I’ll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

Tap.

Tap-tap.

Tap.

The tip of the ballpoint pen struck the desk.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Time simply passed, utterly without meaning.

I forced my gaze back to the paper I'd been looking at. I'd already gone over it several times, so there was nothing new to see.

It was the list of equipment Sandra Gamble had handed me, claiming she needed it. A whole five pages of it. Looking at the neatly organized table, complete with photos, model numbers, intended uses, and prices, proof that her grad school years hadn't gone to waste, I started to wonder whether I was actually the one who'd been swindled here.

Say Gamble had founded Pharos according to her own plan and grown it herself... how many years would it have taken her to buy all this equipment? Well, considering her research, she probably would have secured investment one way or another, but given the company's founding purpose, she couldn't have just taken money from anyone.

Thinking about it that way, wasn't Hong Seok-young's guild... actually a win for Gamble? Who else but Hong Seok-young would shoulder this kind of expense and buy her the equipment? Equipment for her personal use, no less? And without laying a finger on her research, either?

If someone had brought me this back when I worked at the Agency, I'd have thrown it out on the spot.

But I wasn't a civil servant anymore. I worked for a private company now.

I picked up my phone and took pictures. Exactly five of them. I sent them straight to Hong Seok-young.

[She wants you to buy these]

Hong Seok-young replied right away. Doesn't this man have anything better to do....

Then again, the kids weren't here yet, so maybe he really didn't.

[Why do you need these?]

[Gamble wants them]

[All of this?]

[Her lab is going into the Pilot High School building too, so just so you know]

A little later, Hong Seok-young sent a message in what looked like a panicked tone.

[Um]

[Hee-jae-gun?]

[This dad's bank account is not a bottomless well]

[No matter how much money Dad makes]

[Buying every last one of these jsut like that is a bit]

I put the phone down. Nothing more worth seeing.

Well, even if I put on a show of looking busy with paperwork, I had nothing to actually do.

Lee Mi-seon was handling the aftermath of Sem Bloom through the Association, and the wrecked Villa was likewise being cleaned up by Lee Mi-seon through Guild Daseon. And Kim Chae-min, seeing as the kids were away anyway, had said there was something she needed and slipped out of the Villa yesterday....

I combed through the information stored in my watch again. This time for sure, I searched meticulously for anything I might have missed.

Of course, that didn't last long either.

"Hyung!"

Perhaps tired of watching cats all day, Woo I-rok had started hovering around me more and more often.

Maybe it was because the Pilot High kids, always making a racket in the garden, weren't around.

"What?"

"I'm bored!"

Still, the fact that he could say he was bored so readily... good. As long as he was doing fine, that was enough.

"Yeah?"

I scanned the tabletop. Nothing Woo I-rok shouldn't be seeing. Not that he'd understand any of it anyway.

"Hyung's bored too."

"Why would you be bored!"

"Once you become a grown-up, you're always bored. That's just how it works."

Woo I-rok's eyes narrowed into slits. Cheeky brat.

I gave his forehead a light flick with my finger. He immediately clutched it and pretended it hurt. Seriously, so cheeky.

Hm.

"I-rok."

"Hm?"

"If you ever start seeing things you couldn't see before, tell me right away."

"Things I couldn't... what?"

"Got it?"

"What things I couldn't see before?"

"You know, that kind of thing."

"So what kind of thing is that!"

When did I start seeing Mana, again.

The first time I clearly recognized that I was seeing it was after Father adopted me. Before that... there hadn't been anyone who could use Mana, not at the orphanage, not at the laboratory.

I looked at Woo I-rok, whose lips were jutting out in a pout. Would it come earlier than what I remembered? He hadn't Awakened yet, but... if seeing Mana had nothing to do with Awakening, then he might be able to see it.

I rummaged through my clothes. I wasn't a mage, so I couldn't crystallize Mana the way Kim Chae-min could.

I still had a few of the Daggers I'd asked Lee Mi-seon for. I gripped one of them and poured Mana into it. Mana dripped from the Dagger as if it had been showered in glitter.

"Can you see it?"

"...See what?"

"This. The blue stuff."

I asked, gently waving the Dagger in front of Woo I-rok's eyes.

Woo I-rok's expression turned strange.

"Hyung, you're being weird today."

"You can't see it? Then that's fine. If you ever do, tell me. Got it? And never, ever tell anyone else."

"......"

"Answer."

"...Okay."

Woo I-rok looked like he didn't understand at all, but he answered dutifully all the same.

She had created a body resembling a monster's. That was what Gamble had said. It didn't mean he would become a monster.

'What? Is there any chance he becomes a monster, you're asking?'

I'd asked just in case, and she'd stared at me in utter disbelief.

'Um, have you been reading too many fantasy novels?'

Rude....

'He's just acquired similar traits, he's not turning into a monster! If it worked that way, Shan-shan would have killed them all ages ago!'

She had a point. So I shrugged.

'Checking every possibility, however remote, is the only way I can rest easy. Occupational hazard.'

'Ah, right....'

Looking unimpressed, Gamble stressed the point once more.

'Real Fairies are far more complex entities. They're apex predators inside dungeons. Seeing Mana is nothing to them.'

'If it's nothing, then why does Noah Michel want it?'

'Because if a mage could see Mana... what couldn't they do?'

'...Just for a reason like that?'

'They could do far more with it than you'd think.'

Gamble smiled, her face gloomy. Maybe, in her own way, that had been a warning. Though she quickly wiped away the dark look that had flickered across her face and pressed the list into my hands, saying it was equipment she needed.

Setting aside the headache of an existence that was Alex Hope, Sandra Gamble the person was more guileless and trustworthy than expected. The enemy of an enemy had always been the kind of friend worth gambling on, anyway. As long as Hope existed, she wouldn't betray us on a whim, and even if she did, that same existence, Hope, would make her motive and timing that much easier to read.

...Well, to be honest, part of the foundation of that trust rested on the fact that, Awakened or not, her combat abilities were pitiful.

"Hyung."

"Hm?"

"I said I'm bored."

Woo I-rok said, tugging at my sleeve.

Right, of course he was bored....

What did I even do for fun at that age? After coming home from school.

So the answer really was school, huh?

"Want to go for a walk with me?"

"The beach?"

"You want to go there?"

Woo I-rok's face lit up in an instant, and he headed for the front door, leading the way.

Must be nice, not having a single worry in the world.

I had no intention of spouting pretty words about saving the world to protect a child's innocence. It wasn't like I'd mean it anyway.

"Hurry up!!"

I shuffled along after Woo I-rok.

"Careful, don't fall."

Still, watching that carefree face of his, I supposed I couldn't say I didn't understand Father's feelings at all.

*

[Teacher]

[Help me]

[My brother is being seriously weird]

[He's not dying, right?]

[Mom told me to ask]

[Dad says]

[Maybe working at a school just doesn't suit him]

[But my brother never really did anything at school anyway]

[Right?]

[He... just watched cat cartoons with I-rok all day, every day]

[Salary thief...]

[But is he actually dying?]

Han Eun-young didn't care whether I replied or not; she just kept the messages coming.

Watching them pile up, I couldn't tell whether she was worried about her brother or hoping he'd die.

Still, judging by how the worry in her tone had grown stronger in the more recent messages, it seemed she did care about him, brother that he was, in her own way. Whether that brother had any idea his little sister was worried about him, I couldn't say.

"It's me, Han Tae-kyung. I have returned!"

Ahead of the kids' return, the brother in question, Han Tae-kyung, came back to the Villa first.

Black jeans, a T-shirt with a pink cat printed on it, and black sunglasses to finish it off.

Exactly the same Han Tae-kyung as always...? I glanced at him for no particular reason and ended up locking eyes with the cat on his T-shirt. It soured my mood.

Before long, however, I came to understand exactly what Han Eun-young had been worried about. It rattled even me, enough that I couldn't help asking Hunter Ji Yoo-geon, who was standing beside me.

"Is Hunter Han Tae-kyung dying, by any chance?"

Ji Yoo-geon smiled with a hollow look on his face.

"First the student, Han Eun-young, said the same thing. And now it's you too, Teacher Woo?"

Look, when Han Eun-young was messaging me two or three times a day, it was a fair question.

But even without Han Eun-young's messages, I would have thought the same. Why? Because Han Tae-kyung was genuinely quiet.

Kim Chae-min had built up the Villa's protective magic to be even more solid. All to prepare for any contingency. Calling Han Tae-kyung in first, before the kids, was part of that defensive strategy. We'd been winging it up until now, but I'd figured it was time we started operating a little more systematically. Giving Han Tae-kyung at least some idea about the Ark would help him stay on guard, after all.

Know the enemy, and preparing against them becomes that much easier, does it not.

"......"

But the moment Han Tae-kyung arrived at the Villa, he shut his mouth and started washing his car in the garage. A gorgeous classic car that hadn't looked like it needed washing in the first place.

Why was he so quiet? If nothing else, the pink cat stuck on that classic car should have gotten him chattering, shouldn't it?

"......"

"......"

So that was why Han Eun-young had asked, out of nowhere, whether her brother was dying.

Now all those messages Han Eun-young had sent, all those terror-stricken words, finally made sense. This was Han Tae-kyung we were talking about. The man who, even twenty years from now, would still have a mouth that never quit, chattering without pause, and who loved cats above all else.

Honestly, I wasn't sure I needed to be cleaning up after a perfectly grown man who wasn't even a student, but that man. Didn't he just make eye contact with me?

"......"

First the silence, and now he kept stealing glances at me. When someone pulls their car out of the garage and stages a silent protest, anyone would come by at least once to see what's going on. And I wasn't the only one here. Ji Yoo-geon was here, along with a few other Hunters.

"......"

Why was he looking at me with that face begging me to talk to him?

Pat, pat.

Ji Yoo-geon tapped my shoulder. When I turned my head slightly, I saw his infuriating grin. Ji Yoo-geon gave me a small bow and moved only his lips. Good luck with that.

These people, I swear.

The moment Ji Yoo-geon slipped away toward the back, Han Tae-kyung heaved a deep sigh.

"Haah...."

"......"

Right. Time for me to run too.

Sorry to Han Eun-young, but Hunters were supposed to look after their own affairs. What had he ever done to earn my concern? This was a man who was forever squabbling with civilians over lawsuits and whatnot. He'd grow up just fine on his own. He would, right?

"Sunbae."

Damn it.

Han Tae-kyung opened his mouth as he hosed off the suds.

"So...."

Something set off my instincts. That low, subdued voice. Han Tae-kyung used to sound exactly like that whenever he'd caused some disaster and had to report it to Father.

"In your opinion, Sunbae."

"...Yes."

I answered in a less-than-pleased voice. First, hear him out, then dump the whole thing on Hong Seok-young.

"Aren't I too weak?"

What was with this man.

***

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