I Can't Forgive You!
I, Kang Hyeonseok, had already died once.
On this Earth, I died long before the Towers appeared or the otherworldly virus ever struck.
The reason was nothing special.
I was simply unloved by anyone, weak enough that the people who should have cared for me neglected me instead, and tormented by others until I finally died alone in my room, unnoticed by a single soul.
That was why I craved power more than anything—and beyond that, why I yearned for a hero who would protect me or save me.
But of course, no such thing existed in this world.
And so I died.
Yet some god must have taken pity on me, for I was granted a second life—and not just any life, but one in a place where the heroes I had always longed for actually existed.
I was reborn in a city called Marvelous.
There, I received all the love I had never known from parents who were active heroes themselves, and I gained the superpowers I had always wanted.
Perhaps that was why the rage born from every humiliation and persecution I had suffered burned so fiercely. Before I could even properly begin working as a hero, I was already running around as a vigilante.
Looking back now, my parents must have known.
As a vigilante I became a rather infamous little troublemaker in the underworld, and the exhilaration I had never felt before only made me act more recklessly by the day.
My relationship with the parents who worried over me soured, and even the distance between me and my little sister Luna—who adored me—grew wider and wider.
Then one day I paid the price for that recklessness.
Not with my own life, but with the death of my beloved little sister.
Maybe that was why, when I first met the girl who resembled her—Charlotte—it felt as though Luna herself had come back to life.
Even the power she used was the same: flame.
So although my head understood the truth, deep in my heart I kept overlaying Charlotte with the image of my sister.
Oppa… just this one thing… promise me… Use the power you have… to help as many people as you can…
Those final words of my sister’s, which I had never once forgotten since returning to Earth, were what kept me moving forward.
Which was why, right now, throwing myself in front of the greatsword crashing down toward Charlotte felt only natural.
What I failed to protect back then—I was going to protect it this time, no matter what.
I had no idea what had just happened.
All I knew was that something warm and red was flowing down my face, and that the trajectory of the greatsword that should have been aimed at me had instead swung toward Kang Hyeonseok.
I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand anything.
Even as I clung to him now, all I could feel was a pain that crushed my heart far more than any warmth, and the terror that he might die was slowly, steadily rising inside me.
Yet even in this situation, the Blessing of Courage began to activate.
The blessing would force me to grasp his condition with cold clarity even while I was drowning in panic.
No! Please! I don’t want to know!!
I screamed the words inside my mind, but the sickening sensation that warmed my body while freezing my thoughts simply went on doing its job.
“Why… why would you… You didn’t have to do that…!”
A voice that sounded like it was vomiting up pure grief tore out of me.
Hearing it, he only smiled at me.
“I… I promised I’d protect you… And this time… I really wanted to keep that promise…”
A wet cough, and bright red blood began pouring from his mouth.
What do I do, what am I supposed to do…!
A headache kept pounding inside my skull and a sharp pain stabbed through my lower abdomen, but none of it compared to the agony that felt like it was piercing straight through my heart.
“We have to heal you right now…!”
I wrapped my arms around him as tightly as he was holding me and began channeling holy power into his wounds.
But of course the thing still standing in front of us wasn’t about to sit quietly and watch.
The sharp whistle of metal slicing through air rang out again, and this time I was certain it would take me as well.
Instead there came a thunderous crash, and shards of freezing ice rained down over us.
“You okay?”
Just as Hyeonseok had said, I figured this wave would give us a short break, so I dismissed my summons and sat right down where I was.
“Haa… haa… I’m seriously wiped.”
I had thought clearing the Tower would be no big deal, same as Hyeonseok, but it had been pretty rough.
The mana consumption was one thing, but in my case the ability demanded even more concentration, so maybe that was why.
I drank a potion that sped up mana recovery and started circulating my power to reorganize myself—when suddenly:
“Charlotte!!!”
Hyeonseok’s shout, the wind blasting from his back as he accelerated with his ability, and Charlotte just standing there watching a massive greatsword come down.
“What the hell?! What is going on…!”
There was supposed to be a rest period—why were there still monsters? The clear notification had even popped up!
I looked at the stele in confusion and saw the final wave indicator lighting up.
“Damn it, I got too complacent?!”
I gathered the mana I had been circulating and looked toward Hyeonseok and Charlotte.
There was Hyeonseok, blood spraying from his back in a thick arc, and Charlotte frozen in helpless panic.
“Haa… I really didn’t want to pull this out.”
But the situation was what it was. No choice. Of course, the moment I used it I would collapse not long after.
Still, they could escape with the artifact Charlotte had.
“Summon! Eltanin!”
A massive wingless dragon of ice and snow coiled into existence around me.
Seeing the monster raise its greatsword for another crushing blow toward Hyeonseok and Charlotte, I leapt onto Eltanin and charged straight in.
Then I shouted toward Charlotte, whose eyes had gone wide behind me.
“You okay?”
A tremendous roar exploded right in front of me. When I looked up, Yeonseo was sitting atop a huge dragon, staring down at us.
“I asked if you’re okay.”
“Huh? Y-yeah—no! Hyeonseok is…!”
“Just hang on a second. Go wild, Eltanin!”
At Yeonseo’s cry the great ice dragon charged the monster—something that looked like a goblin the size of an orc, gripping a crude black greatsword that seemed ready to swallow everything whole.
“Let’s see… Mm, you’ve been healing him this whole time, right? Bleeding’s stopped, and it doesn’t look like anything too serious.”
“What? What are you talking about?! Blood was pouring out of him!”
“That’s probably because of his ability. To get to you that fast he had to blast wind from his back.”
Hearing that, the crushing pain in my chest eased just a little.
“Th-that’s… yeah. That’s a relief…”
“But—cough—I won’t last long either…”
Suddenly Yeonseo was coughing up blood too, leaning her weight against me.
“You?! What’s wrong with you?!”
“It’s nothing. Just the backlash from forcing my power. More importantly—can you use that artifact the bandit guy gave you?”
“Ah, wait—mm, no, it’s not working. It feels like something’s blocking it.”
“Haa, this is insane. We’re out of time now…”
“What? What do you mean?”
At that exact moment a heavy impact rang out, and the ice dragon’s head was sheared clean off by the massive goblin that had to be the boss.
It came straight for us and hurled the greatsword it was holding.
Yeonseo threw up wall after wall of ice as fast as she could, but they crumbled into dust one after another. The instant the final wall was about to be hit—
I found myself standing once more in that pure white space where I had first met Partruna.
“What? What is this?! This isn’t the time for—what the hell?!”
I spun around, running through the emptiness, when a sharp clang sounded behind me and a sword drove itself into the floor.
The moment I approached and closed my hand around the hilt, the headache that had been tormenting me vanished, and knowledge of the blade flooded into me the same way Durandal’s power had once unlocked.
The Sword of Mercy—Curtana.
Its hilt was wood wrapped in metal wire, the pommel gold. The tip looked as though it had been broken off, blunt and rounded.
Beside it lay a scabbard of red leather embroidered with golden thread.
And within a five-meter radius of where Curtana was planted, a barrier of pure holy power would form—protecting and healing anyone inside.
Exactly the sword I needed right now.
“With this… I can protect them both…!”
I slid the blade into its scabbard. The white space vanished and reality snapped back into place.
I yanked the sword free and drove it into the ground.
With a thunderous crash, the greatsword the monster had thrown was deflected away.
“This is…?”
“Curtana’s power.”
“Charlotte? You’ve been hiding something like this?”
Yeonseo stared at me, equal parts shocked and clearly wondering why I had waited until now to pull it out.
“No—I just got it. Our goddess likes me, but she only ever hands things over after I pass some kind of trial.”
“Hmm. Looking at your eyes, you’re planning to fight.”
“Yeah. It’s the only thing I can do. And as long as you’re inside this barrier, both of you will be safe. You’ll heal too.”
“No wonder my throat doesn’t feel raw anymore. All right—go fight well. I’m… completely spent…”
With those last words Yeonseo collapsed beside Hyeonseok with a soft thud.
I stepped out of the barrier, drew Durandal, and shouted at the monster that had already recovered its greatsword and was settling back into a combat stance.
“I will never forgive you!”
The creature snorted as if mocking my words, let out a guttural roar, and charged.
“Ha! Bring it!”
I charged just as hard, wrapping my index and thumb around the cross-guard the way I always did.
Watching the downward arc of its swing, I angled Durandal slightly upward at head height, aiming for its face. I caught the descending blade on the cross-guard and shoved it aside while simultaneously launching a burst of Holy Fire to freeze its movement for a split second.
Then I yanked my sword back, pointed the tip straight at its body, and lunged.
It clearly hadn’t expected me to deflect its strike so cleanly. In that instant of panic I drove the blade into its gut—but the sheer difference in size meant it didn’t sink deep enough.
“Kyaaaak!”
It swung a massive right fist at me while the sword was still buried in its belly. I detonated a fresh burst of Holy Fire right in front of the punch; the recoil ripped Durandal free and threw me clear, opening distance between us.
The explosion had done real damage—blood was already streaming from the wound in its stomach.
“Huu… Still, the size difference is no joke. My hands are tingling even after all that reinforcement.”
But I couldn’t back down here.
Yeonseo and Hyeonseok were behind me. I had to protect them.
I settled the hilt at my hip, angled the tip upward toward the monster, and poured every scrap of flame I could summon into a storm of blazing swords that filled the air around me.
“You’re going to die right here. Got it?”
“Keh-heh…!”
It must have sensed the danger on pure instinct, because it dropped into a defensive stance—but I was already faster. I unleashed the entire swarm of flame swords at once, then kicked off the ground, using Holy Fire for acceleration as I drove Durandal straight into the center of its greatsword.
The rain of flame blades had been meant to pin it in place, but more than that, to heat one single spot until even the hardest, sharpest steel would yield.
Durandal punched clean through the middle of its weapon and kept going, burying itself in the creature’s chest.
The heat radiating from the blade seared my hands, but it didn’t matter. Holy power was already knitting the burns closed as fast as they formed.
Right now the only thing that mattered was ending its life.
“Haaaah!”
I shoved the sword deeper into its chest and then ripped it upward toward the throat. It tried to block with both arms—
“You think something that weak is going to stop me?!”
—and I carved straight through both arms and its neck in a single stroke.
“Huu… Good riddance, you bastard.”
I flicked Durandal once to clear the blood, then turned and walked back toward Yeonseo and Hyeonseok.
The magic stone could wait until the two of them woke up.
And that was how our first Tower clear—something I had thought would be no big deal—finally came to an end.
The damage had been worse than I expected.
If I had been stronger, neither of them would have gotten hurt like this.
So I made myself a promise: I would grow stronger, faster, so that no one around me would ever have to suffer again.
And to do that, I needed to figure out the “special condition” Partruna had mentioned.
With that thought, I lay down beside Yeonseo and Hyeonseok and let my exhausted body sink into the ground.