Not a barbarian warrior.

‘Why didn’t I think of this before.’

Eugene recalled the day he experienced a vision induced by the Ruerhon.

When he miraculously reunited with his mother after returning to Earth, he was indescribably happy.

However, the moment the name that came out of her mouth was “Eugene” and not “Kim Woo-jin”, that joy crumbled instantly.

‘That was the moment. The moment I recognized something inconsistent with my past memories. That this wasn’t reality but an illusion.’

The world Eugene and Lorena were in was similar to the illusion created by the Ruerhon.

A world created by magic, based on Lorena’s memories.

She had returned to being seven-year-old Lorena here.

In this world, the happiness and unhappiness she had experienced lived and breathed just as they had in the past.

‘I’ve been thinking wrong all this time. To wake up the current Lorena, I need to make her feel the discrepancy with the past herself…’

Eugene spent the day with her in his arms, then sent her home earlier than usual.

As the sun set and night fell, Eugene headed to the only inn in the village.

Men who had finished their hard day’s labor gathered here, which also served as a brewery, drinking heavily.

Eugene could easily find Lorena’s father there.

Eugene pulled up a chair and sat down heavily opposite him, who was happily downing ale with others at the table.

Except for Lorena’s father, the others still treated Eugene like an invisible man. They paid no attention to him at all.

Her father, whose face had turned red from drinking who knows how much, said to Eugene:

“I thought it was someone else, but it’s you. Want a drink?”

Eugene frowned and shook his head.

“No thanks. I didn’t come here to drink.”

“Then?”

“I came because I have something to ask.”

“What are you so curious about?”

He put the ale to his lips before even hearing Eugene’s question.

The liquid in the large cup disappeared into his throat, and soon revealed the bottom.

A waitress circling between tables naturally brought another cup full of ale to him.

“Do you remember what you’ve been doing every time you come home drunk like this?”

He answered while lifting the full cup of alcohol:

“…I don’t remember well, but I know I get a bit rough.”

“Beating your beloved wife until she loses consciousness, roughly grabbing your crying and begging daughter’s hair… Is that just being a ‘bit rough’?”

Eugene gritted his teeth and spilled out what had happened last night in graphic detail.

He thought the man would put down his cup with a shocked face after hearing this.

But that was a big misconception.

Lorena’s father chuckled at Eugene’s words, then downed the cup as it was.

Then he put the empty cup down on the table with a thud and said indifferently:

“Kuhk- What’s the big deal about that. When I was young, I experienced even worse things. Compared to that, this is nothing. Why make such a fuss over something like this?”

“…What did you say?”

“You’re misunderstanding something. No one loves their family as much as I do. It’s just that when alcohol gets in, that affection becomes a bit excessive.”

“…”

Eugene clenched his fist tightly. The urge to beat him down right there surged.

‘Anyway, that’s just an illusion. It’s just a dream. Even if I beat him up, he’ll appear again the next day with a fine face…’

“Hearing what you said, it seems I acted a bit more excessively than usual yesterday. Don’t make such an expression. I’ll be careful from now on.”

He said that and tried to down the new cup of alcohol the waitress had brought.

Eugene abruptly stood up and snatched his cup away.

“…What are you doing?”

“Shut that mouth.”

Further conversation was meaningless with this beast who couldn’t understand human words. This wasn’t something that could be resolved by talking.

Eugene grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the inn.

Heading to the stream, Eugene grabbed the struggling man’s face and shoved it into the water.

As bubbles rose with a splash, Eugene pulled his head up after a moment.

He shouted, opening his eyes wide while urgently breathing air into his lungs:

“Kuhup! Why on earth are you doing this!”

“…You don’t know why I’m doing this? I’ll give you time to think carefully once more.”

Eugene shoved his head below the water surface again. Bubbles rose to the surface abundantly, but he paid no attention.

“Think hard. The water knows the answer.”

Anyway, in this dream, the only real ones were Eugene and Lorena.

‘That’ struggling underwater was just one of the many fakes in this world.

Eugene continued this action while reminding himself of that fact.

Lorena’s father had to be tortured until he found the answer Eugene wanted.

“Puhu…! I’m, I’m sorry! I was all wrong, I won’t touch a drop of alcohol from now on! And I won’t lay a hand on my beloved family, my wife and Lorena! So please…!”

When the desired answer finally came out, Eugene smiled with satisfaction.

“Good. Then go home right now. Go apologize to your family and ask for forgiveness. Now.”

“Ah, alright! I’ll go right away!”

With his face soaking wet, he hurriedly moved his feet, though staggering.

As Eugene slowly followed behind him, they soon arrived at the house where Lorena was.

While Eugene secretly watched from behind, her father faithfully carried out his promise.

“Honey…?”

“Dad…?”

He woke Lorena and his wife who were sleeping in bed, then knelt heavily before his family.

He spewed out words of apology with his mouth reeking strongly of alcohol.

“My beloved wife, Sophia. And my most precious daughter Lorena. I’ve realized how stupid I’ve been all this time. I’m sorry for everything. Will you forgive this foolish husband, this incompetent father…?”

Although it was an apology stemming from Eugene’s coercion, he shed tears and begged his family for forgiveness.

It was impossible to know whether it came from sincerity or if it was feigned tears to avoid the immediate crisis.

‘Anyway, he knelt and apologized. Even in a heavily drunk state…’

This would not have happened in her past.

Eugene quietly waited, hoping Lorena would feel a sense of dissonance from this scene.

“Honey…!”

Sophia approached her kneeling husband and embraced him, sobbing.

Eugene looked at young Lorena sitting quietly on the bed.

She was just silently watching the scene.

She, who had been silent, slowly parted her lips and said softly:

“Th-This can’t be… Yo-You never apologized even once…! So wh-why… Why now of all times…!”

As Eugene approached her side as she stumbled over her words, she turned her head to look at him.

“Eu-Eugene…?”

For the first time in this world, she called him Eugene instead of mister.

Eugene was certain she had become aware of the dream.

“Lorena, you’ve woken up.”

At that moment, a bright white light erupted from her entire body.

Eugene closed his eyes at the dazzling brightness.

When he opened his eyes again, there were two Lorenas in front of him – the one from the dream and the one from reality.

“Thank you… If it weren’t for Eugene, I wo-would have been hopelessly trapped here…”

“It’s nothing.”

She, who had emerged from her younger self, wore a somewhat bitter smile.

Right after she became aware of the dream and woke up, everything in this world stopped.

The only ones moving in this space were the two people, Eugene and Lorena.

As Eugene sensed something strange and tried to draw his sword, she hurriedly explained:

“This world is now like my lucid dream… I-I stopped it, so don’t worry…”

Relieved after hearing her explanation, Eugene asked:

“So what happens now? Is this the end?”

“No-Now we just need to finish up… It’s a simple task, so Eugene doesn’t need to help…”

As Lorena took out her staff from her bosom, Eugene watched silently from the side with his arms folded.

As she slowly waved her staff in the air, a blue light began to ripple throughout her body.

The mana manifesting from within flowed to the tip of the staff, forming a sphere.

When sufficient destructive power was condensed in the sphere, Lorena slowly raised her staff and aimed it in one direction.

Watching this, Eugene was suddenly surprised and blocked her front.

“Lorena! Wait a moment!”

“…Wh-What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing now?”

“To complete the magic, I have to do this… Pl-Please move aside…”

Eugene shook his head. That was absolutely impossible.

Because in the direction Lorena’s staff was pointing was her younger self.

Even if this world was just a dream, how could completing the magic mean killing her younger self?

Eugene felt an inexplicable uneasy premonition.

Although he hadn’t learned magic for long, he intuitively felt that something was wrong.

He suddenly asked about what came to mind:

“Lorena, what did you say this magic was called?”

“…Lethe, I said.”

The ‘Lethe’ he knew was the name of a river in some myth. A word referring to the river of oblivion, where those who drink from it forget all their past. That was Lethe.

When Eugene asked what Lethe meant, hoping he was wrong, she answered:

“…’Oblivion’ is what it means…”

“Lorena, what are you doing right now?”

“I’m, I’m going to erase the memories…”

“…What memories do you need to forget?”

“All, all of my childhood… Everything from living with my family in this house… I’m, I’m going to forget all the past…”

“Why…”

She didn’t try to explain to Eugene, who didn’t understand.

There was a better way than explaining with words.

“Co-Come over here…?”

Eugene came out of the bedroom with Lorena.

She withdrew the magic gathered on her staff and waved her hand once, causing time around them to flow rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, the sun rose and set repeatedly.

Lorena, who had been only seven years old, suddenly grew up, and her parents’ faces gained a few more wrinkles.

“It, it was when I turned ten years old… It was my birthday…”

Young Lorena and her mother Sophia were sitting at the table. They seemed to be waiting for her father to have dinner together.

“That day, father came home ve-very late…”

She turned time once more.

When the moon rose and it became late at night, her father appeared completely drunk.

And he swung his fists at his wife and daughter who had fallen asleep waiting for him.

“No-!”

Eugene reflexively tried to move his body, but he couldn’t.

Lorena, the owner of this world, didn’t allow it.

Painful groans and screams echoed, tearing through the night air.

Lorena’s father, soaked in alcohol, was no longer human.

It had a human face, but was a monster that couldn’t recognize its own family.

Even after Sophia collapsed, the monster’s hand didn’t stop.

“Lorena…!”

Despite Eugene’s desperate cry, she indifferently dug up her past.

While the sound of skin bursting kept ringing, young Lorena crouched on the floor and muttered.

She kept stammering words like “save me”, “please stop hitting me”, “someone please help”. She kept uttering such words repeatedly.

“Li-Like an idiot… I just sta-stayed still like that… Even though mom was dying… Huh… Huhu…”

A small laugh mixed with sobbing flowed out.

But it was by no means laughter.

Her shoulders were shaking.

“Th-This is the real ending… And it was from this time… That I sta-started stammering…”

“…”

“But… I’ve, I’ve been through a lot of hardship… Isn’t this enough pu-punishment…?”

Lorena finally couldn’t swallow her tears and started crying heavily.

Eugene couldn’t say anything to her.

He could only look at her with trembling eyes.

“Being mo-mocked as a cripple by other magicians… Ha-Having mom appear in my dreams and suffer every time… I wa-want to stop all this now…”

Lorena gripped her staff tightly with trembling hands.

The staff pointed at the ten-year-old Lorena who was crouching.

“Eu-Eugene… I want to be at peace now… Mom who died can’t come back, but… It’s okay to erase the scars left on me now, right…? Right…? You, you think so too, right Eugene…?”

Eugene slowly opened his closed mouth.

“…No. Lorena.”

As Eugene muttered softly, the tip of her hand trembled momentarily.

He looked at Lorena and said firmly once more:

“It’s not your fault. Lorena.”