I’ll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

'But you still can't eat persimmons?'

'What?'

A sun-bleached memory.

'You couldn't eat them before, remember? You'd break out right here, like this, in hives.'

A cherished memory, always held close.

'Are you okay with them now? Want a bite?'

'...You're saying that to someone who just told you he's allergic? You can't take allergies lightly. And you call yourself a journalist.'

'Oh, come on!'

Mimi frowned indignantly with a small spoon still in her mouth. She looked so cute sitting there with a cup of frozen persimmon perched on her round belly that he forgot what they'd even been talking about and burst out laughing.

'They say becoming Awakened makes your body stronger. That it even cures existing conditions. So maybe it could cure allergies too.'

'I'm not sure about that.'

'What about your colleagues? None of them had allergies that went away?'

'Never asked.'

'Hmm... want to try?'

A spoonful of persimmon was thrust in front of his face. Hong Seok-young stared at it for a moment, then shook his head.

'No. I'm fine. You eat plenty. You said you were craving it.'

'Yeah. Are you worried you might still be allergic?'

'It's not so much that.... More like, the memory of getting sick from eating it before. I just don't feel like eating it.'

'That makes sense.'

'Right?'

'Of course. I still can't stand the last bowl of soup I had with my dad.'

Mimi laughed brightly.

'That's why I never eat soup with you.'

'Well, aren't you just husband of the year.'

'I bring home good money too.'

'True. That's the most important part.'

'And I'm handsome.'

'Ehh, I'm not so sure about that one....'

'And I'm in great shape?'

'The best.'

Mimi gave a thumbs up.

'So, my dear husband has a chance to become an even better husband....'

'What do you want to eat?'

Mimi finished the rest of her persimmon and grinned radiantly.

'Pig's feet!'

Looking back, that had been the most carefree, peaceful time. The days when he'd buy whatever food his wife was craving, share it together, and laugh.

After that....

.......

Hong Seok-young had never once believed he would have a family. He'd been alone for as long as he could remember. It wasn't that he didn't envy those who talked about their families. He envied them so much, in fact, that he chose not to think about it. If something was out of reach, giving up quickly was one way to deal with it.

So Hong Seok-young learned how to grow strong on his own.

No Guild would take in some kid who showed up out of nowhere claiming he wanted to be a Hunter. If one small Guild hadn't asked whether he'd like to work as a Porter, he would have ended up laboring at a construction site.

The Guild where Hong Seok-young worked as a Porter wasn't large. But among the Dungeons it managed, there was one that produced Mana Herbs. His job was to follow the Guild members into those Dungeons, harvest Mana Herbs while they fought monsters, and haul them out on his back.

Back then, Dungeon grades, Passage Taxes, and the like hadn't been properly established yet, so not a single person understood what it meant that a mere Porter could cross through Gates without trouble. But having watched the Hunters fight, Hong Seok-young thought:

'I could do better than that.'

And he actually could.

As a Hunter, Hong Seok-young was phenomenal.

He reunited with Mimi while his reputation was rising fast. At first, they just traded stories about the Orphanage and what their lives had been like since. Then one day, Mimi grabbed him by the collar and kissed him.

And just like that, romance entered Hong Seok-young's life.

After a fierce romance they married, and when he heard the news that they were expecting, he thought he couldn't possibly be any happier. That this was his prime. That he wished time would stop right here.

'Really? You like me that much?'

'Yeah.'

'What about when we were at the Orphanage? Did you know back then that you'd end up liking me this much?'

'If I had, I would've thrown myself on the floor and begged to go with you.'

Mimi, who had laughed so hard at his words she couldn't breathe, was dead.

His infant son, too young to understand the meaning of death, let alone remember his mother's face, only cried. The family that had adopted Mimi came rushing from America as soon as they heard the news. He hadn't seen them since the wedding.

Mimi's adoptive parents did not scream at the son-in-law they found sitting in a dark room, hollowed out, calling him the man who killed their daughter. Instead, they checked the formula in the cupboard, warmed water, and fed the whimpering grandchild before putting him to sleep.

Mimi's family handled the funeral preparations in Hong Seok-young's place. Even after the funeral, her parents didn't return to America but stayed to look after their grandchild.

Hong Seok-young doesn't remember the day his son first crawled. He doesn't remember the day his son first stood on his own, and he doesn't even remember the day he walked.

Then one day, he suddenly came to his senses.

Dim blue light was seeping through the window, slowly brightening the house. As if drawn by something, Hong Seok-young walked into the child's room. From the small bed with its railing came the sound of rustling. The boy was awake, eyes wide open.

And then he reached out his chubby hand toward Hong Seok-young and smiled brightly with eyes that looked exactly like Mimi's.

'Daddy!'

he said.

His mother-in-law squeezed Hong Seok-young's hand tightly and spoke.

'Thank you for loving our daughter so much. But you have a child. His father needs to be strong.'

Good people. Hong Seok-young looked at his son and wept. Mimi's second family had been truly good people. She had been loved, at least. That was why, despite the childhood she'd spent in the Orphanage, Mimi had been so full of love.

And his wife, who had left before she could give all that overflowing love to their son.

Hong Seok-young cried and cried.

But his mother-in-law was right.

The living had to go on living. There was the infant son Mimi had left behind. A child who beamed whenever he saw his father. A child who toddled over and flung himself into his arms. A child who loved books like Mimi, wrinkled his nose when something didn't meet his standards, and threw tantrums begging to keep a snail because he thought it was cute.

To Hong Seok-young, that child was the world.

Compared to when he'd reunited with Mimi, Hong Seok-young's fame had grown incomparably. More and more people recognized his face just from walking down the street.

'It's not like you're a celebrity, Dad.'

Whenever he grumbled like that, his son, mature beyond his years just like his mother, would scold him, saying he should be grateful instead.

'They're cheering you on, Dad. Right?'

Still, Hong Seok-young preferred being called Se-un's dad over his title as the strongest Hunter in Korea.

'Se-un, should Dad quit being a Hunter?'

'Huh? Why?'

'If Dad quit being a Hunter, we could go to the amusement park together, and to the movies....'

'No.'

'No? Should Dad keep being a Hunter?'

His ten-year-old son nodded with a sulky face.

'I already bragged to the other kids that my dad's a Hunter.'

'Yeah?'

'I told them Hunters are heroes who save the world. I like that my dad is a hero.'

'Hmm.... Then Dad will have to keep saving the world, huh? If he's gonna be a hero?'

'Yeah.'

'We can't go to the amusement park together, though. Is that really okay?'

'It's okay.'

'Really?'

'Yeah. I'll just eat pizza while I wait.'

The cheeky son who said he'd eat pizza while his dad was out working never got to eat the pizza he loved so much ever again.

Hong Seok-young fell apart. He didn't want to get back up.

The child, already so small, became even smaller. Since this was all he could do for his son now, he chose the most expensive urn he could find. Wanting him to be even a little closer to the mother he'd only ever seen in photos, he moved Mimi's Columbarium too. Mother and son, side by side in small urns, saw the father off.

He should never have had a family. Then he wouldn't have had to suffer like this.

But even through all this suffering, he couldn't bring himself to regret it. Family had been everything to Hong Seok-young. Even with everything taken from him, he never wanted to go back to the time before they existed.

So Hong Seok-young simply went on living as he always had. Clearing Dungeons, handling Dungeon Breaks, traveling overseas when asked.

The one thing that changed in Hong Seok-young's life was where he lived. He couldn't bear to return to a home full of traces of Mimi and his son.

In the living room of the small apartment he'd newly found, Hong Seok-young sat and thought.

There was no longer any reason he had to come back alive no matter what.

This small shift in mindset could become a fork in the road that decided a Hunter's life or death.

If a chance to die in a Dungeon ever presented itself, he wasn't confident he could look away.

But Se-un had said he liked that his dad was a hero who saved the world.

Hong Seok-young clawed at his hair. He knew what threatened the world. How could he not know, when monsters from the future had been stubbornly appearing before him since he was young?

But if those things come to kill me.

No, Se-un wouldn't want that.

He agonized without noticing time passing. He agonized again and again.

When the dim light of dawn was illuminating the apartment, just as it had on the day he'd first heard his child's voice ten years ago.

Hong Seok-young raised his head.

If he didn't know what would happen to him, he just needed to create someone who could carry on his work.

He would try as far as he could. If he still fell short and died, there was nothing to be done about that. Se-un would understand.

Instead, he would create a hero to save the world after him. Gather talented, upright kids and train them. So that even if he died someday, the world could still be saved.

That was the motive behind founding the Hunter Pilot High School, one he had never told anyone.

*

"Well... it was something like a Successor, I suppose."

So when he heard those words, he was honestly puzzled.

Hong Seok-young knew himself well.

Once he'd decided on something, he didn't change course.

Woo Hwijae's explanation had been perfect. Volunteering at an Orphanage, growing attached to a kid in a situation similar to his own, that was something he could see himself doing. And then, well, if the kid Awakened and wanted to become a Hunter, he might have taught him the ropes.

But a Successor?

He'd gone to all the trouble of creating Pilot High School, and he hadn't chosen a Successor from there?

It also nagged at him that when he'd jokingly mentioned raising Yoo Ji-eun, Woo Hwijae had gotten needlessly worked up.

Still, it didn't seem like a lie, so Hong Seok-young let it go without a word.

But once he started paying attention, the odd details kept piling up.

When he watched the footage of the fight with Alex Hope, when he deliberately let him spar with Han Tae-kyung. There were still things that bothered him.

Even the way Woo Hwijae had hidden behind his back to avoid the Minotaur the first time they met nagged at him.

And the way a kid who still kept walls up around Lee Mi-seon and Kim Chae-min, treating them with rigid courtesy, was uniquely comfortable cracking jokes with him.

He pinpointed exactly what that sense of dissonance was about when they faced Sem Bloom inside the Dungeon. The fighting itself, well, that was fine either way. All he needed was to confirm that Woo Hwijae was strong enough to be trusted with watching his back.

But he couldn't kill Sem Bloom. He didn't want to kill him. He'd argued that killing someone without a proper charge was no different from being a murderer.

That was when Hong Seok-young became certain.

If Woo Hwijae were truly his Successor, he wouldn't be this soft.

He himself would have taught his Successor to kill the enemy by any means necessary.

So.

"...ddy. Broth, er."

When he found Woo Hwijae collapsed in the burned-out kitchen.

"Ajeo, ssi...."

When he found Woo Hwijae reaching out desperately at the sight of him.

"...Dad. Fa, ther. And, brother... broth, er, please."

When he took Woo Hwijae's trembling hand and saw the boy visibly relax.

"Dad."

Hong Seok-young was not surprised.

***

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