope flashing in her eyes as she looked at him.


    "Certainly."


    "Then my, my twin Sister?" She asked again.


    ''She has a big inferiority complex, huh?''


    ''These women are really easy to use, a bit of kindness and they cling to you, it''s quite amusing.''


    ''Is that so? But charming a five year old child, James you Pedophile.''


    ''Shut up.''


    "It doesn''t correlate to me making Friends with you, I sincerely want to become a person by your side." He smiled as he replied.


    "Eh?" She started, a bit dazed at his reply, but she quickly reacted by grabbing his hands, "Thank you very much! Let''s be friends!"


    ''Too think you were a teacher, tsk.'' Justine commented.


    ''I just think that, children are quite wonderful, their minds, personality a white canvas, that was why I wanted to become a teacher, so I can dye them with my colors.'' he mumbled.


    ''The more you speak the more I want to call the police, you know?''


    ''I''m disappointed, I may be a womaniser but you¡­its on an entirely different level.''


    ''That''s not what I meant! I don''t get involved with them in such a way! What''s wrong with your imaginations?!''


    Shutting out the voices in his mind, he continued chatting with the princess until they''ve reached the field, and with a saddened smile, she said goodbye as she gathered according the assigned lines.


    As they were simply children, in PE they only needed to stretch and do various exercises before the day was over, ending after they did their 2.4Km jog.


    Lunch was a simple sandwich and juice combo provided during the class.


    Just like that, the sun set and as he prepared to leave, Tang Xin came up to him as she bit her lip, asking hesitantly, "Is it alright if we ate dinner together at the cafeteria?"


    "Sure." He replied with the usual smile on his face.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    The next day went rather swimmingly, without lessons, it was practically a rest day for him.


    To waste the day away he frequented the library and took a seat, opening three books at a time.


    Virtla was reading a simple story book together with Justine, Dominon read about his attribute and James read a book about various other attributes.


    As they read, Keith was in control as he made another doll, which was significantly bigger than the one before, which was only the length of a adult''s forearm.


    This figurine was the length of his leg, roughly 70 centimetres. One interesting fact Keith talked about was how the growth of the children here was significantly faster than the growth of children from earth, despite being only five years old, their body resembled a seven year old child from earth.


    Though, it was quite strange to the other personalities about Keith''s knowledge about the human body, wasn''t he a vet?


    Just like that, half the day was wasted away and were continued to be wasted until the second princess appeared.


    ''Tch, clingy people.''


    ''It''s cute, plus she''s cute too, and full of potential, if you get what I mean.'' Keith commented with a wink.


    "Virtla, do you wish to go to the city?" She asked full of expectations.


    ''BAH! Walking!''


    "Why not? Let''s go if you wish but I need to return to my dorm for a moment." He replied easily without hesitation.


    Following behind him, she stopped at the entrance, allowing him to go inside himself as he went to keep his books and take his wallet.


    The perks of being a prince was the hefty allowance.


    As he walked out, he noticed the second princess speaking happily with other children, and at that moment, Keith was extremely annoyed.


    Taking over, Keith walked over to the group of girls and instantly noticed all of their eyes on him. One especially brave beastmen girl even walked up and greeted him, "I''m Narisa, I''m friends with Tang Xin, I heard you''re going out, can we come?" She asked, fluttering her eyelids.


    Annoyance instantly leaked out as James took back control forcefully, "Is that so? Or did you just make friends with her because I''m friendly with her?" He questioned as he walked closer to the said beastmen.


    Hearing his words, her eyes widened as he took a step back, "I''m sorry!" She immediately apologised as her friends all took a step back from the princess.


    Normally, these noble children would''ve lashed out at whoever who dared to question them, but this prince before them was extremely scary, he had even scared a senior to the point of pissing his pants.


    Though it seemed that during that confrontation they had a peaceful conversation, a instant later as the prince left the senior crumbled to the floor with a wet patch on his pants.


    Leaving as fast as they could with James staring at them as they did so, once their figures were noting but a silhouette from afar, he turned around to the stupefied princess.


    "Don''t play with people like that, they''re all calculating and evil, just have me as your Friend, okay?" He spoke as he patted her head.


    "En!" She quickly replied without hesitation, "


    Picking up her hand, he led her towards the academic gates, completely aware of the slight blush appearing at her cheeks.


    However, what he wasn''t aware of, was a elf student''s interested gaze and his act of penning down a letter before tying the paper onto a small messenger bird.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    They travelled the streets happily with him pulling her by hand, visiting various food carts as well as shops, Keith conveniently gathered materials.


    Chewing happily on a skewer, she asked with a happy expression, "Something smells good there, can we go?" She asked, pointing to an alleyway.


    ''How carefreely ignorant, but really, isn''t she a bit too sheltered to walk into a dark alleyway without hesitation or wary?!''


    ''That''s not a word, you know?''


    They had long noticed someone following them along their stroll, but seriously, their attempts were far too pathetic to be hired.


    ''Even a human from earth could do better.'' Dominon snorted, speaking one of the longest sentences they had heard.


    Prideful, huh.


    Regardless, James''s mind had already concocted a plan, as he smiled readily and followed the princess as he started to create a illusion he would plant in her mind.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Currently, he had Dominon take over to take care of the assailants, and soon enough, a few elves appeared.


    But before he could do anything, an arrow flew out from an elf and into Dominon''s skin.


    "Sleeping poison?" He muttered as his eyelids became incomparably heavy, with a thud, their body hit the floor as James cursed.


    In an instant, Dominon appeared in the room, sprawled out in deep sleep as the body randomly chose James to take control.


    "Huh?" A stupefied voice came from his throat, shouldn''t such a drug affect the body, instead of the soul? But instead of being shocked, he immediately went on to adjust his illusion to fit the situation and immediately casted it, all while playing dead.


    The elves had walked over to the terrified princess with the purpose of killing her with a knife, which James found strange.


    Why kill her with a knife if they could shoot her from afar?


    Without speaking, he silently got to his feet as he prepared a simple illusion. Without thinking, he casted it on the three assailants.


    But instead of cowering, like the other two elves, one elf looked around in shock before smirking, "Magic?"


    Obviously, he was the smart one amongst the muscled warrior and lanky archer.


    And at that moment, the effects of the spell wore off from him.


    But as it wore off, he was suddenly caught off guard by the face of a boy right in front of him, his pink wings spread out as he floated in front of him.


    "Hello!" He smiled before flying backwards, throwing a fireball as he did so, mercilessly aiming at his face.


    ''You idiot! Don''t kill him.'' James shouted.


    But instead of landing on his face, the elf reacted quick enough to duck, leaving the blue fireball to land on the alleyway''s walls.


    "Eh, don''t move¡­" She muttered dejectedly.


    Are you an idiot? Anyone would move at that situation! The elf wanted to scream.


    As she obviously started casting another fireball, he immediately started to move his body away from her, the smaller the target, the harder was it to hit.


    This time, Justine only put in a bit of magic power, predicting his movement and speed, the accurately hit his knee, causing the elf to tumble on to the ground.


    ''Scoot over.'' James spoke, taking control.


    Walking up to the elf currently writhed in pain, he asked curiously, "What''s the hatred between us?"


    Despite not killing him earlier even after he was shot with the arrow, James could tell he was aiming for some grand goal.


    Seeing the hate in the elf''s eyes, he thought for a bit  before thumping the base of his fist on his other Palm, "You''re from the crumbled city of elves, right? I remember reading about it, but I can''t remember that name¡­"


    After another silence, he continued, "Regardless, who died?" He asked, inching his face closer to the terrified elf, "Your Father? Mother? A female is it? Then is it your Sister?"


    Noticing the twitch in his facial muscles when he mentioned Mother, he knew it was a female, but seeing how this elf looked eighteen while the fall of that city happened six years ago, it couldn''t be a lover.


    "A pity, she must have been a delightful noble girl, but I''ve heard nobles were hung on crosses, carried and defiled by soldiers, a pity, huh? How old was she? Seven? Eight?"


    The more he spoke, the more the expression of despair and hatred blossomed on the face of the elf.


    "Anyways, we should really continue, she''s dead anyways, what was your goal?" He asked, harshly yet casually tossing away the matter of the elf''s sister''s death.


    Going full force, he continued conversing with the elf as the others looked on.


    Thanks to some memories of the other souls he received, he knew that Dominon was normal, who was conveniently unconscious, while the rest, after five years of contact, he knew enough.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    As everything went on, the gods continued to look on with interest.


    "Good job with that boy, Estia." Oris praised.


    "I''m disappointed already, someone switch with me." The black shadow complained.


    "Too late~" the little goddess giggled, "my conman is really fun, huh? The first five years of boredom paid off."


    Felicia snickered, "What did I say?"


    But really, it''s strange how the guy you chose," Estia started as she looked at Oris, "Is reverting to his previous personality."


    "That''s just because of the body''s age, their mental ages are receding to cope with the body, he''s just going back to the personality he had as a child, despite his attempt at reform."


    Laughing away as they drunk the wine before them, Sogis finally spoke out, "What about the others? They appeared in the five souls'' reports."


    "Regarding that," Oris replied, sitting straight, "Someone''s been playing around with the cycle of reincarnation as well as summoning, I already have my apprentices on it."


    "Then shouldn''t we kill them?" Sogis continued.


    "But that wouldn''t be fun." Estia piped up, "This world isn''t even in the top fifty, it doesn''t matter if it''s destroyed."


    "But!" Sogis wanted to start, but was stopped by Oris.


    "It''s my world, Sogis, I have the say in what happens, so let''s just stop being so serious." He guffawed before picking up a wine bottle.


    With an annoyed expression, Sogis stood up, his hands slamming on the table, "I''m done." Before promptly disappearing, going back to govern his own world.


    "Buzzkill, Sogis is too uptight for his own good." The tiger fur clad man snorted.


    "Ignore him, but hey Oris, you think that guy will build an army again?" Felicia asked in curiosity.


    "Oh he will, even during his reform, the students he taught grew up to a scary bunch, remember how he died? After the culprit was released, he met with a group of social elites trying to ruin his life, sad man really, that accident costed his family''s lives." Estia giggled, "Even his distant cousins were destroyed."


    "He''s already building one right now with that girl." Oris commented.


    "Eh, among the reincarnations, wasn''t there a guy under that teacher?" Felicia thought.


    Thinking for a while, Estia added, "He was that lawyer....en, it''ll be interesting."


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~


    If you find anything lacking, please do comment about it, so that I can improve. Comments are also a great boost to my motivation. Also, thank you very much for reading.

 Chapter 7

    It was simple really, their plan. They wanted to kill the second princess and frame the fifth, destroying the truce between two nations.


    "This country will fall! I SWEAR!" He screamed as James ignored him.


    With the originally curiosity dampened, James sighed as he picked up the knife from earlier and slit his throat.


    ''Justine, you may want to cremate him.'' He spoke.


    ''Alright.'' She replied, taking over, a fireball appearing in her hand without hesitation.


    However, as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared as Virtla took control.


    ''Eh? You''re going to protect them?'' Justine asked, confused.


    Shaking his head, Virtla answered, "Food."


    ''What¡­.?! Food?! No no, you can''t eat them! That''s weird!'' Justine hurriedly shouted.


    ''As if burning them wasn''t¡­.'' A certain someone muttered.


    ''Ah, Justine, you don''t know?'' James asked.


    ''What am I missing here?!''


    ''Virtla died after eating the limb of a human visitor, the guy fell in in a drunken stupor.''


    ''Is-is that so¡­.but!''


    ''It''s okay, I ate human meat too.'' James shrugged, ''it tastes, decent, I guess?''


    Suddenly taking back control, Justine shrieked, ''I refussseeeeeeeeee!!!!!'' As she set three of the bodies on fire continuously.


    ''...''


    ''Food!''


    ''I wanted one of those! I need to try out my Magic! Jussssstiiineeeeeeeeee!!!''


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    After knocking the bewitched princess, James went on to roughen her up as well as himself, mysteriously saying something about training.


    Picking her up easily, he carried her back to the academy.


    Afterall, this body of theirs was quite strong for some reason, carrying a little girl was no hard feat.


    Entering through the gates with watchful eyes on them, he headed straight to the clinic, handing her over.


    "Sorry to trouble you, please take care of her, we were attacked."


    "I-I see, please place her down on that bed while I heal her." The doctor spoke, his hands reached forwards as he chanted a spell.


    "Aqua heal." He finished his spell as the water covering her body glowed brilliantly, causing her wounds to disappear.


    "How about you?" The doctor turned to ask, pointedly looking at his wounds.


    "It''s alright." He simply said as he left.


    Unfortunately when they returned  it was already late evening, and tomorrow was dark magic class.


    Dominon had already woke up as they carried her back, his presence radiating self-loathing.


    Such an armature mistake, something he, of all people, shouldn''t have committed.


    Clenching his fists, he took over at night as the others were asleep and started to properly train this body of theirs, following the childish, weak, lenient training of this academy won''t get him back to the heights he had reached in his past life.


    Holding his body in the planking position for over a minute, his teeth clenching and in clenching as his determination burned, he continued working to late night.


    Sleeping for only four hours, the weary body of theirs left for breakfast.


    Picking healthy options for his breakfast, Dominon sat at a table at the corner.


    ''A~ah, it feels so sore, what did cha do with it?''


    Suddenly, an awkward silence befell them as Dominon stayed silent.


    ''I-it can''t be! You lost our first time?! I called dibs already!'' A certain perverted playboy screamed.


    ''Oh my! You perverts!!! All men are perverts!!!'' A girl shouted, her hands covering her red cheeks.


    ''¡­calm down, both of you, he wouldn''t do such a thing, and if you''ve forgotten, this body''s five years old, it''s impossible.'' James sighed at the conclusion they''ve jumped to.


    ''You''ll never know!''


    ''Nothing is impossible in life!''


    Sighing himself, Dominon shut out their voices before standing up, returning the tray as he did so,  showing the hint of courtesy no other soul did so.


    Entering the class right on time, he again, sat at the corner, the black clothing he chose to wear extremely inconspicuous as he strayed away from sunlight.


    Quickly, the teacher arrived with books and papers in his hand as he started checking the attendance.


    Slowly as names were called, it came to his name, "Virtla?" He asked, looking around.


    With a shrug, his pen crossed out the box next to his name as he sighed, "Haughty princes, huh."


    "Teacher." He called out, scaring the class.


    "When did you enter!"


    "Ghost! Ghost!"


    Wearing a shocked expression himself, the teacher looked down and ticked his name.


    "Alright." He started after finishing attendance checking, "My name is Damien Asmodoes," he greeted with a swish of his tail, "Call me Mr Asmodoes, I will be teaching you dark magic."


    ''Hey, he looks demon-ish, look at those horns!'' Justine commented.


    ''That''s not a word, ya know?''


    ''Bah!''


    "Dark magic, is extremely simple, there are multiple uses to it, you can darken an entire area, you can also use it to corrode enemies. For the first effect, why would it be useful? Visual advantage is an extremely important thing, for some people, if you can''t see the opponent, you can''t hit him, racial flaws are an important thing."


    "For the first lesson, we will be attempting to create a dark energy ball, if into contact with enemy, it will corrode their meat, unless they have a certain amount of resistance to magic, or they can physically stop the corrosive effects."


    However, at that moment, instead of getting fired up like every other student, Dominon sighed before leaving the class, without his shadow even spotted once.


    Classes were fortunately not compulsory in this place, all but the physical exercises class, however that didn''t mean one could enjoy the glory of being in this prestigious academy, the yearly examinations which had a round robin competition between children of the same age and theoretical examinations were extremely hard, those that failed to meet expectations immediately expelled regardless of status and potential.


    ''Hey! What did I say about good impressions!'' James reprimanded.


    ''¡­it''s a waste of time, I''ll train this body and make my poisons.''  He answered with a shrug, flying towards the library.


    Just like that, they spent the rest of the week alternating between training their magic, their body, crafting poisons and dolls.


    And every subsequent week, was similar in its own way, except James went on playing around with other children and Justine stopped attending classes.


    As for physical education, Dominon took the initiative for training.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    In a blink of a eye, seven years passed, currently, the twelve year old Dominon stood above the defeated child, the side of his lips ever so slightly curved.


    "The final winner of the Red Cohort Battle assessment is Virtla Asgera!" Someone announced.


    Jumping off the battle platform with a flap of his wings, he was met with six children of the same age.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Five of which were James''s toys, which of course included the princess, and the last one their biological Sister.


    Nothing happened much in these seven years, except that Virtla''s Mother have birth to another girl six years his junior.


    Similarly, that child inherited solely from Mother, but without a hint of purple in her features, causing her to be disliked in the country.


    Not only did she seem like a bastard child, she was born under the unfavored fourth princess.


    Luckily, she wasn''t born on a day like Virtla''s the day of death, but on her birth date, she was the only delivered child on that day, every conceiving woman treated with so much care in fear for a sudden birthing.


    Though their first time meeting their biological Sister was a weird one, with Justine crying out, "What''s this?! So soft?!" As she picked her up while the other souls panicked.


    Regardless, their life was rather boring, but they enjoyed the tranquility to some extent, but after today, all the students of their batch could start doing tasks.


    "Brother!" His Sister, Citra, called out as she hugged his waist.


    Instantly, the originally black feathers turned to white as Virtla welcomed his Sister.


    Somehow as he kept his dislike for everyone, his Sister and Mother was an exception.


    Patting her head, he gently released her hands and spoke, "How''s your tournament?"


    "I won! Third place!" She beamed as she snuggled into his embrace yet again, "I did well!"


    "Yes." He said as he pulled her away again, "Big day tomorrow, go play with your friends."


    "You''re going to be busy?"


    "Yes, assignments."


    "¡­.Alright then." She said with a pout as a thick root came from beneath her, pushing her up to his height, allowing her to give him a kiss on the cheek before the root disappeared and she ran off.


    ''A pity we''re related¡­¡­'' Keith commented with a sigh.


    As she ran off, the second princess made her way to him, "We''ve already taken a elimination task on the outskirts of the farming area outside of the city." She reported with a big smile.


    "Beast type?" James asked as he took over.


    "A single fire fox, he''s been straying from the inner parts of the forest and came to the farmlands, burning crops and eating livestock, it seems to be young and the task is only F Ranked, the only problem would be its speed."


    Thinking for a while, he nodded, "Then I''ll rest up, go with me tomorrow at dawn." He said as he petted her head.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª


    The next day, the two of them met up, it wasn''t that James didn''t want to bring the other five children because he didn''t want to share the rewards, but he wanted to test some things out.


    However,Tang Xin was quite strong herself, carrying the assumption that she had to protect Virtla with her life, she trained and trained the past 7 years extremely diligently.


    Besides, there was also Keith''s army of dolls, each only the height of his arm with the total number of twenty, they were kept in a spacial ring the king had given to them as a gift for being outstanding in their cohort.


    Inside, there were also multiple weapons Keith and Justine crafted together, like clawed gauntlets for Virtla, twenty miniature bows for the dolls and a big one for Keith, swords for James and knives for Dominon.


    As for Justine, she preferred not to.


    With Tang Xin following behind him, he easily reported their motives for leaving the academy grounds to the Guards before entering the city.


    Quickly reaching the outskirts of the farming areas, they easily located the targeted Farmland, somehow the owner here had been targeted by the fire fox, and only his land was affected.


    "I killed a fox recently, it wasn''t a beast, just an animal but I didn''t expect it''s child to be a variant beast!" He had angrily explained.


    With a shrug, Dominon took over and cloaked himself with his magic before visiting the areas the fire fox had been spotted at, the outer parts of the forest.


    With the princess sprinkling fragrant meat around, it was not Long before the hint of its tail was spotted.


    Immediately throwing one of his knives, Dominon pinned the ends of its tail to the tree, but before he could run towards it, the fox struggled free.


    Noticing its assailant, it growled as a fire ball came from its open mouth, aimed at Dominon.


    As he dodged the attack and snuffed the small fire it had caused, the fox had already ran away.


    ''How fast~ Have fun, Domi~'' a lazy voice cheered from his mind, causing a vein to appear at his forehead.


    ''My turn.'' Virtla muttered, his instincts running at full force due to the fox.


    Equipping the custom gauntlets, he smirked as he tested the feel of them, this would be his first time using it.


    Leather bound with sharp tips at the ends of there his finger tips would be, sharp hooks from the back of the Palm all the way to his elbow, it was quite the powerful thing.


    By pulling a small lever hidden in the space between his thumb and his index finger, the claws would extend outwards, and by moving his fingers in a certain, set fashion, the hooks on the gauntlets could extract and retract.


    He could claw with the sharp ends and mangle flesh with the hooks.


    Though Keith had done the work requiring precision, Justine was the one designing it, saying something about her otaku-times have paid off. Whatever that was.


    ''Don''t shred the fox! I really want to try out my magic!'' A worried voice sounded.


    "I''ll try."


    ''What try! Don''t do iiiiiiiittttttt!''


    Sniffing the air, he easily picked up the fox''s scent, it was a rather smoky smell. Fortunately, this body seemed to be built to perfection, their senses ten times better than humans and on par with beasts. It was just like this body was built  for battle.


    Tracing the fox carefully without making noise on the forest floor, he found its den, a small cave  hidden between the rocks  and covered by the surrounding vegetation.


    The fox was obviously inside, seemingly licking its wounds while it fed the other kits.


    It seemed that it lived with the male fox that fathered it along with its siblings, and due to its variant body, it grew faster and larger, causing it to assume the role of feeding and protecting the young.


    ''I want them all, don''t kill them!'' Justine spoke, struck by the cuteness of the baby kits.


    ''No, kill them! I want their bodies!''


    ''They''re mine!''


    ''They''ll die in your hands anyways! Remember Waffles?!''


    ''That was in my past life! I was hungry!''


    ''Asians eat everything! Virtla, give them to me!''


    ''Shut up, the two of you!'' James scolded, unable to bear the rowdiness.


    As they quarrelled, Virtla had already dug into the small cave, forcing the kits and the Firefox to back track into the cave in fear.


    In annoyance with a vein on the verge of bursting on his forehead, he retracted the claws as he grabbed the fire fox who had been firing fireballs his way.

 Chapter 8

    "Gah!" A surprised voice came from his mouth as he repelled the incoming ball, the princess behind him who had finally caught up flinching in shock.


    "A-are you alright?" She asked, but not receiving a reply.


    Controlling the urge to roll his eyes, after all, he had hit it away, why would he be hurt? He turned his attention to the black ball that laid on the ground, whimpering.


    ''You must have broke it''s bones, might as well kill it.'' James analysed.


    The black ball was actually another baby fox, a kit, and a variant one at that, though it was significantly smaller than the other foxes, perhaps as it was the runt of the litter.


    With a black body coupled with white streaks and white paws, it looked quite beautiful, but the impurities in its color mirroring the impurities of its attribute, one of its most eye catching feature was the two tails growing behind.


    Making his way to the curled up fox, he picked it up without any cautiousness or gentleness, inciting a few whimpers and yips.


    With justine''s protests in the background, he swiftly snapped it''s neck, before asking Justine to perform an aqua heal on it''s corspe.


    Despite not having access to spells from the school, as the Sister of the beautiful dual attributed princess favoured by the king, she managed to gain access to the spells her Sister was bestowed.


    However, after her perseverance regarding training, in her fourth year, she slowly gained on her sister''s position  in the yearly competitions, this year, she had reached the position of 6th.


    Therefore, she became somewhat important to the king, and was supported more than she was, though the bias towards her Sister was still there.


    Saying that, while Virlta was a successful and powerful student and prince, with the forth Brother in the third place, their Father did nothing to praise them, except when he first gotten first place when he was Five, which he had done so by bestowing a spacial ring. It was as if their progress was nothing but normal to the king.


    Therefore, he hadn''t owned a single spell.


    Regardless, he could simply do tasks from this day own wards, relying on himself, this was something all the souls liked to do.


    Perhaps because their souls had collided, their personalities clashed ever so slightly, originally, perhaps without the collision, Virtla would be more humane with his first five years of life in this world a completely new, cleared personality, but that seemed impossible.


    Taking in traits from each other, they managed to reach consensus on many occasions, which made life easier ten fold.


    At that moment, after its corpse was clean, Keith took over, two of his hands placed on it''s tiny body as he injected his magic inside it.


    It was like a portion of his soul was leaving, so little, so minuscule. This was stated in the book, controlling corpse required the injection of an extremely small portion of one''s soul. However, if at one point more than half of it were given away, the body would lose many of it''s functions, as well as the strength of one''s Magic, therefore, doll magic was not exactly popular.


    However that waving said, to use up more than half of one''s soul was far from easy, a small corpse only needed 1/100000 of one''s soul. Human''s and beings of higher intelligence required more.


    Basically, the purpose of one''s injection of their soul was to infect the corpse'' lingering soul, preventing their leave as it was infected with the will and power of the caster''s soul. This was another reason of its unpopularity, if one wanted to take over a stronger being than himself, they would be simply wasting a portion of their soul.


    Infecting the soul of the little fox, taking in the hatred and despair present in its emotions due to its unjust death, Keith triumphed over as the fox slowly started moving, quite stiffly though.


    ''Ooo''


    Infusing his will into it''s movements, the fox started to move brilliantly, jumping around, swaying its tail, and even using its magic.


    Black balls flew out of its mouth in quick succession, though the color was not pure black, unlike what Dominon could fire, it worked extremely well in corroding a small tree. However, after firing ten black balls, the little fox who was already trembling at seven, fell down and became unresponsive.


    "Ah?! I forgot about mana depletion!" Keith suddenly shouted, his hands at his head in shock.


    ''Is it dead?'' Justine asked.


    Poking at the body, Keith replied, ''¡­I''m quite sure you saw the neck breaking action just now," infusing more of his mana, the body slowly stood up again, this time with more fluid actions.


    Slowly, it started to walk about, with Keith''s muttering bringing enlightenment regarding his magic to both the souls in his body and the princess behind him.


    "If it''s a simple command like, ''Go there'' it''ll choose its speed of movement through the urgency in my mental voice?" He stared muttering, as the fox walked about sillily.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it."Attacking wise¡­" he mumbled as he took out a baby fox from his spacial ring, cutting the ropes that bound it with Dominon''s knife, he set the little fox free as the one he controlled ran after it.


    Immediately as his hands released, the little fox he took out ran away at full speed, but of course, the variant he controlled easily matched up, it''s small body wielding great speed.


    Pouncing on its sibling, it mercilessly bit down on its paws, with its sibling looking at it with fear and disbelief, not understanding how it''s Brother would Attack him so mercilessly.


    Whimpering, it hesitated before biting down on its variant Brother, before it was swiftly killed.


    "If the command is simply ''Bite '' then the body will choose the simplest and most efficient way to do so, huh?" He commented to himself before calling James out, ''Hey, take over for a bit.''


    As James took over, Keith continued experimenting with the fox, with the princess coming up to them, seeing how his wings were now blue feathered.


    "James?" She asked with a funny pronunciation, James had asked of her to call him that name when he was blue.


    Normally, she would only call out to him when he was blue, as in her eyes the prince named ''Virtla'' was an extremely strange person she came to adore, respect and want to protect, the blue him was her Best Friend.


    Once, when she first tried to speak to him when he was displaying other colors, it ended quite¡­¡­horribly.


    She was hit on, when he was yellow.


    Ignored when he was white and pink. Once as he was pink, he even said something about how she was nothing but an ''Infatuated victim'', which she didn''t really understand.


    And lastly, black. She didn''t really see him display this color much, perhaps once or twice during the yearly tournaments, but never normally.


    Shaking her head to dispel her thoughts, she smiled as she thought of her only Friend, she''ll protect him with her life even if he was so weird.


    After all, that day when they were ambushed, he tried so hard to protect her, until he fell did she get the courage to attack the enemies, with her falling unconscious at the last moment.


    Remembering how the doctor said he had carried her back with injuries on himself, she couldn''t help but flush.


    He was truly the only one she needed. The only one to have treated her so nicely ever since her birth.


    "Ah, yes?" He turned around.


    With a shy smile, she explained, "The other tasks you have asked for? I received a letter from Kota, they have successfully chose some."


    One annoying thing about this academy was that they restricted the amount of tasks you can take up per day, at the age of twelve, it was one every two days, but with the seven of them, they could share their tasks, but of course, the token would be mostly taken by Virtla.


    It wasn''t prohibited for students to share around their tokens, but normally it would be kept for self use.


    "Is that so? Alright." he said as he picked up the black fox, keeping him in the spacial ring as he opened his wings, picking up Tang Xin.


    ''Hey! You owe me time later at night! None of you try and steal this body okay?! I wanna play around with the foxes!~'' Keith immediately called dibs.


    After Dominon''s training, this body became quite sturdy, carrying a girl that weighed only thirty kilograms and barely reached 150 centimetres was too easy, not to mention she was a magician to the boot, her body not very trained, but lean regardless thanks to physical education classes.


    The bird that had carried the letter to Tang Xin was leading the way, with the two of them leisurely heading there.


    At that moment, the princess was embarrassedly covering her face, but to her luck, James didn''t notice.


    Not that the others didn''t, though.


    Keith was snickering as he made some creepy plans for the future (?)


    And Justine was rolling her eyes, mumbling something about Tang Xin was doomed.


    ¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C¨C


    <Author note>


    It''s short, I apologise. However, I do have a question, I kinda just want to skip over the childhood arc cause it''s boring with only snippets of the personalities of the four other toys (slaves?) James has and the skills he will obtain, since I''m running out of ideas. Would you guys mind if I were to do lots of skips here and there? Or should I take my time, which is probably a Long time, to fill in context between the important bits.


    I apologise for the lack of brain cells I have to generate random situations interesting to read :(

 Chapter 9

    With a few minutes, James who flew pretty quick entered the city again while the princess in his arms giving him the directions.


    Landing safely with a few hostile gazes and whispers surrounding him, he entered a small restaurant where food waited for him as well as the four other children.


    Seated down with the customers looking his way, he picked up a fork and took some of the purple fries.


    Though he called it fries, it was purple, thicker, bigger and less crunchier than what they had on earth.


    As he ate some of them to sate his hunger, a waitress came to take his order.


    "Ashduch steak, medium and an ice coffee." He ordered with a glance of the menu.


    Ashduch was a popular livestock here, it resembled a fluffy cow but a bit larger with curled horns similar to a goat''s.


    Kota, who was conveniently the cat beastman child they met during the registration for the academy incident.


    With grey hair, ears and tail, a small body and big blue eyes, he seemed extremely precocious with the slightly muscled features on his arms and legs.


    Apparently according to James, he had some grudge or revenge plan that was caused by deaths of those related to him, which James had used to his advantage.


    Therefore, the orphan (?) became quite devoted to him.


    After placing the menu down, the four of them immediately took out their task slips and placed it before James silently.


    "Ah, thank you." James muttered as the slips disappeared from the table and into his ring.


    ''So many of them¡­.gah, I''m bored already.'' Keith complained in a similar manner of Justine.


    ''Lets tour the city!~ It''s not like you have to finish them immediately!~.'' Justine suggested.


    ''Stop procrastinating.''


    ''TCH, come on! Ever since the stupid incident with that princess we''ve never came out!'' Justine whined as she gently attempted to take control.


    ''It''s not just your body, okay?!'' She shouted quite annoyed after being rejected a few times.


    ''¡­Fine.'' He said, annoyance lacing that single word.


    "I''ll be touring around the city today, you guys go do whatever you want. Don''t follow me." He said before giving control to Justine, who dug into the steak that was served, completely ignoring princess''s hesitance to speak.


    Eating with complete lack of manners, Justine quickly finished before standing up to leave.


    Her sudden rising immediately attracted a few gazes but with a nonchalant expression, she quickly left.


    Walking out of the restaurant, she took in the surroundings with a bright smile.


    In this city, their buildings mostly resembled  countey houses of westerners, without a hint design from any other ethnicity.


    There were brick, cobble, wooden buildings all around them, none of them exceeding four floors, and as they were in a commerce district, they were surrounded by all kinds of shops.


    On the streets were mostly beastmen, with furred paws, ears and tails, the normal citizens mostly wore only pants as they walked around.


    There were also adventurers of various races dressed in battle clothing, armor with weapons at their back or waist.


    At the height of 5''7 he was easily dwarfed by the surrounding beast men, all of which who would turn to look at him weirdly from time to time.


    Obviously excited by the various races presented before her, justine''s pink wings flapped a bit in her excitement as she took a step forward.


    ''Let''s spend our money!'' She excitedly exclaimed. Monthly, the King would give them some allowance, roughly 2 gold coins in total.


    The currency here was 1 Platinum coins = 20 Gold coins, 1 gold coins = 100 silver coins, one silver coin = 50 bronze coins.


    Twenty bronze coins was enough for a full meal at a small restaurant, a normal family''s monthly pay would be seven silvers.


    All these years, they had been quite stingy, without spending much, therefore they had a wealth of a Platinum coin and a dozen gold coins.


    With their money pouch tied at her waist, Justine happily walked down the street, attracting a few gazes as she did.


    ''Wood working shop! Justine!'' Keith said excitedly, he had usually bought his materials from a general store in the academy or had it import some, but most of them were quite plain and common.


    Giving control to Keith, he excitedly ran to the shop, his mouth watering at the display of the store.


    "Oh my oh my oh my!" He said excitedly.


    Despite his original body giving off a rich sophisticated playboy feel with a lanky body and Long hair, his current attitude was similar to a child''s and justine''s


    It was as if his mental age regressed, probably because of the soul collision that happened at their birth?


    Afterall, some parts of their soul were intertwined, causing their personality to overlap.


    Entering the store with a smile on his face, he started to poke around with the materials available.


    Turning around to see the store owner uncomfortably staring at him, he smiled dazzlingly, before turning his gaze back to the displays.


    Certainly, his attire was strange to be in such a store, he was wearing sleeveless, thick animal hide vest that had a hole at his back, allowing his wings to flap around freely with thick, short animal hide for pants.


    He currently seemed like a complete adventurer, if it weren''t for his Long dark purple hair that reached the middle of his back that were tied up high in a ponytail.


    Their hair was not really taken care of, it was simply left to grow since it Keith wanted it to be, but the others didn''t really mind much.


    In his hands were a red wood sample only a bit bigger than his fist.


    "Fi-fifth prince, that is common red wood, with no special features nor attributes, but it is perfect for beginners and for decors, being as soft as it is you can easily carve it." A girl quickly came forward to explain.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    From looks, the girl seemed to be a deer beastman, with long, braided light brown hair and a small round tail behind her.


    Her age was probably close to their body''s, if not younger.


    "Beginners? Do you have any attributed sturdy wood or something like that?" Keith asked vaguely, he had been using normal pine or oak wood for his dolls, but it would be time for an upgrade.


    "Also, carving tools, I want a complete set." He had been using a dagger to carve his creations, causing all of which to have a simple outline without a single facial or body feature, the limbs were simply a cylindrical shape.


    "Okay, please follow me to the third floor." She spoke, walking towards the stairs with a taut body, herself seemingly extremely tense.


    Seeing her walk up the stairs with difficulty due to her incomparably straight body, Keith chuckled a little as he followed her.


    As her doe ears twitched a little at his laughter, she relaxed a bit.


    "Sorry for my incompetence, my parents are in the woodworking floor making some decorations and they become quite focused, so I''m here to guide the customers." She quickly explained in a rush.


    "Mm, I think you''re alright, anyone''s bound to be stressed if royalty were to appear so suddenly."


    "Tha-thank you." She replied with a blush as they walked up.


    Quickly, they came to the third floor, greeted by beautiful decorations made of wood, Keith gasped in shock as he took in the sight before him.


    "This is what our store calls the locker shop, everyone can sell and buy their things here placed in lockers, and mostly the rarer wood materials is sold here by Travelling merchants or simply adventures who found rare trees by accident." She explained.


    "¡­.Is that so? Then lead me to some of the materials you have present, please." He asked, his eyes glued to one of the intricately detailed statue of a dragon.


    Leading him to the lockers of the far right of the room, she pointed to one of the lockers.


    "Fire wood, is capable of amplifying fire and can burn upon insertion of mana. It''s normally used to make staffs for fire magicians."


    "Iron wood, resistant to many elements, has extremely high durability, it''s flaw being that it requires a lot of strength to carve."


    "All these," she said pointing to the whole row of lockers, "Are what we have to offer. Please look through them while I fetch the carving tool set we sell."


    "Thank you." He said, his eyes glued to one of the descriptive wooden plates presented before a locker, the words carved into the wood with the purpose of educating.


    Looking at each of the plates with interest, he set his eyes on a few and waited for the girl to return.


    Quickly, she returned with a tool set in her hands.


    "Is there anything you''d like?" She asked.


    "Fire wood, water wood, iron wood, that life wood and magic wood." Quite disappointingly, all of the wood here were named simply after their usages.


    "One block for life and magic wood, I''ll take five of the rest."


    "The life wood is one gold coin, same for the magic wood, one fire wood is fifty silver coins, same for the water wood and the ironwood is seventy silver coins, the standard tool set is ten silver coins, the the total will be 10 gold coins and 60 silver coins." Quickly calculating the price, she asked, "Will you be taking the items yourself?"


    "Yes, please bring them out."


    The wooden blocks were rectangular shaped, it''s height fifty centimetres and breath twenty.


    "Please wait here." She said as she placed the tool set on the table, they lockers only had a sample of the wood and its description, while the actual stock in storage.


    As he waited for the girl to pick up the wood, he walked around the locker shop, inspecting the various items available for sale.


    There were carved intricacies of all sorts, while at the back of the room furnished to the max with all kinds of wooden furniture for sale.


    However what caught his eye was a winged humanoid statue made of stone, it''s wings the same design as his, the statue donned in armor with a ferocious look on its face.


    ''Ooo, it''s just like a battle angel¡­'' Justine commented.


    ''Isn''t there a proper word for that, v something."


    Though the statue was similar to his body, there were multiple difference really stood out.


    Instead of a few feathers poking out from behind the ears, it was a cluster of them reaching a length longer than the statue''s head itself.


    On its wrists and ankles were markings, chipped away by time, the words ancient and unreadable, but its presence conveyed a simple message. This one was chained.


    Perhaps the statue was about an angel who escaped the binds of treachery, but were still bound regardless.


    In its expression was sorrow, despair.


    ''Damn, that''s dark.'' Keith commented.


    ''Too edgy for me.'' Justine agreed.


    Before they could observe it more, the girl returned with a flustered expression.


    "I thought you left!" She said with a worried expression, but quickly corrected herself "Ah! Sorry for raising my voice¡­"


    "It''s fine."


    "Sorry, but that''s not for sale." She said quickly, pointing to the statue they were inspecting.


    "I can tell, it''s made of stone, would by weird if you sold it in a woodworking shop."


    "Then, please follow me to pay for your things."


    "Okay." Keith said, as he started to walk away, but not before he gave that statue a last glance.

 Chapter 10

    Picking up his items and throwing it into his spacial ring after paying, he got up to leave, but not before he asked for her name.


    "What''s your name?" He asked with an interested grin.


    "Eh?"


    "Name, what''s your name?"


    "T-Tanya."


    "Nice to meet you," he said with a dazzling smile, "I''m sure you already know mine."


    "Yes!" She answered quickly.


    "Just curious, why aren''t you in school?"


    "Nn? Because my parents found it more fitting for me to work in the family business, so I can inherit it in the future."


    "I see, then I''ll be visiting regularly."


    "Tha-that¡¯s great! If you ever want to sell your works, please tell me and I''ll help you display them on one of the lockers."


    "Okay, thanks." He said as he turned to leave.


    ''How cute~'' a certain female soul said while holding her cheeks.


    ''You think so too, huh? She looked completely like a deer in the headlights, I like docile woman the best~'' he fawned.


    ''¡­is that so? Well, it''s my turn now, move over~'' she happily said as she took over with Keith''s permission.


    Happily walking down the street, her gaze fluttered from left to right constantly, seeking out an interesting shop as she did.


    A bookshop in the distance easily caught her interest as she ran in, her eyes sparkling slightly.


    Greeted by many shelves filled with books, she quickly headed to the fiction section.


    Easily picking out a few books of interest, she wandered to the door at the back of the store, a small rectangular sign saying ''Magic'' on the top of the door.


    Entering with barely any hesitation, she headed to the fire section.


    <Fire Dragon> <Rain of Flames> <Heat Dome> and many more spells came to her sight.


    For elemental magic where any feat could be accomplished with great control over one''s Magic, spells were simply the chanting aid to those with weaker control over their magic.


    If one were to put their mind to it, mimicking spells would be possible without actually using the chant, but through control, though the rate of success greatly varies for talent.


    In a crude way, magic was for the lazy.


    And the lazy in question, being Justine.


    Taking <Heat dome> which were a whopping price of two gold coins, she wandered to the other sections in curiosity.


    Finding the miscellaneous section where rarer attributes could be found, a book about doll magic came into their line of sight.


    With Keith taking over, he picked it up and flipped in interest, all of the spells here were labeled on a piece of paper along with its description.


    [This spell, <Soul Transfer> allows the magician to move its soul into his dolls without limitation.]


    With such a simple description, he flipped the paper to notice the dirt cheap price of the spell.


    One silver coin.


    It was understandable that it would be this cheap, not only were magicians of his attribute rare, this spell was practically useless for normal magicians, since it required them to leave their body, making it extremely vulnerable to enemy attacks.


    Of course, with four other souls in this body, his leaving wouldn''t affect anything, but his instincts were practically screaming at him.


    If he left, would they let him return?


    Despite the outer appearance of their friendship, having a body shared between five souls were downright annoying, with every action they take subjected to other opinions.


    If he had the choice to kick someone out, of course he would say yes in an instant.


    With four pair of eyes staring at his every action, he faked calm as he placed the book down, "Wont need it."


    ''Is that so?~ then move over~'' Justine said as she took control.


    Mocking himself silently with laughter, he shrugged and allowed her to do so.


    Under all these facades, it was only soon before someone breaks before the untenable tension, and it won''t be him.


    But he had a feeling, the girl named Justine won''t be simple either.


    All of them, who had lost memories of the early parts of their lives, were undeniably twisted to no end, without the memories of their upbringing with lessons of morals, what was left was the horrible personalities they had developed in their later lives.


    Picking up all her books, along with the paper of the spell, she headed to the counter, paying two gold coins and forty silvers.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    In total, she had bought five books, the cheapest six silver coin.


    The books here were written by hand, each copy original as no writer would willingly copy the same novel twice, they were all sold for high prices.


    Walking out of the store, Justine flapped her wings and took to the sky, the shopping district that she had completely explored becoming uninteresting to her.


    Leaving the middle wall, she came to the outer wall.


    This country was build quite stranglely, with four large rings of walls, the center wall being the castle and the servant houses, the inner war for nobles, the middle wall for average citizens and adventurers, the outer wall for the poor and degenerate.


    After the last wall, it was simply fences of farms.


    She quickly neared the shopping district for the outer wall, the shady buildings still considered within the range of trade.


    Completely ignoring the warnings of James, she happily walked over without any sense of danger as shady looking beastmen stared at her.


    As the closed in to one of the bigger shops, a shout could be heard, "Okay!~ We''re nearing the end of today''s  slave auction~ the final, and best, might I add, will be brought out! Prepare yourselves!"


    As he spoke, a few beastmen dragged out cages, only tall enough for an eight year old child to stand in, but fortunately wide enough for an adult to squeeze in.


    Flapping her wings, she flew to a higher point to see the stage, unwilling to squeeze into the crowd.


    At that moment, dread came into all their heads, the origin unknown, it was as if one of them were terrified.


    ''L-lets go!'' James squeezed out after a long pause, his heart thumping.


    Not knowing why, he was terrified.


    ''Hu~h? Why?'' Justine asked in a petulant tone, either ignoring his discomfort or ignorant to it.


    As James were about to say something, he stopped to take a deep breath before turning his head away from the screen, "Nevermind."


    ''They enslave humans too?'' Virtla asked in curiosity, he had just woken up to see various humanoids chained and locked into cages.


    Something like this was quite foreign to him, being a tiger in his past life where the humans who held the key to his freedom, his life, seemed to be high and mighty, yet now they were locked in cages with tear staining the edge of their eyes.


    ''I think if you search rea~ally deeply on earth you''ll find things like this?'' Justine answered vaguely, shrugging as she examined the slaves for sale.


    Slowly, James regained his composure, looking away from the sight, but strangely, fear still lingered.


    On the stage, there were a particularly beautiful human, her cage labeled as 8.


    Next, was a handsome male elf, 9.


    A fox beastman, female with an extremely beautiful foxy face, 7.


    In the poorer areas in this country, practically everyone was degenerates, no normal person daring to live here, with people willing to enslave their own kind.


    Only native beastmen dared to stay, though many would leave upon finding their lover, searching for a safer place to live.


    Occasionally, adventurers of other countries would come too, though they had to have decent ability to survive.


    The slaves here, though labeled as the ''best'', were still lacking, their appearance being their selling point instead of race.


    Shrugging in disinterest, Justine landed on the ground and turned to leave.


    But before she could leave, an unpleasant voice called out to her, "The fifth prince?" It hesitantly asked as the owner of the voice, a coyote beastman coming into her sight.


    "Yes?"


    "Are you interested in purchasing a slave?" He asked, "As if you find our wares up to auction lacking, we have to recommend our main store."


    "What do you mean?"


    "This is a small branch for the outer residents, therefore you dan see nothing is interesting and up to standard for your noble self."


    "Is that so?"


    "Of course! If you wish, please visit our store at the inner wall." He swiftly recommended.


    While the academy was in the inner wall, they chose to shop at the middle walls, since the price was better.


    Of course, the woodwork shop was rather unusual, catering to both inner and middle residents, though it was situated at the middle walls.


    "If I have the time." She replied ever so vaguely, completely uninterested in the unsightly beastman infront of her.


    As always, she was cold to things that failed to interest her.

 Chapter 11

    [Mature warning, cruel depictions ahead]


    Over at a distance, a small filthy my stand could be seen, and at the top of the stand wrote the words, ''Fortune telling, five coppers''


    And perhaps by coincidence, as she looked over the lady seated at the stand locked eyes with her.


    Her hands waved as she gave a toothless smile, beckoning for Justine to walk over.


    And perhaps solely by interest, Justine walked over, saying something around the lines of, ''I''ve never got my fortune told~''


    What she didn''t, but James did, was the unusual presence of the old lady, in such a barbaric place, how could someone like her,who barely even have teeth, survive?


    Siting down opposite of her, the old lady smiled and asked, "How is it? Living with so many people?"


    And at that moment, James took over with his hand positioned ready to grab a weapon from his ring.


    "Haha hahaha¡­¡­" the old lady started laughing, the sound created similar to a witch''s, "That isn''t much of a secret, or anything taboo, you know?"


    Still tense, he relaxed only in appearance, as he asked, "So what is it?"


    Shrugging, she shook her head, "Not like I''ve seen it before, I''m just curious."


    "How can you tell?" Keith spoke.


    With a puzzled look, she paused for a moment before she pointed at the red jewel in the middle of her forehead, "This is the sign of the soul tribe, we deal with problems on a spiritual level."


    "Soul tribe?" Justine asked.


    Her eyelid twitch before she continued, "If you find them someday, maybe they''ll help separate you."


    "Where are they?" All four of the souls asked almost in harmony, causing an overlapping voice to sound as they shared the same control for a small moment.


    At that moment, it was as though they overlapped together, but it was so quick, so short, before they knew it, James was back in control.


    "Oooo." She commented, before answered with another shrug, "That''s for you to find, if your situation is predestined by the god, you can''t fight it, and I will not interfere either, if it is your fate then just accept it."


    "Oh come on!" Justine said with a pout.


    ''Ignore her, we''ll find out the location ourselves.'' James muttered, nudging Justine to walk.


    And as they did, Justine took back control.


    ''We should go find that tribe.'' Justine commented.


    ''Can we just leave?'' Keith asked.


    ''We have to wait another three years, we''ll graduate then.'' James muttered.


    ''Is it possible to go there earlier?'' Keith spoke.


    ''Then we should just go find the king~'' Justine suggested.


    Silence suddenly dawned upon them as they walked away from the shady old lady, aimlessly wandering around.


    "Hey," Keith suddenly spoke after taking control, "There should be red light district here, right?"


    ''EEEEEEEHHHHH?'' A weird sound appeared from Justine.


    ''!?''


    In silence, Keith who held full control of the body started walking with heavy steps, anger permeating his mind and theirs as he started to attempt to shut them out.


    ''What''s going on? Keith?!'' James shouted.


    ''Shut the fuck up.''


    Completely different from his previous personality, his easy going, laid back attitude was gone.


    <1st Person Mode>


    Could that be her?


    No.


    No.


    No.


    No.


    No no no no no no no no no.


    NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.


    I KILLED HER? WHY IS SHE HERE?


    SHE IS ALIVE?


    Almost unwillingly, a small voice leaked out of my mouth as my legs moved unconsciously towards her, albeit unsteadily.


    "M-Mama?"


    Her face was the same.


    It must be her.


    Almost praying in my heart, I made my way through the crowd, my heart thumping non stop.


    Her back was facing me, a bushy fox tail swaying from her ass, but the special way she braided her hair, her face, everything was so familiar.


    <1998, Earth?>


    In front of the closet I hide in, mama was on the floor with a man on top of her.


    When Mama home, I no speak.


    I no cry, I keep quiet with mr snuffles.


    Even if Mama are on the floor with pain, her face with much tears. Even if weird men push her down.


    If not Mama will make me pain. Because they go away and she hit me, pinch me and slap me.


    She says that she make money this way.  She likes money.


    So if I no like eating the green mushed bread, I stay there. The mushed bread tastes very bad, if mama earn money I can eat normal bread, but it also tastes weird, cause they very hard to bite and also sour.


    If I no like it die-ing I no talk. She say if I keep making her angry she''ll smash my head in the wall and have me die. I no want to have my head smashed, it hurts.


    But I also no like the evil men that push her fall down. They look scary.


    They make me pain if my face appear, sometimes they leave, they keep on pushing against mama, or they hit me.


    So I look, at mama''s beautiful braid, it is messed up, but I still like it. But I don''t like her face, she looks weird now.


    I''ll stay there like a good child, I won''t talk, won''t move, I''ll be a good boy and mama will feed me.


    ¡­I''m hungry.


    <2004, Earth?>


    "Mama, don''t leave me." I mutter ever so softly.


    "Shh, it''s okay, Keith." She smiled, touching my hair softly, before turning to the man wearing a suit in front of her.


    "Three grand? Like you said."


    "Yes, as long as you don''t spread anything, if I hear rumours, we''re coming for your head."  The man spoke as he took out a thick envelope, throwing it to her with a disgusted look on his face.


    Because of little care, the envelope fell onto the floor, but with a worried expression, Mama picked it up and hid it in her shirt, near her chest. Looking around with fear on her face as she did.


    This time, mama''s face is turned into a big big smile. I hate it.


    It''s always because of money that she smiles like that.


    I hate it. I think as another man wearing a suit held my hand, and Mama letting go of the other.


    "Mama?"


    "Go with them, they have food, and nice clothes."


    "Will you come with me to share the food?" I ask, I want to be with mama.


    She was suffering too, because of no food.


    "No, Mama wants you to eat and be happy." She smiles.


    "Mama, I don''t want to go." I said pouting, trying to pull my hand away from the man''s firm grip.


    "I want to be with you Mama."


    She smiled again, "It''s okay, we won''t be apart permanently."


    Permanently? What''s that word?


    I''m not very smart, because I''m only 11. But Mama is very smart and nice.


    I like Mama.


    I don''t want to go, but if Mama say we won''t be apart, then it''s okay. I''m hungry.


    "Okay Mama." I smile, before the man started pulling at my hand. I''ll go and eat first, and I''ll save lots of food for you, mama.


    <2008, earth?>


    Four years.


    Four damned years.


    I spent the past four years as the caretaker of the Madam of this family.


    The rumours heard from the maids divulged the scar of the madam.


    She who had lost her child after a horrific car crash as well as her Husband along with her ability to move all of her muscles, could only blink and cry before my arrival.


    She missed her unborn child, or so they say.


    Living with her rich, successful Brother who were rarely home because of his business, she was wasting away in sorrow, and perhaps because of that, she went mad.


    When I was brought into her sight, I who was forced to call out, "Mother." Instantly noticed the glint of madness in her pale blue eyes as she shed many tears.


    And because of her delusions, and her sorrow, she fooled herself into thinking that I was the Son she lost.


    One good thing was that I got away from that fucked up life, eating mouldy bread and watching my real Mother sell her body on a daily basis.


    Only after education and normal human interaction, did I see the lies hidden behind that smile.


    That bitch only loved money.


    Despite how idiotic it was to call such a vegetable my "Mother", it brought great benefits.


    A single word, "Mother" gave me a decent place to live.


    Yet loving my real Mother only gave a suffering and abuse.


    <2013, earth?>


    I entered university and took the veterinary course,  now, at the age of 20, I somehow fell in love.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    As I lived in their mansion, I quickly came to know reason why I was chosen as the madam''s fake Son, it was because of my beautiful looks.


    And with that face, I spent university swarmed by women, all of which were quite beautiful themselves.


    Yet I pushed them all away.


    But despite the position of women in my heart because of my life, the beautiful, kind, charming junior I had somehow wormed her way into my heart.


    With brown hair and eyes, our first meeting was a accident, with her clumsy self bumping into me in the cafeteria.


    With the soup I had spilling onto my shirt, a compulsive urge of slapping her came into my mind, but it was quickly pushed away when the deer in the headlights look in her face changed into a worried and apologetic expression.


    She was so kind, so gentle, so nice.


    I trusted her with my heart, I spent hours telling her of my life, the burden of it all shared with her.


    Yet, why was she seen fucking my senior? Despite our official relationship?


    That gentle personality I fell in love in, was it a lie?


    Everything is a lie isn''t it?


    Women, they can''t be trusted.


    They only want you when you they need you, and when they don''t, they throw you away without a shred of hesitation.


    Like how Mother, she threw me away so cruelly for money.


    "Mother", who needed me to replace the child she lost.


    And Rachel, who took me for the love I showered endlessly on her, and threw me away for another man.


    With anger clouding my judgement, I kidnapped her while she was returning home. Thankfully, the was quite the airhead, she spent most her time texting her friends, or that guy, while walking home.


    In a secluded alley, I hit her unconscious and threw her in my car, a gift from "Mother".


    And with her tied in my house, my hands wielding a sharp kitchen knife, myself all ready to stab it into her stomach.


    Yet I couldn''t.


    Crashing to the floor, my hands rubbed my scalp, winding through my long locks of hair.


    I hated it, the fear in those beautiful eyes, the tears staining her cheeks.


    I didn''t hate her, I hated her actions, her emotions.


    Wouldn''t it be better, if she were to just stay devoted to me?


    If she would need me.


    Just like "Mother".


    Without expressions on her face, the ability to move.


    She would just stay home, and wait for me.


    She wouldn''t leave me, and go to another man.


    She should just not move.


    With that thought in mind, I stood back up with a true, genuine smile as I untied the ropes binding her hand from the armrest.


    And with a gentle kiss on the back of her palm, I flipped it over, and slashed her tendon.


    And at that moment, tears, sweat, blood all flowed from her as a muffled scream sounded throughout my large apartment.


    "It''s okay, it''ll be over soon, okay?" I said while patting her head, kissing her forehead, "Only a few more."


    And with a small amount of time, I easily took care of her limbs'' mobility.


    At that point, she had already fainted from the pain.


    Untying the gag, I looked at her mouth with a tilted head.


    "How should I go about this?" I mumbled.


    I don''t have the resources to remove her vocal cords.


    I''ll prepare it with "Mother''s" money, I should just keep the gag on, shouldn''t I?


    For now, it should be fine.


    With a satisfied smile, I rubbed my nose and left the room, preparing for the things I required for the removal of vocal chords.


    I should also read up more on human biology, as I wasn''t qualified for being a doctor after studying for its test, I threw the subject to the back of my mind, but thankfully I still remember quite a few things.


    The dark web is quite a good place, Afterall.


    <2015, earth?>


    With rekindled interest for human biology, I easily created my ideal, perfect, human doll.


    Luckily, I lived in a small town, quite corrupted to say the least, and with a bit of money, anything could be settled.


    In my house, lived 4 dolls.


    Unfortunately, Rachel died due to my inexperience, but it''s fine.


    These four girls are great, after all.


    With their mouths glued shut and vocal chords removed, they ate daily with a tube connected directly into their stomach.


    Their feet and hands similarly useless.


    Dressed in beautiful dresses,  the beautiful faces kept still.


    I had used a lot of resources to block off their hearing, sense of smell and many other senses, so they would come to enjoy their only stimulus, me.


    I had specially chosen them amongst all the women I''ve dated, the criteria being their face and body.


    It''s fine regardless what personality they had, since as dolls, it didn''t matter. They only needed to look pretty and stay with me.


    The last doll I needed, was Mother.


    And with ease, I found her wasting her life away as a prostitute.


    Like always, she was leading a duo of shady guys to her small apartment.


    Ever since she sold me, I''ve never sought her out until today, that is. Now, her face was already showing signs of ageing.


    She had me at the age of 16, and probably was thrown out of her family''s house, my Father never found.


    Today, she was 38, yet somehow she was still in this business, perhaps because of her beautiful face.


    "Mother." I called out, yet she didn''t turn around.


    "Mama." I shouted again, this time getting her attention.


    Finally, she turned around, her similar green eyes and blond hair stunningly complemented her facial features, with sharp eyes and brows, a thin, long nose and thick lips, she was quite the beauty.


    Seeing me, her eyes widened, perhaps seeing the similar features I shared with her, or my Father, she hesitantly called out, "Keith?"


    I nodded with a smile, causing her to gasp in shock.


    After a while, she turned to the two men behind her, mumbling something to them before walking towards me.


    "What are you doing here! Leave!" She snapped.


    "I came to visit you mama, come with me."


    "I can''t you bloody idiot! Can''t you see I''m busy?"


    Her all too familiar insults rained upon me, though unruffled, my gentle smile continued to decorate my face.


    She always insulted me like this, not that I knew what those words meant, I merely took it as compliments when I was younger, enjoying the attention she gave me ever so rarely.


    One point of my life, I thought the word, "Burden." Was my second name.


    Silently taking out my wallet, I walked to the two guys around her and passed them three hundred bucks, "Leave."


    With the money in their hands, the smiled creepily before patting my back, "She''s your momma huh? Lemme tell ya, that slut loves cock." Before guffawing with his Friend.


    "Tell me something I don''t know." I said with a smile as they decided to leave.


    As I watched them leave, Mother ran towards me and slapped me, "What did you do?!"


    "Just come with me, lets talk." I rubbed my cheek with my hand and grabbed hers with the other, pulling her to my car.


    "Let me go! There''s nothing to talk about, I sold you!" She reminded with anger, trying to pull away, her other hand too focused on hitting me.


    In frustration, I simply knocked her out and threw her in my car, where ropes lay conveniently for me to tie her up.


    Luckily, no one was present to witness such a sight.


    Quickly, I reached home, with the four dolls in a locked room, I laid her down on what I call my operation room.


    Everything I needed was already prepared, so with a few doses of drugs and a few hours.


    She became my perfect, final doll.


    "Mama." I woke her up, my other hand rubbing my nose in pride.


    Slowly, with the drugs still in her system, she woke up confused.


    But without waiting for her to completely wake up, I hugged her.


    "Mama, I love you." I said with a smile.


    But she couldn''t reply.


    ------------------------------


    <Author''s note>


    Keith''s story was the most complete in my mind, though I was tempted to release Justine''s first.


    By the way, I have no grudges against women, considering I''m one myself.


    If you''re still reading this story, props to you.

 Chapter 12

    At this point, his mental age completely regressed. Tragic.


    --------------------


    There should have been many safer methods to do this, perhaps call her out pretending to be a potential customer, or call her as the prince, but in my hazy, confused mind, I called her as her Son.


    Snapping her head around, she looked everywhere with a paranoid expression mixed in with fear.


    Sadly, she looked completely past me, yet I continued to walk over.


    She was much younger in this life, seemingly in her teens.


    In all my confusion, I hadn''t thought how, or why, she was also in this world, I had simply accepted it.


    Yet again, this wretched woman had to suffer under my hands.


    Ignoring the pounding headache I had gotten from shutting the four of them out, I quickened my pace, pushing across the crowd, completely forgetting the presence of my wings.


    The temperature surrounding me was steadily rising, the crackling of a flame appearing ever so softly. Darkness seeped from my body as well as distortions of light, their magic was running wild.


    Quickly, she noticed me, frantically making my way to her with strange emissions of magic cladding my body.


    Time was running out.


    "Mama!" I screamed, causing the surrounding beast men to recoil from the intensity of my shout.


    There was only an inch between my index finger and the hem of her shirt.


    Yet, I failed to grasp her.


    <Third person view>


    Recoiling from the surroundings with a frantic expression on Virtla''s face.


    For a while, the four of the souls had been plunged into sensory hell, the room they resided in during times they didn''t control the body became pitch black, and the senses they could feel we''re gone.


    Originally if the body were to touch something, like perhaps the leathery case of a book, all of them would be able to feel the rough casing. When the body felt pain, all of them would feel the same pain at the same spot.


    That was the same for all the senses, except for sight, where they had to view the world through a pseudo high quality television.


    Just now, it was empty, nothingness, a void.


    And it was incredibly terrifying.


    Of course, they were simply souls, and unlike the times where they were still humans who needed constant sensory experiences to prevent hallucinations, they were still unaccustomed to such a situation.


    Fighting extremely desperately to break down the wall, Virtla was  lucky enough to finally break through the mental wall Keith had erected.


    In correspondence to the thoughts of the four souls, this time, walls were erected against Keith, forcing him to experience what the others had just gone through.


    ''$@&!€£¤%#&$!'' Justine angrily cussed in her native language.


    ''Aaaaand he''s never getting out.'' James muttered, anger lacing his tone deeply.


    As they were fuming, Virtla took flight back to the inner ring of the city, silently raging.


    Currently, the sun had already set, and the night life had just begun, with shoppers lining the streets.


    Taking deep deep breaths as he flew, he wriggled his fingers as they experienced the wind against their body.


    That was bad.


    Currently, they could feel Keith banging against their defences as the dolls in their ring start to move around.


    Landing in their dormitory, James let out the dolls.


    All of them moved around frantically and jerkily, most of which were running into walls because of Keith''s inability to see.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    But one managed to secure the weapon all of them had carried and started carving away blindly at the floor.


    Almost plain gibberish, some coherent sentences could be made out.


    ''Sorry.''


    ''Mama.''


    ''Please.''


    ''Release me.''


    Following the first doll, the rest started to carve the same words onto the floor, and quickly, the floor was filled with overlapping ''Release me''s.


    "Shut up!" Justine shouted, trampling on a doll.


    Heat scorched the walls and floors as her magic ran rampant again, destroying the wooden dolls.


    ''Stop it.'' James commanded.


    "Why should I? Fucking idiot went and betrayed us!" Instead of speaking mentally, Justine who had become furious slipped and spoke physically.


    ''We should listen to what he has to say.''


    "Who fucking cares?"


    "Oh shut up you bitch." James muttered, taking over the body and sat crosslegged on the charred and burnt flooring.


    Letting go control, four of the souls appeared in their mental room, with a blocked off area in its middle.


    Relaxing their blocks slightly, Keith came into their view, madness in his eyes.


    ''I¡­I-I-I have to go!'' He muttered, the nail of his index finger digging into the sides of the nail of his thumb.


    ''I''m sorry, I''m sorry I''m sorry I''m sorry.'' He pleaded.


    ''Calm down.'' Dominon spoke, discomfort apparent in his eyes as he looked away from Keith.


    ''Who was that?'' James asked skeptically, after spending 12 years together, they''ve never met such a person.


    ''It''s mama.'' Keith mumbled, his eyes darting around, perhaps looking for a method of escape.


    Snapping his fingers in front of his face, James spoke, ''Focus.''


    Gaining his attention, ''Look at me and answer, who is she to you?''


    His eyes became dull as he stared blankly at his face, only answering after a Long time, ''She''s my Mother¡­from earth.''


    ''Eh?''


    ''How did you know it was her?''


    ''She looks like my mama, when she was younger, with her hair braided like how my mama did.''


    ''Is that it?''


    ''She also reacted when I called out mama.''


    At this point, Keith was completely different from his past self, whatever was left only resembled a disturbed child.


    ''But¡­mama died.'' He mumbled, his index finger still digging into his thumb.


    ''What do we do now?'' Justine interrupted, ''He broke himself.''


    Ignoring Justine, James spoke, ''Then, you want to go get your mama?''


    ''Yes please.''


    Reaching a conclusion that satisfied James, he took over and headed to the door, only to be disrupted by a knock.


    Opening the door, he was greeted by the fourth prince, Asmin.


    "Father summons, all of us." He spoke curtly, "Get Citra and we can head together to the castle." But as he turned to leave, he noticed the mess of a room I had.


    His brows furrowing in confusion, he took another glance before heading toward''s Citra''s room.


    Afterwards, the three of us flew to the castle with the sun in our eyes, it had already been the next day, to the souls'' surprise.


    With a sigh, Virtla could only rub his head in frustration, the equality the shared was slowly breaking into pieces, with James planning all sorts of things, Justine trusting no one, Dominon living in his own world, and Keith, who went mad.


    He wasn''t smart like the others, so how could he survive?