Episode 1
My name is Cecilia Miller.
Nickname: Cici !
Up until just a moment ago, my lifeās dream was to become⦠a carriage.
And that dream had just been shattered into a million pieces.
Why?
Because the instant I turned exactly seven years old, my memories of my past life came flooding backā
right after I blew out the candles on my birthday cake.
What the heck�
I barely had time to despair over the fact that humans canāt turn into carriages before something even stranger happened.
Blinking dumbly, I found a translucent scroll-like window floating in midair before meā
just like the āsystem windowsā Iād seen in novels from my past life.
[Penalty for āUnder Age 7ā access restriction lifted]
Minimum requirements for system access met.
When further conditions are fulfilled, āOriginal Plot Progressionā will be activated.
Designated Original Work: I Only Wanted to Save the World
Keywords: #ReverseHarem #AllAlive #HeroQuest
Current Progress: Epilogue
So⦠this isā¦
I Only Wanted to Save the World.
Or as the fandom in my past life called it, I.O.W.S.W.āa fantasy adventure novel about a heroine who, after getting entangled with multiple male leads, goes on to save the world.
And the reason Iām bringing this up is becauseā¦
āWhy the sudden dark cloud over our princessās face?ā
āShe blew out the candles and just⦠went blank.ā
āDonāt tell me someone blew them out for her.ā
āNot me.ā
ā¦because the people crowding around me with cake right now are none other than the main characters of I.O.W.S.W. themselves.
No wonder Iād always wondered why I was the only kid in town with several extremely handsome fathers.
It was because my mother was the heroine of the novel!
As the truth clicked into place, my jaw dropped.
Even the townsfolkās casual acceptance of the whole āone kid, four dadsā situation suddenly made sense.
Of courseātheyāre living in a world where the heroine can get away with anything!
I looked dazedly at the ādadsā surrounding me.
āCece. Focus. Wandering.ā
The man with bronzed skin and the perpetual glareāscary enough to stop a crying child mid-sobāwas Dad No. 1, the taciturn male lead Derrick Grant.
āStrange.ā
The warm voice belonged to the man with flowing golden hair and glassesāthe Empireās greatest archmage, Dad No. 2, Harzen Walker.
āā©āŖ You idiots, youāre scaring her! Back off! I canāt see Ceceās face!ā
And the one snapping irritably was Dad No. 3, Kyle Blake, the Empireās greatest inventorāand an incorrigible potty mouth.
Well⦠āpotty mouthā whose swearing gets bleeped out in real time, thanks to a device he invented himself.
Apparently, he didnāt think he could quit cursing entirely, but he did worry about how it might affect my emotional development.
As for Dad No. 4, he was currently away from home on some unavoidable matter.
So yesāthis was my family: four dads, all of them different in looks and temperament, all of them hopelessly devoted to the same womanā¦
āWhy? Whatās wrong?ā
ā¦my mother, Yuria Miller.
āMomā¦ā
The woman with cotton-candy-pink hair tied up in a ponytail was the very image of the heroine from my past lifeās reading.
Without thinking, I reached for her.
Even though my adult mind was creeping back in along with my past-life memories⦠right now, I was still a seven-year-old who loved her momās embrace more than anything.
āWhat is it, princess? Did your dads bully you again?ā
āNo⦠itās just⦠youāre so, so beautiful.ā
Honestly, I still couldnāt believe it.
That this gorgeous woman was my mother.
That Iād inherited these genes.
āOh, honeyāMama thinks youāre even prettier.ā
She laughed, scooping me into her arms and dabbing a fingertip of cake cream onto my nose.
Ah! Cold!
āHehehe.ā
I giggled reflexively⦠then quickly snapped myself out of it.
Carefulādonāt get swept away by the fluff.
āMom, wait⦠just a secondā¦ā
I wriggled free from her arms and turned my attention back to the floating scroll.
[Penalty for āUnder Age 7ā access restriction lifted]
Minimum requirements for system access met.
When further conditions are fulfilled, āOriginal Plot Progressionā will be activated.
Designated Original Work: I Only Wanted to Save the World
Keywords: #ReverseHarem #AllAlive #HeroQuest
Current Progress: Epilogue
In I.O.W.S.W., the story ends with Mom and the dads defeating the Demon King and retiring to the countryside.
That was before I was born, so obviously we were now in the post-ending timeline.
Which meant that all I had to do from here on out was enjoy this peaceful world.
ā¦Except I had a bad feeling about this.
If this was just a tranquil slice-of-life epilogue, why bother showing me any of this?
And most importantlyā
I never even read the epilogue.
Why?
Because of comments like this:
āPlease, whatever you do, donāt read the epilogue⦠Details in the replies.ā
ā ā¬āŖ If Iād known, I wouldnāt have wasted my money. Usually, epilogues patch up plot holesāthis one just wrecked everything.
[Full Series Review]
ā If not for the epilogue, Iād have overlooked the plot destruction in the reverse harem endingābut the epilogue ruined it all. Donāt spend a penny. Donāt even read it for free.
Whoās gonna want to read it after that?!
I was already the type who usually skipped epiloguesāso I never bothered checking why this one was so hated.
Now I wished I had.
As I groaned, clutching my head at the memory of those āearly readerā commentsā
Ding!
The scroll changed again.
[Would you like to view a portion of an early readerās spoiler reply?]
[ YES / NO ]
Ooh?
They were offering me a tailored spoiler, just for me?
Well, I had no reason to refuse.
If I was going to live in this world, I needed to know why the epilogue had such a bad reputation.
I glanced around at Mom and the dads, then fixed my gaze on [YES].
The moment I did, the translucent scroll glowed brightly.
Pink-Haired-Heroine-Love-Club
Spoiler:
Out of nowhere, some random āā shows up and the heroine just ā” dies, and the male leads start doing āLetās destroy the worldā nonsense.
I read it once.
Then blinked.
Then read it again. Slowly.
Heroine⦠dies?
World⦠destroyed?
ā¦No way.
That couldnāt be true. Right?
Right?!
I stared at the words, denial flooding my chestāuntil finally, I couldnāt stop myself from whispering:
āMomā¦ā
Give me back my happy future!