The Burden of Weakness (Jaden, The Hunter)
As Jaden, the weakest SSS-rank hunter, I existed as a profound cosmic joke. I was a fractured god playing at being human, drawn by instinct to fight the darkness that had once been my birthright. I fought dungeons, I tried to save lives, but every victory felt like a lie, and every defeat affirmed the truth: I was a failure. I was constantly searching for a memory, a face, a sound that would justify the unexplainable burden of my existence.
POV: Jaden
Why do I care? I would ask myself as I bled out saving strangers who would forget my name by morning. Why do I feel this ache behind my sternum that has nothing to do with this world? It was the phantom limb of my lost divinity. I was a low-ranked hunter, but I was also a man haunted by the vast, silent libraries of an erased past. The worst part was not being weak, but knowing, deep down, that the power to fix everything was mine, but the key to unlock it—my true self—had been thrown away.
I was an echo, even then. The echo of a son who was supposed to be a King.