Retire 401
by Cristae401 Dining Together (1)
As I’ve said before, Yangseong High was in a remote place. The nearest city was at least a thirty-minute drive away. Though, calling it a city was generous. It was a town, really—a town.
For this reason, and not only for safety, the school was planned to operate as a boarding school. Back when it was a pilot high school, Hong Seok-yeong and other veteran hunters had helped students commute, but that couldn’t go on forever.
Eventually, even this area would develop its own commercial district. It wasn’t the metropolitan area, and it was so secluded that it could hardly be called lively, but restaurants, convenience stores, and cafés catering to students and staff would eventually take root. I wasn’t sure if Yangseong High would ever flourish to the level of an academy… but even if it did, that would take at least five years.
So, for the sake of these kids isolated in the middle of nowhere, we tried to provide as many conveniences as possible. Snacks, for example, were hardly restricted; the students could eat whatever they wanted.
Yet, despite all the effort to supply necessities and food for the kids, there was one thing neither I, the other teachers, nor even Lee Miseon had considered.
“Why is it that I work in Korea but haven’t even seen a 24-hour convenience store?!”
Along with the students staying in the dorms, the staff were also, by default, isolated.
“Heh heh heh.”
“Don’t just laugh like that!”
“Heh heh heh heh!!”
Gamble looked ready to lunge at Hong Seok-yeong and grab him by the collar. Still, as the only highly educated and truly civilized member of our guild, Gamble refrained from throwing punches like a barbarian.
Instead, he snatched the bottle from the table and poured it generously into his glass.
“Damn, this is good stuff! Whose is this?”
“Lee Hunter’s collection.”
“Knew it, the rich always drink the best!”
“Lee Hunter doesn’t even drink.”
“Then why keep alcohol in the office? This is why rich people—!”
“In dramas, there’s always expensive liquor in the chaebol’s study. I heard he swiped it from his father’s study.”
“…This is what media does to people!”
Wasn’t he just acting exactly as the media portrayed?
Anyway, it didn’t seem like the provenance of the alcohol mattered to Gamble, as he turned away from Hong Seok-yeong with a huff.
At least the kids who stuck together could amuse themselves, but for us adults, it felt like we’d been exiled to some random place for no reason.
Not that I knew. I went home every weekend.
Still, I didn’t make the mistake of saying that out loud and drawing Gamble’s ire toward myself.
“Don’t start without me!”
“Come on, come on. Sit down already.”
Gamble brightened, welcoming Kim Chaemin. Kim Chaemin was carrying snacks he’d gotten from the cafeteria chef.
“There’s probably nowhere else in the world where a great mage runs errands like this!”
He scolded us, but his face was smiling.
“But is it really okay for us to gather like this?”
“What could possibly be the problem?”
“What did you tell Daniel? Is it really okay for Mr. Hong to drink?”
“He’s not on any medication… and the injury’s magical, so it’s fine.”
“I told Daniel it was a guild meeting!”
Kim Chaemin glanced once at Hong Seok-yeong’s confident face, then at the conference table littered with bottles and snacks.
“Well… if you call this a meeting, I suppose it is.”
“What matters is what we talk about. Friendship is born over drinks—”
“That’s nonsense.”
I cleared the whiskey from the table.
“It really was a meeting. Why did you bring alcohol? Does Lee Hunter know?”
“When adults talk, there’s usually—”
“I said, cut the crap.”
Kim Chaemin chuckled as he took his seat. Gamble, not wanting to lose his glass, slyly moved it out of my sight. I let it go; it wasn’t worth arguing over.
Alex Hope, who seemed as uninterested in alcohol as I was, yawned and spoke.
“A meeting, huh… What kind of meeting?”
“We’ve never really sat down as guild members to talk properly. I thought it’d be good to clarify things about our future work.”
“But we’re missing someone.”
“Han Taekyung?”
“Wasn’t he part of the guild too?”
The moment Han Taekyung was mentioned, his name was called out like a shot. I was certain they called him ‘senior’ just to mess with me.
Hong Seok-yeong shrugged at Hope’s words.
“That kid’s got good instincts. He ran off as soon as he sensed it’d get complicated.”
“Wow.”
Gamble let out a sigh that was half admiration.
“Jealous?”
“Not really… I get what you’re trying to talk about. I wanted to bring it up too. Didn’t expect you’d make it such an official discussion, though…”
Gamble glanced at Kim Chaemin.
“You knew, didn’t you, Mr. Mage?”
“You didn’t guess?”
“I did. But there’s a difference between suspecting and knowing for sure.”
Gamble scratched his neck and turned toward me.
“So, let’s see…”
He hesitated for a moment, but there was no sign of real reluctance. He looked at me, calculating, then asked,
“How far back did you come, exactly?”
Hope knew I had come from the future.
He didn’t seem particularly surprised. Ever since I’d handed the blueprints to Gamble—or even when I’d revealed the runes—it had been clear there was a collaborator from the future on our side.
The reason neither Gamble nor Hope had asked who it was again was partly because their own positions were somewhat ambiguous… and, well, as Gamble said, they probably had a good idea.
Never mind the blueprints for the mana meter; the devices I’d made the kids wear were far too specific. Besides, I was far too adept with runes for a hunter of this era.
“Twenty years? What’s the future like?”
Gamble’s eyes sparkled.
I told the truth.
“It’s all ruined.”
“…No, I mean, isn’t there anything with a little hope or dream in it?”
“There was no nuclear war. It collapsed without one.”
“……”
I didn’t want to talk about the future in detail. There wasn’t anything to say except depressing things. Nothing at all.
At the point when I returned to the past, none of the people here had survived. My father, perhaps, but that was another matter.
Kim Chaemin had died long ago, and Gamble had been killed in a suspicious terrorist attack. I’d never heard of Alex Hope, but I doubted the Hope of the original timeline had given up his wings and become fully human. So, if Hope was around but Gamble had died… Did that mean after Gamble’s death, Hope hadn’t done anything to Michelle?
Hope must have died before Gamble did.
Sensing my discomfort, Gamble didn’t press further. If he had any sense, my silence alone would have told him what became of him.
“And coming from the future didn’t help as much as you’d think.”
“I told you so!”
“Maybe if I’d come prepared… but I only learned Noah Michelle was moving the Ark after I got here.”
I sighed.
“So nothing’s changed. I still have to do the legwork myself…”
“The blueprints!”
“Sorry?”
Gamble cut me off, exclaiming.
“Blueprints, like the ones you gave me! Don’t you have any more?”
“The mana meter?”
I shook my head. If I’d had more, I would have given them to him with the mana meter.
“The Bureau… the place I worked was like an association. We handled dungeon raids, not development. The blueprints were only available because of a collaboration with Pharos Corporation, and the Bureau had jurisdiction over them.”
“Pharos Corporation?”
“The company Sandra Gamble founded. Thanks to the mana meter, we were able to prevent dungeon breaks in advance.”
Even after learning about a possible glimpse of his own future, Gamble didn’t get excited.
Instead, he crossed his arms and bit his lip defensively.
“I knew it…”
Gamble looked at Hope and Kim Chaemin.
“My future self must have kept following the plan I’m working on now.”
“Your plan? The one about finding a way to close dungeons from outside?”
Gamble was startled, looking at Hong Seok-yeong.
“You remembered, Master?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Hong Seok-yeong, surprised by the reaction, asked back.
“I mean… I don’t think I ever explained it in detail…”
“If it’s possible, there’s no better way.”
“…Yes. The mana meter—well, the principle is a bit complicated, but to put it simply, it means we found a way to observe, even if we couldn’t interfere inside the dungeon.”
Gamble explained, flustered.
“To interfere, you have to see first… The technology used as a base hasn’t even been invented yet, so building it exactly as designed is impossible, but… a degraded version, at least, is doable. There’s a chance. I don’t know if it’ll turn out as well as I hope, though.”
Gamble’s attitude was uncertain. But for Hong Seok-yeong, that seemed to be enough.
“Keep at it. Let me know if you need anything.”
Hong Seok-yeong looked calmly at Gamble, then spoke.
“We still have time.”
He tapped his casted leg with his fist.
“We know where that so-called ‘King’ is hiding, don’t we?”
“…Mont Saint-Michel?”
“That one doesn’t blow up even twenty years later. Right, Heejae?”
“…Yes. Though in the end, it did blow up eventually.”
“Even after the mana meter was commercialized. Michelle never found a way to interfere with the dungeon or solve the monster lifespan problem by then.”
Twenty years.
The time given to us.
“A lot has already changed. Those twenty years might have been shortened.”
“Sure. But we’ve also shortened our own timeline, haven’t we? We managed to imitate the mana meter much earlier than it was originally invented.”
“……”
“If we can win without fighting, nothing could be better. If we could close a dungeon without even entering it?”
“Easier said than done…”
“Still, it’s good to have a concrete goal.”
Hong Seok-yeong started laughing heartily.
As if neither coming from the future nor the existence of a group intent on destroying the world mattered at all, as if he could just toss those worries in the trash and be done with them.
Nothing was resolved, and despite how easily he spoke, it was unclear if any of this was truly possible. But listening to him laugh, I couldn’t help but think maybe my father would find a way, somehow.
Well, yeah. Sitting here frowning wouldn’t solve anything anyway.
Hong Seok-yeong grinned as he downed the beer Kim Chaemin had brought, instead of the expensive whiskey he’d stolen from the director’s office.
“So, Dr. Gamble, I’m counting on you to keep up the good work…”
“…That’s a strange conclusion.”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Keep doing what I’m doing? Do you know how little I sleep?”
“You’re an Awakened, you won’t die from that.”
Hong Seok-yeong’s eyes gleamed mischievously. The corners of his mouth curled up.
I had a hunch he was about to say something I wouldn’t like. What, was that it for the time travel talk? I thought they’d ask me more questions.
“And I’ve been thinking,” he said.
Hong Seok-yeong and Kim Chaemin had known about my situation for a long time, so that was one thing, but Gamble and Hope…
Ah.
Were they deliberately steering the conversation away so I wouldn’t be questioned—
“Don’t you think what Mr. Han suggested isn’t half bad?”
…Yeah, right.
“About enrolling as a freshman. Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?”
Hong Seok-yeong looked at Hope as he spoke.