I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Translator: FenrirTL
Editor: KYSOIWDI
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[ Chapter 24: Issue of Business Ethics (3) ]

The rule that must be adhered to for a smooth working life is not to stand out. That way, the workload that falls on me decreases.

But I failed.

It was unavoidable. What could I do? The initial setup of being a time traveler was too much of a stretch. Doesn’t it sound like someone who’d end up dying miserably after going through dirty hardships?

“You know, teacher.”

“Why?”

“Your main weapon is a sword, right?”

Lee Seung-yeon and Soon Soon-jin, who had wooden swords dangling at their sides, approached me.

I closed the notebook in which I was drawing runes. It was something Lee Mi-sun had requested from me.

‘Please let me know all the runes to be disclosed, or what on earth has Hong Hunter been doing without even preparing these?’

Indeed…

I also reflected. Asking recklessly to disclose something without even doing it myself, I left it entirely unattended. Wasn’t it because of that, Hong Seok-young suddenly complicated matters by talking about my achievements?

“Sword? No, I…”

Basically, I could handle most weapons to some extent, but my main weapon was a spear.

I almost replied without thinking but managed to stop myself.

Since awakening in my childhood, I had learned all fighting techniques from that uncle. The reason my main weapon became a spear was because of him. If I used a spear, it would immediately be obvious. If Bangju’s insider acted just like Hong Seok-young, it couldn’t be explained away.

“Why?”

“By any chance, can you teach us?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You want me, instead of the strongest Hunter in Korea?”

“But we use swords.”

Although Hong Seok-young mainly used a spear, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use a sword. Even with just a sword, he could easily defeat an average A-rank Hunter with his eyes closed. That was Hong Seok-young.

“He said that you might often be absent from school in the future, and that we should learn from Teacher Woo too.”

“…from me?”

Well, it’s not that I don’t understand.

A Hunter as skilled as Hong Seok-young can’t be tied down teaching kids all the time.

He’s now in his mid-forties. If he were a civilian, his body would start breaking down here and there, but as a Hunter, he’s in his prime. Instead of teaching here, he should be out conquering dungeons.

After telling Lee Seung-yeon and Soon Soon-jin to wait for a moment, I asked Hong Seok-young.

“Ah, I was going to tell you anyway. Since the number of faculty members has increased, the principal doesn’t have to stay at the school all the time, right?”

“The principal should be the one who stays at the school.”

“Well, our school isn’t a typical school, so there’s no other way.”

Hong Seok-young spoke calmly.

“Our novice mages will be supervised by Teacher Kim… and the runes are just a matter of drawing the ones you provide, right?”

Saying it like that makes it sound like I’m just collecting a paycheck without doing any work. I haven’t even received my first salary yet.

“It’s difficult to bring in more outsiders until we disclose the runes…”

“There are plenty of Hunters at Dasun, aren’t there? Ask Lee Mi-sun to bring them over.”

“She’s picky and doesn’t lend her people out.”

Hong Seok-young shook his head.

“And no matter how we look at it, they’re still outsiders. It’s better to leave it to you.”

“What should I trust?”

“You can tell by looking into their eyes.”

“……”

“They say eyes are the windows to the soul. That’s exactly right, you know?”

How did this person manage to survive and reach the top?

“Anyway, we’re not letting the kids use magic, so just observe their movements. Even just sparring with them will teach them something through real experience.”

It’s a teaching method where only the strong survive… I barely made it through myself.

“What about the other kids? Are you going to oversee them too?”

“I’ve already mentioned it, so they’ll probably sneak up and aim for your neck.”

“My neck?”

“I promised a reward for hitting your head.”

“……”

“……”

This is strange. Why do I still have to fight for survival even as a teacher?

What can I do? I’ve already signed the slave contract.

“What about that kid? The healer.”

“Hye-eun? I asked Teacher Kim to take care of her.”

Mages and healers have similar traits. If she hasn’t been awakened for long, learning from Kim Chae-min would be very beneficial.

“Understood… By the way, are you leaving immediately?”

I pointed at the bag Hong Seok-young was packing. It didn’t look like he had much to pack, but he kept stuffing things in.

“Hmm. Teacher Kim will take the kids. You should get a ride too.”

“…If I don’t want to sleep here, I guess I should. Are you going to conquer a dungeon?”

“Well, it’s a conquest if you think of it that way…”

Hong Seok-young said as he closed his bag.

“I’m planning to enter the dungeon in Songpa District and come back.”

“…What?”

“I want to check if there’s anything suspicious.”

“What about me?”

“You?”

“Yes.”

“It’s dangerous not knowing what Bangju has done in there.”

“……”

Hong Seok-young waved his hand and patted my shoulder.

“I’ll check it quickly and come back, so take good care of the kids.”

* * *

“Just remember one thing.”

While the mages attended Kim Chae-min’s magic utilization class,

I took the remaining kids to an open space. Well, it’s no longer an open space. Over the past few days, Lee Mi-sun had brought in a lot of things. There was a parasol, sunbeds, and a beverage bar. Whenever Lee Mi-sun came to school, a Hunter who followed her would take over the beverage bar. It was empty now, though…

Honestly, just looking at this, it’s not an open space, and it’s even less like a school playground. With the surrounding scenery like this, it’s almost like… a resort?

“The one who survives is the strongest.”

“Teacher, it’s unbecoming to say that seriously.”

The kids burst into laughter. I felt sorry for their carefree smiles. With the Management Bureau gone now, dungeon conquests would be even more hellish.

“Who has been inside a dungeon?”

I asked, indifferent to the kids’ laughter. As I didn’t respond to their laughter, the noise gradually died down.

I asked again.

“Has anyone been inside a dungeon?”

“……”

“…Me.”

Then, one of the kids raised their hand.

It wasn’t one of the kids from Myeong-dong. It was a kid who would cautiously lower his head and greet me whenever our eyes met. His name was…

“Seo Han-seong?”

“Yes.”

Even sitting down, he was a head taller than the other kids. He was tall but still slender, probably because he was still growing. With his height, if he just gained some weight, he would become much more powerful. For Hunters who engage in close combat, body size accounts for half of their strength.

Unlike his initial hesitation, Seo Han-seong spoke firmly in a low voice.

“I’ve been inside a dungeon.”

“Really? How was it?”

“……”

Seo Han-seong hung his head low. The other kids quietly closed their mouths.

“The person who survives isn’t necessarily the strongest.”

Seo Han-seong didn’t have any records on the magic clock. Actually, unless they were as famous as Oh Hyun-wook and Park Seo-hyun, they wouldn’t have any records. I only knew about Lee Seung-yeon because Lee Mi-sun kept mentioning his name.

There was no helping it for the Hunters who were active before the Management Bureau was established. Seo Han-seong and Soon Soon-jin likely either died or retired before then. Even if we didn’t know about the others, Soon Soon-jin would have been taken by Lee Mi-sun to the guild, but since there were no records…

“Only the strong survive.”

…It was just a random remark meant to scare the kids.

Seo Han-seong’s eyes gleamed oddly. His gaze was dark, different from Park Seo-hyun’s obsession with perfect runes.

Does he have bad memories of dungeons? If he entered a dungeon at that age…

Ah.

It must be that case.

Young awakened ones who were used as meat shields. The decisive reason Hong Seok-young decided to establish the pilot school.

He must have been one of the rescued kids.

If Hong Seok-young intended to leave such kids in my care, he should have told me beforehand.

Then again, even Park Seo-hyun dismissed it as a style change, so I shouldn’t expect such delicacy.

I nodded at Seo Han-seong’s words.

“So how can one become strong?”

“By building up skills.”

“Skills? What kind of skills?”

Seo Han-seong couldn’t answer. Since he hadn’t properly conquered a dungeon, only the standard answers would come to mind.

He realized that wasn’t the answer I wanted.

I made eye contact with each of the children. There were five of them sitting without a magician or a healer.

According to Hong Seok-young and Lee Seung-yeon, there used to be about three or four more. However, when the children who went to practice in Myeong-dong got isolated, worried parents took their children away. That’s understandable. If I had children, I would have done the same.

“Seo Han-seong. How did it feel when you entered the dungeon?”

“The dungeon?”

“Yes. How did it feel?”

Seo Han-seong swallowed hard.

“It’s different there. Just… different.”

“Yes. There’s a theory that it’s another dimension.”

Even twenty years later, the existence of dungeons remained a mystery.

Humanity had merely adapted. To the monsters emerging from dungeons and the randomly occurring dungeons themselves.

“There are no humans inside a dungeon. So, to survive, you have to give up being human.”

Seo Han-seong listened intently to my words, his face full of concentration.

If he had said he wanted to give up being a hunter when Hong Seok-young rescued him, Hong Seok-young would have accepted it. Not everyone who awakened became a hunter.

But Seo Han-seong was at the pilot high school. It meant he had given up living as a civilian.

The others were the same.

There was a moment when I had to make a choice, too.

On the day I awakened, my uncle gave me an option.

“Hee-jae.”

“Yes?”

“Just because you awakened doesn’t mean you have to be a hunter. You have to register as an awakened, but after that, you can live doing whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want?”

“I’ll make sure you can do everything you want.”

“Then I don’t want to be a hunter.”

I was a kid with a firm career plan. I got my hunter license later because it gave extra points when joining the Bureau.

Unlike me, these kids want to be hunters.

In the past, in the original timeline, I’m not sure how far my uncle got with these kids. Not having records is one thing, but his plan must have failed during the Myeong-dong incident. Not because of his lack of effort, but purely due to external factors.

But it’s different now.

Currently, there’s no one in Korea who knows more about dungeon strategies than I do.

These kids should be grateful to me.

Just like those struggling wizards over there, I’ll train these kids to be perfect hunters.

With Hong Seok-young’s permission, where should I start their training?

Hmm.

Since it’s been a while, maybe I’ll imitate Yoo Ji-eun. Yoo Ji-eun would have surely said this.

“Don’t place too much value on being human.”

I recalled Yoo Ji-eun’s special lecture at the Academy. It sounded quite plausible when Yoo Ji-eun said it.

“Outside the dungeon, hunters pretend to be human. Inside the dungeon?”

I looked at Seo Han-seong.

“Hunters must act purely on instinct inside the dungeon.”

When Hong Seok-young took Yoo Ji-eun’s sword back from me at the training center, he gave me a wooden sword with the same length and weight before entering the Bangi-dong Dungeon. Honestly, calling it a wooden sword is a stretch since it weighs the same as a real sword.

I tapped the ground lightly with the wooden sword.

Judging by their reactions, there were more kids who had entered the dungeon besides Seo Han-seong. Oh Hyun-wook must have entered, too. But I didn’t pretend to know. People sometimes have pasts they’d rather keep hidden.

“Your principal emphasized real combat, right?”

“Yes….”

When I gestured, the kids hesitantly stood up.

“The method is similar.”

I smiled brightly.

“But I’m not as kind as your principal.”

You learn something when you get hit like in real combat, right? Didn’t they put a bounty on my head?

“I’m going to awaken your instincts. I won’t kill you, so try to survive well.”

When you target someone else’s head, you have to be prepared for your own head to be targeted.

Well, it’s not like I’m venting my frustration because I couldn’t enter the Bangi-dong Dungeon.

I’m not that petty of an adult.

Really, I’m not.