I’ll Retire After Saving the World - Chapter 26

[ Chapter 26: A Foolish Dream (1) ]
When did Yoo Ji-eun start talking about the Bangi-dong Dungeon?

Honestly, such trivial matters were hard to remember.

At some point, she began insisting that we had to attack a dungeon.

“Hey, Parachute. We need to attack that.”

“What is it? Submit a report.”

“Parachute, Parachute. I’m telling you, we need to attack it.”

“Submit a report.”

Since I had known her for a long time, I decided to listen a bit more. Plus, I didn’t like seeing the attack team leader hanging around the secretary’s office, wasting time drinking coffee.

Didn’t she have any work? Maybe she didn’t!

“What exactly do we need to attack? A dungeon? I don’t recall any recent changes in dungeon danger levels.”

I suddenly realized.

If there had been an alert through the magic meter, Yoo Ji-eun wouldn’t be here poking at me but would have already gathered her team and dashed out.

Instead, she had come to me and was persistently bothering me?

“Woo Hee-jae.”

There was definitely something going on. Yoo Ji-eun only called my name in that coy voice when it was to her disadvantage. Usually, she just called me “Parachute.”

“No.”

So I reflexively rejected it. It was instinctual.

“At least listen before you say no.”

“Hearing that makes me even more sure. Absolutely not.”

“Hey, damn it, Woo Hee-jae. Listen to me.”

“Ah, I have work to do, so get lost. Don’t you have any work? You still haven’t submitted the last dungeon attack report. Get it done. Stop delaying.”

“Woo Hee-jae.”

When I first joined the Ability Management Bureau, I used to be deceived by that stern voice. Those were the naive days of my youth.

But now, I knew Yoo Ji-eun too well to be fooled by her earnest eyes and low voice.

I scoffed.

“Report.”

“Damn it, I’m telling you we need to attack!”

“So, what is it!!”

“…The one in Songpa District.”

There were countless dungeons in Korea. Just saying that wouldn’t help. There were hundreds of dungeons in Seoul alone.

“Songpa District?”

“…Bangi-dong.”

Her voice, almost inaudible, was a stark contrast to her previous shouting.

She knew how I would react.

Of course. If it was the Bangi-dong Dungeon in Songpa District, there was only one thing that came to mind.

“Are you talking about that dungeon? The one with the magic stones?”

Yoo Ji-eun avoided my eyes.

“Has the danger level there suddenly increased?”

The alarm was quiet. Yoo Ji-eun and I both knew that.

Nothing more needed to be said.

“I wondered what you were talking about…”

“I have a bad feeling about it.”

“We can’t just attack a dungeon based on a bad feeling…”

“I went in there once before, didn’t I?”

“Did you, like, open a third eye there or something?”

“I’m not joking.”

“Neither am I.”

“Let’s attack it.”

“Get out. I have work to do.”

“Parachute.”

“Get out, I said.”

“Attack…”

“Get out!”

But Yoo Ji-eun was persistent.

Yoo Ji-eun kept coming to me whenever she had time, singing about the Songpa District, Bangi-dong, and the dungeon.

Despite her persistence, she never gave me a report. She was smart enough to know that making a formal suggestion wouldn’t work. She calculated that if she got my approval by pestering me, I would handle the aftermath.

Where did this woman learn such bad habits?

But I was a good superior. I wasn’t a bad boss who openly ignored his subordinates. Ah, well… Yoo Ji-eun wasn’t exactly my subordinate, but it felt like she was.

Still, to show that I was listening, I checked the Bangi-dong Dungeon. It was such a stable dungeon that I only occasionally checked to see if the magic stones were being produced well, and otherwise left it alone.

A D6-grade dungeon.

Excluding E-grade, where no monsters were found, it was the lowest grade, D.

It was the lowest of the six grades based on the mana stability around the dungeon gate.

Even if a dungeon break occurred in a D-grade dungeon, it would cause no damage.

Attacking such a dungeon was a waste of manpower. I conveyed this to her directly.

“The Bangi-dong Dungeon? I checked, and it’s only a D-grade dungeon.”

Yoo Ji-eun remained steadfast.

“I’m telling you, I have a bad feeling about it.”

If I ever met Yoo Ji-eun again, I would definitely tell her this:

You should have just gone in and attacked the dungeon secretly.

Why did she, who never listened to a word I said, patiently wait for my permission?

She should have just… just attacked it.

If she had done that…

“…….”

I snapped my eyes open.

I looked out the window. The sun was just rising.

Dreaming about Yoo Ji-eun? What a ridiculous dream.

An older man once told me that if a famous person appeared in your dream, you should buy a lottery ticket. He said if he appeared in my dream, I should definitely buy one.

…Yoo Ji-eun was quite a famous person in her own right. Should I buy a lottery ticket? Or does this mean something good is going to happen?

But there was no way Yoo Ji-eun would bring me any good news….

After a brief contemplation, I undid the magic control device on my ankle. Since coming here, I’d undone it so many times I could do it with my eyes closed.

I wasn’t trying to check my magic clock. Just….

I used my magic pattern to open my wallet. I flipped it over and tapped it onto my palm.

I used to carry emergency potions, but I used them all on Yoo Ji-eun right before coming here, so there were none left.

What fell onto my palm were a few specks of dust, my hunter license, and a small metal fragment.

A dog tag with the name Hong Seok-young engraved on it.

“Damn it.”

This was all Yoo Ji-eun’s fault. Why did I have to dream about her?

I put the wallet away and picked up the magic control device.

The sun had fully risen by now. It would soon be time for the kids to go to school.

I should go to work. Working is the best when my head is a mess.

* * *

The kids had started to dislike me.

Hong Seok-young, who had gone into the Bangi-dong Dungeon, hadn’t returned for four days. It wasn’t a place with much to see, so I couldn’t understand why it was taking so long.

Anyway, without Hong Seok-young around, without Lee Mi-sun urging me to draw runes quickly, and without the bartender—or rather, the hunter from Dasun—making non-alcoholic cocktails, what could I do but spend time with the kids?

Whether they enjoyed it or not was none of my concern.

From yesterday, seeing that I seemed to be having fun with the kids, Kim Chae-min sent Choi Jin-woo and Park Seo-hyun to me. Honestly, those two didn’t seem too eager.

But the more they resisted, the more Kim Chae-min pushed the young wizards towards me.

“A wizard must know how to escape, even if they don’t know how to beat someone with a staff!”

He was right. In the dungeon, other hunters couldn’t always protect the wizards. The wizards had to know how to survive on their own.

And the director had once said:

“Kids need to eat dirt and all that to build a good immune system.”

…Was that it?

“Okay, you all rested enough? Shall we start?”

“Teacher, we’re sorry.”

Lee Seung-yeon, sprawled out on the dirt floor, raised his hand. There wasn’t a spot on him not covered in dust from head to toe.

“Sorry? What are you sorry for?”

“I don’t know, but we’re sorry.”

Soon Soon-jin, who was lying next to him, muttered gloomily.

“For the sin of being blinded by the momentary reward and aiming for the teacher’s neck….”

“That kind of spirit is needed to be a hunter.”

“But we’re going to die before we become hunters.”

Seo Han-seong agreed.

I looked at the kids with a dumbfounded expression.

“Do you think I’d kill you?”

Despite how it looked, I was careful not to cause any injuries. There might be some bruises, but no broken bones. It’s Hong Seok-young who’s irritating me, not the kids. I wouldn’t take my frustration out on them.

“We’re already dead inside.”

“Are you already whining? You didn’t do this with the principal, did you?”

“The principal didn’t push us without a break like this.”

Finally, Han Eun-young, the last student from the pilot high school, grumbled. As sassy as she looked, she acted just as sassy, but physical training was the best. She even cursed while blocking my attacks earlier.

The kids seemed unusually cautious. Was it because they’d been sticking to themselves all this time? While I understood Seo Han-seong had some experiences, I didn’t know why the others were like this.

Still, it was a relief they were starting to lower their guard around me. How was I supposed to train them if they were so hard to get close to?

At least the wizards were a bit different. I had praised them a lot.

I checked on Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo.

“……”

“……”

If it weren’t for their faintly rising and falling chests, I might’ve thought they were dead.

“Hey, kids. Want some water?”

Feeling sorry for their friends merged with the dirt, Yoo Hye-eun approached, struggling with an icebox.

The healer, Yoo Hye-eun, could not be treated like the others. Even though she was an awakened, healers were physically weaker. They were sturdier than ordinary people, but she couldn’t be trained the same way as melee dealers. Eventually, Yoo Hye-eun was the only one exempted and was sent to attend magic control classes with Kim Chae-min. She felt sorry about it to her friends, but still.

The children woke up like zombies and rushed toward the icebox that Yoo Hye-eun brought. Watching that, a bit of conscience…

He frowned at the fact that they had enough energy left to get up.

You still have stamina? I guess I can push you harder.

Vroom.

“……?”

An irritating sound caught his ears, and he turned his eyes to the direction where the sound was coming from, away from the zombie crowd.

A taxi was approaching from a distance.

“What?”

The kids, who were pouring ice-cold water over their heads and necks, also turned their heads one by one as they heard the car sound.

Kim Chae-min, who was sitting under the parasol in a white dress, also slowly stood up.

From Kim Chae-min’s sports car to Lee Mi-sun’s SUV, and now a taxi. Somehow, the quality was getting lower and lower.

If it were Hong Seok-young and Lee Mi-sun, they wouldn’t come by taxi.

Then who could it be? It’s not common for civilians to come all the way here. Even though there’s a pilot high school, this place is so close to an abandoned dungeon without any managing guild.

The taxi stopped at the entrance of the pilot high school. After a while, the back seat door opened, and a girl in a school uniform got out. Her face was turned away, but he recognized the uniform from the village with the dormitory. It was the only middle school there.

“Did you come all the way here because I’m a student!”

The driver’s angry voice leaked out through the open window.

“If it were someone else, I wouldn’t have come! Got it?”

“T-Thank you….”

“Geez, what business do you have all the way out here. School or whatever.”

The girl kept bowing and thanking him. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. Only after handing over a bundle of ten thousand won bills, which seemed too much for a taxi fare, did the grumbling voice stop.

The girl slumped her shoulders. She looked pitiful as she watched the taxi she came in leave.

She made eye contact with Kim Chae-min. Whether she was a middle school student or not, a visitor was a visitor. Just as he was about to approach her to find out what brought her here.

“You!”

Yoo Hye-eun, who had thrown aside the icebox, ran toward the middle school girl.

“Why are you here!”

“Sis!”

The girl turned to Yoo Hye-eun with a delighted voice.

…What?

“What about school?”

“I left early!”

“Why are you smiling! Gosh, I can’t live. Did you hit someone at school again?”

“Do you think I go around hitting people all the time?”

“Then why are you here?”

Yoo Hye-eun grabbed the cheeks of the girl, presumably her younger sister, with both hands and squeezed them. But eventually, she sighed. Yoo Hye-eun approached, dragging her sister along, making it more certain.

“Of course, I came because I missed you!”

“Yoo Ji-eun. Tell the truth before I get angry.”

“No, but it’s true. The school told me to hurry and see you.”

A long time ago, he had greeted a girl in a pilot high school uniform.

‘…Is she the teacher’s daughter?’

‘Yes. Hee-jae, this sister is my teacher’s student. Say hello.’

‘…….’

A pale complexion without a trace of a smile. Eyes that shone brightly. She exuded a difficult-to-approach, gloomy atmosphere, but still, when she met my eyes, she faintly smiled.

‘Hello. I’m Yoo Ji-eun.’

“Why? Did you really cause trouble? Did you break the teacher’s office window again?”

“I said no!!”

“Gosh, seriously…. Teacher! I’m sorry. This is my younger sister…. Yoo Ji-eun! Say hello quickly. I told you before, right? There’s a new teacher.”

A young face looked at him.

‘Live.’

Overlapping that face, he saw the one that had spat blood.

“Hello!”

So she could smile like that…

“I’m Yoo Ji-eun, Hye-eun’s younger sister!”

I had a restless sleep, and this was why.

As expected, it was just a silly dream.