Daddy is too Strong-Chapter 354

“Go... back... you’re... not ready...”

“Please, go... You’re not ready just...”

At first, it was faint, but as he dreamed the same dream every night, over and over, fragments of memory grew clearer each time, like a rusted bronze mirror being polished clean. However, he didn’t know why.

“Please, go back. You’re not ready just yet,” said the woman.

Dressed in flowing martial robes, she had a dull, washed-out gaze, as if her eyes had long since lost their light. Reflected in those eyes was a man, and he simply stared back at her, unwavering. In this life, the man worked as a scribe for the Martial Alliance.

“I guess it’s still not enough,” he said.

Slowly, the man closed his eyes. Blood seeped from his abdomen. Was he stabbed? No—the woman held not a blade, but a small wooden plaque carved with the characters “Return to the Origin.” The plaque slowly dissolved like a mirage. However, the handle of the sword the woman held remained solid. Alone. It was a strange occurrence.

“This is the last time. This is the best I can do with my power,” said the woman.

Her body faded like smoke, vanishing like a fleeting mirage. Her memories of the man would now disappear completely. Perhaps, if the man found the Interpreter again, the woman might recover those memories—but the chances were slim. Very slim.

As the wound throbbed, blood from his abdomen soaked his robes, but the man didn’t seem fazed, as if this weren’t the first time. This was the final sequence in the ritual that would return the man to the day he was transferred to the Central Plains. After this, the woman could no longer use her powers.

How many times had this happened? He’d died and died again—so many times, he’d lost count. This surpassed even the effects of the Pocket Watch.

“I’m sorry... I truly am...” Even as she disappeared, the woman apologized and wept.

She felt guilt, sorrow, and regret because she believed she had dragged an innocent man into this. She had placed an enormous burden on his shoulders. But the man smiled, just to reassure her. It was as if he was telling her that it was all right and that she had done her best.

“I’m... truly sorry...” she apologized again.

With the last of her strength, the woman handed the sword hilt she held to the man. He gripped it tightly, then lifted his gaze to the sky. He had seen that sight many times before.

Suddenly, a voice shouted in anger. “Cecilia! How dare you...!”

It belonged to an evil man twisted by rage. He was grotesque. Two massive horns jutted from his head, not even animal-like in shape. Cecilia had called him Solomon. She had said he was one of the first Transcendents, just like herself. Though he was now a demon who had consumed the entire Core, he had once been human, too.

With a metallic hum, the man raised the sword, and a streak of light roared toward Solomon, severing one of his arms.

Was the slash that powerful? No, a considerable amount of blood sprayed from the cut, yet the arm still regenerated. The attack only deepened his rage.

“So you were right, after all,” muttering to himself, the man vanished without a trace.

He had returned to the past. By the power under the name of “Return to the Origin,” the man had gone back once again. He would sharpen his blade anew. Like the woman, he would lose all memories of the Core as the price for the forced return, but that was fine.

Solomon’s fist crashed into the ground with a deafening boom. The earth didn’t just tremble; it disappeared. As if it had never existed at all.

***

A woman woke up in the safest yet most dangerous place in the world: the Buffer Zone of the Core. No—woman might not be the right word. Her small frame made her look almost childlike, like a girl. And besides, with her rabbit ears and pure white wings, she was clearly unlike an ordinary human.

The girl awakened, panting heavily. “Huff... huff...”

It was that dream again.

She wiped the sweat from her brow and took a deep breath, trying to calm her erratic breathing. She used to have that dream every few decades, but now, it was happening more often, and the images were becoming clearer. She didn’t know what kind of bizarre, prophetic nonsense it was, but it was so vivid it was almost terrifying.

I miss that adventurer... The girl, Cecilia, found herself thinking about Do-Jun, who visited the Buffer Zone from time to time.

He was an adventurer who could come and go from this place at will. He had already become someone special to Cecilia. She didn’t miss him because he brought her fried chicken, cake, or kimchi jjigae, but because, from the bottom of her heart, she considered him a friend.

Her stomach growled, making her think, Ah, I want fried chicken.... Huh?

Before the thought could even finish, a smell hit her nose. It was... fried chicken.

Cecilia closed her eyes and sniffed the air. She heightened her sense of smell to the maximum. And yes—not far away, there it was.

“Fried chicken!!”

There, in the middle of an open field, sat a box of fried chicken, with no one around.

Cecilia bolted toward it. When she urgently opened the box, she saw exactly what she had hoped to see: golden, crispy fried chicken.

“Woohooooo!” She reached for a drumstick.

Suddenly, the box slid away, a full meter! Cecilia blinked in surprise and followed. But every time she tried to grab a piece, the box kept sliding away.

Then, a Fissure tore open in the sky, and a man emerged. He watched Cecilia chase the runaway chicken box and sighed. Then he made a gesture in midair.

The invisible cloak peeled away, revealing Yong-Yong, dragging the chicken box with his front paws. He froze, then looked at Cecilia and then at Do-Jun. After a long pause, he gently nudged the chicken box toward Cecilia with one paw and then coughed as if nothing had happened. “Eat up...”

***

Yong-Yong was sentenced to write a one-page reflection and was now scratching away at the paper with a pencil.

“Reflection Paper.

“I plade with food. I will never do it again.”

Cecilia, whose eyes had welled up with tears, either out of frustration or sadness from being tricked, had immediately stopped crying the moment she started eating a chicken drumstick.

“Adventurer, adventurer! This chicken is really good!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah? Eat as much as you like. Yong-Yong’s the one who went out to buy it,” Do-Jun said.

“Oh, thanks, Overlord.”

“If you’re that thankful, you can write the rest of my reflect....” Yong-Yong trailed off when he met Do-Jun’s gaze and obediently picked up the pencil again.

After eating chicken for quite some time, Cecilia finally seemed full.

She looked at the half-eaten chicken for a moment before addressing Do-Jun. “Hey, Adventurer.”

“Hmm? Do you want more?” he asked.

“No, it’s not that. I had a dream last night. Want to hear it?” Cecilia perked up her ears. That gesture all but screamed, “Please let me tell you!”

Do-Jun stifled a smile and nodded.

“So, I was in a different dimension. Not this one. It was a place called the Central Plains. People dressed really weirdly there, and even I was wearing those clothes in the dream! Ah, but that’s not the point. Anyway, I stabbed someone. I told him he wasn’t ready yet, and then...”

Cecilia recounted her dream in full detail. After she stabbed the man, Solomon suddenly appeared, and in the end, the man vanished as he bled.

As he listened, Do-Jun recalled the scene that had flashed through his mind the first time he held the Broken Wooden Plaque labeled “Return to the Origin.”

“Go back. You’re not ready yet.” Those were the words he had heard.

If Cecilia’s story was true, then the woman in his memory... was Cecilia. However, the image of the woman in that vision was vastly different from the Cecilia he saw before him now.

“One second,” Do-Jun said.

He reached into his coat and pulled out the wooden plaque, showing it to her.

Cecilia gasped. “That’s it! That is the thing I used to stab him! Whoa, that’s crazy! Where’d you get it?”

“I just happened to come across it.”

Cecilia turned the plaque that Do-Jun had acquired at the artifact auction over in her hands a few times, then handed it back. It didn’t seem to possess any special power, but that was to be expected, since there wasn’t even a hint of energy coming from it. Then, without warning, she grabbed Do-Jun’s wrist, the one holding the plaque, and pulled it toward her belly, pretending to stab herself with it.

Nothing happened.

“Guess it really was just a silly dream. Hehe.” Cecilia giggled like a child.

Do-Jun smiled back and patted her on the head, and she leaned into his hand, giggling with delight. However, Do-Jun wasn’t so quick to dismiss her dream.

Solomon came to the Central Plains, huh...? he thought.

Although he had no memory of such an event, it was too much of a coincidence to write off as a random dream. The events she described and the image that had flashed in his mind lined up a little too well. Based on the dream, the wooden plaque likely had some sort of ability to send one back in time, not just a day, like the Pocket Watch skill, but something far beyond that.

Now then... the sword hilt... he thought, and pulled out the Heavenly Demon Sword.

To most, it would look like a broken relic, just a hilt with no blade; useless. But Do-Jun had been channeling his qi through it and using it just fine.

Cecilia’s eyes widened again when she saw it. “Adventurer! Did you enter into my dream, or something? This is amazing!”

“It’s the same as what you saw?” Do-Jun asked.

“Yeah, exactly the same!”

Getting the confirmation, Do-Jun put the wooden plaque and Heavenly Demon Sword away.

Seeing not one but two items from her dream in real life, Cecilia’s eyes sparkled like a child who had just seen magic. How could there be such a coincidence?

“Maybe we were connected in a past life!” she exclaimed.

“Maybe we were.”

“I’m sure of it. Hehe.”

Delighted, Cecilia tore into the drumstick.

***

As Do-Jun was about to leave, Cecilia asked with a hint of urgency, “When will you come back next?”

Even with the Core Forum keeping her somewhat entertained, staying alone on such a vast floor was incredibly lonely. Do-Jun and Yong-Yong were well aware of that, which was why they made an effort to visit regularly.

“I’ll come back next month,” Do-Jun assured her.

“Okay! Thanks!”

“Ugh... I feel like I forgot something,” Yong-Yong muttered, seemingly not ready to leave.

He had been shifting his feet and tilting his head in confusion for a while. It felt like he had forgotten something very important.

What was it? Man, I swear it was something huge.

“Okay, byeeeeee!” Cecilia bid them farewell.

Still feeling unsettled, Yong-Yong waved to Cecilia with his front paw.

***

After returning from the Buffer Zone, Do-Jun sat reading the newspaper, just like always.

Karsiel poured water into the electric kettle to make some hot chocolate. Then her gaze drifted to the chicken coupon stuck on the fridge.

She counted nine of them, then commented, “Huh... Just one more and we get a free chicken.”

Yong-Yong was sprawled out on the couch. At Karsiel's remark, as if a light bulb had gone on in his mind, he jumped to his feet and screamed, “AHHHH, THAT’S IT!”

He bolted over to Do-Jun, flailing his front paws, clearly in a state of panic.

“M-Master! I-I forgot to grab the coupon from the chicken box!”

Do-Jun gently rubbed his forehead before opening a dimensional gate to the Buffer Zone once more.