Retire 276

276 Coin (3)

I had no way of knowing what Noah Michel really thought about this so-called new era, but the students at the Hunter Training High School certainly had strong opinions of their own.

“Aaaaah!!”

A scream echoed from the classroom.

It was a sound I’d heard often enough these past few days to ignore it.

“Waaaah!!!”

This time, someone else screamed—a girl’s voice, different from before.

I ignored it just the same.

“I can’t live like this!”

“Jieun!!”

“Why! Let go of me!”

“Get a hold of yourself!”

“I hate this so much!!!”

Yoo Jieun burst out of the classroom, and by coincidence, stopped right in front of me. She managed to halt just before running into me.

I’d been deliberately suppressing my presence, but I hadn’t expected her to be so oblivious. I guess she’s not quite at that level yet.

The new semester was about to start, and this was the state of things…. I forced myself to swallow my disappointment. She’s still just a high school student. I should remember what I was like in high school.

…Actually, I was better than this.

And I went to a regular academic high school, too.

No, wait, that’s not right. At least for Yoo Jieun, she isn’t even a high schooler yet. Next week, she’ll be on a path she can’t turn back from.

Jieun stood frozen, eyes wide. When I waited silently, she gave me an awkward little bow, still staring at me.

“…Hello.”

I pointed back toward the classroom.

“Go back in.”

“…Yes, sir.”

“And don’t forget the rune test tomorrow.”

“I’m not even a student here yet!”

It’s hard to believe this is the same kid who was desperate to get into the pilot school just half a year ago.

Well, if you want to be a hunter, shamelessness is a must.

“Really? Want to go to a regular school instead?”

“Ugh…”

Jieun’s shoulders slumped.

I needed to get a mana watch on her.

I’d only been able to see what my father left behind once Hong Seok-young put on the watch.

The message he left for the past Hong Seok-young… the words for my sister and me. And information about the Mont-Saint-Michel dungeon structure. That wasn’t something I could use right away, so Hong Seok-young had volunteered to gather survivor testimonies and organize it.

If my father set up security features on the mana watch as a precaution for unforeseen events…

Then my sister probably set similar locks. Maybe not, but it couldn’t hurt to check. The problem was, what do I say to get little Jieun to wear the watch? If it were just putting it on, fine, but I needed to register her mana pattern as well….

“No…”

I pulled my drifting thoughts back and looked at Jieun.

She mumbled, thoroughly discouraged.

“I’ll stay here.”

“Then you know what you have to do, right?”

“Ugh.”

Jieun made a face like she’d just swallowed bitter medicine.

I pointed at the classroom.

“Go practice your runes.”

“Waaaaa!!!!!”

She ruffled her hair in frustration, but obediently returned to the classroom. I leaned against the door and looked inside.

For once, all the mage kids were together. They’d clustered the few desks into a group and were sitting around them. Notebooks and paper were piled on the desks, and the floor was littered with discarded sheets. I picked up one from near the door.

Hm.

Hmm.

Hmmm.

“Who drew this?”

“Ah! That’s just a doodle!!!!”

Lee Seung-yeon snatched the paper from my hand. She was one of the voices that had echoed down the hall earlier.

“You know how to draw it properly now?”

“Uh, probably?”

“Show me.”

“But there’s a rune test tomorrow!”

Seung-yeon looked like she was about to cry.

“At this rate, you’re not going to make it.”

“Uwaaaaaa…”

Seung-yeon clutched her head and made noises that barely qualified as human speech. The paper in her hand was crumpled beyond recognition. There was a rune drawn on it, but it was so messy it barely deserved the name.

Right. As soon as Dayeon announced the mana pen, rune classes were added to the regular curriculum at the training high school.

After the holidays, the kids had been given a bit of a break. Those who wanted to go home did, and Imi-seon even dipped into guild funds—or her own pocket—to send some on trips under the guise of scholarships….

And now, a week before the new semester. Other classes were still on break, but rune class had already started. There’s no one who knows more about runes than me, so I might as well make use of that knowledge.

Of course, the kids, who’d never expected to spend their days drawing on paper, were dying inside.

“How’s it going? Are they all like Seung-yeon?”

I stepped into the classroom, avoiding Seung-yeon, who was rolling around on the floor in exaggerated agony. The mage kids—especially Park Seo-hyun—were obsessively drawing runes, and Choi Jin-woo’s work wasn’t bad either. After all, they’d been at it for nearly a year. In fact, they were helping the others now.

“No. She’s the only one.”

“Traitor!”

Seung-yeon shot upright at Han Eun-young’s words.

Eun-young snorted.

“Spend less time complaining and more time practicing. Teacher, can you look at this? The Dayeon mana pen has hand-shake correction, right? But if we don’t have that, how accurate do we need to be?”

“It’s best to be as precise as possible. If the rune fails when you need it, you’ll be in trouble. Let me see.”

Eun-young handed over her notebook. Without being told, she’d drawn runes in a variety of sizes. She really was the sharpest of the bunch. Her runes were also highly detailed.

I handed the notebook back and asked,

“How many runes have you memorized?”

“I started with the shield rune, and I’m memorizing the ones Mr. Chae-min pointed out first.”

“Why did you draw them in different sizes?”

“Because you never know what situation you’ll have to draw a rune in.”

“Good. Keep doing that. The first few pages… these are just for practice, right? Everything after that is a pass.”

“Yes!”

Eun-young’s face lit up. Kids need praise to grow. Yelling at them never helps—if anything, it just breeds rebellion.

Since I was here, I checked the others’ work as well, but only the mage kids handed over their notebooks with confidence. Yoo Hye-eun hesitated for a long time before reluctantly showing me her practice runes.

“You did well—why so little confidence?”

“…Hehe.”

“These are basic runes, so you need to know them. Later, I’ll give you some that will be especially useful for you.”

“Okay!”

Seo Han-seong and Soon Soon-jin weren’t bad either.

I couldn’t say they were great, even as a white lie… but their effort was commendable. For kids drawing runes for the first time, this was more than enough.

And as for Yoo Jieun…

“Ah! Don’t look!”

She was doing her best to shield her desk with her small body. I could still see the rune sticking out, but I let it go.

“You know I’ll be checking it tomorrow, right?”

“That’s tomorrow’s problem!”

Seung-yeon nodded vigorously beside her. Weird kids, honestly.

“And you?”

“Oh, please check mine.”

Kang Tae-woo handed me his runes. Ever since confirming his little sister’s safety, his tense demeanor had eased noticeably.

Some days he’d walk around grinning for no reason, and other days he’d stare up at the sky in a daze. Even when Seung-yeon poked him, he’d just sigh deeply….

Eventually, even Hong Seok-young and Kim Chae-min brought it up. When I asked, what did he say again?

‘I’m revising my future plans.’

…Strange kid, really.

Anyway, today was one of Tae-woo’s cheerful days. I eyed him suspiciously, then looked at his runes.

“Good job. Just keep it up like this.”

“Hey, don’t play favorites with Tae-woo!”

“Favorites? Try being half as diligent as Tae-woo.”

Seung-yeon grinned. Strange kids….

Now, only one left.

“Oh Hyun-wook.”

“……”

“Your runes?”

“They’re fine.”

Hyun-wook answered firmly. Unlike the others, his desk was neat and his notebook tidy.

His determined face was far more reliable than the Hyun-wook of the future. But I still remembered exactly what his first runes looked like—like a piglet’s scribbles.

So I didn’t go easy on him, unlike with Jieun or Seung-yeon.

“Let me see.”

“They’re fine.”

“Let me see.”

“They’re fi—”

“Hyun-wook, I think you’d better show the teacher.”

From beside him, Yoo Hye-eun spoke gently. Hyun-wook whipped his head around to look at her.

Taking advantage of the moment, I grabbed his notebook.

“……”

I wondered how to avoid hurting his feelings.

“All right.”

“…Just say it.”

“You worked hard.”

The lines were so wobbly it was a wonder they formed circles at all. For someone so physically adept, how could his lines be such a mess?

What was Hyun-wook like in the future?

Did he go through a phase like this, too?

“If you keep working hard… you’ll get better.”

I spoke from experience. At least, I’d never heard of that piglet being held back because he couldn’t draw runes.

But Hyun-wook’s face crumpled at my words, and Seung-yeon jeered from beside him.

“Mr. Woo just killed Hyun-wook.”

“……”

---

“So unfair.”

There was another soul suffering from runes here as well.

“You should’ve told me about this sooner…. How am I supposed to learn alongside the kids?”

“There’s no age in learning.”

“Ugh, what a textbook answer!”

Han Tae-kyung pouted, but his hand didn’t falter as he drew runes.

In this way, he resembled his little sister. For a first-timer, Tae-kyung drew without hesitation. As I watched, he adjusted his slipped sunglasses and gave an annoyingly cocky grin.

“I’m pretty good, right?”

“……”

His confidence, so unlike his sister’s, was somehow irritating.

“You made mistakes here and here.”

But Tae-kyung wasn’t a child—he was already a seasoned hunter. No room for error.

He stared at the paper in anguish, and only then did I feel at ease.

“You know how important this is, right? You have to learn it right the first time.”

“Ugh, enough with the nagging.”

“It’s for your own good, Mr. Han.”

“Ugh, nagging…”

Just as Tae-kyung shuddered at my words, the office door burst open with a bang and Imi-seon rushed in.

“Hunter Lee?”

“Mr. Woo! Look at this!!”

Imi-seon thrust her phone at me.

I was a bit taken aback, but took the phone and looked at the screen, wondering what had her so worked up.

It was the mage community Kim Chae-min had shown me. I wasn’t that surprised Imi-seon could get in.

“What’s so—”

I stopped mid-sentence.

[! ! !]

A post with nothing but three exclamation marks for a title. Written by Noah Michel.

Inside…

I let out a hollow laugh.

Dozens of runes. Some I knew, some I didn’t. Noah Michel had even written out the effects for each one.

And at the end of the post—

[Things that might help in the dungeon.]

“So this is how you want to play it?”

While the mana pen was sweeping the world, why upload runes only where mages could see them?

Imi-seon was not pleased by this at all.