RTGDB 01

Chapter 1

Again.

Another child had died.

“…….”

Dantellion lowered his head as he adjusted the daughter whose body was growing cold in his arms.

Guardian of the Goddess.

Apostle of the Holy Light.

The most noble, the strongest Holy Knight in the entire Empire.

Dantellion Klein was the man who bore all of those titles.

His immense holy power was proof of the god’s love, and his lofty, unwavering convictions were nothing short of a source of pride for all of humanity.

And yet, now.

“Why…….”

The Holy Knight who had been more devout than anyone else was kneeling there, looking more corrupted than any demon.

With eyes filled with despair, as though cursing God himself.

His holy power was thoroughly tainted.

“Why is she twelve this time……?”

His lifeless eyes blankly stroked the child’s cheek.

Why couldn’t you even live to sixteen in this life?

Haniel. My daughter. My child. My treasure.

“……Again.”

He clenched his teeth.

“Daddy will try again, sweetheart.”

This time, I’ll definitely find a cure for you.

Whoooooosh—

A white light rose like smoke from the ground.

Soon, an enormous regression magic circle appeared.

As though punishing the Holy Knight for violating a taboo, violent rain, wind, thunder, and lightning raged outside the window.

BANG! BANG! BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

“Dante Klein! Stop right now! Are you not going to stop? Damn it!”

“Your Highness, Grand Duke Vertus! Please sheathe your sword!”

He could sense someone shouting from outside the door, but it had been a long time since he could hear them.

Black blood poured from his mouth.

The agony tearing through his entire body felt like punishment itself.

But he did not stop.

There were things in this world more precious than his miserable life or his pitiful faith.

If realizing that was his sin, then so be it.

“I’ll see you again soon, my little princess…….”

This time, Daddy will come to meet you sooner.

Amid the pain that felt as though his entire heart were being ripped apart, Dantellion smiled faintly.

And so, his ninety-eighth life came to an end.

Dantellion slowly opened his eyes as he stood atop a hill.

The surroundings were incredibly noisy.

“Bread! Bread! It’s mine!”

This was the slums, District Z.

Below, the quarantined slum residents could be seen.

They were desperately waving their hands beyond the barricades, trying to catch the loaves of bread being thrown toward them.

It was utter chaos, a scene of absolute pandemonium.

Dantellion stood there for a moment, enduring the headache that came crashing over him.

Why was he here?

“Breeead…….”

At the same time, a small child appeared in his blurry vision in the distance.

“P-Please give me some bread toooo……!”

The child was being shoved around between the adults, waving her tiny hands.

But it was no easy task for a child who barely came up to an adult’s waist to catch the bread being thrown through the air.

The child bounced up and down for a long while.

Then, by chance, she spotted a loaf of bread that had fallen onto the ground.

The moment he saw her tiny back as she clutched the bread covered in dirt and filthy water and ran away with it—

“……!”

Dantellion came to his senses as if struck by lightning.

‘Haniel!’

“Ugh.”

It was the beginning of his ninety-ninth life.

The memories of his previous life came crashing down all at once, violently enough to overwhelm him.

Amid suffocating agony, he clenched his trembling jaw.

Even staggering was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now.

He sprinted down the hill like a madman.

He should have regained his memories sooner!

Unfortunately, his regression point was always at this moment, and each time he regressed, it was becoming harder and harder for him to regain his senses.

He forced open the entrance to District Z, where access was restricted, and frantically searched through its maze-like alleys.

And finally.

At the end of a dark, filthy alley.

“Sniff…….”

He found his six-year-old daughter lying curled up alone, crying.

The child looked even more miserable than before.

The bread she had been carefully carrying in her arms was gone.

“Hani’s bread…… Sniff, it was Hani’s bread……. I only ate the smell so far…….”

Dantellion knew the reason.

The bread she had picked up earlier must already have been taken from her by the neighborhood children.

“Sweetheart.”

He slowly approached, doing his best not to let his expression twist with pain.

He wanted to run over and embrace her immediately, but he couldn’t frighten the child.

“Sniff, hic, hng……?”

Haniel raised her head at the unfamiliar presence.

“You were here.”

“Sniff, wh-who are you……?”

Dantellion lowered himself and tried his best to smile gently.

But he couldn’t stop the fist hidden behind his back from trembling, his knuckles turning white.

“Uncle…… came here looking for his lost daughter.”

“Sniff…… Wh-what?”

“There’s a pretty star-shaped mark on the back of your neck, isn’t there? That’s proof that you’re Uncle’s daughter. Have you ever seen it?”

He composed his voice.

He recited the lines he had repeated dozens of times.

‘This time, I definitely will.’

Daddy will save you this time.

The ninety-ninth time.

His first meeting with the child.

Haniel suffered from an incurable disease.

The disease was called Mucorosis.

She had been born with a body incapable of containing either holy power or magic, a disease that caused her heart to suddenly stop one day without warning.

It was a curse-like illness with no known cause, cure, or successful treatment.

In truth, Haniel had originally been nothing more than a tool to him.

He had created her out of a sense of duty—the need for an heir to inherit his holy power.

As was customary among First-Class Holy Knights, producing a child with powerful holy power was also considered a way of serving God.

So he sought out a young noblewoman whose interests aligned with his and married her.

After giving birth to the child, his wife took the money and new identity provided under their contract and left for a distant foreign country.

There had been no problem with that.

There was just one thing he had never expected…….

“Isn’t she…… awfully small?”

“Kyaa!”

He had never dreamed that such a tiny child would completely shake the foundations of his world.

He was bewildered.

It felt as though he had been thrown into an entirely new world, one completely different from the one he had known until then.

But before he even had the chance to explore those feelings……

Sadly, the baby was involved in an accident.

It happened on the way to the temple to receive a blessing for her first birthday.

The guards and maidservants died instantly, while the child had apparently fallen from a terrifying cliff.

Dantellion returned from a month-long monster subjugation and blankly received the news.

“……I see.”

They searched the entire ravine for the child’s body.

But they couldn’t find her.

He was somewhat bewildered, but Dantellion had never been a man of particularly intense emotions.

He quickly pulled himself together and returned to his daily life.

He had been so busy that he had only seen the child three or four times over the course of a year, anyway.

He merely thought from time to time, in a daze……

That tiny baby must have been in so much pain.

Why had God not protected her?

Had his prayers been insufficient?

Then, several years later, he heard miraculous news.

A child bearing the ‘Klein Ducal Family’s crest’ was living in District Z.

He rushed there as if possessed.

And there.

When he found Haniel crying alone.

When he saw that tiny, fragile back that was still so small.

‘This time…….’

Dantellion was overwhelmed by a feeling that words could never adequately describe.

‘This time, I will definitely protect you.’

Only then did he realize.

He had, in fact, missed and loved his daughter more than anyone.

She was the child he had gotten back.

The precious daughter who had somehow become his entire world.

And he was supposed to lose such a child again…… simply because of an illness?

He couldn’t accept it.

He had not only allowed his precious daughter to live in the slums, but had ultimately allowed her to contract a terrible disease and die.

The guilt made him shudder.

And so, he violated a taboo.

The absolute taboo of humanity—regression.

Dantellion had always valued discipline and restraint above his own desires.

Yet he did not hesitate.

He searched through the forbidden books of the temple and found the ‘Book of Regression,’ then poured his holy power into it and turned back time.

But Haniel died in his second life as well.

Dantellion could no longer stop.

From that point on, his clock began turning back endlessly.

It didn’t matter if monster venom burned away his skin, if his limbs were destroyed, or if he lost both his eyes and ears.

If he heard there was a miraculous medicine somewhere, he would rush there.

He would take up his sword, smash his way through, be smashed himself, and obtain the medicine even with his body reduced to a tattered wreck.

Then he would force the medicine into his child’s mouth.

But the child died.

She died with the same face every time.

No medicine or treatment worked.

Eventually, he became resentful.

Why?

Why did only his daughter have to die?

Did God truly exist?

And if He did, why was He so indifferent to their suffering?

As the cycles repeated dozens of times, he felt something inside himself gradually breaking.

It was probably his faith—the faith that had once been stronger than anyone else’s.

And now, here he was.

His ninety-ninth life.

It had already been two years since he reunited with the child for the ninety-ninth time and brought her home.

‘My holy power…… has become even more corrupted.’

Dantellion walked swiftly down the corridor, a silver helmet in his hand.

‘Even if I drink purification medicine, there will definitely be less holy power available to me in this life.’

He knew that his holy power was becoming corrupted as the price for violating the taboo.

But he couldn’t stop.

By now, he couldn’t even gauge how corrupted his holy power had become.

‘It’s still…… fine. I can endure it.’

He stared blankly into empty space.

‘Still, this cycle isn’t bad.’

He had a good feeling about this one.

Haniel had been unusually healthy this time.

Of course, he wasn’t letting his guard down.

She could suddenly die at twelve, just like last time.

“Sir Dante! So you were here? I heard the dragon legion has attacked the North again. Grand Duke Vertus is preparing to face them…… Wait, are you heading out?”

“Yes. I’ll go to the North.”

“What? The army hasn’t even been fully assembled yet! It’s dangerous to go alone!”

“I need to cut out the dragons’ cores while they’re still alive. I didn’t manage to obtain enough last time.”

“……What are you talking about? S-Sir Dante!”

This time, he would definitely succeed.

“Daddy!”

Just as he stepped outside the building, a tiny child came toddling out from somewhere.

His rigid expression instantly softened.

“Haniel? What are you doing here……? My little princess, shouldn’t you still be asleep at this hour?”

The child clung to his waist and smiled as brightly as the dawn.

Her silver hair was just like his.

Her adorable eyes were pink.

“Daddy, happy birthday!”

The child held out a piece of paper carefully decorated with ribbons.

“Here! A present!”

Ah.

Had that day already come?

Dantellion bent down and accepted the child’s drawing.

‘This time…….’

A round, lumpy brown mass.

‘A pile of horse manure, apparently. I wondered if she had been getting along well with the pony lately…….’

“Ta-da! Hani and Daddy as potatoes!”

“I knew they’d be potatoes. No wonder they looked so appetizing. Thank you, my little princess.”

“Hehehe!”

When he gently lifted her into his arms, Haniel rubbed her chubby cheek against him.

She was warm.

He held the child precious to him and strode toward the bedroom.

His heart was somewhat hurried, but he noticed that Haniel was wearing only thin slippers.

When they turned into the corridor, the child whispered secretly.

“Daddy, you know what? I have something to tell you.”

“What is it? Is there something you want?”

“Um, it’s not that…….”

There had been a time when he wondered.

‘Could I perhaps love this child a little less in this life?’

But……

“You know, thank you for running to find Hani that day.”

“…….”

“I’m happy every single day these days, you know? I’m, I’m so happy, like I ate ten cream buns!”

What a foolish hope that had been.

His love only grew stronger with every cycle, and he had become utterly bound by its infinity.

“Daddy, I love you. I like Daddy more than bread now!”

How could he ever bury this child in a cold coffin?

‘Sweetheart, don’t die.’

Please, don’t leave Daddy behind.

Daddy doesn’t yet know what beautiful flowers you’ll bloom into, or how full and strong the grain you’ll bear will be.

Couldn’t you show me your tomorrow just once?

“Yeah. Daddy loves you too, my little princess.”

So this time, definitely.

No matter what he had to pay as the price.

‘Daddy will save you.’

His black, corrupted holy power dug into his heart.

And several years later.

Dantellion Klein lost his child once again.

Even after obtaining all the cores from the dragon legion, it was useless.

The western master’s elixir, the heart of the deep-sea beast from the South, the golden root from the eastern plains……

Every miraculous creature and treasure in the world was useless.

“…….”

Haniel of this cycle was only ten years old.

Blood tears streamed from his bloodshot single eye.

The cheek beneath his hand was no longer warm.

“……Again.”

He cradled the child’s cold body in one arm.

A gush of black blood surged back up his throat.

“Daddy will try again, my little princess…….”

Rattleeeeeee—

Once again.

Time in the world turned backward.

And I, Haniel—

“This…… this is…….”

I, who had watched all of this from within the arms of God—

[ Did you see? This is the sin of Dantellion Klein. ]

“What the heck is all of thiiiiis—!!”