THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 224: Memories of the Fallen Star (1) -Frey Starlightʼs Pov- ”Come... to the place where it all began.”

My fatherʼs words...

They still echoed through my mind, even as the blinding light swallowed me whole, ripping me away from where I stood.

I felt the world around me twist and shift at a dizzying pace.

This was .. ”My fatherʼs memories.”

With bloodshot eyes, I followed the sound of his voice ... the voice that stirred something long dead inside me.

Warmth surged in my chest as I found myself standing in a wide, dimly lit room.

A single cradle sat at its center, bathed in the soft silver glow of the moon filtering through the window.

Inside the cradle, a small infant slept .. his hair as black as ink.

He looked... just like me. Just like Frey.

As I gazed at the tiny figure, my fatherʼs voice came alive again. ”When I opened my eyes for the first time... I found myself inside the body of a newborn.”

I kept staring at the sleeping baby.

Fatherʼs reincarnation was nothing like mine.

Had he truly lived his second life from the very beginning as Abraham Starlight?

Ignoring my swirling thoughts, I focused again on his voice. ”At first, I was lost. I thought it was a dream. But dreams donʼt last this long.”

Days passed before my eyes.

I saw a man and a woman ..both with black hair .. caring for the child with overwhelming tenderness and love.

They must have been from one of the Starlight familyʼs branch lines.

In other words... my grandparents. ”Once it became clear I wasnʼt dreaming, I realized Iʼd been reborn .. a new body, a new family, a new reality. But the same memories.”

I watched as the tiny Abraham grew, day by day.

I laughed quietly when I saw him stumble through his first steps, and grumble in frustration when he couldnʼt even manage the simplest things.

I witnessed every moment while my fatherʼs voice .. warm and familiar ..narrated it all.

And deep down, a part of me wished heʼd never stop speaking. ”Even as I came to terms with my fate...

I could never forget the final moments of my previous life .. that blinding light, that moment when everything fell apart.”

Father... he never forgot.

He never forgot us. ”Thatʼs why, the moment I was old enough, I began searching for you.

Trying to uncover the truth behind it all.”

From the time he could walk and speak properly, Father began learning about this strange new world he had been thrown into.

And with the knowledge of a grown man trapped in a childʼs body, he learned at an inhuman pace. ”I was stunned to discover that people in this world wielded supernatural powers, living in a bizarre era that fused medieval and modern times together.”

Father consumed knowledge at an alarming rate.

And the deeper he dug, the more he recognized the world he was now part of. ”As I pieced things together ... learning the names of the great houses, the territories, the history...

I realized I was living inside your story.

The one you used to tell me... over and over again, just for fun.”

By the time he turned four years old, he knew.

He was inside the novel his eldest son once created. ”For me, it felt like your gift.”

A second life, given after the first was torn away. ”And when I realized that... something else appeared before me.”

Just as his voice said so, I watched as a glowing point of light materialized before the four-year-old Abraham.

The moment he touched it, an interface ...a system ..unfolded before him.

I blinked in confusion.

It wasnʼt the Authorʼs Tools I was familiar with.

It was something... completely different. ”A strange system window appeared, showing my stats, my level, like I was in some kind of game.”

Abraham Starlight – Level 1

It was nothing like the one I had received. ”The system gave me missions. Completing them earned me Experience points, which I could then use to level up.”

Every time he leveled up, he could enhance one of his attributes ..strength, speed, and even his innate talent.

Thinking about it carefully...

Father had been given one of those classic, game-like systems often seen in novels.

Simple. Practical. Ruthless. ”And back then... I foolishly believed you were there, watching me from behind that transparent screen.”

He truly, wholeheartedly believed… that I was the one who had given him everything.

And so, using all the experience from his previous life .. and that strange system that had appeared before him .. he threw himself into training, completing every mission assigned to him.

Days passed quickly as Abraham Starlight lived quietly in one of the Starlight familyʼs branch houses.

The branch families were marginalized, living far away from the chaos of the main house.

Because of that, Father grew up in a peaceful, healthy environment.

He lived his second life to the fullest. ”I made sure to treasure every second... training harder, living better .. as a tribute to the gift you gave me.”

His strength grew at an alarming pace, unnoticed by the world.

Day after day, Abraham Starlight trained with a sword, cutting again and again.

At a young age, he awakened the Starlight familyʼs basic Light Affinity, earning the right to learn their secret combat style—the Stardust Technique. ”When my parents in this world gave me that technique, I saw the sorrow in their eyes.”

The Stardust Technique was powerful, forming stars around the heart.

Each star drastically boosted the userʼs power and enabled devastating attacks.

However, the branch families were suppressed for generations; they were only allowed to cultivate the technique up to the Fourth Star.

Beyond that, they needed specialized secret methods .. methods that the main family kept tightly locked away. ”I understood then. My parents were sad because they could only give me an incomplete technique. But even so... it was enough.”

Because the system he had received would forcefully break through the limits they couldnʼt. ”I was grateful for their love and support, but... no matter how much I tried, I could never truly see them as my real parents.”

It was impossible.

After all, my real fatherʼs age far exceeded theirs.

And so, the relationship between them stayed ambiguous .. parents who loved their son, and a son who saw them only as strangers.

Time flew by.

I watched my father reach fifteen years old.

And looking at him... he looked exactly like me when I first arrived in this world.

Fatherʼs voice continued narrating his journey: ”After spending years completing the systemʼs endless missions ...sometimes hard, sometimes twisted, sometimes outright bizarre ... a new idea began to form in my mind.”

At first, he believed that completing the missions would eventually lead him to me.

But they never stopped. ”Thatʼs when I realized... the entity behind the missions wasnʼt you.

It was something else entirely.”

The world resembled the one I once described to him, yes . but some things… didnʼt match.

Still, Abraham Starlight never gave up the dream of finding his family.

Even knowing he was walking blind, he thought long and hard about how to reach us.

Finally, he came to a conclusion. ”When I turned fifteen, my parents offered to send me to the Temple Academy, since I had the talent for it... but I refused.”

The thought of living a ”normal school life” again didnʼt appeal to him.

He wanted to stay hidden, out of sight. ”My plan was simple:

I would train in secret, pushing my strength to its limit.

When the time came, I would make a name for myself so loud and clear... that my real family would recognize me.”

He would remain hidden.

He would train like a madman.

And when he became famous enough, he would send a message only his real family could understand.

That was the whole plan.

It was then that I finally understood why Fatherʼs name had echoed across the empire.

Abraham Starlight, the Miracle.

The Third Lord of the Starlight Family.

The strongest of his era.

All of it... for one reason alone. ”I just wanted to find my family.”

Hearing those words… something twisted painfully inside me.

Me and my father.

Frey Starlight and Abraham Starlight.

We were the same.

Both of us had done everything… for the same exact reason.

Father remained hidden from the world for years.

I watched him train endlessly, awakening the High Star Affinity.

His power grew monstrously fast.

It got to the point where his very body structure began to change.

He was turning into something else altogether.

At that level, the system often sent him into the Nightmare Lands, forcing him to trigger major events from the shadows.

Father executed them all perfectly .. without leaving a single trace behind.

Abraham Starlight: Level 70.

Age: 20.

At just twenty years old,

Fatherʼs strength was already comparable to those at the SS Rank of our world.

He possessed a completely different perspective than I did.

His method of training was something I had never even thought about .. a hellish regimen that allowed him to control his aura so perfectly, he abandoned the concept of internal aura pathways altogether.

He simply let the raw force flow freely inside him without restrictions.

I kept wondering…

How did he even manage it?

What kind of pain did he endure to survive his own power burning his internal organs relying only on the systemʼs force to keep himself alive?

He had achieved something that even I ...the very author who created this world... thought impossible.

On another front, after wandering the world and completing countless system missions,

Father noticed something else. ”After observing this world long enough, after piecing together all the scattered clues...

I became certain: I hadnʼt been transported to another world.”

As I had said before .. Father was sharp.

Unbelievably sharp.

Something like this could never escape his attention. ”This is the same world we once lived in… but far in the future.”