Chapter 459: A Confession from Nene?
"I still feel… kind of frustrated."
After their argument ended, Luke and Nene both returned to the bed.
Don't misunderstand.
Nene did not climb into bed with Luke.
The chair had simply been destroyed, so she had no choice but to sit on the edge of the mattress.
Luke leaned back against his pillow again and glanced at her after hearing the mutter.
"If you're really that frustrated, why don't you just find someone yourself?"
That was right.
The frustration Nene spoke of had nothing to do with their earlier bickering.
That kind of back-and-forth had practically become routine between them.
After nearly a year together, Nene had long since gotten used to it.
What she was lamenting was the fact that Kurono had married and started a family.
"You think it's that easy?!"
"If finding someone were simple, why would I even be complaining!"
It was not that Nene had never considered it.
In fact, she had once thought about following Kurono's example—finding a boyfriend, dating, getting married, having children, and seeing whether that could change her situation.
Unfortunately, she never even succeeded at the first step.
The plan had ended before it truly began.
There were many reasons, but the biggest problem lay with Nene herself.
Unlike Blazers who followed the conventional path, Nene was essentially a self-taught, wild Mage-Knight.
No—Once, she could not even have been called a knight or Blazer.
At the beginning, Nene was a criminal!
And not some petty thief.
She had genuinely committed all kinds of crimes.
Students trained through ordinary schools rarely had experience killing people.
At Hagun Academy, excluding unusual cases like Luke and Arisuin, only a tiny number such as Touka and Kanata had experienced truly bloody combat.
Others, like Ikki and Stella, could certainly swing their weapons at enemies without hesitation.
If killing became necessary, they would not shrink away from it either.
But ultimately—They had never killed anyone.
Forget defenseless civilians.
They had never even killed hostile Blazers.
Nene was different.
She had killed someone when she was very young.
And the victim had been an ordinary person without any Blazer ability.
Her father—Or more accurately, her stepfather.
The man Nene's mother remarried was hopeless human trash.
He refused to work and never helped around the house.
All he did was drink and entertain himself.
Despite having no proper job, he still acted like the unquestioned head of the household and constantly ordered Nene and her mother around.
Whenever something displeased him, he would start screaming abuse.
Drunk and reeking of alcohol, he regularly became violent toward both mother and daughter.
That was right.
Not only did he hit Nene's mother—He hit Nene too.
Every time, he would shout things like,
"You useless freak! All you can do is make things float, and you can't earn a single damn coin with it!"
Still, trash was trash.
He never dared kill anyone.
He lacked both the courage and the nerve.
For Nene, who had awakened mana and become a Blazer from birth, his slaps, punches, and kicks barely even hurt.
Her mother chose to endure it silently.
So Nene followed her example.
Being hit became part of daily life.
It happened almost every day.
Nene was so young that she did not even realize she was enduring anything unusual.
Why her mother had chosen such a man as her second husband remained something Nene could never understand.
Perhaps it was money.
Perhaps there was some other reason.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Because eventually, the man died.
It happened one evening.
Nene had not eaten breakfast because her mother had been taking care of her drunken stepfather.
By noon, she still had not received lunch.
The reason was that her stepfather had either remained drunk or pretended to be.
Either way, he refused to allow Nene's mother to cook for her.
So by evening—Nene was starving.
Hunger was especially painful for a child.
But this was hardly the first time, so she somehow endured until dinner.
That evening's meal was unusually lavish.
Perhaps out of guilt, her mother had prepared many of Nene's favorite dishes.
Yet once again—She never got to eat them.
For some unknown reason, her stepfather suddenly flew into a rage and overturned the entire table.
Perhaps there had been no reason at all.
Maybe he had simply wanted somewhere to vent.
And so the familiar scene unfolded again before Nene's eyes.
Her mother repeatedly apologized.
Then he slapped her to the floor.
During the commotion, the food scattered across the ground was slowly crushed beneath his feet.
Seeing that while starving caused an uncontrollable rage to rise inside Nene.
For the first time in her life—She swung her fist with everything she had.
One strike.
That was all it took for the man to leave this world.
The shattered remains of his head and her mother's screaming finally made Nene understand what she had done.
But at that moment, only one emotion lingered within her heart.
An incomparable sense of exhilaration after unleashing violence!
That was the instant Nene realized just how powerful she was.
It was also when she learned how unbelievably good it felt to release her emotions and strength without restraint.
Perhaps from that very moment—Nene's chances of experiencing an ordinary romance had already been doomed.
Still, she had been very young.
Even if she did not fully understand the severity of what she had done, she knew it would cause trouble for her mother.
So Nene decided to suppress that impulse.
And then…
Her mother disappeared.
That ordinary woman could not accept seeing her own child kill someone while smiling.
The cruel smile Nene had worn at that moment carved overwhelming fear deep into her mother's heart.
After that, with her final restraint gone—Nene earned the title Yaksha Princess!
No one should expect her to suddenly become gentle.
Anyone who wanted to become Nene's lover first had to accept the "oni" living inside her heart.
Unfortunately, none of the men she had met so far seemed to possess that kind of courage.
But that was also understandable.
Producing one genius like Kurono in Japan was already extraordinary.
Having Nene appear in the same generation was practically a miracle.
Finding a man of an appropriate age and sufficient strength who could both accept and restrain a Desperado like Saikyou Nene—That was far from easy.
So Nene finding a boyfriend the way Kurono had was practically impossible.
The rumors about Nene having a messy private life also originated from the period when she had tried to date.
She had met one man after another while looking for someone suitable.
In reality, she had rarely done more than exchange a few words with them.
But to outsiders, it probably looked as though she changed men every day.
Still…
If it were now—Perhaps there actually was one possible candidate?
The thought crossed Nene's mind.
She suddenly turned toward Luke and began carefully looking him up and down.
Very carefully.
Then her eyes lit up.
With obvious excitement, she asked,
"Hey, Luke!"
"How about becoming my boyfriend?!"
…
…
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