Retire 380
by Cristae380 Girl of Dreams (3)
Once upon a time, there lived a kind and gentle mage who loved tending gardens.
“Isn’t ‘kind’ and ‘gentle’ the same thing?”
“Be quiet.”
“Yes.”
The kind and talented mage cultivated a beautiful garden of her own.
Her favorite flower was the rose she’d inherited from her grandfather, but her garden wasn’t filled with roses alone. The mage wanted to help others with the flowers she grew…
“Wasn’t she already grown up?”
“Don’t interrupt.”
“I just meant you could explain it plainly… Fine. Go on.”
Because she wanted to help others, she grew many different plants.
But unfortunately, the kind and capable mage was met with disaster. Some wicked thieves broke into her garden, dug up her beds, and tried to steal her grandfather’s rose.
“Grandfather’s rose?”
Luckily, the mage managed to drive the thieves away and save her rose, but that didn’t mean her garden was unharmed. All the precious seedlings she’d spent years cultivating had died.
The mage stood in her ruined garden and swore revenge.
“Wasn’t this supposed to be a fairy tale?”
She tracked down the mastermind behind the thieves and tore apart the villain who had hindered humanity’s progress…
“That’s enough!”
“…Why?”
Kim Chaemin, pulling the arms of a puppet with a rose for a head, a slender vine for a body, and thin leaves for limbs, stared at me blankly.
I knew that Kim Chaemin’s entire domain had been destroyed by the Ark. That was why she’d started chasing the Ark with Hong Seok-young.
After she first told me, she never brought it up again. Not because she was over it, but because she hated it so much she couldn’t even talk about it.
So I could understand her hatred… but suddenly accusing Noah Michel as the culprit was something else.
Not that I’m saying Noah Michel had nothing to do with the Ark—but this was naming her as the direct perpetrator.
“Noah Michel did it herself?”
I’d never heard that she’d come to Korea.
…Though, for a mage of that caliber, it wouldn’t be impossible to come in secret.
“Why would Noah Michel do that?”
Kim Chaemin finally broke the puppet’s arm.
“I’m not saying she’s not the problem… No, let me explain! Why do you only take in fragments of information?!”
“Go ahead.”
“Why would Noah Michel act herself? She has plenty of people she could send.”
The devoted followers who claimed to be her disciples didn’t exist yet. The mood was positive, and there were those who followed Michel, but there were too many stubborn old mages for them to openly worship a young archmage.
But even so, Michel was running the Ark. Was it just that there wasn’t anyone strong enough to challenge an archmage’s domain? What about Hope? Was he too valuable to use?
Still, there must have been other ways… I just couldn’t understand.
“How should I know?”
Kim Chaemin replied curtly.
“But I’m sure it was Noah Michel.”
She couldn’t say why Michel would act directly, but she was certain it was her.
I crossed my arms and looked at her.
“Why do you think that?”
“The magical residue.”
“Residue?”
With a sulky face, Kim Chaemin explained.
“I can’t identify a spell’s caster just by looking at the magic pattern, like some people.”
“That’s something only I can do.”
“Ugh, whatever. But there are other ways. When someone casts a large-scale spell, the magic shakes the air. The way it shakes is different for every mage.”
“Like a magic pattern?”
“Every mage’s magic has its own nature and method, so yes, it’s like a pattern. But this is more like…”
She paused, thinking.
“You write your name on the top sheet of a notepad. With a pen or pencil, whatever. That’s the magic pattern.”
“Yes.”
“Then you tear off that sheet. There’s a new blank page, but if you look closely, you can still see the imprint of the name you wrote.”
“That’s the residue?”
“You wouldn’t notice unless you looked for it. Most people know it’s there, but can’t tell the difference. Unless you’re as skilled as I am.”
I nodded.
“But isn’t Michel a skilled mage too?”
If an archmage is the standard for “skilled.”
“True. But I’m not just any skilled mage.”
She reached out across the table. Besides the puppet with broken limbs, there was a model of a ruined garden, caught in the explosion.
Kim Chaemin flicked her fingers over the garden model, as if scattering something. I couldn’t see it, but I knew her magic pattern was there.
“There were so many spells tangled together. I didn’t even have a chance to react.”
“Hm.”
“I know there’s residue. If it was just one person, it’d be easy to tell. But what if more than one person wrote on the notepad? What if it’s just random scribbles instead of names? Could you tell who drew which line? Was it all the same person, or all different?”
“…You can tell?”
“My magic is especially sensitive to that sort of thing.”
She snorted.
“It’s partly thanks to the spells I’d set up in my domain. After the attack, I spent a whole week sorting through the residue.”
I’m not a mage, so I can’t fully understand.
But I could tell how crazy—and how impressive—what she was saying was.
And I resolved never to make an enemy of a mage. At least, never mess with their territory.
“I might not know much else, but I’ll never forget that filthy magic at the core. That burnt smell! That disgusting burnt smell!”
“Hmmm.”
“The magic Noah Michel used to burn that fungus!!”
“It wasn’t fungus, though.”
“It smelled exactly the same!!!”
Bang!
Kim Chaemin slammed her fist on the table, unusually violent for her.
I looked at the smashed rose puppet and the ruined garden model. She’d told the story in a silly way, but…
She’d specifically mentioned her grandfather’s rose, and the seedlings she’d raised to help others.
I believed her. Knowing her personality, it made sense.
Just remember the miniature greenhouse she showed me when she first made mana grass. The runes she used showed how long she’d been working on this research. Knowledge doesn’t just appear out of nowhere.
I studied her face. In the past, I would have waited for her to calm down, or not asked at all… but now, I figured I could.
If it really was the Ark that targeted Kim Chaemin, if Noah Michel had moved herself… there had to be a reason.
“Can I ask what you were researching in your domain?”
Kim Chaemin’s anger paused for a moment. It was almost comical, like someone had pressed the pause button. If it weren’t for the situation, I might have teased her.
“You think I didn’t notice you’ve been avoiding this topic?”
“…No.”
“Mr. Hong said to leave it alone, since he trusted you, and I agreed, so I never pressed. If it was directly related to our work, I figured you’d tell us.”
“…Yes.”
“But if Noah Michel was involved, I have to ask.”
She nodded.
“My grandfather…”
Starting with your grandfather? Really?
“I was continuing my grandfather’s research. Well, my grandfather’s and my father’s.”
“The rose?”
“Yes. My grandfather managed to bloom it by chance, but neither he nor my father could reproduce it. I was trying to figure out how to make it bloom again.”
So the key point wasn’t the precious seedlings, but the grandfather’s rose.
“My grandfather’s rose can absorb magic.”
It was such a dark red it was almost black. Where the light hit, a faint blue sheen appeared and faded.
On the leaves, the blue was even more pronounced. The stem and leaves were dark green, but the veins were blue.
But overall, it was black. A single black rose, planted in a white pot. Surrounded by dark green leaves, a single black rose.
Kim Chaemin put away her phone.
“It stopped here. It doesn’t grow, it doesn’t bloom, but it doesn’t wither either.”
“…How long?”
“Over thirty years.”
A research project passed down for generations.
I nodded.
“It absorbs magic?”
“Yes. Only where it’s rooted. Where the roots touch.”
“Hm. And what happens to the magic it absorbs?”
“It disappears. It isn’t stored anywhere, it just… becomes nourishment. Fertilizer. The rose doesn’t die if it doesn’t absorb magic. As long as it gets water, sunlight, and fresh air, it won’t wither.”
“…Sounds like a normal rose.”
“That’s why I was researching it. My grandfather believed it could purify contaminated land.”
I frowned.
Not because I disliked what she was saying… but because it sounded so good.
Monsters that escape dungeons have a three-month lifespan. Even if you give up on dealing with them, like in Australia, they’ll die after three months.
But does the damage disappear when the monster dies? No. Just look at what the centipede did to the Han River before I came to the past. The poison polluted the river. Even after three months, the river didn’t magically become clean again.
Honestly, I didn’t even believe those monsters would really die after three months.
Contamination from monsters is one of the major problems of modern society. In deserts where no one lives, monsters have already taken over, and even in places without monsters, pollution has made the land uninhabitable.
If her grandfather and father were anything like Kim Chaemin, it made sense they’d devote decades to this research. You could call it a mage’s curiosity, but…
“But…”
I organized the new information I’d learned.
“It still doesn’t make sense for Noah Michel to act herself. Why? Just for the rose? You said you stopped them from stealing it, right?”
“…Yes. But I think the rose was their target.”
“The rose?”
Kim Chaemin ground her teeth. Never make an enemy of a mage. At the very least, never touch their domain.
“How would Michel know about your family’s research?”
“My grandfather didn’t keep it completely secret. If you dig, you’ll find records mentioning the rose. He worked in Europe, so Michel could have found out.”
I looked at her, and confirmed what I suspected was the real reason for her anger.
I thought I understood.
I’d never seen a black rose in Kim Chaemin’s new domain, that little hut at Yangseong High.
“What happened to the rose?”
That was it.
“…It died.”
Kim Chaemin slumped in her chair like a puppet with its strings cut.
“I managed to save a bit of root, about the length of a finger…”
She muttered gloomily.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to grow it again.”
It was the first time I’d seen her look so unsure of herself.