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# My Daughter Is the Final Boss
## Chapter 1
[Regression has been completed.]
I opened my eyes at the sound of the system's voice.
Sunlight filtering through the curtains illuminated the messy studio apartment.
Clothes were carelessly draped over a chair, and the desk was completely disorganized.
It was a nostalgic sight, one that remained faintly buried in my oldest memories.
When I sat up with a dazed mind, my head throbbed as though I had gotten completely drunk the night before.
“Ugh.”
Out of habit, I picked up the cellphone lying beside my pillow to figure out what was going on.
What I grabbed was the old-model smartphone I had used a long time ago.
Feeling something strange, I checked the date.
“Huh?”
At first, I thought it was some kind of error.
The date on the phone was showing fifteen years in the past.
I frowned as I grabbed my throbbing temple.
I had definitely died when the Final Quest began.
The sensation of the Sword Saint's blade piercing straight through my heart was still vivid.
Regression?
A notification sound rang out in my mind.
I hurriedly ran to the bathroom.
I turned on the light and checked my face in the mirror.
“Crazy…… What the hell is this?”
Reflected in the mirror was me with a youthful face.
Judging by the date, I was twenty-six years old.
I turned on the cold water in the sink and washed my face.
I took deep breaths to calm my excitement.
When I pinched my thigh, I felt definite pain.
This isn't a dream? Really?
It was unbelievable.
But this was clearly reality.
I had returned to the past.
I needed to calmly organize my thoughts.
How?
The first question that came to mind was how I had returned to the past.
It was something I had occasionally seen in movies.
Time travel.
Why had something like this happened to me?
I calmly went over my memories.
Right. It said Unique Quest.
Just before I died, I remembered the system's voice.
It had definitely said that Hunter Lee Seo-jun's Unique Quest was beginning.
But at this point in time, I wasn't a hunter yet.
After hesitating for a moment, I opened the quest window.
<Unique Quest: Change the Future>
Prevent Lee Seol-ah's five misfortunes. (0/5)
I stared blankly at the translucent window.
A quest was essentially a mission given by the system to hunters.
Since completing them granted useful rewards, quests were practically mandatory tasks for hunters.
I had also completed countless quests as a hunter over the course of more than ten years.
But I had never heard of a quest with the modifier "Unique" in front of it.
Five misfortunes?
Regrettably, I couldn't even begin to guess what these five misfortunes were.
Just as Seol-ah had said, perhaps I really had been nothing to her.
There was only one thing I could guess.
Eun-hye.
The death of Seol-ah's mother, Yoo Eun-hye.
I checked the date once again.
I still remembered the date of Eun-hye's death.
Because it was exactly the same date as the tragedy.
At this point in time, I can stop it.
Seol-ah going astray, and Eun-hye's death.
I could change everything I had regretted.
The past flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
After Eun-hye died, I raised Seol-ah alone.
No, honestly, you couldn't even say I raised her.
If I had been a proper hunter, I would have had both income and time to spare, but I wasn't.
I had entered the path of a hunter quite late, and I rarely even came home properly.
It was because I had ended up in debt after signing a bad contract with a guild that had readily offered me a helping hand.
I thought I had struggled in my own way so that Seol-ah wouldn't be affected.
But looking back now, perhaps it had all simply been indifference.
I was the one who neglected Seol-ah while making one excuse after another.
Just like Seol-ah said, I was nothing to her.
I regretted it.
A hellish life spent stubbornly paying off my debts.
But in the end, there was no one left by my side.
I don't even know what kind of misfortunes Seol-ah went through. Lee Seo-jun, you damn idiot.
It was all my fault.
I had no intention of wasting the second chance that had come to me.
This time, I would set everything right.
Ding-dong.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Ah. So today is the day.
I remembered the first time Eun-hye came to see me while holding Seol-ah's hand.
It had been six years since Eun-hye and I broke up. In other words, I had been twenty.
Eun-hye had shown up without contacting me beforehand and introduced Seol-ah as my daughter.
Back then, I couldn't hide my confusion.
I was already flustered by my ex-girlfriend suddenly showing up.
And then she told me I had a daughter.
I went berserk demanding a paternity test.
Looking back, I must have done something terrible in front of a child.
I demanded a paternity test and even said cruel things, claiming she was another man's child.
But the results of the paternity test concluded that she really was my child.
Suddenly becoming a father, I couldn't easily accept it.
I really was a piece of trash.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
No matter how flustered I had been, how much worse must it have been for Eun-hye and Seol-ah?
Eun-hye had swallowed her pride and asked me for help, only to suffer all kinds of humiliation.
I couldn't even imagine how deeply Seol-ah must have been hurt at such a young age.
It was something I couldn't change anyway. I should have simply accepted it.
“Who is it?”
“Open the door.”
Eun-hye's voice came from outside.
Hearing that voice for the first time in so long, I suddenly felt a lump in my throat.
I composed myself and answered in a deliberately calm voice.
I quickly tidied my disheveled hair.
“Who are you?”
“It's me. Yoo Eun-hye.”
I hesitated for a moment before making up my mind and grabbing the doorknob.
Putting my hesitation behind me, I opened the door.
Yoo Eun-hye was standing there.
“Hi. Seo-jun.”
“Eun-hye.”
I couldn't continue speaking.
It felt as though something hot had filled my throat.
Someone who had died was standing right before my eyes.
Once again, the reality of having returned to the past sank in.
While I was still opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish, Eun-hye looked down.
There was a little girl holding Eun-hye's hand with her tiny hand.
“Seol-ah. You should say hello to Daddy.”
“……Hello. Daddy?”
Seol-ah bowed politely to me.
Her eyes, filled with pure curiosity, looked up at me.
Even then, I was still standing there stupidly, merely opening and closing my mouth.
Eun-hye looked at me and carefully began to speak.
“I know. You're flustered, and it's difficult for you to accept.”
“Uh, uh.”
“This child, our Seol-ah, really is your daughter, Seo-jun.”
I couldn't answer and instead walked in front of Seol-ah and crouched down.
Once our eyes were level, I could properly see my daughter, the most beautiful girl in the world.
Her fair skin and clear eyes resembled her mother, along with her tiny, cherry-like lips.
Even her white cheeks looked so soft and plump, like a little rice cake, that I instinctively wanted to poke them.
Why hadn't I looked her in the face like this back then?
“Daughter?”
“……Yes.”
Seol-ah looked at me with curious eyes, but apparently I was still a stranger to her.
I noticed her timidly stepping back and holding tightly onto Eun-hye's hand.
I spoke to Seol-ah with a serious expression.
“I am your father.”
Seol-ah's eyes widened.
An awkward silence descended.
I scratched the back of my head for no reason.
“Ah. Kids these days probably don't know this.”
“Seo-jun, you……”
“Come in first. How long are we going to stand here and talk? Your legs must be getting tired.”
Perhaps this was an unexpected reaction, because Eun-hye looked at me with a bewildered expression.
I dropped to one knee and politely extended my hand like a knight.
“I shall escort you, Princess.”
“……Okay!”
Seol-ah smiled brightly and placed her tiny hand in mine.
---
“You…… you've changed.”
“Hm? What?”
Yoo Eun-hye looked at Lee Seo-jun with a confused expression.
The moment they entered the room, he had cleaned up the previously messy apartment.
Then he naturally joked around and became friendly with Seol-ah, and now he was watching a children's cartoon with her.
Once Seol-ah became absorbed in the children's cartoon she had started playing on the smartphone, Lee Seo-jun carefully went into the kitchen.
After rummaging through a drawer for a while, he took out some tea that looked like it had been given to him as a gift and skillfully prepared it.
It was a sight she never could have imagined.
“It feels like just yesterday when you were such an immature kid.”
“People change a lot after six years.”
Lee Seo-jun sat across from Yoo Eun-hye and took a sip of tea.
Lee Seo-jun, who used to drink nothing but sweet lattes whenever he had coffee, had changed so much.
Thinking that she really couldn't understand it, Yoo Eun-hye shook her head.
“So, Seol-ah is my daughter?”
“Yeah. I know it's hard to believe.”
“No. I believe you.”
Yoo Eun-hye had been reaching into her handbag when she stopped.
She had expected him to tell her to get a paternity test or something.
His willingness to accept it so readily was honestly bewildering.
Lee Seo-jun stared at Yoo Eun-hye.
“Why did you hide her?”
“……It's not like we ended things on good terms.”
Like most couples who broke up, the ending between Lee Seo-jun and Yoo Eun-hye hadn't been particularly pleasant.
Lee Seo-jun had enlisted in the military as though he were running away, and Yoo Eun-hye discovered she was pregnant afterward.
“I originally planned to raise her alone. But things didn't work out that way.”
“What happened?”
“There was an accident. My house collapsed…… I didn't have anywhere to stay.”
Lee Seo-jun nodded readily in understanding.
Yoo Eun-hye finally brought up the words she had struggled to prepare.
“I won't ask you to take responsibility. I chose to have her.”
“Then?”
“Let us stay here for just a little while. I can't have my child sleep in a motel.”
Yoo Eun-hye had no parents she could rely on.
She didn't have any relatives she was close to, either.
After searching everywhere she could, she had ended up finding Lee Seo-jun.
He was still the child's father, so she thought he wouldn't coldly turn them away.
But she had expected there to be some friction, so Yoo Eun-hye let out a long breath.
No matter what Lee Seo-jun said, she intended to simply listen and let it go for Seol-ah's sake.
“Okay. Do that.”
“Huh?”
“The place isn't very big, but if I get rid of some things I don't need, we'll have some space.”
But Lee Seo-jun neither questioned her nor refused.
He accepted Yoo Eun-hye and Seol-ah as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Now that Lee Seo-jun was acting like this, Yoo Eun-hye was the one who became flustered.
“Your luggage?”
“Luggage? Oh, it's outside.”
“Wait. I'll bring it in.”
Lee Seo-jun put down his cup and stood up.
As he headed toward the entrance, she saw him talking to Seol-ah.
“Our Seol-ah, are you having fun?”
“Yes!”
“If you watch too much, it'll hurt your eyes, so can you just watch that?”
“……I want to watch more.”
“Instead, let's play with Mommy and Daddy later.”
“Okay!”
Lee Seo-jun affectionately patted Seol-ah's head before going outside.
Then he pulled the suitcase that had been standing beside the door inside.
After sitting across from Yoo Eun-hye again, Lee Seo-jun glanced at Seol-ah for a moment.
For some reason, his eyes were filled with affection.
“She’s pretty. I guess it's because she takes after you?”
“……What did you say?”
“I said she's pretty because she takes after you.”
Lee Seo-jun continued speaking casually without taking his eyes off Seol-ah.
Yoo Eun-hye's confusion finally reached its peak.
What is wrong with him?
The Lee Seo-jun she knew wasn't a man who expressed affection like this.
He had been a troublemaker, the kind of person who could easily be described as immature.
And yet, for some reason, Lee Seo-jun seemed composed.
There was even genuine sincerity in the words he had seemingly blurted out without thinking.
Yoo Eun-hye took a sip of tea to calm herself.
“Eun-hye.”
“Hmm?”
“Let's get married.”
Trickle.
The tea in Yoo Eun-hye's mouth flowed right back into her teacup.