Retire 468
by Cristae468 Cactus Flower (4)
Hailey Lawton is a mage.
But why would someone who’s a mage be masquerading as a hunter here?
It’s not as though mages can’t become hunters. Still, it’s odd for someone to hide the fact that they’re a mage. I’d checked Hailey Lawton’s background. Nowhere did it mention she was a mage, or that she had ever studied magic.
Hailey Lawton awakened in her mid-teens. Fortunately, her father was an office worker at the city’s guild. He wasn’t an awakened himself, but the guild master wasn’t so heartless as to refuse a favor for the child of an employee who had awakened.
Hailey Lawton became a hunter in that guild. A few years ago, when the guild master retired due to age and disbanded the guild, she came to Cactus Mirage—on the recommendation of her former guild master.
Her record was spotless.
There was never a time in her life when she could have learned magic. Nor did she have any meaningful contact with mages.
“…Things like this happen from time to time. There was an incident two years ago, in Hungary. But that was between mages of the same nationality, so it was resolved fairly smoothly.”
Kim Chaemin was talking to Lawton about magical incidents around the world. The topic seemed… strange, didn’t it?
But Kim Chaemin must have had his reasons.
The odds that Lawton was a mage were slim. But if Kim Chaemin said she was a mage, then she was a mage. He wouldn’t have said so otherwise. There must have been some evidence only he could perceive.
Kim Chaemin doesn’t make mistakes.
I turned my head the other way.
“So, let’s see. The initial investigation was done by another guild, you say?”
“It’s a guild that’s since been disbanded. After it dissolved, I acquired the management rights at auction.”
Joseph Grimes answered Father’s question with an odd mix of obsequiousness and pride.
From his demeanor, I could sense his confusion—why was a Korean hunter, not a government official, asking these questions? It was a fair point. We were here at the request of the US government to clear dungeons, but we hadn’t been granted investigative authority.
Of course, I had no intention of answering.
Daniel didn’t try to intervene. He suspected we had our own agenda, but his superiors probably just thought we were venting our frustrations on a soon-to-be-defunct guild rather than on them. No one wants to be the target of public anger.
I left the conversation to the two of them and looked around the office. Disappointingly, there was no sign of any magically hidden secret safes.
I glanced back at Lawton.
There was one other possibility.
That this Hailey Lawton wasn’t the real Hailey Lawton.
At least to my eyes, she didn’t seem suspicious. I was curious what Kim Chaemin had seen to identify her as a mage. To me, she looked like any other appropriately ranked hunter.
Maybe I should have brought Han Taekyung? But he’d run off, not wanting to get entangled in another tedious official matter. I’d let him go since I didn’t think he’d be needed…
…Come to think of it, aren’t my eyes kind of useless? Strange. Back when I worked at the Management Bureau, they were plenty useful.
Wasn’t being able to see magic supposed to be an advantage?
Anyway, it was possible that Hailey Lawton wasn’t Hailey Lawton at all. The real Hailey Lawton might have lived an honest life as a hunter, but some unscrupulous mage could have stolen her identity.
That was something to investigate in due time.
“…There was an incident like that. It may sound strange coming from a mage, but you can never be too careful with dungeons. As you know, anything can happen in a dungeon.”
While I’d been distracted, Kim Chaemin was whispering something to Lawton with a suspicious look.
He was talking about a minor dispute among European mages a decade ago. In a dungeon, they’d dueled in an old-fashioned way, and one of them became addicted to mana, causing some of their organs to rot—a chilling story.
“I only bring it up because I’m concerned about mages fighting. It’s not that I think you’re lacking, Lawton, but we still don’t fully understand how mana affects the human body. And that dungeon had a fairy, too…”
“What are you getting at, Mage Kim?”
“I think it would be good for you to get a proper checkup, Lawton.”
“……”
“If you’re okay with it, I can do it right now. It’ll only take ten seconds. Mana addiction doesn’t show up well on most tests.”
I didn’t know exactly what Kim Chaemin was planning, but I understood what he wanted to do. I drifted over to the two of them.
“It’s rare for a grand mage to show this much concern.”
“Ah…”
“You’re not sick, are you?”
“No! Just a little tingle, maybe?”
Kim Chaemin flashed a bright smile at my support.
“What exactly are you going to do?”
“Just a light scan with my mana.”
“Something hospitals can’t detect?”
“They can catch acute exposure, but if you’ve been slowly exposed over a long period, it doesn’t show up. That’s probably the case for you, Lawton.”
“And you can see it, Mr. Kim?”
“Yes!”
Kim Chaemin answered confidently, holding out his hand to Lawton.
“It’ll only take ten seconds. May I have your hand?”
“……”
“Ms. Lawton?”
“This isn’t related to the dungeon investigation, so you can relax.”
“That’s right!”
“……”
Lawton blinked, then slowly extended her hand.
“Th-then, uh, please go ahead…”
Kim Chaemin hesitated slightly. I’d been watching closely and barely noticed.
Was this not what he’d expected? Did he think Lawton would refuse here?
Maybe he hadn’t expected her to offer her hand so readily.
“Wa-wait, ugh, ngh—!”
But before their hands could touch—
Grimes’s nervous voice, which had been murmuring in the background, suddenly twisted into a grotesque sound.
As if he couldn’t breathe, as if his voice was being strangled.
“What the—?”
Father’s bewildered voice followed.
“Master!”
Kim Chaemin shot to his feet.
“……”
Lawton bent down and placed her hand on the floor.
Blue mana surged around her. I didn’t fully understand what was happening, but I instinctively knew that we couldn’t let that mana gather.
It was magic.
My thoughts didn’t continue. I drew my weapon reflexively.
In that moment of extreme tension, time seemed to slow. Before Lawton could finish her spell, somehow—
Lawton—
A blade moved. A sharpened edge could cut through anything.
I remembered what Father had taught me.
‘Heejae. If you want, I can teach you.’
How to kill a human, not a monster.
If it were just about killing, there’d be no need for instruction. I was an awakened—stronger than most. And I knew how to kill monsters far stronger than most awakened. So—
…But what Father meant to teach me was something else. How to kill a human more efficiently. The mindset.
I didn’t want to miss a single thing Father could teach me.
But I don’t think Father ever wanted to teach me that.
‘No. That’s enough.’
So when I was finally able to choose, I refused.
Seeing his shoulders relax, pretending not to care but clearly relieved by my answer, I had no regrets.
‘The ones we fight are monsters.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yes. I’m a hunter.’
But I’m not so kind as to show mercy to the suspicious figure before me, whether mage or hunter.
It’s not a monster.
Which means there are plenty of ways to subdue them without taking their head.
“Aagh!”
The right arm that had been gathering mana tumbled to the floor. Gritting my teeth, I kicked Lawton away.
Kim Chaemin followed up by binding her with vines.
“Daniel!”
I pointed to Lawton’s bleeding arm.
“Heal her. We need to hear what she has to say.”
But Daniel didn’t come.
“…?”
“M-Mr. Woo.”
Kim Chaemin called to me, his voice trembling.
“Ugh—kgh—!”
Grimes.
Grimes was the first to show signs of trouble. Father watched him warily, weapon in hand. Daniel, too.
“That thing.”
I clenched my teeth, tightening my grip on my sword.
“What is that?”
Grimes was scratching himself all over, as if bugs were crawling under his skin.
His frantic movements tore his clothes. His skin writhed. It looked as if something was crawling inside him.
“Gah!”
With a short scream, something burst from Grimes’s skin.
At first, I thought it was an insect. The pale yellow-brown, stained with blood.
But it wasn’t a bug.
“Gkh, kgh, khh.”
It grew, pushing through Grimes’s flesh with his groans. Yes—grew.
Not an insect. It was a plant root.
It was as though a tree was growing inside Grimes’s body.
He flung his arm upward. The motion was unnatural, as if his arm were a stick attached to a tree. Given that a plant was growing inside him, maybe that wasn’t so far off.
The arm he raised split open as well. Unlike the roots bursting from his torso, thorns sprouted from his arm.
They looked just like the spines of a cactus, the kind you’d see around here.
“Ugh, oh, oh, br—kgh, khek.”
Grimes’s body swelled. Roots and thorns grew. It was a bizarre sight. Horrific. There was no telling what would happen to that swollen body, or how long whatever was inside would keep growing.
Grimes gagged and spat something out of his mouth. A yellow flower with sharp leaves.
“Guhh.”
At last, thorns began to burst from his neck and face.
“……”
Even Father could only stare at Grimes in stunned silence.
“Kgh.”
With a final, strangled cry, Grimes stopped breathing.
But yellow flowers kept dropping from his mouth…
And mana began to gather around what was left of him.
“That! Stop it!!”
Kim Chaemin screamed. At his words, Father moved, though none of us knew what we were supposed to stop.
But whatever it was, we were too late.
Grimes’s body was completely covered in roots and thorns. The yellow flowers, stained with blood, scattered across the floor.
Before Father’s spear could reach, the mana exploded.
“Ah, damn it.”
It was rare for Kim Chaemin to curse.
“What now?”
He dug in his pocket for a hair tie, pulling his tangled hair back as best he could. I let out a sigh as I watched.
“What else?”
My body ached as if I’d been hit by a truck from the blast. The physical pain was less than the shock. Fortunately, I’d been shielded by Kim Chaemin… I saw Father pulling Daniel to safety from the blast. They’d probably be all right.
I leaned my head back. Above, the sky. A night sky studded with stars.
“…Shall we go look for the dungeon core?”
We were trapped in a freshly opened dungeon.