The Expert's Way (1)
In an elementary school classroom, a boy stood up to give his presentation.
“My dream is to become a great firefighter like my dad.”
The classroom erupted in cheers. Children and teacher alike clapped, beaming with smiles. Pride shone bright on the boy’s young face.
Time slipped forward to a middle school classroom. The same boy stood before his classmates.
“My dream is to be a firefighter.”
“Huh? Oh… really? Why?”
The words were the same, but the reaction was not. Still, the boy didn’t pay it much mind. He had never been particularly sensitive.
“My dad’s a firefighter. Haha!”
“I see…”
High school. The same declaration.
“Firefighter? Why would you do that? It doesn’t even pay well.”
This time, even someone as dense as him could read the room. His father’s profession might not be as admirable as he once believed.
In college, when he told his friends, the confidence had already drained from his voice.
“I’m thinking of taking the firefighter civil service exam.”
“For real? Do you have to? If you want to use your body, just enlist.”
“Why firefighter? Dude, are your grades that bad?”
By then Hae-il already knew. He himself no longer wanted to become a firefighter. So why had he said it? Probably because he wanted confirmation.
The childhood dream. His father’s image. He wanted to know whether it had truly been something wonderful, or if reality had been different all along.
He wanted to hear what people truly thought, beyond the fleeting comments left under articles like that.
The real opinions he heard always ended up sounding the same.
“You’re prepping for a real job, and if that doesn’t work out you’ll try that instead, right?”
Hae-il would just laugh it off and change the subject.
“Ah~ I figured. Why worry about something like that already? The big companies haven’t even started their main recruiting yet.”
“Pfft, that’s the kind of guy you are? Worrying about stuff so early?”
Only then would the people around him relax.
Whether by coincidence or not, that very evening at dinner his father spoke up.
“Looks like I’ll have to retire.”
“…What? Why?”
“Got my medical checkup. They say it’s better if I stop working. The pension will come through, and the security company offered decent terms. I’m thinking of giving that a shot.”
“…”
Hae-il couldn’t finish his meal that night.
He had definitely seen the moment his father shone the brightest. Yet now it felt like that moment had never existed at all.
Some time later, Hae-il asked.
“How’s the new job?”
“It’s good. Commute’s regular, and the work is basically just walking around.”
“Dad.”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you become a firefighter?”
His father looked momentarily flustered, then smiled.
“Just to make a living.”
A lie.
That was what Hae-il thought. No—he wanted to believe it was a lie.
“If it was just about making a living, there were better jobs.”
“…Yeah. Your old man was a fool.”
“…”
That wasn’t what he had meant. The more they tried to untangle the knotted thread, the tighter it became. A knot had formed that could no longer be undone.
“If I had studied more, things might have been different.”
His father picked up his plate and headed to the sink, resting a hand on his son’s shoulder as he passed. The back of that large hand carried clear burn scars.
“You studied hard, so you’ll find a better job. Don’t stress too much about the employment exams.”
Had he been smiling bitterly then, or was his face blank? Hae-il never found the courage to look up.
“…Yes.”
Later, Hae-il landed a decent corporate job and moved out to live on his own. He only saw his father on special occasions.
It was much later that he learned the truth—when he came across a video on YouTube.
His father had remained a firefighter until the very end.
The image of his father’s face in that final moment—shouting at the citizens, stepping forward—burned itself deep into Kang Hae-il’s mind.
He vowed never to doubt again. Never to entrust his judgment to others. The answer had been inside him from the very beginning.
And then—
You have awakened!
Rank: S
Hae-il took out the portrait of his father in uniform. He stared once more at that proud face, engraving it into his heart. He had hoped that one day he would be able to stand before it without shame.
But—
Ragged Golem Lv.30
When that face appeared once more before him, Hae-il froze.
Huh?
BOOM!
The scenery blurred. His body floated through the air.
Why?
He couldn’t understand. Couldn’t accept it.
THUD!
The moment he slammed into the dirt, his mind went completely white. His body refused to move.
“F… Father.”
There was his father’s face. Not in a portrait—real, in the flesh. Buried among the countless corpses he had failed to save.
The constellations who had been cheering for Hae-il fell into panic. They understood all too well what this trial meant.
“Father… Dad…!”
Kang Hae-il lost consciousness. Not because of the physical blow. Because he was being forced to face something he could never confront.
The corpse golem with his father’s face embedded at its center. To others it might be nothing more than a rotten lump of meat that should be burned immediately, but to him it was sacred. Untouchable.
He couldn’t fight it.
“Urk!”
BOOOOM!
“Ah… ah…”
He knew. His father was already dead. That thing had to be destroyed. It was merely being controlled. His head understood.
“Aaa… ah…”
But burning his father’s face with his own flames would mean defeat—defeat of everything he had fought for his entire life. It was impossible. It would be an act of defiance against the sacred.
Yet just as gods feel nothing for humans, the sacred felt nothing for Hae-il. It simply swung its massive arm to kill. And the weak human who had lost the will to resist could only receive judgment.
BOOOOM!
The ones who had supported this weak human were disappointed.
To them, the reaction was only natural. Receiving the support of constellations meant sharing emotions with them. Kang Hae-il’s feelings were being transmitted directly. Even filtered through several layers, the density of this pain was simply too high.
That was why the constellations were screaming in agony.
They wished, over and over, that this would end quickly.
Every time Kang Hae-il was struck down by the Ragged Golem—
They prayed for this situation to be over.
It wasn’t only the constellations who wished for it to end.
“Fuck… why of all things! Why the hell does Kang Hae-il’s dad have to be right in the center of all those corpses!? Is he a fucking idol?!”
Ram spat, voice shaking with rage. What kind of terrible luck was this? It was anything but protagonist-like.
“W-well, you see…”
Sam hammered at the keyboard, pulling up data.
“The luck value in this area has dropped drastically. Could it be some kind of black magic…? Ah… no, that’s not it! It’s that guy influencing things!”
“That guy?”
Sam struck a dramatic pose exactly like Sagosul.
“It’s Julian!”
“…!?”
Damn it.
“So it’s our fault again?”
“N-no, it’s Julian’s fault!”
“Then where the hell did that bastard run off to?! Why isn’t he fighting with him?!”
“He was near Hae-il earlier, but then he suddenly disappeared.”
Ram had been the one screaming that they would kill him, yet the moment the situation grew serious she was looking for Sagosul. The constellations’ reactions had grown far too volatile.
On top of that, even without the mental breakdown, Hae-il had been struggling against the Ragged Golem. In this state, there was no hope at all.
“Th-then what do we do?”
Ram’s eyes trembled.
No way…
If the protagonist were to fail here? If the story got canceled? After headquarters poured in so much investment?
Seraphim would come down personally to pass judgment. They might even be forced to discontinue the entire board.
“Th-there is one possibility.”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Awakening.”
“!”
It was the breakthrough a protagonist could use when driven into a corner.
“If Hae-il can just regain the will to fight back…! We can support him with awakening coins! Any other intervention is impossible while this many constellations are watching!”
Awakening. A phenomenon in which a character grows to another dimension by converting the wishes of countless constellations into energy.
However, unlike flashback energy, it was not something the fairies could trigger at will. It required sufficient crisis, sufficient willpower, and sufficient support. All three had to align.
“Willpower… if only Hae-il regains his will!”
What they lacked right now was exactly that. Hae-il had lost the will to oppose the thing before his eyes.
If they could solve only that…!
Hae-il would instead use this as the catalyst for his awakening.
It was then.
Vrrrrrrrr—!
“Huh?!”
“N-no way!”
Maybe fate had decided he wasn’t allowed to die yet.
Beep—!
Abnormal constellation energy detected
“Th-this is a precursor to awakening! O-of course it can also be a precursor to cancellation…! But it’s awakening!!”
Slowly, Kang Hae-il—who had been taking hit after hit—rose to his feet. His eyes had changed.
“Yeah. It really was a lie after all.”
Cough…!
Blood spilled from his lips.
“You said it was to make a living. But you couldn’t eat, couldn’t live… and in the end you couldn’t even die properly…”
He clenched his fist.
Fwoooosh!
All the wounds he had suffered were engulfed in flame.
“It’s working! It’s actually working!”
Ram clenched both fists in excitement. This was what they called turning crisis into opportunity.
“It looks like it’s really happening, Ram!”
Sam jumped up and down, equally thrilled.
“Grrrrraaaaah…!”
The Ragged Golem charged. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Hae-il’s entire body was wrapped in fire. The atmosphere was completely different from before. He bit his lip, steeling his resolve.
This time, I’ll save you, Dad.
Hsssss—!
Steam rose from his eyes. His pupils shrank, reflecting his father’s final face. He wanted to squeeze his eyes shut, but he didn’t look away. Just as his father had done, he would face it head-on.
He would avoid his father’s face somehow and incinerate the golem. He could do it.
If I’m really S-rank.
Hae-il summoned every ounce of fighting spirit he possessed.
But—
Mana Blade
SHIIIIIIING!
The Ragged Golem was sliced cleanly in two. His father’s face split down the middle.
“!?”
Hae-il’s eyes flew wide. And beyond the bisected face collapsing to either side, he saw it.
A familiar mask.
“Sagosul…?”
The 4th Line Goblin Slayer.
The enemy who had driven his father to his death.