I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Translator: FenrirTL
Editor: KYSOIWDI
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[ Chapter 9: A Nose Gets Broken (2) ]

In the course of social life, particularly while working as a public servant at the Ability Management Bureau, I have learned a few things.

Among them, what I consider most important is this:

Don’t stand out. A person should not be noticeable.

Let your title come before your name in others’ eyes.

It wasn’t difficult. Fortunately, there was someone by my side who stood out more than anyone else. And that person was the top hunter in Korea, to whom every Korean owes their life.

If I were to say I’m Woo Hee-jae, a deputy at the Comprehensive Dungeon Strategy Situation Room of the Ability Management Bureau, it would seem like I get summoned to hearings all the time. But if I say I’m the aide to Hong Seok-young, the top hunter in Korea and the assistant director of the Ability Management Bureau, doesn’t the impression become less distinct?

Most people are too focused on the name of the director to pay any attention to a low-level civil servant like me.

“…Who are you?”

And even though it might mean something slightly different, this principle can also be applied during dungeon strategies or dungeon breaks.

Even if you try hard and make a name for yourself, it only increases your responsibilities. You can see it with Yoo Ji-eun. That feisty woman, as a team leader, just sits at a desk writing reports, and it’s somewhat pitiful. All because she stood out unnecessarily.

Of course, I’m not on a strategy team, so I won’t be dispatched to a dungeon, but sometimes, when I give lectures during the mandatory safety training for awakened ones, there are always a few who stand out.

Those who think they’re something special and act up without the skills to back it up.

If they had the skills, it would be fine. Adding another capable person to the workforce wouldn’t be bad. But usually, the loud ones are neither skilled nor responsible. They boast and demand to be put in charge, but when things get serious, they’re the first to run or die.

If they die alone, that’s fine. But usually, those types don’t die alone. The typical victims are the kind-hearted veteran hunters who haven’t seen those idiots die before.

Kim Chae-min died like that too.

“I’m just a passerby.”

So, undeniably, this was my mistake. It’s almost like I asked for it.

A distance of less than a kilometer from a large monster like a Minotaur is virtually nonexistent.

I should have moved farther away sooner.

“A passerby?”

It’s a suspicious statement. I know that well.

If I had just shut up and gone to the city hall, we wouldn’t have run into each other like this.

And especially not with the person I least wanted to see right now.

“That is now…”

“Kuoooooo!!!!”

The fallen Minotaur swung its arm at the perfect moment. It couldn’t stand up with one leg missing, but given its size, it was still a threatening move.

I quickly moved my body and hid behind the hunter holding the spear.

Hmm.

This was a survival instinct.

“…Just wait. Don’t go anywhere.”

“I was just passing by, can’t I keep going? I won’t interfere.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

The hunter said, lowering his spear at an angle.

“I’ll be right back.”

The director, no. There was no Ability Management Bureau now.

My foster father, Hong Seok-young, who was called the strongest hunter in Korea twenty years ago, charged straight at the Minotaur.

Even if he was the top hunter in Korea, he was only one person. While he was dealing with the monster, I could escape if I wanted to.

However, one by one, other hunters began to gather around me. Each one of them was a legendary hunter.

“…Hello.”

I smiled awkwardly.

If I ran away from here, I’d just become a wanted criminal.

I had no choice but to accept my fate and leave it to the heavens.

I had done a good deed just before, so heaven would be on my side.

…Probably.

*         *         *

“So, what’s your name again?”

“……”

“Come on, let’s make this easy. There’s no point in holding out.”

The investigator said, twirling his pen with a bored expression.

Gloomy lighting and gray walls.

A disinterested investigator mocking me in a casual posture. A suspect… No, an awakened one. Calling me a suspect was unfair. I hadn’t done anything wrong.

Anyway, this was a typical scene in the Special Investigation Unit for Awakened Crimes.

Aside from the fact that I was the one being interrogated, it was a very familiar setting. It’s the same even after twenty years. They should have increased the budget.

…Was it me who cut the budget?

Let’s think positively. At least it hasn’t gotten worse. Considering the crude laws for awakened ones in this era, this wasn’t too bad.

“What’s your resident registration number?”

“……”

“Awakened license number?”

“……”

I checked the handcuffs on my wrist. These cuffs for awakened ones were designed to block magical power. With such crude restraints, it wouldn’t be difficult to break free, but….

Even if I escaped, there wasn’t much I could do. I’d be lucky if I didn’t become a wanted criminal. They were very strict about this.

If I was going to get caught, I should have been caught in front of other witnesses. At least if it had been in front of the students from the Development High School, those naive kids would have testified enthusiastically. That would have made finding a way out much easier.

“There’s no benefit in hiding it, you know? Awakened ones face harsher penalties if they lie.”

They had already confiscated Yoo Ji-eun’s sword. The same went for my other belongings. The Magic Watch, as long as it wasn’t activated, looked like an ugly regular watch, so it didn’t raise any suspicions.

The wallet containing the ID card could barely be concealed. The same went for the Director’s identification tag. He was already being treated as an illegal Awakened, and he didn’t want to add the headache-inducing setting of being a time traveler.

“Your fingerprints aren’t registered either… Are you Chinese?”

“No.”

“Well, you answered that quickly.”

“…”

“Then where are you from?”

“…”

“Oh, you don’t want to answer that? Then just answer this. Why were you in Myeong-dong? Why were you watching the hunters?”

Why, indeed. He had accidentally come to the past and found it fascinating to watch people who should be dead, moving around energetically.

“If you keep being uncooperative like this, I’ll have no choice but to…”

Bang.

At that moment, the interrogation room door opened. A familiar face walked in.

“Hunter Hong!”

The inspector, who had just started raising his voice, jumped up. He was dressed in a casual manner that didn’t suit the rigid atmosphere of the investigation room.

“Oh, you’re working hard. I’ll take over this one. There’s something I need to look into.”

“Really?”

I frowned.

The Director’s appearance itself wasn’t strange. He often helped with public duties, even though it wasn’t typical for someone of his hunter rank. He was also interested in investigating Awakened crimes. Burning down the lab I was in was one of those instances.

But it was odd for him to butt in like this. The inspector habitually yielded his seat to the Director and left the interrogation room.

“I turned off the camera when I came in.”

“…”

“So you can speak comfortably.”

I wasn’t naive enough to take the word “comfortably” at face value.

The Director chuckled at my gaze. He seemed like a good-natured person, but… well.

“Shall we start with names? I’m Hong Seok-young.”

The Director extended his hand to me. It was the rough hand of a veteran hunter.

A year after the lab collapsed. The Director had also extended his hand to greet me when he visited the orphanage.

I looked at the hunter in front of me.

His hair was still jet-black. There wasn’t a trace of gray. Even though hunters aged slowly, they couldn’t do anything about their hair.

Looking at his black hair and a face with fewer wrinkles than I remembered, I was newly reminded that this place was indeed twenty years in the past.

He withdrew his hand with an awkward smile and scratched the back of his neck, just like the Director I knew. Would this Director also save the young Woo Hee-jae a year from now?

And two years from now, would he adopt the young Woo Hee-jae?

“…I’m Woo Hee-jae.”

I didn’t take the offered hand, but I did state my name.

“Woo Hee-jae? Is that your real name?”

“…Yes.”

“Hmm. I see. Woo Hee-jae.”

The Director tapped his fingers on the table.

Even though he looked a bit younger, no one in this world knew him as well as I did. He had even saved me as a disciple, so I wouldn’t pretend not to know. If I could get through this situation safely.

“Do you know what this is?”

The Director pulled out a card-sized piece of paper from his pocket. The edges were scorched.

But it wasn’t hard to recognize the picture on the paper.

An inverted ship over a cluster of black stars. There were no sails. Where the mast should have been, a rusty sword took its place.

Of course, I knew.

I knew it all too well.

The lab walls were covered with that picture.

“As expected.”

The Director smiled broadly.

I pressed my eyes tightly. The forgotten fatigue returned belatedly.

You shouldn’t reveal your hand like this. You don’t even know the other person’s intentions, yet you couldn’t hide your own cards….

“I told you, I turned off the camera. You don’t have to be so tense. There’s no one in Korea who could eavesdrop on us unnoticed.”

That was true.

“Let’s talk comfortably. I’ve been quite worried about you.”

“…What?”

Why? Worried about me?

Do you know me?

We’re not supposed to meet until next year.

“If things had gone according to plan, we would have met under much better circumstances… But because of the Myeong-dong Dungeon, everything’s a mess.”

He blinked. It was hard to follow the Director’s strangely familiar demeanor.

“Anyway, I’m glad you made it out safely.”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come now, it’s all right.”

No. I really don’t understand.

“I’m the teacher that Kim mentioned.”

Kim?

“After what happened to Kim, I was worried because we lost contact with you. We were supposed to help you escape.”

“…”

“Just as I heard: blue magic, flames, and a sword. I understand your caution, but you don’t need to worry.”

I looked again at the picture on the paper.

I didn’t hold a grudge against the lab anymore. The experiments weren’t even that significant. They just involved taking some medicine on schedule. The researchers did yell unnecessarily, but there were also people who treated me well if I behaved.

The kids who had been kidnapped cried loudly because they missed their mothers, but I didn’t have such reasons.

By the time I was old enough to hold a grudge, the organization, including the lab, had already been dismantled. The Director had worked hard.

The Director never told me how he had torn apart the organization. After joining the Ability Management Bureau, I could have looked it up myself, but I never felt inclined to dig through something that was already over. There was no fun in revisiting the past.

However, once, when he was drunk, the Director had mentioned Kim and the names of the deceased students from the Hunter Development High School.

“If only Kim had survived back then, we could have saved you and the other kids much earlier.”

“Kim?”

“He was the one who infiltrated the place…. We were thrilled to have recruited someone from the inside. But after Kim suddenly died and we lost contact with our insider, we couldn’t get any information about the internal situation. It took us more time because of that.”

That was enough for me to understand everything.

“You want to catch those bastards, don’t you? So do I.”

I looked up.

I was lucky. The timing was perfect.

It explained why I had no identity, and from what the Director said, he would vouch for me.

I didn’t know what had happened to the insider connected to Kim, but since I hadn’t heard anything further, it was likely they died along with Kim.

After all, I was from that place too, so I was technically an insider. It wasn’t a lie. If they looked into the magic records, they would find relevant information, so it was fine.

“The aftermath of the Myeong-dong Dungeon incident will keep everyone busy for a while. It’s actually good timing. No one will pay attention if a hunter suddenly appears.”

The Director put the paper away.

“We’ve prepared an identity for you. We only knew your surname was Woo, so we temporarily named you Woo Hee-jae. Will that do?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. You’ll be under my supervision for the time being.”

“Is it surveillance?”

“You can think of it that way. I can’t just let you go completely unsupervised. You understand, right?”

The Director scratched his head and extended his hand to me again.

“Anyway, I look forward to working with you.”

After a brief hesitation, I took his hand this time.

The Director… No, he wasn’t just the Director, he wasn’t my adoptive father either.

Hunter Hong Seok-young firmly shook my hand.