Retire 443

443 Once Again (3)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠“Hahaha. Looking back now, I really don’t know why I was like that.”

Hong Seokyoung scratched the back of his neck and gave an awkward laugh.

I couldn’t find anything to say in response, so I simply watched him. He was laughing, but it was hardly something that could be brushed off so lightly.

I didn’t know everything about my father’s life.

Maybe I knew more than most, but that was all. I never wanted to know every detail, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask him.

Who was in that album he never once showed us, aside from the one filled with photos of me and my sister?

Anyone can take a picture. But to print out each photo and carefully arrange them in an album—could that man really have done such a delicate thing on his own?

My father never hid the fact that someone had taught him how to organize photographs. I pretended not to notice the old family photo he kept out in his bedroom—the one with a woman grinning playfully and a newborn baby.

He would talk without hesitation about his childhood in the orphanage, or the hardships after he ran away, but when it came to his late wife and son, he never spoke.

Neither I nor my sister ever asked. Maybe my sister knew a little more. Unlike me, who always acted like a child, she was someone my father could actually lean on.

“I was already annoyed enough, but every time I was about to forget, I’d run into some even more annoying bastard in a dungeon.”

“…A fairy?”

“Not always a fairy, but yeah, the ones that could mimic human speech were usually them.”

Hong Seokyoung laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Did anyone think I was doing it because I wanted to? I’d go into dungeons just to try and forget, but then it was always ‘humanity’ this, ‘Earth’ that, ‘protector’ something or other, pestering me…”

Even now, he didn’t say exactly what had driven him.

But I didn’t ask. He probably thought I had some idea, and he was right.

My father had tried not to show it, but he couldn’t completely hide how much his wife and son’s deaths had affected him. That’s not something you can ever really conceal.

“But your brother liked it.”

So when he first mentioned his late son, I was startled.

The only reason I didn’t react more was the patience I’d developed dealing with half-baked hunters at the administration office.

“He was into that kind of thing from a young age. What do you call it? Heroes? You know, fighting aliens to save the world and all that. Heejae, maybe those movies are too old for you?”

“…I know what you mean.”

“Yeah, that. Hm, aliens. Funny how that sounds almost realistic now.”

Hong Seokyoung burst out laughing again.

“When he was little, there were times I’d have to leave home to go into a dungeon. I didn’t want to leave, but it’s not like I had a choice. Back then, even I didn’t have much power.”

How many years ago had that been? Thinking of my father’s age now…

“To comfort your brother, I’d tell him I was going off to save the world.”

“…That’s not so far from the truth, really.”

“I didn’t think so at the time. But anyway, he believed it. He really thought all hunters were working to save the world.”

“That’s true, isn’t it?”

“Yeah… it is. You’re right.”

Hong Seokyoung murmured quietly, turning his gaze toward the sound of the children’s laughter.

Just a few days ago, I would have cut the conversation short and run away.

But now, that anxiety and pressure were gone. Even for my father, just having someone by his side brought comfort.

Soft wrinkles formed at the corners of his eyes as he smiled gently.

The man who was working harder than anyone to save the world hadn’t lost his smile.

“But, well… there was a time I almost died for real.”

“You, sir?”

“I’m only human, of course I did.”

As he said this, my father tapped his leg, still bound in a cast.

“Ah… that one had wings, too. Looked like a butterfly.”

“Butterfly… Are there a lot of butterfly-shaped fairies?”

“Why do you think they’re called fairies? Even if they’re not exactly butterflies or moths, most of them have wings.”

“They don’t have feathers, do they?”

“If they did, people would call them angels.”

There were monsters that looked like angels with white wings. My father must have thought of the same thing, because we both frowned.

He shook his head with a bitter smile.

“More like bugs, really.”

“If they were actual bugs, at least they’d be good for the ecosystem.”

“That’s why I smash every one I see.”

He returned to his story.

His voice, softer than usual, had a calming effect, even on my anxious heart.

“Sometimes I wondered what would happen if I really died out there.”

It didn’t calm me at all.

“I even had the crazy thought that maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. You know how hero movies end with the protagonist saving the world and sacrificing himself?”

“…What era of movies are you even talking about?”

“Aren’t those still the latest movies, even now?”

“They’re old, even by today’s standards. And people don’t usually want to see the hero die, you know.”

“That’s why I came back alive.”

My father didn’t take his eyes off the children laughing and chatting in the greenhouse.

“But that’s that, and this is this.”

“……”

“I built this school so that, even if I died, things would be taken care of afterward.”

“…You wanted to choose a successor?”

“No. I wasn’t trying to do anything so grand. Hunters are heroes who protect the world, so I figured the more heroes there are, the better our chances in a fight. Numbers matter.”

“……”

“It took a long time to go from idea to reality. Honestly, saving the students was harder than building the school.”

For over a year, I’d taught children at this school.

And my father had often marveled at where I’d managed to find kids like these.

They were good, gentle, and able to keep moving forward no matter what had happened in their pasts.

Even if Oh Hyunwook had put on weight, become an alcoholic, fought with his own guild members like a dog, he still worked for the hunters who’d died in dungeons. Many retired or injured hunters and bereaved families were able to make a living thanks to his support.

Park Seohyun? She’d half-closed herself off from the outside world, but she never refused a request for dungeon support. She never gave up on a dungeon that needed her. When the young magicians at the administration office, lacking proper mentors, were struggling with magic and runes, she’d always offer a word or two.

Yoo Jieun… my sister was the same. Why did she work so hard at the administration office? Revenge for the family? Maybe. But there wasn’t a single new hunter who hadn’t been helped by her. She always told the rookies, “If I’m going in there with you, you’d better not die. Just focus on coming back alive.”

No one is perfect. Oh Hyunwook, Park Seohyun, my sister—they all had their flaws.

But they never gave up. Just like my father.

“Didn’t I pick well?”

“……”

My father looked proud.

A year ago, I would have answered yes without hesitation.

But now, as someone responsible for guiding these kids?

Wasn’t this path pushing them toward danger?

“Hey! That’s cheating!”

“There’s no such thing as cheating in a dungeon!”

“Ugh, I failed again.”

“If you smooth out the mana flow a bit more there…”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if mana grass grew just by watering it?”

“I want to learn more about dungeon plants… Where should I even start? Are there more foreign papers?”

“Isn’t Ms. Chaemin the top in this field? Why bother looking elsewhere when she’s right here?”

The sounds coming from the greenhouse weren’t just laughter.

The kids were chattering among themselves—reviewing what they’d learned, planning what to do next…

Even if my father hadn’t brought them here, they would have found their way to becoming hunters. One way or another.

Look at Lee Miseon and Han Taekyung. My father never asked if anyone wanted to become a hunter. It was the opposite. When his niece and younger brother wanted to be hunters, they were sent here because it seemed the safest place.

My father only provided a safe path for them to become hunters. He never told them they had to. If someone like Seo Hanseong or Oh Hyunwook had wanted to live as a civilian, he would have helped them with both hands raised. There really was a student who left the demonstration school after the Myeongdong incident.

So it’s probably true that he built the school to keep kids from being thrown into dungeons unprotected.

My father’s promise to let me do whatever I wanted was the very essence of his life.

Because Hong Seokyoung had never once been able to do what he wanted, free from worry.

If these kids wanted to be hunters, then in the safest environment possible.

If they wanted to save the world, then to help them develop the skills to do so.

If they didn’t want to be hunters, my father would have let them go without holding them back. There really was a student who left after the Myeongdong incident.

Even if they didn’t want to save the world, he would have just accepted it.

But just now, my father said it: that hunters are saving the world just by entering dungeons.

Even without entering dungeons, just hunting monsters is enough to save the world.

Here, once again, I returned to my original goal.

Back to the beginning, when I decided to reveal runes for free and to teach kids here.

To save even a few more hunters, to maybe prevent the global dungeon break that might come in twenty years.

“…Heejae?”

His proud expression faded quickly, replaced by uncertainty.

Ah, some things never change. The way he always checks my reaction.

This time, I let out a light laugh.

“You picked so well, it’s almost a problem.”

“What? Why?”

“Because just being good and upright isn’t enough to survive as a hunter. They need to get a bit more cunning.”

“That’s easy.”

My father ruffled my hair roughly.

Maybe this is something Uirok will never know for the rest of his life. Just as I was protected, so too will Uirok be protected.

“There are plenty of adults here to teach them how to be cunning, aren’t there?”

I didn’t deny it.

“I guess I’ll have to work even harder to teach them before they graduate.”

“Well… that’s the basics. Same goes for the Mont Saint-Michel matter.”

“Hmm? Ah, right.”

My father belatedly understood and nodded.

“If it comes to it, we’ll have to be ready to take Jinwoo into Mont Saint-Michel. No matter how rotten the thing inside is, if we destroy the core, we win.”

“And that plan has a big problem, actually.”

I relayed to my father what I’d pointed out to Kim Chaemin.

“Choi Jinwoo has to be able to use the guiding spell. What’s the point of talking about all this when he can’t even use it yet…?”

“Huh.”

My father clicked his tongue as the realization dawned on him.

“That’s true. That’s the most basic thing. I was overcomplicating it for no reason.”

“That’s just proof you’re getting old, Dad.”

He fell silent.

I was afraid to look at his face. But slowly, very slowly, I turned to face him.

“……”

My father stopped walking.

He just stood there, saying nothing, looking at me.

Just like that Parents’ Day when I first gave him a carnation, smiling as if he possessed the whole world.

Twenty years since I first met my father.

After all the twists and turns, we had become a family once again.