I’ll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

"We're here."

I clenched my teeth.

"I've already told Teacher Kim. Just tear through and go in."

Hong Seok-young spoke from beside me. His voice coming through the headset was low and subdued. My heightened senses cut through the high-performance headset to pick up the rotor noise of the helicopter.

I gripped my sword. A crackling spark sounded from the blade's tip. Hong Seok-young grabbed my hand.

"Calm down. If the helicopter crashes, we'll be fine, but the pilot will die."

I looked toward the cockpit.

The pilot I'd parted with in burning Seoul. We had no choice but to separate, even knowing it might mean death. How long had that person managed to hold on?

I clenched my teeth. I'm going to save them. These are people I can save. As long as I deal with every last one of these bastards.

"...Should I have killed him?"

Lee Mi-seon had urgently arranged the helicopter for us. I didn't know the complicated procedures involved. Lee Mi-seon must have handled everything herself.

During the short descent toward the villa where the children were, that was the only thought circling in my head.

Me, with my pointless half-assed hypocrisy...!

I'd always thought the day would come when I'd regret it, but I never imagined it would come this soon.

"No."

Hong Seok-young denied it without hesitation.

"Taking someone's life can never be a shortcut."

Hong Seok-young opened the helicopter door. A fierce wind rushes in. I heard the pilot say he would lower the altitude.

"Your teacher wouldn't have wanted that either."

"......"

"And that's exactly why you didn't kill him, isn't it?"

I looked down. The villa was visible. So was Kim Chae-min's mana surrounding it. Red and blue light woven tightly together, like roses in full bloom.

"Now then. Can't go being a hyung your little brother would be ashamed of."

Hong Seok-young added, just before I jumped.

I clenched my teeth.

...I couldn't honestly say that my younger self had barely crossed my mind.

That must mean I still hadn't properly come to terms with that child.

I felt the wind striking my face roughly. Kim Chae-min's mana drew closer. I raised my sword and wrapped it in mana.

Crack!

I tore through Kim Chae-min's magic and landed in the garden. Hong Seok-young came down after me, and the torn section was quickly restored. That was also proof that Kim Chae-min was unharmed. She'd said she couldn't move from the study because she was maintaining the defensive formation.

I looked at Hong Seok-young.

"I'm going to find my brother."

"I'll head to the study."

Hoping that Han Tae-kyung, who likewise hadn't been able to enter the study, was with the child.

I went inside the villa.

*

The inside of the villa was filled with roses.

Not a figure of speech. Literal roses.

Roses had claimed every wall, as though I'd stepped into an extravagant rose garden. The scent was so thick it numbed my nose, enough to make my head spin.

But threaded between it all was the metallic smell of blood. Impossible to miss.

I followed that scent of blood. The sheer size of the villa didn't help at all. Every now and then, I heard a distant thud, thud of impact.

Probably Han Tae-kyung.

'The real question is when our little Cockroach will finish adapting.... But once that old man shows up, even he'll have no choice but to run, right?'

I still didn't fully understand what Alex Hope had meant by "adapting," but it was clearly nothing good. I hadn't sensed any remarkable skill from Sem Bloom back in the cavern.... With Kim Chae-min's support, Han Tae-kyung should be able to take him down easily enough. Loud as he was, his skill was the real deal.

Boom!

"Urgh...!"

But Han Tae-kyung appeared right in front of me.

As if kicked by something, crashing through the wall.

Han Tae-kyung was clutching a floor lamp. He was just as battered as his tattered gat. He coughed up blood and looked up at me with hazy eyes.

"Huh... Woo sunbae?"

Yoo Ji-eun's collapsed form overlapped with his. She had vomited blood like that too. On her abdomen, wounds so severe that even potions couldn't....

"...Teacher Han?"

Han Tae-kyung used the floor lamp as a cane and forced himself upright. He slipped on the blood soaking his hands and was about to collapse again before I came to my senses belatedly and caught him.

"That, weird-looking guy.... Somehow he got through... Teacher Kim's magic."

"Weird-looking? What did he look like?"

"Blue, hair, arms that look like... wings."

Sem Bloom.

"I think, he might be a mage...."

He was in no condition to stand. I sat Han Tae-kyung down. The floor lamp rolled away with a clatter. He must have been using it as a weapon since he had nothing else.

I pressed down on Han Tae-kyung's abdomen to stop the bleeding. Not a fatal wound like Yoo Ji-eun's.

"Stay here. Don't lose consciousness. I'll be back soon."

"Woo sunbae."

Han Tae-kyung gripped my clothes tightly. A red stain spread across my white dress shirt.

"That kid."

"Kid?"

The only person Han Tae-kyung would call a kid....

Mini-me.

"I got him, to run. To the kitchen. You know the big one."

"......"

I nodded.

"Hurry."

I stood and ran in the direction Han Tae-kyung had indicated.

A short distance. No reason to be out of breath at all. And yet somehow it was rising to my throat. I didn't like that. I wanted to swing my sword and set fire to everything in sight, but the fact that the roses were Kim Chae-min's forced me to rein myself in. If this magic disappeared, it would only create a better environment for that bastard to run rampant.

I gripped my sword.

A wide dining table came into view, big enough to seat a good fifteen people. During mealtimes, everyone used to sit together and eat. Mini-me would grumble about it, but whenever I brought him over, he'd sit among them with a sulky face and eat his food.

The floor was a wreck. The table was a mess. Chairs were strewn about, and Kim Chae-min's roses could barely maintain their shape in here.

'Do you know why I came to Korea?'

Alex Hope had looked at me and Hong Seok-young with pitying eyes.

'I was told to lure the two of you out. I get that it was a trap you couldn't help falling into, but you walked right into it way too perfectly.'

Kim Chae-min's mana wavered.

Without bothering to look further, I threw my sword in that direction.

"Agh!"

Sem Bloom grabbed the arm where the sword had embedded itself and screamed. The fire clinging to the blade burned Sem Bloom's wings. He gritted his teeth and pulled the sword out. Yoo Ji-eun's sword, which still burned anything that displeased it, only intensified the flames further.

"Grrgh...!"

Clang.

He dropped the sword. Blood pattered onto the floor.

Seizing the opening, Kim Chae-min's Rose Vines caught him and dragged him into the air.

So that's how it worked.

Since I could see mana, I could strike preemptively, but Han Tae-kyung would have had no choice but to take the first hit. In that case, the fact that he'd held him off with only those injuries was actually impressive.

'Sandra always said my problem is that I'm too short with my words.'

I scanned the kitchen.

'So let me spell it out.... Wait, I didn't tell you? I didn't, but if he figures it out on his own, that's not something I can help. And once Sem gets there, he'll catch on right away too. The guy does keep his eyes open, at least.'

Honestly, the problem seemed less about being short with words and more about being terrible at explaining things.

'Anyway, if he takes that kid, it'll be a reeeal problem. Serious trouble. So make sure you kill him this time. You promised me, right?'

Alex Hope had been targeting Kang Tae-woo. So when I heard someone was being taken, I naturally thought of Kang Tae-woo.

Until Kim Chae-min brought up Woo I-rok's name, it hadn't even occurred to me that the target could be him.

And seeing Sem Bloom causing havoc here seemed to confirm it.

"Agh!"

Sem Bloom clutched his arm again and was dragged off by Kim Chae-min's vines.

He'd been beaten by Han Tae-kyung, then blocked by me in turn. He never learned. It was starting to make sense why Alex Hope called him Cockroach.

"......"

I couldn't keep this up forever. Time to head for the study. Securing safety came first. I couldn't fight properly with Woo I-rok here.

After blocking Sem Bloom once more, I knocked on the door next to the refrigerator. It was a small space used as a pantry. I could hear tense breathing coming from inside.

"I-rok."

"........Hyung?"

After a long pause, Woo I-rok answered cautiously.

"It's hyung. I'm opening the door, okay?"

Woo I-rok had been in the very back of the pantry, crouched with his knees pulled to his chest after pushing aside a box from under the shelf.

I'd expected him to be terrified and crying. Nothing like this had ever happened to me when I was ten. If it were me without my hyung, even if I'd gone through the same thing, I don't think I would have cried. But this mini-me had me, had a hyung. He was far more dependent than I'd ever been as an independent soul.

But while Woo I-rok did look scared, he wasn't crying. He wasn't shaking uncontrollably either.

Woo I-rok crawled out from under the shelf and looked up at me with a clear face. A smile slowly spread across Mini-me's face.

"Hyung!"

"I-rok."

"I knew you'd come to save me!"

Woo I-rok bounced over to me.

"Last time you were a little late, but I can let that slide."

"Uh... thanks for understanding."

"Is everything okay now?"

"...No. We still have to be careful."

Mini-me waved me over without a care in the world. When I bent down to match his gesture, he climbed onto my back with a bright smile. The warmth of a small child spread across my back.

"But you'll protect me, right, hyung?"

There was absolute trust in the child's voice.

That no matter what happened, I would protect him.

The very same faith I once held.

Without the faintest idea of what feelings I'd had when I brought him from the orphanage, or what thoughts crossed my mind every day as I looked at him.

As if I were the only person in the entire world on his side. As if I were his whole world.

Just like I once was.

As if the faith that had naturally faded when hyung never came back had been resurrected through a father.

"...Yeah."

The slight weight of a ten-year-old child pressed down on me heavier than anything in the world.

"Hyung will protect you."

I am this child's hyung.

This child's entire world.

Every world this child remembers.

The standard for every world this child will learn as he grows.

My eyes stung.

Only now did the resolve settle in.

The resolve to be Woo I-rok's hyung.

"You have to hold on tight to hyung, okay?"

"Okay."

The arms around my neck were surprisingly firm.

The moment I stepped out of the pantry, mana wavered. Sem Bloom truly never learned.

I didn't throw Yoo Ji-eun's sword again. If I made a mistake and it got dragged along with Sem Bloom into Kim Chae-min's vines, it would be hard to get back. Couldn't lose a good item like that.

I still had a few of the daggers Lee Mi-seon had given me. Dwarf Gold Daggers were highly effective for mana blocking. I'd prepared them thinking Alex Hope's method of travel used dungeon items or magic artifacts. If you want to catch anything, you block the escape route first.

Sem Bloom blocked this one with his arm as well. This time, without even screaming, he pulled the dagger out immediately. Blood still flows from his mangled arm.

The Rose Vines stir.

But Sem Bloom immediately extended his hand. Not toward me, or toward Woo I-rok on my back, but....

Toward the floor.

"......!"

My gaze followed Sem Bloom's hand. The floor, drenched in the blood he'd shed.

The blood droplets were spaced at regular intervals. As if he'd spilled them on purpose.

And the pattern of those droplets looked oddly familiar. Like a rune I'd seen over and over at the research lab.

A rune!

I realized too late what Sem Bloom was trying to do. But it was already too late. Instead of trying to stop Sem Bloom, I held the little brother clinging to my back tight in my arms.

BOOM!!!

The explosion swept through the kitchen.

*

Hot.

Hot.

Hot.

I didn't know what had amplified the rune's effect to this degree. Since it was the kitchen, oil or gas might have fed the explosion. No, that must be it.

In the end, hunters aren't invincible. It's not as if there's some convenient rule that says only mana-imbued attacks can harm a hunter.

Tougher than most people, sure. That's the only reason I survived that explosion with just burns on my back.

The moment I came to, I searched for the brother I'd last held in my arms.

"...I-rok?"

No answer came.

But the child's pale face twitched. I could feel a heartbeat. Alive. That was enough.

"Took too long."

The air split opened before my eyes.

"You, you...."

"Thanks for what you did in the dungeon earlier."

Sem Bloom smirked and picked up my sword. Ignoring his burns, he drove the retrieved sword into my shoulder.

More than the pain, the hand he was reaching out concerned me. When he grabbed Woo I-rok and pulled, the boy slipped lifelessly from my arms.

Sem Bloom glanced at my face, then vanished into the rift. Along with my little brother.

"......ggh, urk."

Unable to contain my fury, I clawed at the floor. Kim Chae-min's magic was still up, so he had to still be near the villa. I needed to get up and chase him right now. No time to waste.

He's my brother. I'd finally been able to think of him as my brother!

"Teacher Woo!!"

Frantic footsteps halted beside me.

"What on earth...."

A buzzing sound gradually took shape.

"Teacher Woo, snap out of it! You can't pass out now! Wait, I have a potion... I carry potions on me."

"...hel."

"Woo, Woo Hwijae!"

My name.

My hazy vision cleared for an instant, and I saw the face of the man calling my name with a worried expression.

"Are you conscious? Can you see me? Do you know who I am?!"

Hair disheveled every which way. A rough jaw with stubble. Hands covered in scars.

The person who always promised to protect me, to help me, to make whatever I wished for come true.

"...bro, ther."

"Brother? I-rok?"

“Ajeo, ssi….”

"Sem Bloom took him?!"

"...Dad. Fa, ther. Al, so... bro, ther, please."

Father.

"Dad."

***

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