"Happiness Before the Nightmare"
Lee Min Ye and Jason Morton were a beautiful couple—a Korean woman and an American man. They found themselves at the hospital where Lee Min Ye was undergoing a check-up.
"Dear, is this really happening?" Min Ye's voice, filled with doubt and happiness, resonated in the room.
"Yes, honey, it is," the woman lying on the bed replied quietly to her husband.
"Oh my God... Am I really going to be a father?!" Jason's loud voice echoed outside, startling the nurses and doctors.
"I'm glad both of you are happy with the news, but please keep the noise down a little. It might startle the pregnant woman," a sternly dressed woman cautioned from the room.
"I apologize," Jason quickly said, realizing his outburst.
"I must say, you are both lucky to have a baby with such a strong mana capacity. There's a chance that someone with ill intentions might try to exploit your baby, so you must take good care of it," another woman's voice in the room changed the atmosphere. It wasn't a compliment; it was a warning for both of them.
"Yes, I will do that, Nara," Min Ye replied with a touch of sadness in her voice.
"Don't call me by my name. We're not that close," Nara replied with a mix of anger and hidden happiness.
"You haven't really changed, have you, Nara? You still can't be honest with yourself. At this rate, you'll never get married," Jason teased her.
"Tsk, shut your damn mouth before I rip it off," Nara clicked her tongue and turned her head away from Jason, her mana flowing outside.
Surprised by the immense amount of mana emanating from an S-Class Hero, Jason held his breath to prevent it from harming his wife. Nara had no intention of harming someone close to her; it was just Jason's comments that always annoyed her.
But it was true...
She truly hated not being honest with herself, but if she didn't hide her emotions, they might come back to haunt her someday.
"I'm going now," Nara left the room, quietly opening and closing the door.
Two people chuckled at her reaction, and Nara truly hoped she could become closer to him.
"Hey, dear, I will protect our baby at all costs, just as you will," Jason said to his wife, filled with determination.
"I will also protect you and our baby," she calmly smiled at her husband.
"So, have you come up with a name for him?" Jason asked.
"Seo... Jun," the woman murmured quietly, but her husband heard it clearly.
"Seojun... Oh, that name!" Jason exclaimed loudly, surprising those who heard them. It was a name they had learned from someone. But that story would be explained later on.
Five years later...
Lee Seojun was now four years old. He was an energetic child, and his parents adored him a lot.
Lee Min Ye looked at her son playing with his beloved hero figures.
As she chuckled, she thought, "Seojun is almost five years old... He's growing up so quickly compared to his peers. But that doesn't stop him from making friends at school. I hope this kind of life lasts forever."
Baam!
A loud bang on the door echoed outside their apartment. Lee Min Ye cautiously reached for a dagger in her inter-dimensional space and slowly approached the door.
As she peeked through the hole that allowed her to see outside, she saw her injured husband lying outside their apartment.
She quickly opened the door and was horrified by what she saw.
A group of men in black suits, led by a man in a gray suit, arrogantly looked at them.
"Who are you people?! What did you do to my husband?!" Lee Min Ye angrily exclaimed, raising her dagger and pointing it at the men who appeared to have harmed her husband.
"Well, we received information about a high-ranking baby born a few years ago who may be connected to an attack on the hospital where they were admitted," the man in the gray suit took a cigarette from his pocket and ignited it with his index finger, creating a small flame. He slowly inhaled.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about. We have no children," Lee Min Ye cautiously replied, her eyes shifting slightly toward where Seojun was playing.
"Ma'am, I can see in your eyes that you're lying. You're nervous, and you can't hide your killing intent towards me," the man observed.
"That's because you harmed my husband," Lee Min Ye replied, filled with hatred.
"Oh, that? He just got in our way, so we restrained him a little to calm him down," the man laughed arrogantly.
"You BASTARDS!" Lee Min Ye couldn't hold it anymore and quickly dashed towards the man in the suit, attempting to slash him with her dagger.
Ting!
A protective shield automatically appeared in front of the man, shielding him from the dagger.
Lee Min Ye realized she couldn't pierce through the barrier and quickly backed up, performing a backflip to return to her previous position.
"A high-rank artifact..." Lee Min Ye murmured quietly.
The fact that he used a high-rank artifact meant that this man was from the Hero Association, and a high-ranking one at that.
"We have no business with either of you, so don't get in our way. Kill them all," the man ordered his subordinates, and suddenly they all dashed towards Lee Min Ye and Jason, their fists coated with mana aimed at them.
Just as their fists were about to land, Jason got up and appeared in front of them, using his own hand, coated with mana, as a shield to intercept the attack.
A surge of mana from different sources tried to overpower Jason's mana, but he poured even more mana into the fight.
"Argh!"
As a result, the group of men in suits flew in different directions.
Jason was breathing heavily as he looked down. Of course, using so much mana from a drained body was dangerous. He had squeezed out all his mana to take the damage and reflect it back at his enemies, like a mirror.
"Dear, look in front!" Lee Min Ye shouted, but it was too late.
The gray man who had appeared before them punched through Jason's belly, his fist coated with Fire Mana Attribute.
"For a guy who's injured, you're not bad. But with a body like that, you're just a punching bag full of openings."
As the man pulled his hand out of Jason's belly, leaving a big hole and burning his organs, Lee Min Ye quickly got up and unleashed as much mana as she could, overwhelming the man.
"Ugh." The man flinched due to the sudden overwhelming mana. It felt as if the gravity had suddenly increased, bringing him down to the ground.
As Jason fell to the ground, Lee Min Ye dashed to catch him in her arms. As she held him, she looked at his state with great sadness.
His belly was pierced, leaving a large hole and burned flesh.
"Dear, please wake up!" Lee Min Ye tried to heal him, using as much mana as she could, but it was all in vain.
"Honey... It's useless to heal me. Use your mana to escape with our son... That's my last wish as your husband," Jason weakly said to his wife.
"No! I WON'T LEAVE YOU! We promised to be together, right? That's why I will take you along with our child!" Lee Min Ye said desperately, her heart filled with sadness.
She didn't want her husband to die. As she continued trying to heal him, Jason said something.
"Dear... If I die... protect our child at all costs... I love you." He raised his hand to wipe away Lee Min Ye's tears, and then... Jason closed his eyes, and his hand fell...
Jason Morton died.
End of Chapter 2