Retire 318

318 The Duty of a Younger Sibling (3)

—It’s, it’s getting closer? What do I do?!

Woo Irok’s voice was clearly flustered, but it was still steady. He hadn’t panicked yet. This wasn’t an extremely dangerous situation.

All the more reason for me to keep my head. Still clutching my phone, I headed for the director’s office. Damn it, Imi-seon was already nowhere to be seen in the hallway. How long could she have been gone? She’s quick on her feet.

“Woo Irok. Where are you right now?”

—Me? I’m at the convenience store!

“Where? The intersection in front of the school?”

—Yeah!!

“You said it looks like a person?”

—Sort of chunky? Just the shape?

“How fast is it moving?”

His voice was a little scared, but not out of breath. He wasn’t running for his life.

—It’s, uh, slow.

“Can you run away from it?”

—Uh, um, yeah, I can run. It’s really slow.

In my experience, this kind of panic spreads quickly, especially among children. Once one starts crying, the others follow just as fast.

So I couldn’t afford to lose my composure. No matter how I felt inside, I had to sound calm.

As I asked about the situation in a steady voice, Woo Irok calmed down as well.

I checked a few more things with him.

“Are you alone?”

—No. I’m with the other kids.

“At the convenience store? Did your friends see the blue thing too?”

—Um, I’m not sure… Hang on.

I could hear Woo Irok shouting on the other end.

—Hey! I have to talk to my brother. Go inside.

—Okay!

—Don’t block the entrance, just go in!

I recognized the voices of kids I’d heard before, and then it got quiet.

Should I call this admirable or what? It was a clever decision to make in the moment, but thinking that my eleven-year-old little brother had done it… I couldn’t say I was exactly happy.

Still, it was better than being paralyzed and doing nothing. I tried to see it in a good light. If he’d acted like a typical kid in this situation, it would’ve been a real problem.

…Now I understood why my father liked it whenever I acted my age. Even so, Woo Irok was much more like a real kid than I ever was at that age. This is why socialization matters.

While I was lost in these strange thoughts, Woo Irok took a breath and called me.

—Hyung?

“Yes.”

—The other kids can’t see it. It’s still coming toward me.

“Is it still moving at the same speed?”

—Yeah.

Just then, I arrived at the director’s office.

I didn’t bother knocking as usual, just opened the door and went in.

“Mr. Woo?!”

“Then go to the school gate, quickly.”

—The gate?

“There should be a white sedan near the gate. The license plate is…”

I recited the four numbers and looked at Imi-seon. She might not know who I was talking to, but there was no way she wouldn’t recognize that license plate. It was a car used by the Dasun hunters who watched over Woo Irok.

Imi-seon’s face hardened.

—I’m going with my brother! See you tomorrow!

—Huh? You’re leaving already?

—My brother’s here!

Even in the midst of this, Woo Irok made sure to say goodbye to his friends.

It was better than panicking, I supposed… If it were truly urgent, he wouldn’t be doing that. I tried to reassure myself.

I’d have to give him a talking-to when he got home.

“The hunter in charge of picking up Irok is near the school now. I’ll tell him to meet up. What’s going on? Is someone following him again? The kids said they were just talking at the convenience store entrance, and no one approached.”

Imi-seon, apparently already in touch with the hunters, spoke into her phone, which was on speaker.

—Irok is watching right now. Hunter Kim is getting out to pick him up.

“Irok, do you see the hunter in front of you?”

—Yeah!

“Get in the car with him and come straight here. Is it still following you?”

—Uh… I think it’s moving a little faster now.

“It sped up?”

—Yeah. At first it could barely walk, and its body kept falling apart whenever it moved. It still falls apart, but now it pulls itself back together faster.

“Then run faster!”

—Hunter Kim has joined up with Irok!

“Don’t wait for the after-school pickup, just leave right away! Come to Yangseong High!”

I frowned.

From experience, the figure Woo Irok saw was magic. Thank goodness he could see mana now. Otherwise, he might have been caught off guard.

But why was Woo Irok being targeted all of a sudden?

“Irok.”

—Yeah?

“Don’t hang up. Keep an eye out, okay? Let me know if it’s still following you.”

—…I don’t think it could keep up with a car, though?

“Still, just in case.”

Who was after Woo Irok?

I reviewed what I knew. The most likely was Henry Lehmann, but I’d thought he’d be focused on Hong Seok-young.

Based on information from Hope and Gamble, police agencies around the world were moving to catch Henry Lehmann. His status as an international criminal made that possible.

And because of that, he felt a bit distant. Noah Michel was a mage I’d met even in the original timeline, so that felt more real. The whole “angel-faced villain” thing was a staple of movies and dramas, after all.

But a criminal? A mafia boss? That was never my area…

I didn’t even know where to start, and since there was nothing I could do, I’d left it to Hong Seok-young and Imi-seon.

But if they touched Woo Irok—my little brother—that was a different story…

…Damn it! The one who brought up Park Jeongmin to Woo Irok was probably someone connected to the lab. So was this Noah Michel’s doing? Hope had said that if Michel found out I could “see,” she’d go after me.

Shit, those damn cult bastards have made such a mess of things.

If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be worrying about any of this, I wouldn’t have ended up thrown into the past, and the world wouldn’t be on the brink of destruction!

“Mr. Woo? Are you alright?”

“…Yes. I’m just worried about Irok.”

“Of course… But what exactly is going on? Who’s following Irok?”

Imi-seon asked in a cautious voice.

She was worried about Irok, but more than that, she seemed to be watching to make sure I didn’t smash the table or something.

I’m not a kid anymore—I’m long past the age of breaking desks.

I took a deep breath and forced my surging mana to settle. I’d worried that Woo Irok was being too calm, but I couldn’t be the one to lose control.

I muted both my phone and Imi-seon’s. I could still hear Woo Irok talking to the hunter. If he saw anything, he’d tell me, so I didn’t want this side of the conversation to leak.

“It’s probably… magic.”

“Magic?”

“Invisible surveillance magic. Since Irok said it was coming after him, it might not stop at just watching.”

“Oh…”

“If it combines binding and invisibility magic on contact, the hunters could lose track of Irok. So avoiding it is best.”

Imi-seon bit her lip. She looked like she wanted to ask something. I knew exactly what it was.

I stopped talking, signaling her to go ahead.

“Magic… aside, how did Irok know about it?”

“I’ll have to check when he gets here…”

I clenched and unclenched my fist.

“He’s probably Awakened.”

“…Irok?”

Wasn’t it around this time that I Awakened, too?

No, it was a little later for me. I Awakened closer to summer.

Another sign that Woo Irok was different from me.

Well, honestly, I don’t even know exactly when I started to see. I didn’t see Hunters every day like Woo Irok did. Unless my father was away and my sister or Oh Hyunwook was watching me, I rarely saw Hunters up close at that age.

Just because I Awakened later than Woo Irok didn’t mean I couldn’t have seen at this age.

But those little differences add up. The more there were, the more relieved I felt. He would become someone different from me.

I still felt guilty for having taken his father away.

But he had the brother I’d lost. Maybe he’d even get a father, too. He wouldn’t have a sister, but…

I hoped he wouldn’t walk the same path I did. I wanted him to laugh and play, knowing nothing, in a peaceful world where no one died.

Just as my father had wished for me.

“I Awakened, too.”

“Oh, right.”

Imi-seon rolled her eyes, searching for words. She knew I was from the Ark, born of human experimentation. Woo Irok had the same background.

I gave a wry smile.

“Even aside from that, Awakening is highly heritable. Both his birth mother and brother are Awakened.”

“Oh, so that’s why he sensed the magic?”

Maybe Imi-seon thought this topic was too heavy, because she quickly changed the subject.

“Senses are sharp right after Awakening. If you think of it that way, it’s a good thing. Otherwise, he might have been caught.”

“…Which one do you think it is?”

“Sorry?”

“Henry Lehmann? Noah Michel?”

“……”

I looked at Imi-seon quietly.

“There’s no way to know. But we have to find out.”

“…How?”

“Could you call Ms. Kim for me?”

I waved my phone.

“It’s hard for me to move around right now because of Irok.”

---

The white sedan carrying Woo Irok, along with the black after-school car, arrived at the school ten minutes earlier than I’d expected.

Even if only Woo Irok could see the blue figure, any hunter who couldn’t sense that much ominous mana should quit their job.

From the car, which glided to a stop on the field, one hunter got out carrying Woo Irok, while another carried his backpack under his arm.

“Hyung!”

I sent Woo Irok inside. As planned, Imi-seon took him in.

I frowned belatedly.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Yes?”

Kim Chaemin activated the barrier encircling the school building. Vines grew from the flower beds the children had tended, wrapping around the outer walls.

“I don’t think we should have brought it here…”

“Because of the kids?”

“It’s not good. This is a school, after all. We shouldn’t use it like a headquarters.”

“The kids seem to like it.”

“That’s exactly the problem.”

“But it’s too late now. We don’t have enough people as it is—we can’t spread ourselves any thinner.”

At Kim Chaemin’s gesture, roses bloomed on the vines, covering the windows.

“And as long as I’m here with my eyes wide open, nothing’s getting into this building. Not without my permission.”

Fresh green shoots sprouted all over the dusty field. The lush grass rippled like waves. These were the seeds Kim Chaemin had painstakingly planted. Combining her magic with her grandfather’s, she’d created a space where she was nearly invincible.

“That’s reassuring.”

“Oh, you don’t sound convinced at all!”

I just shrugged.

In the distance, the blue figure Woo Irok had described appeared. The slow, clumsy mana that even a child could outrun was gone. The thick, eye-searing mana now raced down the road at breakneck speed.

Whoever it was, they were awfully good at controlling that troublesome thing.

I drew my spear.