I’ll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

Kim Chae-min sent a few photos via text, saying to check the face first.

“They said he was a kid.”

“Hmm… isn't twenty-one still young?”

“He's young, but not a kid.”

“…Well. That's true.”

He’s not much different in age from Kim Chae-min or Noah Michel.

“Still, he looks much younger in the photo. When was this taken?”

Hong Seok-young peered into the small phone screen.

Kim Chae-min kindly sent not only photos but also information on Sem Bloom.

“It’s a photo taken in the summer.”

Sem Bloom. Twenty-one years old. A water-attribute mage of Dutch nationality.

Looking at the photo, it was understandable why Kim Chae-min referred to him as a kid. At most, he looked like he was in his mid to late teens. No matter how generously you judged, late teens was the limit.

A rosy complexion and curly hair falling over the forehead.

If not for the dazzlingly blue hair, he had the kind of classical beauty that could easily be mistaken for an angel out of a masterpiece painting.

And next to him was Noah Michel. At a glance, she had a silhouette so delicate one might mistake her for a ballerina. Over her green coat, golden hair cascaded down. Her white face was dotted with faint freckles.

…Awakened individuals age slowly, but she looks almost exactly the same as she did twenty years later? Even my father had completely white hair twenty years on.

He glanced at Hong Seok-young’s black hair. If you lifted that hair a little, there would be gray strands. Didn’t his father, just a few years from now, lift his hair every morning to pluck gray hairs?

“…Didn’t you just have an incredibly disrespectful thought?”

“What are you talking about?”

Too sharp for his own good.

Anyway, Sem Bloom had a face you couldn’t forget once you saw it, albeit in a different way from Alex Hope. With that face, he could’ve easily made a living as a model or actor, but instead he ended up being called a villain by some weirdo.

This is what mages are like.

He continued looking through the photos Kim Chae-min sent.

Sem Bloom was always next to Noah Michel.

No, it was probably the other way around. According to Kim Chae-min, Sem Bloom was always by Noah Michel’s side.

Noah Michel.

…Noah’s Ark.

Just as Hong Seok-young said, it’s nothing more than a forced connection.

The name Noah is as common as dirt, saying that might be impolite, but that’s how common it is in the Western world.

Whether Hunter or mage, there are plenty of people named Noah besides Noah Michel. Widen the scope to civilians and it becomes meaningless to count.

So it’s unreasonable to think Noah Michel is related to the Ark just because of her name.

No, more than that, think about it. How many achievements has Noah Michel made as a mage? Is that the kind of thing that just falls from the sky just by breathing? Even if she’s a genius, could she really have managed magic research, dungeon raids, and on top of that run a criminal organization? Unless she has two, no, four bodies, it’s impossible.

And the most important clue.

“…The age doesn’t match.”

“Age? You mean Sem Bloom? Have you heard it before?”

I shook my head.

“No. I mean Noah Michel.”

Hong Seok-young raised an eyebrow.

“Michel is twenty-six now. My… father and mother were affiliated with the research lab long before that.”

“Hmm.”

Hong Seok-young returned his eyebrow to its original position and let out a short hum.

“And my hyung, too. I don’t know his exact age, but he’s definitely older than Michel.”

“No. You shouldn’t think of it like that.”

“Sorry?”

“You’ve never done this kind of work before, right?”

“This kind of… work?”

“I mean tracking suspects. Illegal Awakened or Awakened-related crimes.”

As much as I hated to admit it, I nodded. This wasn’t my area of expertise.

“We still don’t know much about the Ark. We don’t know how things operate internally.”

“……”

“There were even rumors that Alex Hope was the boss of the Ark. The truth is still unclear. Same goes for Noah Michel.”

Hong Seok-young spoke in a cold voice.

“There may have been some kind of internal incident, and Michel absorbed the organization.”

“Now that’s just speculation, isn’t it?”

“Do you think so?”

Hong Seok-young shrugged.

“It’s possible.”

“……”

"Like an innocent witness. Hmm?"

I feel deflated. I was about to snap, thinking it was another ridiculous wordplay, but just then, Hong Seok-young spoke.

Hong Seok-young wasn’t finished talking yet.

“All criminal investigations start that way. It’s a new lead that just came in, right? Then we have to latch onto it tenaciously and find the path to the next clue.”

“……”

Hong Seok-young stretched his wrist, rolling it in circles.

“Let’s try not to leave too many corpses behind.”

***

Though he said something that harsh, fortunately, Hong Seok-young was a grown-up who knew how to distinguish right from wrong. Instead of heading straight to the mage, he walked toward the hotel lobby. He was pretending to be nonchalant, but anyone could tell he was conscious of the mages.

…Most of the other Hunters made a similar choice, so luckily, Hong Seok-young’s eccentric behavior blended in.

Luxury sedans pulled up one after another in front of the hotel. Hong Seok-young and I watched the ridiculous scene from a reasonable distance.

No one wanted to approach the mage.

The Hunters gathered here were all well-known figures in their respective countries. No matter how arrogant the mage was, they couldn’t act recklessly.

But in most cases like this, people tend to hold back to avoid trouble. There are those who wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences if they crossed a mage the wrong way. Like Dylan Brown, who came following his father and hyung. There were quite a few guardians who had brought young, unqualified Hunters to give them experience.

Click.

A hotel staff member carefully opened the sedan door. Really… was he missing hands or what was he trying to do?

“…Oh my, what’s that stiff old man doing here?”

Seeing the elderly man who got out first, Hong Seok-young sighed. I checked the face but didn’t recognize it. Which means he either wasn’t alive by the time I worked at the Agency, or even if he was, he wasn’t important enough for me to remember.

If he’d been on the list Lee Mi-seon gave me, I would’ve at least remembered the name. Since he wasn’t, that means he really is just as rigid and uptight as Hong Seok-young says. He probably didn’t even formally announce his attendance just to catch the Association off guard. That’s typical mage behavior.

I apathetically watched the mages who followed behind him.

The only one that Hong Seok-young visibly disliked was the old man who got out first. The rest didn’t seem to bother him as much.

“Ah, that one. He’s rude. But I gave him a good scolding once, so he won’t come near me.”

He let out a sly grin from time to time.

“That one too, I once… If any of the mages start picking a fight, come to me.”

“And what’ll you do if I do?”

“I’ll teach you how to beat the crap out of mages.”

“……”

“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s incredibly useful.”

“……”

For the sake of my superior’s dignity, I pretended I didn’t hear that. I couldn’t bring myself to admit I knew exactly what he meant.

I just quietly watched the mages. Sem Bloom wasn’t in sight. Had he not gotten out yet? There was still one sedan with no one emerging from it.

The first mage who got out said something to the other mages. An unpleasant expression flashed across his face as he looked at the untouched sedan.

Just then, the wind blew, and his ornately embroidered robe fluttered.

If runes ever become more widespread in the world, those patterns will likely become protective runes, turning the robe into a practical piece of armor.

But for now?

It’s nothing but decoration. It’s just fancy trim on flapping fabric. I think I heard it was designed by a famous designer, which somehow makes it even more ridiculous. The very embodiment of mage vanity.

The mage in the final sedan was also wearing one of those flashy robes. The deep green robe didn’t match the bright blue hair at all.

Wait a second.

“……”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Teacher Woo?”

“…That one.”

Dyed blue hair, chubby cheeks still full from baby fat, a face that looked like it had been carved out of a sculpture or lifted straight from a classical painting.

Even from a distance, my vision wasn’t bad enough to miss the mana particles floating around Sem Bloom.

Without realizing it, I leaned forward and scrutinized Sem Bloom. The old man was saying something to the boy. I could vaguely hear something about lacking manners and letting it go this time because of Michel.

I ignored it.

The pattern embroidered on Sem Bloom’s robe.

Mana was moving along that pattern.

And what does that mean?

The pattern on Sem Bloom’s robe isn’t just decorative, it’s a rune! And a fully functional one at that!

Noah Michel was also known as a Rune Master. Her Mana Concealment Rune was the most famous, but she created many other runes considered essential for dungeon raids.

“That thing. On his robe.”

I explained to Hong Seok-young while straining to figure out what kind of rune was embroidered on Sem Bloom’s robe.

“It’s a rune. A rune that’s actually functioning.”

“…All the robes the mages are wearing?”

“No. Only Sem Bloom’s robe.”

The embroidered pattern was different, but the overall design matched that of the official robe from the Central Society. In other words, it was loose-fitting with a lot of pleats.

Every time Sem Bloom moved, the folds shifted. His robe fluttered in the wind. As he spoke, the direction he faced changed multiple times.

I couldn’t see the entire pattern. But even the fragmented glimpses of the rune were enough to identify what kind it was.

Because it was a rune I had used so often I’d grown sick of it. If not, I wouldn’t have recognized it.

“Defense Rune.”

“Defense Rune?”

“Yes. It functions like a shield. It’s not all that effective on its own, but it can definitely block explosions. If stacked multiple times…”

And that robe had been stacked with them multiple times.

“It could probably block several real attacks too.”

I explained automatically to Hong Seok-young while staring intently at Sem Bloom’s robe.

That rune was one Noah Michel revealed much later.

And yet it had already been completed at this point in time?

Kim Chae-min had said that Michel took Sem Bloom on as an assistant. If she gave him a robe filled with Defense Runes to protect him from possible danger, it wouldn’t be strange.

But then why this feeling of unease? I was clearly missing something…

“……!”

“Teacher Woo?”

The rune is activated!

Runes embedded in robes like that consume mana as their power source. This isn’t inside a dungeon, it’s an ordinary street. On top of that, it’s the venue of an international forum where some of the world’s top Hunters have gathered.

Even if a dungeon broke out right in the middle of the venue, it could be resolved within an hour by the people here.

So what reason would there be to activate a rune in a place like this? Especially the kind embedded in a mage’s robe, likely containing dozens of overlapping protection runes?

Before I could even finish thinking, my body moved on its own.

Unfortunately, there was no time to warn anyone else. I could only hope it was just my paranoia.

I grabbed Hong Seok-young by the neck and threw myself to the side. There was some distance between us and Sem Bloom, but you never know. If the Defense Runes on the robe were activated.

Ironically, Alex Hope’s warning kept echoing in my mind.

“Keep an eye on the one with blue hair. He’s a bad guy.”

KWA-AAAAANG!!!!

The moment I pulled Hong Seok-young down and pressed myself as close to the ground as possible, the earth shook and I felt heat radiate over my head and back.

***

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