Retire 529
by Cristae529 The Human’s Child (3)
A backup.
It would be a lie to say I’d never considered Gamble’s suggestion. Of course I’d thought about it.
How tempting it is.
The idea that, even if you fail, you can start over from the beginning.
Strictly speaking, it’s not truly the “beginning.”
I would… return to a burning Seoul. That’s unavoidable. Even if there’s a miraculous item that can turn back time, the unchanging truth is that what has happened, has happened.
But after that?
I retraced, step by step, what I’d done right after returning to the past. Waking up among the kids in Myeong-dong, deceiving them under the pretense of saving them, meeting my father right after…
If nothing interfered, I’d probably repeat it all the same. Maybe, without even realizing it, I was already repeating it. More than anything, that was why I wanted to take out the item. To prove that this wasn’t just another cycle of repeated time, that even after all we’d been through, the future ahead of us wasn’t a pitiful failure.
…I wanted to be sure.
I did my best. I wanted to know our best efforts hadn’t been meaningless.
So of course Gamble’s suggestion sounded alluring, even if he hadn’t brought it up.
Even if what awaits next is just another useless repetition of time, if someone who’s experienced this failure goes back and guides us toward a better outcome—
Then it won’t have been meaningless.
Assuming I still had the item, I’d already made up my mind, but I still had regrets.
That’s why Gamble brought it up again here.
I’m not the only one who feels uneasy.
“We don’t need it.”
I took a small, steady breath, then looked at Gamble as I spoke.
I wanted him to see that I understood why he was saying this—and that I couldn’t accept it precisely because I understood.
“There’s no guarantee we could keep using it.”
“……”
“Even if we decide who goes next, if the time comes to use it, will things really go as planned?”
In reality, my sister hadn’t succeeded.
“There’s no guarantee the next time will be any better than now.”
“…If it had worked, we’d probably already be doomed by now.”
Kim Chae-min quietly joined the conversation.
In the end, everyone had thought about it. We just hadn’t talked about it.
“Judging by the results so far, even the monsters haven’t had much success.”
“Saying ‘not much’ is being generous. It’s rock bottom.”
“Yeah… Even if that guy at Mont-Saint-Michel was checking the changed timelines, it doesn’t mean he got any useful information. Hope said it, right? Even nobodies could use it now.”
“There were some fairies that Master killed on sight… I wonder what happened that, even after those idiots, they kept going back to the past.”
“When the world’s ending, what can’t happen?”
At my words, Kim Chae-min let out a nervous laugh. I suppressed my own laughter in response.
“I’m not willing to take that risk.”
“…You mean, if it falls into another monster’s hands?”
“Not just that.”
There were too many ways things could go wrong.
I didn’t want to leave a risk that could be eliminated.
I pointed at Gamble’s laptop. My heart felt heavy. I spoke in a calmer voice.
“The situation is in our favor right now. Didn’t we talk about this, Doctor? If we just prevent another Noah Michelle from appearing…”
“…In the worst case, we only have to hold out for three months.”
“Yes.”
“So… we’re not going to do it.”
Gamble looked at me for a moment, then nodded. His eyes brightened a little.
One way or another, everyone needs a break. Looking back, it felt like we hadn’t really accomplished much, but at the same time, it was amazing we’d made it this far.
Maybe that’s just life. Nothing ever goes as planned, and you wonder why things turn out this way, but somehow, it all keeps moving.
“…What are Master and Hope even doing? There’s no traffic, so what’s taking them so long…?”
Maybe it’s just that we’ve had too much time to think.
If we’d just hurried up and dealt with everything without all this hesitation…
“Oh, right. By the way, is everyone planning to stay in America?”
Gamble, perhaps wanting to change the mood, spoke in a lighter tone.
“Everyone knows things are crazy in America, so no one wants to ask directly… but they keep pestering me about it.”
“…Who?”
Gamble looked at me with undisguised exasperation, as if to say, “What kind of question is that?”
It wasn’t just me. Kim Chae-min and Han Tae-kyung, looking just as puzzled, also earned his chilly stare.
“Who else? The kids.”
“The kids?”
“Your students.”
Gamble clicked his tongue.
“You know what day it is, right?”
“Well…”
“You know you missed New Year’s and everything else because you were in the dungeon, right?”
“……”
“You know your business trip keeps getting longer?”
Gamble tapped his phone and showed us the screen.
It was a photo of the kids. Judging by their appearance, it must have been taken just after they came out of the dungeon. They looked exhausted, dusty, scratched, but not seriously hurt.
“They said they cleared their first dungeon of the year the other day.”
“…Why tell you?”
“Oh, for crying out loud! You guys are all over the news! No matter what channel you turn on, they’re talking about the situation in America!”
Gamble burst out, exasperated.
“You couldn’t even stay a full day when you came to the school for the runes. They know you’re busy, so they don’t want to bother you. But what happens when I say I’m going to America?”
“And?”
“Of course they pester me!”
“So why you, Doctor…?”
“They want to know when the business trip will end!”
Gamble looked around, unsure whether to keep being angry or to feel sorry for us.
From where I stood, it was probably both. Gamble scratched his head.
“The kids are graduating soon.”
Graduation.
I slowly widened my eyes. It was a word I hadn’t even considered.
“At the end of the semester, all the teachers are gone. What do you think the kids feel?”
“……”
“Even if there are other veteran hunters, it’s different. Especially Master—he’s a guardian for half the kids. He’s not just a teacher. Same for you, Mr. Woo. You know you’re basically family to Tae-woo, right?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You told I-rok you were going into the dungeon. Tae-woo asked I-rok about it. Then Tae-woo told the other kids.”
I could picture how it must have gone.
“How do you think they felt when they realized the dungeon raid was taking longer than expected?”
“……”
“I know you were just trying to reassure I-rok, but don’t tell the kid too much.”
I’d been scolded.
But I had nothing to say, so I just listened in silence.
It’s not like I’d never been in a dungeon for a day or two, and I knew things could always go wrong. When I-rok asked how long the raid would take, I’d given a vague answer, but apparently, he hadn’t just taken it at face value.
“Same goes for the other teachers.”
Gamble glared at Kim Chae-min. I knew he kept in touch with Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo…
“And why aren’t you answering your sister’s calls?”
“I, I had my phone on silent…”
“Congratulations, really.”
Han Tae-kyung buried himself in his chair, as if that would get him out of Gamble’s line of sight.
“And another thing!”
Gamble crossed his arms.
“I was going to wait for Master to say this, but there’s also the new student issue.”
“…There’s only one, right?”
“You’re going to keep the school running for just one student?”
“……”
“The one who was supposed to come.”
“So they’re reconsidering?”
I glared at Han Tae-kyung. He ducked back into his chair.
“They’re bringing another friend.”
“Another… friend?”
“Jean Robinson—he’s got good connections. Sure, Master’s and Mr. Kim’s reputations help, but anyway, they’re interested and want to visit the school. Da-seon’s been helping with operations, but Da-seon is Da-seon, and the school is the school.”
I nodded blankly.
“Since you’re all in America, they’ve been accommodating, but you can’t put things off until the new semester. You know that, right?”
“I understand.”
Gamble’s tone softened a little. Now he looked at us with open sympathy.
“To get back to the main point, the kids are graduating soon. At least see them through to the end. They’re all stuck at school, waiting for the teachers to come back.”
“……”
“You can’t stay in America forever, can you?”
Even so…
What’s waiting for us now?
The most urgent thing is everything related to Moby: checking the item, Moby’s movements, and, if he dies, dealing with the body.
We might not have to handle the last part, but since Kim Chae-min is eyeing Moby’s feathers, we’ll have to pay attention for other reasons.
And the other dungeons aren’t stable yet. Things have definitely calmed down since San Francisco, but not completely. I don’t know if Michelle was still controlling the dungeons, but the timing is suspicious. Still, it’s good news. Once things settle a bit more, they won’t need our help.
But Lehmann… Henri Lehmann and Atlas remain. Lehmann’s momentum has waned since Kim Chae-min confronted him. But with Michelle gone, there’s no way he’ll stay quiet. Once Gamble finishes checking the data, we’ll have to go after Lehmann in earnest…
“Moby? That monster business will be over soon anyway.”
After hearing our explanation, Gamble spoke slowly, as if summarizing his understanding.
“The dungeon… after helping this much, it’s time for them to handle it themselves. Honestly, you’re just keeping the fish around to have an excuse. If something goes wrong, it’s easier to blame foreign mercenaries than your own hunters.”
I didn’t deny it.
Normally, I would have protested, but right now, it was a convenient excuse for us too, so I let it go.
At the very least, we should get all the information we can from Moby before moving on.
“So the only thing left is Lehmann?”
“More or less.”
Gamble tilted his head from side to side. I waited calmly.
He stopped, brought over his laptop, and started typing.
I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but I kept waiting.
Soon, Gamble shrugged and pushed the laptop toward me, a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Are we supposed to catch Lehmann ourselves?”
Then he said something I hadn’t expected at all.
“He was already wanted, wasn’t he? Do you remember how we got information about Lehmann?”
“Through this hunter…”
“And how did this hunter know?”
“……”
“Through law enforcement!”
Gamble chuckled.
“I’ll just pick out the information useful for tracking Lehmann and pass it on. The old channels I used before I joined the guild are still open, so if I use those, we don’t have to bother this hunter, and we can keep our involvement hidden.”
“…What channels?”
“You know, before I joined the guild, I did all sorts of things to earn money…”
“I get it. You don’t have to say more.”
“But isn’t it dangerous? Lehmann’s barely even human…”
“Still, we could never take down Lehmann’s organization by ourselves. Catching him alone won’t solve everything. We’re already planning to pass the research info to Da-seon, so if we handle it right…”
Gamble fumbled through a vague plan for the future, gaining confidence as he spoke.
“It’s all for the best. Tell them to do their share, too!”
He finished with a comment that could have been a complaint, a grumble, or a joke.
Han Tae-kyung was already wholeheartedly on board with the idea of passing the work along, and Kim Chae-min was halfway convinced.
Me?
Being able to rest is important… And Gamble’s right. With someone like Noah Michelle, it’s different, but for Lehmann, whose crimes are already known, it’s better to cooperate with other agencies. That’s why I passed dungeon break and gang info to Daniel in the first place.
“So, specifically, what kind of data—”
“Oh, why do people keep holding me up?”
The conference room door burst open and my father strode in.
“Everyone here? Sorry I’m late… What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”
Unlike his confident entrance, my father faltered as he met the barrage of glares and took a step back.
I snorted.
“A new meeting topic.”
“Hm?”
“It’s about time we went home.”