(AN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVDch0rM2oc —> Listen to this while reading if you are interested)
This was a dream of the distant past.
The day everything changed for her in its entirety.
The day she realized that in this rotten world, one should cherish every day as if they were their last— because it might very well be.
Cecilia Ataegina was a normal girl. At least she was as normal as one could be when they were born into a family of Hunters— humans with the power of the gift coursing through their veins.
Her father was not a particularly high-ranked hunter in the association and her mother was merely a scientist working in the development of weapons for hunters. But she had retired from her post in order to take care of the children till they were old enough.
All in all, there was nothing particularly interesting about her life outside of listening to her father show off sometimes about his 'Legendary and epic hunts' or something along those lines as he used to call them.
She had a little sister, just a few years younger than her and even though they would sometimes get angry at each other and fight it out amongst themselves, they still loved each other.
This was her ordinary everyday life.
A genius but clumsy mother who stayed at home to take care of her daughters. A caring father who worked in order to provide for his family and then there was she and her sister. Two girls whose greatest problem was what to watch on TV or what to eat for dinner.
It was a normal life of the likes that could be observed in hundreds of millions of families in just her country alone. But it was a happy life nonetheless.
She thought that this life would last forever. No, in the first place, she never even thought about the eventual possibility of losing her current life. How could she? She was just a kid at that time, after all.
But even adults rarely thought about what if their lives would go on to take a pessimistic turn. Humans always averted their eyes from the possible inevitability of a disaster that may occur in the future. That's just how humans were. Ignorant till the end until their doomsday arrived on their doorsteps.
Such was the case for her.
It started like any other day.
She would wake up her sister in the funniest possible way, she would go down and cringe visibly as she watched her parents show of affection to each other, and she would wiggle out of her father's embrace as he tried to give her a kiss on the forehead. Then giggle foolishly when he showed a crestfallen expression at seeing her reject his embrace.
Sadly, this was the last time she would live such a moment for the rest of her life.
What followed next was nothing short of the scariest nightmare that one could come up with. And the incident traumatized her deeply.
She did not know why such a thing happened to her family. Perhaps her father had pissed off someone he shouldn't have? Or perhaps they were just unlucky to come across people who just wanted to have a good time, relishing in other people's misery?
The reason did not really matter. All that mattered was that her life was shattered on that day as her house was raided by a group of terrorists who kidnapped all of them. The assailants had no pity for them and they were not the only ones captured— a fact they learned after having dropped off in the criminals' hideout.
That day, she watched as her affectionate father was torn apart from limb to limb before her very own eyes. No longer could he take her in his embrace. No longer could she hear those clumsy and made-up stories that brought her so much joy.
She looked on helplessly as her mother had her stomach sliced open with a knife while she was kept alive using substances she had no idea about. Gone was that caring mother. She could no longer experience her gentle embrace.
Even now, she could remember the scream of pain and agony her parents let out as they were tortured.
But back then she did not care for all that. She couldn't care. All she wanted was to survive through this ordeal. She cried and cried but tears never changed anything.
Even as she covered her ears and curled up, she could never get those screams to go away.
In the end— her parents died.
Their bodies— mutilated beyond recognition.
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ Their faces— forever distorted in agony and grief.
"You are next."
How terrifying those words sounded in her heart.
She backpedaled. cried, begged, and screamed— all of this just to survive and live.
But once again— this changed nothing.
It was then that he appeared.
He was an old man with a hunched back. His expression was filled with a mix of sorrow and anger.
What followed was simply a pure massacre.
Those monsters who laughed in delight as they tortured her parents were now trying to run away as much as possible but they could only be helplessly cut down by the sword of that man.
In a few short seconds, all of them died. All of them but one.
"Choose."
The old man gave her and her sister two knives.
Kill the man who destroyed their family with their own hands thus avenging her dead parents, or simply walk away and never have anything else to do with the hunter world.
It was definitely a crazy choice. What kind of insane man would ask this of two young girls?
But Cecilia did not care. Neither did her sister.
They chose the knife. They chose vengeance against the promise of a peaceful life.
On that day… Cecilia took a life for the first time—She was nine years old.
(AN: From my experience with SHK, I know some readers skip interlude chapters only to regret it later. Interludes are important for me as they are a way to show the backstory of some characters I judge as very important for the story. It also helps develop the lore and serves as a good way to end a volume. This is MP's first interlude. I hope you will like it.)
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