Retire 235

235 Jewel Rune (1)

Hong Seok-young led me deeper into the building.

From the entrance, the building hadn’t looked very large, but as we walked through its interior, it proved to be much more spacious than I’d expected. Perhaps noticing my puzzlement, Hong Seok-young offered an explanation.

“It’s an old building, you know. They did some construction in the middle and connected it to the building in the back.”

“Isn’t this a building used exclusively by the Association?”

“In this tiny country? The whole thing? How many people do you think the Association has?”

“Um…”

“Our country isn’t that much of a mess.”

“I see.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not!”

There’s a saying that strong denial is just strong affirmation in disguise…

I considered asking more, but decided against it. As Hong Seok-young said, in a country where the government still functions properly, it would be difficult for the Association’s Special Activities Division to operate so openly. If, as he claimed, the Association really did occupy a building of this size, that would be a serious problem in itself.

Why is the Special Activities Division called “special,” anyway? Calling it the Association Secretariat’s Special Activities Division might sound impressive, but to put it bluntly, it’s just a group that sneaks into other countries, working undercover to avoid government scrutiny.

That’s why Imi-seon used Daseon as a smokescreen. Of course, calling it a simple smokescreen doesn’t do justice to the amount of effort put into Daseon.

Which came first, Daseon or the Association? How should I know? As long as they don’t have any ulterior motives and help prevent the end of the world, that’s all that matters.

In any case, the building’s interior was crowded with offices and what looked like electronics shops. True to the building’s worn exterior, most of the shops were dark. Peering through the glass windows, I saw that many were completely empty or littered with trash. Even the ones with their lights on gave off a similar impression: old, deserted shops. No wonder there hadn’t been much fuss when the building was eventually demolished to make way for the Management Bureau.

Maybe Imi-seon had quietly bought up those empty offices one by one, letting the building empty out over time. I’d never heard of any opposition when the Management Bureau later moved in… Besides, even if the area didn’t see much foot traffic, setting up an Association office in a place frequented by civilians would have been far too risky.

Taking all this into account… I could see why my father had relied so heavily on Imi-seon. Even now, she handled things perfectly without being asked. If only I’d had two subordinates like her, my work would have been so much easier.

“Here we are,” Hong Seok-young said.

I blinked, surveying the spot where he’d stopped.

“Here?”

“Mm.”

“Here?”

The first thing that caught my eye was the corridor, packed with boxes.

They were badly crushed and stained with unidentifiable marks. The boxes were stacked up to my eye level, making it difficult even to reach the door.

Hong Seok-young deftly avoided the boxes, opened the door, and stepped into a small shop. I’d braced myself after seeing the boxes in the hallway, but still, the first thing that greeted me was the smell of dust. Dust and mold, and piles of old speakers and tangled wires stacked so high they blocked out the overhead light.

Metal shelves lined the space, leaving barely enough room for a person to squeeze through. If I walked through the narrow gaps without thinking, I’d probably knock everything over.

While I hesitated, Hong Seok-young strode confidently deeper inside.

“Ahem.”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

A staff member popped his head out from a corner. He was a young man sitting at a counter whose purpose was a mystery. Most likely… a Hunter. I could sense a faint tremor of magical energy in the air.

I’d never seen him among the Hunters who came to the school. Considering the number of Hunters Imi-seon had brought along during the raid on the old, shuttered training center’s lab… this one probably wasn’t a part-timer, but a full-time Association man. Just in case, I made a mental note of his face. Even though he must have noticed me watching him, the staff member didn’t so much as blink.

“So, I ordered something yesterday,” Hong Seok-young began.

“Ah, you’re the one who ordered the speakers, right?”

“Mm. Are they ready?”

“We have several storage rooms… Let’s see, you can check on that right away if you go to Room 409.”

“Room 409?”

“Yes. Head out, turn left, and go straight until you see the stairs. Go up the stairs, and you’ll find it. Room 409 is a bit farther in, but you should have no trouble finding it.”

“Got it.”

I watched Hong Seok-young chatting with the staff member, exchanging words I didn’t understand with practiced familiarity, before he turned and walked back out.

He headed for the stairs just as the staff member had instructed. On the way up, we passed a few civilians. I’d been about to ask Hong Seok-young something, but kept quiet instead.

As the staff member had said, it didn’t take long to find Room 409. This part of the building seemed more like a cluster of offices than shops; battered metal doors stood in a row. Room 409 was one of them. Unlike the shops, you couldn’t see inside. Hong Seok-young opened the door without hesitation. It wasn’t even locked.

“…What is this?”

Click.

As soon as we entered, Hong Seok-young locked the door behind us. He looked at me with a deflated expression.

“What do you mean, what? Haven’t you ever seen a movie?”

“What movie…?”

“Come on, every secret organization needs a secret base and a password.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“You remember there was something like this in the Ark, too, right?”

“……”

“And that place was even more high-tech.”

“…Villains always have more money! That was a private company!”

“Ah, right. Let’s just get to work.”

“Still, those guys were villains threatening world peace, and we’re more like officially recognized heroes, aren’t we?”

“We’re ‘like’ heroes, not actually heroes.”

“If you’re working for world peace, that’s close enough, isn’t it?”

“That’s what everyone says.”

If you want to get technical, the Ark people probably claimed they were making great sacrifices for humanity, too. Though I had no idea what they hoped to gain by burning Seoul and bringing about the end of the world.

I gave Hong Seok-young a halfhearted answer and began to look around Room 409.

The staff member hadn’t been exaggerating when he called it a storage room—there were piles of stuff everywhere. Whether it was for show or actually used as storage, I couldn’t tell. I lost interest quickly after glancing over the dust-covered old speakers. That wasn’t what I’d come to see, anyway.

The windows were covered with thick blackout curtains. As if that wasn’t enough, metal shelves stacked with speakers had been pushed up against them. The shelves lined the walls as well, making the cramped storeroom feel even more suffocating. The only open space was in the center, where an old desk sat.

…They really didn’t need to go this far for the aesthetic.

It had just been a passing comment, but the comparison to the lab grew more and more stark. That place had secret passages and a high-tech elevator with a keypad. Of course, thinking about where the money for that had come from, I felt a little guilty for even comparing the two.

“Hey now. If you look at it that way, the standards are too strict. Over here, it’s all unpaid labor.”

“I’m pretty sure the Association people get salaries. And the Daseon Hunters probably get paid twice.”

Does Daseon not have any rules against holding two jobs? How do they handle year-end tax returns? Is it… tax evasion…?

“They’re them. I’m the one working for free.”

“I heard Hunters who help the government during this period get paid separately.”

“Oh, what have I been telling a kid all this time? Weren’t you eleven years old at this point?”

“I was old enough to know everything that mattered.”

“Eesh… Still, do you think the pay is all that great? Honestly, if you wanted to make money, you’d be better off running another dungeon in that time.”

Hong Seok-young wandered around the storeroom, carefully checking for hidden cameras or recording devices. Satisfied, he nodded.

“That’s true.”

“So let’s cut the chatter.”

Hong Seok-young sat down at the desk in the center. Squeak—the chair made an unpleasant noise as he pulled it out.

I sat down beside him. There was a thin file on the desk.

“Is this place really a storage room?” I asked.

“I heard the company that used to store things here went under, and we just took it over as-is.”

“Was all that trouble really necessary?”

“If people see folks coming and going from a company they don’t know, they’re bound to get suspicious. It’s a decent smokescreen.”

“Didn’t seem like anyone was paying attention.”

Hong Seok-young shook his head.

“Don’t be so sure. I heard there were a few times we actually got reported.”

“Really?”

“There were plenty of trial and error…”

His gaze grew distant and wistful. This guy… did he have connections to the Association even before Imi-seon?

…Would he tell me if I asked?

Just a few months ago, Hong Seok-young would have changed the subject. After a moment’s hesitation, he spoke.

“Have you been working with the Association long enough to know about those mistakes?”

“More or less.”

“More or less?”

Hong Seok-young stroked his chin, eyes unfocused as he stared into space.

“Things are different now, but back in the early 2000s, the Association used to throw its weight around a lot more openly.”

“Oh…”

“Nobody talks about it because it wasn’t anything good.”

He shrugged as if it were nothing.

“So I got fed up and quit a few times… Well, times changed, and as the status of Hunters like me rose, the Association had to back off.”

“Really?”

“Once I got older, I started giving ground, too. In the end, it’s the Hunters who lose out if they go against the Association, right?”

“That’s true.”

“This Hunter’s been in charge of the Korean branch for about five years now.”

“That’s not as long as I expected.”

“Consider this Hunter’s age. It was a record-fast promotion, and I heard people inside the Association talked about it quite a bit.”

When I thought about it that way…

“Looking at it like this, I guess you could say I’ve lived through the history of the Association in Korea.”

“Didn’t the Association ever try to recruit you?”

“They did. But I don’t like being tied down like that.”

Hong Seok-young winked as he smiled. This was the man who would later establish the Bureau of Supernatural Management and become its director.

“…What? Did I say something wrong? Why are you looking at me with those pitying eyes?”

“It’s nothing.”

I shrugged and opened the file.

“Let’s just get to work.”

The file wasn’t very thick to begin with. Inside were only three or four sheets of paper.

The handwriting was crooked, like a child’s scrawl. I wondered if the Association had actually given us the original, so I looked closely. Thankfully, it wasn’t that amateurish—it was clearly a printout. A copy, then.

Hong Seok-young craned his neck to peek at the paper I was reading.

“Hope said it’s not entirely accurate.”

“So it seems.”

“He drew them as best he could remember, and marked the effects he knew. Even if he didn’t know what a rune did, he wrote down what it looked like.”

I quickly scanned the runes Hope had drawn.

Some were rendered in impressive detail, while others, to be generous, were little more than doodles.

I could check the runes’ abilities later. What mattered now was whether there were any runes I could recognize right away. Had Noah Michel already created, at this point in time, any of the polished runes that would become widely used in the future?

I fervently hoped there wasn’t a magic-concealing rune among them.