Retire 530

530 The Human’s Child (4)

The white fish drifted slowly along the mist.

Under the deep blue sky, the mist scattered like clouds, looking like a daytime Milky Way. The mana was so concentrated and sparkling that even civilians could see it. The fish followed the clumps of mana like a goldfish chasing food. Each time its enormous mouth gulped down a ball of mana, a tense excitement spread below. Everyone watching must have felt the same thing.

Magic and monsters often seemed like illusions that shouldn’t exist. Inside a dungeon, it was a familiar sight, but even to seasoned hunters, what was happening in Las Vegas now felt alien. So it was understandable that people watching the live broadcast were shocked.

Gamble, who could watch the whole process without having to face Moby or the other hunters directly, was amused. I think he liked the fact that, in the end, it was all an elaborate, well-orchestrated play. In a way, it was as if we’d fooled the entire world. There’s a reason Gamble is childhood friends with Hope. No normal person would follow Hope into a world-shaking war with monsters.

Han Tae-kyung, with a similar air, wore a crooked grin. He was even more cynical than Gamble. Han Tae-kyung wondered whether America truly didn’t know what was happening, or was just pretending not to know. Just as there are all kinds of people in the world, there are all kinds of monsters, and just as many kinds of crazy humans—who knows what might happen?

In that sense, Han Tae-kyung and Gamble got along perfectly.

Unlike those two, who seemed oddly excited, Kim Chae-min remained resolute. He kept grumbling, saying he didn’t want to do this, but there was no other way, so he went along. It was probably because his role in this play had grown so large. Even if he understood it was unavoidable, drawing attention with magic used for a staged event didn’t suit his temperament. Honestly, I don’t think anyone’s opinion of Kim Chae-min’s magic will change just because it’s used in a play. The magic surrounding Moby isn’t fake—it’s real.

By now, even as today passes—and even right now, in real time—Kim Chae-min’s reputation is rising ever higher. There’s probably no one left who doesn’t know his name. Hundreds of magicians are working magic under his command. The massive magical resonance is Kim Chae-min’s doing, and up to now, he’s the only one who could direct it. He said it’s just a part of his attribute magic.

What was it he said? That humans are animals, after all?

Sometimes, when he uses magic, Kim Chae-min says that, but I still don’t know exactly what he means. Even when I ask, he just smiles mysteriously and never gives a straight answer. He says this is his trump card.

I kept to myself the thought that three unique magics are already more than enough as weapons. There’s nothing to gain from provoking a touchy archmage.

At any rate, the hundreds of magicians gathered from across the US rode in off-road vehicles driven by carefully selected hunters, following the mist. Or rather, the mist followed the magicians.

The mist guiding Moby was the work of Kim Chae-min and the other magicians.

After debates as fierce as a war, the route was set, and the mist was laid down with delicate precision. Mist, cloud, whatever you called it, Moby swam carefully along it, just as Hope had asked.

The concentrated mana lingered thickly even after Moby passed. Kim Chae-min said it was a shame—plants from the dungeon would grow well here now.

“Why do you look so serious?”

Leaving the slow-moving monster behind, my father and I cut straight across the desert. We planned to be at Moby’s destination ahead of time.

Hope and Han Tae-kyung were already there, and Gamble was staying at the lodging.

“It’s just… what Gamble said doesn’t seem wrong.”

“What did he say?”

“He said it feels hollow.”

My father glanced at me from behind the wheel.

“Hollow?”

“…Don’t you think so?”

“Not really.”

He shrugged.

“Probably just because we’ve been so busy these past few days. Now that everything’s more or less settled, it’s natural to feel a little bored. You always get restless when you have nothing to do.”

“…That’s not true.”

“It is.”

“It’s not.”

“You’re already thinking about what to take care of first when you get back to Korea.”

He snorted.

“I can hear your brain working.”

“……”

I couldn’t quite deny it. But that didn’t mean I had no excuse.

“If it’s something I have to do anyway, it’s better to get it done early while I have time, so it’s easier later.”

“You can think about it when the time comes.”

“That’s why the school’s in such a state.”

“Still, it runs just fine.”

“Someone’s working hard for that…”

“You don’t have to.”

“If I don’t, who will?”

“Things have a way of working out. The world runs more carelessly than you think.”

Is that really something a principal should say?

“Don’t try to do everything yourself. You’ll just wear yourself out. You already are.”

“…I’m not.”

“Rest when you can.”

He said it lightly, with a grin, but there was real sincerity in his words. I couldn’t find a reply, so I just looked out the window. My father didn’t press further.

“……”

The desert, dotted with cacti, reminded me of the dungeon we’d gotten caught up in at Cactus Mirage’s office.

The desert still played tricks with distance. Maybe it was the giant fish’s fault. The cars carrying the magicians kicked up dust clouds that were different from the mist in the sky.

My father stayed quiet until I spoke again.

“Did we really save the world?”

I half-expected my father to stop the car, but he just kept driving in silence.

“There’s no way to know.”

“…It’s not that I wanted a fanfare. But I didn’t expect this, either.”

“This? You mean the endless stream of things to deal with?”

“That, too.”

Maybe it was, as my father said, because the urgent tasks had finally been sorted out. When you’re busy, you want nothing more than a break, but when the work is about to leave your hands…

I don’t know.

“Maybe we didn’t save the world.”

“……”

“No one knows the future. Humans could suddenly go mad and start a nuclear war, or a meteor could fall and kill us all. I think what we stopped was just one of those possibilities.”

“The possibility of the world ending?”

“If there’s no nuclear war or meteor strike in the next twenty years, then let’s call it the most likely world-ending scenario.”

“…There wasn’t a meteor, but I don’t know about nuclear war. The future I knew has changed.”

“Don’t jinx it!”

My father laughed, and I felt the tension ease.

“It’s natural to feel hollow. If solving one problem made everything turn out right, my life wouldn’t have gone like this, either.”

“…That’s true for most people.”

“Yeah. That’s life. No matter how hollow, unlucky, or hopeless things seem.”

“……”

“What’s done is done. Just because we saw someone messing with time doesn’t mean you can change what’s already happened.”

“…Yeah.”

“You can regret, you can look back. But if you stay there, you can’t move forward. Maybe in some other timeline, we had this conversation. But at the same time, it’s something that never happened. So this—”

My father spoke in a steady voice.

“This is the present. The only possible future. It won’t repeat anymore.”

I nodded slowly.

I knew all these feelings would pass. There’s no such thing as a clean ending. If there were, Noah Michelle wouldn’t have left her uncle with a pile of unsorted data.

Once Moby reached his destination, we wouldn’t be able to get close for a while. But as the restrictions on the paralyzed city lifted, people would return, and daily life would gradually resume.

The magicians wouldn’t need to stay in such numbers. As long as Moby had enough water to swim, that was enough. Once the initial magic was fixed, maintaining it wasn’t hard. The magicians would leave the desert.

But the hunters would stay until the end. Just in case. In case Moby went wild.

Hope never left Moby’s side during all the meetings. I didn’t know what he felt for the monster. But maybe he felt pity for the fish he still called “grandmother.” Moby saw Hope as a youngling. Hope said the monster was friendly to natives… but given his communication skills, he probably missed some nuance.

What Hope conveyed was probably just one part of it… I don’t know. At least one monster I knew was emotional enough to become friends with humans, so maybe Moby was, too.

There was no fanfare.

Moby, with his invisible eyes, spent a long time watching the humans. It was just last night.

Kim Chae-min had done a final check with the magicians, and my father and Han Tae-kyung had drawn people’s attention. Hope and I climbed to the rooftop where we always watched Moby.

Moby had started to smell musty. I couldn’t tell if it was from the bloodstained feathers, the wounded eye, or just the scent of a dying creature.

But the being from another world shivered his feathers.

‘…What did he say?’

Hope didn’t answer. Instead, he reached out to Moby. A single white feather, filled with pure white mana, settled in Hope’s empty hand.

Hope held it out to me.

‘What is it?’

‘Take it.’

‘What?’

‘It’s… a kind of transaction. He says he can’t just pull out what’s stuck in your soul. It doesn’t really mean anything.’

I hesitated, then carefully took the feather.

At that moment, gentle mana settled over the air. Like a soft blanket. Like the breeze of a warm spring day. Like an autumn night when the heat still lingers.

Like summer waves crashing on a deserted beach.

Like snow piling up quietly in winter.

I closed my eyes. The emotion filling my chest wasn’t my own. Compassion. Pity. Regret. A mix of everything.

I opened my eyes.

There it was—the damned clock that had started all of this.

The relief that I hadn’t been abandoned in meaningless, cruel time didn’t last long.

The clock vanished without a trace in blue flames. The voice that had tormented me for so long, along with my sister’s, disappeared as well.

[_’s wo#%$^, sa, ve…]

Was the broken voice just a hallucination? Or was it the clock itself speaking?

“You saved the world.”

My father’s voice pulled me out of my memories.

Something caught in my throat. I nodded.

Yes. I… My sister, who sent me here, and my father—

We changed the future. This is a time no one will ever change again.