Retire 516

516 The Magician’s Child (6)

It was as if fireflies were dancing in the darkness.

The light was so faint it was almost invisible, but if one focused, it was not so weak as to be missed.

He could not count them all, but there were hundreds of people. Hong Seok-young knew the exact number. He had read the report on the Mont-Saint-Michel library. The number of people caught up in the first dungeon incident. He was certain, without needing to count, that the number of people here matched that figure exactly.

People fought. They encouraged each other. They huddled in small groups to sleep. They took turns standing watch. They cautiously explored between the bookshelves. They shared what little food they had. When someone found stairs, they argued again.

Sometimes, people fought with veins bulging in their necks and killed each other.

Other times, they did everything they could to support one another and escape this place.

Sometimes, they split into factions and fought.

Sometimes, only a few returned after trying to climb the stairs by force.

Hong Seok-young watched dozens of silent films unfold at once.

“This makes no sense.”

Woo Hee-jae whispered.

“I said the same thing earlier.”

“That’s not what I mean… The group over there, they all wiped each other out fighting. But here, it’s different. Look at that. Are they… training? How many Awakened did Mont-Saint-Michel have again?”

Woo Hee-jae muttered, not sure if he was asking Hong Seok-young or talking to himself.

Hong Seok-young did not bother to answer.

Woo Hee-jae did not seem to expect a reply, either.

But the silence did not last long. He had not planned to let this magic hold his attention for so long. If there were any plans left to speak of, he could not say, but at any rate, that was how it was. Woo Hee-jae gritted his teeth.

“Let’s really move now.”

“Wait.”

“But—”

“Just wait, Hee-jae.”

“It’s not just a moment!”

In truth, it was Hong Seok-young who had stopped Woo Hee-jae, who had tried several times to move—whether to escape or to find Michelle.

Woo Hee-jae cried out in frustration. At first, he had kept his voice low, speaking carefully, but now even that was gone.

“It’s all getting tangled up over there! Even if it’s not trying to attack us, we need to avoid it!!”

“Hmm…”

“Don’t underestimate a crazy magician!!!”

“Ha ha ha. I never did.”

Only then did Hong Seok-young turn his gaze.

Just as Woo Hee-jae said, from far off, mana was swirling like a tornado. The dolls, split into hundreds or thousands, repeated their assigned roles like programmed automatons, then were swept up in the storm. The mana shattered and vanished without a trace, but its force lingered.

He had no desire to stand still and test his body’s durability against that tornado.

After ignoring Woo Hee-jae’s urging a few more times, Hong Seok-young finally turned away from the man and woman holding the child.

“…What should we do?”

Woo Hee-jae asked as they moved to avoid the now quite close tornado.

“Should we do the same here?”

Woo Hee-jae raised his sword slightly. The meaning was clear.

But unlike before, when he had struck the dungeon without hesitation, Hong Seok-young shook his head.

“No. I don’t think we need to this time.”

“…Why not?”

Woo Hee-jae looked at him with deep suspicion.

“No matter how I am, I don’t want to go that far… If that thing had attacked us, I wouldn’t be saying this.”

Hong Seok-young pointed at the dolls that still remained.

“If this were Michelle’s original magic, it probably would have attacked. Maybe exploded if you got close. That kid seems to like explosions.”

“…The quieter someone seems, the more extreme their tastes, I suppose.”

“If it were me, I’d never show this to anyone. Enemy or not. We have to see this differently.”

“How?”

“If we were facing a monster, I wouldn’t do this. But this isn’t a monster. People are unpredictable.”

“…….”

“Unless Michelle secretly dreamed of becoming a great actress, well…”

Hong Seok-young stroked his chin.

“I must have stirred things up enough for her to lose control.”

“You don’t know much about magic… so why are you so sure?”

“I may not know magic, but I’ve faced magicians before.”

Hong Seok-young gave a wry smile.

“Hee-jae, Michelle doesn’t really remember what happened at Mont-Saint-Michel… I don’t know how that relates to this dungeon, but she definitely wants to recover those memories. Those dolls must be fragments of her broken memories.”

Woo Hee-jae still looked unconvinced.

“I thought so too, but it doesn’t make sense, does it? The memories don’t match.”

“That’s why she’s doing all this.”

Following instinct, Hong Seok-young ducked and pressed down on Woo Hee-jae’s nape. A chilling sensation ran through him.

He lifted his head and looked carefully. There was a thin thread—almost invisible, like the one that had connected the eyeball and the doll.

“She’s only just realized her memories are strange. She’s trying to find out which of those is real…”

Without giving Woo Hee-jae time to protest, Hong Seok-young raised his spear and cut the thread.

Whether it was some kind of booby trap, there was an explosion—or at least, something like one. The thread had been connected to the bookshelves. When Hong Seok-young cut it, the shelves collapsed right over the two of them.

Woo Hee-jae recoiled in shock. But Hong Seok-young did not move.

“Father!”

Hong Seok-young watched the bookshelf fall toward him. The books, made only of light, passed right through him and scattered across the floor.

“See? It doesn’t affect us.”

“…Don’t put it like that.”

“No, maybe it’s the other way around? Maybe they can’t perceive us. We weren’t there in Mont-Saint-Michel back then.”

Hong Seok-young spoke with certainty.

Humans are unpredictable. But, conversely, there are things that can be predicted precisely because they are human.

“Well, even so, it looks like there’s nothing more we can do here. Look over there, Hee-jae.”

“…What now?”

“Over there. The tornado destroyed everything else, but it avoided that woman and man.”

“……?”

“The other dolls moved as copies, but that child… probably Noah Michelle, is the only one. That’s the doll you were following, right?”

“…It looked like that.”

“Those two must be Michelle’s parents. The events in each group of dolls are different, but there’s a common thread.”

Instead of tearing through the dungeon, Woo Hee-jae now humored Hong Seok-young’s stubbornness, watching him quietly.

Woo Hee-jae knew, too, what the magician was fixated on in Michelle’s fragmented memories.

“…They always protected the child.”

“Whatever happened at Mont-Saint-Michel, I don’t think what Alex knows is the truth.”

“But Michelle explained it herself, didn’t she?”

“How can you trust the memory of a five-year-old? Everyone remembers things the way they want to. No ill intent, but it’s best not to trust a child’s memory.”

“…….”

Woo Hee-jae mulled over Hong Seok-young’s words, then nodded.

“Or maybe Michelle really did believe it.”

“And now she’s starting to doubt it?”

“There was a will, wasn’t there? Even if you believe it without question most of the time, if you think about it, you can find plenty of things that don’t add up.”

“…….”

“Do you think a child who runs up and hugs people like that could kill others? Even her parents?”

“…….”

In all the magic Hong Seok-young and Woo Hee-jae had seen, the young Michelle was always protected. The child was embraced as if it were the most natural thing, and even the battered, tattered doll had locked the child in its arms to shield her.

He would never say to Michelle, “It could have happened.” He had no intention of making such a careless remark.

But whatever the truth of Mont-Saint-Michel, one truth remained: the child trapped in that dungeon had been protected. She must have been loved. The two magicians must have wanted, above all, to protect their child.

Even if the survivors fought. Even if they realized conquering the dungeon was impossible. Still, they wanted to send the child out from this place.

[No-ah]

Even as they believed they themselves would never leave this dungeon.

Hong Seok-young understood the hearts of parents.

He did not know how Michelle herself had received it.

“…Michelle was looking for a book, wasn’t she?”

Woo Hee-jae spoke of the little doll who had secretly opened books between the shelves.

“Could that book have killed people?”

“It’s possible. The book itself could have been a monster.”

“Judging by the magicians who went in later, it really was a book…”

“It’s a dungeon. Anything can happen.”

“…So you’re just going to leave that tornado alone?”

“Hmm.”

Hong Seok-young shrugged.

“The dungeon changed again. If it shook like that here, it’s the same elsewhere. Mr. Kim, Han Tae-kyung, Alex—they’re not so careless as to miss that moment.”

Hong Seok-young grinned playfully.

As if trying to erase the lingering bitterness in his heart.

As if reminding himself that, no matter what more he learned about Michelle, his task would not change.

And, as if to prove his words, a faint, ticklish sensation—like an ant crawling across his skin—made itself known.

Woo Hee-jae realized it a little later than Hong Seok-young.

Just as Woo Hee-jae was about to say something, a white hand suddenly shot up from the floor. It was not one of Michelle’s dolls, which they had seen so many of here. The hand, fingers wriggling as it groped around, began to claw and widen the hole it had emerged from.

Hong Seok-young chuckled.

“Ah! See, there really is a master here!”

A familiar voice came from within.

“That’s right.”

Hong Seok-young grabbed the hand and helped its owner out of the space. Though still looking exhausted, otherwise he appeared uninjured. A flicker of relief crossed Hong Seok-young’s face, but it quickly vanished.

“Master!”

Another voice called from within.

“Han Tae-kyung?”

“We met along the way.”

Han Tae-kyung crawled out of the hole as well. He, too, was unharmed.

“Goodness, this dungeon is tougher than the others.”

“You haven’t even done anything, Mr. Han.”

“If you say that, I, Han Tae-kyung, will be hurt.”

“…….”

Han Tae-kyung shrugged at Woo Hee-jae with an impish look. He had been just as annoying when wearing sunglasses, and that impression did not change without them.

“It’s more tiring not to have any real fighting. If it were just exploration, that’d be one thing…”

Well, it wasn’t an incomprehensible complaint. The lingering image of the doll holding the child remained.

Woo Hee-jae shook his head slightly to clear his mind, then asked,

There was still one guild member who had yet to join them.

“What about Mr. Kim? Did you not find him?”

“Huh, Mr. Kim isn’t here?”

Han Tae-kyung’s eyes widened.

“I thought he’d be with you?”