Retire 329
by Cristae329 Return Home (3)
[Hunter Hong will be coming back to Korea for a bit.]
Imi-seon sent word of Hong Seokyeong’s return far too late. When I looked at him with an incredulous face and asked when he’d told her, Hong Seokyeong scratched his head sheepishly.
“At the airport?”
“…Which airport?”
“……”
He hesitated for a long while before answering. I could pretty much guess what he’d say.
“Incheon?”
“……”
This guy, honestly.
I’d expected as much, but that didn’t make it any less annoying.
Hong Seokyeong watched me warily for a moment, then squared his shoulders. Fine. He’d watched long enough. From the start, he’d acted as if he hadn’t done anything wrong.
Fine. It wasn’t really a mistake.
I calmed down.
“Next time, I’ll just burn that car to the ground.”
“……”
Hong Seokyeong quickly changed the subject.
“So, the kids are doing well, right?”
I sighed. What could I do? He was already here. I couldn’t exactly kick him out for coming home. I let myself go along with his rhythm.
Anyway, I needed to update him on the kids. After all, Hong Seokyeong was the principal of this school.
…Not that I was sure how useful that was. Did this school even need a principal?
Wouldn’t a P.E. teacher be enough?
“Yes, well. Kang Taewoo is a bit of a problem, though.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
I explained about Kang Taewoo’s talk of revenge. Hong Seokyeong looked surprised at first, then nodded and fell into thought.
He didn’t speak again until his coffee had gone cold.
“He’ll be all right.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“He already gave up on revenge once.”
“……”
The lukewarm coffee tasted terrible.
“Once he found out his sister was alive, he gave up on Hope completely. It means he’s got his own standards. So he’ll be fine.”
“But…”
“Giving up is hard. That’s why you grow by walking that hard road.”
Hong Seokyeong spoke with unwavering conviction.
“Just like all of us did.”
For some reason, those words reassured me. I nodded, almost imperceptibly.
You may know the depths of water, but not the depths of a person’s heart. Kang Taewoo might seem calm on the outside, but he could snap at any moment.
But worrying about it now wouldn’t help. Everyone makes mistakes. For kids who haven’t learned much yet, not making mistakes would be stranger.
That’s how you grow.
If he struggles, I can help. Now, Kang Taewoo has an adult he can rely on. Not some trash who shoves his son into a fake lab as an experiment.
Hong Seokyeong smiled at me, then drained his coffee as well.
“Well, shall we go?”
“…Go where?”
“I told you, there’s something I want to ask that fairy!”
I looked at him in disbelief. The mood from a moment ago was shattered.
“You mean right now?”
Hong Seokyeong always exceeded my expectations.
The look on his face—like he couldn’t believe I’d even ask—made me bite back a curse.
He checked the time and nodded.
“I can’t stay in Korea long. I need to get to Jirisan quickly, see Irok, handle the adoption paperwork…”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that last part.”
“Adoption takes a while, you know. If I prepare while I’m here, it’ll save time.”
“I said I’ll pretend I didn’t hear.”
But he kept talking, even as I stood up and left the counseling room.
“Is adult adoption different? I should look into that.”
“…I’m not listening.”
Finally, I turned back, annoyed. Before I could say anything, he cut me off.
“You said it was fine as long as Irok wanted it, right?”
The words caught in my throat.
Hong Seokyeong grinned slyly.
“Remember?”
Damn it.
“…Did you ask Irok?”
“Hmm. Who knows?”
He waved his phone. The screen was black, nothing displayed.
But right on cue, a message notification flashed across the screen.
I couldn’t see what the message said, but I could see who sent it.
Uirok.
Hong Seokyeong looked me straight in the eye, and, as if to tease me, slowly checked the message. He smiled.
“That kid. So greedy.”
“What did he say?!”
“Getting a family is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?”
“What did he say?!”
“Well, whoever owns my car, someone smashed the side mirror, so it’s no good… Let’s borrow Hunter Lee’s car.”
“Hey!”
“Time to start calling me Dad.”
“What the hell are you—!”
“If you’re embarrassed, Father is fine. I’ve never been called that before.”
“You—!”
“Come on, we’ve got a lot to do, so let’s go! Don’t forget to tell Isabella we won’t be home tonight.”
Hong Seokyeong strode past me. I barely managed to resist the urge to smack him as he walked away.
Not that I knew if there was any point in holding back.
Jirisan, Gyeongsangnam-do.
Just as the sun was about to set, we arrived at Jirisan, where the fairy in question resided.
This time, Kim Chaemin didn’t come along. Nor did Han Taekyung.
‘Just in case, I think someone should always stay at the school,’ Kim Chaemin had said, and I agreed.
The area in front of the dungeon gate was unchanged from last time. Kim Chaemin’s alarm spell was still in place. Hong Seokyeong notified him of our arrival. The magic forming the barrier loosened.
If not for Kim Chaemin’s magic, we’d never know if someone snuck in here. Not that we were in any position to complain, since we were sneaking in ourselves.
Still, in the long run, this wasn’t good. The government was supposed to be managing dungeons, but look at the state of things. Were they really doing their jobs?
“Let’s go right in.”
As soon as the magic faded, Hong Seokyeong spoke. Instead of following, I hesitated and asked,
“What if the same thing as last time happens?”
“Last time? Oh, the mud?”
We’d managed to handle it thanks to Kim Chaemin, but now…
“What was that fairy’s name again?”
“Tatiyo.”
“Right. She knows us, so she shouldn’t attack. Even if she does, she’ll stop once she realizes who we are.”
“The fact that she attacks at all is the problem…”
Even if we could escape, there was no need to risk it.
Of course, with Kim Chaemin absent, there wasn’t much we could do. Maybe I should have brought him. But he had plenty to do, and there was no one as convenient—or as capable—as the archmage.
Hong Seokyeong didn’t seem to agree, but he listened anyway.
“If you really hate it, try tossing your sword in first.”
“My sword?”
“Yeah, your sword. She recognized it before, so she can’t pretend not to now.”
I considered his suggestion.
Not entirely wrong. If this were another dungeon, I’d have protested—do you know how much that item is worth? But here…
My hesitation was brief.
Do you know how exhausting it is to drive from Gyeonggi-do to Gyeongsang-do? Even if you don’t get physically tired, it’s not something you do willingly. Planes or trains are less mentally taxing, but we used a car to avoid attention.
On the long drive, I’d heard why Hong Seokyeong had to come himself. He had his reasons.
I was tired and didn’t want to waste any more time.
I immediately drew my sister’s sword and tossed it through the dungeon gate.
“Oh!”
I frowned at Hong Seokyeong.
“What are you so surprised about?”
“Well, I told you to throw it, but couldn’t you have given me a moment to prepare myself?”
“What do you need to prepare for? It’s not even yours.”
“Do you know how much that item is worth?!”
So he did know. I snorted at him.
I looked at the gate. Whatever happened inside, you couldn’t see from the outside.
The fact that Han Taekyung could see inside the dungeon was truly shocking. But you can’t rely on a single item to clear a dungeon. Kim Chaemin would agree. If Gamble hadn’t intervened, we’d have just left it alone, thinking, “What a strange and convenient item,” or “I’d love to have it, but I can’t just ask for it.”
It was disappointing to learn that the power wasn’t in the item, but in the eyes. If it were the item, we could take it apart and analyze it, but you can’t do that with eyes.
All we could do was hope that the combination of a genius mana engineer and an archmage would work a miracle.
After a suitable wait, I spoke to Hong Seokyeong.
“Let’s go in.”
“How did you turn out this way… Heejae, you really don’t know the value of items.”
“What are you talking about?”
The nonsense he’d picked up in America… maybe he was lonely.
If I responded to every little thing, I’d just wear myself out. I pushed past him and entered the gate. After all, the fairy Tati in this dungeon knew not Hong Seokyeong, but Woo Heejae. Not me, but Woo Heejae. My vanished brother.
“Oh, so reckless!”
Hong Seokyeong fussed as he followed. The world spun. In the blink of an eye, everything changed.
Tati the fairy’s dungeon was filled with trees. Trees, mud, and a fairy wreathed in thorns. That was my impression of this place.
Not much time had passed since then, so the dungeon’s environment hadn’t changed much. The trees still stood thick, and mud clung to the soles of my shoes as soon as I stepped through the gate.
I couldn’t hide my surprise as I looked around. Broken pieces like shards of pottery lay scattered near the gate. They were probably remnants of Tati’s golems. I’d smashed plenty myself, so it wasn’t strange to see fragments all over the dungeon.
But something else was strange.
“What’s with this dungeon?”
Hong Seokyeong, following me in, looked puzzled too. No wonder—though there was no sign of life anywhere, the trees in the dungeon, which had once been covered in green leaves…
“Why are they all bare?”
The forest was filled with nothing but leafless, skeletal branches.
The golem-filled forest had been eerie, but this forest of withered trees looked like something out of a B-grade horror movie.
I’d never seen a dungeon’s environment change so drastically.
“Heejae!!”
But, fortunately or unfortunately, there was one being in this dungeon we could talk to. The fairy, probably the only monster here.
Tati emerged from between the withered trees, clutching my—my brother’s—sword tightly.
“Hello!”
With mud dripping from her hair, the fairy beamed at us.