Retire 406
by Cristae406 Admission Review (4)
Four days ago.
“Wahahahahah!”
Han Taekyung burst out laughing like a madman.
“Wah, wahaha, kek, kehek, kuh! Kuh kuh!”
Then he started coughing, clutching his throat as he tumbled out of his chair.
Just when I think about giving him some credit, he manages to ruin it himself. If that’s a talent, it’s certainly a unique one. At this point, I had to wonder if he did it on purpose—dodging complicated matters by acting the fool and slipping away. It seemed entirely possible.
“I—I almost died…. Now you understand how I feel, sunbae!”
Finally catching his breath, Han Taekyung still grinned foolishly.
“Finish one dungeon, and the very next day they tell you to go into another! Honestly, I seriously considered quitting after punching someone.”
“Are you even capable of punching someone?”
“……”
“And I went in with you, didn’t I? Don’t talk like you suffered alone.”
“…But I did all the fighting!”
“That was because I wanted you to improve, Han-saem.”
Han Taekyung looked aggrieved, but since it was true that he’d improved thanks to me, he couldn’t say anything.
Toulon’s Anchor and Jean Robinson wanted me to enter the dungeon as soon as possible. Correction—they wanted me to teach Eva Robinson how to clear a dungeon.
Well, that much I could accept. It wasn’t as if I had to find a dungeon suited to Eva Robinson’s level; they’d already prepared one, so of course they wanted to get started quickly. That much was understandable.
But there are limits, aren’t there? What, did they think I could just go in and clear a dungeon at a moment’s notice? What’s in the dungeon, what’s the terrain like, where’s the core located… I need to know all that just to get started.
Dungeon clearing begins outside the dungeon. You gather information and plan your strategy. If you’re not working with a team you’re used to, there’s even more to coordinate—how you’ll communicate inside, what everyone’s skill level is….
The raid in Toulon wasn’t exactly leisurely, but at least both Toulon’s Anchor and I were experienced. Working with people who know their roles is always enjoyable.
But Eva Robinson? What was my first impression of her in Marseille? Like a duckling trailing after me?
No matter how tempting the reward they offered, I wasn’t desperate enough to take a greenhorn hunter into a dungeon without proper preparation.
“And Han-saem, you’re coming with me, too.”
“What?! Why?”
“Why do you think? How are two people supposed to clear a dungeon? Even if it’s C-rank, that’s just nonsense.”
“But when I went with you, we cleared A-rank dungeons with just two people.”
“Which is exactly why you’re coming, too.”
“Huh?”
Han Taekyung wore a look of complete incomprehension. But since he couldn’t come up with a counterargument, he just groaned and clutched his head.
As I tormented Han Taekyung, Kim Chaemin chuckled and spoke up.
“Well, at least you bought yourself some time.”
“What good does that do?”
“Tomorrow… it was supposed to be tomorrow, right? Better than going in right away.”
It wasn’t much comfort.
In the end, I accepted the proposal from Toulon’s Anchor and Jean Robinson. There was the matter of the new student, the issue of promoting Yangseong High, considerations about sponsorships and sisterhoods, and so on….
But the information Kim Chaemin had painstakingly gathered played a major role in my decision.
The capable archmage Kim Chaemin asked, looking worried,
“Do I not have to go?”
“It’s a C-rank dungeon. Han-saem is enough.”
“Do I really have to go?”
“I don’t joke about things like this.”
“Good luck, then.”
Kim Chaemin waved his hand. I got up, dragging Han Taekyung with me.
“Let’s go.”
“…Where are we going?”
“We’re entering the dungeon.”
“I thought you were going in four days, sunbae?”
“We need to check on Robinson first.”
Han Taekyung hunched his shoulders.
“Where is Miss Robinson?”
“At the dungeon site. I heard she arrived ahead of us.”
I deliberately took out my passport and waved it so Han Taekyung could see. His face began to turn pale.
“S-Sunbae.”
“Yes?”
“…Please tell me the dungeon is in Korea.”
I twisted my lips into a smile.
“It’s in Japan.”
“…Japan.”
“In Korea?”
“In Japan. Okinawa.”
Magicians are a closed-off breed. The very fact that they have their own territories is proof of that.
But at the same time, humans are social animals.
Magicians, after all, are still human. Just look at how they create exclusive online communities, bragging among themselves.
Those communities recruit members by invitation from existing members. Kim Chaemin said his father gave him an invitation.
“He says it’s fun to go in when he’s bored, laugh at the others, and leave.”
It made me question his father’s character, but….
Magician communities are one thing, but Kim Chaemin was a step beyond—a true archmage.
“In Marseille, he didn’t seem particularly close to the magicians… but I’ll look into it!”
“You said you didn’t want to get involved with European magicians?”
“Do you remember Richard?”
“…Alain Richard? The general association president’s disciple?”
“Yes. We’ve kept in touch from time to time since then.”
A magician youth who always seemed a bit fragile.
Kim Chaemin winked.
“I’m keeping up the friendship to see if I can get information on French magicians.”
…Maybe he was quite happy to have made a connection with an archmage.
Well, it’s all good if it works out.
Even the closed-off European magicians opened up to an archmage without resistance.
Similarly, Lee Miseon had learned some things about Robinson and French magicians.
“Jean Robinson and the French Magic Association had a huge fight, didn’t they?”
It was only three years ago.
If even Lee Miseon had found out, it must have been a public affair.
In Korea, no one would have cared about news that a guild and magicians in distant France went to court over dungeon raid contributions and byproducts. But in Western Europe, it was a hot topic. Now, three years later, most of the articles have disappeared—who knows which side was responsible—but some traces remained.
“And Robinson lost. He was utterly, pitifully defeated.”
Kim Chaemin filled in the gaps in the incomplete records with information from Richard.
“There were rumors that the magicians involved fabricated evidence, and Richard actually thinks that’s what happened.”
“Just a hunch?”
“No, there’s evidence. All sorts of… problems. That’s magicians for you.”
The evidence was tampered with. Robinson was taken down before he even had a chance to react. Hunters who knew the situation pretended not to notice, wary of the magicians. After all, you needed magicians’ help to enter dungeons.
“So what about Robinson and Noah Michel?”
“Michel was friendly with hunters and had a lot of influence among magicians, so he tried to reach out. But…”
Kim Chaemin shook his head.
“Whether Michel ever got the message or not, if he’d stepped in, things wouldn’t have ended that way, right?”
So, there was no way Robinson was allied with Noah Michel or the French magicians.
Listening to Kim Chaemin, I could more or less guess what Jean Robinson wanted to gain from me through his daughter.
He wanted to raise someone he could trust. Including magicians.
No wonder he’d focused on the mention of a magician. I’d thought he was just surprised there was a magician at a hunter school, but this changed things.
“What do you think?”
“Even if you ask… I was planning to accept the new student anyway.”
“And Robinson and Toulon’s Anchor?”
“We’ll have to keep an eye on them, but if they keep fighting French magicians, it’s to our benefit.”
That’s how the decision was made.
Maybe they were planning to use us as leverage against the magicians, too….
First, I had to finish the dungeon raid with Eva Robinson. After that, we’d meet in person and talk, and then I’d know for sure.
“Wow, it’s hot!”
“…It’s hot in Korea too, you know.”
“Wahaha!!”
Han Taekyung’s sunglasses fit right in with the summer scenery. Well, it was the tail end of summer now.
Still, Okinawa was sweltering. I’d worried about a typhoon, but the sky was a clear, brilliant blue.
Han Taekyung, wearing a Hawaiian shirt I had no idea where he’d gotten, laughed heartily. He’d acted like he didn’t want to come, but once I dragged him to the airport, he was like a fish in water. He probably only pretended to dislike it just to rebel against me. That was typical Han Taekyung.
“But why Japan, of all places? Wouldn’t a Korean dungeon be more convenient?”
“There aren’t any suitable dungeons in Korea right now.”
“Oh.”
“The government’s tightened control, and the lower-ranked dungeons are being cleared out. Domestic guilds aren’t about to give up their spots.”
I didn’t say it, but it was partly because Han Taekyung had been diligently closing dungeons right before this.
“And do you think the authorities would allow three people, including a foreign hunter, to enter a dungeon all of a sudden? Even if it’s C-rank?”
And that foreign hunter is a C-rank, too.
“Hmm. But isn’t it the same in Japan?”
“Who knows what method they used. We just came because they asked us to.”
At the airport, I went to the rental car counter and gave the reserved name. It wasn’t mine, nor was it Robinson’s or anyone from Toulon’s Anchor.
It probably wasn’t a legitimate method. That’s why they suddenly scheduled the raid for two days later. Robinson might not know what kind of person I am, but Funès, who’d raided with me, wasn’t the type to push for such a rushed schedule.
But like I told Han Taekyung, how they got the raid rights for this dungeon wasn’t my concern. What I needed to focus on was….
When we followed the address from Toulon’s Anchor, we found a sea as blue as the sky, with dazzling white sand, of course.
A luxurious mansion facing the ocean. As we approached the gate to park, it opened as if we were expected.
“Oh. Nice place. I could just laze around here for a week.”
“Clear the dungeon first, then take a vacation.”
“Is that allowed?”
“If you want to use your own vacation, who’s going to stop you?”
Han Taekyung brightened at the mention of vacation.
“Sunbae, you should stop scowling all the time and take a break. Isn’t Irok still on summer vacation? Go on a trip or something.”
“I have bad memories of vacations.”
“And you don’t have any from work?”
“…Plenty.”
“Exactly.”
I gave a half-hearted reply as I looked over the mansion. Eva Robinson was supposed to have arrived ahead of us.
“Ah!”
Speak of the devil—just as the saying goes, the terrace door opened and Eva Robinson appeared, her brown hair tied up high, an inflatable tube slung over her shoulder.
“……”
Eva Robinson carefully tossed the tube inside through the open door, then turned away as if nothing had happened.
What am I supposed to do with her, honestly.
“Hello!”
With a beaming face, she greeted us in awkward Korean—just like a little duckling.
This was what I had to worry about.
It was shaping up to be a long week.