I’ll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

This dungeon is strange.

Not talking about the endlessly sprawling maze. That’s possible. It’s a dungeon, after all. There are dungeons filled with water and even zero-gravity spaces, compared to those, a maze is actually relatively decent.

Thud!

Hong Seok-young broke down another wall. I followed him over the collapsed wall. Glancing back, the walls had been smashed in a straight line.

Despite making such a commotion, not a single monster could be seen.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily strange either. While rare, there are empty dungeons without monsters.

The truly strange thing is...

“There’s no one here.”

Not just monsters, there’s not even a trace of anyone else who might have been caught up in the dungeon with us.

Back when the loud noise was ringing out. At that time, we could sense the presence of other people nearby.

But once the sound and vibrations stopped and we stood up, there was no one around. Not even Hong Seok-young, let alone me, sensed anything.

Even this much could still be brushed off with a “well, it’s a dungeon”.

But the real problem is...

“Where the hell did the gate go?”

Hong Seok-young glared at the maze wall with a dissatisfied expression.

“At this rate, forget finding the others, we won’t even be able to get out ourselves.”

There’s no gate.

The area affected by a dungeon’s mana from the outside extends in a 5-meter radius centered on the gate. Based on the circumstances, it’s clear that Sem Bloom is related to the dungeon’s creation. So if we assume that the passenger car where the explosion started is where the gate formed...

Then both I and Hong Seok-young were outside of that influence zone. The Hunters who were glancing at the arriving mages from the lobby were the same.

I can’t understand it at all, but right now I’m inside a dungeon.

Why? How?

No, fine. Let’s say somehow Sem Bloom managed to put us inside the dungeon. Then what about the gate? The only passage that connects the inside and outside of a dungeon is the gate.

According to everything I know about dungeons, the gate should have been located around the area where we stood up. Same goes for the others who came in with us.

And gates aren’t something that can just be hidden.

“Should I just blow it all away?”

Unable to bear the frustration, Hong Seok-young spoke.

“There’s no one around anyway. If I blow everything away, maybe something will pop out. It’s not underground, so there’s no risk of collapse.”

“No....”

I shook my head.

“Other people might get hurt. What if the monsters attack civilians instead of us? That would be a problem.”

“Grrng.”

Hong Seok-young ruffled his hair.

“I want to believe the other Hunters are protecting the civilians.”

“If they’ve got decent morals, they should be.”

“I hope so... Not sure about the mages though. Seems like they definitely got caught in the explosion.”

Since there was a sound and heat, the explosion itself definitely happened. And from what Hong Seok-young says, those were old men who could hold their own, so they probably found a way to survive.

“Just smashing walls isn’t going to work. Got any bright ideas?”

I answered firmly.

“No.”

“...You’re not even going to pretend to think about it?”

“That’s a waste of time.”

I leaned my head back and looked up at the sky. The stars were densely packed. It looked like a night sky, but since it wasn’t the real one, there was no moon. Still, the surroundings weren’t dark.

A sense of disconnect from reality. With no monsters or people around, it even felt oddly peaceful.

“Just asking, but...”

Hong Seok-young rested his spear on his shoulder.

“This has never happened before, right?”

“If this had happened before, I wouldn’t have come to the forum.”

“How do you solve it if you don’t come?”

I quietly looked at Hong Seok-young. He blinked, then pointed at his own chest with his finger.

“Me?”

“You’d catch the culprit.”

“...I don’t know if I should thank you for trusting me that much or get mad at you for dumping the responsibility on me.”

I shrugged. Hong Seok-young shook his head.

“And I don’t know Sem Bloom. I don’t know that mage. The Noah Michel I know didn’t keep a mage like Sem Bloom around.”

I continued explaining.

To be honest, it was more of a lament than an explanation.

“I thought you handled Ark already. But judging by the scale of this, wiping out Ark by the year after next? That seems impossible. Clearly, you missed something.”

“Year after next?”

“I mean, dungeons suddenly erupting all over the world, and then those ridiculous bastards showing up... It’s all your fault, Teacher.”

“Hey, that hasn’t even happened yet!”

“It’s still your fault.”

“Hey now, how do you know that’s my fault?”

“If you had properly taken care of Ark back then…”

“I might have done it properly!”

“Because you might not have, too.”

“I did!”

“How do you know?!”

“If I did it, then I did it!”

“You probably fudged your records!”

“Are you insulting my abilities right now?”

“I’m insulting you, Teacher!”

“Show some respect to your teacher!”

“A teacher should act like one first…”

As I spoke, I felt a surge of emotion.

It was becoming almost certain that Noah Michel was involved with Ark, and yet twenty years later, Noah Michel was still walking around perfectly fine.

Clearly, it hadn’t been handled properly! These are people who could cause dungeons to appear, how could they not set off even one dungeon? Even Mini-me had written about it in his diary, right? The Director grumbled about some dungeon-related thing.

“Ugh. What the hell.”

I was well aware that I was venting my anger at the wrong person. Hong Seok-young probably knew it too. That’s probably why he was just accepting it without a word.

But that came to a stop when an unfamiliar voice suddenly cut in.

“Already infighting? That’s going to be a problem.”

A head popped out into the air. Short red hair.

Alex Hope.

The moment I recognized his face, I swung the sword in my hand without even thinking.

“Aagh!”

Crash!

Alex Hope tumbled out of thin air.

“What did I do to make you try and chop my head off?”

Is he seriously asking that?

As I silently glared at Alex Hope, this time Hong Seok-young swung his spear.

“Whoa!”

Alex Hope rolled across the floor to dodge the spear.

Once Hope dodged it, Hong Seok-young also pulled back his weapon. He was the one who had warned us about Sem Bloom. We had to at least hear what he had to say this time.

…Well, if he’d died by my sword or Hong Seok-young’s spear, that would’ve just been that.

“Seriously, humans are too hot-headed. I even came all the way here to guide you.”

Hope grumbled as he dusted off his clothes.

“Even I didn’t think that guy would blow it up the moment he arrived. Sandra always says that post-management is the most important part, so I came to help too, and then you suddenly attack me? That’s too much.”

Sandra? Who’s Sandra now?

Not that I had the mental space to entertain Hope’s whining with my nerves already frayed.

I pointed my sword at Hope. The tip brushed just barely against his neck. Alex Hope raised his head and looked at me.

Our eyes met.

Back during the forum, when he was arguing with Hunters from his own country, his eyes were just an ordinary brown. Even when he secretly approached in the hallway and babbled nonsense, they were brown.

But now, that brown had taken on a faint golden hue. Like when he attacked the children.

“What’s your game?”

Hope raised both hands.

“Calling it a game makes it sound so dramatic... Is it a game? I’m not sure. I’m not good at distinguishing that kind of thing. Usually Sandra thinks about that stuff for me.”

Hope tilted his head.

“Actually, next time, Sandra said I had to call before talking to you.”

…What good would it do telling me that?

“But even I can’t make a call from inside here… So I have to show I can do things well on my own. Right?”

Once again, what good is telling me that?

Alex Hope spoke with a completely unbothered expression.

“So... basically, something that’s good for everyone? No, not really good... Well, it is good, but more like... it’s more about avoiding a troublesome situation.”

He mumbled to himself for a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah. That’s it. It might just be a hassle for me, but for you guys, it’s going to be a real problem. So I’ll tell you how to avoid it!”

Hope sprang to his feet. It was a movement made with no consideration whatsoever that my sword was right next to his neck.

Blood dripped from his neck. I frowned and withdrew my sword. It wasn’t as if I had intended to injure him in this way unless a fight broke out.

But Hope didn’t seem to care at all. He suddenly shoved his face toward me.

“Listen closely.”

Up to now, Hope had always been expressive. When he attacked the children, he laughed like a madman, and when I stood in his way, it was the same. Even at the forum hall, whether politely greeting or arguing with the Australian Hunters, he was always expressive.

But now, all those emotions were wiped clean from Alex Hope’s face. His pale face turned even whiter. Just a moment ago, he’d been full of annoying but vibrant energy, now, his eyes were dark and his skin was as pale as a corpse walking around.

“If you see Sem Bloom, kill him.”

“What?”

“Don’t let him go. You must kill him.”

“......”

“You don’t want troublesome and annoying things to happen, right?”

***

“This place is out of power.”

Alex Hope was trying to tie up his short hair that wasn’t long enough to be tied. His hair kept falling forward, making the effort pointless.

“Power?”

“Ah. I mean the core. The dungeon core.”

Hope scrubbed at the floor with his foot.

“Normally, you wouldn’t know this because the entrance gets blown open before the core naturally vanishes... Ta-da! Surprise! Dungeons can actually naturally disappear too!”

Hope clapped his hands in an exaggerated way.

“......”

“…You already knew?”

“No.”

“Sandra was super shocked, though. Why aren’t you surprised?”

“Because I don’t feel like playing along with your act.”

Hope widened his eyes and looked at me. A bandage was wrapped around his neck.

“What a strange human you are.”

Hearing that from him somehow made me feel subhuman.

“Anyway, it’s a dungeon that was going to disappear on its own, but he forced it open. Looked like the scholars’ mages were nagging him. Maybe he didn’t want to hear it, so he ripped it open from there? That guy tries to kill anyone who nags him. He’s a psychopath.”

“......”

“Hmm. I guess I should be glad I ended up inside thanks to that. If we hurry, we can probably stop it.”

Hope finally stopped his feet, which had been in constant motion.

“Even though there was barely any power left, he still managed to gather enough to activate the defense system. That’s why only the two of you got dropped on the top floor. It judged you as the most dangerous of the intruders.”

Hope kicked at the floor with his toe. That ominous red mana I had seen last time began to gather on the ground.

“So we have to go downstairs. The master of this place is at the very bottom.”

“Master? You mean the boss?”

For the first time, Hong Seok-young, who had remained silent until now, asked Hope a question. Hope glanced at Hong Seok-young and nodded.

“Yeah.”

This guy, not even half Hong Seok-young’s age, spoke so casually.

“There’s no time to break through the dungeon the proper way, so I’ll help. But in exchange, you must kill Sem Bloom.”

“…Why? If you want him dead so badly, you could just kill him yourself.”

“Of course I want to! But if I do, I’ll get caught, and I can’t let that happen. I still can’t beat that woman.”

“That woman?”

“Noah Michel.”

“......”

My eyes met Hong Seok-young’s over Hope’s head. Hope didn’t seem to notice our exchanged glance and continued kicking the floor.

“Anyway, once you get down there, you’ll understand why I said to kill him.”

Hope stopped tapping his foot on the floor.

“……!”

The floor lit up.

More precisely, only the area Hope had been diligently rubbing lit up. No, what I thought he had been rubbing... there was another reason for it.

“You’re a mage?”

“Huh? No. I’m not a mage.”

But what was on the floor was clearly a rune.

Only a mage could draw runes without a mana pen.

“Alright then, I’m counting on you.”

His tone was far too light for someone who just asked us to commit murder.

Before I could even snap at him, why the hell should I do something that helps you.

The rune on the floor lit up, swallowed me and Hong Seok-young.

And then spat us out.

***

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