Aiyoku no Eustia (穢翼のユースティア lit. Eustia of the Stained Wings)

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On a post-apocalyptic earth smothered in dark mist, humanity is on the brink of extinction. Its last remaining sanctuary is aboard Novus Aether, an island floating in the sky, an ark for God’s faithful chosen kept above the clouds by the covenant between the Holy Maiden and the Angels. Over 29 generations, Novus Aether has become a literally stratified society, with the nobility lording over the masses from the heights of the city, while the underclass is trapped in a crater/cesspool – the so-called Prison – a wretched hive of scum and villainy. There, former assassin turned bodyguard/handyman Caim Astraea lives among the whorehouses, running odd jobs for the local mafia group, when he rescues the sole survivor of a brutal murder scene, Tia. As Caim investigates her mysterious glowing wings, he uncovers a vast conspiracy that will shake the very foundations of the city.

The brilliance of Aiyoku no Eustia is in its worldbuilding of the Novus Aether society. Within the first few pages of the prologue, the reader is thrust into the ugly, brutal streets of the Prison, as Caim drags a john, tricked by a whore’s sob story into a failed attempt to rescue her from bondage, back to the brothel. Since the only law in the Prison is the mafia’s, the good Samaritan’s reward is a one-way ticket off the island. Afterwards, Caim is dispatched to retrieve protection money stolen by a Winged kid – infected by the deadly Wing-sickness – before he and it disappear into the hands of the Winghunters, the only law enforcement that deigns to operate in the Prison. Except they aren’t concerned with enforcing any laws beyond their mandate to quarantine the Wing-sickness. If the cyberpunk genre can be described as ‘high tech, low life’ then Eustia juxtaposes a high fantasy setting with the base and meanest aspects of humanity. It presents Novus Aether as a place where magic may exist but the monsters are all too human and the struggles all too mundane.

Eustia also excels in characterizing these human struggles. With an ensemble cast of colorful and charming characters, the novel endears each one and invites the reader to sympathize with their perspectives, even the villainous ones. The story is told for the most part through the cynical perspective of Caim. A grim pessimist antihero, traumatized by his bloodstained past, and hardened by the casual injustice of the slums, yet hiding underneath a heart of gold that just can’t leave a friend behind. It isn’t difficult to root for such a charming rogue over the course of his redemptive character arc, which begins when he is confronted with the bright and cheerful Tia, an irremediable optimist despite a lifetime of suffering, whose warm smile gradually thaws his frozen heart. While the Eris chapter was the most frustrating section to read, due to his stubbornly obtuse manner, it was critical in demonstrating his growth and development as a character, as he begins to face his demons head on and come to terms with his past. You couldn’t ask for a better protagonist in Caim. And his counterpart antagonist is one of the most compelling and memorable in eroge, so much so that the term ‘villain’ doesn’t seem quite appropriate. Their confrontation in the grand finale was everything I wanted it to be – a clash in values and philosophy as much as in steel.

The reason why Eustia isn’t a true masterpiece is, in my opinion, that it was constrained by the demands and conventions of eroge. Do not mistake me, this isn’t about having sex scenes, of which there is only one in the main storyline itself, and the rest are unlocked and read separately – no doubt to make the all-ages version for consoles less inconvenient to develop. The problem is much more fundamental. Eustia‘s plot has a ladder structure, where in each chapter, Caim encounters and interacts mainly with its principal heroine, and if the player so desires, may get off the ladder at that stage to be with that heroine, bringing the story to a premature conclusion. These are ‘happy endings’ where the central mystery remains unsolved, and what really happens beyond Caim’s newfound romance is mostly left to the player’s imagination to fill in. Otherwise, the player ascends the ladder to the next chapter in sequence, and Caim uncovers more of the mystery, eventually leading to the True Ending where all is revealed and resolved.

It is reasonable to interpret this design as intended to give all the heroines, if not equal importance to the plot, at least equal airtime for their romance to bloom, so the eroge audience can pick and choose from the buffet of options. But this imbues the story with a kind of eroge logic where everything hinges on the protagonist’s ability to woo a series of women without actually wanting to, and since this process repeats every chapter, its contrivance becomes painfully obvious. And more critically, this ends up diminishing the importance of the eponymous central heroine, who is pushed to the background while the others take center stage, robbing Caim and Tia of the time and space needed to gradually build up their romantic relationship over the course of the novel. This ultimately comes at the cost of weakening the emotional force of the True Ending, which feels slightly contrived without the kind of connection that would justify their actions in the grand finale. It should be no surprise that in August’s character popularity poll for the heroines, Tia didn’t take first place.

Aiyoku no Eustia clearly demonstrates that stories don’t need to be completely original or ambitious to be good. A story can be straightforwardly faithful to the conventions of genre, down to tired tropes and cliches, yet still thrill and touch the heart. Well-told, well-paced, and well-crafted, it is a solid tale of love and courage that neither disappoints nor surprises. It has its clever twists and dramatic moments foreshadowed well in advance, yet delivers them with earnest flourish. How refreshing to see this kind of fantasy, so out of place in an ocean of genre-savvy, meta-aware light novel fantasy fiction. With high production values, intricate art, and an atmospheric soundtrack, Eustia well deserves the popularity it enjoys, and I have no qualms recommending it to anyone who loves swashbuckling fantasy.