Retire 501

501 Universe (1)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠The universe.

It was the universe.

No matter where you looked, stars filled the expanse. All you could see were stars.

We were inside the universe.

---

We had no idea what Noah Michel had done in the dungeon. No matter how much we prepared, it would never be enough.

But that didn’t mean we could just go in without a plan, so we did our best to gather information. It was hard to believe that our source was a monster floating in the sky.

All that got us was one more addition: Han Taekyung, staring intently at the gate.

Han Taekyung, of all people, had taken off his sunglasses and begun pacing around the gate. Of course, we thought it would end quickly, like last time, so we’d finished our preparations and now stood there, awkward and uncertain.

“…Mr. Han?”

“Ah, just a moment.”

“……”

Han Taekyung continued to examine the gate.

I looked at my father. He shrugged, opened the car door, and sat down in the seat. Hope darted into the car as well, reclining the seat and sprawling out. Kim Chaemin hesitated for a moment, but eventually approached Han Taekyung.

“What’s the problem?”

“Well… I’m not sure.”

Han Taekyung rummaged through his coat.

“It doesn’t quite match the description.”

“Michel?”

“No. It’s just… too much for that.”

Han Taekyung pulled out a shard of broken glass.

It was obvious that this wasn’t just any piece of glass. Ordinary glass didn’t shine like a seashell.

Han Taekyung held the shard up to his eyes, tilting it this way and that. He wasn’t looking at the glass itself. He was using it to examine the gate.

“It’s Venus’s seashell.”

“…You still had one? I thought you couldn’t get those anymore.”

“It belonged to a friend. I got it when he retired.”

Kim Chaemin eyed the seashell with envy, but didn’t interrupt Han Taekyung.

“Does it show things differently?”

“It filters out impurities. The gate… well, you know, senior. With all the magic gathered there, and all the movement, it’s hard to see clearly.”

“I can’t see inside the gate, but yes, that’s usually the case.”

“Still, there’s no problem seeing the surroundings. Most gates have stable areas nearby. It’s easy to tell if there’s anything dangerous around.”

But the fact that Han Taekyung had brought out something he’d never used before meant this wasn’t one of those usual cases.

“That fish did say the gate was floating in the sky.”

“A flying monster, so it’s not an unusual terrain.”

“But it didn’t say there was only sky.”

“…What?”

“I mean… the fish rarely goes down to the ground, but it did say there’s a big lake where it can splash, a forest to scratch its back, and a mountain perfect for rubbing its sides.”

Han Taekyung, for once, lowered the seashell with a speechless expression.

“But here, there’s… nothing.”

“Isn’t it just that you can only see part of it because it’s an aerial gate? You can only see the area around the gate, not the whole dungeon.”

“I said I can only see the surroundings because there are usually obstacles. If it’s out in the open, you can see everything.”

“Hmm…”

“At the very least, I should see a mountain. According to that monster, it should be at about the same height as the gate.”

Han Taekyung spoke, frustration plain on his face.

“But I can’t see anything. It’s just wide open. You know the dungeon sky?”

“The universe?”

“Yes. Just a sky full of stars…”

“It must be one of two things.”

My father interjected.

“Either Michel covered up the gate…”

“Or did something drastic!”

Hope shouted, not to be outdone.

Either way, neither possibility was pleasant. There’s nothing more foolish than walking straight into a trap you know is waiting for you. Normally, we’d never enter such a dungeon, but the fact that we were the only ones who could was just infuriating.

Especially considering it might not even be a trap.

I stared at the gate and asked Kim Chaemin,

“Any news from France? About Michel.”

“Unfortunately, no. It’s too soon for anything new to come out.”

“It’s stranger that nothing’s happened, considering Archmage Mallet is spreading rumors on purpose.”

“Well, he’s fighting most of the mage families in France, isn’t he?”

Kim Chaemin only told us about the information from Mallet’s apprentice after the Moby incident had been more or less resolved.

Honestly, I hadn’t even known she still kept in touch with that mage, but I had to agree with her—what’s the point of building connections if you never use them? I didn’t know how much of the ‘rumor’ came from the apprentice himself, but at the very least, Mallet was making excellent use of his apprentice’s network.

If people were calling it a hoax, that meant there was considerable unrest in France. There must have been mages who got caught up in it without knowing the story behind the will. No matter how mad a mage might be, wasn’t this too dangerous a gamble? After all, there’s no such thing as a perfect secret in this world.

But even among the five of us, opinions were divided on Michel’s reaction.

‘You think Noah cares about that? He probably just took this chance to do whatever he wanted!’

That was Hope’s biting remark, the only one who could claim to know Michel personally.

‘Still, Michel is a mage. He’d be more upset that other mages deceived him than at his uncle, who’s just a regular person.’

‘What about you, Mr. Kim?’

‘Well, I don’t have any mages in my family except my grandfather and father, so it’s hard to compare… I guess I wouldn’t resent my uncle, but the mages who tricked me—I’d definitely… ahaha.’

That was Kim Chaemin, giving us a mage’s perspective.

‘You should be angry at the person who did wrong. What did the Americans do? Like Mr. Kim said, if you want to take revenge, go after the mages who deceived you. I, Han Taekyung, don’t take out my anger on the innocent.’

Even Han Taekyung, surprisingly, pointed out the situation with cool detachment.

‘What about you, Ms. Woo?’

‘Me? Hmm… I still think Lehmann got on Michel’s nerves. Or, like Mr. Kim and Mr. Han said, maybe he was angry at the mages, but Lehmann just happened to be there at the time. From Michel’s perspective, he could get rid of the mages anytime he wanted, couldn’t he?’

‘So he dealt with the more troublesome Lehmann first?’

‘And why do you think rumors of a hoax started? The French mages must have known it would cause them trouble. Maybe Michel wanted to break their pride…’

‘That wouldn’t be enough to break them.’

‘Times have changed. Mages aren’t as exalted as they used to be.’

‘There’s that saying, even a ruined rich family lasts three generations.’

‘And Michel must know Mallet, so maybe he was hoping he’d do something.’

‘Why stage a hoax, though?’

‘That’s just what the mages who hid the will are saying. Michel, on the other hand, is saying this: “The mages who threatened my uncle tried to kill me, so I had no choice but to run…”’

‘Sounds like the kind of conspiracy theory the yellow press would love, but it’s annoying how convincing it is.’

‘But Noah hates humans! If he wanted something complicated, wouldn’t he just kill everyone?’

‘Michel has to live with humans until he solves the monster lifespan problem.’

That was my opinion.

‘So… what does our master think?’

‘Oh, thanks for asking.’

‘Come on. The protagonist always appears last, master.’

‘I didn’t know the protagonist’s opinion came last, too. Anyway, I think we’ve covered just about everything, and I agree.’

‘…With whose opinion?’

‘All four are plausible, so I don’t really have anything to add.’

‘But if you had to pick one?’

‘What, are we having a contest?’

‘…….’

‘Hijae, not you too?’

‘What?’

‘…Anyway, there might be other possibilities, but at this point, it’s all just armchair theory. Michel might not even be in the dungeon.’

‘…….’

‘Let’s find the dungeon first, then think about it.’

And finally, my father’s words.

I turned to Han Taekyung.

“What about Noah Michel?”

“Not a single hair in sight.”

“So we just have to go in….”

“Don’t talk like you weren’t going to go in anyway.”

My father laughed in disbelief.

He was right.

“As long as nothing attacks us the moment we enter. If it happens in the air, it’ll be hard to deal with.”

Han Taekyung stepped back from the gate. Everyone began preparing for entry.

The first objective was to find Noah Michel, or at least traces of him.

The second was to locate the dungeon’s core. One way or another, we had to put Moby back in this dungeon.

The dungeon had to be enormous to match Moby’s size. If the mountains and forests really had vanished, maybe it would actually be easier to find the core.

Of course, that was half nonsense, but something had to be easy for the job to be worth doing.

“Before we go in, I’ll cast a levitation spell. I’ll fix it with runes, so it won’t wear off easily… It’ll hold for a few maneuvers in the air. You know that doesn’t mean it’ll hold up in a fight, right?”

Kim Chaemin asked as she prepared her magic.

“Hunters, magic isn’t a cure-all. Remember that.”

“……”

“This is why I can’t stand hunters….”

Kim Chaemin clicked her tongue.

“Finding a safe place to land comes first.”

“Is there anything you can’t do, Ms. Kim?”

“Of course! Plants don’t grow in the sky!”

Kim Chaemin grumbled, but finished her spell. My body felt lighter. It was like moving underwater. When I took a step, I floated up and then sank down.

Even then, Kim Chaemin cast a few more spells on us—basic shields, and a tracking spell in case we got separated during an attack.

Only after a final, meticulous check of weapons and supplies did we proceed.

We entered the dungeon. The Americans had named this gate Pequod before it was even discovered.

Since Moby was the fourth, this was Pequod Four. Americans liked to name every giant sea-monster after a whale, so naturally, the dungeon where that monster appeared was called Pequod. In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the Pequod was the name of a whaling ship… I guess they couldn’t bring themselves to call a dungeon the Pacific Ocean. Who knows what they were thinking.

“…This is Guild Mimi, five members. Entering the dungeon.”

My father finished his recording. We moved through the air, slow and awkward, and stepped into the gate.

As always, my father took the lead. But unlike usual, Kim Chaemin, the mage, was second. If something happened in the air, only she could respond.

Just before passing through the gate, Kim Chaemin activated all the spells and runes she’d placed on us. Our feet left the ground. Entering the dungeon in that state…

A sky filled with starlight, as if scattered with jewels, greeted us.

No, it wasn’t a sky. It was space. Whether I looked up, to the side, or down, there was nothing but starlight. Nothing else. It was as if we’d become a single speck of dust adrift in the universe.

“What… what is this…?”

Kim Chaemin muttered, her face pale with shock.

Now I understood why Han Taekyung had examined the gate so closely. If I’d seen nothing but this universe beyond the gate, I would have been just as bewildered.

The universe.

We were inside the universe.