Retire 376
by Cristae376 Playing with Fire (2)
The moment I heard Noah Michel’s name, a certain possibility flashed through my mind.
The Marseille dungeon.
Mold. Seeds. Eggs.
Fire and toxic gas.
Noah Michel’s magic.
Marie Lambert’s burn scars.
I started weighing possibilities and probabilities, then stopped myself. It’s a bad habit. I, of all people, should know there’s no end to it if I just keep thinking.
I decided to keep it simple.
The reason I came to Europe. The reason Kim Chaemin came to Europe.
Part of it was wanting to see Noah Michel with my own eyes, but even before that, we’d wanted to reduce her influence.
This was the perfect opportunity. A chance to make my name known, too.
-Ah, it might not necessarily be a spider.
What?
Now he was changing his story?
-The one I saw turned out to be a spider… but from a photo, it’s hard to say if it’s the same thing.
I frowned. I’d wanted to make use of Hope’s knowledge, not just his personal experience.
Still, it was better than knowing nothing.
-Like you said, whether it’s a seed or whatever, whatever comes out of it isn’t going to contribute to world peace.
“Honorifics.”
-…That was, what, seven or eight years ago? Something similar showed up in Australia.
Hope quickly changed the subject.
-Not sure if you can find the records. It popped up in the desert and drained a whole lake. Couldn’t track it in the desert, and luckily it was far from any cities, so they just waited out the three months.
“Hm.”
-Ask Sandra. She might be able to dig something up. Since they gave up on the raid, I don’t know how useful it’ll be.
“Better than nothing.”
-…Wait, am I the one who has to ask? I was sleeping, you know?
“Dr. Gamble won’t be sleeping.”
-All right, all right.
Hope grumbled, but didn’t argue further.
I hung up and sent him a message.
[What’s the chance your friend was involved in this dungeon break?]
Hope checked it right away.
[Dunno]
[Could be, could not be]
[Check before you close the dungeon]
[If you find this near the core, my friend probably took care of it]
He sent a photo—a hastily scribbled symbol on a scrap of paper.
The shapes were a mess, as if he didn’t quite remember, but the overall pattern was a rune I knew well.
The same rune used to trigger explosions in the Ark.
We repeated the same experiment a few more times.
It was to find the right temperature to burn these things. The mages stood around like sacks of barley, and the Dantes ducklings hovered around me and Kim Chaemin, fascinated.
“It won’t be easy to burn it all at once, right?”
Kim Chaemin tilted her head as she asked.
I didn’t deny it. Overestimating your abilities is the quickest way to ruin.
“It’s best to cut it up and burn it in pieces. There’s the gas issue, and we have to consider collateral damage since we’re so close to the city.”
After a moment’s thought, I added—if there were human resources available, we should use them.
“We could use the mages, too. With magic… though I don’t know how many could generate that kind of high heat.”
“If we can’t find any among the conference mages, they don’t deserve to call themselves mages.”
Kim Chaemin was scathing, clearly speaking for the benefit of the mages who didn’t deserve the title.
We returned to the site. In the meantime, a response camp had been set up. Hunters I hadn’t seen before were everywhere, their presence sharp and focused, unlike the clueless Dantes kids. They must have been from other Marseille guilds—real Hunters, not inexperienced kids.
There were mages, too. Charlotte Mallet was there, along with other familiar faces—famous now and twenty years from now.
The Hunters and mages approached us—really, they approached Kim Chaemin. She was the bigger name at the moment.
“Um, we’ll be going now.”
Eva Robinson, Duckling #1, backed away nervously. Duckling #2, Marie Lambert, was only a little more composed.
It was natural—they didn’t belong here.
But I stopped the ducklings.
“Dantes is the responsible guild for this dungeon. Stay. In the end, your name will be on the record.”
“……”
I glanced at a middle-aged man who looked like an older version of Eva Robinson. I’d wondered if the parents who made this guild just left them here and went far away or to another country.
But no, he was absurdly close by.
“…I’m Jean Robinson.”
I wasn’t about to comment on someone else’s family. Mine was complicated enough.
Together with Kim Chaemin, I began discussing what we’d learned and how best to handle the situation.
“Burning is the surest way?”
A mage whose name I’d rather not remember looked at us as if wondering why we were even debating this.
“The conference president—Mallet—and Michel will be here soon, right? She’ll take care of it in no time.”
“Noah Michel? True…”
“With her magic, she could handle it in one shot.”
The mages murmured, and the Hunters nodded.
I exchanged a glance with Kim Chaemin. Just then, Sandra Gamble sent over data on the dungeon that had broken out in Australia. It was old, and since they’d given up on handling it, the info was sparse.
…No, actually, for a dungeon that broke out in the middle of the desert, the fact that any data survived was impressive.
Kim Chaemin quickly skimmed the info on my phone, then nodded as if to say, leave it to me.
“Noah Michel. That’s reassuring. But when will she get here?”
The weight of Archmage Kim Chaemin’s words was different.
Conference president Mallet blinked slowly, then answered.
“At the earliest, she’ll arrive the morning after tomorrow.”
“Even with a dungeon break?”
“Michel’s in Russia right now. I heard the Russian government requested her help.”
Kim Chaemin played the video Gamble had sent.
“Our guild’s researcher said she’d seen a similar monster before.”
The video, nearly ten years old, was low quality. Maybe it was the equipment, but only a skilled Hunter could get that close to a monster. The camera shook and the focus was terrible, but it was still recognizable.
A black dust mass covered the lake like algae. If not for the glint of water between the gaps, you’d never guess it was a lake.
But the water was only visible for a moment. The eggs absorbed it instantly and swelled. Thin, root-like spines appeared, and the fluff turned into a sea urchin’s spines.
And then?
It turned into a spider with dozens of legs.
The person filming ran at that point. The camera spun wildly and the video ended.
“There are no lakes in Marseille, but…”
Kim Chaemin spoke slowly.
“In a big city, there’s a lot of water. Tap water. Wastewater. Sewers.”
I added,
“We’ve already confirmed roots—legs?—spreading. They’re near the city. If they burrow underground, it’ll be over in no time.”
“We can’t wait two days.”
“If we can’t summon Noah Michel right away, we’ll have to handle it ourselves.”
The faces of Marseille’s Hunters and the European mages gathered for the conference turned grim.
You could almost hear the gears turning.
No one was quick to speak. I could understand the Hunters—they had no way to burn it all at once. But the mages… hmm.
Unless you had a fire attribute, it’d be hard to generate that kind of heat.
“Well, it’s not really my place as an outside Hunter.”
I stepped back.
“I’m just offering my opinion. It’s your city to protect, after all.”
I addressed the Hunters of Marseille. If there was damage, it would be their responsibility. I was an outsider—ultimately, it wasn’t my problem.
Even now, the issue of who’s responsible for damage is a sensitive one among guilds.
Every dungeon near a city has a managing guild, and if a break happens—like in Myeongdong—someone has to take responsibility.
For this dungeon, that’s Dantes. But seeing how the local police could rattle off Dantes’ situation, it was no secret how this guild had been formed. So who would get the blame?
Naturally, the parents would.
Unlike Myeongdong, there hadn’t been immediate casualties here. If they wanted to, they could easily shift the blame.
Especially with outside Hunters, not to mention an archmage and S-rank Hunter, kindly explaining the strategy. Luckily or not, magic was essential, and the Hunters had no way to implement the plan themselves.
Jean Robinson finished his calculations.
“We’d like to clear it as soon as possible, but…”
Just as I expected, the excuses began.
“Our guild has no way to create fire that hot. We desperately need the mages’ help.”
All eyes turned to the mages.
Now, if there was any damage from the dungeon break, the mages would be blamed. The Hunters wanted to clear it, but the mages refused. What a convenient excuse.
And even the proudest mage couldn’t just ignore a dungeon break right in front of them.
I said to Jean Robinson,
“Even without magic, I can create fire hot enough to burn it.”
“…Aren’t you a Hunter?”
“I have an item.”
I tapped the sword at my waist.
There was still some suspicion, but with Kim Chaemin’s endorsement, even that faded. What is an archmage, anyway?
A living, convenient letter of recommendation?
No wonder I can’t stop working with mages.
The discussion went on for a while. Some still wanted to wait for Noah Michel, but those who didn’t want the responsibility were just hoping the monster wouldn’t wake up before she arrived.
And, well.
Now there was someone else to blame if things went wrong.
“Well, since we have Archmage Kim’s opinion…”
An archmage and a Hunter from another continent.
In the end, people are the same everywhere.
Now the topic shifted to how best to burn the things.
I gripped my sword and looked out at the city, dimly lit by scattered streetlights.
It’s rare to find a dungeon this non-aggressive. With the monster spread across the city, it was sure to become an issue, and I was certain there were cameras following us. Maybe it was being broadcast live already.
If possible, I hoped my actions would be caught on camera. I hadn’t planned to use such extreme methods, but there was simply no other way.
No one in the Ark would recognize me. I came from the future.
But there might be someone who would recognize my sword. If he was still alive.
Hyung.