Retire 453
by Cristae453 Fragment Collection (5)
Wu Yirouk did not remember Luise Kruger.
“But still.”
Instead, he left a subtle hint.
“I’m not sure, but he said there was someone who looked similar among the people he had a huge fight with. He didn’t get a good look at her face, but he remembered her because she was one of the rare female guests.”
“Hmmm.”
“Don’t you remember?”
“I’m not sure. It’s not like there was only one or two people she fought with before she died.”
“Hmmm….”
I couldn’t bring myself to enter the study.
Father knew I was listening to the conversation, yet he said nothing. That meant he believed this was ultimately a conversation I needed to have with Wu Yirouk. He wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t wrong, but…
Couldn’t he just wrap things up with Wu Yirouk himself while he was at it? Why was he dumping this on me?
“What did they fight about?”
“I don’t know.”
When I pretended to come home late, Wu Yirouk was completely fooled.
I couldn’t deny the thought that maybe I should grab that kid and talk to him… but it seemed better to organize what I wanted to say before doing that. That issue seemed to require a delicate conversation.
Besides, there were more urgent matters at hand, so I decided to take care of those first.
“I do remember overhearing something about the management of the lab. I didn’t hear the details, though.”
“I see….”
“She died not long after that, anyway.”
If it had really been my older brother, maybe he would have known more about what happened.
Damn it. My brother secretly taught me how to escape from the lab, but he never told me how the lab actually operated. If my real parents had lived and I’d spent more time in the lab, I probably would have learned all that on my own, without my brother needing to teach me. And if I’d grown up in the lab without him, there’s no guarantee I wouldn’t have ended up participating in the research myself.
But I had a brother. He wanted to take me and escape from the lab. The escape method he taught me, to be used as a last resort if he was ever gone, I never got to use. Father arrived before I ever had the chance to try it.
Even so, that method remained etched deep in my memory, even after twenty years. So much so that when I returned to the past, I could instantly input the master code to open the sealed lab.
You never know what life will bring. If I’d known things would turn out like this, I would have poked around the lab more and paid attention to all the suspicious stories.
“Still, this is enough. No, more than enough—this is better than I could have hoped for.”
Father tapped me lightly on the forehead as he spoke.
“We don’t know where Luise Kruger is, but Christoph Lehmann is a different story.”
“Lehmann’s father? Is he still living in that village in Atlas?”
“No.”
Father shook his head.
“He’s enjoying his retirement in Florida.”
“…Retirement?”
“Since his son is who he is, the US government seems to check in on him regularly.”
“Ah….”
“Daniel heard something from Taewoo, so… well. If we wait a bit, we’ll probably hear news from America.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’ve gotten caught up in something strange.”
“…Is that so?”
“It’s not like I’ve only worked with Hunter Hong once or twice… Even before I became a hunter, Hunter Hong worked with my father for a long time.”
Lee Miseon was staying late at school for once.
She’d always been a busy person, and lately, even when she came to school, she would finish her business quickly and disappear like the wind. Ever since the incident in San Francisco, she must have been busy both as the master of Daseon and as a member of the Association. And with the Okinawa situation still unresolved, she would have to pay attention to that as well. Not to mention her usual work, and of course, her duties as the director of the gifted school hadn’t disappeared either….
I’d been busy when I worked at the administration office, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of life this person was living.
“Still, it’s just… weird, isn’t it?”
“That’s how the world is, isn’t it?”
“…You’re right!”
Lee Miseon smiled, her face drained of energy.
“My dad used to say the same thing. Don’t ever think you can know everything about the world, and don’t ever think people will move according to your wishes.”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“Right? But I couldn’t accept it, so I secretly took a second job behind my dad’s back.”
“You probably didn’t expect to get this busy, did you?”
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have done it!”
“…….”
I looked quietly at Lee Miseon.
Maybe if she were someone who’d lost someone precious, it would be different, but the Lee Miseon in front of me was similar to me in temperament.
I hate to admit it, but… I’m the kind of person who can’t stand having nothing to do.
“…Even if I’d known, I would have done it. Yes, I would. And I’m still doing it.”
Lee Miseon knew it too, and she clicked her tongue briefly, acknowledging it.
We both fell silent for a moment. Lee Miseon took a small tin case from her pocket. She took out a piece of gum and popped it in her mouth, then offered one to me as well.
“…….”
A sweet, artificial strawberry flavor spread in my mouth. I thought it was just plain gum.
Lee Miseon looked at my face, shrugged her shoulders with a laugh, and spoke in a casual tone.
“America is noisy right now.”
“With all that chaos, it would be a problem if it were quiet.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“You know as well as I do that this isn’t anything new.”
Lee Miseon opened her mouth, then closed it again. This time, I spoke softly.
“There are a lot of strange things in the world.”
“True.”
Lee Miseon let out a deep sigh.
“With all that chaos, America has started to move. Not just the police or investigative agencies, but even the military. That means they’ve officially classified the San Francisco incident as a terrorist attack.”
It wasn’t surprising. If America had done nothing, that would have been more shocking.
“Whether Henry Lehmann really did it or it was just a coincidence, it doesn’t matter.”
“With all the things that bastard’s done, it almost feels overdue.”
“He’s slipped through the cracks so many times, they couldn’t just sit back any longer. Not that America hasn’t tried.”
“It’s lucky the principal stayed quiet, honestly. Otherwise, this injury could easily have escalated into an international dispute, don’t you think? Even if Korea is weaker than the US, the international community can’t always take America’s side on matters like this.”
Lee Miseon nodded in agreement.
She chewed her gum noisily, staring intently at my face.
“The West Coast dungeons.”
“Yes?”
“Are you sure Henry Lehmann did that?”
I looked straight into Lee Miseon’s eyes and answered.
“You said yourself, the world is full of strange things.”
“…Yes.”
“I don’t know either.”
“…….”
“Whether Henry Lehmann did it, or it was really just a coincidence.”
Or—
“Or if it was someone else entirely.”
I stopped speaking and looked at Lee Miseon. The sound of her chewing gum stopped.
Still watching her, I gave a small smile.
“Does it really matter which it is?”
“It doesn’t…?”
“Yes.”
Lee Miseon looked at me with suspicion in her eyes.
“We’ve been talking about this all along.”
“Yes?”
“How strange the world is.”
“…….”
“So what can we do about it? The world is what it is.”
“…….”
“Still, since we were born into this world, shouldn’t we try to make it a little better? Everyone says it. Children are our future.”
“…Here, of all places?”
“It’s something any teacher would say.”
“As a parent, that’s actually reassuring to hear….”
“I think it’s a lot more responsible than just saying, ‘Let’s live recklessly and leave it to the next generation.’”
“If my kid’s teacher said that, I’d transfer them to another school.”
“That’s why I don’t say it.”
Lee Miseon snorted weakly and started chewing her gum again.
There was no one else in the director’s office but us. Even the Daseon and Association hunters, usually busy with work, were nowhere to be seen.
Was it a coincidence? Or had Lee Miseon ordered everyone to leave?
“If you want, I have another story.”
“Another story?”
“About why the world ended up like this.”
Lee Miseon blinked.
“Is that a logical story?”
“Sort of?”
“Sort of?”
“There are some missing pieces.”
Lee Miseon let down her hair, which hadn’t been all that messy to begin with. She combed it with her fingers, straightened it, and tied it back up. Snap, snap, snap. The sound of her chewing gum was loud.
She reached out, pulled a tissue, spat out her gum, and then took another piece from her pocket and put it in her mouth. The sweet scent tickled my nose.
Her sharp gaze seemed to land on me for a moment, then passed right by.
“Is this something I need to know?”
“That depends on you, Hunter.”
“Is it something I’m allowed to know?”
“That too.”
“Are you allowed to tell me everything?”
“I’m not sure you’ll like it, though.”
Lee Miseon said nothing.
Father had sensed it before I even spoke.
If I couldn’t tell Kim Chaemin, I couldn’t tell anyone.
Alex Hope and Sandra Gamble found out before I could even say anything. Even if that hadn’t happened, I would have told them soon enough.
Han Taekyung said he didn’t want to know.
If you asked me whether I could trust Daseon and the Ability Association, I’d hesitate.
But I could trust Lee Miseon. If anything, it felt overdue.
Lee Miseon glanced around, glaring at the innocent walls and ceiling before letting out a sigh.
“It’s fine.”
It was a refusal.
“Really?”
“I’m not so young as to think I can know everything about the world.”
“…You have a pretty good idea who it is, don’t you?”
“Guessing and being told for sure are two different things!”
One way or another, Lee Miseon had helped us a lot. Watching our work, she couldn’t have missed the fact that the name of a certain magician in France kept coming up.
“Europe isn’t my jurisdiction. I’m with the Korea branch. At best, I cover Northeast Asia.”
“For that, you’ve done quite a bit in America, haven’t you?”
“America is… well, it’s America!”
Lee Miseon let out a short laugh.
“If you ever fill in the missing pieces, ask me again then.”
“Aren’t you just trying to get out of this too easily?”
“Get out of it?”
Lee Miseon grumbled, half joking but with a trace of sincerity.
“If I take on any more work, I’ll die of overwork.”
It was hard to argue with that.
“Just make sure you ask!”
“Understo—”
Tap, tap, tap.
I stopped mid-sentence and looked at the door. So did Lee Miseon. The sound of hurried footsteps.
The light, almost gliding steps were familiar. But the usual softness, like rose petals scattered by her magic, was nowhere to be found.
The footsteps were headed straight for us.
What is it? What’s going on?
Bang!
The director’s office door burst open. Kim Chaemin, her face flushed with urgency, appeared.
If it were good news, I’d be glad, but the twisted look on her face told me that wasn’t the case.
Kim Chaemin, half-risen from her seat, shouted at me and Lee Miseon.
“Noah Michel’s domain has been attacked!”
“What?”
“The apartment she claimed as her domain exploded, and Noah Michel is missing!!”