Retire 511

511 The Magician’s Child (1)

At some point, Hong Seok-young found himself in a position of responsibility.

He was good at fighting, but he was no leader. Hong Seok-young disliked taking orders, but he hated giving them even more.

Unfortunately, Hong Seok-young was very good at fighting. Not just good—he survived while others died. And when everyone else was dead and he was the only one left standing, he realized that, like it or not, he would be the one who had to explain what had happened.

He also learned that, for most people, the one who explains is the one who bears the responsibility.

By the time he understood that, Hong Seok-young simply let people think what they wanted. No matter what he said, people would believe whatever they wished, and he didn’t want to lay the blame on his fallen comrades.

It was the same even when they weren’t comrades. Holding a grudge was something only the living could do; against the dead, it only left a sour taste.

Hong Seok-young had seen many people consumed by grudges against the dead.

With all those lessons in mind, Hong Seok-young resolved to live in the present. Even if, as if mocking his resolve, troublesome monsters would appear now and then, like moths drawn to a flame.

A few more years passed, and Hong Seok-young realized he had a talent for every kind of fight. He noticed this while driving off a government envoy who had been pestering him with absurd demands.

Just before he could shout at the envoy to get lost, he was lucky enough to receive a tip that the article his wife had been working on for over half a year was connected to all of this.

The government envoy probably wouldn’t have considered it luck.

Ten minutes later, the man staggered away, clutching to his chest the accusations of dungeon management corruption hinted at by the hunter he had secretly mocked as a brute, the government’s scapegoating of innocents to cover it up, and threats and blackmail regarding conveniently useful Awakened individuals.

For Hong Seok-young, it was a rather enjoyable moment of realization. The first time was the hardest, but once he knew what he was doing, it became easy. The fact that his wife was a journalist helped. She always had a sharp perspective he himself lacked.

In contrast to his brilliant career as a hunter, his unfortunate past growing up in an orphanage led others to judge him only by appearances. His height and build, his hearty laughter—everyone assumed Hong Seok-young wasn’t particularly wise. If they had known what it took for a hunter to survive a dungeon, they wouldn’t have thought so.

If they had known why Hong Seok-young was always at the core of every dungeon raid, always the one held responsible.

The older he got, the higher Hong Seok-young’s win rate became.

And around that time, he began to consider a field he had never once regretted not pursuing.

‘Why?’

‘No… just. Uh. Hmm.’

‘Did someone say something? Who? Which bastard dared? Who looked down on Hong Seok-young for not even finishing school!’

‘No! It’s not that. Really.’

To say he was bad at physical work would be a lie. Since awakening, he had made his living with his body alone. He had never properly graduated from school. But no one expected a hunter to have a diploma, so he’d just lived with it.

He remembered the existence of the equivalency exam only after his wife became pregnant.

He didn’t think his lack of education was a problem. Even without it, Hong Seok-young had succeeded enough. There would be plenty of people angry if he described his life as “enough.”

But the thought of having a child was a gamble even Hong Seok-young couldn’t be sure of winning.

His wife would scold him for using the word “gamble” when it came to raising a child. Hong Seok-young knew this wasn’t really a competition. But he also knew, better than anyone, that he couldn’t afford to lose. Spoken by someone who had never once had parents of his own.

No matter how many parenting books he read, his anxiety wouldn’t go away. Not even when he sought advice online, or from his in-laws, who could at least be called experienced.

The thought that in just a few more months, an innocent little human would be cradled in his arms kept him awake at night. It was different from passing children on the street. For a while, that tiny child’s entire world would be nothing but its parents. The love and lessons from Mom and Dad would be everything. Every word, every action of his would become that child’s whole world, shaping its life…

There was nothing more terrifying than that.

After the child was born, Hong Seok-young’s fear became reality. It was a fear that never faded.

But at the same time, there was love, and there was happiness. Even if that happiness passed by too quickly and still lingered with regret in a corner of his heart, it was happiness all the same. It was a precious time Hong Seok-young would never trade for anything. As the years passed and his family grew, time, which had once seemed to stand still for him, began to stretch onward.

And those times gave Hong Seok-young a new perspective.

He had always, unwillingly, been placed in positions of responsibility, and that, along with his fighting skills, gave him a different kind of insight. Perhaps the instincts he had honed as a hunter also helped.

Those instincts had kept him alive to this age, but…

“Noah Michel?”

Above all, he had never failed at reading people.

All those people he had been responsible for. The criteria for deciding whether someone was worth that responsibility.

“Since fate has brought us together like this, why don’t we have a talk?”

A promise to his dead son, that he would not abandon anyone, even if there was no reason to stay.

“After all that chasing me around, you don’t even say hello? This is why Europeans have no manners. Or is it because you’re a magician?”

---

He didn’t know what kind of scene unfolded before the eyes of those other “seers,” but veteran hunter Hong Seok-young had his own senses.

Whenever Alex teleported.

At first, it had been hard to keep up, but working together made things familiar over time. For Hong Seok-young, Alex’s teleportation was one of those things. Especially after the kid lost his wings, it became easier to sense Alex’s movements. They were no longer as smooth as before. And if you knew his range was limited, it was even easier.

That faint, irritating presence at the edge of his senses—like an ant crawling across his skin.

Even after just a few months together, a hunter like himself could tell right away; surely a magician who had watched the kid for years would notice, too?

…Hong Seok-young reconsidered.

Maybe not. But one way or another, she would have taken precautions. The ability to sneak up anywhere, anytime, was too dangerous.

‘I think it’s possible.’

Listening to Alex mutter at the stairs, Hong Seok-young folded his arms, hiding his displeasure.

Dungeon raids weren’t always safe, especially not in a dungeon like this. In fact, the fact that he’d cleared so many dungeons in America without major injuries was nothing short of a miracle.

But?

‘I have enough strength to do it!’

Even if he said that with a face that still hadn’t lost its baby fat…

Of course, Hong Seok-young knew Alex’s skill. He knew that this was the simplest, easiest, and safest way.

But except for when he was a brand-new hunter, Hong Seok-young had never spent this long running dungeons with the same people. He had kept a solo guild to avoid just such situations.

Honestly, having his son in the guild didn’t help. The fact that his son was the oldest among the guild members was also a problem.

Han Tae-kyung and Alex’s lighthearted behavior contributed, too. Sometimes, the students seemed more mature than the adults. And Han Tae-kyung, he’d known since he was a child, so…

Yes. They were young. Those kids.

The moment he thought of the hunters as children, Hong Seok-young felt a sense of responsibility. He excused it as an inevitable fatherly instinct.

But truly, he couldn’t help it. Hong Seok-young entered the dungeon to protect kids like that. If his own child had lived, he would have been just that age…

Maybe this was just another sign he was getting old. More and more, he was finding gray hairs in the mirror each morning.

He sensed a ticklish presence from inside the stairwell. Alex.

Hong Seok-young pulled himself together. That kid needed to return to his family. As the leader of this guild, it was his job to make sure of that. Somehow, he’d ended up being called a savior by monsters or whatever, but Hong Seok-young didn’t want such grand titles.

Alex’s small presence changed in an instant, together with his cry about Noah Michel.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Alex. The dungeon itself was changing.

Before Hong Seok-young could react, darkness swallowed the dungeon.

“Hm.”

In the pitch-black, Hong Seok-young tilted his head. His hesitation was brief.

He instinctively knew this darkness wasn’t solid. The universe he’d seen when he first entered the dungeon had at least been sturdy; this was just a curtain. As if barely covering up something that shouldn’t be seen.

How could he not know, with as many children as he had? He even had a teenage daughter who would slam her door shut in a panic, claiming she hadn’t cleaned her room. The memory of Yoo Hye-eun’s flustered face, so unlike her usual neat self, made him smile even in this situation.

No, this was a dungeon.

This probably meant Noah Michel was just as flustered. She was stalling for time. Michel would know well what kind of traps kept hunters from moving carelessly in a dungeon.

But, unfortunately for her, Hong Seok-young was not an ordinary hunter. Before Noah Michel could turn her thin curtain into a solid wall, Hong Seok-young raised his spear and tore through the floor.

If she had been a monster, he would have killed her the moment they met. In fact, if Noah Michel had shown even a hint of real threat, he wouldn’t have hesitated.

But whether it was misfortune or luck, Noah Michel was unstable. Maybe it was because, as Alex said, she was looking for the “book,” but she hadn’t attacked right away, and even her delayed attacks were unusually gentle for a magician.

She wasn’t a monster trying to defend the dungeon.

She was someone with another purpose.

The moment his perception shifted, Hong Seok-young saw a trembling child before him. It didn’t mean Noah Michel was innocent, but at the very least, as an adult, he now had a reason to hear her out, to ask why she had made such choices.

“……!”

He tore through space and dropped down, greeted by towering piles of books. Afternoon sunlight poured through the windows, curtains embroidered with cute polka dots, the scent of sweet tea, the smell of books, and soft music drifting from somewhere.

“Hello, Miss Michel.”

The peaceful scene quickly shifted to a library. That must have been Noah Michel’s private space, the one she hadn’t wanted anyone to see.

Hong Seok-young pretended not to notice, as any adult should. She probably hadn’t expected Alex to tear through the dungeon so violently. In her haste, she had managed to separate the intruders, but nothing more.

Hong Seok-young waved his hand.

“Do you have a moment? I’d like to talk.”

“……”

“I have a lot of questions about you… but most of all, I want to know your reasons.”