Retire 483
by Cristae483 Savior (1)
“At least once, there’s a future where I kill every last member of Ark.”
My father spoke with utter nonchalance, yet with a certainty I had never seen before.
Seeing his face, I reflexively wanted to scold him for saying something so absurd, but the words wouldn’t come. I was at a loss. No matter how flippant he could be, my father never joked about things like this.
And was it really… such an absurd thing to say?
Was it, truly?
“What made you think that?”
“Huh? You’re not going to say anything?”
“…Would you prefer if I did?”
He waved his hands in alarm.
No, I wouldn’t just criticize him about something like this for no reason. If it were something he’d blurted out without thinking, that would be different.
“I’ve found it strange for a long time, actually.”
Whether it was fortunate or not, my father kept a serious tone.
“Whether it’s Ark or anyone else, they’re always targeting me, and only me.”
“…You’re the so-called Savior. The one interfering with their settlement. Of course they’d want to get rid of you.”
“Right. Savior candidate. Not the Savior, but a candidate. Isn’t that right?”
He looked to Hope for confirmation. Hope nodded reluctantly, looking sour.
“A-at least, that’s how I heard it…”
“Have you ever heard of any other candidates besides me?”
“Uh…”
Hope groaned, then shook his head.
“I can understand why the monsters I ran into in the dungeons only targeted me. If I killed them, of course they’d want revenge.”
“……”
“But isn’t it odd? I’m not the only one who’s killed fairies. Sure, I did my share of dungeon raids, but I’m not the one who’s cleared the most dungeons.”
It was true that my father was strong enough to represent a country. But he wasn’t the only one.
In Korea, there were other names mentioned alongside his. Worldwide, there were even more. Lining up all the hunters of that caliber was meaningless; they simply had different specialties.
Some focused solely on dungeon raids, some wandered through barren landscapes dealing with monsters where nothing else could be done, and some specialized in awakened human crimes rather than monsters.
“Sure, now I’m openly attacking them, so it makes sense… But even at this point, there are people who’ve done more damage to Ark than I have.”
Yet still, the one people thought would save the world was my father.
“And hunters at my level all know each other, more or less. We keep in touch regularly.”
“You keep in touch?”
“We’re not at the age to be fighting over turf anymore. Mostly, it’s just to check if everyone’s still alive. If something happens to one, it usually falls to someone else. If there’s something dangerous or strange, we let each other know.”
It was a more wholesome purpose than I’d expected.
“So, about Ark as well?”
“There are plenty who know about Ark even without me saying anything. I’ll give them a heads-up about this incident, too. What happened with Lawton is strange enough that I need to warn them.”
“…And about the fairies? The monsters that returned from the past?”
“There’s a limit to how much weirdness people can take.”
My father stroked his chin and let out a rough laugh.
“If I started talking about that, they’d probably just tell me to take a break from work. Still, I did mention that sometimes some weirdo would pop up spouting nonsense. But everyone said they’d never met one themselves.”
“…What if everyone else thought the same and just didn’t say anything?”
“Even if I told them that, in the very first dungeon I entered, the first monster I saw charged at me, shouting my name?”
“……”
“It’s not like I never wondered about it. The first time I met those things, I was much younger… I even tried to convince myself it was nothing. But the more I tried, the stranger it seemed.”
He shrugged and smiled gently.
That smile carried the weight of years that had pressed down on the man called Hong Seokyoung.
“That was the first time in decades I’d ever said it out loud. When I told them something weird had happened in a dungeon, they all took it seriously. But when I asked if anything similar had happened to them, they said no. Still, I figured if anyone else ever experienced it, they’d let me know, so I left it at that.”
And then it was forgotten.
He said he hadn’t brought it up again after that one time. He didn’t know what those things were, but it was clear enough they were after him.
He figured talking about it would only attract more trouble.
My father let out a long breath.
“Look. I’m not the only one who’s killed fairies. I just handle whatever comes my way, or deal with the ones that come after me when I’ve almost forgotten about them. And for that, I get the title of Savior?”
“……”
“It’s still strange. By what standard do they call me that?”
I almost fell for that quiet smile.
The emotions my father harbored at his core were annoyance and irritation. Maybe even anger.
But what was he angry at?
The monsters? The fairies? Ark? Or at those who called “Hong Seokyoung” the hero who would save the world? Or perhaps at being called that at all?
“I know myself well. I’m not a good enough person to go out of my way to save others.”
Said the man who had adopted a child full of anger and raised him into a decent human being.
“If killing a lot of fairies is the standard, then our Han Taekyung can’t be beat. But have you ever seen these guys wary of Han Taekyung?”
“If that’s the case, then I…”
Aside from my father, the only one Ark or Lehmann had openly regarded as a threat was Kim Chaemin. In the future, my sister might also become someone to watch out for, but as for the current Yoo Jieun… If they were wary of her, I’d think it would be a blow to their pride instead.
As for Han Taekyung… Well, I don’t know. Judging by the current Han Taekyung, I doubt he’d want anything to do with complicated or troublesome matters in the future, either. He did what my father asked of him, but I doubt he knew the details like my sister did. Oh Hyunwook might be a bit more…
“Heejae, you shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Why not?”
“Their organization might be a mess, but they’re not dumb enough to be wary of someone who doesn’t know anything.”
“…Hey, it’s not like I was completely clueless, you know?”
“You didn’t know.”
“……”
“And because of the environment you grew up in, I wouldn’t have told you, either.”
He really had a knack for leaving people with nothing to say. It was infuriating.
Kim Chaemin, sitting at the desk, shook with quiet laughter. The heavy mood lightened a little.
Hope was frowning, lost in thought, mulling over my father’s words. Next to him was Han Taekyung…
Wait. Why was Han Taekyung here?
Normally, whenever we had conversations like this, he was always absent. Not because we wanted to keep things from him, but because he himself would recoil at anything complicated and run away.
“……”
I looked at Han Taekyung, who was sitting awkwardly on the sofa—half sitting, half standing in a strange posture.
I couldn’t see his eyes behind the sunglasses, but I could tell they were rolling around in panic. As he slowly, reluctantly turned his head and met my gaze, his face grew more and more contorted.
If he were a stranger, I’d have asked if he’d ever considered acting, given how dramatic his expression was.
“P-please, just leave me out of this conversation…”
Han Taekyung pleaded in a whiny voice.
Honestly, like a child.
“It’s not like you didn’t know anything at all.”
I didn’t bother to hide my exasperation.
I’d even thought about telling Han Taekyung that I’d come from the past… and I’d never been careful with my words around him. I’d kept things from Daniel, but Han Taekyung, well.
Frankly, after all the talking I’d done, there was no way he didn’t have some idea of what was going on. For all that he was a bit obsessed with that pink cat, he was sharp and quick-witted in every other respect. Look how he’d managed to hide his eyes from my father all this time.
Thud.
Perhaps wanting to maximize the dramatic effect, Han Taekyung collapsed noisily onto the floor.
“I didn’t want to know…”
“But you did.”
Kim Chaemin said in a teasing voice—at least, teasing from Han Taekyung’s perspective.
“It’s different hearing it directly than just having a vague idea!”
“So what’s going to change now?”
Hope chimed in. Han Taekyung shouted, looking as wronged as possible.
“The amount of work you give me is different!!!”
“……”
“Look at Sandra! I don’t want to be someone who dies working myself to death!!”
“Sandra’s not dead! What are you talking about?”
“People don’t die just because they work a little!”
“……”
I looked at Kim Chaemin. Hope looked at him, too. Han Taekyung, and my father as well.
Kim Chaemin pouted and grumbled.
“I’m not the one who gave Sandra all that work.”
“……”
Now all eyes turned to me. I was not the least bit ashamed.
“What? I’m not the guild master—he is.”
“Heejae!”
“I didn’t give her that job.”
“You really have no shame.”
Kim Chaemin shook his head.
“But I get how Mr. Han feels.”
“Right?!”
“So that’s why you’ve been skipping meetings all this time?”
“…No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Aren’t you the guy who’s supposed to earn his pay? Do your job.”
“The guild salary is peanuts!!”
“This American trip pays well. The U.S. is offering a big fee for dungeon raids.”
“They should be grateful we let it go after a fairy showed up…”
“Thanks to Lawton or Kruger or whoever, we’ll be able to squeeze even more out of them.”
“Oh my. Not that we desperately need the money, but sometimes people’s feelings can be expressed in numbers. I wonder how sorry America will feel?”
Ignoring Han Taekyung, who was still kneeling and sprawled on the floor, we had a brief discussion about the sincerity of America’s apology.
Did they think I liked these heavy, complicated conversations? If I could, I’d have put them off like Han Taekyung. But everyone knew these were things that had to be done.
“When did you start thinking that way?”
After a round of meaningless jokes had passed.
Han Taekyung gave up and accepted his fate. He sniffled, looking as gloomy as possible, as if to make sure we noticed.
Seriously…
“It’s not something I’ve thought for long.”
“But you said you found it strange for a while?”
“I did, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.”
My father frowned.
“What the fairy in the Mole Dungeon said stuck with me… and the word ‘savior’ itself is strange.”
“Strange?”
“Is there any reason to call me a savior? Think about it from the monsters’ point of view. They came to Earth because their world was dying. So why would they call the native who’s getting in their way a savior?”
“Well… maybe the savior of Earth, or of humanity?”
“Heejae. Would you want to call the fairy in Mont-Saint-Michel a savior? She’d be a savior to the monsters, wouldn’t she?”
“……”
“Would you want to call her the monsters’ savior?”
“…No. Never.”
“Exactly. That’s where it started. Of course, their way of thinking might be different from ours.”
My father groaned and stretched.
“What if the ones calling me savior weren’t the monsters…”
“……”
“But us humans?”