-Frey Starlight's Pov-
Anna Starlight.
The mother of Frey Starlight…
I didn't even know what I was supposed to feel when I looked at her.
I watched how she met my father for the first time, how their relationship slowly built up, step by step.
"At first, I only saw her as a poor girl whom life had left unable to even walk."
Anna Starlight had been afflicted with Aura Decay Disease, a condition she inherited from her father.
She could no longer gather enough strength in her legs to walk properly.
She could barely take a few steps, and even then only with the help of others.
On top of that, being the daughter of the Lord of the family who kept her shielded from the outside world, her entire world began and ended within the confines of that mansion.
And yet ... even in her condition ... I saw that her smile never once left her face.
"I guess what I first felt toward her was curiosity... How could she still smile so brightly despite everything?"
Abraham Starlight was a man who had traveled across the entire world, while Anna Starlight was a girl who had barely seen beyond her garden.
"When I first tried to introduce myself to her, she told me there was no need ... because she already knew everything about me."
Her father had protected her so much that he made sure to share every little detail about his life with her...
And among those tales, there were many about Abraham Starlight.
Anna Starlight had become curious too ... after hearing all those grand stories, she wanted to see for herself what kind of man Abraham Starlight really was.
And just like that...
From simple casual conversations to a friendly relationship... to something much deeper.
Time passed, and Lord Izan Starlight passed away, leaving behind a will that named Abraham Starlight as his successor.
I saw my father visiting that secluded garden more and more often.
Outside, he bore the title of Lord and wielded his sword proudly.
But inside that garden, he was just a man who sat beside a woman.
Many had opposed him, chief among them Leonides Starlight, who wanted to claim the position of Lord for himself.
But my father crushed that opposition easily when he fought Leonides ... and broke him.
Bit by bit, my father spent more and more time with her, pushing her wheelchair around the garden…
"Tell me, Abraham... why do you look so empty?"
Anna asked him that question many times.
But he never knew how to answer.
"I don't know."
He had spent thirty long years chasing a goal from his previous life.
And in this life... he had nothing.
He was utterly empty.
"Anna Starlight managed to understand me without me needing to utter a single word. She was so perceptive... she read me like an open book."
I watched, little by little, as my father fell for her.
One day, Anna told him about her dream .. to see the world.
And he made that dream come true.
Without any warning, he lifted her up in his arms and took her out to see the world beyond those walls.
He soared high into the sky carrying her, while she clung tightly to him.
From that day on, he took her out every day.
Together, they traveled across the entire Empire.
The pair caught many eyes
... this strange couple: a mighty man and a frail woman who couldn't even walk properly.
But who would dare touch her?
The man beside her was the strongest in the world.
Bit by bit, I saw life return to my father's face.
I saw how he laughed.
I saw how he smiled.
Those expressions were the exact mirror of my oldest memories ... the face he used to make when we all sat together as a family: my siblings, my mother, and I.
I should have been happy... seeing him finally find a piece of salvation.
My father married her.
I heard all their conversations...
How they fell in love with each other.
I even heard her happily talking about how she wanted to have two children ... a boy and a girl.
I listened.
And I watched it all.
I was supposed to feel happy.
My father had finally found peace after thirty long years of endless suffering and chasing an unattainable dream ...
A mirage he had pursued for far too long.
I was supposed to be happy for him.
But I couldn't be.
Standing there, witnessing everything,
I just... couldn't.
I couldn't force myself to feel it.
Yes, I knew better than anyone what he had gone through,
The price he had paid,
The battles he had fought for us.
But even so ..
All I felt was suffocation.
A strange emotion that made my chest tighten without warning.
Such strange feelings.
Such incomprehensible emotions.
No matter how I looked at them,
All I could see was a happy family being slowly built from scratch.
But Father...
I know I have no right to say this.
And yet, what I felt at that moment ..
Was betrayal.
…
…
…
A year passed since my father married Anna Starlight.
And soon, they had their first child.
A beautiful girl who resembled her mother.
That girl... was Ada.
My sister grew up showered in love and affection from her mother.
As for my father, I often saw him avoiding her altogether.
"To be honest... I thought I could finally forget the past, and its pain, after meeting Anna."
I heard my father's words ... words of a man who just wanted to escape reality, if only for a little while.
"But I couldn't. Every time I looked at her, all I could see was all of you... how I held you all in my arms on the day you were born, how I watched you grow, day after day..."
Ada Starlight constantly reminded him of the children he had lost ...Of me, and my siblings.
She was like a living embodiment of the memories he had buried deep within.
The emotions he had once pushed aside began to surge violently within him again.
How could he ever run away from a world built from the very story his own son once told him?
From the beginning, he was forced to live with his reality.
His indifference toward Ada planted seeds of negativity within her heart ... seeds that grew rapidly.
She thought her father hated her.
Maybe she wasn't good enough?
Maybe she had to work harder to earn his approval?
And so she did ..
She worked tirelessly to gain even a shred of his recognition.
While other children her age played games and laughed without a care in the world,
Ada Starlight was learning. Growing.
Trying desperately to become strong enough to make him proud.
"I saw how hard she tried..."
My father saw it too.
But even when he tried to get closer to her,
He would pull away without realizing it.
Anna Starlight saw his struggles,
But she couldn't do anything, not when he never spoke the full truth to her.
Slowly but surely, Abraham Starlight was on the verge of losing not just his first family, But his second one too.
Abraham Starlight…
He began to hate himself.
He blamed himself for everything.
All that negative energy, all that burning self-loathing,
He poured into relentless training and endless battles.
Training.
Fighting.
That was all he thought about.
He killed countless monsters,
And countless humans.
At that time, the Ultras lived in constant terror of him.
His sword reaped so many of them that the Dark Sister earned its infamous new title ..
"The Demon Slayer."
Another name added to Abraham Starlight's endless list of titles.
His only salvation had been his wife, Anna Starlight.
But even she was no longer enough.
And so, he continued to push himself ..
To fight madly ..
Especially as the war against the Ultras loomed closer.
And then, one day, when he was burning with regret and self-hatred,
My father finally shattered the limits of humanity.
He broke through.
I watched in awe as Abraham Starlight surpassed the SS+ rank ..
Announcing himself as a being who had transcended the very concept of humanity itself.
He attained the Tenth Star of the Stardust Style.
At that point, my father possessed enough strength to change the world,
Just like the First Hero, Kazes Valerion.
But ironically,
At the very same time...
Another event occurred.
"Anna Starlight... was pregnant again."
That night, Anna Starlight told him ..
She was carrying his child.
At first, he didn't know how to react.
Another child… another chance.
But before he could truly grasp the joy of it, another blow came.
One of the Starlight family doctors, who had been monitoring Anna's condition closely, sought him out in private ..
And delivered the cruelest news.
"That child... must not be born,"
the doctor said.
Anna Starlight had already pushed her fragile body to its limits by giving birth to Ada.
Carrying another child would be too much ...
She would bleed internally, and die.
"Anna must abort the child,"
the doctor insisted.
My father…
He didn't know what the right choice was.
But he knew one thing ..
He didn't want to lose his wife.
And so, shattered but desperate,
He agreed to the abortion.
To kill the child before it could be born.
But Anna Starlight ..
She refused.
She refused with a strength that belied her fragile body, Saying she would never kill her own child.
That she would rather die than do so.
Abraham didn't know what to do anymore.
But fate had even more cruelty in store for him that night.
That same night ..
The night Abraham Starlight would never forget ..
In the dark study he used as his sanctuary,
A guest arrived.
A figure cloaked in black, With glowing blue eyes.
After all these years ...
After all that time ...
They met again.
"That encounter… was the final blow."