Retire 273

273 Prophet (4)

“All right, then.”

—Ah, you still have more? What are you so curious about?

“You told me to ask everything earlier, didn’t you?”

Alex Hope shuddered in mock exasperation, but still waved his hand as if to say, go ahead.

“You said earlier that the king is a Prophet.”

—Yeah.

“Then what happened to the original… the king from the past? Is he still around?”

—That’s…

Hope scratched his head.

—No. Not anymore. The current… the king from the future killed his past self.

“……”

Completely insane.

But it’s not surprising. He’s not even human. There’s no need to try to understand.

—I don’t know the reason. I wondered if time got tangled, but it turned out not really. Guess it was just his own decision?

“Fine. Let’s go with that.”

—…You still have more questions?

Now Hope’s face was openly bored.

—I just finished clearing a dungeon! Usually you get a week off after that, you know!

“That’s your problem, not mine.”

—You’re so mean, seriously!

“If someone came back after the king, that means the king would have been killed too.”

—Huh? Oh, you’re right? That’s how it would be?

Hope exclaimed in surprise.

—Wait, what? You’re right. I never thought about it that way. Who killed the king? How? How could anyone kill the king?

“You never thought about that?”

—Well, but!

Sometimes things are invisible simply because they’re too close. I can understand that much.

Well… I understand, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let it go.

“And after hiding it so carefully, why are you suddenly confessing now?”

—Uh… a desperate plea for you to trust me?

“Now, of all times?”

—Hmm…

Hope rolled his eyes around before answering.

—Honestly, I know it’s important information, but I thought it was useless.

“Useless, huh.”

—I have a brain, you know. Nothing changes by knowing it… Even Noah’s been wracking his brain over it. Sometimes it’s easier to act when you don’t know. He even said so himself.

“……”

—Still, it would hurt my pride not to know something Noah knows, and it’s better to know there’s someone like that out there, so I’m just telling you for that reason.

Alex Hope spoke as if he were bestowing a great favor.

At this point, even if I didn’t want to know about him, I couldn’t help but learn.

He’s just… not malicious, really. He’s simply made this way. The fact that he was once not human shows through so clearly.

---

Somewhere in the eastern United States.

“……”

People dressed all in black moved in perfect unison, making no sound. Though they were heavily armed from head to toe, their movements were as light as feathers. Occasionally, the equipment clinked together, but it was so faint you had to strain to hear it.

The squad leader held his breath, listening for any sign of life inside the building. The thumping beat of music echoed down the stairs.

Creeeak…

The old stairs groaned under their weight, an unpleasant sound.

The leader gestured to the rear. One squad member, empty-handed unlike the rest, stepped forward.

The member quickly checked the squeaky stairs, moving his hands busily. It wasn’t anything elaborate. He nodded and stepped back.

The advance, briefly paused, resumed.

They climbed the stairs. This time, there was no sound. In fact, there was now a gap between their feet and the steps.

Each time someone put their weight down, a faint blue glow shimmered atop the stairs, then vanished. Platforms made of magic. The entire staircase was covered to prevent any noise.

The squad checked each floor thoroughly. The inside looked long abandoned, the floor a mess of broken glass. It was obvious at a glance that the place hadn’t been used in ages. The inspection was over quickly.

They signaled that it was safe, then moved up to the next floor.

And the next.

Higher still.

And finally—

They reached the top floor, from which music leaked out.

A broken sign hung loosely from the door. Only the letters ‘a’ and ‘n’ remained.

The squad leader stepped aside. A mage checked the device on the door, and another brought equipment to break it down.

He raised three fingers.

The one with the equipment tensed his grip.

Two.

The others, weapons at the ready, steadied their breathing.

One.

Bang!

“Hands up!”

The door shattered.

The thunderous music inside drowned out the noise of entry. The interior was a single open space, no walls, no sign of anyone. Still, the squad remained tense, searching every corner.

“No one’s here!”

“Damn it.”

The leader cursed and let out a sigh.

“Somebody turn off that music! My eardrums are about to burst.”

Click.

When the music stopped, an eerie, chilling silence filled the room. The leader looked around.

Nothing but battered old furniture. Far too shabby for the hideout of a notorious crime boss.

“Take anything salvageable. Photograph everything on that wall.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There could be traps… James! You check first, got it?”

“Understood!”

The squad’s only mage moved quickly. The leader skirted a precarious pile of books and approached the wall. Old newspaper clippings and documents were plastered everywhere.

“…?”

The leader stared closely at one sheet.

[Child under sponsorship from … confirmed]

[Foster family]

[Current known number: 3]

It looked suspicious at a glance. Biting his lip, the leader turned to check elsewhere.

There was more than one thing that seemed off.

“What’s with this wardrobe?”

“It’s way too obvious a trap, sir.”

“True, but…”

An antique wardrobe stood in the middle of the room.

“What, if you open it, does it lead to another world or something?”

“Where lions run wild?”

“As if. If it led to another world, it’d just be another dungeon. James?”

“No magic, sir.”

“Really? Well, just in case, shields up. I’ll open it on three.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once the mage signaled he was ready, the leader himself grabbed the wardrobe handle. Three, two, one.

Click.

Flutter.

“…Paper?”

A single sheet fluttered down, as if it had been wedged in the wardrobe. It was covered in geometric patterns.

The mage spoke in a puzzled voice.

“A rune… sir?”

“A rune?”

“Why a rune?”

Click.

But before they could figure it out, something inside the wardrobe clicked. Before they could react—

BOOM!!!!!

An explosion engulfed the top floor.

---

At the same time.

Far from the derelict building, in a luxurious high-rise at the heart of the city.

A man with hair so pale it was nearly white stood by the window. The ashen color made him seem old, but beneath the tousled hair, his face was that of a young man.

Henry Lehmann frowned as classical music played from the turntable.

“This kind of music isn’t really my taste.”

But he didn’t stop the music or change the track. For a while, he seemed to focus on the music, then turned to the window.

From this height, the whole glittering city lay before him. Cars on the road looked like ants, and the bustling people even smaller.

“What’s the name of this piece again?”

Even to Lehmann, who didn’t care for classical, it was familiar—surely a famous piece, though it must have been composed by a human dead for centuries.

He had no interest in the songs of the dead. Lehmann preferred to listen to the songs of humans who were alive and breathing now.

Ziiing!

The violin soared to a piercing high note. It was the kind of sound that set nerves on edge, but Lehmann was more interested in the view outside.

Just as the violin’s tense note rang out—

BOOM!!

Flames erupted from a corner of the city.

A moment of silence. Then the wail of ambulance sirens.

Only then did Henry smile in satisfaction, as if he’d finally found a song he liked.

His phone rang in his pocket.

“Yeah. Is it done? …Right. I didn’t really expect you to kill anyone. That was barely a tickle. Who was it? FBI? CIA?”

Even at this late hour, the city was bright as day. The sky was empty of stars, filled with gray smoke.

It hadn’t been a magic bomb, so there was nothing to be done, but it was a shame he couldn’t kill anyone after destroying a place he liked. Still, with that much firepower, maybe he’d gotten at least one who was close by. Should he have used a magic bomb after all? But a magic bomb that powerful would have been detected by a mage right away. Even using a trigger rune had been a gamble.

“…Oh, really?”

But the next report brightened Lehmann’s face.

“It’d be a waste if no one got hurt after all that.”

He watched police cars and fire engines race across the street. The news would probably say an explosion had occurred in an old, unused building due to a gas leak. Fortunately, no casualties, and so on and so forth.

“…Did you see which group it was? Does the Association know?”

Nothing else in the report was particularly useful.

Lehmann ended the call with an ambiguous expression, somewhere between annoyance and laughter.

“Ah, really… To think they’d bother to give me a personal warning. They really are experts at getting on my nerves.”

He ran a rough hand through his hair.

“Maybe that’s why Noah hates them.”

The nameless classical piece continued to play.

Henry Lehmann picked up his phone again and made another call.

“Yeah. Is everything I asked you to set up finished?”

“……”

“Good. Then stand by.”

He hung up after a brief word. Now he made no effort to hide his irritation.

Grinding his teeth, he finally let out a hollow laugh.

“I doubt Noah would have allowed things to go this far… Or not? Maybe Noah doesn’t know? Or maybe he’s just pretending not to?”

Thinking of the young woman who had come all the way to his shabby home last winter, Henry bit his finger.

And then, of the fairy in human skin who had come to him as well, delivering a warning in person.

“Hong Seok-young… Hong Seok-young. That human is the problem.”

It was a name mentioned by both of them.

How they were all connected, he didn’t know….

Henry Lehmann smiled, lips curled in a cold grin.

“Still, I managed to lure Hong Seok-young out. The moment he enters a dungeon, that’s my chance.”

Ants moved in swarms throughout the city. Lehmann knew he was just another ant among them.

But—

“I’ll be the last ant standing.”

A coin was tossed to overturn the board.