VN Talk: My Vow to My Liege - Part 2: Chenfeng

Chenfeng was my first route in My Vow to My Liege and he was initially a character design pick. Not too ostentatious, not too stern. He looks like a nice guy and one of the kinder characters in the cast. And when I saw how close he was with Fuchai in the opening that sealed the deal. As the king's bodyguard, attendant, and childhood friend, Chenfeng is in on her secret, and since she obviously can't have female servants helping her in and out of her royal clothes, he's the one who does it. There's no blushing, no sexual tension. When he's combing her hair you can see that this is just daily life for the two of them.

Out of the four love interests, Chenfeng is the least "special" with no magic powers or titles (former or present). He was a battlefield orphan who the king took in out of pity (possibly on a whim) and brought into the palace to be his daughter's playmate. While growing up he was constantly aware of his lower status and even though Fuchai called him her friend, he knew that other people might not necessarily see it that way.

Fuchai wasn't completely braindead about his concerns, and tried to raise his standing. Though it's only a background note and does not impact the story, she arranged for no less than Sun Tzu to mentor him. (Sun Tzu was one of the ministers of her father's kingdom in history, so this is not as large a stretch as it seems.) Chenfeng is commented on as being talented enough to be a general, though he refuses to take such a position.

Because, as is obvious to us if not to our protagonist, Chenfeng is in love with Fuchai and would rather spend his life at her side. As her bodyguard and commander of the Royal Guards he goes almost everywhere with her, at least until he's badly injured in the common route. Though the poor guy wants to do nothing but keep carrying out his duties, Fuchai keeps pushing him off to rest. That's not to say he doesn't continue to show up, because he does, and frequently, but it prevents him from being omni-present, which I think is a good thing. (With a side bonus of showing how much he wants to be with her because he keeps getting out of bed.)

I didn't initially like the start of his route because Chenfeng starts acting out of character, becoming brusque and possessive. Fuchai is taking greater and greater risks that are likely to get her killed, and Chenfeng, who is already doing his damnedest to keep her safe, feels like she doesn't respect how hard he's working for her. Worse, he knows that with mages and the Dragon God around, he can't fight that kind of power because no matter how good a swordsman he is, he's helpless against the supernatural.

His reasons are sympathetic, but his actions aren't. It might start with him becoming overly vengeful towards Fuchai's enemies, but he ends up imprisoning her in her room of the palace so she can't leave. He even suggests, quite forcefully, that she should give up being king so she can live as Tengyu again.

What saves this (from me punting his route as a surprise yandere ruining what I thought was a sweet love interest) is that it turns out Chenfeng is being corrupted by the Dragon God's magic from when he was injured and sent in to the human sacrificial array earlier in the story. His route gets even more dismal when it becomes clear just how little of his own self-control remains and how his devotion to Fuchai has been twisted.

Probably the best part, which will sound strange because I talked about his devotion being twisted, is that when Fuchai enters the Spiritual Realm to save him, she realizes that what she saw is a part of him. It's just it's not the only part. She comes across two dueling Chenfengs espousing conflicting views over how best to care for Fuchai (both of them make good and bad points), and when they demand she choose between them, the best choice is to acknowledge that both of them are a part of Chenfeng.

If Fuchai does everything right, Chenfeng is able to break free from the Dragon God's magic and will join her in the final battle to retake the capital of Gisu from the Dragon God. If she doesn't, Chenfeng remains controlled. She manages to kill the Dragon God in both the good and bad endings of Chenfeng''s route with rather surprising ease for a final confrontation (not even famous last words from the Dragon God himself), with the difference being that both Chenfeng and Fuchai die in the bad end, having inflicted mortal wounds on each other.

While I expected some sort of tragedy for his bad end, I hadn't expected it would run all the way up to the end of the storyline, or to hit me emotionally, but there was just something poetic about Fuchai turning into water to join the waters of the lake and for Chenfeng (after coming to his senses) to become the wind so he can continue to be beside her. (Bonus: "Wind" is one of the characters in Chenfeng's name.)

I particularly liked his good ending though, which sees Fuchai give up the throne (now that the Dragon God is gone and the Sacred Vow broken) to her cousin while pretending that she fell in battle against the Dragon God. This frees her to live a nondescript life with Chenfeng away from all her previous duties where she can be Tengyu again. And I have to admit I like the fact she ships her cousin with Princess Shaojiang. Maybe that marriage alliance between Ng and Qi can still happen.