Chapter 29.

“My daughter. She resembles you so much that I couldn’t help but think of you as her.”

“You have a daughter?”

“She’s… no longer in this world. She’s gone to some far off place where I’m unable to see her again. Sorry to bring this up in this sort of situation.”

“You mean-”

I placed a finger in front of her lips to prevent her from finishing her sentence as I touted a deeply pained expression.

“You don’t need to say it.”

“Don’t worry, child, I will at the very least break open a path for you to escape. Once I do, run with all your strength. Don’t turn back. This time I will protect the daughter I failed to protect all those years ago.”

“Daughter? You mean… me?” She looked back at me in utter confusion. Her heart had suddenly been thrown into disarray. Regret. Pain. Anguish. Sympathy. All sorts of conflicting emotions swirled about in her eyes.

“Since this may be the day I die… can you do me one small favor?”

“W-What is it… Uncle.” She lowered her head, clearly feeling remorseful over her actions.

“Just once, can you call me Daddy like my daughter used to?” Pfft.

“That’s a bit.”

“Sorry, as I thought, that was too much. You’re not my daughter after all. Just forget I asked. Don’t worry, at the very least, you will make it out of this with your life intact.” I took in a slow, greatly pained breath, and stood up with my back faced toward her. Man, was it ever hard to keep a straight face while putting on this award-winning act in front of her. I even felt my face heat up and turn red as I did my utmost to hold back the tears and laughter.

I straightened my back and turned toward the direction with the fewest mobs. There were only two wolves. I took out a cigar and lit it. I took in a deep breath, held it in for five seconds then exhaled while looking up toward the sky. I’d calculatingly positioned myself in a spot where the sunlight peeked through the trees overhead casting a ray down with me at the center.

I was sure it must have looked pretty awe-inspiring from her angle. I’d even taken her height into consideration when creating this perfect scene where I supposedly ‘sacrificed’ my life to save her.

I muttered out, “My daughter, your weak father is finally coming to visit you on the other side.”

“Wait! There’s another way!”

“Enough. There’s no more time for ifs or buts. Follow closely behind me. I’ll take those two wolves and hold them down while you run as fast as you can.”

’That’s crazy! You’re just a level 1 guide. I’m a hero. I can find a way to save us both.”

“Heroes aren’t infallible. You’re only a little sapling still at the starting line. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you and a bright future. But you need to learn this lesson early, you won’t be able to save everyone. No matter how strong you are, there are things that raw strength alone cannot achieve.”

“I am a guide. I show heroes the path forward. I watch them grow. I’ve seen countless heroes trip up and fall short of their goal because they thought they could do it all. It is but complacency, a result of their naive belief in the title of hero they have been bestowed. Little hero, just listen to this pitiful Uncle of yours and live a life you don’t end up regretting like this failure of a father.”

I grabbed onto her hand and ran straight at the two wolves.

“Wait! Sniff. Sniff.”

“We can’t wait anymore. Any longer than this will mean certain death for you, little hero.”

“Stop being nice to me and just call me a midget. Go back to being that nasty man I know!”

“Then midget, if you see that hero of yours, tell him I’m sorry I selfishly went off and died on my own.”

“Live damn it! Tell that to him yourself! Why do I hab to… sniff.”

I said no more. The two wolves both dashed toward us with ferocious looks on their face. Ah, that’s right, I need to be extra careful to not accidentally hit them and kill them otherwise the act will be up.

When the first wolf arrived in front of me it leaped at me with its jaw wide open. I extended my left arm and let it bite onto it. 

“Uncle!”

“Don’t worry about it!”

I was a bit nervous it might die from biting me, but thankfully, it hadn’t bitten down too hard. It was just trying to twist my arm to gnaw into it and shred it rather than forcefully bit it off in one go. I moved my hand in sync with it to make it look natural and avoid letting it hurt itself from biting into a rock it couldn’t chew.

The second wolf arrived immediately after and instead of jumping directly at me, it tried to jump at an angle around me and attack the little girl behind me. I extended my right leg out to the side in its path and my leg entered its mouth. I prevented it from biting down and hurting itself by using my foot as a wedge inside its mouth so its jaw couldn’t snap shut.

“No!”

“Go!” I put on the act of using all of my remaining strength to throw her forward over the wolves. In reality, that strained expression of mine was really just me expending every ounce of brainpower to hold back and control my strength as much as possible. If I didn’t have enough control, she’d fly straight into a tree and her head would go splat like a bug on a windshield.

She tumbled onto the ground when she landed and lost a small amount of HP, but for the most part, she wasn’t harmed to a great extent. I internally did a victory cry for my exquisite control over my strength. It was extremely tough to control when it was infinity. It really was. Just my everyday life was stressful, having to always maintain the utmost focus to avoid breaking everything.

My cigars were a means to help me practice control. They were fragile and easy to break, so I had to maintain fine control. They also helped clear my mind. Drinking every day at the bar was also to keep me accustomed to restraining that strength as it allowed me to keep my body in a relaxed state. 

The scariest thing about my strength was that this was all after I was already using several items that had an effect of limiting and mitigating my strength. Though they too had a capacity. If I exerted strength over the threshold they could mitigate, they would break. It was a real curse to be too damn strong. I wouldn’t wish a fate such as this upon my worst enemy.

Ah, no, no. I mustn’t get distracted here. I have to keep the act going. When I regained my senses, several other mobs had closed the distance and were only seconds away from dog piling on top of me.

I looked up in the direction the girl was fleeing and noticed her head was turned to her rear in my direction. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she escaped and left me behind. I knew this was a key moment where I had to deliver a memorable line.

“Goodbye, little hero with the same white hair as my daughter. Be safe.” I put on a warm smile as I raised my free hand up toward her with the intent to wave.

I was interrupted midway through as goblins and wolves jumped on top of me and started biting, tearing, and waling away at my body.

The little girl’s eyes opened wide at the sight and shouted out, “Daddy!”

I smiled at her warmly and mouthed out the words ‘thank you.’ as I fell backward to the ground under the weight of the mobs.

“Hehehehe. Hahahaha.” I did my best to stifle my laughter veiled under the guise of the mobs on top of me having a blast and doing their best to shred me to pieces. She really said it. 

“Hahahaha.” She seriously went and called me Daddy. I’m going to die here. Not from these trash mobs, but from stifling my laughter.

I kept a close eye on the little girl and once I’d confirmed she’d successfully escaped, I relaxed. When she was finally out of sight, I stood back up with the mobs all over my body still trying to kill me.

Some of them had actually died already. In fact, a few of the wolves who bit too hard died immediately from breaking their teeth. Thankfully that brat didn’t notice that though. She was too caught up in the performance I put on for her. It was a huge relief that she was so caught up in the act that she didn’t take notice of my HP. Heroes had to actively check on HP to see it, it wasn’t passively visible for the sake of immersion.

Anyway, this little drama wasn’t quite over just yet. I’d picked this particular direction not only because there were so few wolves, but also because there were level 50 mobs in the direction she was presently headed. This little memory wouldn’t end at just this for that kid.

I am a guide after all. I do need to do some guide-like things every now and then. Bullying children is part of a guide’s core responsibilities. 

Hehehe.

Haaaah. If the hero’s equivalent of hell exists for NPCs, I’m definitely going to it one day.