I'll Retire After Saving the World-Chapter 135: Witch’s Lantern (4)

TL: SHW

“What is it now!”

Han Eun-young shouted irritably.

“Don’t mess around even in a situation like this!”

It wasn’t like Han Tae-kyung was actually playing a prank. He just teased his scared little sister a bit. Other than that, he sincerely helped with finding people. Without Han Tae-kyung’s item, we would have struggled. Even for me, it would have been impossible to find the children in this kind of space. You need to at least see something to find your way. Especially in a space that’s constantly blending together, even if not completely separated.

But from Han Eun-young’s point of view, it’s understandable that her oppa, who only jokes around every time he opens his mouth, didn’t seem reliable.

I considered saying that he wasn’t just fooling around for the sake of Han Tae-kyung’s honor, but decided against it. Why should I?

“Han Eun-young.”

Still, Han Tae-kyung’s face looked far from playful, so I quieted Han Eun-young down.

“…Yes, teacher?”

“Quiet.”

“Yes.”

It was a situation where he might have teased his little sister, but Han Tae-kyung didn’t even glance at her and stared into the darkness. He may not look like it, but he’s a Hunter whose skills were acknowledged by Hong Seok-young and Lee Mi-seon. If it had been a dangerous situation, he would have acted immediately.

I turned my head in the direction Han Tae-kyung was looking. As expected, I saw nothing. Not even Park Seo-hyun’s mana.

With normal magic, you should be able to see the mana.

Does that mean we’re so thoroughly caught in Park Seo-hyun’s magic that we can’t even see that? And she’s not even an Archmage yet, but a magic that swallows up this many people? As expected, the next Archmage is on a different level.

“Teacher Han?”

“Just a moment, sunbae.”

Han Tae-kyung leaned his head far forward. Mini-me clung tightly to Han Tae-kyung’s head. Even so, Han Tae-kyung didn’t seem to care.

“Mmmmmm.”

Instead, he made strange noises while twisting his body.

“Hold still!”

Mini-me grumbled and kicked at Han Tae-kyung’s shoulder with his legs.

I almost praised him without thinking but stopped myself. No, I remember being a bit more polite at that age.

…Or was I?

How could I remember everything from when I was little? It was twenty years ago.

“I-rok. You shouldn’t kick people like that. It’s dangerous.”

“Hmph!”

“Woo I-rok.”

“…Hmph.”

This wasn’t the time to be critiquing the Han siblings.

Mini-me pouted then stuck out his tongue at me.

He’s acting like that because I refused when he tried to hang onto my shoulder earlier. But if a situation arises where we need to use force, wouldn’t it be better for me to take action than Han Tae-kyung? I can’t be carrying around a burden.

I was about to scold Mini-me but remembered that there were eyes watching us. It's easy to forget since it's hard to see in this darkness. But no matter what, I can't reveal family issues.

I decided to let it go for now and called Han Tae-kyung again.

“Teacher Han. What are you looking at? Did you find someone we haven’t located yet?”

“It’s not that.”

Han Tae-kyung kept tilting his head left and right.

“Someone was standing over there. Looked like a boy.”

“Was it Kang Tae-woo?”

“Maybe? No, I don’t think so... He stood there for a moment and then disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Yeah, uh... and he was holding something-”

Han Tae-kyung suddenly stopped talking.

“He just appeared again and disappeared. Did you see it?”

“…No.”

“He was holding a lantern. One with a handle. I think it was glowing…”

The light in Han Tae-kyung’s sunglasses vanished. As the faint light that allowed us to vaguely distinguish objects disappeared, I could feel the children gasping nervously, their tension rising.

“Wouldn’t we be able to see it now?”

“If it was glowing, we should’ve seen it earlier too.”

“It wasn’t super bright. Just enough to feel like something was glowing?”

…What kind of brightness is that supposed to mean?

Even before I could express my disbelief, I understood what Han Tae-kyung meant.

Very faintly.

So faint that if I weren’t a Hunter, I wouldn’t have noticed.

No. This has nothing to do with being a Hunter.

“……!”

A small light brushed past the tip of my nose.

Smaller than a grain of sand. Barely visible to the eye. So light it would drift away if I waved my palm through the air.

It wasn’t because it was dark around us that I could see it. And it wasn’t because I’m a Hunter.

It’s because that’s mana.

A very tiny fragment of mana.

Is it Park Seo-hyun’s?

No. I’ve seen Park Seo-hyun’s magic before. Back then, the storm of mana that sank like a swamp was pitch black. I remember thinking it suited her perfectly. That mana was heavier than air, sinking downward with a thud.

But this one is different.

When I gently blow on it, it drifts away without any weight. It flutters about without any clear purpose, yet somehow continues forward without losing its path.

Mana that shines like gold in the darkness.

“There!”

Han Tae-kyung shouted.

“It appeared again just now! You saw it, right?”

“What do you mean, something appeared?!”

Leaving Han Eun-young’s irritated voice behind, I shifted my gaze to follow the tiny fragment of mana. It was the exact direction Han Tae-kyung had been looking just before.

The mana itself was glowing, but not nearly enough to illuminate the surroundings. Still, I could tell what Han Tae-kyung had seen.

Because the mana fragment lit up a lantern.

A badly dented lantern. The handle was halfway broken off, and the base had a deep dent. The only part that was still intact was the part where the flame lit. That part was glowing faintly as the mana fragment seeped into it.

“Oh!”

“The light!”

And everyone else saw that light too.

At the same time, we could see the person holding the lantern.

“It’s Jin-woo? Jin-woo!”

Lee Seung-yeon called out to his friend in a half-dazed voice.

But Choi Jin-woo vanished without reacting.

The light remained.

“Oh, is he a student too?”

“He’s one of the Mages.”

“Mage? Ahhh, right, you did say there were some. I’m not the type who remembers Mages’ faces! Haha!!”

“Why don’t you try saying that in front of Teacher Kim Chae-min.”

“Hahaha!! Archmages aren’t really Mages, are they!”

“Then what are they?”

“They’re the final evolution form of a Mage. A kind of mutation...”

“Then go say that in front of Teacher Kim…”

“Hahahaha!!”

Han Tae-kyung laughed even louder.

While he did, Choi Jin-woo appeared and disappeared again.

After a short wait, Choi Jin-woo appeared once more, this time holding a second lantern. It was slightly away from the first one.

The second lantern lit up much faster than the first.

The third lantern appeared even quicker.

Then the fourth, and the fifth.

The lanterns lined up in a row, resembling streetlamps.

I looked at Han Tae-kyung, and at the Daseon Hunters, whose faces we could now see clearly.

Everyone was thinking the same thing.

“Let’s go.”

***

The light continued on.

Choi Jin-woo kept appearing with a lantern and then vanishing. As we moved further along, he seemed to have grown used to it, there was barely any delay now.

Up to the tenth lantern, we still had to wait for them to appear, but now we were so focused on walking that we didn’t even notice when Choi Jin-woo appeared or disappeared.

At this point, I changed my mind.

I had thought this was Park Seo-hyun’s growth event. But it turned out to be Choi Jin-woo’s growth event.

So it wasn’t just a simple mana outburst?

It’s frustrating not being able to tell what’s going on outside. Judging by the fact that Choi Jin-woo is doing this instead of Kim Chae-min, something must have happened.

“Oh, light’s appearing over there too!”

Han Eun-young shook the collar of my clothes, which she had been holding tightly.

When I turned my head, just as Han Eun-young said, lanterns were appearing aggressively from another direction as well. Though they still looked dented, they had no issue illuminating the surroundings.

Thanks to the rapidly appearing lanterns, we could finally see what this space looked like.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t an empty void. Of course, there were no walls or anything like that, but on the floor was a fairly antique-patterned carpet. No wonder we hadn’t heard any footsteps.

The patterns on the carpet were awkwardly patched together in places. Still, if this was a spell created by Park Seo-hyun, then it was likely that the carpet too existed somewhere in her memory. The scattered, unlit lights were probably the same.

They were all different types of lights. Some were tall, others small enough to fit in the palm like a desk lamp. Some had the look of designer pieces, while others were just ordinary. Some were decorated with colorful glass, making them quite fancy.

None of them had the same shape, but there was one thing they all had in common: no wires.

I examined the nearest light. The bulb… was powered by a mana stone.

I could assume the others had to be powered by mana too.

Did they hold some kind of meaning for Park Seo-hyun? Probably.

“Oh. There’s a lot of stuff here…”

“Didn’t you see all that?”

“My eyes aren’t all-powerful, you know!”

Han Tae-kyung grinned as he pushed his sunglasses back up.

“Lucky I didn’t bump into it. If something touched my foot and I didn’t know what it was, I probably would’ve attacked it right away!”

“Of course you would have.”

At that moment, a shadow fell across the floor.

“…A shadow?”

I looked up.

Lanterns were beginning to appear even above eye level.

A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling. With glass ornaments dangling everywhere, the chandelier reflected the lantern light in all directions, making it sparkle. Its shadow on the floor glimmered like a jewel.

“It's beautiful…”

Not just Han Eun-young, others, too, stood still, admiring the chandelier. Meanwhile, lanterns continued to appear. Not just around the chandelier, but as if determined to eliminate all darkness in the space.

The last I’d checked with Kim Chae-min, Choi Jin-woo’s ability wasn’t anywhere near this level.

Even though I’m not a mage, I’m not blind. Magic that interferes with another person’s spell takes advanced technique. Choi Jin-woo may be Park Seo-hyun’s student, so he’s not a complete outsider. That would reduce magical resistance, but… still, it’s not something an average mage, especially one who can’t even handle Domains, could easily pull off.

And even putting aside the interference aspect, this was a massive-scale spell. Did Kim Chae-min help him? Or maybe...

…Did Choi Jin-woo awaken his unique magic?

Once we get out of this spell, Kim Chae-min will explain it, I’m sure.

“Teacher! Teacher, look over there!”

Lee Seung-yeon shouted urgently.

“Isn’t that Tae-woo?!”

“You mean Kang Tae-woo?”

“What about Hye-eun? And Ji-eun? Can’t you see them?”

“I don’t know! I think someone’s over that way too!”

“Hunter Hong!!”

The moment familiar faces started appearing in the distance, everyone suddenly became noisy. Even the Daseon Hunters, who had been pretending to stay calm, began stomping their feet and calling out to their teammates.

I guess they were a lot more tense than I’d thought.

It’s one thing for the kids, but even the adults? Honestly, that surprised me more.

Since we had the largest group, everyone began heading in our direction. Just as I expected, Hong Seok-young was bringing over Sun Sun-jin and Seo Han-seong, and the Daseon Hunters were following behind. Looks like they sensed Hong Seok-young’s mana and joined him.

From farther off, surprisingly, Kang Tae-woo was bringing Yoo Ji-eun….

Where’s Yoo Hye-eun? Was she the only one separated?

I narrowed my eyes.

“Teacher Woo!”

Hong Seok-young, now close by, let out a hearty laugh.

“The kids are improving like crazy! I figured Seo-hyun was bound to cause a big incident someday.”

“Seo-hyun?”

“What about Seo-hyun?”

Cutting off my concern for Yoo Hye-eun, I let out a deep sigh and glared at Hong Seok-young.

I’d deliberately not told the others, worried that delicate, troublesome Park Seo-hyun might start blaming herself, then this guy goes and ruins it. Seriously.

***

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