RTTFW CH 1.2

Stepping into that room, I only came to my senses after the door – one a child alone could never open – had slammed shut.

It felt like waking from a deep sleep.

What I remembered was his enormous statue, modeled after the form Omb had taken when he manifested in the era before the Empire’s unification.

“Uh, it’s dark…”

A large, solemn, and quiet space. My muttered words echoed, reverberating back. Sparse candles hung on the walls, but their number was too few to illuminate the room brightly.

The darkness ahead made it hard to see properly, and I existed there alone.

“Ah, is no one here…?”

No one answered the words I finally mustered the courage to shout. I knelt down in a suitable empty space and waited quietly.

“…”

Nothing happened.

I gradually became overwhelmed by this dark, pitch-black space, and tears began to well up. What time was it? How long had it been? Had my brother and father returned? Were they searching for me, wondering why I’d suddenly vanished?

‘… No, would they even be looking?’

Wouldn’t they just assume I was lost and return to the Harbilta estate? I was gripped by terror. I had to open the door and get out somehow.

It was the moment I stretched my numb legs and stood up, driven by that thought…

A dazzling golden light began pouring forth from the stone statue modeled after Omb’s incarnate form. Overwhelmed by that golden light, nothing else entered my eyes.

My vision filled completely with golden light, and it felt hot, like the sun’s rays. I felt strangely suffocated, gasping in agony. Unable to steady myself, I collapsed onto the floor.

In that instant, I lost consciousness there.

《Child, my child.》

Omb, the God of Time. They were neither woman nor man, but a flowing existence. That being was simply a reverent, sacred mass of golden light, evoking a strange sensation of existing before my eyes yet not existing at all.

Are you a God? Why did you call me? Where is this place? What will become of me?

I couldn’t utter a word, but Omb smiled as if understanding everything. There was no face, nor could I see one, yet I simply felt it.

《You can fully accept me. You are the human closest to me.》

Yeah, even thinking about it now, I have no clue what that even means. Why am I the human closest to them? Why should I accept them? I’m not even considering accepting anyone, so what the hell are they talking about?

《For my dearly beloved child.》

Huh?

《I’m sorry.》

Up until now, I’d faithfully recalled past memories, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to accept this moment. What do you mean, beloved child? What are you sorry for? That’s not enough explanation! An explanation!

A God who rules an entire world just spouts vague nonsense like that and treats people like… Huh? Is that how you treat people?

“… Gah!”

I stared at him, bewildered, unable to comprehend what Omb had said. The golden mass of light, uttering incomprehensible words, grew increasingly hazy.

Soon, I felt as if someone had clamped their hands tightly around my throat, suffocating me so I could barely stand.

My vision blurred, and my entire body burned with agony. The immense flow of time and that damn golden air crushed me. My pitiful, eight-year-old body felt like it was being folded like paper, crumpled, and shattered. I felt the horrific pain of every bone in my body breaking and then snapping back together.

“Ent!”

It couldn’t be, but I heard Bernil’s voice – as cold as ice – calling my name urgently from somewhere.

Yet, I closed my eyes, lost in the agony.

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed. When Ent regained consciousness, someone’s incredibly warm hand was stroking his cheek.

Slowly opening his eyes, he found himself lying on a soft, plush mattress. Beside him, a man in a gray suit stared at him with eyes full of horror, Ent.

“This… this disgusting…”

It was strange. The unfamiliar man had clearly been looking at him with eyes full of love and affection, yet the moment their eyes met, they turned to horror and disgust.

Ent was beaten until he was covered in blood by the man staring at him with disgust. Ent, who had only just regained consciousness, didn’t know at the time that this man was the father of Jaeyoon, the body he had taken over.

“Aaah!”

The pain was on a completely different level from what he’d endured when sparring with his former elder brother, Bernil. Ent had no idea that Bernil had always taken into account that he was just a child.

‘Wh-why are you doing this to me?’

Ent knew nothing at that moment. Still unable to grasp the situation, Ent was filled with fear and could only barely protest to him.

“W-Who are you! Where the hell is this place…”
“You worthless brat! You dare not recognize your own father?”

Unable to contain his rage, he grew even more furious at Ent’s question. Ent instinctively covered his head, tears welling up.

‘Father? Why would you be my father?’

His father, Evant Harbilta, was not the sort to resort to this kind of violence. He possessed a cold and cruel nature, but he was not someone who would kick an innocent child.

Huffing and puffing, he left the house, leaving Ent behind. Ent, surrounded by objects he had never seen before in his life, remained frozen in fear for quite some time.

“What… is this?”

And the very first thing he did after rising from his seat was to look at his reflection in the mirror. Black hair, dark chestnut eyes. Skin slightly darker than the face he knew.

The slightly chubby, cute face would have been even more pleasing to look at, were it not for the fresh wounds from the beating.

The child in the mirror, mirroring his every movement, felt unfamiliar. Even the voice that barely managed to speak sounded different from his own. Trembling with fear, he touched his face, as if unable to believe it. The desk, the computer, the alarm clock, and so on. Things familiar to him now felt utterly terrifying to the Ent of that time.

‘I have to figure something out.’

Even if he was a young master with trash-level talent, he was still a child of the Harbilta family. He couldn’t just stay still like this.

Trembling with fear, Ent left the room and confirmed no one else was in the house. By chance, he discovered a book in a modest room.

“This can’t be…”

It was a truly unique experience.

The square-shaped letters were clearly unfamiliar, yet he read them with uncanny ease. Suddenly, Ent realized the words he’d been muttering all along were also in a language utterly foreign to him.

After roughly skimming the book, Ent tasted the deepest frustration of his life that day. Unable to believe it, he squeezed his eyes shut, and the pitch-black darkness felt like his own future.

Ent, or rather Park Jaeyoon, quickly skimmed the book he’d found and realized.

Concepts different from what he knew, different place names.

This wasn’t the place he had lived. And he was no longer Ent Harbilta.

Having grown up in the formidable Harbilta family since childhood, Ent was exceptionally perceptive. An ordinary child would have been wailing in confusion, but Ent was a Harbilta.

“… This isn’t a dream. I have no choice but to accept it.”

He kept telling himself. It was something he couldn’t possibly handle alone, but he tried to accept reality.

Even as the strange feeling of floating persisted, making his existence here feel bizarre, Ent shook his head firmly.

After that, Ent searched his entire room and found the diary kept by six-year-old Park Jaeyoon.

What kind of valuable information could possibly be in a diary written by a six-year-old for kindergarten? Yet, for Ent at that time, it contained the most essential information.

He carefully read the short illustrated diary and grasped the basics. He had become a person named Park Jaeyoon, and he had a father, a mother, and an older brother named Park Jinyoon.

Ent carefully stroked the diary filled with crooked handwriting.

“… Seems he was loved.”

Above all, that was the meaning contained within the diary. The childish pages were filled with all sorts of emotions that felt quite unfamiliar to Ent. Affection, harmony, happiness – things rarely found in the Harbilta family.

‘But then what about just now?’

Judging by the clumsily drawn picture, that man in the odd-looking gray clothes must be this body’s father. But why would he beat this little child so badly?

“… I don’t know.”

Ent knew brooding alone wouldn’t yield answers. The places where he’d been struck by the man who seemed to be his father ached sharply.

‘For now, just watch.’

The events had unfolded too suddenly; he couldn’t decide how to act. Ent wore a serious expression that didn’t suit Jaeyoon’s youthful face at all.

‘It’s okay, it’ll be okay.’

As if to soothe his own restless, anxious heart, Ent repeated the words ‘It’s okay’ to himself.

But at that moment, Ent should have already realized: In this unkind world, Ent Harbilta would be anything but okay.