Retire 267

267 Meeting (1)

It goes without saying, but the existence of the fairy Tati was kept strictly secret.

I made sure to impress this upon Han Taekyung as well.

“Huh? But if the dungeon is that dangerous, wouldn’t it be better to clear it?”

“I said no.”

“Why not?”

“I said it’s not happening.”

So I explained, logically, why it couldn’t be done.

“But why exactly can’t we?”

“It just can’t be done.”

Fortunately, Han Taekyung caught on right away.

“So it’s because of those villains who’ve been coming and going in that dungeon….”

“Yes. It’s pretty much our only lead.”

“I see. If a dungeon that’s been running smoothly suddenly gets cleared, they might get scared and run. And honestly, that dungeon wasn’t exactly drawing much attention anyway.”

Han Taekyung seemed to accept it, asking if that was why Kim Chaemin had set up magic around the area.

“That makes sense then, about Mr. Kim’s alarm spell… But wouldn’t it still be safer to have someone watching nearby?”

“We don’t have a full grasp of that group’s members. Better safe than sorry, and besides… this is a job where secrecy is crucial, so we can’t just assign anyone to watch over it.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

Suddenly, I found myself curious about Han Taekyung’s past. I knew he was already considered a promising hunter at this point… but sometimes he gave hints of knowing more than he let on in unexpected ways.

Well, he does call Hong Seokyoung “senior.” Maybe he wasn’t just a hunter who cleared dungeons. Maybe, like Oh Hyunwook, he was involved in other things behind the scenes.

“Our Chasie wouldn’t forgive such scoundrels either!”

Though, the odds are higher that he’s just a strange person.

“Chasie’s second movie was about something like that, you know. Unlike the first one, Chasie’s role was much bigger. Honestly, I think Chasie was more of the protagonist than Bonnie.”

Han Taekyung suddenly launched into a story I had no desire to hear.

“So what happens is, they find this wallet by chance, but it turns out to be connected to an evil organization threatening world peace…”

I still couldn’t understand why a children’s anime about a girl who didn’t get along with her friends and her pet cat would have a plot like that.

Maybe all children’s anime are like that…

Han Taekyung went on enthusiastically about the plot of a 102-minute animated film. I played along.

“Mm. Sounds like a very instructive story. Well, I have some things to take care of.”

“The real lesson comes after this, though?”

“What you’ve told me is more than enough.”

“I’m sure Irok would like it too!”

He’s probably already seen it…

I hurried to get away from Han Taekyung. Sometimes I wondered if I should use him as a full-fledged teacher, but when he acted like this, I wasn’t so sure…

But then again, I’m not a student, so maybe it doesn’t matter?

For now, I was just having Han Taekyung handle odd jobs instead of making him a full-time teacher. But honestly, it felt like a waste of talent. After all, Han Taekyung was someone Hong Seokyoung had personally brought in. Letting someone like that sit around as a guard or whatever seemed like a waste.

And above all, Han Taekyung was trustworthy.

If he hadn’t been, Hong Seokyoung wouldn’t have brought him to a school full of kids and had him teach. In fact, Han Taekyung had originally taught the kids who were now moving up to third year, so maybe he actually had a knack for teaching. The only graduates from that time were Park Seohyun and Oh Hyunwook, and both were quite talented.

Now that I was here, he’d been pushed aside, but… maybe I could trust him with the kids? Han Eunyoung wouldn’t like it, but that’s just part of growing up. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to.

If I just had Han Taekyung cover classes when Hong Seokyoung wasn’t at school… that might work. It’s been quite a while since Han Taekyung was called to the school, hasn’t it? By now, he should have seen and heard enough.

Even interns only last three months, and Han Taekyung… well, he passed that mark long ago. I wondered if Hong Seokyoung had ever drawn up a proper employment contract with him. Surely Han Taekyung wasn’t working for free?

…He’s not a kid, so I’m sure he handled it himself.

Best not to overthink it.

---

There were other things that needed more serious thought.

“There’s a problem.”

“Huh?”

Hong Seokyoung let out a dazed sound. I worried about any school with this man as principal. The bigger problem was that I was a teacher at that school.

The new semester was right around the corner, and this year’s only new student was still Yoo Ji-eun.

From the perspective of keeping the school running, I wondered if this was really okay, but the principal and the chairman didn’t seem to care, so I decided not to worry about it either. It would be unfair if I was the only one losing sleep over it.

With fewer students, it must be easier to manage. After this year’s third-years graduate… let’s see. There’ll be two students left? Kang Taewoo is taking classes with the third-years, but he’s still a novice as an awakened, so it makes sense to have him stay another year. After that, we’ll have to recruit more students to keep the school going.

They’ll figure it out.

“What problem?” Kim Chaemin asked.

Every Monday, we had a faculty meeting.

Whether it was a faculty meeting, a guild management meeting, or an Ark countermeasure meeting, I couldn’t tell, but since all three of us wore all those hats, it didn’t really matter.

“There are still more problems left?” Kim Chaemin said, not looking up from his notebook. That stung a little. Ever since he became the guild Mimi’s part-time mage, his words had gotten oddly sharp. Hong Seokyoung should reflect on that.

This is why people shouldn’t work. It’s the fastest way to ruin your personality…

But then again, wasn’t it Kim Chaemin himself who volunteered for the magic society and club? The number of kids to teach hadn’t changed, and he’d been hanging out with them after class even before there was a club.

I glanced at Kim Chaemin’s notebook.

…There were far too many numbers for it to be a magic formula. Numbers, and, hmm, mathematical symbols.

So it was Pharos business, not the club.

I pretended not to see. Magic engineering wasn’t my field.

“It’s not a huge problem, really.”

“Are you sure it’s not a huge problem?”

“Why do you mistrust me so much?”

Kim Chaemin shrugged.

“It’s not that. I trust you, Mr. Woo. That’s why I’m saying this.”

To prove my innocence, I got straight to the point.

“It’s about the excuse we used for going into the Jirisan dungeon.”

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

“We said it was for a field trip for the students.”

Now Hong Seokyoung seemed to realize what I was getting at, scratching his head with an awkward look.

“Never mind the apples we brought back from Dasun… what about the field trip? How are we going to handle that?”

“……”

“We do need to actually hold a field trip, don’t we?”

“……”

“Hello?”

“……”

Scratch, scratch.

Kim Chaemin, who had lifted his head for a moment, buried it back in his notebook. Hong Seokyoung gazed out the window with a melancholy expression.

These people. They’re really testing my patience.

“Excuse me.”

“……”

“……”

“Mr. Hong.”

“Why are you picking on me!”

“Because you’re the principal.”

“…Right. I am.”

Is this school really okay?

And that wasn’t even the only problem.

“And what about that business in Busan that guy mentioned? How are we going to investigate that?”

Hong Seokyoung stroked his chin.

“Should I ask Hunter Lee?”

“What if Hunter Lee asks why we’re investigating it?”

“……”

It’s not that I don’t trust Lee Miseon. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have so conveniently—no, not conveniently, asked her for help.

But it was the same reason we didn’t bring a Dasun hunter along for the Jirisan dungeon expedition.

It was time to start drawing clear lines.

Lee Miseon belonged to the Association. The fundamental reason she was helping us—helping Hong Seokyoung—was because the criminal organization the Association was monitoring was the same one Hong Seokyoung was after.

She was chasing the Ark for personal reasons, but it was different from Kim Chaemin, whom Hong Seokyoung had personally recruited.

I could tell Lee Miseon that I was from the Ark, but I couldn’t tell her I was from the future. I could explain what Noah Michel wanted to achieve through the Ark, but I couldn’t tell her about the monster who had come from the future to kill Hong Seokyoung.

There was a difference.

And crucially, Lee Miseon believed I’d already made contact with Kim Yuhwa. I couldn’t suddenly claim I had a brother now.

“Hmm…”

Hong Seokyoung folded his arms, deep in thought.

“I’ll take care of this one.”

“…You, sir? How?”

“Hunter Lee knows the basics of our situation, so she’d spot anything suspicious right away. That’s the problem, right?”

“I… guess so?”

“So if it’s someone who doesn’t know our situation, it should be fine.”

I frowned.

“Who do you mean?”

“There are plenty.”

Hong Seokyoung shrugged.

“Closest would be the Awakened Crime Investigation Unit.”

“Not them.”

“Right, they’re close to Hunter Lee, so scratch that.”

He grinned mischievously.

“There’s Interpol, the CIA… pick a country.”

“Leave Europe out, just in case,” Kim Chaemin interjected.

“Other countries aren’t necessarily safe, but Europe’s the most likely to be connected to Michel, right?”

“No Europe, got it.”

The way he said it so casually was almost absurd.

“But if you leave out Europe, that really narrows it down.”

“America?”

“I’ve helped them out a lot. They owe me.”

Hong Seokyoung might be the only person who could call America “easy.”

“Oh, right. If you add my name to the principal’s… they might even be happy about it? They’re the type who’ll ask for this and that in return, chattering away.”

Kim Chaemin snorted as if displeased, but he didn’t seem genuinely annoyed.

That meant the deal had been fair enough.

The same went for Hong Seokyoung.

“There are some Ark-related favors they’ve asked me for, so America really is the best bet.”

“Ah, that’s true. How’s that going?”

“The Ark guys were operating globally, so there should be results soon.”

Hong Seokyoung paused to calculate a few things, then continued.

“If America gets involved, word will get to the Association. But if I’m the one making the request, they won’t mention my name…”

“As long as they don’t interfere any further, that’s fine.”

“We’ll have to give them something in return, but… it’ll actually be easier to ask them to handle the aftermath. Mr. Woo, do you, uh, need any results for your record?”

“What kind of results?”

“Catching criminals… that sort of thing.”

“No, thank you.”

“Then it’s settled. We take what we need, and leave the rest to them.”

Hong Seokyoung wrapped things up cheerfully.