Retire 519

519 To Remain a Magician (3)

“So, in other words…”

Han Tae-kyung’s explanation continued a bit longer, but in the end, it could be summed up simply.

“It means the Mont-Saint-Michel fairy is holding a walkthrough for Noah Michelle.”

It felt awkward to make such a judgment about a person—especially someone who clearly wasn’t enjoying any of this—but he had hit on the core of the matter.

Of course, there were still unresolved issues. Thanks to Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo, we’d tentatively concluded that the Mont-Saint-Michel fairy somehow obtained information from outside the dungeon through runes. And, adding what the black fairy said in the Cactus Mirage Dungeon, it was clear that, as time repeated, the fairy was also able to acquire changes in facts.

But the exact mechanism was still a mystery.

Perhaps, before escaping the original world, the fairy had persuaded its kin to implant runes.

Compared to that, the theory about Noah Michelle seemed plausible. And yet…

“How could Noah Michelle keep doing that, when she’s not even a fairy?”

“Can I be honest?”

“Yes.”

Han Tae-kyung spoke with perfect composure.

“Why should we care?”

He said it so matter-of-factly that I thought I’d misheard.

Han Tae-kyung smiled at my reaction, a look both amused and faintly sympathetic.

“It’s not as if it’s a kind of magic we could use. It’s all very well to lecture kids about how the process matters as much as the result, but that’s only for teaching. This is something that’s already happened, isn’t it?”

“……”

“To put it bluntly, whatever that fairy is plotting, it’s enough for us to kill Michelle and travel the world killing any fairies with markings as soon as possible. If it’s not Michelle, it’s hard for those fairies to get information. The Mont-Saint-Michel library is off-limits anyway, so it’s unlikely there’ll be a second Noah Michelle.”

Han Tae-kyung patted my shoulder.

“Weren’t you a civil servant before, senior?”

“…Yes.”

“Maybe that’s why you’re so hung up on why things happened the way they did. But this isn’t something you need to go that far for. In fact, it’s something you should hide. Right, Master?”

“…Hmm.”

“Whatever Noah Michelle went through here… or at Mont-Saint-Michel, whether she killed everyone herself, or whether the civilians drove the few Awakened to their deaths, or whatever else—like junior said, it’s not really our job to uncover it. Senior, what you want is to stop monsters from breaking out of dungeons, isn’t it?”

Han Tae-kyung wasn’t wrong. In fact, he’d hit the mark so precisely it was irritating.

Part of me thought, “No, that can’t be right,” but at the same time, I couldn’t think of a better way to sum up the current situation.

“We can figure out what that thing did later. Or just leave it unknown.”

“……”

“Anyway, this is all about runes and magic, right? We won’t find the answer by ourselves. Leave it to the experts.”

Han Tae-kyung pulled a perfect rose from inside a crack.

“Mr. Kim will keep researching, even if you tell him not to.”

“…He would.”

“I don’t know why magicians are all like that. They’re all so weird…”

Sensing the heavy mood, Han Tae-kyung sliced through a crack with his sword, his voice turning mischievous.

“And honestly, I prefer gossip to complicated talk. So how did that will get out, anyway?”

“The will? Oh, Michelle’s?”

“Yeah, who was it… I know some bigwig in Europe deliberately spread the rumor, but since you didn’t know, I guess it didn’t happen originally. Were you one of those domestic types who didn’t care about overseas affairs?”

“Managing hunters isn’t something you can do by only worrying about your own country…”

I let out a half-exaggerated sigh, matching Han Tae-kyung’s tone.

“And don’t forget, around this time I was still in elementary school.”

“Is I-rok still doing well with his girlfriend?”

“……”

“They broke up recently.”

My father answered for me.

“Did he get dumped, or did he do the dumping?”

“He got dumped.”

“Everyone goes through that at some point…”

“Why are you looking at me? I didn’t have a girlfriend in elementary school.”

“Everyone has a time like that…”

Han Tae-kyung gave my shoulder a hearty slap.

This guy, honestly.

I cut off the pointless chatter before it could go any further. The next crack was definitely thick with Kim Chae-min’s magic. Up until now, the traces we’d found were just faint rose scents or a few petals. But this time, there was a fully formed rose, just like the one Han Tae-kyung had pulled out. Even Kim Chae-min’s mana lingered there.

“I’ve worked with Michelle a few times. Master has done more than I have.”

“Me?”

“Michelle’s movements are well known… If something like this happened, there’s no way you wouldn’t have known. It didn’t happen before. I’m sure of it.”

“So what’s different now?”

Hope, examining Kim Chae-min’s rose with his back to me, asked the question.

His voice was strangely sharp. Maybe he was just exhausted from all the effort since meeting Michelle.

“Mr. Kim probably hasn’t had time to check, but… The archmage Mallet’s reforms of the European magical society didn’t happen last time, either.”

Honestly, I only became aware of Mallet when I went to Marseille. By the time I started learning about the world of hunters in the Agency, Mallet had already been retired for years. I wasn’t even sure if he’d retired or died. He’s not young even now.

“It’s probably because of the two of them.”

“Who?”

“Mr. Kim made a name for himself in Marseille, right? His student said he was actually influenced by him.”

“Well… regardless of influence, it was a mess.”

“As Han Tae-kyung just said, sometimes the result is more important than the process. To that old man, a clever young magician from Asia must have seemed enviable. Plus, there was the Robinson and Funes incident.”

“…Okinawa?”

“That probably had an effect, too… but there was the school, too. Maybe… I don’t know. The magical society’s reforms, the school, and—”

My father paused for a moment before continuing.

“Lehmann probably got involved as well.”

Henri Lehmann.

“That guy?”

“I know there are a lot of complicated circumstances.”

My father peered into a crack. When he pointed his spear at it, roses poured out.

“The one who hid the will was also French. Isn’t it strange that suddenly, he attacked an American city across the sea?”

“…So you’re saying it happened because Lehmann was involved?”

“He was definitely fighting with Michelle.”

“He didn’t expect her to react like that?”

We moved on to the next space.

“Maybe he didn’t expect her to go that far. The effect was better than Lehmann hoped… Doesn’t that make sense?”

The space trembled.

Just as Hope said, the more we traveled through cracks into other spaces, the more often this happened.

If only the gate would appear right in front of us.

Since the core was broken, I’d felt somewhat relaxed, thinking we could escape safely when the dungeon disappeared, even if we didn’t find the gate. But if this unstable dungeon really did explode…

Even Noah Michelle’s dolls, as if malfunctioning, would collapse and only just manage to return to their original form.

Watching the child’s form wandering lost in the darkness was certainly not a pleasant sight.

“The Michelle I saw in Marseille seemed… very young, so maybe that’s possible.”

“Noah, she’s lost control before, you know.”

Watching the now unmistakably thick traces of Kim Chae-min’s mana, I realized that this kind of work didn’t suit me.

Han Tae-kyung had made a good point. Maybe it only applied because this wasn’t a dungeon raid. If he hadn’t said it, I never would have realized it myself.

The definition of a dungeon raid is simple: break the core and close the dungeon.

But what are we doing in a dungeon where the core is already broken?

If you had to put a name to it, you might say we’re chasing a fugitive. A suspect who hasn’t been charged with any crime, but must be stopped.

I used to envy my older sister. I still do, sometimes. Watching the Agency hold serious meetings without me. When I entered the conference room, they’d quickly change the subject, awkwardly.

To inherit my father’s—Hong Seok-young’s—name must mean being able to handle even this kind of thing. Finding people, and being ready to kill them if necessary.

I…

I don’t know. Could I really do that?

I used to think I could. When I truly made up my mind, I always managed to do it.

Right now, my father doesn’t see much need for the Agency. That’s why the work of establishing it hasn’t progressed as far as I remember.

But it doesn’t matter. After rescuing the kids in Myeong-dong and learning what really happened there, my father chose to reform the government’s management system instead of creating an Agency. There’s been real progress. Maybe in a few more years, a new organization to manage dungeons and Awakened will be created, even if it’s not the Agency I remember.

Since I have experience, I planned to help with that. The Agency I worked for focused on dungeon management, and was weak on Awakened crime, so I wanted to pay more attention to that this time. What I said to Kang Tae-woo was sincere.

But suddenly, my confidence was gone.

I knew the reason.

Why was I hesitating now, when just a year ago I thought I could do it?

It was because I had come to truly care for the children I taught.

I hadn’t realized that taking a job where you pour your heart into people would make the weight of a life feel so much heavier.

Getting hurt fighting monsters and being hurt by another human being felt completely different. At least in the first case, the kids have a choice.

I never expected to be forced into self-reflection in a situation like this.

“……!”

While ignoring yet another doll of Noah Michelle being carried somewhere, I checked each new crack for Kim Chae-min.

With a violent tremor, explosive mana burst from a crack in the air. The rough surge of magic was fracturing the crack further.

“A rather intense welcome.”

My father snorted, watching the vines slowly crawl out of the crack.

Only then did I realize my father was tense. Not just him, but me. Han Tae-kyung. Even Hope.

We’d spent hours wandering the dungeon, chasing after Kim Chae-min’s petals and mana, all the while steadfastly ignoring a possibility we couldn’t even voice aloud.

Now, whenever the rose scent faded, I grew anxious, wondering if I’d see him again.

I know he’s an extraordinary person. We, who have seen the archmage’s power up close, know it best.

But in the end, even an archmage is still human.

“Ahh!”

Kim Chae-min, crossing through the crack with his vines, stumbled and fell.

“Ow… Where on earth have you all been? I’ve been looking everywhere!”

He stood up, brushing off his palms.

“Honestly, hunters! No sense of direction at all!”

He looked at us with a face that said, loud and clear, that we were the ones who’d been left behind—not him.