Retire 312

312 Method (2)

“Absolutely not!!”

Han Taekyung protested fiercely.

“Never! I won’t allow it!!”

“I’m not even asking you to give it to me, though?”

Gamble had always been good at Korean, but lately, his skills had improved so much it was hard to believe. He didn’t seem to be studying the language any more than before… Maybe it was because he’d grown closer to the kids recently.

Kim Chaemin, perhaps thinking the same thing as I was, sipped her coffee and marveled at Gamble’s linguistic talent.

“Smart people really do pick things up quickly, don’t they?”

“True. Didn’t he say he started learning ages ago? That must help. And now he works among locals, too.”

“Still. Isn’t his pronunciation almost perfect now?”

If I closed my eyes and listened, I couldn’t tell who was the Korean and who was the foreigner between Han Taekyung and Gamble. In fact, Gamble might even speak better Korean than Han Taekyung. Honestly, if he got into a debate with Hong Seokyoung, I’d bet on Gamble to win.

“Some people are just born with a gift for languages.”

“That’s true.”

I took a sip of my coffee as well. The Hunter working in the cafeteria must know a thing or two about coffee, because the aroma was excellent. Im Miseon’s knack for finding talent was another enviable gift. Does she check for barista licenses during interviews or something?

Kim Chaemin took another sip of her coffee. I could see her eyes growing hazy. With a dazed look, she watched Gamble and Han Taekyung squabble.

“Fine, fine! I’ll do it for you!”

“I said no!!”

“I’ll run a three-night, four-day Chasing Camp for you!”

“……”

“Oh my. Is he actually tempted by that?”

Kim Chaemin blinked, her voice incredulous. I shrugged my shoulders.

“It’s Mr. Han, after all.”

“He even threatened to sue us, remember?”

“Maybe suing a foreigner is a higher hurdle for him, too.”

“Don’t foreign workers have to follow Korean law?”

“Don’t they? They pay taxes here, after all.”

“Oh, right. Sandra got insurance, didn’t she?”

“Of course. If she didn’t, I’d have reported Mr. Hong myself.”

“You two over there, I can hear everything!”

“We’re saying it so you’ll hear.”

Yes. At first, Kim Chaemin and I were part of that squabble, too. After all, wasn’t this about clues for a safer dungeon strategy, and something Noah Michel wanted to get his hands on? And with Sandra Gamble, maybe she could create something even more impressive.

But then Han Taekyung said,

“Still, threatening to sue a colleague…”

“I’m really disappointed, you know.”

“I said I can hear you!!”

“We want you to hear us!”

He threatened to sue for workplace harassment.

Kim Chaemin looked uncertain, as if she really wondered if he’d go through with it, but I knew Han Taekyung. Unfortunately, if Han Taekyung said he’d do something, he did it.

In his twenties, Han Taekyung’s record wasn’t yet marred by lawsuits and countersuits, but in his thirties, that changed. There was no reason for us to be his first.

And as Han Taekyung said, if he was so adamant about refusing, what could we do? Forcing him would make us… well, something like defenders of justice, at best.

Honestly, I believed that once Hong Seokyoung returned, he’d just take it by force anyway.

So for those reasons, Kim Chaemin and I stepped back.

The ones left in the ring were Gamble—and Gamble, for his part, said if Han wanted to sue, he should go right ahead.

‘Why not? The master at Daseon or our own master would find me a lawyer!’

That was the right answer.

“Three nights and four days! You can watch the entire anime from episode one, and even write a full A4 page review for each episode!”

A review that long for a twenty-minute anime? Even Uirok would struggle with that.

“……”

Han Taekyung was visibly shaken by Gamble’s offer. Gamble finally played his trump card.

“I know someone who works at that cartoon company! Don’t you want the author’s autograph?”

“Ugh! That’s low!”

“How about original artwork?!”

“Grrr!”

Still, Han Taekyung didn’t give in to temptation.

“No. I said no!”

…To resist even this—Han Taekyung must be serious.

I looked regretfully at my empty coffee cup, then spoke. Gamble had a reason he needed to check Han Taekyung’s sunglasses.

It wasn’t just personal curiosity. Gamble had brought up the card of safer dungeon strategies. I didn’t know how realistic that was, and just connecting communication between inside and outside the dungeon could take twenty years, as in the original timeline.

But I didn’t know how the past might influence the future. Maybe someone inspired by Han Taekyung’s item had helped create the magic clock back then.

Even if not, I couldn’t ignore any chance to make dungeon raids even a little safer.

In this matter, I was on Gamble’s side.

“Mr. Han. Why exactly can’t you?”

Let’s at least hear his reasons.

“……”

“Don’t just say no… I’ve already told you why we need it. You go into dungeons, too, so you must understand what this means, right?”

Han Taekyung clamped his mouth shut, head turning slightly away.

I couldn’t see his eyes properly because of those damn sunglasses, but it was clear he was avoiding my gaze. I suppressed a sigh and continued.

“As I said before… Dr. Gamble wants to make dungeon raids safer. You know what that means. You’ve seen inside the gate yourself.”

“……”

“What if Mr. Kim hadn’t been there that time? Would you have just left me and Mr. Hong?”

“…Well.”

“In a situation where it was obvious we’d be attacked the moment we crossed the gate?”

No matter how immature Han Taekyung might seem, he was always serious about dungeons. I wanted to believe that. Surely he wasn’t stubbornly refusing just because he didn’t want to give up his item… like a child.

“No. That’s not it. I, Han Taekyung, am not that petty.”

He straightened his gaze, no longer avoiding us.

“I waited because I saw everyone was safe. If I’d gone in recklessly, it would only have been dangerous.”

“So you could see that much! How long after entry was that? How much could you see? Do you see like that all the time? Or only under certain conditions? If there are conditions, that’s even better. Easier to measure!”

“Sandra, just wait a moment. We’re talking.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child!”

I glanced at Kim Chaemin and Gamble. Kim Chaemin waved apologetically.

I turned back to Han Taekyung.

“Wouldn’t you like to have a way to make dungeon raids safer, too?”

“……”

“For now, we’re just talking. We’re not asking you to hand over the item…”

“I need it right now…!”

“Be quiet!”

“……!”

I deliberately avoided looking at Kim Chaemin and Gamble.

“…Even later, we’re not asking you to hand it over. If your item really helps, we’d just ask for your cooperation.”

“……”

“You don’t go into dungeons every day, right? Just when you’re at school, you could work with Dr. Gamble…”

“……”

Han Taekyung stubbornly kept his mouth shut.

“At least tell us why not.”

“……”

“Is it a bound item? Some other condition? My sword burns anyone else who tries to hold it. If your sunglasses are like that…”

“No.”

Finally, Han Taekyung’s shoulders slumped.

I could see the tension draining from his body. To be precise, he looked like he’d given up.

…Now I felt like the bad guy.

In the end, I took a step back. Truthfully, what we were doing was little better than browbeating him. It was basically blackmail, using dungeon safety as leverage.

Let’s not get into the philosophical question of whether anything is more important than a human life. Everyone has their own circumstances.

If someone demanded I tell them where I got my sword, I’d probably shout, “What business is it of yours?” If they tried to use people’s lives as leverage for something so uncertain, I’d probably grab them by the collar. That’s what this was.

“…Mr. Han. If it’s something hard to talk about, that’s fine. I think I was a bit insensitive.”

“What? No, I mean, maybe that’s… maybe that’s true! But that’s not it!”

Han Taekyung jumped up.

What was he saying? Which is it, then?

“I, um. It’s true I don’t want to talk about it, but that doesn’t mean… that I’d give up on a new? safer? strategy because of it…”

“We’re not asking for anything definite, just to do some research… Right, Doctor?”

“Yes!”

Sensing Han Taekyung was about to give in, Gamble’s eyes sparkled. Kim Chaemin quickly grabbed him to stop him from blurting out more in his excitement.

Gamble cleared his throat.

“Ahem, yes. Research first. The item lets you see magic, right? And if you can see inside the dungeon under certain conditions…”

“Sandra.”

“…Sorry. Anyway, you can’t know anything until you actually try. Even a genius can’t create something from nothing!”

The dice were back in Han Taekyung’s hands.

Han Taekyung looked at Gamble, who seemed almost desperate. Then he slowly turned to look at Kim Chaemin beside him, and finally, he looked at me.

“The reason I said no…”

Han Taekyung let out a sigh.

He was more serious than I’d ever seen him.

“These sunglasses are just sunglasses. Ordinary ones. I bought them at a duty-free shop last year, when I was on a business trip to Europe.”

“…What?”

“The ones I wore in the Jirisan dungeon? I just bought them on a whim because I liked them. They were about five thousand won, I think.”

Han Taekyung scratched his head.

“Seohyun’s magic. The shadow thing? That was tough for me, too. The sunglasses actually made it harder to see. Her magic was really tough. I strained my eyes so much trying to see what I couldn’t, I got dry eye syndrome. I don’t know much about magic, but she’s definitely going to be someone big.”

Praise from Han Taekyung. Even in this situation, Kim Chaemin was smiling proudly beside him.

At this point, the whole situation struck me as absurd. It was as if none of us were in our right minds.

Someone had to keep it together, at least.

“Dry eye syndrome?”

“Yes.”

Han Taekyung slowly took off his sunglasses. Across all timelines, this was the first time I’d seen Han Taekyung’s bare face.

Would Hong Seokyoung know?

“Seeing magic and all that… It’s not the item’s ability.”

Han Taekyung squeezed his eyes shut.

“It’s… my eyes.”

He slowly opened his tightly shut eyes. Where there should have been the deep brown eyes of an East Asian, there were instead softly glowing golden eyes.

“My eyes aren’t human. That’s why I can do it.”