Retire 327
by Cristae327 Return Home (1)
After that, Kang Taewoo didn’t say another word.
I can’t say I wasn’t curious what he was thinking, but for now, I left him alone.
Let’s focus on the bright side.
At least he hadn’t tried sneaking into the infirmary, nor had he gone looking for the old lab.
Of course, at this strange school where there were more teachers than students, sneaking into the isolated infirmary would be a challenge for kids with their current abilities.
The lab in the abandoned training center was even more secure. Ever since I revealed its location, Imi-seon had kept it under strict supervision. Honestly, I doubted Kang Taewoo even knew the exact location, and for a kid living in the dorms, sneaking out was impossible.
And if he’d really intended to do anything, he wouldn’t have confessed to me in the first place.
That’s where Kang Taewoo’s model-student side showed. He wasn’t the type to just leave home without a word like I had… Leave home? What a thing to say. It was just a slightly extended outing. All kids do that, don’t they?
“……”
In silence, we entered the road leading up to the school.
On either side of the narrow road, wide reed fields stretched out. The swaying reeds created a somewhat romantic atmosphere.
And there, much more like a real school than three containers, stood the co-ed school. A gleaming white building, large windows—anyone could see it was new and clean.
On the school field, the grass that Kim Chaemin had grown still remained. Kim Chaemin insisted that a barren environment wasn’t good for the kids, so he’d only cleared away the flowers, leaving the grass. Whether sand or grass, the kids would roll around on it, and who knew how long that grass would last…
Still, I couldn’t deny that it looked better this way, just as Kim Chaemin said.
I parked the car in the lot.
“Taewoo.”
Just before getting out, I called to Kang Taewoo.
“You know where to find me, right?”
“……”
“If you want to talk, come find me.”
Kang Taewoo looked at me for a long moment, then nodded.
“…Okay.”
“Good.”
Only after I gave him that reassurance did he finally smile faintly.
“Can I come to your house, too?”
I took that as a sign that, in his own way, he was starting to rely on an adult.
So I smiled back at him.
“You know we’re relatives now, right? At least on paper?”
“Uh… I guess so?”
“You can come with your sister, too.”
For a moment, Kang Taewoo seemed surprised, then nodded vigorously and answered with energy.
“Yes!”
“What brings you to the infirmary?”
“Just checking in.”
“Checking, huh… Nothing’s really changed, you know?”
School nurse Shin Minseo answered without taking her eyes off her phone.
“Still, I put a lot of effort into that report. Didn’t you see it? I submitted it to our master.”
“I saw it.”
“So what are you still curious about that you had to come here yourself?”
“Am I bothering you?”
“Oh, it’s not that.”
She looked bothered. Shin Minseo was still staring at her phone.
I glanced over to see what she was doing—some bizarre game, with characters I could barely recognize running wild across the screen. Well, I guess she didn’t have much to do. Not much at all…
Watching her live the dream job was somehow irritating. She was part of Dasun, and if Imi-seon had called her to the school, that meant she was trustworthy… Maybe I should give her more work?
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
At last, Shin Minseo looked up. The word ‘WIN!’ flashed on her phone screen.
“Hm?”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
She was sharp. Before my thoughts could go any further, she turned off her phone and stood up, heading for the inner room.
“This is what you’re here for, right?”
“Yes. Is there anything I need to know about the kids?”
“Nope. They’re perfectly healthy!”
She didn’t bother to hide her boredom, but she hadn’t forgotten that I could end her cushy job at any time.
She grinned at me.
“But honestly, nothing’s changed. I still think we should take him to a big hospital, but, well… I never thought I’d get to say this line. But I always wanted to try it.”
“Try what?”
“He appears to be asleep…”
She lowered her voice dramatically, almost comically.
“We can’t explain why he won’t wake up with modern medicine. The family should keep talking to him.”
“…What decade’s drama have you been watching?”
“Why? It still works on people these days. It’s a classic line, with history and tradition.”
She chuckled, hands in her pockets.
“Not that anyone comes except Sandra.”
“…Does she come often?”
“She’s been busier lately, so it’s less than before, but she still comes at least once a day. Compared to all the other bosses who just dump him here and don’t care, she’s a lot more human.”
Hearing that, I had something to say, too.
It was Alex Hope who suggested faking his own death, and do you know how much extra work that caused?
Well, not for me—Imi-seon handled it.
Shin Minseo probably knew that, so I gave the easiest excuse.
“Dr. Gamble is his family, after all. The one who should be talking to him.”
“Of course.”
“If I tried, what would I even say? Hunter Lee here would have more to say than me.”
“More to say? It’d be a miracle if I didn’t curse at him.”
She laughed again.
“And I’ve got plenty of other work to do. It’s better to leave the patient to the doctor.”
It would be unfair for me to be criticized. What could I do, just staring at that guy’s face?
If I said I’d come to visit, it would probably seem strange. Gamble, for instance, would probably look at me with open suspicion.
Ignoring Shin Minseo’s attempts at conversation—probably out of boredom from playing mobile games all day—I got to the main reason I’d come.
“Do the kids come to the infirmary often?”
She didn’t understand right away. Clearly, the infirmary’s usage rate was abysmally low.
“Do they ever ask about the inner room?”
“Oh, no. No one’s asked. Even when kids do come, it’s just for scraped knees or, well, the girls sometimes… Wait, does it smell in here?”
“…What?”
“When I was a kid, if you didn’t want to go to class, you’d come to the infirmary and nap. Why do these kids run away so fast? I mean, if you put on a bandage, you could hang out and play a bit before leaving!”
“Are you sure you should admit you weren’t a model student so proudly?”
“My parents always said, as long as I took care of myself, they didn’t care.”
She flapped her white coat.
“I did take care of myself, didn’t I?”
“You’ll get in trouble if you say that elsewhere.”
“That’s part of taking care of yourself, too.”
She turned and opened the door.
Beyond the infirmary was another door. A room full of beds and stubbornly added, expensive medical equipment.
She drew back the curtain around one of the beds.
“There’s nothing wrong.”
I… blinked.
For some reason, she straightened her shoulders and spoke with confidence.
“See?”
“…Yes. I see.”
“I keep telling you, don’t I?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I update the patient’s status every day. You haven’t been ignoring that, right?”
“Ahem, I did hear there were no problems…”
“There are problems. He can’t wake up. But, well, there aren’t any problems? He just looks like he’s sleeping, right?”
“…Yes.”
I frowned.
“Honestly, if he’s not sleeping, I don’t know what else it could be.”
“Is he really just sleeping, or is he unconscious?”
“Hard to believe, but yes. He’s a patient in a coma.”
I looked at Alex Hope, lying in the bed. He didn’t look at all like the typical image of a comatose patient. There wasn’t even a ventilator or any of the usual ICU equipment.
Alex Hope was rolling over, his face rosy—just like someone sleeping peacefully.
“Really?”
“I’m telling you!”
She answered, clearly annoyed.
“I don’t get it either. He’s breathing fine, and you saw—he moves around! If I try to hook up any medical equipment, it’s all disconnected by the time I look away.”
“Hm…”
“Sandra says to just leave him. Says he’s always hated hospitals since he was a kid… As long as he’s healthy, she says there’s no need to worry. Is there something wrong?”
“No. It’s fine.”
“Hunters, honestly… They’re all weird.”
She muttered under her breath.
But this wasn’t about being a Hunter… I didn’t even know if Alex Hope was one hundred percent human. His body might be human, but who knew about the rest? No human, not even a mage, could carry a monster the size of a house across continents.
Maybe Gamble knew…
No, Gamble wasn’t as troublesome as Hope. If Hope’s inability to wake was due to his body, Gamble would have said something. Besides, Hope had once complained that maintaining a human body was a hassle, so his physical form probably wasn’t any different from a normal human’s.
I shook my head and left the room. Shin Minseo drew the curtain around the bed and quickly followed me.
I left her with a request.
“If there’s any change in his condition, let me know immediately.”
“Yep.”
“And…”
I stifled a groan.
“If any of the kids try to sneak into the infirmary… or if they get curious about him, let me know.”
“I’m curious, too. Will you tell me?”
“No.”
“Aww.”
Maybe I should talk to Seungyeon, too.
That would be best.
Yes, I should.
…Or will Imi-seon handle it?
Probably not.
How should I explain it to Seungyeon? That he’s a reformed criminal? That he was actually on our side? Or should I just dump it all on Hong Seokyeong?
It would have been best if Seungyeon never noticed anything… but since he already knew, I should at least give him some warning. At the very least, it would stop him from doing anything foolish out of curiosity.
With a heavy heart, I drew my sword. I’d never understood why my sister sometimes went into low-level dungeons just to burn things, but now I was starting to get it.
I wouldn’t go into a dungeon, but there was something on the field I needed to take care of. The monster’s corpse, still there, not rotting, unchanged since death. Kim Chaemin and Imi-seon were still analyzing it, but hadn’t found anything yet. There should be plenty of samples…
Vroooom.
As I wrapped my sword in mana, I caught the faint sound of a car approaching.
Looking up, I saw a car speeding toward the school from the far end of the entry road.