Retire 420
by Cristae420 Preparation for the Raid (5)
The meetings to prepare for the Okinawa Butterfly Dungeon raid continued even after that.
I won’t claim the plan was perfect. Such a thing doesn’t exist.
But that doesn’t mean you can just not do it, either. Having a plan and not having one are two very different things. Hunters know that better than anyone.
“They say the Japanese government is providing supplies?”
“All top-grade!”
“They’d better, if they have any conscience. Who do you think botched the survey?”
Hunters traded barbed jokes among themselves.
“The fairy seems to be the same species Han Hunter described. A fairy of the butterfly swarm. Looks a lot like the one we faced in Arles… Who was in the Arles dungeon…?”
“That was me!”
“Me too.”
“Me as well… Wasn’t that one also butterfly-like?”
“That one was a moth, a moth. And it wasn’t a swarm. The powder from its wings was poisonous, remember how much trouble that caused?”
“Well, at least this one’s powder isn’t dangerous, so it should be better.”
“So what? Its bite is poisonous. Everyone, be careful not to get bitten!”
The noisy chatter of the hunters quickly fell silent again.
Is this… the dignity of one of France’s top guilds?
Jean Robinson looked around at his guild members and nodded.
“Healers will be waiting at the gate—also provided by the Japanese government. If anyone is poisoned or if it becomes clear the raid can’t continue, don’t hesitate to retreat.”
“Oh, retreat because of a single fairy?”
“It might not be just one.”
“That’d be a problem.”
“You don’t have to kill the fairy. Just keep it occupied until the core is destroyed.”
“Do you really think ‘just keep it occupied’ works on a fairy? And those little bugs fly around in swarms! It’s a nightmare!”
Among the older hunters, it was hard to tell whether the shouting was a joke or not.
“They’re only about the size of a fist, right?”
“But if it’s smart enough to guard the gate, it’s probably guarding the core now, too.”
Watching their lighthearted banter, you might think they weren’t taking the raid seriously.
“Don’t fall asleep when the master’s talking!”
“I wasn’t sleeping!”
“That’s why Alpha Team finds the fairy first, and then the archmage moves in!”
“Oh, that’s what that meant?”
But really, the mood wasn’t that light.
Amid the sharp jokes and casual tone, there were eyes so tense it was suffocating. Bodies held taut with nervous energy.
The jokes were the kind only people who’d risked their lives could make. And only those who would keep risking their lives.
“What if we can’t find the fairy?”
“Then we just say thanks, smash the core, and get out.”
Whether it’s Bureau hunters or these people, they’re the same.
They might have come to meetings with annoyed faces, dragging their feet, but—
The reason I decided to enter the dungeon with Robinson wasn’t just because of Han Taekyung’s confession. As I’d explained to Kim Chaemin, the fairy from an unknown future wasn’t the important part.
I was just curious.
About fairies as monsters.
Not because I wanted to do something reckless just to see what kind of monster it was… More precisely, I wanted to know how hunters other than Hong Seokyoung hunted fairies.
If I asked my father how to catch a fairy, all I’d get was something brutal about how even the cockiest ones quiet down once you take their head off. That’s only natural. What I wanted to know wasn’t just “shut them up if they’re noisy,” but how you actually do that.
Not by overwhelming force like my father, but the proper, textbook way to hunt one.
Han Taekyung… would probably explain it better than my father. But if I was going to ask, I should have done it long ago—before I learned the secret Han Taekyung was hiding.
It was too late for regrets.
If he were someone I’d only meet once, I’d have just asked, but Han Taekyung was someone I’d keep seeing. A colleague. I wasn’t so unsocialized as to do something that rude to someone I worked with.
Well, if there were no other way, maybe. But that wasn’t the case. Jean Robinson and Nicolas de Funès were Western European hunters, and possibly had more experience with fairies than even Hong Seokyoung or Han Taekyung.
If I could watch from the front row, I should take advantage of it.
That’s why I was entering a dungeon I didn’t have to.
“What did the Japanese government say they’d give us for clearing this?”
“They’ll give us something even if they don’t say so…”
“Hey, Eva nearly died in there—they ought to give us more!”
“Didn’t the Japanese government get tricked too?”
“I don’t know about all that complicated stuff.”
Laughter broke out again.
Robinson was planning to use the raid as leverage to lodge an even stronger protest with the Japanese government over the dungeon that nearly killed his daughter. That was part of my motivation, too.
Anyway, that was the main reason.
……
But I never expected to see so much of the Bureau’s hunters in these foreign hunters, all gathered in the villa’s dining room.
The way people about to risk their lives on a raid could joke around and drive others crazy—
There was a time I didn’t understand that.
‘Hey, rookie. Don’t walk around with your brow furrowed all the time.’
‘Aren’t you the one who’s too relaxed?’
‘Come on. Who in their right mind would go in and out of dungeons? We’re all a little unhinged, that’s why we do it.’
‘Not me.’
‘You’re always the one yelling about not being a hunter, but when it counts, you act like one.’
‘Ah, get lost!’
‘You’re not even cute, you know that?’
No matter the nationality, hunters are all the same breed in the end.
Team 1 and Team 2. The office staff. All the people who came and went at the Bureau.
As I looked at the hunters sprawled on the floor, other faces overlapped with theirs. When was the last time I saw the Bureau folks? It must have been in the meeting room.
They didn’t look alike at all, but the laughter and jokes…
“Woo-saem?”
Kim Chaemin called out to me, puzzled.
For a moment, I felt like Yu Ji-eun or my sister would burst through the meeting room door, scolding me for being a parachute hire. My father would be laughing heartily over his instant coffee, and Han Taekyung would rush in, sunglasses flashing, babbling about cats.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
But when I opened my eyes again, all I saw was a room full of unfamiliar foreign faces.
Two days later.
Okinawa National Park.
“Alpha Team, ready!”
“Bravo, ready!”
“Charlie, ready!”
Han Taekyung, who’d been quick to say he’d stay out of the raid, now pestered me as the operation drew near, asking if he really didn’t have to go.
I finally managed to get rid of him after he’d been bustling around since dawn.
“He acts like he doesn’t care, but he’s actually very thoughtful.”
Kim Chaemin grinned slyly.
Han Taekyung wanted to see us off at the gate, but I left him behind, worried he might suddenly dash in. While Eva Robinson watched her father and his colleagues with concern, Han Taekyung glared at me, sulking.
Like a child.
Honestly, the kids would have acted more maturely…
Watching them, I found myself thinking:
I’d met family I thought I’d never see again.
They’re not exactly the same people. I know that. But they’re not entirely different, either.
The same, yet different. Different, yet the same.
What should I call people like that?
The answer was simple. I’d already decided in my heart.
No matter what, they’re precious family to me.
Hong Seokyoung, Yu Ji-eun, and—though I hate to admit it—even Han Taekyung.
There’s no way to return to my original timeline. There’s no method, and even if there were, there’s nothing I could do if I went back. Just sit and wait for the world to end? What’s the point of that?
There’s nothing left to hide, so let me be honest with myself.
If I had a way to go back, could I really leave without a second thought? Assuming the future twenty years from now isn’t a hell on the brink of apocalypse.
Woo Irok, who calls me hyung and looks up to me; the Yangseong High students who follow me around, calling me teacher; Robert and Isabella, who keep trying to feed me snacks and call me grandson; Hong Seokyoung, who calls me son again… and everyone else. Kim Chaemin, Han Taekyung, Lee Miseon, the Daeseon hunters. Sandra Gamble and Alex Hope, too.
Could I really pretend not to know those people and just leave?
…I don’t know.
But not knowing is as good as having the answer.
Still, I keep thinking of the people I left behind.
But really, I wasn’t the one who left them. I was the one left behind.
If I’d had time to say goodbye, would it have been different?
If I hadn’t just dropped into the past out of nowhere, if I’d had time to prepare, time to call them father, sister—would it have changed anything?
Maybe I’d still remember them, still cherish those memories.
I can’t help it. They’re family.
Family.
Just like the people who are with me now.
[ID TAG!!!!]
A message from my father popped up on my phone screen.
Up early as always. Like a mantra, he kept reminding me about the ID tag, but it was already hanging around my neck.
Both the one without a name, and the one engraved with Hong Seokyoung’s.
Because I’m his son.
[We’re going in now. I’ll contact you when we’re out.]
Before entering the dungeon, I sent a message. It was marked as read almost instantly.
[Be careful]
[Never let your guard down]
[If anything happens, run for the gate]
[Got it?]
[Answer me right now]
[Or I’ll call Robinson]
[I have his number]
[The hunter gave it to me]
He sent message after message, not even giving me a chance to reply.
Then he called.
“All right, I get it. If it’s dangerous, I’ll run for the gate. Satisfied?”
I was about to let his nagging go in one ear and out the other, but it had been a while since he’d worried about me like this, so I listened quietly. Was he like this the first time I entered a dungeon alone? That was so long ago.
I snorted at the memory, then gave a suitably reassuring answer.
“Yes, yes, I get it. I really have to go now. I’ll call you when I’m out.”
If I didn’t, he’d pester me all day. I hurriedly hung up and joined the raid team gathered at the gate.
After a final check, Robinson notified the government official dispatched by Japan that we were starting the raid.
“We’re entering the dungeon!”
Kim Chaemin’s magic unfolded.
With the scent of roses tickling my nose, we passed through the gate.
There were no more grotesquely green forests or dizzying pink butterflies. The smell of burning overpowered even the rose scent. Without special preparation, it would have been hard to breathe. The heat from the burned forest still lingered.
Ashes.
We stood atop a field of ashes.