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# 01. Prologue — Dad Regrets It
Beneath the crimson sky, the world had already ended.
Years of war had left behind nothing but ruins, and standing atop them were only a handful of heroes.
At their feet, the Demon King’s corpse was slowly growing cold.
“It’s over.”
Someone muttered the words, but there was no cheering.
Those who remained had lost far too much to even have the strength to be happy.
I was no different.
Feeling the strength drain from the hand gripping my sword, I looked down at the Demon King collapsed at my feet.
“Puhuhu…”
It was a strangely light laugh for someone who was dying. The sound slipping between lips stained crimson with blood was so carefree that, for a moment, I even wondered if this was really happening.
“This time… I lost again.”
The Demon King’s blurred eyes turned toward me.
There was neither anger nor resentment in them.
Instead, there was even a strange sense of satisfaction.
“But next time will be different.”
“…What?”
“Because I… completed the core.”
A slender finger pointed toward his own chest.
A faint light was flickering there like a heartbeat.
“What did you complete?”
There was no answer.
The Demon King’s head lolled to the side, and the light disappeared from his eyes.
All that remained was a dark-red orb that had rolled out from his chest.
I stared blankly at the orb before raising my head and looking around at my comrades.
The surviving heroes.
The ones who had protected the world.
What would be left for us now?
Peace?
A return to our ordinary lives?
At that moment, the sky split apart.
Kwaaaaang—!
At first, I thought they were meteors.
The dozens of streaks of light descending through the crimson sky were so beautiful.
But they weren't meteors.
And they certainly weren't miracles.
“Nukes…?”
The moment someone uttered the word in a trembling voice, the first light reached the horizon.
The world was erased in white.
Explosions. Shockwaves. And heat that burned everything in its path.
Before the worst weapon humanity had created to kill humanity, the name “hero” meant absolutely nothing.
“Graaaah!”
The screams of my comrades erupted.
A hellscape where bodies evaporated and were torn apart by the shockwaves.
I could only watch the entire scene with my eyes wide open.
“Why…”
My lips trembled.
“Why…!”
We had protected the world.
We had saved humanity.
So why?
“Why the hell did we do anything wrong!!!”
I screamed, but there was no one to answer.
The streaks of death continued raining down from the sky, and I sank to my knees.
To kill the hunting dog once the rabbit is dead.
The hunt was over, and the hounds were being boiled alive.
Not by the hands of monsters, but by the very humans we had fought to protect.
“Ha…”
I laughed.
It was so miserable and wretched that laughter was all I could do.
“If only…”
The words came out mixed with blood.
“If only a world ruled by monsters would be better.”
Humanity wasn't worth protecting.
This wasn't a world worth laying down my life to fight for.
But then what had I been doing?
For what had I buried my friends and fought while grinding my soul to pieces?
“…Haeun.”
Suddenly, that name slipped from my lips.
“Seolhee…”
My wife.
My daughter.
The things I truly should have protected.
My world, which I had destroyed with my own hands.
“Haha… hahahaha…”
As my vision blurred, I finally realized.
It wasn't failing to protect the world that I regretted.
It wasn't that I felt wronged about dying as a hero.
My real regret had begun much, much earlier.
Those nights when I staggered home reeking of alcohol.
Those moments when I lost money at gambling tables and held out my hand to my wife.
All those hellish days when I screamed at my family under the excuse that I was angry.
“Haeun… I'm sorry…”
My throat tightened, and I could barely get the words out.
“Seolhee… Dad… Dad was wrong…”
My daughter’s terrified eyes.
My wife’s back as she had given up all hope.
Before I ever became a hero, I had already died as a husband and as a father.
“If I could… if I could just do it again…”
My fingers closed around something.
The cold orb that had rolled out from the Demon King’s chest.
It was faintly glowing, soaked in my blood.
“Please…”
Gathering the last of my strength, I pulled it against my chest.
“Please, just once…”
The light spread.
My vision burned white.
The explosions that had torn apart my eardrums.
The agony of my flesh burning away.
Even the regret that had seeped into my very bones.
Everything was swept away and melted beneath that overwhelming wave of light.
As though none of it had ever existed in the first place.
---
“……”
When I opened my eyes, the heat of hell was nowhere to be found.
Instead, what filled the depths of my lungs wasn't the acrid smell of gunpowder.
It was a smell so horribly familiar, so painfully missed that it made me sick.
The damp smell of mold and cheap soju.
When I came to my senses, I was standing.
My feet were planted firmly on the ground.
My body was perfectly fine.
“……”
Where was I?
The familiar smell.
Moldy wallpaper.
A damp, cramped basement room.
The home I had barely managed to obtain years ago, after losing everything and sinking all the way to the bottom.
And then—
“Hic…”
A small cry escaped.
I turned my head.
In the corner, I saw a woman and a child huddled together.
My wife had her back against the wall, clutching our daughter tightly in her arms.
The same emotion was reflected in both their eyes.
Fear.
A primal fear of me.
“……”
I lowered my gaze.
In my hand was a half-empty bottle of soju.
I had returned.
I had really returned.
Not to the time when I was a hero, but to the time when I was a piece of trash soaked in alcohol, threatening my own family.
“Ah… ah…”
The strength drained from my hand.
Crash!
The liquor bottle fell to the floor and shattered.
The alcohol splashed in every direction along with the shards of glass.
My wife hugged our daughter even tighter and trembled.
I stared blankly at them before collapsing to my knees.
“……”
Tears streamed down my face.
I still didn't know what I should do from here.
I didn't know how I was supposed to fix this complete mess.
But one thing was certain.
This time.
This time, at least.
I would protect this tiny room.
My true world.