Retire 465
by Cristae465 Cactus Flower (1)
The dungeon collapsed in silence.
No one found it easy to speak.
The atmosphere was so heavy—perhaps even more so than we realized—that the soldiers waiting for us outside the gate came over to check if anyone among us was injured.
There were minor scrapes, but nothing that required real treatment. Daniel, still looking dazed, confirmed as much.
“Argh!”
In the car on the way back to our lodgings.
Kim Chaemin suddenly let out a scream.
“Wh-what is it?!”
“What’s wrong?”
“What happened?”
Everyone was half out of it, but that didn’t mean we’d let our guard down completely. The moment Kim Chaemin screamed, we all shot upright.
Even the soldier in the driver’s seat was startled.
“Eyes on the road! Watch where you’re driving!”
Kim Chaemin snapped, still sharp despite his shriek.
Nothing seemed to be going right….
“What on earth is it, Mr. Kim?” Father asked, panting as he grabbed the handle above the window.
Kim Chaemin groaned, looking genuinely aggrieved.
“The honey!”
“…Honey?”
“I should have picked up at least a little of what was on the ground!”
“……”
Kim Chaemin grumbled about it for quite a while, clearly disappointed.
It might have been a loss for him, but for the rest of us, it was something else entirely. Whether it was relief or exhaustion, we all sank into a strange, drained calm as we rode back to the hotel.
The desert stretched past the window. The endless road led onward to the city.
A dazzling metropolis in the heart of the desert.
“Wow. Just because we’re in America, beer’s been upgraded to cocktails.”
“And the neighborhood fried chicken is now barbecue.”
“This is why people say you have to make something of yourself.”
“Don’t you two feel even a twinge of guilt saying that out loud?”
At Han Taekyung’s words, I pointed at Kim Chaemin, who was smiling contentedly as he held his cocktail glass up to the light.
“Leave me out of this.”
“Why, sunbae? Why are you excluded?”
“On a teacher’s salary, beer is my limit.”
“Ouch…”
“Anyway, I paid for everything,” Father muttered, looking put out. Of course, no one paid him any mind.
“Hey, I want a cocktail too. Why am I stuck with milk?” Hope’s protest was likewise ignored.
“Uh, why do I…?” Daniel began.
At least someone listened.
Kim Chaemin, pulling a dish—who could say if it was a meal or just bar snacks—closer to himself, replied nonchalantly.
“It’s a celebration. We finished up without any injuries for once, so it’s a chance to get to know each other.”
“I’d rather just rest….”
“Come on. What’s the point? If you rest, you’ll just get called away for another report. Tell them we kept you here.”
Daniel looked at Father, his face sour. After a moment, he glanced at the drinks and food from room service, then squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.
In the end, he too was working a second job he never wanted. At least Imi-seon had chosen hers, but Daniel didn’t seem to have had much say. And Imi-seon got paid from both sides, didn’t she? Would Daniel get the dungeon reward? I vaguely recalled his name being listed.
“And there’s something we need to talk about,” I said.
“…Sorry?”
Honestly, he hadn’t been invited just for camaraderie.
“I have a favor to ask, Daniel.”
“M-me?”
“It’s not really a favor. It’s something you’d have to do anyway—I just want to confirm it one more time.”
I smiled and pressed a hotel minibar cola into Daniel’s hand. The message was clear: don’t even think about drinking.
Daniel’s eyes widened as he swallowed hard.
I wasn’t trying to intimidate him… Well. Maybe it wasn’t so bad.
“We need to investigate, don’t we?”
“Investigate…?”
“There was an unreported monster in the dungeon.”
“……”
“Ah, it feels like Okinawa was just yesterday, and now this. I can’t tell if I’m lucky or unlucky.”
Daniel’s face grew paler and paler. I really hadn’t meant to scare him. Probably.
“I’m not blaming you, Daniel. If anything, you’re a victim here too. I mean, it’s your country’s hunters going into the dungeon, and yet the investigation was so lacking. Not that hiring foreign hunters means you can skimp on the investigation, of course.”
I patted Daniel’s shoulder in consolation.
He just nodded awkwardly, clutching the can of cola.
“Honestly, I don’t think the investigation was lacking,” Hope chimed in, right on cue.
“Really?”
“Didn’t you hear how that fairy kept saying ‘humans, humans’? It clearly knew humans personally. Probably.”
“You mean the humans who’d been in and out of that dungeon?”
“Our mage here said there were lots of interesting plants in that dungeon!”
“Useful plants.”
“Same difference.”
Kim Chaemin shook his head and looked at Daniel.
“The managing guild said they went in regularly to harvest plants. You should check them out. I bet you’ll find something interesting.”
“Oh! They might even have some of that honey Mr. Kim was so desperate for.”
“You’re right. There was no mention of honey in any of the reports, was there?”
Our acting wasn’t exactly convincing, but Daniel was in no state to notice. And even if he did, what could he do? It wasn’t as if we were lying.
At the very least, that guild was definitely connected to the Ark. The wooden dolls were proof enough.
“What was the guild’s name again?” Father asked, stroking his chin. I named the guild from the report.
“Cactus Mirage.”
“It’d be nice to see their faces while we’re at it.”
“Their faces… why?”
“Why not? Is there a problem?”
Father picked up his fork and waved it at eye level. Daniel’s gaze followed it, wavering.
“Uh, well…”
“We just want to have a conversation.”
“A… conversation.”
“Just to talk.”
“…Please, no violence.”
“Hey, what do you take me for!” Father burst out laughing, but even to me, it didn’t sound like he meant a normal conversation.
At last, Daniel realized why he’d been brought here—and that nodding was the only way to escape.
I patted his shoulder again.
“We’re not asking you to do anything impossible. Do you think someone who messes with monsters is going to just sit quietly through a routine investigation? We’ll help however we can.”
“……”
“And, you may not know, but our guild has someone who could be called a bit of a fairy expert. We’re not trying to ignore your side, but there might be things only we’d notice, given the circumstances.”
Daniel’s unfocused eyes regained some clarity. But as he scanned the room, his gaze finally settled on Hope.
“Come to think of it…”
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
“I’ve never seen a fairy that could talk before.”
“Really? They pop up now and then.”
“I’ve seen them in Europe.”
“I’ve heard they’re not that rare.”
“My mom saw one once!”
“There are more than you’d think.”
“……”
Daniel gave us a suspicious look.
I smiled.
“It’s no big secret. If you really look into it, you’ll find out soon enough.”
“I… see. Like I said, I haven’t caught many fairies myself.”
He still looked uncertain, but seemed to decide there was no point lying about something that could be easily discovered, and nodded.
“But a fairy—or any monster—giving up like that, I’ve never seen it before.”
“That’s why it paid off to watch all those dramas!” Hope declared, soaking up everyone’s dubious stares.
…Wait. Dramas? I never told him to say that.
“In dramas, when they want a suspect to cooperate, they always say empathy is most important!”
“……”
Unfortunately, Gamble hadn’t come along on this American trip.
Which meant there was no one to rein in Alex Hope. I could have kept him in line if I wanted, but I’d let him off the leash on purpose. If word got out in America that Hope was alive, someone would try to investigate or probe him. I wanted to make it clear that Alex Hope was so unhinged that any investigation would be pointless. Which wasn’t even a lie.
It also had the side effect of making any American handlers who tried to follow us miserable. Pairing Han Taekyung with Hope worked wonders.
“See? Just a little scratching behind the ears, and it rolled right over!”
“You call that rolling over?”
“Didn’t it? If it hadn’t, it wouldn’t have let us destroy the core.”
“I mean…”
We could talk, but we couldn’t communicate.
Daniel tried to get a straight answer out of Hope, but failed every time. Han Taekyung, who could also understand the ‘words,’ only made things more chaotic.
“Exactly! See, Daniel? It’s all about sincerity. Sincerity works across borders, ages, even species!”
Of course, it was nonsense.
In the end, Daniel gave up. Maybe he concluded that he and Hope simply couldn’t communicate, or maybe he realized we weren’t about to share any more information.
We didn’t deny it.
“I… I’ll get going. I’ll look into Cactus Mirage.”
Daniel staggered to his feet.
Father grabbed his hand with a hearty laugh.
“One last thing.”
“Yes?”
“Did you report what happened in the dungeon?”
“……”
“Given how the last few conquests went, I’m guessing you haven’t yet? I was worried, since there were some unusual circumstances, but judging by your face, you haven’t.”
“…What are you getting at?”
“Come on. Say whatever else you want, but everyone knows about the fairy. We made enough noise coming out of the gate.”
Daniel instinctively tried to pull away, but Father didn’t let go. Instead, he drew Daniel closer, pressing down on the back of his neck with his other hand, and spoke with quiet authority.
“Don’t mention that you talked to the fairy.”
“……”
“Just say we tried to destroy the core, the fairy attacked us, and we took it down. Got it?”
Daniel looked past Father’s shoulder at the rest of us. I smiled as usual when our eyes met. Kim Chaemin shrugged and flipped through the room service menu. Han Taekyung adjusted his sunglasses. Hope yawned, looking bored.
Daniel finally nodded.
“…Yes. Understood.”
“Good! Sorry for keeping you so late. You must be tired—go get some rest.”
“……”
The oppressive air around Daniel lifted.
He hesitated, then stopped, face pale and sweating, but with a certain determination in his eyes.
Even after all the ways we’d pushed him around these last few days…
“If you’re going to ask me for this kind of favor, can I at least ask what’s going on?”
Maybe you needed that kind of backbone to work in intelligence.
Father burst out laughing, wiping imaginary tears from his eyes before glancing at me and answering Daniel.
“Join our guild and I’ll tell you.”
“…Excuse me?”
“For the record, we don’t allow side jobs.”