Riser

25-279

Added 2025-09-20 19:55:18 +0000 UTC

EP.279. [Raonjena, Ulysses Schneider’s Beloved Disciple, Caught in Antoine’s Scheme.]

“Damn…”

Adolescence a time meant for dreams and overflowing youth never existed for Raonjena. She never even had the chance to dream. Her life began with brutal abandonment by her parents, so her mind was filled only with suspicion, distrust, and betrayal.

“Heh… I hesitated like an idiot… and now look at me…”

She had a talent for fighting and swordplay, which let her survive as a child soldier in a bandit gang and later as an assassin. But when ordered to kill a comrade she’d grown attached to, she hesitated, was discovered, and suffered a grave injury from a preemptive attack.

“I want… to see the sky…”

Bleeding heavily, Raonjena slumped against a large tree in the forest, looking up. Though the tall trees blocked most of her view, she could still glimpse the blue sky above. That sky symbolized hope and a different kind of humanity one not mired in filth and betrayal. She didn’t have a concrete dream, but a vague sense of longing made her crave that sky.

Her parents had abused and sold her, and everyone else she’d met had used and discarded her like a cheap tool. She wanted, just once, to meet someone truly different before she died.

Then, in that moment

‘Ah…!!!’

Raonjena experienced a brilliant light that illuminated not just the dark forest but even her fading consciousness.

“This… you’re in bad shape.”

That light took human form and spoke to her.

‘I can tell! I can feel it! This person is the sky!’

Having grown up in the gutter, Raonjena instinctively sensed, deep in her heart and soul, the brilliance of the person before her. This was the sky she had longed for.

“Stay here until you recover. I’m wandering too, but I’ll stay here for a while.”

The man treated her wounds, gave her food and water, and a place to rest.

“My name is Raonjena. Thank you for saving me.”

Holding a bowl of warm porridge, Raonjena expressed her gratitude.

“Raonjena, what a beautiful name. Then I should tell you mine, too.”

He smiled warmly, and for the first time, Raonjena responded with the eyes and voice of a girl her age.

“My name is Ulysses. Ulysses Schneider. I seek enlightenment through the sword.”

He was Ulysses Schneider the young Ulysses, just having reached the level of swordmaster.

‘I’ll become strong like my master.’

Having met the “sky” she craved, Raonjena couldn’t leave Ulysses’s side even after recovering. She persistently followed him, and eventually, Ulysses, moved by her will, took her as his disciple.

“I’m glad my sword can help you. I’ll try to be a good teacher.”

Though he’d become a swordmaster, Ulysses was still on his own journey and rarely took on disciples. But Raonjena, desperate and persistent, convinced him. Her darkness could have led her astray, but Ulysses wanted to help her as much as he could.

“I, too, wasn’t much different from you as a child.”

As a survivor of Atlantis who had crossed the interstitial dimension, Ulysses had no roots; his own childhood was filled with wandering and loneliness.

‘So that’s it! My master wasn’t so different from me! I’ll become like him! I’ll become someone meaningful to him!’

Becoming Ulysses’s disciple felt like a dream to Raonjena. For the first time, she felt she truly belonged to someone not out of need or profit, but as a human connection. Ulysses was a father, brother, friend, teacher, and idol to her.

“Outstanding. And brilliant. If anyone speaks of my best disciple, regardless of age, it should be Raonjena. Whenever I’m away, everyone here should follow her guidance.”

Raonjena was a genius. Though born in the gutter, she was a flower. She started sword training late but, by her mid-teens, had awakened her mana and, by nineteen, was recognized as a user-alpha. More than just fast progress, she learned and adapted Ulysses’s sword techniques faster than other disciples, earning his trust as his right hand.

‘I’ll become the next Jedi! I’ll make my master’s name shine! My master isn’t someone to remain hidden away!’

Raonjena was overjoyed being recognized by someone special was everything to her, especially with her battered self-esteem.

But soon, her dream was threatened.

“For a while, I’ll need to focus on Eugene.”

Ulysses had secretly married and had a son. “I think I need to be by his side for now. So during that time, you’ll lead the Sophist disciples.”

After the birth of Eugene Schneider (and the death of Serazade), Ulysses was stricken with grief, but it didn’t last he had a newborn to care for. In those days, it was hard to reveal his demon wife and half-demon child, so Ulysses decided to devote himself fully to Eugene until he grew up.

But for Raonjena

‘Is this my limit, not being blood-related…?’

Worshipping Ulysses as the sky, she felt immense loss and despair.

‘I wanted to be his sword. I wanted to be the one who honored his name most. But that place isn’t mine…?’

Though in her early twenties, Raonjena’s inner self was still trapped in childhood. The lack of parental approval left her with deep emotional wounds. She wanted to be recognized by Ulysses as more than a disciple as a child.

But now Ulysses had a real son, and the connection she felt seemed like a mirage.

‘I’m being abandoned again…?’

She could endure the emptiness, but not the feeling of being discarded. No matter how many times she experienced it, she never got used to it. All her life, she’d been used and abandoned, and her heart was scarred.

So when Ulysses said he needed to spend more time with his son, she suffered PTSD.

‘Isn’t there a way to win back his favor?’

But Raonjena didn’t give up. Ulysses was different from everyone who had abandoned her. She wanted to be recognized by him.

As her obsession grew, not understanding Ulysses’s situation

“I’m really worried about my dear friend, Ulysses Schneider.”

A snake’s voice crept into her heart.

“What do you mean, Duke Antoine?”

The “snake” was none other than Antoine de Sel Oblaing, now head of the Oblaing family. With Ulysses busy raising Eugene and unable to manage Sophist, Antoine, now a Sword Seeker, came to help train the Sophist disciples.

Amidst this, Antoine made an unexpected comment about Ulysses, and Raonjena reacted instinctively.

“Yes, Raonjena, you and Ulysses are more than teacher and student you’re like family. I thought you deserved to know.”

Seeing her desperate reaction, Antoine spoke in a sincere tone.

“Antoine isn’t just absent from Sophist because of his son.”

He closed his eyes as if to reveal a great secret.

“If not because of Eugene…?”

Raonjena, who was jealous of Eugene, was eager to hear more.

“Ulysses has been on secret missions for the imperial family and the Holy See.”

Antoine mentioned Ulysses sealing dimensional rifts with Marianne and investigating the Demon Eclipse in Enklema.

“He’s been involved in things deeply connected to demonic energy. Through those missions, Ulysses’s body has been affected by bad energies.”

He claimed that these missions had left Ulysses in poor health.

“No way… My master was given such dangerous quests by them!”