Retire 381

381 Girl of Dreams (4)

A rose that absorbs magic.

Kim Chaemin even showed me data on what happened when she transplanted the rose into contaminated soil.

Just a single rose. It didn’t have a dramatic impact on the polluted land, but you could see with the naked eye that the ground, which had turned unnatural colors like factory wastewater, had regained a bit of its original hue.

“It depends on the type of contamination, but it definitely worked on land tainted by monster poison or magic. And, well, it wasn’t very effective on water, but if you used enough, maybe it could work…”

Before I could even ask, Kim Chaemin started explaining everything. I wondered how she’d managed to hide it all this time.

No, she probably hadn’t meant to hide it. Judging by her earlier lack of confidence and gloom, she just hadn’t wanted to think about it. She didn’t want to face the fact that she’d lost the rose her grandfather and father had poured so much effort into.

If that rose had survived, she probably would have introduced it to me along with the mana grass.

“…But that’s all gone now.”

See?

As if to prove my thoughts, Kim Chaemin grew gloomy again.

“…So why are you only now certain that Michel was after the rose?”

She answered in a dejected tone.

“She took an excessive interest in my research.”

“It’s the research of an archmage. Of course she’d be interested.”

“Not that kind of interest…”

“Or maybe it’s just rivalry with another archmage her own age?”

“……”

She hesitated for a moment.

“That could be it.”

“See?”

It’s not like Kim Chaemin herself was free of competitive feelings toward Michel.

“So at first, you didn’t think she was after the rose?”

“I thought I’d stopped them, no matter what they were after.”

“But you still suffered losses?”

“They were looking for something in my domain.”

She frowned.

“But now, I think that might have been a diversion. Or maybe they really were searching… but honestly, does it make sense to invade an archmage’s domain just to cause trouble? If you were going to break in, wouldn’t you at least take something valuable?”

“If I went in, I’d at least steal something worth money.”

She shot me a suspicious look. Hey, you’re the one who asked.

“So I do think they were really after my research. But…”

“Destroying the rose was on their bucket list, too.”

“Yes.”

“And your evidence is Michel’s behavior?”

“It’s a mage’s intuition. Much more reliable than a Hunter’s.”

Of course, she wasn’t just going on a hunch.

“Michel made a mistake.”

“A mistake?”

“She’s surprisingly sloppy. You’ll see if you talk to her. Now I understand why Alex had such things to say about her.”

That was unexpected.

From what I’d seen, she didn’t seem that way at all. But I hadn’t been able to watch their conversation from start to finish… and she’d actually spoken to Michel, so I couldn’t argue.

“I don’t know exactly what happened in the Mont-Saint-Michel dungeon, but Michel lost her parents there. What do you think happens to a mage who loses their parents?”

“…A relative takes them in?”

Isn’t that normal?

“And if there are no relatives?”

“……”

The word “orphanage” hovered on my tongue. What’s the policy in Europe again? In the US, there are foster families.

But I couldn’t imagine them just dumping a newly awakened archmage child in an institution.

“I remember reading that she had a guardian, at least on paper.”

Like Park Seohyun.

“Yes. On paper.”

“……”

“When you were snooping on European mages, I went to the conference president and asked.”

“And she answered?”

“It wasn’t a big secret. I even talked about Seohyun—asked what to do for a student who’d lost their guardian.”

“……”

“She said it was a sensitive topic and praised me for being so considerate, said other mages should follow my example, and then told me everything.”

I wondered if Kim Chaemin had always been like this. She’d always been smart and not naïve, but… was it my fault? Had Yangseong High changed her? I didn’t think I’d done anything that significant. Probably not?

When I got back to Korea, I decided to pay more attention to Woo Irok’s friends. You have to choose your friends wisely, especially when you’re young.

“Most European mage families are related—if you can call someone your cousin’s cousin’s cousin, they count as family.”

So, not really family.

“When a mage orphan appears, they find some distant relative to adopt them.”

“And Michel?”

“There were too many families claiming guardianship.”

A young archmage with no close relatives.

Easy prey.

I was more convinced than ever that if Michel’s goal was to reform European mage society, I’d support her wholeheartedly.

“They couldn’t agree, so they did… joint custody, I guess.”

“Joint custody.”

“Yes. Joint custody. I’m not sure it was really ‘parenting,’ though.”

If she decided to change her ways now, I’d be willing to help.

That was as far as Kim Chaemin had gotten. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed or it was too personal to share—just that even other mages didn’t know the details of the families who’d claimed joint custody of Michel.

So for the rest, I could only speculate from Michel’s own words.

“She said it was her first time having a real conversation with a mage her own age.”

Whether that was true or not, it gave me some idea of what her upbringing had been like.

But that doesn’t excuse everything.

A difficult childhood?

So what?

No one chooses the circumstances of their birth. Some people are born into happy, wealthy families; others, into poverty or with terrible parents.

But what kind of person you become is your own choice.

Say Michel had a rough childhood.

What about me?

If we were competing for “most miserable,” I wouldn’t lose to anyone.

My father? He didn’t even know who his parents were, grew up in an orphanage, went through hell to become a Hunter. Just when he was about to be happy, he lost his wife and son.

What about Seo Hanseong? That gentle kid born to criminal parents?

Kang Taewoo? Oh Hyunwook? Park Seohyun?

Right. Not everyone can be strong. Some people will break under the weight of reality.

That’s not their fault.

You can resent the world, curse your fate. I wouldn’t blame anyone for that. For some people, just surviving is a feat.

But Michel went further.

If she’d just resented her childhood and called for reform in European mage society, that would be fine.

Instead of enthroning a monster as king, breaking dungeons worldwide, and trying to end the world.

…I don’t know if Michel is too strong, or too weak.

I can’t tell.

And I don’t want to try to understand.

‘I’ll let you do whatever you want, kid.’

That’s what my father taught me.

‘But let’s make a deal.’

‘What is it?’

‘Don’t do anything that hurts other people.’

Just the basics.

‘Be a good person.’

A simple lesson from a father to his son.

‘If you live kindly, good things will come.’

“I don’t know how to deal with people, that’s all.”

Kim Chaemin’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. She gave a wry smile.

“She was just… like an awkward classmate on the first day of school.”

The oddly specific example made me feel a strange sympathy.

“She’d get excited in the middle of a conversation, then suddenly go quiet, or bring up some outdated slang she’d heard somewhere… that kind of kid.”

“…I get it.”

I found myself smiling just like Kim Chaemin.

“So you’re saying Noah Michel doesn’t have any friends.”

“That’s why she keeps making mistakes when she talks to me.”

“Specifically?”

“She gets all flustered whenever I say something that gets under her skin.”

I remembered how Michel would clench her fists whenever she was provoked.

“She asked me how I managed to move my domain, even though I never told her I’d moved. She wanted to know if it was a hassle.”

I blinked.

I couldn’t believe it.

“She actually said that?”

“Yes.”

“She makes mistakes that basic?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Not on purpose?”

“Maybe… who knows?”

Kim Chaemin looked doubtful.

“How does she even run the Ark?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

She agreed wholeheartedly.

“It was the same with my grandfather’s rose. She was way too focused on my research… his research.”

“So…”

I’d thought the hint she dropped to Michel was about mana grass. I was wrong. That was a fluke—Michel couldn’t have known about it.

Kim Chaemin had been talking about the rose her grandfather left behind. And Michel had fallen for it.

“To think she went to such lengths to destroy a rose.”

It was a shame she’d succeeded.

I wondered what I could say to cheer Kim Chaemin up, but realized there was nothing I could say.

Still, I tried to be as gentle as possible.

“Do you think… you’ll be able to grow the rose again?”

Her shoulders sagged a little, but she wasn’t as downcast as before.

“I have to try.”

“Maybe…”

“No, I have to. If Michel had to act herself, there must be a reason. No matter what, I have to succeed.”

“……”

“Whatever the reason is… And even if it’s not because of the Ark, it’ll help people.”

See? In the end, who you become is your own choice.

Kim Chaemin’s resolve burned for a moment, then she suddenly let out a tired laugh.

“What is it?”

“It’s just…”

She shook her head.

“For all her reputation, the person running things is surprisingly clumsy.”

“……”

“It’s just… kind of anticlimactic. Someone who used to terrify me so much turns out, face to face, to be so… well, not normal, but so awkward she almost feels ordinary.”

“…She’s not that young, either.”

“You’ll see for yourself when you talk to her tomorrow. I’ll invite you to join the conversation.”

“Thank you…?”

“She’s really, how should I put it… like a sensitive, dreamy teenage girl, in both good and bad ways.”

Kim Chaemin shrugged.

“With this vague, unrealistic sense that everything will work out somehow.”

I fell silent. I’d see for myself when we talked.

“To think I let myself get pushed around by someone like this. Honestly, I think Alex was the real threat in the Ark, not her.”