Retire 500

500 Pursuit (4)

A will?

At that word, a base curiosity welled up inside me before I even realized it.

Gamble quickly caught himself, snapping back to his senses. This was all Alex’s fault, that kid who’d watched endless dramas in the lab—those palace romances about the missing king’s will in some imaginary kingdom, tangled with assassination, adultery, and power….

But this was something that had happened in real life. Gamble had no desire to sink that low. Even if it was about the woman who’d threatened his family countless times.

Besides, he hadn’t even heard what was in the will yet.

Torn between curiosity and basic human decency, Gamble cleared his throat, composing his expression. Kim Chaemin’s explanation wasn’t over yet.

“…If the discovery of a will is enough to cast doubt on the idea of a staged disappearance, then it must contain something unusual, right?”

“Yes. But do you know when Michel’s parents died?”

“Well, of course…”

Gamble trailed off.

Of course he knew. The day the Mont Saint-Michel library first opened. Mr. and Mrs. Michel had been visiting a famous tourist spot with their young daughter.

Only one person came back alive from that newly formed dungeon. The only survivor was the young Noah Michel, now the Archmage. That was more than twenty years ago.

The period since the Michels failed to return from the dungeon matched exactly.

“…When was the will discovered?”

“Two weeks before Michel disappeared.”

“……”

The curiosity he thought he’d suppressed rose up again.

“D-do you know what it said?”

“Yes.”

Well, if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be speaking with such a knowing look on her face.

Kim Chaemin glanced at Gamble and gave a wry smile.

“It’s just ordinary stuff. Who gets the inheritance, who’s the guardian of their daughter, things like that.”

“Oh…”

Noah Michel’s upbringing wasn’t exactly a secret. Gamble had done his own research, but France had publicized it aggressively.

A young mage with a tragic past. The kind of story people love to romanticize. The French mage community must have had a hand in it, too. Woo Heejae had told him there’d even been fights over who would raise the young Archmage.

But Gamble sensed something odd.

Didn’t she just say “guardian”…?

“…Guardian?”

“Yes. That part’s ordinary, too. If one parent dies, the other takes care of the child… but if both die…”

“Michel was passed around between French mage families, wasn’t she?”

“The will said otherwise.”

Decency. Decency…

“How… exactly?”

“Michel’s father had a younger brother who wasn’t a mage.”

“Oh.”

Gamble realized where this was going.

It wasn’t a pleasant realization. If this were just a story about relatives fighting over an inheritance, he could have watched with a light heart, scoffing at the greedy and taking away the lesson to value family harmony over material things.

But what was at stake now wasn’t a wealthy relative’s estate, but a child’s life. Her life.

“…If he wasn’t a mage, then… Was the Michel family not a mage family?”

“No. That’s why they didn’t have much standing in the family.”

“That sounds risky. There’s a twist, isn’t there?”

“But apparently, the brothers got along well. There was a big age gap, and the older brother basically raised the younger one. Sent him to college. He was the only family member who attended his brother’s wedding.”

“Ohhh…”

Right. Not all European mages are like that, after all. Even Kim Chaemin herself, and Choi Jinwoo, have sides that aren’t very mage-like.

European mages, too. Woo Heejae always had harsh things to say about them, but he’d spoken well of Charlotte Mallet, the president of the Grand Council. And he’d said her apprentice, though timid, was at least sensible.

Which only made this more of a headache.

Gamble had a lot he wanted to say, but decided to check the facts first. He could reflect on it later.

“What about the mother’s side? She was a mage, right? Was it really okay to entrust a mage daughter to a non-mage?”

Gamble put extra emphasis on “non-mage.”

“It was in case both parents died, so I suppose they agreed to it. My source hasn’t seen the actual will, so they can’t say for sure.”

“…Maybe the Michels were better people than I thought.”

“I never really thought much about them…”

They hadn’t been particularly great mages, and they’d been dead a long time. Naturally, he’d paid more attention to the daughter, who was still alive and, for all anyone knew, trying to destroy the world.

Still, he’d done the courtesy of looking into them. As he’d said, there wasn’t much material left, since they hadn’t been famous mages.

One thing, though—

“Wasn’t it an arranged marriage? Funny how the couple seemed to get along, if they wrote a will like that together.”

“Hm.”

For the first time, Kim Chaemin, who had been speaking calmly, gave a faint, ambiguous smile.

“Why?”

“Maybe one side had more sway… Or maybe they really did fall in love.”

“…That sounds like there’s a story there.”

“My grandparents had an arranged marriage, too.”

“Oh…? Your grandmother wasn’t a mage, was she?”

“The story goes, a local benefactor wanted to support a promising young mage in exchange for marrying his daughter. My grandfather fell in love with my grandmother at first sight.”

“Oh my.”

That was quite a story, too. Apocalypse-based cults, gangs, monsters—romance is a much more universally palatable genre.

“My grandmother seriously considered stabbing my grandfather to break off the engagement, though.”

“Oh my…”

A little thriller always makes a love story more interesting.

He couldn’t help but be curious about the passionate romance at the start of the world’s most prestigious mage family, but unfortunately, Kim Chaemin’s time in Korea was short. Besides, he didn’t want to keep someone about to board a long flight from getting any rest.

Gamble got back to the point.

“Anyway, why was the will only found now?”

“Exactly. Why do you think?”

“…Mages?”

“It’s such an old story, no one can say for sure, but that’s what people think.”

Gamble wondered how Noah Michel must have felt about all this.

Of course, you could never really follow a mage’s logic. But generally speaking. Generally. Mages are still human, with feelings.

Leaving all else aside—if your parents, who died when you were young, left a will for your future, and there was evidence someone had hidden it, and you wondered how your life might have changed if the will had been followed… If you wanted that life.

No, but even so, blowing up your own apartment and vanishing—that was beyond normal thinking.

“By the way… is it really okay to be telling me all this?”

“Sorry? Telling you what?”

“Never mind.”

Gamble shrugged, as if to shake off his tangled thoughts.

“What was her name again? The mage you met in Marseille. Isn’t she a bit too loose-lipped?”

“That’s why I made friends with her.”

“But this much? Her master would be appalled.”

“Not necessarily.”

Kim Chaemin shook her head.

“It seemed like she was leaking information on purpose.”

“On purpose? Why?”

“Archmage Mallet wants to change the European mage society. Mage power has weakened compared to the past, and they’re less beholden to Europe now. The split with the American mages had a big impact.”

“…Even the will coming to light now?”

“It’s probably fallout from that. Michel was always beloved in France, and had a decent reputation among mages in other countries, too. The image of a young mage orphaned by greedy mages… It’s a good story to paint. And it doesn’t hurt Michel herself.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Her image, I mean. If anything, she’ll get more sympathy and support.”

Gamble looked at Kim Chaemin with renewed respect.

With her dazzling magic and looks, and her unusually kind personality for a mage, it was easy to be fooled—but up close, Kim Chaemin was a rather frightening person. The least mage-like, and yet the most mage-like, of all.

If anyone asked, she was the last person Gamble would want as an enemy, after Lee Miseon.

Hong Seok-young? If you made an enemy of the master, your life was over. Not just miserable—over.

“But that can’t be good for Michel’s mental health, can it? I mean, look at how many things she’s blown up.”

“…Well, at least there were no casualties in the apartment explosion.”

“Mallet? Did Archmage Mallet really go ahead with all this, knowing how it would turn out? She’s scarier than she looks.”

“She didn’t expect Michel to disappear.”

Kim Chaemin shook her head slowly.

“That’s why she’s spreading the story. If Michel really staged her own disappearance, it’s a signal for her to come back—they’ll cover for her.”

“How would they cover for her?”

“Blame it on the bad mages who hid the will.”

“Ugh. That far?”

“Everything got turned upside down because of Luise Kruger. Just wait. The Americans will start lodging formal protests soon.”

“Ugh…”

Gamble shuddered.

Things were simpler in the old days. Just running experiments in the garage, cleaning up after Hope, and tinkering with computers.

But he wouldn’t have been at ease. At least now he knew what was going on. At least he knew the work he was doing mattered.

Seeing him, Kim Chaemin giggled.

“Anyway, given all this…”

“You want me to check Europe, too?”

“Sorry for always asking you for favors.”

Kim Chaemin looked a little embarrassed, fiddling with her fingers. Gamble waved his hand.

“It’s not like anyone else can do it. It’s not as if everyone else is sitting around. When you get back to America, you’ll be heading into another dungeon, right?”

“Probably?”

“In that situation, it’ll be hard for you to investigate… What was his name? Libert?”

“Richard. Alain Richard.”

Kim Chaemin said the name of the Archmage’s apprentice she’d met in Marseille.

“Right. If you hear anything new from that mage, let me know right away. If it’s just talk circulating inside the mage network, it might be hard for me to dig into, but if it starts spreading outside… Well, we’ll see.”

He’d have to adjust his schedule a bit, but if he cut down on sleep, it would work out. That was the good thing about being an awakened—going without sleep wouldn’t kill him.

As he was seeing Kim Chaemin off with a word to get some rest, Gamble hesitated, then called out to the mage.

“Yes?”

“…Um, what about the brother? Did he know about the will?”

Kim Chaemin, momentarily puzzled by the out-of-the-blue question, soon realized what Gamble was asking and gave a bitter smile.

“Yes. He tried everything to gain custody of his niece.”

“Tried?”

“There was a gas explosion at his house. Fortunately, the family was safe… He claimed a mage had attacked, but no one believed him, and instead the mage side sued. Of course, the mages won. After that, he gave up.”

“……”

“For reference, that was the first mage family to take in Noah Michel.”