Retire 238
by Cristae238 Jewel Rune (4)
“Do you really think that makes any sense?!”
“And why wouldn’t it?!”
A pointless argument broke out between us.
Did this man even realize what he’d just said?
Of course he did—how else could he say it so calmly!
Even as irritation and anger surged to the top of my head, a corner of my mind grew cold and clear.
For a moment, I felt as if Hong Seok-young’s words were accusing my brother of being one of those who brought about the world’s destruction. But when I thought about it, that wasn’t exactly wrong. After all, my brother… was part of the Ark. Born and raised there, and likely to die there as well.
Whether he liked his birth parents or not, whether he hated his fellow researchers or not, the fact remained that he worked for the Ark. I didn’t know exactly what his job was, but considering his position within the lab, he was hardly a mere underling.
“So… Hee-jae?”
When I suddenly fell silent, Hong Seok-young called my name in confusion. I ignored him for a moment, folding my arms.
Labs… Each lab had its own circumstances, so I didn’t know exactly how things worked elsewhere. But overall, the Ark had started using runes earlier than the outside world. If I thought of that as Noah Michel’s influence, then it wasn’t strange that that French mage’s runes were already in use at this point. The trigger runes or explosive runes used to self-destruct labs had, in the end, not remained secret from the outside world. I hadn’t learned about those runes in any pleasant way, so there was no need to spread the knowledge. There were plenty of other runes that produced similar effects anyway.
I only learned about that rune after my brother disappeared. If he’d still been around, it never would have happened. Who in their right mind would teach such a dangerous rune to a kid barely ten years old? Especially one who might awaken someday?
Of course, if it were my brother, he might have taught me once he thought I was old enough. He’d always told me about the lab’s affairs in detail—sometimes so much so that you’d wonder, “Should you really be telling this to a child?”
Well, I could understand. You could get by in the lab without knowing runes, but not knowing about the internal power struggles could put you in a tough spot.
“…Hee-jae?”
“All right.”
“Hm?”
“There’s no point in us just talking about it here when we don’t know the answer. Let’s go test it.”
I had the problematic rune, and I had the problematic sword.
There was nothing stopping us.
“So, what are you going to tell this Hunter about the runes you checked?”
“……”
On the drive back to Yangseong High, Hong Seok-young asked me.
Right, there was that issue too.
No matter what, I couldn’t reveal the magic watch to Imi-seon… After a moment’s thought, I asked Hong Seok-young,
“Is this Hunter by any chance suffering from noise between floors?”
At first, I’d thought it was useless, but after what Hong Seok-young said, it was a rune that could be quite handy depending on how you used it. Someone out there might desperately need it.
But Hong Seok-young just snorted.
“This Hunter?”
Of course not… This is why you can’t trust people who’ve never wanted for anything. They don’t know what it’s like to need something.
“We can’t commercialize anything that would trouble Noah Michel anyway… But what about the runes you prepared? Are you still going to announce them?”
“I’m planning to exclude any runes related to Noah Michel, just in case.”
“Even the magic concealment rune?”
“That’s the first one I’ll leave out.”
Hong Seok-young looked a little disappointed, but he didn’t object. Safety first—always.
“As for the rest, I’ll only keep the ones with a clear creator. Those unrelated to Noah Michel.”
“That’s for the best. That magic watch is surprisingly useful.”
“Information is an asset, after all.”
“Isn’t that a bit of an old saying?”
“All proverbs are old sayings. That’s the wisdom of our ancestors.”
Hong Seok-young burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking with mirth. He wasn’t always this quick to laugh.
It was oddly annoying, but if I had to say whether I liked it or not, I’d have to admit I did. My father had been someone who laughed easily. If Hong Seok-young was becoming more like that, it meant he’d been living tense and on edge for a long time.
“So, aside from that, you’re not going to tell this Hunter anything else?”
“The other runes aren’t anything special, so it wouldn’t matter if I did… But the last rune is off-limits.”
I frowned.
“Never mind the sword’s flame… If it can store not just mana but magic, it’s too dangerous. It’s not that I don’t trust this Hunter, but if it leaked outside, it wouldn’t just be about Noah Michel…”
“Hunters and mages don’t have to use things only in dungeons, after all.”
“Right.”
I thought of the runes Hope had drawn.
“Anyway, it’s impossible to recreate the original form just from Hope’s sketches. I’ll just say I didn’t recognize it.”
“You’re the rune expert now, so that’s good enough. No need to take unnecessary risks.”
Hong Seok-young agreed.
With that, the conversation lapsed into silence. It was ten minutes before Hong Seok-young, gazing out the window, spoke again.
“About that watch…”
“Yes?”
“Are you the only one who can use it?”
I looked at the ugly watch peeking out from under my sleeve.
“It recognizes the user’s mana pattern. As long as you register a pattern, anyone can use it.”
“Even me?”
“Yes.”
“Then can I try it on?”
“…Right now?”
“Well, what else is there to do on the way back?”
Hong Seok-young was practically bouncing with excitement.
I glanced between the steering wheel in my hands and Hong Seok-young sitting in the passenger seat.
Well… I suppose there’s nothing else to do.
“What do you want to do with the watch?”
“What do you think? There’s plenty.”
He was surprisingly resolute.
“There’s no need to repeat exactly the same thing, but an institution like the Management Bureau is absolutely necessary. You know that, and I’d already been thinking about it. There’s a similar system in the U.S.”
“I heard we borrowed a lot from their example.”
“But Korea isn’t the U.S., right? So we have to create something that fits our own circumstances. If we knew how things were done in the future, it’d be helpful. We could avoid a lot of trial and error.”
“That’s true…”
“Of course, you’ll be the one making it this time! But since I’ll have to use my name, I need to know too—otherwise, how could I be a good dad?”
“I’m not doing it…”
When the light turned red and the car stopped, I took off the magic watch and handed it to Hong Seok-young, who accepted it with a gleeful expression.
“You said I have to register my mana pattern?”
“Just put it on first…”
“And then?”
“You should be able to use it right away.”
“Hm?”
I looked away from the watch on Hong Seok-young’s wrist. The light changed. Green. I drove on.
“It was a prototype for just the director and me. Both our patterns are registered. Same for my magic watch.”
“Hmm. So that means…”
“Unless your mana pattern suddenly changed in the future, it should still be the same now, right?”
“……”
“What does the screen say?”
Hong Seok-young examined the magic watch with a somewhat puzzled look.
“…User recognized. Hong Seok-young.”
“See? I told you it would work right away.”
“There’s some percentage showing up.”
“It’s just adjusting to the new user. Give it a moment.”
I’d searched through the magic watch myself, but that was always based on my own knowledge. And my perspective might have narrowed without me realizing it.
Two people always see more than one. And if the other person is Hong Seok-young? He might notice things I missed.
“…Ah.”
“Hm?”
“We need to go to Jirisan.”
“Jirisan?”
Hong Seok-young immediately understood what I meant.
“You mean the dungeon Hope gave us? I remember Jirisan was on the list.”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
I’d put it off a bit while coming up to Seoul to check the runes. But in truth, this was the more urgent matter.
“Did you find something in the magic watch?”
“At first, I missed it…”
Hong Seok-young, who’d been staring intently at the magic watch, looked up.
“There was nothing unusual in the dungeon data. None of them were high-level dungeons.”
“Right. But from the way you’re talking, there must have been something unusual?”
“Yes. It took a long time to find because it wasn’t a dungeon Hunter Yu Ji-eun cleared.”
“Yu Ji-eun? Ji-eun?”
“She just entered the dungeon briefly, that’s all.”
“Did she fail to clear it?”
“I’m not sure if she failed or just didn’t try. From what I know of Hunter Yu Ji-eun’s skills, it didn’t seem like a dungeon she couldn’t clear.”
“I see…”
Hong Seok-young spoke in a tone of newfound wonder.
“That cheeky little brat becomes that skilled in the future? Living long enough, you see all sorts of things.”
He gave me a sidelong glance, his expression curious.
“Well, you’re no slouch yourself…”
“I can hear you, you know?”
“Whoever raised you did a fine job.”
“……”
I sighed.
“In any case, it’s a dungeon Hunter Yu Ji-eun entered but didn’t clear.”
“When was that?”
“If I remember right… it was before she entered the Mud Dungeon.”
“Suspicious.”
“Yes.”
Hong Seok-young nodded.
“You said it was the Jirisan dungeon.”
“Have you ever been inside?”
After checking my sister’s records, I’d naturally checked others—especially my father.
In my father’s endless list of dungeons, the ones Hope provided didn’t appear, but you never know. With this guy, there was always a chance he’d just wandered in and out.
But Hong Seok-young shook his head.
“No. They’re all dungeons I’ve never seen before—except for the Myeongdong dungeon. That one’s in the middle of Seoul, so of course I knew about it.”
“…As a B-rank dungeon.”
“That’s right.”
Hong Seok-young gave a wry smile.
“See? You can’t just trust what other people say. You have to check for yourself. That’s why this Hunter is going through the list, too.”
“It’s… well, not exactly a good thing, but since the government manages the dungeons now, it’s easier to go in and check them out.”
“That’s true. Otherwise, you’d have to fight tooth and nail with guilds that hold dungeon entry rights, or bid at auction.”
“Or sneak in.”
“You know how awkward it is to run into someone in a dungeon when you’re sneaking in?”
“That ever happen to you?”
“In Africa, once.”
Recalling the memory, Hong Seok-young clicked his tongue and laughed.
“Anyway, don’t be fooled by appearances. Myeongdong was like that, and so was the centipede dungeon in Songpa-gu. There’s a reason that guy told us to check these out.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the Jirisan dungeon looks like.”
“Let’s hope there aren’t any corpses like in the centipede dungeon.”
“Try asking the Ark nicely about that.”
Hong Seok-young burst out laughing again. He really did laugh more easily these days.
“Oh. It’s finally at 100%.”
“The interface isn’t complicated. Just don’t touch the edit button.”
“Uh… Hee-jae?”
No sooner had I spoken than Hong Seok-young called my name in an uneasy voice.
“…What is it?”
“There’s, uh, a problem. Well, not really a problem, but…”
With an awkward gesture, Hong Seok-young enlarged the window. A blue hologram floated in the air.
“It says… ‘There is a document being drafted by Director Hong Seok-young. Would you like to open it?’”
SCREEEEECH!!!
Thankfully, there were no cars behind us. I slammed on the brakes and stared at Hong Seok-young.
Or rather, at the magic watch on his wrist, displaying the message he’d just read aloud.