Retire 421
by Cristae421 Bugs in the Ashes (1)
I never wanted to become a hunter.
The reason was simple.
I hated physical labor.
Well, it’s hard to find a job that doesn’t involve some physical effort. Even my own major required me to grind myself down. All-nighter shoots were routine, and every shoot meant hauling a mountain of gear.
Beautiful films aren’t made without a price….
But the work of a hunter felt fundamentally different. That’s not to belittle hunters—or any other profession.
I just didn’t have the noble resolve to risk my life for the sake of saving others.
I got my hunter’s license not because I ever intended to enter a dungeon, but because I thought it might give me a leg up when job hunting.
In the end, I set aside my childhood dream of being a civil servant and went to study film, thinking I might as well try learning more about movies… only to discover that watching films and making them are worlds apart.
So I took the civil service exam with my hunter’s license. I didn’t have to take the standard exam to get into the Bureau, but I still had to pass a test. My sister calls me a parachute hire just to annoy me. Damn it, if I really were a parachute, I wouldn’t have had to take the exam!
…You never know how life will turn out.
Just like how I, who swore I’d never be a hunter, ended up entering dungeons of my own volition.
I dislike physical work, but only when it’s just work.
If it’s not work, it’s not so bad. If it’s not a job, I can actually enjoy it. Training with my father was fun in its own way, and wandering mountains or beaches with my college friends was fine, too.
“How is it, Magician Kim?”
“You don’t have to be so formal.”
Roses bloomed over the completely burned forest. Someone might look at this scene and call it hope blossoming from the ruins, or give it some other poetic name.
If I’d seen it through a camera or on a screen, I’d probably have waxed sentimental about it. Or maybe I’d have scoffed at how on-the-nose the symbolism was.
But unfortunately, this was reality.
…Why did I say I’d enter the dungeon?
I’m not even a hunter.
Is it because I spent so much time teaching at Yangseong High, pretending to be a hunter? Have I been too deeply infected by hunter logic?
Maybe I need to go back to the beginning. Sometimes you have to recover your original intentions.
Think about it. I could have just sent Kim Chaemin in and waited to hear about it later. Robinson or Funès would have answered my questions just fine, wouldn’t they? Even while preparing for the raid, they were helpful.
Why did I willingly walk into a dungeon like this? The worst thing was the smell. The suffocating heat and the stench of burning…
“Ah.”
“Woo Hunter?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I realized why I wanted to bolt straight for the gate.
Ah, damn.
It wasn’t like this in Marseille. Why? I set plenty of fires there, too.
…Maybe it was because the magicians kept using spells nearby. Or because Noah Michel got involved halfway through.
And I hadn’t burned everything down like this, either.
Charred trees rolled across the ground. They weren’t even recognizable as trees anymore—dungeon wood was too tough to burn to nothing. The scattered fragments weren’t even like charcoal, but more like blackened stones. Like chunks of concrete scorched by fire.
And above all, the smell.
This smell of total incineration—even though I caused it—reminded me just how much humans rely on their sense of smell.
It was similar to the smell in Seoul, twenty years later, when there was no life left.
No. No, it’s not the same. It’s not. At least in this dungeon, no humans have died. No one will die. There are as many veteran hunters here as at the Bureau. There’s even an archmage.
I pulled myself together.
Maybe I was just feeling nostalgic about old friends before entering the dungeon. You shouldn’t do things you’re not used to. Reminiscing, remembering, mourning—all fine, but if you get lost in it, that’s another problem.
If I lost my composure here, that would be even more shameful. It’s not as if every experience I’ve had in a dungeon has been a good one. Dungeons aren’t easy places. Especially when I was raiding with Team 1 as Han Taekyung’s substitute! Han Taekyung, who was called the next best hunter after Hong Seokyoung. Did you think the dungeons he got were easy? I was trapped in a dungeon for a month once!!
Whether or not I wanted to be a hunter in the past, this is a matter of pride.
If I’m scared off by a little fire, I can’t call myself Hong Seokyoung’s son.
“We proceed as planned! Alpha and Charlie Teams, move out!”
I focused on Robinson’s orders.
Once I got a grip on myself, my mind cleared.
I’m only human—I can be shaken. I have weaknesses. The strength of a hunter—or a person—depends on how you handle that.
I chose to face it head-on. Because that’s what my father taught me.
Because I know my choice is the better path.
There’s no hesitation.
I’m not saying everything will be fine as long as things end well. But I do want to avoid a situation where everyone dies. That’s what this is all for.
At Robinson’s command, the raid team moved in perfect coordination.
“The core is to the north. My magic was disrupted along the way, so the fairy is there too.”
A few hunters split off to guard the gate.
At the center of the remaining raiders was Kim Chaemin. As he moved with the group, he called out,
“The dungeon isn’t that big for its rank! Everyone knows flat dungeons favor hunters, right? Especially now, with nothing blocking our view!”
Kim Chaemin gave me a signal. I surged forward at the head of the team, swinging my sword.
Since starting at Yangseong High, I’d used a sword more than a spear. Not because spears are lacking, but because my sister’s sword is just that overpowered.
…Little Yu Ji-eun can’t even appreciate how good this sword is, insisting on learning the spear instead. If she’d just be patient, I’d take care of her.
No patience, then or now.
“Kim-saem!”
I unleashed flames without bothering to control their power. Kim Chaemin put up a shield before I even called out.
This is why you need a magician.
Brilliant blue flames covered the transparent barrier. The swarm of pink butterflies clung to the shield like a plague of locusts. The blue fire pressed down on them. Most burned up without resistance, but a few tenacious ones thrashed, trying to sink their teeth into the shield. I saw their sharp fangs.
I narrowed my eyes.
“They’re smaller.”
“Sorry?”
“They used to be twice that size.”
The hunters frowned at my words.
“That’s not a good sign.”
“…Which way do you think it’ll go?”
“Things like this never turn out the way you want.”
Robinson said something that might have been a joke, but with that serious face, it didn’t sound like one, even if the other hunters chuckled.
…It wasn’t something you could just laugh off, either. Whichever way it went.
“Check your feet!”
No one questioned the master’s command.
We all knew what we were looking for.
This raid was planned on the assumption that the butterfly fairy was the same species Han Taekyung had encountered. Han Taekyung had told us everything, no jokes.
‘It’s a creature that knows about hunters and guards the gate. If it can’t watch the gate, it’ll go guard the core.’
And no one dismissed Han Taekyung. Aside from Eva Robinson and Kim Chaemin, he was the youngest hunter here.
‘But…’
‘But?’
‘I’m not saying it’s your fault, sunbae. Even if we’d known about it from the start, we’d have done the same. But the fire gave it time.’
‘Time, huh. Sounds like a troublesome ability.’
‘It’s not really an ability… more like a law of nature.’
Han Taekyung shrugged.
‘Bugs lay eggs, don’t they? Especially flying insects—they’re prolific.’
“Found them!”
One of the French hunters shouted.
I stopped digging with my sword and ran over. The hunters stepped back.
Just below the surface, glossy transparent eggs were clustered together. Inside the shells, you could see a pale pink.
“Burn them!”
As soon as Kim Chaemin shouted, butterflies tried to crawl out of the eggs. They hatched directly into butterflies, skipping larva and pupa stages. What kind of natural law is that?
As we burned the eggs, Kim Chaemin dropped the shield that had been blocking the flying butterflies. Ash from the burned eggs and butterflies scattered in the air.
If it wasn’t eggs, it would have been division.
I’m not sure which would have been worse.
Robinson shouted,
“Don’t go too deep—always be ready to pull back!”
“Understood!”
The raid team advanced again.
Rewind a bit.
Back when we were still planning the raid.
“Han-saem.”
Kim Chaemin and I quietly called Han Taekyung aside.
“Am I getting fired?”
Han Taekyung asked with a face that clearly didn’t believe he was getting fired.
The tension broke.
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard that when your boss calls you in, you should worry about being fired.”
“You’ve never worked in an office.”
“I saw it in a drama.”
I didn’t ask which drama.
There was something more important.
“We have a favor to ask.”
“I have a feeling about this.”
Seeing Kim Chaemin using magic to keep our conversation private, Han Taekyung started backing away.
“I told you I don’t like complicated stuff!”
“It’s not that.”
“Then why the serious faces?”
“It’s just a favor.”
When he saw my face, Han Taekyung stopped trying to run. I sighed.
“If you want an explanation, I can give you one.”
“…And if I don’t?”
“Just do me this favor.”
But even without my explanation, Han Taekyung had probably figured out most of it.
Still, I understood why he wanted to avoid hearing it. There’s a difference between guessing and having it spelled out.
“…It’s not something hard, right?”
“No. Just add one thing when you explain the fairy to Banner of Glory and Funès.”
“What’s that?”
According to Han Taekyung’s translation, the creature we met in the dungeon was one that had come from the future to the past.
But as Woo Irok’s existence proves, coming to the past doesn’t erase the original “me” that existed there.
Unless that butterfly fairy was crazy enough to kill its past self and take its place, there would be another fairy in the dungeon.
“Tell them there are two fairies.”
Han Taekyung didn’t ask for an explanation. But he did as I asked and told Robinson and Funès.
If there wasn’t another fairy, we could count ourselves lucky, but we couldn’t face two fairies without preparation.
And now—
“Do monsters have twins, too?”
One of the French hunters blurted out.
“Maybe it laid eggs and split, too.”
Another hunter replied gruffly.
A cape of pink butterflies fluttered. Two identical fairies, golden eyes gleaming, grinned like beasts.