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.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
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.
—————
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—' 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