Aventurine

[Profile]
Name: Aventurine
Real Name: Kakavasha
Alias: Aventurine of Stratagems
Gender: Male
Affiliation: Starfiss Company (Strategic Investment Department)
Family: Older Sister
Appearance: Blond hair,
- As a child, his eyes were lively with a glow, but as he grew, the glow disappeared, leaving him with dead eyes.
- He had a scar on his chest from a childhood injury, but it is now so clean that he exposes his chest. It appears he underwent scar removal surgery.
- The tattoo on his neck is a serial number from his time as a slave of Tsagya and a condemned prisoner sentenced to death by the Company before becoming a member. Upon closer inspection, it reads 'SLAVE' in English.
- He is the only one who does not wear rings or accessories on his right ring finger.

[Personality]
- Born into the Evgin people on the harsh and desolate Tsagya-IV, he was oppressed from a young age and lost loved ones, including his family, early on. This may have led him to be a profound pessimist from childhood.
- He has very low self-esteem, to the point of betting himself as collateral.
- However, contrary to his reckless demeanor and the bravado he displays towards others, he is actually very timid, his hands trembling with chips under the table even as he bluffs. Sometimes, he hides his left hand behind his back when gambling, which looks unnatural. He appears to be a gentle gentleman on the outside, but is constantly anxious about when his luck will run out.
- The reason he always gambled with his life as the first chip, despite being timid, was firstly because his life was all he had to bet, and secondly, he was always looking for a place to die, longing for his family.
- However, after arriving in Penacony, hearing the advice that Acheron's void is not the answer, and seeing the depiction of young Kakavasha wanting to live in a happy dream with his family, his thoughts seem to have shifted slightly towards reaching the answer of the end of life while alive, rather than a vague death.
- He has an obsession with wealth.
- Perhaps due to his impoverished past and his yearning for affection, after becoming a high-ranking executive at the giant space corporation Starfiss Company, he has a habit of showering those around him with money and jewels.
- He describes the Evgin people as frivolous, vain, and superficially flashy. Sparkle described him as a born con artist, petty thief, social butterfly, and a 'haraguro' (black-hearted person).
However, Aventurine is not entirely a 'haraguro'. After Kakavasha became Aventurine, he inquired about the whereabouts of those who had helped him in the past to repay them. However, Jade replied that they were no longer around.

[Abilities]
- As a member of the "Ten Stonehearts," one of the highest-ranking executives in the Starfiss Company, a pan-galactic corporation that commands the entire universe, and a member of the Strategic Investment Department, which possesses the most powerful forces within the company, he has demonstrated his power without reservation in the story.
- It is known that the members of the Ten Stonehearts can wield the powers of Aeons, albeit weakly, through their 'Claphot's Cornerstone'. When Aventurine transformed into Aventurine of Stratagems and confronted the Astral Express crew, he unleashed a terrifying offensive that pushed them back until Acheron intervened.
- To reclaim Penacony's control, which the Company had lost due to the Stellaron incident, he personally went there to confront the families, members of the Harmony, creating a pretext for the Company's intervention and preparing for his own death. He meticulously planned and succeeded in his scheme, even breaking his Cornerstone, the Aventurine, to smuggle it amidst a pile of jewels.
- Considering that the main duty of the Strategic Investment Department within the Company is debt collection, and that they have a lot of work to do, their forces are the strongest within the Company. This suggests that Aventurine himself, as well as all the Ten Stonehearts executives, possess a considerable level of power.
- As a member of the Ten Stonehearts, he possesses immense power, but his most prominent strengths lie in his exceptional schemes and intelligence. After being dispatched to Penacony, he was seemingly tricked by Sunday's leading questions, resulting in his Cornerstone being confiscated and him being given a time limit under Sunday's mark, leading to despair. However, this was all Aventurine's bluff. In reality, to execute the Starfiss Company's plan to regain control of Penacony, he borrowed not only his own Cornerstone but also those of Topaz and Jade. He then pretended to have his Cornerstone confiscated by Sunday, handing over Jade's Cornerstone while successfully concealing his own. Afterward, to meet his death and truly head to Penacony, he deliberately provoked Acheron and the Astral Express crew, even gambling by damaging his own Cornerstone. Ultimately, he was struck by Acheron's blow, successfully crossing over to the real Penacony, and fulfilling the Starfiss Company's objective, showcasing his superior and high-level strategy.

[Luck]
- He was blessed by the Goddess of the Earth of Tsagya from birth, praised for his immense luck. From retrieving his mother's mementos by winning bets with his life as collateral during his childhood to surviving a bet with Jade while facing execution for causing significant damage to the Company, he has a history of defying fate.
- Aventurine curses this immense luck and constantly puts himself in dangerous gambling situations, risking death, yet always emerges victorious, becoming the greatest gambler in the universe.
- Aventurine's luck is inexplicably good. He even put a message on his messenger status offering to do gacha pulls for others. Even setting aside his own testimony of never having lost, his older sister scolded him, saying, "You always win, of course, but still, don't do it." In minor instances, when rolling three polyhedral dice before the boss battle as Aventurine of Stratagems, all three landed on spades, representing Aventurine. He even survived a game of Russian roulette with a pistol in front of Ratio, whom he had just met.
- However, even Aventurine, who is so lucky, sometimes experiences bad luck in stock investments. Topaz lost money after buying stocks based on Aventurine's advice. Aventurine's luck might be a tenacious bad luck that ensures he survives no matter what he does, or perhaps luck that only favors himself and no one else...

[Past]
- Aventurine, whose name Kakavasha means 'blessed by the Goddess of the Earth,' was raised as a child destined to revive the Evgin tribe. However, he lived a difficult life on the harsh planet Tsagya, constantly bullied by the Katika tribe. Eventually, the Evgin tribe decided to seek the Company's assistance to win against the Katika tribe.
- However, the Company was reluctant to intervene on Tsagya unless absolutely necessary. Tsagya was a barren land with no resources, making it unappealing from a capitalist perspective. Furthermore, it was a backward planet where even Aeon worship had not taken root, making it difficult for a cosmic entity like the Company to intervene carelessly, even from a humanitarian standpoint.
- As a last resort, the Evgin tribe faked seeking the Company's cooperation to lure the Katika tribe into a surprise attack and evacuate Kakavasha. This pretext allowed them to involve the Company under the guise of humanitarian aid, but the Evgin tribe suffered immense casualties, with 6,278 dead and 3,452 missing. Aventurine's certainty that "there are no survivors of the Evgin tribe left" suggests that the missing are also presumed dead. They suffered near-extermination.
This incident made Aventurine doubt his own "luck."
- After escaping, Kakavasha was sold into slavery. However, believing in his luck, he continued to gamble and win, eventually getting an opportunity to meet Jade, a high-ranking executive in the Strategic Investment Department of the Company. Intrigued by his immediate proposal of a gamble and provocation, Jade believed Kakavasha's luck would bring great fortune to the Company. She nullified Kakavasha's death sentence and hired him into the Company. With her secret support, he rose to the position of one of the Ten Stonehearts.
- The "Egiha-Zo Aventurine" incident was a fraud case involving various departments of the Starfiss Company and the Intelligentsia. Kakavasha tricked the Intelligentsia into believing that the corpse of the Insect Emperor "Tyt-ronus" was buried in the Egiha-Zo desert. This incident caused the Company massive losses in human and material resources.
- Even before the "Egiha-Zo Aventurine" incident, Kakavasha had deceived the Company. He tricked the Market Development Department of the Company into believing that there was an undeveloped energy source in the barren loess soil of Tsagya. The Company invested a vast sum of money into mining operations before realizing it was a scam. Thus, he deceived the Company twice.
- The timing of him becoming one of the Ten Stonehearts is unknown, but it is presumed to be relatively recent. Kakavasha became Aventurine after passing Jade's test within the Iimannika warlords. Ratio once remarked, "Recently, I had the opportunity to deal with a galactic warlord, and even their most fortified orbital estates weren't this heavily guarded." If the galactic warlord mentioned here was Iimannika, it means he hasn't been a Stoneheart for long. Incidentally, he was also tortured on an electric chair by the Iimannika warlords.

[Trivia]
- The unique shape of his pupils, or perhaps a racial characteristic, allows others to immediately recognize him as being from the Evgin tribe whenever they see him.
- He is often compared to a peacock. In fact, Aventurine's eyes and attire are designed to resemble the feathers of a male peacock. However, the irony is that everyone who made this comparison did so sarcastically. Ratio commented that while the cry of the Atani peacock is the most terrible in the universe, Aventurine "seems to have had all his tail feathers plucked." Sparkle hurled various insults, citing his origin from Tsagya and his affiliation with the Company. Argenti also described him as a flamboyant Company envoy, like a peacock.
- He could have walked the path of the Path of Fun, but he refused.
- His wealth is an astonishing 10^60, known as a Nayuta!!
- In his childhood, due to his humble appearance and arrogant personality, he was easily mistaken for a beggar, but he is indeed the "young master" of the Evgin tribe and the first human on Tsagya to receive a blessing from an Aeon. In other words, he is the last of his bloodline.
- His serial number as a slave was 35. His master, a man, bought him after seeing that Kakavasha had survived the Evgin massacre, thinking him lucky. Kakavasha later killed his master. It is presumed he strangled the man with the restraints he wore on his wrist or beat him to death.
- His catchphrase, "all or nothing," was spoken by the master he killed.
- He particularly dislikes rainy days, as they are associated with the massacre of his people, the Evgin (and the death of his sister), which occurred on his birthday.

---

He is a high-ranking executive of the Starfiss Company's "Strategic Investment Department" and one of the "Ten Stonehearts." His Cornerstone is "Aventurine of Stratagems."
He is eccentric, enjoys risks, and wears a smile, but his true intentions are difficult to gauge.
He obtained his current position by gambling with fate. He views life as a high-risk, high-return investment, and in this game, he is always at ease.

---

"I have a report regarding that new employee."

"Ervin, what is it that worries you so much?"

"Complaints, both official and unofficial, have filled my mailbox like scraps of paper. I would like you to reconsider... accepting him as a member of the Strategic Investment Department."

"What do the complaints say?"

"Mainly about his origins. His eyes..."
"He previously deceived the Market Development Department by claiming there was an undeveloped energy source in the barren loess soil of Tsagya. Only after investing a vast sum of money into mining did they realize it was an absurd scam."
"And then there's the terrible 'Egiha-Zo Aventurine' incident. He tricked the Intelligentsia into believing that the corpse of the Insect Emperor 'Tyt-ronus' was buried there—those scholars were cautious, but they ultimately fell for his ploy."
"And a letter arrived from a council member of the Tsagya Directorate. They accused him of disrupting tribal harmony and causing significant changes to the inter-tribal peace, leading to repeated delays in the signing of the treaty between Tsagya and the Company. Now that he has joined the Company, the situation is dire..."

"If that's all, then there's nothing more to say."

"...You knew?"

"Every gem has its unique value, and our business is 'investment.'"
"There's no need to appease those stubborn old men who sent the letters. This rumor will soon—no, it has already reached his ears. That's good. Let's see how much he surprises us."

---

"Kid, you're truly remarkable... You've taken all my business with methods that would make even ghosts weep, but I will never surrender. At most, I'll just blow this whole place up... What can you do?"
The "Mad Bull" of Iimannika gestured for his subordinate to let go. He sat at the table, lifted his head, and brushed the dust off his collar.
"The dogs of the Company in high places ignore wanderers? But now you're in our territory, so you have to follow our rules."

The "Mad Bull" emptied a cylinder and tossed a single bullet at his feet.
"Six times. Life and death will be decided if the gun fires a maximum of six times. Can you do it?"

He crouched down and picked up the gun.
"I've encountered plenty of people who've pointed a gun at me. Even those who pulled the trigger right away... But how am I still standing here?"
He stood up, stared into the "Mad Bull's" eyes, raised the gun, and aimed it at his own heart.
"Because in the end, the gun always ended up in my hands."

"But I'm tired of this game now... A 1 in 6 chance is far from enough. To provoke fate—"
Six shots rang out in succession in the quiet spaceship. After the smoke cleared, he picked up the gun again and walked towards the "Mad Bull." However, a new bullet was loaded into the chamber.
"You have to learn to become the dice yourself first."
"—You won't surrender? How? With this pathetic game of chance? Or..."
He turned the muzzle somewhere into the darkness.
"That woman?"
From the direction the muzzle pointed, a woman also holding a pistol slowly revealed herself. Seeing her, the "Mad Bull" seemed to grasp at straws.
"Ms. Jade, isn't this different from what you said..."
At that moment, both of them fired simultaneously. In an instant, two men in black clothes fell behind them.

"The Company has enemies everywhere, doesn't it?" the woman said nonchalantly, holstering her gun and taking out a mirror to check her face.
"Making us fight each other using our lives as bait, making them misunderstand it as internal conflict, and then wiping them all out... It was a brilliant scheme. Though it was too dangerous." He welcomed the other party with a smile, but his hands were trembling.

"A scheme? No, it was just a test."
The elegant woman opened her palm, and a "Cornerstone" of peculiar color appeared.
"There's nothing strange about it. To be coveted, chased, cut, and sold... this is the fate of a gem."
"But you still have much you can do. It all depends on how you treat yourself."

---

He entered the room at the very end of the corridor. The last time he was here, he remembered being a detestable prisoner. Now, he stood here, facing the people at the pinnacle of the department.

He listened to a blonde woman read a long and tedious report. The cold numbers could not convey the precarious danger he had walked on the edge of life and death, nor how much he had lost and gained in the process. He only wondered if she was human or an intelligent machine.

The "Cornerstone," symbolizing power and the future, would soon officially be in his hands—yet, despite winning it with his life, its allure and value would vanish the moment he obtained it.

"'Aventurine,' do you have any other questions?" Jade, the only familiar face among those present, asked at the end of the meeting.
"What happened to the Evgin people of Tsagya... afterwards?"

"Unfortunately, there are no more Evgin people on Tsagya. You are the last lucky one."

"Then what about the people who helped me on planet ██? I can finally repay them now."

"They are gone too."

……

He returned to his office in a daze. The Cornerstone on the table emitted a strange light, as if congratulating him, or perhaps mocking him.
"When fighting fate, is luck truly on your side?"

---

"Penacony... Is the 'Diamond' finally going to make a move there?"
The miniature model on the table continued to rotate, and transparent memory bubbles continuously emitted fine bubbles.

"This is a historical debt that surpasses imagination. Therefore, the profits behind it... are astonishingly large."
The person in front of him, with his back turned, gazed at the sunset's crimson sky of Peerpoint.

"But why me?"

The person still had his back turned. Even with his sharp eyes, he could not discern the true intention behind this decision.

"Originally, it should have been me. But the 'Diamond' thought the families were still worth cooperating with and hoped there was room for a peaceful resolution to this matter."
"No matter how I think about it, you are the most suitable candidate."

"This is only our second conversation, and you trust me this much?"

"No, I've never trusted you—'Jade' might have, but not me."
"This time, luck might not be on your side. You will have to pay the price for all the luck you've had so far."

The person in front finally turned around. A seven-colored light, like an opal, reflected from a distant building, and a music box chimed.
"But isn't that what you want?"