SS #37 Kang Yujin (1)

Kang Yujin.

Age twelve.

On a night when the moon was exceptionally bright, the boy woke from his sleep and gazed out the window, an idle thought crossing his mind.

Maybe my family isn’t normal.

Maybe we’re a very, very strange family.

This wasn’t a conclusion the boy—Yujin—had reached based on just one or two things.

And so, Yujin got out of bed, sat at his desk, and opened the diary he had kept since he was a child.

“Hmm.”

It was a diary from his early childhood, so of course, it wasn’t a proper journal. It was a picture diary, filled with chicken-scratch drawings and scrawled letters.

If he had looked at it as an old man, he might have thought, ‘How cute,’ and felt a warmth spread through him. But Yujin was a boy on the cusp of his tumultuous teenage years, so he felt more embarrassment than warmth. He cleared his throat with a cough, his cheeks flushing even though no one was watching.

Should I revise it a little?

Maybe just touch it up a bit.

The thought was akin to an author revisiting an old work, but like most authors in that situation, Yujin quickly abandoned the idea. He squeezed his eyes shut and flipped the page.

And there, on the very first page, was a memory that had seemed wonderful at the time but now, in retrospect, felt incredibly suspicious.

A child with its arms raised in a victory pose stood inside a crookedly drawn square, next to a woman with yellow hair.

It was a memory with his Aunt Natasha.

*

By a child’s standards, the bathtub was enormous—large enough for a proper swim. Little Yujin, playing amidst the bubbles, had giggled and said:

“Aunt Natasha! You’re like an angel!”

“An angel? Me? Why?”

Natasha, who had been sipping wine during her bubble bath, tilted her head and asked. Little Yujin giggled again and answered brightly.

“Because you’re pretty, Auntie. Like an angel.”

To be precise, he was talking about an angel from a cartoon he’d watched the day before, but it was a frank, childlike compliment nonetheless. Natasha smiled fondly, set down her wine glass, and stroked little Yujin’s head.

“My, my, our Yujin has a good eye, doesn’t he? That’s right, your auntie is an angel. So of course I’m as pretty as one.”

“Wow, you’re an angel, Auntie? Does that mean you evolve and stuff? Like, into an ultimate form?”

“I’m not sure what neighborhood your angels are from, but I don’t evolve. I do transform, though.”

“Transform?”

“Yep, transform. Anyway, our Yujin is so handsome, isn’t he? When you grow up, do you want to marry your auntie?”

At Natasha’s question, little Yujin immediately nodded.

His Aunt Natasha was not only beautiful, but she was also incredibly kind to him.

She would secretly give him an extra piece of chocolate when his mom said he could only have one a day, and she had even secretly bought him a transforming and combining robot last time.

For all these reasons, little Yujin adored his Aunt Natasha. He threw his arms around her and nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, yes! I want to marry you, Auntie!”

“Really? Then should we draw up a contract? We can even put our thumbprints on it. We can’t have someone snatching you away, like a certain someone.”

The way she had giggled at the end now seemed a bit unusual in hindsight, but it was a childhood memory all the same.

The reason this memory felt suspicious wasn’t for any other reason.

Why is Aunt Natasha so pretty?

He couldn’t ask her directly, because she would just pinch his cheeks painfully hard. But piecing together what he’d heard from others, Aunt Natasha had to be over forty. And not just over forty—it was highly likely she was closer to fifty.

And yet, she was beautiful.

Not just pretty, but a stunningly youthful beauty who, at most, looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties.

How was that possible?

Was it just superior genetics?

Or was Aunt Natasha the living embodiment of self-care?

Or perhaps… the power of modern medicine?

Mom is weird, too.

His mother, who called herself—and was called by others—the ‘Eternal Beautiful Girl.’

The ‘called by others’ part was because ‘Eternal Beautiful Girl’ was the name of the full-dive VTuber character his mom played, but anyway, his mom was also strange.

She was less strange than Aunt Natasha, who was nearing fifty, but his mother, who was in her mid-thirties, looked for all the world like a girl in her late teens.

It’s weird. Very weird.

His aunt, his mom, and his dad, too.

That’s right, Dad is weird, too.

His dad wasn’t just young-looking.

Yujin flipped through his diary and found a specific page.

On a green background, a child presumed to be Yujin—drawn as a circle with stick limbs—was panting with X’s for eyes. Standing next to him was a man in sunglasses.

Hmm… for my age, the expressiveness is pretty good.

Yujin admired his own work for a moment before clearing his throat and recalling the memory.

*

“Alexei used to say that early education is important.”

Kang Jin-ho, wearing sunglasses, spoke softly as he gazed into the distance. At his feet, little Yujin, his face smeared with camouflage cream, was sitting in a patch of grass, building a trap.

“Dad! I’m done!”

“Alright, let’s have a look.”

Kang Jin-ho examined the trap made of woven branches, nodded once, and patted little Yujin on the head.

“Good job. It’s quite sturdy. There’s much room for improvement, but considering your age, it’s a decent result.”

“Okay!”

He didn’t really understand what that meant, but it sounded like a compliment.

Little Yujin often went camping with Kang Jin-ho.

A father taking his young son camping wasn’t all that rare, but the problem was the location and the activities.

The place where Yujin and Kang Jin-ho were currently standing was the Guiana Highlands, and what Yujin had been learning just before making the rabbit trap was knife fighting.

Camping with Kang Jin-ho and Yujin was always like this.

Last month’s camping spot was the Amazon rainforest, and the month before that, it was the Sahara Desert.

A father who traveled with his son to various parts of the world—no, to the most remote wildernesses—teaching him survival skills.

Thinking about it now, it was really weird.

Before he started school, he thought all the other kids’ families did this, but he was wrong.

They treated me like a liar…

He remembered the day he ran home crying and complained to his mom. She had smacked his dad on the back, shouting, “I wondered where you were taking the kid, and it was the Guiana Highlands? The Sahara Desert? The Amazon rainforest? Are you crazy?!”

That was the day I first realized. Mom was stronger.

Of course, in terms of pure combat power, his dad was probably dozens of times stronger, but that was meaningless.

For his dad, hitting his mom was something that would never happen, even if the world split in two.

In any case, a father who gallivanted around the world with his son, teaching him survival skills, was, at the very least, nonexistent in Korea. Yujin himself was indeed peculiar.

And Aunt Natasha, too.

His dad wasn’t the only one who taught him combat skills.

There were many techniques he had learned from Aunt Natasha as well.

He had mostly learned gun skills and hand-to-hand ground techniques, but these days, he was only learning about firearms.

Ground techniques are embarrassing now.

It was fine when he was very little, but now… it was a bit much.

On top of that, it was deeply unsettling how Aunt Natasha would occasionally wave around their childhood contract.

He knew it was a joke, but for someone whose first love was Aunt Natasha, it made his feelings rather complicated.

“Ahem.”

Yujin cleared his throat to organize his thoughts and turned his head toward the wall.

A large poster depicted a red-haired woman and a black-haired man standing side by side.

It was the poster for the Bildwein’s Heroic Saga 2 Remake.

It was a game Yujin loved dearly, but come to think of it, that game was a bit strange, too.

Not the game itself, but his family’s attitude toward it was peculiar.

Yeah, it’s peculiar.

The relationship between Bildwein’s Heroic Saga and his family.

Yujin crossed his arms and once again delved into his childhood memories.

*

“Yu-hee! I did it!”

“Really? For real, for real?!”

“Yes, for real! Bildwein’s Heroic Saga is ours now!”

“Oppa, you’re the best!”

His mom and dad, hugging each other and jumping up and down with joy.

That’s right.

The Bildwein’s Heroic Saga series was owned by the Kang family.

His parents, who were huge fans of the series, had bought up everything related to it, including the copyrights.

The series itself was a classic, with the first game being nearly thirty years old by today’s standards, but it had once taken the world by storm.

For a single individual to buy the rights to such a game…

He hadn’t thought much of it back then, but thinking about it now, it was truly astonishing.

But the surprises didn’t end there.

After acquiring the rights, his mom and dad bought an entire game company and began working on a remake of the series.

Thus, the Bildwein’s Heroic Saga Remake series was born.

Reborn as a full-dive virtual reality game for the modern era, the series was practically Yujin’s entire life.

After all, he had been playing it ever since he’d taken his first steps.

Mom and Dad’s fandom is a bit… excessive.

He couldn’t say it out loud, but at home, there was even a bible that worshipped Cordelia, the true protagonist of Bildwein’s Heroic Saga 2, as a god.

It was a bible that looked incredibly expensive at a glance. No matter how strong their fandom was, to create a fictional religion worshipping a character and become so engrossed in it…

Yujin had been truly dumbfounded when he later found out that the baptism he’d received at his mother’s hands was a baptism into the Cordelia Church.

Come to think of it, the person who baptized me back then… was she cosplaying as Cordelia?

An incredibly beautiful woman with pink hair.

He’d been too young to remember clearly, but the impression that she was far more beautiful than even Aunt Natasha remained in his mind.

Ugh… this is definitely weird.

Creating a religion based on a game character and offering it their devout faith.

Still… most other things are normal.

No, perhaps he should say their family was enviable, not just normal.

His mom and dad were a lovey-dovey couple that anyone would envy, and they were incredibly wealthy. His Aunt Natasha was the real person behind Tanya Noona, one of the world’s most famous characters beloved by geeks.

Aunt Hye-eun, Aunt Gayoung… and Uncle Cowabunga are relatively close to normal.

Right, they were a little peculiar, but as long as there were no real problems, it was fine.

Having reached his own conclusion, Yujin closed the picture diary and lay back down on his bed.

And the next morning.

Led by his mother to the living room sofa, Yujin heard something absurd.

“I have a fiancée?!”

“Yes, someone you were engaged to before birth. Just like Yuder-nim and Cordelia-nim.”

At his mother’s words, Yujin looked at his father in shock, then at Aunt Natasha, who was muttering behind his dad, “Tch, am I losing him again?”

Both of them looked completely serious.

“Wh-who is it?”

Yujin asked reflexively. His mother, Hong Yu-hee, chuckled and said with her arms crossed.

“Before that, Yujin, there are a few more things you need to know.”

“More? On top of this?”

“Yes, more on top of this.”

His mother had the odd habit of comparing his prenatal engagement to that of game characters, but otherwise, she was a perfectly normal and good mom. So Yujin narrowed his eyes and waited for her next words. Hong Yu-hee then dropped an even more preposterous story.

“Your mom and Aunt Natasha are angels. And your dad is an apostle.”

“What did you say?”

“Your mom and Aunt Natasha are angels, and your dad is an apostle.”

“Of… the Cordelia Church?”

“Yes, of the Cordelia Church.”

At Hong Yu-hee’s answer, Yujin seriously considered whether they needed to visit a mental hospital, but that thought lasted only a moment.

Because Hong Yu-hee and Natasha immediately presented evidence.

“Transform.”

“Huh?”

Wings of light unfurled from Natasha’s and Hong Yu-hee’s backs.

Luminous, rotating halos appeared above their heads, and a soft glow lingered around their bodies like a lunar corona.

“Sp-special effects? A hologram?”

Or could it be that this was all happening inside a full-dive virtual reality?

“None of the above. It’s just because we’re angels.”

As she said this, Hong Yu-hee floated slightly into the air, and Natasha did the same.

“W-wait. Hold on. Mom and Auntie are angels?”

“Yes, real angels.”

“Th-then, is that why you don’t age?”

“Yes, I’ve told you so many times that your mom is an Eternal Beautiful Girl. It’s because I’m an angel.”

Was there any son who could easily accept the fact that his mother called herself an Eternal Beautiful Girl, and that it was actually true?

“Th-then what about Dad? Didn’t you say he’s an apostle?”

“Yes, your dad is one of Yuder-nim’s apostles who protect Cordelia-nim. You can think of it as something similar to an angel. Uh… no, a saint? Yes, a saint would be about right. A Saint?”

What on earth was she talking about now?

Yujin looked at his father, Kang Jin-ho, with bewildered eyes. Kang Jin-ho nodded gravely.

“So, Yujin, you are a child born between an angel and an apostle.”

Even for Yujin, whose upbringing had been steeped in the fantasy of Bildwein’s Heroic Saga, this was a truth he could not easily accept.

If they had told him he was descended from an otherworldly demon king or a hero, he might have just accepted it. But an angel and an apostle of characters from a video game?

“I think Yujin’s overloaded and his thoughts have shut down… Shouldn’t we first tell him that Cordelia and Yuder are real people?”

At Natasha’s words, Kang Jin-ho nodded, and Yujin blinked.

What were they talking about now?

Yuder and Cordelia are real people?

“They both exist. They are the guardian deities who protect Pleiades. Bildwein’s Heroic Saga is a kind of history book that records their deeds.”

Hong Yu-hee was incredibly serious. Kang Jin-ho beside her was serious, and Natasha was serious too.

Of course, Natasha was letting out a truly complex laugh, as if she found the situation itself both embarrassing and hilarious, but it was a fact that all three of them were serious.

“O-okay. Fine. Uh, let’s just say that’s true for now… A-a prenatal engagement? S-so you’re saying I have a fian… cée?”

“Yes, that’s right. She is the daughter of Cordelia-nim and Yuder-nim.”

“Huh?”

“The daughter of Yuder and Cordelia. The noblest child in all of Pleiades, born to its guardian deities.”

At Natasha’s additional explanation, Yujin blinked again.

Were these people talking about ‘Yuria’ from the Bildwein’s Heroic Saga 3 Remake DLC?

“Y-Yuria? Yuria is my fiancée?”

“Yes, that’s right. Yuria is your fiancée, Yujin.”

Faced with this series of events, Yujin closed his eyes and, at least in his mind, shouted, Alexei, help me!

It was a calming technique his father had taught him in his childhood, and in a situation like this, it was quite helpful.

Yuria.

Fiancée.

The black-haired girl who appeared in the DLC, playable only when linking a save file that had achieved the true happy ending in Bildwein’s Heroic Saga 2.

As Yujin pictured Yuria’s face, his own face instantly flushed red.

It was only natural. If Natasha had been his first love, Yuria was the girl who had made him forget that first love.

Sh-she wasn’t a game character?

He had often asked himself if liking a game character made him too much of an otaku.

“W-wait a minute. No, just wait. C-can you explain how this happened? Like, a general overview.”

He was Hong Yu-hee’s son, but he was also Kang Jin-ho’s son.

The blood of Kang Jin-ho was telling him to find reason and logic even in a situation like this.

“That… They will explain it to you.”

“They?”

“Yes, they.”

As Hong Yu-hee smiled slyly and gestured with her hand, the door to the master bedroom opened, and Yujin came face to face with them.

His prospective father-in-law and mother-in-law—

The guardian deities of Pleiades.

---

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

Please do consider subscribing to my Patreon or donate to my Ko-fi if you like this work or to get early access to chapters