I returned to the northern palace and started chatting with everyone.
“Finally, everything is settled. The monsters coming down the defense line are gone.”
“It seems we can withdraw the Phoenix now without any problems.”
Pina was standing a bit away from me, still hiccupping. It was nice having her stuck to me like glue, but now it’s a bit disappointing.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Licht.”
When I advised her that I could take down the cradle, the woman with golden hair nodded in agreement.
Outside the window, sunlight sparkled like it was bursting onto the scene.
“What do you want as a reward for suppressing the apostle?”
Feathers of gold rained down from the sky like shards of the sun.
‘This is why they call her the living sun.’
In the game, she’s the type of character I hate, so I’ve never tried to recruit her as an ally.
“If there’s something you’d like, I can mention it to His Majesty.”
Even though she worries about her son Nex, her way of thinking is twisted since she wants to create a harem for him. Why should I use her as a companion?
It required a spirit magician to grab the Magic Hat, but I didn’t really want to use one. The fact she’s a DLC heroine played a big role in that too.
In the game, if you recruit others well, they tend to become stronger.
I could make use of the fact that she’s rivals with Nex. There’s a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
“Asha, you must have had quite the trouble too!!”
Drake laughed heartily while watching Asha drink her black tea.
I have no idea where he got that sudden burst of energy, but the surroundings vibrated for a moment. It’s pretty magical.
“Drake, could you show a little consideration? It was the same during the war too.”
“I haven’t seen the Vice Principal around the Academy at all!!”
Now that I think about it, the school’s members seemed a bit thin. Was this guy the Vice Principal of Grand Hertz Academy?
“O Living Sun.”
“Why do you say that, Licht?”
I threw out a question to satiate my curiosity. It’s better to bring up Nex’s story naturally rather than suddenly.
“Are you the Vice Principal of the Academy I’m attending?”
“That’s right. I wasn’t able to show my face last semester because I was urgently dispatched to the North.”
Clink. Asha put down her teacup again, piercing me with her golden eyes, revealing the sharp aspect of the Ten Heroes.
“By the way, I heard you are a close junior to Nex.”
Nice! I’ve caught her in my net.
It’s a good move to figure out my opponent.
She had been quietly observing me while I was fighting the undead monsters earlier, and I’ve spent so much time with that pillar guy that this part’s easy.
“How’s Nex doing?”
“No, honestly, who do you think is making it hard for him?”
I revealed the harsh truth to the golden-haired woman.
He’s never really experienced true love because of the overprotectiveness of that lady known as his mother since childhood.
“…What do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t know if you’re aware, but his beloved was kidnapped by an apostle from the Hero Church…”
I maintained a laid-back attitude. I’d already lied about being the wise hero.
“When the Head attacked the Academy, he protected the students without any support.”
I crossed my legs. If I showed a timid attitude here, it would be problematic.
Asha didn’t know my hand yet, but I had a good enough idea about my opponent’s game plan.
‘I almost got shot and died once, so I have the right to say something.’
If Schartines had been kidnapped and Nex was lured by the Hero Church, he might not have used the cradle of the Phoenix.
Especially if you consider the way he dislikes his own spirit, and the fact that the second saintess isn’t mentioned in the story.
The fate of the vampire saintess couldn’t have ended well.
“May I ask just one thing?”
I summoned the rains to pour down, washing the lies away from the cold sky.
“Why did you intentionally try to marry multiple people, Senpai?”
“Did Nex say something?”
I shook my head. I took a breath again, trying not to reveal that it was a lie.
“No, it’s the ability of the wise hero.”
From afar, it seemed Pina was leaning against the wall, expressing her dissatisfaction, but I didn’t care.
Even if she glared at me with her arms crossed, since we had a little play act before, she just turned her head away the moment our eyes met. Maybe it was a bit too stimulating even if it was an accident.
She covered her face with her white tail. That action was just too cute.
“My ability is to search for information or hide it. Therefore, I know hidden information.”
Once I felt that there were no more interruptions, I was ready to start chatting while enjoying the scones and black tea in front of me.
“Nex’s father hid his purple hair, didn’t he? Am I right?”
“…”
I pieced together the relationship between Nex and Asha based on what I learned from my gameplay and DLC spoiler posts.
“Did you tell Nex…?”
“No, that’s something you as the parent should deal with.”
When Pina was hiding Mardol’s true identity, I genuinely believed his hair color would be black.
“Even a caged bird must eventually learn to fly someday. Asha Aureus.”
They are indeed parent and child.
The only problem is that the excessive protection executed out of fear of her son losing a beloved person like herself was causing issues.
*
In the past, I had hoped for additional game content.
Because there might be a route added to date the Nameless Saintess.
[Currently, the release of DLC for [Black Heart] is imminent! You might discover the past of a certain character! ✧(｡•̀ᴗ-) ]
Seeing the game company’s announcement made me jump for joy.
I thought I’d finally get to learn more about the cute wolf-eared girl’s past, and also that she wouldn’t have to feel envious anymore watching others in love.
I didn’t even consider private patches or mods as they weren’t treated as canon.
However, when I clicked the post I thought was about our saintess:
[Title: Is the DLC out?! I’m heading out!!]
It turned out to be about Asha Aureus being Nex’s mother.
[Analysis of Why Asha Aureus and Nex Have a Bad Relationship… (Long Read Warning)]
[Spoilers) Come out, Creator!!!]
Spoilers and analyses flooding in piqued my interest, but
[The Ashen Phoenix DLC Review. Honestly, it’s entertaining.]
I entered the game page, checked a few screenshots, and felt my excitement deflating.
‘Why is her hair color… gray?’
There was a young girl looking younger than I knew the head of the family to be—around her early twenties.
‘The heroine arm really hit the mark.’
It seems the producer was attempting to ride that wave of positive feedback amongst players.
[Become the husband of widow Asha Aureus! Get to know her past, and upon resolution…]
[You may discover a secret…?? di (^ᵕ^) ]
Just reading that short description made my stomach churn. Playing as someone’s husband with children?
Isn’t this basically NTL? I thought it was certainly insane.
“Hey, Su-hyun, have you tried the new DLC?”
“That’s NTL, isn’t it?!”
Hearing what the pillar guy said suddenly shifted my thoughts. I thought he was going to talk about the northern grand lady, so I pressed accept.
“Not really. From my experience, it feels like it’s not NTL, but an actual side story instead.”
“What do you mean by that.. Giseok?”
In our guild’s chat room, he posted a few images—the character creation screen right after starting the DLC.
“Look, you can’t even pick a name or customize appearance. You just become the narrator and play through it.”
There was no character customization option there. It just briefly showed that he was a purple-haired male.
“This game company wouldn’t do this..?”
I felt a contradiction since it was the complete opposite of the original game having high levels of freedom in customization.
‘Is it really just a story-driven DLC?’
He continued speaking while using the emoji I shared. Sophia’s emoji saying “NTR from the north is a crime!” was quirky.
That guy didn’t start like this but seemed to have caught something from me, gathering all things related to the grand lady.
I gave him the Saintess emoji instead, so it’s getting a bit scary now. I’m thankful I’m sane.
“And if you check the clear rewards, you should know… no, just read one review.”
Ding-ding-. With the notification sound, Giseok sent a link to a post in the game community.
He must have been worried because I often wailed about how the Saintess DLC wasn’t being released. He probably thought I looked foolish since the guild master couldn’t maintain composure.
‘At least I hope he stops being drastic and radical.’
A friend of mine might be overly daring, as he takes these extreme actions without hesitation.
He once took a route through which he wiped out all the northern people rebelling against the grand lady, achieving the title “True Iron Blood.”
He has even said he’ll do a blood purge if I touch him one more time.
Last time, he tried to shock me with a golden knight too and said I was tiring him with my cluelessness.
But he still claimed Sophia Coldheart is prettier than our saintess, which was nonsense. Doesn’t he even have a hint of awareness?
“The author’s nickname is… Guardian of Light?”
I clicked on the link Giseok sent, and a white screen appeared. It took forever for all that lengthy content to load.
“..In the end, Asha’s husband died in the war.”
After about thirty minutes of reading, I summarized the content in one sentence. It was a sad ending.
“Why is it that the geniuses behind this can create things so well, yet they have not provided our saintess with a heroine route?”
The story revolved around a purple-haired boy entering the Aureus family and healing the heart of a girl with ashen hair.
The Phoenix burnt everything, leaving nothing but ashes behind for her.
“So that’s why the subtitle is Ashen Phoenix.”
It said that she had a constitution that didn’t allow her spirit to awaken, making her the ultimate shut-in doing nothing at all.
“It seems like a pure love story… why write the description like that?”
The players’ actions were to resolve a crisis faced by her family.
And it told how the player reveals love to her, gradually restoring the golden hair once was hers.
The narrative contained the fact that the unhatched spirit was what had burnt it gray. The setup didn’t matter much to me.
But the hair turning the color of love was romantic. The attached images only showed a girl smiling happily.
“I wish it had a happy ending. What a shame.”
The player, who became a servant of the Duke’s family and eventually a husband, ends up dying because of the war caused by the Hero Church.
The clear reward was just a hidden space behind the duke’s study filled with items of the purple-haired male previously played.
“Is it an unavoidable fate?”
At that time, I was still unaware of how our saintess might die before I tackled the Magic Hat, and
“What a bittersweet story.”
Just reading the reviews, the lingering emotions behind the words made me swallow a bitter pill.
*
In truth, from here on out, it’s all conjecture.
“…Perhaps when Nex was born, you must have been frightened.”
I heard of the happenings between Schartines and Nex, and the blood of the Ten Heroes runs deep, so traits are easily inherited.
Pina Grancia, who’s stealthily standing behind me, is proof of that. Even if she hides her face with her tail, I know it’s her. She can just stand there.
“Just like Asha, must not have birthed a spirit.”
I brushed off my hands from eating the scone and confirmed her flustered expression. Communication is happening quite nicely.
“Did you do that intentionally to lessen the chances of your child getting hurt in combat?”
“I… that’s mere rumor. How could you make such assertions…”
The threat from the Hero Church is still ever present. She must have wished to spare them the pain of losing someone they love, just like herself.
Creating a harem and awakening a spirit, thinking that it could create a stronger Phoenix might have been her logic to some degree.
Though she could also dislike the idea of seeing someone else suffer as she did.
“If you do not express things properly, the kid will remain unaware. Asha.”
She gently closed her eyes and reminisced about her father, who was a firefighter in reality. As a child, I resented him for his absence, often blaming him.
“I understand, as I have had a similar experience with my father.”
I used to feel a sense of loss due to my only family member always going on duty and not being there for me.
That was the embarrassing history of my naïve days. He would always try to save lives even on his days off.
“Earlier, you asked what reward you wanted.”
However, in the end, my father would take me fishing or to the movies, sharing moments of memories even when exhausted.
He understood my feelings better than anyone else and introduced me to the brightness of the world.
If Asha merely locks away her precious child, the light may fade away. Normally, family disputes shouldn’t involve outsiders, but
‘I’d presume she even created a hidden space in the library to move all portraits and related items there.’
Honestly, Nex is quite the tragic figure.
Due to Asha keeping the truth hidden even from those aware, he would be treated as a bastard not knowing his father’s true identity.
“…Please tell His Majesty that it’s unnecessary.”
I stood up and donned the white Academy coat. I was getting ready to leave the North and headed towards my room.
“In exchange, please watch the true nature of Nex, Duke Asha Aureus.”
Stopping in my steps, I turned around slightly and relayed the pillar guy’s message back to her.
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