Retire 247
by Cristae247 Safety Device (3)
“Why not? There’s nothing to learn from him.”
“Well, it’s true I don’t have anything to teach a magician like you, Ms. Kim, but still, it doesn’t feel right!”
“What do you mean, it doesn’t feel right?”
Kim Chae-min looked at Hong Seok-young as if she truly couldn’t understand what he was saying.
Seeing that, and sensing that Hong Seok-young’s pride was being oddly pricked, I stepped in before he could start spouting nonsense.
If I could pass this off to Hong Seok-young, I would, but I had no desire to listen to his futile protests.
“Then what is it you’re trying to learn from me, Ms. Kim?”
“I’ve already learned a lot, haven’t I?”
Kim Chae-min looked at me as if to say, why even ask?
“I learned runes from you, and the method for determining attributes, too. Honestly, I think those two alone are enough. Besides, it’s not like there’s just one or two runes. If you were a magician, Mr. Woo, it’d be no different from teaching me your own unique magic.”
“But…”
“It doesn’t matter who actually created them. To me…”
Kim Chae-min tilted her head to the side, her brow furrowing slightly.
“Ms. Kim?”
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Kim Chae-min gazed intently past me. I turned to look behind, wondering what she was staring at, but saw nothing.
“For me, what matters is that you were the one who taught me. Would I have learned any of this if it weren’t for you, Mr. Woo?”
……
If I hadn’t died to the Siren, I suppose I would have found out eventually.
All I did was move up the timing.
But that wasn’t what Kim Chae-min was talking about. Looking me straight in the eye, she spoke with confidence.
“So you see, I can already call myself your apprentice, Mr. Woo. Do you understand?”
“Not at all.”
No, in truth, I could vaguely guess at the thought process that led her to such… a conclusion.
But that didn’t mean I could accept it. The magicians I know, no matter how much it might benefit them, would never seek to learn from someone who wasn’t a magician.
In the distant future, magicians are divided into those from the academic societies and those from the academies, fighting tooth and nail. After my father’s academy, similar institutions sprang up all over the world. Magicians who were cast out from their families were dumped into those schools. And what would a discarded young magician do? They studied hard, and grew ever more rebellious against the established magical society.
Those discarded magicians became the third generation. In 2041, on Earth, they were locked in a savage and intellectual struggle with the old guard. The world ended before a victor could be decided, and it’s a shame we’ll never know how it would have ended.
From my perspective, it was quite inconvenient that the new generation of magicians—the ones I could actually talk to—had vanished. For a third-generation magician to appear, we’d have to wait at least until Park Seo-hyun, and along with her, Choi Jin-woo, graduated from the training school.
Of course, not every old-generation magician was a stubborn brute, but trends are trends. Especially the old-generation magicians I know…
Strictly speaking, Kim Chae-min is also a second-generation magician, belonging to the so-called old guard. Of course, whether old or new, there’s not much difference in the fundamental nature of a magician.
“What, what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…I was just thinking, you’re still a magician, Ms. Kim.”
Does an un-magician-like way of thinking show itself like this? In some ways, it was very magician-like. That un-magician-like behavior made her all the more magician-like. What a curious irony.
“…Is that a compliment or an insult?”
“That’s up to you, Ms. Kim.”
But that was that, and this was this.
If I cooled my head and thought objectively, Kim Chae-min’s proposal wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
A magician, proud as they are, was the first to lower herself. Her lawyer might have called it an unfair contract, but considering the penalty on this side, it was actually rather minor. After all, the fate of the world was at stake…
No, thinking like this would never end.
In the end, it meant the decision was mine.
Still, I didn’t want to take on the responsibility of being the archmage’s teacher.
“How about this,” I said, slowly opening my mouth.
I had no objection to telling Kim Chae-min about the future, aside from my own hesitation. And that hesitation wasn’t because I didn’t trust her, but because of the importance of the information.
“You said you don’t want to be Mr. Hong’s apprentice…”
“Yes.”
“If you’re that adamant, it hurts my feelings, you know.”
“But I can’t teach you, Ms. Kim, either.”
“You already have, haven’t you?”
“…But I didn’t only teach you, Ms. Kim.”
“But the reason behind it, you only told me, didn’t you?”
Was she always this logical?
I looked at Kim Chae-min, incredulous.
“…Then, how about joining Mr. Hong’s guild instead of becoming my apprentice?”
Honestly, I don’t think the guild was created for this, but what does it matter? My father’s guild was a one-man operation until the administration forced it to disband, but now there’s me and Sandra Gamble, too.
Adding Kim Chae-min wouldn’t be strange at all. In fact, having an archmage would be far more convincing than some random hunter or freshly graduated magic engineer.
“As vice-master, perhaps…”
“No, I said I want to be your apprentice, Mr. Woo.”
But Kim Chae-min rejected my compromise as well.
“Who exactly are you and Mr. Hong hiding information about?”
“Pardon?”
“Is it just information about the Ark? It’s not, is it? Which one of you is it about?”
……
“Not me.”
Hong Seok-young quickly raised the white flag.
“Hee-jae did ask for my permission, but I told him to make his own choice.”
“So Mr. Hong isn’t directly involved?”
“I’m not completely uninvolved, but it’s not information I can share.”
“See?”
For some reason, Kim Chae-min looked at me with a triumphant smile, as if she knew I had nowhere left to retreat.
“Mr. Woo, you decide.”
She waved the paper in front of my nose.
“Safety device.”
Apprenticeship contract.
Kim Chae-min will become Woo Hee-jae’s apprentice.
Kim Chae-min is obliged to keep secret any information related to the Ark or anything else provided by Woo Hee-jae.
If she violates this, all rights to the exclusive magic of Kim Chae-min, Kim Kang-yeon, and Kim Young-heon will belong to Woo Hee-jae.
I dragged my palm down my face.
“…Let’s revise the contract. This won’t do.”
“Oh. Really? I thought it was enough.”
Even for a simplified contract, this was too much.
“No. Even if it’s simplified, let’s at least add some proper clauses.”
I surrendered.
Kim Chae-min will work as a guest magician at the Paros research lab affiliated with Guild Mimi.
“This comes first? Not the apprentice part?”
“It’s important to clarify affiliations. Especially in times like these.”
“Is it? I don’t really get it.”
“Think about how the Magic Society would take it.”
Kim Chae-min’s eyes sparkled.
From what I’d seen, Kim Chae-min would never get along with the Society. She’d often complained about the stubborn old men there.
“Oh! They’d absolutely hate it. Perfect. Let’s put that in!”
It would also make things clearer to Noah Michel.
There was no Siren Dungeon among the dungeons Hope had warned about. But did the Ark really do nothing about Kim Chae-min’s death? I can’t say for sure, but I can’t say for certain that they didn’t, either.
Even in that timeline, the incident where Kim Chae-min’s territory was attacked by the Ark must have happened just the same.
Enraged by the attack, Kim Chae-min sealed off her entire territory, and the mana grass grew inside it—that much remained unchanged. Whether she ever opened it is another matter. But since she went in this time to recover her research, materials, and expensive reagents that had all been sealed away, perhaps she always intended to check. If so, then the mana grass, too.
I don’t know what will happen next, but it’s very possible Kim Chae-min will become a target of the Ark. We need to draw her securely into our fold.
“What about the school? Shouldn’t we add a clause about working at the training school?”
“She already signed an employment contract with me.”
Though honestly, it was more like a volunteer application than an employment contract.
“That’s good enough?”
“The school and the guild are separate. It’s better for her to be affiliated with the guild.”
Kim Chae-min looked half-confused, but let it go. She’d get an explanation once all this was over.
“Then let’s settle the rest like this… and move on to the most important part.”
“So what should I call you now? Master?”
“No.”
“Oh, if you say it so sternly, this unworthy apprentice is wounded!”
“We should revise the master-apprentice part as well.”
Kim Chae-min straightened her posture, dropping her playful act.
“Revise it? How?”
“I don’t think we need to include a master-apprentice clause at all. Something more specific…”
I wrote out the phrase I had in mind on a fresh sheet of A4 paper.
Woo Hee-jae will provide information about the Ark and the magical theory Kim Chae-min requests.
“…Magical theory?”
Kim Chae-min blinked, looking at my face.
“Magical theory? Not runes?”
When I didn’t avert my gaze, Kim Chae-min looked at me with pure admiration.
“Good, very good. This is getting more and more interesting. I’m starting to feel competitive. Now I see just how much you’ve been hiding from me.”
It wasn’t pure admiration; there was a hint of sarcasm, too.
Even Hong Seok-young seemed a little surprised—he probably hadn’t expected this. After all, I’d always acted like I only knew about runes, not magic itself.
But if I was going to confess to Kim Chae-min that I came from the future, it would be a waste to only tell her that. No matter what I reveal, it’s a huge risk. Whether it’s ten or twenty, the outcome is the same: death.
If the result is the same, I might as well get as much out of it as I can.
For me, it had only ever been a way to keep noisy magicians quiet and working, but for Kim Chae-min—the archmage—it could be different. Most of the magical theory I know…
‘Ah, haha. Are you… interested in magic?’
Disheveled black hair. A face pale as death. Fingers, little more than bone, twitching before stretching out.
‘I’m having a hard time because of the outside magicians. Can you help?’
The witch, Park Seo-hyun, gazed intently at the hunter, Yoo Ji-eun.
‘……’
The only ones Park Seo-hyun ever pretended to listen to were Father, my sister, and Oh Hyun-wook.
Soon, Park Seo-hyun burst out laughing. It was a strangely innocent face, not at all fitting the image of a witch, and I remember being surprised by that.
‘Alright… since it’s you asking…’
Through the tangled hair, eyes as black as a dead fish stared out. For a moment, I thought those eyes were glistening with moisture, but Park Seo-hyun quickly brushed her hair to cover them.
‘…I was planning to end my magic with myself anyway, but it’d be good if someone else knew.’
The legacy of the witch, Park Seo-hyun, was about to see the light, twenty years after the past.