The Protagonist's Sister Is Actually The Strongest

Listen While Reading: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms OST

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When Hue Xian saw what was in front of her eyes, she immediately knew that it wasn’t her son.

Yet at the same time, his presence, his soul, his eyes, his personality.

They were identical.

Memories flashed through her mind in that moment—memories of many years ago.

When the impossible happened.

She loved an insane man, someone consumed by his dark past, full of anger and wrath against the world.

Someone hated by everyone that she desperately sought to defeat.

Yet…

At the end, after the Heavenly Will stopped them from fighting, she got to know him, and he got to know her too.

Unexpectedly, over one hundred years of learning to know one another.

They learned about their past, their present, and the future ahead.

The cold demon’s heart slowly warmed up to her, the man that once thought he could never love anybody…

Fell in love.

And her tired, worn-down heart was revived, and as she sought to change this rebellious man, she made it her own task in life.

To make him better, because if she couldn’t defeat him, she had to at least make him see the mistakes of his crimes.

And over time, she grew to love this vengeful, flawed man.

Why?

Perhaps because he embodied everything she once yearned to protect.

The weak, the discriminated, the innocent…

He was a victim of the horrors of the world, which she sought to defeat.

“If only…” she once said, holding his hands. “If only I had met you sooner, at a younger age… If only I could have been there for you…”

“Things could have been different?” he wondered, smiling faintly. “Yeah… I hate to admit it, but that’s right. I think about it all the time… If only I had met you earlier… I… Hahh…”

She sought his hand, and he didn’t shy away from her warmth.

“Han Zhenye, let me help you…” she said. “You’re part of those people, those I sought to protect with all my heart.”

“…Is that why, despite everything I’ve done, you never went serious on me?” he wondered. “Why, even when there were so many opportunities, you never gave me the final blow?”

She remained in silence.

But she confessed.

“Yes…”

“Hah… What a joke of an empress you are… You promised to slay evil, yet here I am. The king of all evil.”

“No… you’re not the king of all evil.”

“…”

The two met gazes.

“Nobody is born evil; everyone is born with an innocent heart,” she smiled. “Even the vilest assassin was once an innocent child, a baby that was once held by their mother. A child that laughed and loved… the world is simply cruel. Evil always lingers within everyone’s hearts, but we, by default, are innocent and pure souls.”

“What nonsense are you…?”

She held his hand even tighter.

“And I believe that… There’s some of that within you, Han Zhenye! I know you’re a victim, and I know that… that there’s a lingering innocence, something within your soul. Your parents that loved you, your family that cared for you. Even now, they had not left your heart. As dark as it has become, as resentful as you’ve become.”

“You’re… serious about this? But I’m… I’m a monster… I…”

“You show regret; you know what you are… You’re no psychopath. Psychopaths will never believe what they do is bad. Yet you do. You carry your sins with regret…”

“Hue Xian… You…”

Han Zhenye couldn’t believe it, as he started crying in front of her, as he was embraced by her warm hug, as he rested his head on her feathered chest.

“You’re an innocent child… mistreated by the world, a victim of the horrors that we create… And I forgive you.”

“Hue Xian… I love you…”

The man couldn’t hold back anymore; he glanced into her eyes and said what he felt.

And she smiled at his confession.

“I love you too, Han Zhenye.”

“Despite… everything?”

“Yes…”

“Why?!”

“Because… I want to make you happy. To make up for all you’ve suffered.”

Han Zhenye had never met someone like her in his entire life.

Someone so pure, so good, so virtuous.

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A woman with strength yet delicacy.

A woman that was the mother of all, with endless mercy.

Even for a demon like him…

He felt overwhelmed; her love was too strong.

He had grown weaker.

“You truly… have defeated me.”

And the two embraced one another that night—in fact, for many nights.

They showed one another their love.

Their passion.

After nine days and nine nights, once the morning of the tenth day began and the sun rose from the horizon…

The two enjoyed tea together, smiling as they admired the beauty of the world.

A world worth protecting and loving.

“Do you understand now, my love?” Hue Xian asked, resting her head over his shoulder.

“I do…” Han Zenya giggled. “And I will love you forever more, for all the love you’ve given to me… I swear upon the nine heavens that… I will always remain at your side.”

The two spent years together, enjoying the world and traveling around it. They hunted beasts and ruffians; they ate and laughed.

They loved one another, and then loved the world.

And the world, and the heavens…

Loved them back.

A Blessing from the Nine Heavens descended into the belly of Hue Xian as she slept by the side of her beloved husband one night.

Her child, which has been gestating within her egg for over twenty years, received the last ingredient for its conception.

And that morning, she laid her egg—a beautiful white egg—it was very big, making it hard for her.

But her husband was there, and the two saw the beautiful egg being laid.

And so they protected their egg from dangers everywhere.

The egg, born from their love and carried within the Child of Providence, prophesied to bring peace to the world of Bestia forever more.

Beasts of Chaos came for the egg, yet the two Venerables defeated them one after another.

Eventually, after ten years of arduously fighting to protect their child.

Crack, crack…!

“Chirp, chirp…”

The sound of a chirp and the cracking of an eggshell sent the two exhausted Venerables awry.

They ran towards the egg, glancing as its eggshell slowly broke.

They couldn’t help the child; it was a tradition for the bird tribes to let the child break the egg on their own.

It helped the child build courage and strength.

It struggled; their eggshell was very tough.

Minutes went by, even hours, and the child slowly, yet steadily…

CRACK!

Its little beak emerged, and then its head, breaking through the large egg.

And the little chick was born, a beautiful child with fluffy feathers of black and white color.

His parents had their hearts melted.

They had never experienced such bliss before.

Their entire world, everything… it shifted around this child.

Even the love they felt for one another changed.

There was now someone they loved even more than one another.

Their precious and beautiful child.

“His wings… He only has one?” His father seemed worried. “Why? Is this because he’s a hybrid?”

“Maybe…” sighed the child’s mother. “But it doesn’t really matter… This child will fly higher than all of us, even with only a single wing.”

“Chirp! Pii! Piipii!”

Hue Xian could still remember as her child chirps echoed as she held him with her hands.

And as they noticed his bright, star-like eyes.

They decided on a name as they feed him in turns, feeding him small, sweet berries and juicy, protein-filled worms.

“He shall be named Song Weisheng from now on!” his mother said.

“Yes, that is a fitting name… The Child Blessed by Heaven and the Stars!” his father sang songs.

The two strongest beings in the world, the mightiest Venerables, forces of nature that represented Yin and Yang.

They united, creating a divine child blessed by heaven.

And that was his name.

Song Weisheng.

That beautiful chick she held in her arms for so long.

How she loved him, how she treasured him, even more than his father.

Her beautiful child, her son…

The greatest treasure that has ever blessed her long life.

And the turning point that changed her and her husband forever.

“IT HURTS…! MAMAAA…! HELP…! PAPA…! HELP…! IT HURTS…! UUUAAGGGH…! UUUAAAGGGHHHH!”

And his screams of agony, as the monstrosity that he was turned into attacked and slaughtered hundreds of immortals, tearing through everything mercilessly.

The laughter of the Constellations, as they did the unthinkable.

And the feeling of despair, of endless despair she felt that day…

“I know I have to kill him… I know it’s the correct thing to do… to end this… to save the world…”

Yet every time she fought him, she felt weak.

There was no power weakening her at all.

It was just herself.

“Yet I can’t… I can’t hurt my child…! Oh, Heavens… Why?! Why have you given me such an agonizing trial?! I fear… I fear I might abandon everything I ever believed… just to save him!”

This, she believed, was a test…

A test she failed miserably.

When almost every immortal died, she and her husband managed to seal their son.

The Apocalypse never ended, and the two were greatly wounded, exhausted, and weakened.

Both cried, and both blamed each other.

Their love broke apart into pieces, and the two that had once sworn to love one another forever… ended breaking up.

Alone, desolated…

For many years.

She watched the world fall into ruins.

“This is…?”

And while examining the island she took refuge on.

She found something—a primordial fragment.

A fragment of the world itself, which was breaking apart.

A mere touch made her see the memories of the world stored within this small, pink colored crystal.

It was but a small, tiny piece.

But it contained memories of the world, as if they were all real.

A drug to make her feel happier, after all she had gone through.

She indulged in it—this Fragment of the World’s Records.

Over and over again, she lived the past, trying to remember when things were good.

Yet she felt sick and ended abandoning it for many years.

Until Anna appeared, and her life, full of despair, slowly started to improve.

“Maybe its true purpose was this… to teach her and her friends… about this world.”

And then she saw it—the perfect ending.

The beautiful ending she had dreamed of so much, which she could never achieve.

Everyone was happy; Song never turned into the demon king.

She cried so much.

And even now, she was crying again.

Because an impossible miracle was happening in front of her eyes.

Her son was right there.

In the flesh.

As if she were dreaming, the child she saw was so happy in that simulation.

He walked out of it on his own, coming to seek his mother.

Her Will, a fragment of her memories and soul that she left to oversee this Tower had come here personally to tell her of this.

At first she panicked, but this child…

It held no hostility; it was...

It was just...

“Song…?”

“M-Mama? Is that you? I… where am I? What’s going on? I thought we won… Where’s… papa?”

The boy slowly walked towards his mother, timidly, still afraid, without knowing what was happening.

“A-Ah… Aahh…”

Anna and her friends watched this scene in utter shock and disbelief.

“T-This is…?! How is this possible?!” Anna thought. “Song… is alive? No… wait! But wasn’t that a Simulation?! It was. I am sure of that! But how?! What… what is he?”

Then something came to her mind: her sponsorship, a divine power bestowed upon someone to awaken their hidden potential; she became this child’s sponsor.

And that fact remained even as the simulation ended; she never received a notification saying the sponsored Song Weisheng disappeared or something.

“Did my sponsorship do this?” she thought, feeling both dread and… hope.

In fact, she didn’t know what to feel.

Was this the real Song?

Or was he just a copy?

Was that even a bad thing, though?

No…

She didn’t have to hesitate.

Nobody had to.

This child… was very much alive, walking in front of them.

Whatever he was, however, he was born.

That did not matter.

And the Heavenly Empress, so broken emotionally, couldn’t force herself to not accept him.

“My son!”

She ran towards her son, hugging him tightly. Song gasped for a bit, but then let his mother love him and hug him. Her soft feathers felt nice on his little hands, and she smelled like lotus flowers too.

She was definitely her beautiful mama.

“Mama!”

Song cried, feeling relieved he finally found his mother.

“I’m here, my son… I’m here…”

The two hugged tightly.

Anna had many questions; everyone had.

But they knew that they couldn’t deny this poor woman a little time with her son.

“What have I done…” Anna wondered. “Is this a good thing? Or a bad thing…”

She looked at the sky.

“I know you’re looking… Tell me something! Please…”

[The {Seamless Abyss} is watching you.]

[He says that whatever path you choose is yours to decide.]

He talked to her.

Again…

“Hah…”

With a light smile, Anna understood.

“Fine… Alright.”

Anna gripped her fists tightly.

“Then my path has already been chosen…”

She knew that the child in the Empress’ arms...

He was the key.

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