The Women Obsessed Over Me After I Returned from the Dead
The blade pierced straight through my heart.
Blood bubbled up my throat. I tasted iron. My vision blurred, the world tilting sideways as my knees buckled. The cold stone floor rushed up to meet me.
Why…?
Even as life drained from me, that single question burned in my mind. The faces of the three people I trusted most in this world swam before my eyes. My comrades. My only family after years of fighting side by side against the Demon King.
Aria’s cold gaze. Seira’s indifferent expression. Elena’s faint, almost regretful smile.
They had abandoned me. No—they had betrayed me. Left me here as bait while they fled with the holy sword that was supposed to end this nightmare.
I thought we were friends.
The Demon King’s laughter echoed through the throne room, deep and mocking. His massive form loomed over me, wings spread like shadows given flesh. “Foolish hero. Did you truly believe they cared for you?”
His words cut deeper than any blade. I wanted to scream, to deny it, but only blood came out.
“They were never yours. They were always mine.”
The Demon King raised his clawed hand for the final blow. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end.
But the strike never came.
Instead, a brilliant light filled the chamber. The goddess’s voice rang out, clear and sorrowful, cutting through the darkness like a silver bell.
The Goddess of Light has taken pity on your unjust death.
She offers you a second chance. A chance to rewrite your fate.
Do you accept?
I didn’t even hesitate.
Yes.
The light consumed everything. The Demon King’s roar of fury faded into nothingness. Pain vanished. Time itself seemed to unravel.
And then—
I opened my eyes to a familiar sight.
The bustling streets of the royal capital. The smell of fresh bread and roasting meat. The chatter of merchants and adventurers. Sunlight warmed my face, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, I drew in a full breath without the taste of blood in my mouth.
I was alive.
More than that—I was back. Back to the very beginning. The day our party first formed. The day we received our quest from the king to slay the Demon King.
My hands trembled as I stared at them. Young. Unscarred. The calluses I had earned over years of brutal combat were gone. I looked no older than twenty.
Regression.
The goddess had given me a miracle. A chance to fix everything. To stop the betrayal before it could happen. To become strong enough that no one would ever dare abandon me again.
But before I could even take a step, I heard it.
“Woojin!”
That voice. I would recognize it anywhere.
I turned slowly, heart hammering in my chest.
There she was. Aria. The saintess with silver hair that shimmered like moonlight. Her blue eyes, usually so cold and distant in my memories, were now wide with something I couldn’t quite name. Relief? Longing? Something darker?
She ran toward me, robes fluttering, and threw her arms around my neck without hesitation. The force of it nearly knocked me off balance.
“You’re here. You’re really here,” she whispered against my shoulder. Her voice shook. “I thought… I thought I’d lost you forever.”
I froze.
This wasn’t right. In my first life, Aria had barely spared me a glance when we first met. She had been aloof, professional. A perfect saintess devoted only to the goddess.
But the woman clinging to me now felt… desperate.
Before I could respond, two more figures appeared from the crowd.
Seira, the elven archer with emerald eyes and hair like spun night, moved with predatory grace. Her usual smirk was gone, replaced by an intense, almost feral expression. “Took you long enough,” she murmured, but her voice was thick with emotion. She reached out and gripped my wrist so tightly it almost hurt.
And then there was Elena. The warrior with fiery red hair and a battle-hardened body. In my previous life, she had been the first to suggest leaving me behind. Now she stood there with tears glistening in her eyes, looking at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” Elena said softly. Her hand came up to cup my cheek, thumb brushing across my skin with surprising tenderness. “This time… this time we won’t let you go. Never again.”
I stared at the three of them, my mind reeling.
What the hell is going on?
They weren’t supposed to be like this. They weren’t supposed to care this much. In my memories, they had been allies at best, distant and calculating. But the way they were looking at me now—the hunger in their eyes, the way they pressed close as if afraid I might disappear—
It was obsession.
Pure, terrifying obsession.
The goddess’s voice echoed faintly in the back of my mind, gentle yet carrying an undercurrent of amusement.
They remember everything, my child.
The betrayal. The regret. The endless guilt after your death.
In this second life, their love for you has become something… far more dangerous.
Be careful. Their obsession may heal you. Or it may destroy you both.
I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of three pairs of eyes on me. Eyes that held not just affection, but something possessive. Something that promised they would burn the world down before they let me slip away again.
This wasn’t the fresh start I had hoped for.
This was something much, much worse.
And yet, as Aria’s fingers tangled in my shirt, as Seira’s grip on my wrist refused to loosen, as Elena leaned in close enough for me to smell the familiar scent of steel and roses—
A small, broken part of me that had died in that throne room whispered:
Maybe this time… I won’t be alone.