Chapter 169
Chapter 169
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: EP.169 48-3. Under the Moonlight Ballroom
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The phoenix is a spirit reborn from ashes, returning once more to flames.
Just like how a person changes passionately when falling in love, only to fade away again.
Its life, fragile like a cigarette, leaves a stronger mark than anyone else's.
'...Yeah, that was the lore. Damn.'
The judgment that taking Sharutineth as a wife would be dangerous for Nex was, in fact, correct.
Spirit summoners are hypersensitive to emotions. It's the kind of class that whimpers at the slightest debuff.
That's why building a harem to preemptively shore up those weaknesses isn't entirely wrong.
In fact, plenty of players did just that.
In the original game and its sequel, Nex's personality shattered, but he was a rival strong enough to contend with the player.
But is Nex strong now? Even if his phoenix has matured into an adult form.
"Ha... I knew it. I thought I'd finally earned some recognition..."
He still hasn't overcome the classic spirit summoner frailties. What was the right move here?
'Without his signature spear arts, the weaknesses are glaring.'
We'd moved to the garden for a moment. Nex ruffled his hair beside me, his face twisted in frustration.
"...."
It might've been better if he'd at least hooked up with some pillar-of-the-house type.
If he'd learned northern spear techniques early on, things might've turned out differently.
Time slipped away fruitlessly as I searched for a solution.
Glancing up at the sky, I saw a bright moon hanging there.
A pair of eyes floated into my mind. Sparkling, pretty wolf eyes.
"Sunbae-nim, do you know anything... about my father?"
No answers came no matter how hard I racked my brain, so I sighed deeply and turned to the purple-haired man.
In the end, this was his problem to solve, not some third party's.
Even so, he might know something.
"That Frey Aureus guy... right? My father."
I nodded silently. That was right. Actions over words.
The purple-haired man who appears when a player starts the DLC. A character with a fixed name and appearance.
His mother, Asha, must've hidden it as best she could. A servant becoming a husband and all.
"What kind of man was my father? Hubae-nim."
"Well... from what I know, he cherished Lady Asha deeply. But I've never met him myself."
I only mentioned what I'd read in later posts.
A man who worked to restore his lady's hair to its original color.
Who gradually taught love to an Asha ignorant of such things, successfully awakening her phoenix.
"...Hubae-nim, so I'm not some illegitimate child after all. Then why did everyone hide this...?"
Nex's voice trembled. His tone hovered on the edge of tears.
There was backstory he couldn't possibly know.
The class system.
It was also why I'd viewed marriage to Pine so negatively before. Even in this loose medieval world.
'A duke marrying a servant...'
Unless it was a calculated move, it was impossible.
Poor nobles marrying into money from the lower classes? Maybe.
But marrying for love? Society wouldn't accept it easily.
Love—that everyday miracle—might not visit just anyone.
"Sunbae-nim, one big reason the Aureus family is called the 'living sun' is... the phoenix spirit."
I decided to launch into a lame excuse, reciting from the setting bible.
"Right. The family that ruled absolutely over the land of fire."
That was House Aureus.
No matter if Asha once hid away with gray hair, the foundation was different.
Noble blue blood. Precious lineage unlike commoners'—not something to toss aside like a third-rate romance novel.
Unless you had the power to ignore it all. Or were a pro at pillow talk like some pillar hubby.
"...Nex sunbae-nim. It's a bit shocking, but is it okay if I tell you?"
My mouth went dry.
Was it right for me to reveal his birth secret?
"What is it? You're the hero picked by the Goddess of Wisdom Akasha anyway—everyone knows."
"Please cast a soundproof spell, sunbae-nim."
"Got it. But it's that serious?"
Just in case, I lowered my helmet's visor to hide my lip movements.
"I need to tell you an old story."
Someone might eavesdrop. I'd been cautious ever since Magic Hat tailed me once.
"Sunbae-nim's father... that is, Lord Frey Aureus, was a servant close to Lady Asha since childhood."
Soon after, I laid out the secrets of Nex's parents.
Truths unknown at this point in the story. Revealed only after the DLC drops.
"Wait, what...? That make sense? A servant and a duke? The surname's Aureus...?"
Nex's usual poker face cracked, leaving him with a stunned expression.
"More precisely, they were childhood friends of the same age. A servant attending Lady Asha, who—like you, Nex-nim—couldn't summon a spirit."
I also explained Nex's constitution.
"Couldn't summon a spirit like me...? Honestly hard to believe, hubae-nim. That's really true?"
Before meeting Sharutineth, he'd suffered endlessly because his spirit wouldn't awaken.
It was genetic. The Ten Heroes' blood runs thick. Pros and cons alike get inherited often.
"One more thing to convince you."
Something from the DLC intro PV.
"Nex sunbae-nim's grandparents died in an unfortunate accident."
It happened on the road back to the mansion. If misfortune had veered just a bit...
"...Yeah. Hubae-nim."
No survivors from the carriage that tumbled off the cliff.
Except for one person.
"Afterward, young Lady Asha-nim's hair turned gray, and she shut herself away in her room."
Her heart torn and burned pitch-black, the phoenix influenced by her emotions.
"And the one who fixed it... was our father."
Nex wore a relieved expression, surprisingly.
I'd braced for him to collapse in shock. Dodged a bullet.
He'd probably long worried he was some picked-up kid.
"Yes. Fate has a twisted sense of humor."
What if I hadn't been here?
After Sharutineth fell into Hero Cult hands, he'd have grown to hate his family and his spirit.
"Twisted, huh... Hubae-nim. If the First Saintess had lived, would she have taken Sharutineth's side?"
"Probably."
This world already had a saintess with wolf ears and a tail.
"...A saintess is someone pure, ephemeral, with a kind heart."
When Asha talked about saintesses, she'd nearly failed to suppress her anger.
Who started that nonsense about saintesses not being allowed to marry?
"Nice answer, hubae-nim."
Nex and I were cut from similar cloth. Reformed delinquents.
Recognition shone in his expression as he patted my shoulder.
"But why did Mother hide Father's identity? His status ended up higher, didn't it?"
A sudden question from Nex. There was a part that just didn't add up.
"...No. That's what I thought too."
I shook my head in reply.
A servant marrying a duke simply wasn't welcomed in noble society. That was the issue.
Society wouldn't tolerate a marriage to a lowly servant. The reverse, maybe.
So Asha had gone so far as to fabricate a new identity for Frey.
Inevitably, gaps formed.
"...When war broke out, the Demon King targeted the spirit's emotional core—its spouse."
"The Demon God War. You don't mean..."
An easy, straightforward play for the Demon King. Spirits are born from emotions, after all.
"Yes. That's why Lady Asha-nim earned the title 'Living Sun'."
Eliminate the catalyst, and the spirit falls combat-ineffective—or so he thought.
But the result was the opposite. Exceptions always exist in this world.
"The battle where she melted every last demon beast the Demon King unleashed, like suns colliding..."
"Was the day Lord Frey passed."
Upon hearing of her beloved spouse's death, her spirit grew stronger instead.
She forged a colossal sun with her phoenix and swept the battlefield. Protecting the entire north with her wings—only natural.
"...So everything went off the rails from then on."
No escaping that doomsday love, no matter the efforts. Evil game devs.
"Yes. Blaming herself for it all, Lady Asha-nim erased every trace of Father from the world..."
Maybe she projected herself onto Nex.
Couldn't do it myself, so you can't either.
What if she'd built a harem for a stronger spirit? Or married a noble instead of a lowly servant?
Endless self-recrimination would've eaten her alive.
When there's no one else to blame, people turn on themselves.
"That story about the study you mentioned earlier...? No wonder Mother stays cooped up there..."
But that was wrong. Everyone's different. Everyone can change.
"A common, clichéd tragic love story. I hate it."
I gritted my teeth. It was why I'd badmouthed Asha during my first meeting with Nex.
What harem bullshit. She was pure love herself.
"...So, got a good solution?"
"Well... no matter how much I try to persuade..."
I propped my chin on my hand. What would Pine have done here?
"...Let's clash with sincerity, sunbae-nim."
That ephemeral girl would've said exactly that.
He nodded faintly in agreement. People won't know unless you tell them.
Even parents. Everyone has shortcomings.
"Yeah, if we pour our hearts out, Mother will surely..."
The moment we prepared to head back into the ballroom.
— CRASH!
A distant crash of shattering glass rang out like a bell. No way...
"Shar...?"
Nex's eyes filled with anxiety as he kicked off the ground and bolted away.