Chapter 303
Chapter 303
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 303
>Chapter Title: ……A Night When Starlight Pours Down
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Alfredo bowed his head first and stepped back.
Chenbi and Evelyn glanced at Leodis before hurrying away.
“Ah, Chenbi… could you help with this?”
Evelyn called out to Chenbi to carry the sleeping Aster, and together they hauled him off.
Zzzzt…
And so, Evelyn and Chenbi grunted as they dragged Aster into the darkness. A groove the size of a person was carved into the once-flat sandy beach.
Leodis watched them go for a moment before turning his gaze to Damian.
“Son.”
Damian didn’t respond.
“Son.”
Moisture welled up around Damian’s eyes. They reddened, and his cheeks trembled faintly. His breathing grew ragged.
“I’m sorry, son.”
“……”
“It was my greed. I just wanted you to succeed. But the way I went about it… well, it was a bit off. No, way off.”
Leodis spoke calmly. His eyes no longer held that piercing clarity. A faint but unmistakable emotion lingered there.
“I wanted you to make better use of what you were born with. I thought that would help you get ahead. But I was wrong about that.”
“……”
“At some point, I started confusing you with the young patriarch. It might be hard for you to understand, but you and the young patriarch are different. You’re lovable just as you are, but the young patriarch can’t be. I wanted you to be happy, but I was pushing you to meet the expectations of the role.”
His emotions had dulled, allowing Leodis to analyze them objectively.
When it came to Damian, he’d always thought with his heart over his head. But now, he dissected those feelings thread by thread.
In other words…
He’d claimed it was for his son’s sake, but he’d been trying to make the young patriarch fulfill the family head’s expectations. And he’d mistaken that for love.
He was confessing it now.
Damian looked up at Leodis through tear-filled eyes. It wasn’t long before his mouth opened.
“Am… am I lacking as young patriarch?”
“Lacking… hmm, no. You’re not lacking. Last year you were still sucking your thumb, running off from home, and even now at thirteen you talk like a little kid, but I know. I know you’re smart.”
“If… if I wasn’t smart, would that make me lacking?”
“No. Even if my son isn’t smart, so what? We don’t have to do the young patriarch thing. Do you want to?”
“I don’t know. Never thought about it.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
Unlike Leodis, who’d been born second son and competed with his brother for the patriarch’s seat, Damian was the only child, handed the young patriarch role as if it were his birthright.
The title “young patriarch” was as familiar to him as his own name. He’d probably never imagined himself without it.
“Son, you’re not lacking at all. And even if you were, it’d be fine. Yeah, it really would.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Damian was sniffling before he knew it.
Leodis stood, approached, and wiped his son’s eyes. Around then, Damian looked up at his father’s face.
Leodis gazed down at his boy and spoke. He stroked his hair with a gentle hand.
“Son, I’m sorry. We can take it slow. You can wander, even sit down for a bit sometimes. I was too impatient. Will you forgive me?”
Damian felt the touch and took in Leodis’s face.
Then he smiled brightly and replied.
“Yeah. I forgive you.”
“……Alright.”
For some reason, Leodis’s chest ached.
“Apologize to your friends, too.”
“Yeah, I will.”
“And give Mom a bite.”
“……Yeah.”
The bright moonlight illuminated the father and son.
* * *
Damian and Leodis sat side by side by the campfire, chatting away.
Leodis listened quietly to what Damian had to say. The topics were mostly about things at the academy.
What Chenbi did, what Evelyn did… But the one who came up most was Aster.
“Son, do you like Aster that much?”
Damian answered without hesitation.
“Yeah, playing with friends is fun.”
“That’s usually how it is with bad friends.”
“No, he’s not that bad. Just kinda petty and stingy. But he’s a good kid.”
Leodis tilted his head. Petty people tended to be stingy, and stinginess turned folks away from kindness. And sleazy on top? How could someone like that be good?
Leodis pondered but couldn’t picture it.
Damian kept going.
“But he doesn’t play with me much.”
“He doesn’t?”
“Yeah, always off playing alone. Or going out. Sneaking around. Thinks I won’t notice, but I know everything.”
“How?”
“Just do. The vibe changes.”
“Hmm. I see. But if he’s playing alone or going out, maybe he’s just a loner?”
“Kinda, but not exactly. So I thought about it. Why he doesn’t play with me.”
Leodis tilted his head and asked.
“Should we invite your friend home?”
“No, that’s fine.”
“But why doesn’t he play with you?”
“Well… it’s kinda like why I don’t play with the other kids.”
Damian spoke as he built a toadstool house out of sand. Fine grains piled up neatly on his small hands.
So, the reason Damian didn’t play with other kids was…
“We’re not on the same level. When I do something, they go ‘wow’ or get scared or… what’s the word? It’s just… weird.”
“Weird how?”
“Uh…”
“It creates distance, right?”
“Yeah, Dad’s smart.”
“Smarter than my son, probably.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Go on.”
Damian stared at Leodis with wide eyes, then went back to his toadstool house.
“I think he doesn’t play with me ‘cause he hates that, too. ‘Cause he’s secretly super lonely.”
“Or maybe he’s off doing bad stuff…”
“Dad, you hate my friend?”
“Hmm… no, not really. Even though your friend secretly learned our family secret art, plotted with your uncle to nearly bring disaster on the family, I don’t hate him.”
“Uncle? Who?”
“Henji.”
“Oh.”
Damian nodded and continued. Or tried to, then asked a question.
“What’d he learn?”
“Light of Healing.”
“What’d he do with Uncle Henji?”
“Hard to say.”
“Hmm… don’t know what it was, but he’s a good kid. So cut him some slack, Dad. He’s got a hurt heart.”
“I’ll think about it. Anyway, so?”
“Oh, he’s lonely, and his only friends are me, Chenbi, and Evelyn. If we don’t play with him, he’s totally alone.”
“Hmm.”
“So maybe that’s why.”
Damian gazed at his finished toadstool house. As he pulled his hand away, cracks formed on the surface, threatening to collapse.
Crunch.
Ice crystals formed on the toadstool house.
Damian froze it solid, then withdrew his hand.
It looked pretty satisfying. Leodis watched, then asked.
“So, what should you do, Damian?”
“Huh?”
“To play with your friend, have you thought about how?”
“Uh…”
Damian couldn’t answer easily.
Last year, he’d thought he could catch up in two or three years. Now, he couldn’t even gauge it.
He’d vaguely felt it during the Baharmut incident, but the chancellor’s inauguration confirmed it.
To close that gap… how?
Leodis’s voice came right then.
“Don’t know?”
“Yeah. But no bringing him home.”
“We won’t. Dragging someone down to your level isn’t good. Unless you plan to stagnate and eat yourself alive forever.”
“……Huh?”
“No, never mind. Anyway…”
Leodis gathered his thoughts.
Aster’s realm was already transcendent.
And it would mature with the years.
If the records were right, he was just fifteen. By twenty, he’d have the continent at his feet. Shoulder to shoulder with archmages and master knights.
Could his son bridge that gap?
‘Not like this… it’ll be tough.’
So, Leodis decided to give his son a little help.
“Son, want a hint from Dad?”
“Hint?”
“Yeah, a hint.”
Damian’s eyes sparkled.
“Yeah! What is it?”
“You said… you learned freezing magic recently?”
“Yeah. Keeps me cool in summer.”
“Then… let’s see. Watch this.”
Leodis extended his index finger straight out. Damian tilted his head and did the same.
“Middle finger?”
“Yeah, your friend said it’s a Black-White Slums greeting.”
“Gonna have to talk to your friend again. Anyway, tuck your finger and look here. What do you see?”
“My finger?”
“No, look closer.”
Damian squinted, straining to see. How long did he stare?
“Ice!”
“See it?”
“Yeah, I can’t see it but I do.”
At Leodis’s fingertip bloomed a hexagonal ice crystal. The kind called snowflakes.
“Now watch closely. If you chase this… you might even catch up to your friend.”
Leodis infused imagery into the snowflake. His main affinity wasn’t ice, so limits remained, but he filled the gaps with grimoire power.
What emerged was…
Frost Essence
A bitter cold that froze all.
Damian asked.
“What… is this?”
“Dunno. First time making it, even for me.”
He’d simply combined the imagery from Aster’s flame with ice magic. If it needed a name, it’d be the opposite of Aster’s spell.
“Can I name it?”
“You wanna?”
Damian nodded.
“It’s… Blizzard.”
“Blizzard?”
“Yeah.”
Leodis tilted his head.
Blizzard meant fierce winds with cold and heavy snow. Calling an ice crystal that?
But.
“……”
Damian’s mind, holding the snowstorm in his eyes, saw it clearly.
The form it would take when fully revealed to the world one day.
……And so, a night when starlight poured down.
Damian took one step forward.
Toward transcendence.