Retire 526

526 Words I Want to Convey (3)

Not only his face, but even the hand holding his cup bore burn scars. The cane always within reach. A body held stiff with tension. There were far more wounds than met the eye.

When I thought about what Gabriel Marceau had gone through before coming to America… I couldn’t bring myself to blame him for leaving his niece behind. I didn’t know every detail, but Marceau had already paid a steep price in that custody battle, even though he hadn’t won.

Michelle must have felt the same. Not resentment, but something else.

Marceau’s face, as he spoke of meeting his niece, wasn’t particularly dark. For Noah Michelle’s sake, I hoped it had been a good meeting.

“Noah came here?!”

Before I could ask anything more, Hope burst in anxiously.

Marceau turned in surprise at Hope’s shout, but his expression softened as he looked at him. Perhaps because Hope had called Michelle by name, he realized our visit was more personal than official.

In truth, for Kim Chae-min and me, it was closer to the official side… but we didn’t correct Marceau’s misunderstanding.

After all, among anyone who might come looking for Marceau in the future, we were probably the ones who knew Noah Michelle best.

“When? When did she come?”

“Do you know Noah?”

“Uh… a little?”

Hope nodded, flustered.

I wasn’t sure how that head defined “knowing” someone, but after spending half a month in the dungeon, and then a week of rest and frantic cleanup, it was obvious that Hope’s odd quietness was because of Noah Michelle. In the dungeon, it just seemed strange, but…

Like it or not, Hope had known Michelle for nearly ten years. In his narrow circle of acquaintances, Michelle was one of the few people he remembered.

My father had told me not to push Hope too hard for a while. What a troublesome guy. Always surrounded by kids.

“Noah… uh, anyway, when did she come? I didn’t think she’d come to see anyone!”

Hope quickly changed the subject.

Marceau didn’t press, but followed Hope’s lead.

“It was around mid-November. I never thought she’d come find me. I thought she wouldn’t remember me.”

“…Magicians usually have good memories.”

“I haven’t seen Noah since she became a magician.”

Marceau snapped at Kim Chae-min, his tone sharp.

Ironically, though he didn’t know it, Marceau was right. Michelle probably remembered almost nothing from before Mont-Saint-Michel.

The mood grew tense for a moment, but Kim Chae-min said nothing. Marceau continued speaking with Hope.

“I’d heard she’d gone missing, so I was worried… She said she did it on purpose. I asked if she was all right, and she just smiled and said it was fine. She smiled just like she did when she was little.”

Marceau gazed into the distance with clouded eyes, clearly lost in memory.

“…Did you report it?”

“Why would I?”

The gentle atmosphere shattered again.

Marceau’s answer was sharp.

“I just watched for her on the news sometimes. I finally got to see her, so why would I report it? Report her to whom? Why would I?”

I didn’t answer, just looked at Marceau. He clenched his teeth, then took a deep breath.

“She’s still officially missing. There are people looking for her.”

“As long as she’s safe, isn’t that enough?”

“I suppose so.”

I didn’t know what state Noah Michelle had been in at the time. But I didn’t think Marceau was lying.

The Noah Michelle in Marceau’s story didn’t sound like the magician I’d met in Marseille. She was just a normal girl, helping her uncle make tea, smiling shyly at every word, talking about her favorite foods and music… At least, that’s how Gabriel Marceau saw her.

I changed the subject. We weren’t here to interrogate Marceau.

“Then, this box… did you look inside?”

“No. I haven’t.”

Marceau shook his head.

“And it’s all right for you to give it to us?”

“She told me to do what I wanted with it. Throw it away, give it to a reporter, whatever.”

A reporter?

I frowned. Marceau didn’t notice, and kept talking.

“I don’t know if those damned magicians are blocking things or what, but… I was surprised no one had come looking for me until now. I didn’t think I’d hidden that well.”

“…Are we the first to get this from you?”

“Not exactly. You seemed to know Noah.”

Marceau looked at Hope.

“If you’re a friend of Noah’s, it should be fine.”

“F-friend? No, we’re not that close…”

Hope, oblivious, denied Marceau’s words.

I didn’t know what was in the box, but now that it was on my lap, I wasn’t about to give it up. I tried to nudge Hope’s leg to get him to take a hint.

But there was no need. Marceau smiled gently. The deep wrinkles on his face creased along with his smile. In that smile, I saw the face of the young Noah Michelle.

Family.

Without the scars, without the pain and sorrow etched in those deep lines, anyone would have thought they looked alike.

“If you weren’t close, she wouldn’t have let you call her by name. Ever since she was little, she wouldn’t let anyone use her name unless she liked them.”

I didn’t know how much of the little niece Marceau remembered remained in Noah Michelle.

I wondered what Michelle had thought as she looked at her uncle. But at the same time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

I shook the box gently. It made a dull sound.

“…May I open it?”

I didn’t sense any mana, and Kim Chae-min signaled there was no magic, either.

Marceau said he hadn’t looked inside, but who knew.

“Do as you like.”

Marceau replied curtly.

The box was decorated with a gaudy pattern. The lid was mottled and faded from sunlight. Maybe it hadn’t been prepared in advance, but thrown together in a hurry. There was a handwritten price sticker on the bottom.

I carefully opened the box. I had no idea what Michelle might have left behind. Worst case, it was a booby trap; best case…

“…What’s in there?”

Kim Chae-min craned his neck to look. I tilted the box to show him.

As its light weight suggested, there wasn’t much inside. There was a folder stuffed with papers. On one of the papers sticking out, I saw, unexpectedly, Korean writing.

‘River of Promise.’

That was the name of the research institute where I used to live.

Besides the stack of papers, there was a small pouch in the box. The dull sound I’d heard earlier was from this pouch bumping against the box.

Forcing myself to look away from the folder, I checked the pouch.

“….”

I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this.

I stared in surprise at the USB drives that fell into my palm. There were seven in total. I was suddenly afraid of what they might contain.

“Noah told me to do whatever I wanted with them, so whatever you do with them is up to you.”

I put the USBs away again.

Had Marceau really not checked? After nearly twenty years, and in such suspicious circumstances, when his niece suddenly appeared and left something behind?

If it were me, I’d have looked. No way I wouldn’t.

But Marceau wasn’t me, so maybe he really hadn’t.

“……”

Even if he had, what could he have done?

From what we’d found, Gabriel Marceau was only from a magician family—he was a civilian. After his brother died and he fled to America, he’d obsessively avoided anything to do with the Awakened. He must have wanted to avoid magicians at all costs.

I looked at the family photos in the living room. So many pictures. Marceau still had a family to protect.

He couldn’t have shouldered the bomb his beloved niece left behind all by himself. He couldn’t just hand it over to the press, either.

Maybe, just maybe, all the documents inside were in Korean or some other language Marceau couldn’t read.

After considering a few possibilities, I closed the box.

I wasn’t cruel enough to destroy the memories of a niece he might never see again.

Marceau said he hadn’t looked, and that was enough.

We would be the ones to check.

…Well. More precisely, Gamble and Lee Mi-seon.

“Thank you for talking with us.”

Marceau had only spoken with Michelle for a few hours.

Aside from the box, there were no other notable details.

“Did Michelle say where she was going?”

“Are you looking for her?”

“…We have a rough idea, but I wanted to confirm.”

Marceau pressed his lips together for a moment, then spoke.

“She said she had something to check and had to go into a dungeon.”

“A dungeon… Do you know which one?”

“She said she stopped by here on her way somewhere, so it must be nearby.”

Nearby. Not a lie.

I gathered up the box and stood. Kim Chae-min, who’d been keeping quiet the whole time, quickly followed, clearly uncomfortable. Hope looked back at Marceau with lingering regret before finally turning away.

Before leaving the house, I turned to look at Marceau. The last view Michelle would have seen: a warm, peaceful home bathed in sunlight. Family.

She wouldn’t have had her uncle’s gentle gaze, but that was only natural.

I spoke to Marceau.

After all, this was why I’d come. I hadn’t forgotten. It was just hard to say aloud.

“…She asked me to tell you she was sorry.”

Marceau’s hand trembled. The wrinkled hand, scarred by burns, clenched into a fist.

His eyes blurred with moisture, but no tears fell. Maybe when his missing niece had come to see him in secret, he’d already realized—

That it might be their last meeting.

Human intuition is surprisingly accurate, especially about things you wish wouldn’t happen.

“I see.”

Marceau hid his trembling hand and spoke calmly.

His voice was thick with both despair and hope. It was only a feeling. We told him Michelle was still missing, and that wouldn’t change after we left.

This man would go on, as he always had, believing his niece was living well somewhere out of his reach.

At least now, he could take comfort in knowing she remembered him.

I didn’t deny Marceau his hope.

I didn’t want to, and I didn’t have the courage.

After hesitating to the very end, I finally asked,

“Is there anything you’d like to say to Michelle?”

Marceau looked at me with wide eyes.

“…No.”

For the first time, Marceau smiled at us gently. The tears clinging to the corners of his eyes never fell.

“I already told her everything I wanted to say.”

“…If it’s not too much to ask, could you tell us what you said?”

“It wasn’t anything special.”

Marceau spoke in a dreamy voice, so like his niece’s.

“I told her all the things I hadn’t said before.”

But there was certainty in his tone—a sense of satisfaction that he’d done everything he needed to do.

“That I love her. That I’m so proud of her for becoming such a wonderful magician.”