Nihil Miseria Heine

**Nihil Miseria Heine** is the son of Friedrich Stoltz Heine and grandson of Kronecker Grantz Heine. He was originally supposed to be the Heine candidate for the Rune-Midgarts throne, but something happened to force the family to choose Peter Heine instead. Miseria means "misery" in Latin.

On iRO, this character is localized as Nyhill Mijeria Heine.

## Story

**SPOILER WARNING:** Plot and/or ending details follow.
Nihil arrived at the Prontera palace with Kronecker and Nihil to meet up with Peter Heine. While waiting for the invited adventurer to meet them, a fight breaks out between him, his father, and grandfather. Nihil wants to leave, seeing as he was no longer the Heine candidate for the crown and requests permission to go. Kronecker argues that it is his duty to stay and represent the family. Nihil expresses his frustration with how the family sees him as nothing, emphasizing that his given middle name meant misery. Friedrich warns Nihil to watch his words, but Nihil storms out of the room past the invited adventurer. While in the hallway, he meets Skia Nerius and asks her what it feels like to be known as the shadow princess. Skia affirms that she chose to be the shadow princess and that it never made her sad nor did she find the lifestyle difficult. Nihil is envious that Skia is so accepting of her role in life as he has spent most of his trying to escape the name of Miseria. He bades her goodbye and goes on his way to nowhere in particular.

Nihil later goes to the banquet for heroes and spots the Nerius sisters in the crowd. He goes over and Skia calls him over to Nihil's embarrassment. Nihil sees that the invited adventurer was with them as well and he starts to regret approaching the Nerius sisters. Meanwhile, Spica is curious as to why her sister and a member of the Heine family are on first-name terms and Skia explains that they met in the hallway since the Heine residential villa is next to that of the Nerius'. Nihil expresses his thanks for the encounter and turns to the adventurer to apologize for his behavior while he/she was visiting the Heine villa.

Just then, a drunken woman comes up to the group and blabbers about how she wasn't surprised that Nihil lost his candidacy for the throne. She then notices the Nerius sisters and accuses Nihil of leaving the Heine family to join the Nerius family. Nihil orders her to stop with the vitriol, but the woman continues her tirade anyways. Crux threatens the woman to stop insulting the Nerius family as he had enough of her blabbering. Spica tells Crux to stand down as she has no desire to hold a grudge against the Heine family for the woman's outburst, identifying the drunk woman as Violetta Collette Heine. She warns Violetta that should she continue her tirade and drag the Nerius family into the drama, she will bring shame to the Heine family. Nihil adds that he will make sure Violetta gets punished as she is a collateral relative. This makes Violetta leave, but not without one last insult to the Heine prince. Skia is curious as to the story behind all that and Nihil apologizes for his cousin's behavior. Skia points out that he doesn't need to say sorry since he's done nothing wrong. Spica clarifies that whether or not Nihil did anything wrong, he is still responsible for any member of the Heine family as he is a head of the family. However, she was surprised that Nihil was being treated badly even though he was a head of the Heine family.

Just then, a banquet attendant comes up and offers some light champagne to the group. Nihil and Skia both take a glass and Nihil takes a sip out of his. He excuses himself from the group and hopes that they can hang out again. Spica offers to officially invite him should there be another opportunity to meet up. Nihil takes his leave, but starts feeling strange as he head out the banquet hall. He asks an attendant to help him find a place to rest and ends up in one of the empty villa rooms in the palace. He senses a presence and sees that Skia and the adventurer had entered the room. Nihil wonders if he's drunk and expresses that his head hurts and he feels dizzy. Skia asks him how he got to the room and Nihil explains that he had an attendant help him to the room when he suddenly felt tipsy. He doesn't remember anything else, but thinks there was a guest in the room earlier. Brushing it off, he asks Skia and the adventurer why they were there and Skia responds that it was almost time for the Ritual of Blessing. Nihil supposes he should return to his family now that his head was clearing up. He excuses himself and leaves the room.

Later in the Room of Consciousness, Skia and Nihil eagerly greet the adventurer to the Ritual of Blessing. Nihil begins to say something about what happened after he left the banquet hall, but he stops himself and decides that it would be best to talk about that after the ritual. He then goes to take his place with his family, as did Skia. The ritual begins with Kronecker leading everyone to chant their blessings upon the chosen candidate Peter Heine.

*On behalf of the seven royal families supporting Rune-Midgarts*

*Here is the new appointed representative*

*May the blessing starlight reach the glory of the earth*

*Please allow the power from the source to be granted for all beings*

*The courage to charge forward and strike the enemy*

*The heart to embrace everything in this world*

*The strong will to protect everything within reach*

*The intact pride of justice and faith that never bends no matter what*

*The virtue of looking up to others with a humble mind*

*And the wisdom to see the truth*

Before the ritual could complete, an intruder appears and strikes down Peter. The intruder elaborates that he heard that a piece Ymir's Heart was hidden in the Room of Consciousness, but it turned out to be a fake. The adventurer and the royal families attempt to approach the intruder, but the intruder threatens that if they take another step he will destroy the fake Heart of Ymir. Kronecker is surprised that the Heart of Ymir is fake, which causes the intruder to realize that none of the royal families know where the real one is hidden if they were ignorantly carrying out the ritual with a fake. The intruder is frustrated that he wasted his time with a fake and decides to leave without causing more of a scene. However, he quickly backtracks on his word and destroys the fake Heart of Ymir. The royal families are then accosted by more intruders, but they are able to fend them off with the help of the adventurer. The intruders disappear and the royal families evacuate the ritual hall.

Nihil and the archdukes meet up with the adventurer after the ritual was canceled and demanded to know if the adventurer had told anyone about the ritual. Ian explains that the ritual had only been known by members of the seven royal families and no one else. Maximilian Lugenburg decides not to skirt around the issue and straight up tells the adventurer that he/she is suspected of having something to do with the intruders. Ian reluctantly admits to the suspicion and affirms that the adventurer is the only outsider in the history of Rune-Midgarts that knows about the ritual. Nihil defends the adventurer, saying that he/she has no idea what or where the Royal Family Past Memories are. He goes on to clarify that the adventurer was only told to observe the ritual after the Royal Assembly was completed, but was never told where and how it would be held.

Suddenly, Kronecker interrupts the inquiry to tell them that the Terra Gloria is now gone, having disappeared when the Heines were taking care of Peter during the invasion. He believes the intruders must have taken it during the chaos. Kronecker goes on to share that the Star of Blessing was said to be fake. Nihil interjects that he was responsible for allowing information about the ritual to leak. He recalls having talked to someone while he was drunk and believes that he is to blame for someone else knowing about the ritual besides the adventurer. Ian declares that the Walters will not sit back and do nothing despite not attending the Royal Assembly. Maximilian adds that he has heard the rumors about Nihil and wonders why he did what he did. He accuses Nihil of sabotaging the ritual and reminds him that Peter is also a Heine. Nihil tries to defend himself to no avail until the adventurer interrupts the callouts, explaining that he/she overheard two individuals who were plotting to drug a member of the royal families. Maximilian demands proof of the plot, suspecting that the adventurer is making up the story to save Nihil's reputation. The adventurer affirms that the Nerius sisters can testify to having seen Nihil get drugged in the banquet hall. Ian decides that the families need to meet to discuss the matter and asks Kronecker what he thinks. Kronecker admits that if it were true that Nihil was drugged, it doesn't negate the fact that he acted carelessly. He sentences Nihil to house arrest, denying him contact with anyone unless absolutely necessary. He then turns the archdukes' attention to the missing Terra Gloria and the fact that the Star of Blessing was a fake. Ian agrees to organize a meeting right away to discuss their next actions.

Nihil later appears at the Nerius villa, explaining that his house arrest is only confined to the west wing of the palace's villas. He then wonders why Skia is dressed up as her sister Spica, to the bewilderment of the adventurer. Skia tries to maintain the ruse, but Nihil sees through it easily. Skia finally gives in and reveals herself, wondering if she was a bad actress. Nihil responds that they may be twins, but they still have slight differences. This pleases Skia, knowing that he recognizes her. The adventurer wonders why Skia is wearing her sister's outfit and Skia explains that it's part of her duty as a Shadow Princess to protect her sister, who is to be the next head of the Nerius family. As such, she is the only one of the two that knows how to fight. The banquet is actually the first time Skia appears in public along with her sister. Nihil notes that it is thanks to Spica that Nihil's house arrest wasn't confined to just the Heine villa. He wonders when she will be back as the sudden meeting with the heads of the royal families should've been over by now. The adventurer asks why Nihil is there and he responds that he came to deliver a message. He volunteered to be the messenger because he heard that the adventurer was visiting the Nerius family (and also because the Heine villa was stuffy). Skia wonders what it could be about and Nihil suggests that she asks Spica since she was at the meeting. Nihil then implores the adventurer to meet his father and grandfather. Skia explains that she can't go with them as she still needs to represent her sister while she is gone.

The next day, Nihil and Skia meet with the adventurer in his/her room to talk about their next move. Skia was dressed up like Spica again and explains that her sister needed to investigate some things on her own, which required Skia to be her substitute again. During the banquet, Spica and Crux went off to find the attendant that served them the drugged champagne. Skia adds that Spica has a sharp eye when it comes to things like that.

Spica eventually arrives at the adventurer's room and gets straight to the point. Although Crux had done a great job tracking down the attendant, he was unable to find the suspicious people that the adventurer overheard. The attendant was simply ordered to recommend a drink to a son of the Heine family. The drink that was given was supposedly his favorite drink. Skia wonders why Spica had come without Crux and Spica goes on to explain that they managed to find out that the chamberlain that gave the drink to the attendant lives in Schwarzwald. Therefore she has sent Crux to track down the chamberlain and has already passed by Juno.

Nihil chimes in, saying that if the chamberlain is from Schwarzwald, then tracking him down won't be easy due to the fact that the royal family cannot take official action against him. They also cannot alert the country to the situation either. Spica notes that the heads of the seven royal families are already aware of the issue and called a conference to decide what their next course of action will be. However, each family has a different idea to approach the problem so Spica has taken it upon herself to do as she wished. Nihil thinks the adventurer should meet up with Crux as he thinks the task will be tough for the bodyguard to take on by himself. Skia volunteers to join them and Spica gives her permission to do so, handing over Crux's reports to Nihil. She's not a fan of getting her hands dirty and so decides that she willl do what she can from the comfort of the Nerius villa. Nihil is curious as to why she's putting in so much effort for this investigation and Spica responds that she simply found it interesting and that a change was needed anyhow. She finds the Heines' obsession with ruling over Rune-Midgarts to be rather stuffy and leaves it at that. Nihil notes that whatever her reasons may be, she looks rather happy to help regardless.

With Nihil taking charge of the operation, he tasks the adventurer to join up with Crux to find the suspicious chamberlain. From Crux's report, the chamberlain's name is Bruno. Nihil suspects that Bruno is headed towards Lighthalzen. Bruno won't be traveling by airship as he'll be easily tracked that way. Therefore the adventurer would have to meet up with Crux in Lighthalzen and narrow down their search from what Crux has found out thus far. Skia's swordsmanship skills will be a great asset, so she will also be meeting them at the Lighthalzen airport. The group then disperses with Spica and Nihil going back to their respective villas and Skia going off with the adventurer.

## References

1. ↑ Invitation to the Royal Banquet
2. ↑ Invitation to the Royal Banquet
3. ↑ Participating in the Banquet
4. ↑ Covert Operation