"Repeat after me, I will not use such words on my parents."
"I will not use such words on my parents." Si-eun muttered weakly.
"Louder!"
"I-I will not use such words on my parents!" His voice came out more high pitched than he'd expected.
The woman stared at him with a strange expression, then gently placed the whip down.
Her gaze followed the trembling figure of her son who was bruised all over.
"Azazel dear, did you hit your head somewhere? You're acting unlike yourself."
Si-eun resisted the urge to cuss out at her, he wanted to scream…
'Crazy woman, who breaks an entire furniture on their child's head and still has the nerve to ask that.'
But he knew better, he'd rather get run over by a truck again than experience that hell of a torture he just went through.
You see, while he was being pummeled on by the mother of this body, the memories of the previous Azazel decided it was a good time to overload his mind and so it did.
After everything that was revealed to him he only had one thought.
'What a scumbag.'
The owner of the body was trash, the kind that didn't appreciate what he had until it was taken from him.
He had three siblings, two sisters and a little brother.
They were so afraid of him that they rarely crossed the same path he did, well at least two of them were, the eldest child, his elder sister loathed him, far beyond what words could explain.
She was only tolerating his presence because of their parents but in the near future even that was going to come to an end.
Or he was going to die before it did.
The world Si-eun had transmigrated to was the world of Fallen Paragons, a Role playing game with an eccentric in-game mechanism.
The characters used diverse builds just as a Moba game character would and the story line was too vast, with several alternate endings.
In some playthroughs, the main protagonist died before the end was concluded, to put it short it was a hell level difficulty game with a thirty six percent chance of completion, and even that wasn't guaranteed.
Truth be told, the bad endings were much more than the good endings and that was sugarcoating it, eighty percent of the game's conclusion were bad endings while only twenty percent had good endings.
There were many side characters and even members of the protagonist cohorts who met ends that could make even the coldest bastard shudder in pity, some were as useless as NPCs while some were so broken you'd wonder who the protagonist actually was.
It was a game he used to play before the unfortunate incident happened, before Javier's betrayal and before he was forced to go into hiding.
The character he had transmigrated as was even worse than an NPC, he had zero relevance to the story and was meant to die in almost all routes of the game.
In one of those playthroughs he was brutally murdered by his own sister.
Then came the realization.
He had possessed the body of Azazel von astavore, an extra and a third rated villain who was fated to die in every turn of the game.
And the main owner of this body, had triggered one of those bad endings before he possessed it, that was the reason he was being punished by his parents who were rarely ever physical with their kids.
The events dated back to yesterday, at the grand ball of the royal family.
The fourth prince, another human trash had manipulated Azazel into beating the living daylights out of the fifth prince who was born with a frail body.
Needless to say, he had almost committed treason by nearly killing a member of the royal family and the fourth prince who had coaxed him into doing it was the one to pin the blame on him.
A well deserved fate for an idiot but oh well, third rated villain starter pack, they were always stupid.
But more importantly…
If that had already happened then it could only mean one thing, Si-eun was going to die soon.
The royal family had given the decree already for him to come to the palace tomorrow, no doubt having decided his fate.
'Death? I'm going to die again… N-No that can't happen I don't want to die, if I was going to die like this then why did that trickster god give me a second chance?'
His mind raced, losing track of his surroundings as his body grew cold.
Just then a pair of slender warm hands grabbed his cheek softly.
"—Zel"
'I can't die… I can't!'
"Azazel!" The woman called again, this time louder.
Loud enough to snap him out of his reverie.
He gasped, feeling cold sweat on his skin.
The parents of the body were staring at him with genuine concern, the woman's eyes trembled slightly like she was holding back her tears.
As for the father, his expression was taut, but he remained still.
"W-Why?"
He wanted to ask why they were staring at him like that, he wasn't their son so why were they worried about him.
The words died in his throat as the woman pulled his body into a tight hug.
Her body trembled against his.
She could no longer hold the tears.
"Azazel… Mommy's really sorry, I tried… the king just wouldn't listen, I really tried my best."
She shook within his embrace, no longer bearing the ferocious image she'd whipped into his mind.
He realized just how fragile she was.
In his former life, he never knew his parents, he was an orphan from the moment he opened his eyes.
It was a first, the first time someone actually cared for him, the first time he'd received this much affection, even if it wasn't directed at him, the real him; he wanted this moment to last.
"Mother I…I"
"Azazel, don't worry, you'll be fine… mom will find a way to get you out of this mess." She muttered softly.
It was then the emotions he didn't even realize he'd been bottling up exploded.
He hugged her tightly before sobbing uncontrollably in her arms, and for the first time since he got betrayed, the wall he'd always put up against others cracked.