Retire 521

521 To Remain a Magician (5)

I revised my assessment of Noah Michelle.

In recent years, I couldn’t recall another person whose evaluation had changed so frequently.

Nor had my understanding of magicians shifted so much.

Even before working with Kim Chae-min, I had occasionally collaborated with archmages. There was Park Seo-hyun, once called a witch. Besides her, there were several other archmages in Korea; some of them disliked the Agency, but many never refused a request for cooperation.

A magician’s presence is vital in dungeon raids. With a single archmage, even dungeons deemed impossible could be cleared without a scratch.

I’d always thought that what mattered most for a magician to become an archmage was whether they could use unique magic.

But after seeing Noah Michelle, I realized something.

A true archmage must be a master of multitasking.

Not just good at it—exceptional.

“There!”

“Ah, damn it!!”

Kim Chae-min hastily withdrew his mana. The tangled vines instantly scattered into petals.

“Ah!”

Hope was caught up in the petals. Kim Chae-min clenched his teeth and moved his hands. The petals somehow slowed Hope’s fall. Hope used the opportunity to steady himself, nimbly leaping from petal to petal, then from falling book to book.

Strangely, things like this had been happening more often lately. I’d entered plenty of dungeons, but falling like this was almost unheard of.

As Hope barely climbed back up, a book fell from somewhere and struck his head. He staggered, nearly losing his balance—

I managed to grab him just in time.

“Get a grip!”

“I am!!”

Books rained down again. I dragged Hope aside, throwing myself out of the way.

The spot we’d just been standing on shimmered gold and then melted away.

The floor, mimicking the Mont-Saint-Michel library, collapsed. Beyond the broken floor was the pitch-black darkness we’d grown so tired of seeing in this dungeon. Books that had already fallen drifted through that darkness.

“Don’t just stand there!”

Kim Chae-min’s scream rang out. Instinctively, I raised my spear to shield my face. A marble the size of a fist exploded just before it struck the spear.

Grabbing Hope, I leapt backward before the marble shattered. We avoided the explosion. The broken floor had already repaired itself, but standing on it was no longer safe. A faceless doll, charging like a rhinoceros, barreled into us. Its goal wasn’t to attack us, but to push us off this floating platform—the library floor.

Darkness.

A library standing alone, like an island in the void.

The library itself wasn’t large. It didn’t compare to the real Mont-Saint-Michel library, or even to the one Michelle had previously recreated. It was just a fragment, roughly torn out and tossed here. The floor was cracked and broken from the start, its edges merging into darkness. Step off, and you’d fall, just as Hope had, into darkness that led nowhere.

There was no ceiling, as if there were no other floors. Some bookshelves were tall, but without a ceiling, the grandeur was lost. Some shelves were missing books, as if teeth had been pulled. Several partitions were broken, and some shelves had toppled entirely.

And the books.

Books were everywhere. Books falling from the sky, swirling wildly as if caught in a gale. I was amazed they managed to keep their shape at all.

The whirlwind raging at the library’s center was meant to push us off the floor. Step off the library and you’d fall. Who knew what would happen if you got caught up in the strange physics of this place? We still didn’t know where the gate was, and the ever-widening cracks in the dungeon made things even more precarious. We had to avoid being left behind at all costs.

But it was anything but easy. Because of Noah Michelle.

The whirlwind, the bizarre gravity—these were all Michelle’s doing. The melting and exploding marbles were her magic as well. The dolls my father had fought had done similar things, but never anything this dangerous.

This magic was more cunning, more threatening.

“Han Tae-kyung!”

On the other side, my father thrust his spear toward Han Tae-kyung, who was sliding in a panic. Han Tae-kyung grabbed the spear and spun his body around. He barely avoided being caught by Michelle’s magic, though he couldn’t avoid falling with my father.

“Ah!”

“Move!”

Michelle’s magic, ironically, was similar in some ways to how I used my sister’s sword.

Not only were there marbles the size of a fist, but many much smaller ones. At a glance, they looked like sparks—tiny beads moving according to Michelle’s will, sometimes exploding on contact, sometimes detonating without even touching anything.

The books weren’t just trying to push us off as before. Some books had tiny marbles wedged between their pages like bookmarks. These books would fall or be swept up by the wind, exploding at random. It was lucky Hope hadn’t stepped on one. A few minutes ago, he’d nearly lost an ankle.

Was this really the Noah Michelle I’d seen before?

The image of a child in her parents’ arms flickered in my mind. Michelle hadn’t earned the title of archmage lightly, but I’d never heard of her using magic like this.

Did everyone have a hidden trump card? With the dungeon at risk of exploding, we couldn’t even use my father’s “secret weapon” from earlier…

“Mr. Woo!”

In this situation, Kim Chae-min’s vines were only good for catching guild members being thrown from the library. He knew this, and focused on weaving a tight net to catch as many marbles as possible.

At his signal, I switched weapons. The reason I tried not to stray far from Kim Chae-min’s side was simple.

After everything that had happened, Kim Chae-min had grown used to my mana—specifically, the flame on my sword. Whether it was Okinawa or facing Lehmann, he’d managed things that made me wonder how it was possible, and now was no different.

I set fire to Kim Chae-min’s vines. The vines burned like oil-soaked wicks. Entwined between the bookshelves, the vines carried the flame onward like a fuse.

“Duck!”

I shouted as I saw the mana waver. Even before I spoke, everyone was already lowering themselves as much as possible.

Bang! Bang!

A series of explosions echoed. The flames met the net Kim Chae-min had set, and every marble near it exploded at once. The vines shielded us from the shrapnel, though not completely. Still, it was enough.

For a moment, the mana was gone. Michelle’s magic still lingered, but not at the insane level it had been. There was a brief window before mana filled the empty space again.

We ran toward the library’s center. We’d done this several times already.

As the library shattered from the shock, it repaired itself. The whirlwind’s path was set, and any books straying too far were caught and returned near the library. The marbles were the same. Whether rolling on the floor or floating in the air, they somehow managed to follow the five hunters, no matter how chaotically we moved.

Was this really the archmage who had once destroyed the world?

Just hours ago, I hadn’t thought much of Michelle. I hadn’t known then, but now I understood.

But Michelle… damn it, if only the dungeon were intact, we could have used stronger measures! Anything would be better than this!!

“……!”

Mana surged as Michelle restored the burned bookshelves and summoned more marbles. As we drew closer to the center, she seemed to sense the danger, leaving some of the broken floor unrepaired. Such spots were increasing.

If Michelle was feeling pressed for time, that was to our advantage…

I looked up at the library’s center. Amidst the shelves, books, and golden marbles, I could see it.

There, in stark contrast to the chaos, was a scene of perfect peace.

A cozy space utterly out of place in the library. Like a dollhouse room set atop the chaos. Only two walls. A window on one side. Through the open window, I could see old buildings, a street, a lamppost—probably somewhere in Nantes.

The breeze stirred the curtain at the window. Sunlight poured in, lighting the room. A worn but comfortable-looking sofa, a soft blanket, a rug faintly stained with coffee.

And, sitting at a table cluttered with books and notebooks, a woman.

Her golden hair was loose and messy. She wore the same white dress as always.

Noah Michelle closed the book she’d been reading and pushed it aside. The book that fell under the table didn’t hit the floor—it simply vanished.

And reappeared before my eyes.

Marbles rained from the open pages.

Without thinking, I threw myself aside on instinct.

Damn it, when I get out of this dungeon, I need to check my ID tag first. I didn’t even know if another stroke had been added.

Maybe I should have followed Hope’s advice and kept searching for the gate, tearing open cracks, instead of going along with Kim Chae-min’s plan.

No.

‘There won’t be another chance to talk to Michelle.’

I didn’t know what Michelle hoped to do by checking that book, but I doubted it would work out in our favor.

‘I think I have a responsibility to watch over her.’

For the first time, Hope used the word responsibility.

‘If things go wrong, what will we tell the Americans? Another unidentified monster?’

Han Tae-kyung’s words, impossible to tell if they were serious or joking, were beside the point.

‘I agree with Mr. Woo. Even now, magicians flock to Mont-Saint-Michel like moths to a flame. Sam Bloom was there, too, so… it’s better to check. That way, I’ll feel at ease.’

Kim Chae-min—no, Kim Chae-min the magician—spoke with a voice that shed all desire and steadied his heart.

And my father—

‘Who knows.’

Noah Michelle reached out her hand. The image of a child giggling as she secretly pulled a book from the shelf overlapped with her.

Instead of a bookshelf, a book appeared in midair. Above the small library room, there was another eyeball—not the one Kim Chae-min held. The eyeball’s empty gaze followed the book Michelle had summoned.

Michelle opened the book. From here, I couldn’t see what was inside. But, like a child sneaking a book from her parents, she flipped through the pages, closed it, and pushed it under the table.

And repeated it.

Just like the countless dolls we’d seen on our way here.

Take out a book, check it, discard it.

We pressed on toward the center.

‘Noah Michelle is human, right?’

‘What?’

‘You called me a savior.’

My father swung his spear. The marbles, pushed away by the force of the spear, exploded only after he passed.

‘No matter how she takes it.’

My father didn’t stop. Sometimes he helped Han Tae-kyung or Hope, sometimes he grabbed onto Kim Chae-min’s vines thrown up to block Michelle’s magic.

Michelle’s hand trembled as she turned the pages. How many books had she checked? How many more did she have to check?

There wasn’t much time left.

‘I can’t give up without even trying.’

Just before we reached her—

Michelle raised her head. Her hair fell messily as her bloodshot red eyes glared at us.