Retire 287

287 Death (3)

The Hunter Training High School is, after all, a school.

It seems obvious, but it’s something that always had to be kept in mind. Because we used this place almost like an Ark Countermeasures Headquarters, there was equipment here far beyond what you’d expect at a high school. The lab that Gamble used was a prime example.

Strictly speaking, the lab wasn’t a school facility. But it hardly made a difference. The auditorium, too, had been designed with input from Kim Chaemin—though I’d handed over the blueprints for the regulatory agency’s meditation hall rather than the academy’s. If the other magicians found out, they’d lose their minds.

There were other, more subtle differences the students didn’t know about.

There are certain facilities a school must have to be officially recognized. One of them is the infirmary. So Yangseong High had one—an extravagant infirmary with over ten beds.

The person working in the infirmary was actually a doctor from Daseon’s medical team. The worst injuries the kids suffered during training were minor scrapes. Even when told to go to the infirmary, they’d usually just rinse the wound with water and call it a day.

As a result, the school nurse—far too qualified for the title—spent most of her time tutoring Yoo Hye-eun.

I’d asked her once,

“Don’t you get bored here?”

“What are you talking about?”

Nurse Shin Minseo had looked at me with wide eyes.

“Chasing after hunters who think they’ll die if they sit still and nagging them is way worse than this.”

She said it so firmly, as if she would brook no argument.

“Do you know how jealous everyone was? The fact that this is a rotation is honestly tragic.”

But that leisure was shattered less than a month after the semester began.

“Ah, damn it!”

Shin Minseo was breathing hard.

“I used to wonder why a high school needed all this equipment, but I guess it’s all necessary?!”

“There’s no such thing as pointless spending.”

“Most spending is pointless!”

The usually easygoing nurse sat down heavily, her face drawn tight. Her hands and clothes were stained with blood. Thank goodness we’d laid down runes with sterilizing effects in the infirmary.

Usable runes made everything less tedious. That was one of the things our nurse had loved most.

“What? It’s not commercially available yet? Why not! This is the kind of thing that changes the world!”

Shin Minseo started to run her sweat-soaked hair back, then noticed the blood on her hands and gave up. She let out a long sigh.

“Well… his condition is stable for now. If he dies after all those potions, that’d be a feat in itself.”

She nudged one of the empty potion bottles at her feet. It rolled across the floor. There were more than a dozen empty bottles just in the infirmary. There were dozens more scattered across the schoolyard.

Alex Hope was still alive only because Lee Miseon happened to be at school today.

…Or was that really luck? Ever since Hong Seok-young left the country, it seemed like trouble had followed, and Lee Miseon hadn’t shown up for days except to send her staff.

Why had she come this morning? Honestly, I hadn’t even known she was here until Kim Chaemin dragged me to the director’s office.

The reason was obvious.

Because of the dungeon break in Boston. Even if she’d only heard about Hope fighting there after the fact, she wouldn’t ignore it knowing others were involved.

Lucky or not, it didn’t change the fact that I was glad she was here. The potions Kim Chaemin and I had weren’t nearly enough. Even after emptying the infirmary’s emergency supply, it wasn’t sufficient. Only after Lee Miseon had dumped out every promotional and sample potion she’d been hoarding did Hope’s bleeding finally stop.

“He should really be taken to a big hospital.”

Shin Minseo spoke decisively. Of course she was right.

But—

“…That’s…”

“That snake… or whatever that monster was, did it have venom?”

She gestured toward the monster still lying on the schoolyard. Even after being skewered by my spear, it had kept twitching for a long time, but now it was finally still. It was as good as dead.

Just in case, Lee Miseon had her subordinates keep watch. Kim Chaemin had also bound it with her magic. It was better to be cautious, considering how tenacious it had been even with only its head left. The students had been strictly warned to stay away from the schoolyard.

I thought for a moment, then shook my head.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a monster like that before.”

“…I’m not going to get poisoned, am I?”

“If you were, the rest of us would be showing symptoms too. There’s no poison. Don’t worry.”

Shin Minseo still looked uneasy.

“You and the other hunters are Awakened. I’m just a civilian with a bit of intelligence. Even a small dose of monster venom could kill me.”

“Teacher Kim made a quick test kit with runes and checked.”

“Oh, that rune?”

“Yes. It was a fast test for toxicity—there wasn’t any.”

Shin Minseo slumped back in her chair.

“Well, that’s a relief. When’s the ambulance coming?”

“It’s not.”

“…What?”

I glanced over at Hope, lying on a bed at the back of the infirmary, hooked up to equipment you’d never find in a normal school.

As Shin Minseo said, the equipment was far too advanced for a high school infirmary. Even I, Lee Miseon, and even Hong Seok-young had objected, saying it was excessive, but Kim Chaemin had insisted.

She’d argued that you never knew what might happen, and if someone got hurt, would you really send them to a regular hospital?

Even with Lee Miseon’s help, if someone had to be admitted, it would be hard to keep it secret. No matter how much money Lee Miseon or Kim Chaemin threw around, it wouldn’t be enough to hide everything if someone was hospitalized.

So Kim Chaemin had insisted. The clincher was her point that there was no other place as completely isolated from the outside world as Yangseong High.

In the end, I sided with Kim Chaemin, and once I did, even Hong Seok-young just nodded, saying it was for the best. At that point, there was nothing Lee Miseon could do.

In the end, it was good we listened to Kim Chaemin. Of course, even she couldn’t have predicted that Alex Hope would be the first patient admitted to this infirmary.

“…What about Hye-eun?”

Shin Minseo, who had been quietly watching Hope with me, suddenly asked.

She wasn’t an Awakened, just a civilian doctor, but as a member of Daseon, she knew things at this school were anything but ordinary.

…Was she with the Association, too? I hadn’t heard that.

“Hye-eun would be helpful for treating external injuries.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“She’s not a fully registered healer yet, but it’s an emergency… I could supervise her.”

“Teacher Kim went to ask. It’s a bit… sensitive.”

“Sensitive? When someone’s life is on the line, that doesn’t matter!”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Even if I didn’t like it, Alex Hope was our ally. I had no intention of letting him die. If I did, I wouldn’t have drawn my spear to stop the snake’s head. I wouldn’t have poured potions on him.

I’d said we shouldn’t involve the kids, but I wasn’t about to argue that in front of someone who might die at any moment.

“Alex Hope has to die.”

“What?”

“I know Hye-eun isn’t the type to gossip, but… we have to be careful.”

“…You don’t mean he really has to die, right?”

“Of course not. But by tomorrow, the official story will be that he’s dead.”

My arm still tingled where Hope had grabbed it.

For someone on the verge of death, he had a strong grip.

I hoped those words wouldn’t become his last. If only for the sake of Sandra Gamble, who was pacing anxiously in the hallway.

---

[On the 13th, a dungeon break occurred in Boston, USA. With the appearance of an unregistered monster…]

Gamble turned off the news.

Her eyes were red, but she was surprisingly calm. She’d often scolded Hope, but it was clear how much she cared for him.

I’d worried she might suddenly lose control, but that was just my own misunderstanding.

Gamble accepted the situation more coolly than anyone—more than me, Kim Chaemin, or Lee Miseon.

“Shanshan said that?”

“…Yes.”

“How’s Alex?”

“He’s stable. I don’t know when he’ll wake up, though.”

“…Yoo Hye-eun helped, right? She’s the healer, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll have to thank her later.”

She was frighteningly composed. But that didn’t mean she was unaffected.

Sandra Gamble had sunk deep, deep down. She was holding herself together because it was all she could do.

Still, I had to ask.

“…Are you all right?”

“What wouldn’t be all right?”

Gamble answered sharply.

But then her shoulders slumped.

“No, no… I’m sorry.”

“No, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No… ha. No, it’s all because of Alex.”

Gamble gave a faint smile. There was a weariness in that smile that didn’t match her age.

For the first time, I saw in her the Sandra Gamble I remembered.

“He must have had a reason for saying that. No, I know the reason. I’m actually impressed he could think that far. I thought, ‘He’s finally started using his brain.’”

She was still smiling.

“Look, this is definitely Henry Lehmann’s doing. He was trying to kill Alex. Taking advantage of the dungeon break. Since that’s what Alex and I did, this is Lehmann’s kind of joke. He always seemed like a real bastard.”

“…Yes. I suppose so.”

“So Alex has to die, just like Lehmann wants. If he dies… it actually frees us up. I can cooperate with you for the sake of revenge, and Yijun and Oliver will be forgotten by Noah Michel since they’re no longer useful. Lehmann might check, just to confirm Alex is really dead.”

Gamble spoke without pausing for breath.

“But we can’t react. He won’t really kill him. With no body, Lehmann will suspect Alex might still be alive. If we pretend he’s dead, Lehmann will just watch and wait. He’s not patient enough to keep it up forever. Men are all like that.”

“……”

“So Alex has to die. That’s probably why he came all the way here. He couldn’t leave a body behind. If he traveled that far, he could have died from the backlash even without the monster.”

Gamble buried her face in her hands. Her voice was thick with tears.

“That’s why I wonder.”

“…What do you wonder?”

“Whether he did it on purpose, so people would think he was dead.”

“……”

“Or if he really didn’t care if he died.”

“…He couldn’t have meant that.”

“He’s stupid enough for it.”

Gamble’s shoulders shook. I opened my mouth, thinking I should comfort her, but Kim Chaemin shook her head.

I closed my mouth and quietly stood.

Before I closed the door, I heard the sound of muffled sobbing slip through her lips.