Retire 550
by Cristae550 (Hunter Academy Side Story 17) Human and Monster_1
“Aaaugh…”
Alex twisted his stiff body. Even after stretching as usual, the heavy gear made it impossible to feel refreshed. All black clothing, a bulletproof vest, heavy boots, thick gloves—there was more, too.
They’d explained what all the equipment was for when they issued it, but honestly, he couldn’t remember half of it. In any case, there were legal and identity issues, so he’d been told to always wear the gear during operations. He’d never gone this far, even entering dungeons. For Alex, whose specialty was fast, agile combat, all this heavy equipment was nothing but a hindrance.
But what could he do?
If they said to do it, he’d do it. Sandra and Woo Hee-jae had both told him that if he wanted to help catch Henry, he’d better listen and behave.
And it wasn’t as if Alex didn’t understand the reason for the gear, so for once, he switched into “good kid” mode. Back when he and Sandra roamed the jungles of Central and South America, he could just cover his face and move freely, but now things were different.
When he’d brought this up, Sandra had seemed so touched that she promised him a Christmas present if he kept behaving until the end of the year. He hadn’t gotten a present since Noah made contact…
Alex pulled out a water bottle and gulped it down, then belatedly remembered the backup team and took out his radio. Having someone else to handle cleanup was definitely convenient. He shrugged as he looked at the ramshackle illegal lab in the middle of the jungle. He’d been worried there might be kids, but there weren’t—just people working on illegal monster byproduct processing.
They were all unconscious now. Alex double-checked to make sure everyone was out cold. He’d gotten pretty good at tying up arms and legs.
“What are you doing, senior? Am I the only one working here?”
“Hold on…”
It wasn’t a hard job, but he’d learned from Sandra and that “senior” that just because you could do something didn’t mean you should do it all.
That problematic senior, Han Tae-kyung, was wandering around with his phone held high, moving from spot to spot.
But in the end, he clicked his tongue and put the phone away.
“The signal flickered for a second, then died again.”
“Get a new phone.”
“It’s not the phone… If there’s full bars out here in the middle of nowhere, that’d be weirder. I think those guys must’ve been boosting the signal.”
“Something urgent?”
“Eun-young says she has something to tell me. Has she finally lost it?”
Eun-young?
Alex tilted his head, then finally recalled that unfamiliar name was Han Tae-kyung’s younger sister.
He didn’t know much about the kids at the school, but after three months stuck with Han Tae-kyung, he’d inevitably heard about that dumb-looking cat and his family.
“I was worried something happened to our parents.”
“Was it?”
“No! That’s why it’s even weirder… Did she get into trouble?”
Alex didn’t know anything about Han Tae-kyung’s sister, so there was nothing to say.
Han Tae-kyung fell silent and looked up. Alex followed his gaze. Someone was approaching.
Fortunately, they were familiar faces.
The Abilities Association’s special unit wore the same gear as Alex and Han Tae-kyung. Knowing the situation was under control, one of the team members addressed them.
“Injuries?”
“None!”
“Any unusual findings?”
“I don’t know if this counts as unusual…”
Han Tae-kyung pointed to a military box he’d brought out from inside.
“What’s in it?”
Instead of answering, Han Tae-kyung opened the box. Alex turned away, not wanting to see what was inside. The stench of blood hit him.
The team member grimaced at the contents.
Han Tae-kyung clicked his tongue.
“It’s a dummy body our troublesome friend used and discarded.”
Inside the box were puppet parts that twitched as if they had a will of their own, even though their mana links had been severed. A right arm. A left foot.
It wasn’t a human body, like the one the mage had used in Las Vegas. Nor was it a jointed wooden puppet like Noah’s magic.
The blood dripping from the remaining joints wasn’t human. It was a crude, patchwork puppet, sewn together from monster bones, muscle, blood, and hide.
Calling it “crude” felt almost generous—it was a pitiful thing.
Alex puffed out his cheeks in a sulk.
Henry, that madman—what was he trying to do?
In truth, Alex hadn’t known how Noah had found him until the mage fell apart.
He could honestly say he’d been on his best behavior until the day the young archmage with the cleverly hidden golden hair showed up.
If his parents had been the type to push their child into dungeons just for being a little different, Alex wouldn’t have loved them so much.
On the contrary, his parents had hoped Alex wouldn’t awaken. They thought a child who barely reacted to outside stimuli would be at high risk of self-harm if he awakened. They could never have imagined that, even before he was born, he’d already been awakened—or rather, made of mana itself.
Looking back at the memories that had faded since his wings were cut, Alex realized he was more or less the last of his kind. He’d been too young to be considered for the escape pods, but that was precisely why he’d been able to leave the world at the very end. Ironically, even those arrogant beings had worried about the extinction of their species. Well, that’s why they’d fought tooth and nail to survive in a world that made no sense.
Anyway, thanks to his species’ unique affinity for mana, he could break down his original body and inhabit small cells. That was how he’d been born in a human body, how he’d still had wings, how he was still more fairy than human.
“Just because people smile doesn’t mean they’re happy. Face things head-on.”
It was only after Sandra scolded him that Alex Hope slowly began to learn how to live as a human.
It was after that that he told his parents he could use mana—that he had awakened. It wasn’t what they’d hoped for, but they weren’t surprised, and they calmly trained their son. They didn’t want him to become a Hunter. In fact, they hoped he wouldn’t. They just wanted him to be able to control his powers enough not to hurt himself.
He had enough strength to clear a dungeon in one go, but that was as a fairy—by human standards, it was different. Alex learned to fight as a human, with Sandra and his parents. He learned that humans, without wings, had to walk on two legs.
Sandra had already chosen her own path, but she’d also trained as an Awakened, just in case.
It wasn’t really about raids. They’d pick a dungeon with no monsters and go on what was basically a family picnic.
So when a young human mage suddenly appeared and said,
“Hello, lost fairy. The exalted old king calls you.”
How could he not be shocked?
Of course he’d run to Sandra.
Alex only really started Hunter work after that. He’d debated whether to make a name for himself as a new Hunter. In the end, he chose that path because he figured the more attention he drew, the harder it would be for Noah to pull anything.
Well, he still got into all sorts of trouble, thinking more like a fairy than a human, but at the time, that wasn’t a priority. Honestly, it still wasn’t.
Back then, he’d assumed Noah had some way of tracking mana. Archmage Noah Michel was famous, and Alex’s mana was unique. If you were an archmage with a bunch of monsters, surely you’d have at least one way to measure mana.
But for all that, Noah was never able to pinpoint Alex’s location, and Sandra started to get frustrated.
“Damn it, I don’t get it. How did he find you?”
“Hmm… Maybe it wasn’t Noah, but the king who noticed?”
“That’s even weirder! The inside and outside of a dungeon are completely different spaces! Even Awakened who can cross the gate can’t observe from outside in, and from inside out is even more impossible! How could a monster know that?!”
Even now, knowing at least what method had been used, the questions weren’t resolved.
“What did I do?”
“Huh?”
“I get Noah, but… how did a monster stuck inside a dungeon know I was outside?”
“……”
“I mean, if I’d left the dungeon, I wasn’t planning to do anything to the monsters. If I’d met you, I wouldn’t have cared, and even without you, I just wanted to live with Mom and Dad. Nothing more.”
“That’s true.”
“But if they knew about me, it means I did something.”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Maybe it was them who did something, not you.”
“…Maybe?”
Sandra looked at Alex as if to say, “Since when do you think so much?”
“It’s good that you’re finally learning to think for yourself, to face your feelings….”
“……”
“Whatever happened, it has nothing to do with who you are now.”
“Really?”
“Have I ever been wrong?”
“…That chicken we had last time. You said it’d be good, but it wasn’t.”
“That was just a bad location.”
Sandra replied shamelessly.
“Okay! Did you pack your bag? Underwear? Socks? If you get hungry, make sure you eat—if you skip meals like before, you’ll really collapse. You practiced eating regularly in Las Vegas, right?”
“Humans are so inefficient! Eating three times a day is exhausting.”
“Stop whining.”
“It’s annoying. Why do humans have to eat?”
“It was weird that you could get by with so little before.”
Now, before he even forgot he was hungry, his stomach would start to rumble, making it hard to skip meals. Sandra still followed him around, nagging. Alex didn’t mind; he liked being fussed over. Sandra probably knew that, too.
“Junior.”
“What, senior.”
Munching on the chocolate Sandra had given him, Alex answered curtly.
“Thinking too much gives you a headache. That’s wisdom—remember it.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“Should we go to Korea?”
“Why?”
Alex blinked at Han Tae-kyung. They were waiting to report in.
The new traces of Henry were a headache in themselves. They knew Henry had made deals, but didn’t know exactly how Noah was involved. Henry’s motives were just as unclear.
“I found something interesting, but I don’t think I should handle it on my own. Let’s go ask.”
But Alex wasn’t fooled.
“Your sister?”
“Among other things.”
Alex shrugged. After all, he wasn’t the one in charge—this weird guy was.
If they got in trouble for returning to Korea without permission, it wouldn’t be his problem.
“Fine! So what’s the interesting thing?”
Han Tae-kyung, avoiding the eyes of the team members milling around, slyly showed Alex what he was holding. Alex’s eyes widened.