Retire 477

477 Doll (3)

“Huh?”

I couldn’t immediately accept what Kim Chaemin had said. It wasn’t that I disagreed—I simply didn’t understand.

“Me?”

What was I supposedly doing wrong?

I looked at Kim Chaemin in disbelief.

Was he saying I didn’t understand the kids’ abilities?

What was that supposed to mean?

Who could possibly know the kids better than I did?

Fine, I’ll concede that maybe my understanding of the mage kids isn’t as thorough as with the others. That’s unavoidable. I don’t teach all of their classes.

The subject I teach is dungeon strategy. As for runes? Runes are taught by Kim Chaemin or whoever is available at the time. Both are required courses for all students.

It’s true I’ve supervised the mage kids once or twice, but only temporarily. Park Seohyun might have called me her teacher for a while, but that was just a brief, misguided episode… I’m not a mage, after all.

Naturally, my evaluations of the hunter kids are more precise than those of the mages.

“Are you saying I don’t know the kids’ abilities right now?”

“Oh, not that you don’t know—more that you’ve got something in your eye, so you’re not seeing clearly.”

“That’s the same thing…”

I glared at Kim Chaemin. He just shrugged, unfazed by my stare.

Still, I’m an adult who knows how to listen to others. Before I refuted him outright, I reconsidered whether he might have a point.

…But I really didn’t think so.

I may not be a mage, but that doesn’t mean I know nothing about magic. Magic. Magic… Sure, I learned magical theory from Archmage Park Seohyun, but that doesn’t mean I was close to that witch. The mages I saw most often were those from the regulatory agency.

Even I would never compare professional dungeon raiders with kids who haven’t even graduated.

Park Seohyun’s talent goes without saying, and Choi Jinwoo is a better mage than I’d expected. They might not seem reliable now, but that’s true of all the kids—their future depends on how they grow from here…

“See, Mr. Woo.”

Kim Chaemin spoke up as my silence dragged on.

He didn’t try to stop the conversation. Instead, he glanced at Hope, who was bouncing around, now babbling about delicious cookies he’d had in Boston, while Daniel struggled to steer the topic back to Henry Lehmann.

“In the future, just as dungeon strategies will evolve, so will magic. Just like science advances.”

“…That’s true.”

“Ten years ago, who would have imagined that other Awakened could draw runes?”

“……”

“In the future, people might look back at what we’re doing now and laugh. ‘Wow, they struggled with that?’”

Kim Chaemin pointed out that my idea of magic might not match what it will become.

“Seohyun will be an incredible mage.”

“I know that.”

“But isn’t she already?”

“…What?”

“Seohyun is already an outstanding mage. She’s just stuck in school right now, but if you introduced her to a few outside mages, they’d go wild.”

“Hmm…”

“She’d be called a genius, no question. Didn’t you say so yourself? Any kid who can cast spells of opposing elements is a genius, period.”

Suddenly, I remembered Park Seohyun crying in the container classroom. She hadn’t lost her friend, but she was still struggling.

A gentle child who loved her grandfather, who understood his magic, who wanted to follow in his footsteps but had been discouraged.

That image of her tears had stayed with me more deeply than I’d realized.

“She’s still a genius. If only her element matched, she’d have mastered her grandfather’s unique magic already.”

And if you can use unique magic, you’re called an archmage.

“And Jinwoo, too.”

“…Didn’t you say you didn’t really know about him?”

“I also said that doesn’t mean he lacks talent.”

Kim Chaemin paused, thinking.

“Usually, mages only take disciples with the same element. That’s true. You have to share an element to teach.”

“Family traditions, right.”

“But watching Seohyun and Jinwoo, I started to think differently.”

“…How so?”

“Just because your elements don’t match doesn’t mean your affinities don’t.”

Kim Chaemin smiled.

“Their magic is polar opposites, right? But maybe that’s why it’s easier to see what each can do. You can observe the effects of one’s magic through the other’s. Compared to other magics, shadow and light aren’t so intuitive.”

“…Like when Park Seohyun’s mana went out of control?”

“Yes. That time, Jinwoo found a path inside Seohyun’s shadow. He keeps failing to reproduce it outside the shadow, but I think that was close to his unique magic.”

“You never mentioned that.”

“Jinwoo thinks he was just imitating Seohyun’s grandfather’s magic. If a kid who doesn’t even have a clue yet was told, ‘That’s probably your unique magic!’… it might just set up false expectations. I don’t do that.”

“Hmm.”

“I think it’s good to stimulate them with different magics. After all, even I, their teacher, have a different element.”

“…So you’re saying I’m underestimating the kids?”

“That’s the conclusion, but I don’t think it’s really underestimation.”

“How can it not be, if that’s your conclusion?”

“I think your standards are just too forward-looking.”

“……”

“By today’s standards, Seohyun, Jinwoo, and the others all do more than enough. Why do you think Robinson and the French hunters were so surprised?”

“Because the school runs more systematically than they expected…”

“Isn’t that a bit of a personal evaluation?”

“I’m still surprised sometimes.”

Kim Chaemin shook his head as if he couldn’t help me.

Anyway, I understood what he was getting at.

“So, I should lower my standards.”

“…No. How did you get that from what I said?”

I shrugged.

“Just kidding. Well, as a teacher, I want my students to be the best wherever they go.”

“High standards.”

“Should I make a graduation exam?”

“Do you not want them to graduate?”

“Just kidding.”

I scratched my head and asked,

“So, you think we should let the kids handle it, like Gamble suggested…?”

“I think it’s fine. Sandra isn’t clueless about runes, so let her supervise.”

I hesitated, then nodded.

If Kim Chaemin put it that way, I couldn’t say no. I also thought he probably knew better than I did.

“I’m not going to have them do anything too serious. But as a research project, it should be fine. It’ll be good stimulation for Seohyun and Jinwoo.”

“…You’re starting to sound like a real teacher, Mr. Kim.”

Kim Chaemin just grinned.

If it had been early on, he would have jumped up and denied it. But just as I had changed, so had Kim Chaemin.

Still, I thought it would be wise to have a few safety measures in place, so I was about to ask Kim Chaemin some questions about runes when—

“Gah!”

With a strange noise, Han Taekyung rolled off the sofa.

“Han Taekyung?”

“This place is way too creepy!”

“What?”

Han Taekyung groaned, clutching his head.

“This is why America is hopeless!”

Just as the American was about to protest at that remark, Daniel’s phone rang loudly.

With a pale face, Daniel answered. Shouting could be heard from the other end.

The name “Haley Lawton” rang out clearly.

Hope checked the direction Han Taekyung was looking, then dashed to the window. I hurried to check outside as well. Surely another dungeon hadn’t opened?

But the street was peaceful. No new dungeon, no sudden eruption in the city. People were going about their daily lives.

Except for the wild, violent surge of mana in the distance.

---

There was some tension, but the way she spoke her mind without hesitation was certainly hunter-like. She wasn’t a newly awakened rookie, after all; if your job was entering dungeons and dealing with mages, you learned to speak up.

So my first impression wasn’t bad. I even thought, poor thing, joining this guild only to lose her job. If she hadn’t gotten mixed up in something shady, she seemed skilled enough not to have to worry about making a living.

That’s why I was more wary when I learned she was a mage. We’d cut off her arm and knocked her out to stop her from using magic, but we couldn’t prevent the dungeon from forming.

Lawton had no right arm. It had been severed below the elbow. She’d received better treatment than she had inside the dungeon, but her complexion was still pale. The injury itself was serious, but the greater blow was the mana Kim Chaemin had used to block her magic.

I didn’t regret it. If I had to do it again, I’d make the same choice: cut off her arm to prevent magic, knock her out so she couldn’t cause trouble in the dungeon.

All Lawton could do now was tell the truth and hope for a lighter sentence.

And yet…

“Didn’t you say she was a mage?!”

“You introduced her as a hunter before!”

Instead of lashing out—

“She wasn’t this strong before!”

Lawton ran. The building where she was being held collapsed. I don’t know how she did it. She shouldn’t have been able to use magic. Somehow, Lawton brought down the building and escaped.

If she’d just run far away, I’d have understood. But Lawton chose to attack instead.

I don’t know how, but she found the hotel where we were staying.

Han Taekyung had reacted strangely when the building collapsed. He’d said he’d felt something similar when we were caught in the dungeon. When I asked if it was the aftereffect of a dungeon forming, Han Taekyung had looked puzzled.

He said it felt different.

Looking at Lawton, I thought I understood. What Han Taekyung sensed was probably not the formation of a dungeon gate, but the explosion that triggered it—like the collapse of the building Lawton had been in.

“Ugh…”

“…She’s clearly not in her right mind.”

“Is this Lawton’s trump card?”

“A suicide attack?”

Lawton tilted her head, drooling. Her bloodshot eyes bulged. She was covered in dust and already full of wounds—apparently not unscathed by the building’s collapse.

But she staggered forward, seemingly oblivious to pain, attacking blindly. Yet her movements…

“She’s just a zombie.”

“She could explode at any moment. Like Grimes.”

“Don’t say such horrible things.”

Kim Chaemin pouted and used magic to try to restrain Lawton. Even while staggering, Lawton dodged his vines. She narrowed her eyes.

The ominous mana we’d seen from the hotel window was rushing toward us. There was no doubt who it was targeting. We’d hoped to avoid a confrontation in the city, but there wasn’t enough time. The plaza in front of the hotel was quickly thrown into chaos. It was going to be a mess. At least it wasn’t my problem.

Lawton looked like she could collapse at any moment, but she ignored her own injuries and attacked relentlessly. There were still people nearby who hadn’t managed to evacuate, and if there was an explosion, as Kim Chaemin feared, things would get out of hand. It was a bit alarming, but with Father here, subduing her wouldn’t be a problem.

“Wait.”

But Kim Chaemin stopped us.

“This feels familiar. Just wait a moment.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve seen this before.”