Retire 506

506 In a Dream (1)

Even in the chilling scene of dead fish eyes spinning round and round, there was something good about it.

For one, it wasn’t all that disgusting. No, it was creepy, of course. But the eyes, floating and spinning lazily behind Michel’s back, were within the normal range by dungeon standards. I hated bugs more. Those giant centipede-like things.

“Keep going!”

Father shouted as he moved to avoid the dust.

At his command, we scattered. I climbed up onto a bookshelf. Seeing the dust chasing after me, I moved over to the bookshelf across the way. The dust made a show of pursuing me a few times, then turned back.

“……”

Even when I closed the distance again, it didn’t come after me.

Michel’s attacks still tended to focus on Hope.

Sometimes, as if remembering us, he would move, but… it was easy to see that, basically, Michel and the eyes were following Hope’s movements.

I narrowed my eyes.

Something creaked. There was something about Michel’s words that bothered me. I had no intention of analyzing Michel’s mental state deeply in this situation. More precisely, I had no desire to hand out a pardon for it.

…In the end, it would be Michel’s choice.

Our top priority was still to subdue Michel. But even Michel’s movements as he attacked Hope were lacking something. As long as I kept my distance and stayed still, Michel paid me no mind.

“Hm.”

Father let out an ambiguous groan and came to my side. Just in case, we were in front of the stairs. Ready to run if things suddenly changed.

The large bookshelf, packed with books, turned out to be a surprisingly good perch. I had a clear view of Hope darting around busily, and of Michel chasing after him.

“This is really unsettling.”

Han Taekyung also quietly slipped out of Michel’s range and approached.

The ones who couldn’t get away were Kim Chaemin and Hope. Hope, of course, couldn’t escape with all of Michel’s attention on him, and Kim Chaemin—if not for magic, he might have been able to withdraw.

“Are you all right, Mr. Kim?”

“Well… what do you call it. It’s a kind of territorial fight.”

“Is a wizard some kind of animal? A territorial fight, really.”

“It’s similar.”

Kim Chaemin’s magic hadn’t reached Michel, but he didn’t withdraw it, either.

Kim Chaemin’s blue field spread like an illusion over the desolate library floor. Michel’s red dust whipped up a storm to wither and kill that grass. The boundary between floor and field shifted back and forth, changing constantly.

“If Michel turns this space into something else, it’ll be a problem.”

“And you think you can stop that, Mr. Kim?”

“At the very least, I think I can keep him too distracted to focus on it.”

Han Taekyung raised his hand as if to adjust his sunglasses, then waved it in the air.

“It’s a strange dungeon. When I asked that monster, it seemed normal enough.”

“The dungeon?”

“You know what I mean. I told you, it looked weird from the gate. How does it make sense that nothing was visible?”

Han Taekyung grumbled as he watched the two magicians moving busily, and the one human leaping through the space like a flying insect.

“…Are we really all right just standing here?”

“Nothing strange happening?”

“No, Master.”

“Then just wait. If we move and draw attention, it’ll only get in Mr. Kim’s way.”

“But don’t let your guard down.”

It was my first time, too, to hang back and watch like this while a battle raged in a dungeon.

I understood what Han Taekyung meant. It was a strange dungeon.

Just… everything. Not just this situation, but everything about this dungeon was strange. Thinking back, even the business trip to America hadn’t been normal.

Kim Chaemin, fighting over there, must have realized how strange this was. He might have been the first to notice.

Even to our non-magician eyes, the magical duel between Kim Chaemin and Michel seemed off. Neither was truly attacking the other.

With Kim Chaemin, that was understandable. He was carrying out exactly what Father had asked.

If it came to it, we’d have to eliminate Michel, but we still had the troublesome obstacle of Mont Saint Michel left. As I kept saying, our goal was to capture Noah Michel in a state where he could talk, and get information out of him. After all, Michel knew the most about Mont Saint Michel. Whether he’d talk willingly was another matter.

Michel, teased by Hope, seemed somewhat unstable, but he was still able to understand what we said.

Kim Chaemin followed Father’s order to keep going. He disrupted Michel as he attacked Hope, and split Michel’s attention with a territorial battle.

While Michel, irritated, focused his red dust on Hope and Kim Chaemin, Kim Chaemin’s vines stretched from the library’s edges, linking bookshelf to bookshelf. Almost like a kind of spiderweb.

Even for Kim Chaemin, using three spells at once was no easy feat.

“Noah, Noah, Noah. Still so slow—what am I supposed to do with you?”

“…Eeek!”

And Michel?

Michel’s priority was Hope, even more than Kim Chaemin.

I didn’t know what effect those fish eyes had, but ever since they appeared, the dust had been getting faster. Hope was dodging well, leaping from place to place… but he couldn’t keep it up forever.

But even Hope wasn’t Michel’s top priority.

“Oh dear.”

Of course, Hope knew that, too.

Hope pretended to slip and hung from a bookshelf, sending a stack of books tumbling down. He didn’t even bother to hide that he’d done it on purpose.

“……!”

And, just as before, Michel fell for it again.

I heard the sound of grinding teeth. The spinning eyes fixed on the fallen books.

Yes. That’s right.

Michel was more concerned about Hope than Kim Chaemin, but even more than Hope, he was obsessed with this fake library.

He was hostile to Hope. If I were hearing those kinds of taunts, I’d have to rip that bastard apart before I could sleep at night.

Even aside from that, from Michel’s perspective, wasn’t Hope the real traitor? Hope’s attitude had always been ambiguous, but as a “monster,” Hope had always occupied a fairly neutral position. As long as the humans he liked were left alone, he’d do whatever Michel asked. It’s not like he’d actually killed anyone… but he’d pretended to kill innocent children, drawn Father’s attention, and so on.

As much as he disliked Hope, he could never fully trust him. Especially to the fairies of Mont Saint Michel, a fellow who suddenly appeared wearing human skin would have been a headache.

Even if he suspected, it was different from confirmed betrayal.

…Well, if I were Michel, I wouldn’t have rushed at Hope like that. I’d have dealt with the truly dangerous people first—Father or Kim Chaemin. I’d never have left them alone like this. Honestly, weren’t there plenty of chances to attack? If he’d struck while we were wasting time in space, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.

I didn’t know how he could alter the dungeon terrain, but it’s not like he was short on time. When facing a powerful group of monsters, picking them off one by one is often the best strategy. If it were me, I’d have isolated each of us while there was still time.

There were plenty of tactics that came to mind.

But Michel hadn’t tried any of them. Was it lack of skill or experience? That couldn’t be. His title as the youngest archmage was well-earned, and among magicians, Michel was one of the most experienced in dealing with monsters. He wasn’t famous across Europe for nothing.

So why hadn’t Michel done any of that?

“Ugh, ah….”

Michel, half out of his mind, reached for the fallen books, then dropped his hand helplessly. He couldn’t pick them up, but couldn’t leave them there, either.

“Ugh!”

I grabbed Han Taekyung by the scruff and dove behind the bookshelf. Father followed right behind me.

Almost at the same moment, a powerful shockwave swept through the space, strong enough to make it hard to stand.

“Aagh!”

In the distance, I heard Kim Chaemin scream. I was too far away to help, but thankfully, he must have blocked it in time—the vines connecting the bookshelves like a spiderweb were intact.

The one I was more worried about was Hope, not Kim Chaemin.

He was closest to Michel, the source of the shockwave, and had no time to dodge or hide.

I wanted to check if Hope was all right, but another shock hit. Han Taekyung let out a strangled gasp.

It was similar to when the scenery had shifted from space to the library.

The shocks kept coming, again and again. Thud, thoom, thud. I saw Kim Chaemin hastily duck behind a bookshelf. It was hard not to notice that Michel was obsessively fixated on the piles of books and dolls. Even now, the shocks made it hard to stand, but the bookshelves didn’t budge. I didn’t know if that was just a feature of Michel’s replicated dungeon, or if there was another reason.

“……”

Han Taekyung came to his senses.

The shaking was still there, but not as bad as at the start. In the distance, I saw Kim Chaemin hanging from a vine. He noticed me watching and waved to show he was all right. Carefully, he climbed up onto the vine.

“Ugh-cha.”

Hope, too, had made it to the top of the bookshelf on the other side, all limbs intact.

He didn’t seem hurt. But he was starting to look tired. Unlike Kim Chaemin, Hope couldn’t signal to us. He didn’t have time. He looked at Father and me, seemed about to say something, then clicked his tongue briefly and…

Thoom.

Just before the floor shook, he kicked off from it.

The moment Hope vanished, red dust swept over the spot where he’d just been.

“……!”

And he kept repeating the same trick. Hope would eye Michel’s direction and dodge at just the right moment.

Tap, tap.

Father frowned and tapped my shoulder. He pointed between the bookshelves. My gaze followed.

Thud…

Every time the now almost gentle tremor sounded, the blunt dolls strewn across the floor twitched. As if trying to come back to life.

The fallen limbs crawled toward their original places. The hollowed-out spots filled in. Bent and broken parts returned to normal.

Thud… thud… thud……

It was only then that I realized the slow, steady vibrations sounded like a heartbeat.

Crash!

Just then, Hope knocked down another stack of books.

Thoom…

With the vibration, the books that had fallen to the floor returned to their places. Back to just before they fell, suspended in midair, then finally back onto the shelves.

“This is a problem.”

I heard Father mutter quietly.

“Heejae.”

Father spoke, watching the dolls now trying to stand.

“Let’s set a fire.”