237th Attempt

The world around me slowly came into focus—an all too familiar scene. The City of Peace lay before me, bustling as always, deceptively calm. Children ran through the streets, laughter echoing off the old brick walls, traders haggled over prices, their voices overlapping, creating a hum of daily life. It was almost enough to forget the horrors that lurked beyond the walls, to forget that I had just come back from yet another failure. Almost.

I stood there, numb. My chest ached, not from physical wounds, but from the weight of the countless failures that weighed on my soul. This was the 237th attempt. How many times had I watched them die? How many times had I died myself, only to open my eyes again, back here? Every single time I had tried a different strategy, changed something in hopes that it would finally lead to victory. But each time, it had ended the same way. The quest—"Protect the Queen"—remained unfulfilled.