I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Chapter 15: New Student (1)

“Yeah. You’re doing well. That’s the way to do it.”

The warm sunlight that heralds the spring.

It’s so warm that it almost feels like summer has arrived, with the sunlight even feeling hot.

Feeling sorry for the mages stuck in the storage room… no, classroom, in such good weather, Hong Seok-young somehow procured a table with a parasol and set it up. The tacky-colored parasol matched this container school in many ways. It certainly didn’t look like a school at all.

Hong Seok-young added a plausible reason.

‘In a dungeon, anything can happen, so you should always maintain your composure.’

Plausible my ass. It’s bullshit.

Anyway, under this parasol, I’m sweating profusely, watching Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo draw runes and giving them advice.

“You’re drawing well.”

Correction.

I’m giving them compliments.

Compliments can make even a whale dance.

Honestly, who doesn’t like praise? I’ve seen people dying from not receiving compliments, but never from receiving too many. Even those stern-faced members of the National Assembly crave compliments and do all sorts of crazy things for them.

So, I decided to start by complimenting Park Seo-hyun.

Looking at her, it seems she’s still bothered by her past mistake, but if I keep telling her she’s doing well, she’ll regain his confidence, right?

Peaceful sunlight. Gentle weather.

The eerie wind rustling the reeds around the open ground….

BOOM!!!!

The sound of an explosion.

“That attack just now was good!”

“Ugh!”

“But you lost your balance at the end! You mustn’t lose your balance till the end! Next!”

With a loud noise, Oh Hyun-wook came rolling towards the parasol.

I slightly shifted my body to avoid interfering with Oh Hyun-wook’s trajectory. He safely passed the parasol and rolled to the end of the open ground. He only stopped after crushing a few reeds.

Oh Hyun-wook jumped to his feet.

“Fuck!”

He rubbed his face roughly and then ran back to Hong Seok-young. At the same time, Lee Seung-yeon came rolling in.

“Aaagh!!!”

Lee Seung-yeon also jumped up with a scream and ran back to where he came from.

Sigh….

That’s why physical types won’t do. They lack elegance.

Look at the mages here. How elegant they are….

“Ah, fuck! I got it wrong again!!”

Choi Jin-woo crumpled the paper and threw it behind him. There was already a mountain of papers thrown like that on the ground.

“…….”

Well…. High school students are the same in any era. I recalled Hunter Academy, where reports constantly came in about needing repairs. As the academy was under the management agency, those reports even reached me.

The reason was always the same. The students broke it. While playing with friends, fighting, training, experimenting.

The pilot high school is the predecessor of such Hunter Academy. As long as Hong Seok-young is the principal, that mindset wouldn’t have changed.

There’s only one difference.

The pilot high school buildings don’t break.

Because there are no buildings to break.

“u… ueoeo, keong keong.”

Unlike Choi Jin-woo, who was pulling his hair out and losing his ability to speak human language, Park Seo-hyun was calm.

Too calm, to the point of making me anxious.

Her hair was still disheveled. Because she hadn’t properly tidied it up, it even covered her eyes, making the atmosphere even gloomier.

…Can she even see? How can she draw runes in that state?

Oh right. Compliments. I need to give compliments.

But I can’t just compliment without anything, so I looked at the rune Park Seo-hyun was drawing.

“…….”

I couldn’t see anything because of her fallen hair.

“Park Seo-hyun?”

“…………Yes?”

Park Seo-hyun responded a beat late. She raised only her head while her shoulders and body remained almost glued to the desk.

I mean… it’s scary.

“You’re diligently drawing runes. Can you show me? I’ll check if you’re drawing it correctly.”

“No!!!”

Park Seo-hyun was startled and hid the rune she was drawing.

“I’ll… I’ll show you later…”

…Why?

Why is she suddenly so reserved? She used to check with me on everything.

“Wouldn’t it be better to show me now? If there’s something wrong, you can correct it right away….”

“Later…. When I can draw well… I’ll show you then…”

“My role is to help you draw it well, so showing it to me now would be much more helpful, right?”

“La-later…”

“So you might develop bad habits, it’s better to check right away…”

Just as my voice was starting to rise, I pulled myself together.

Compliments!

What good would it do to get annoyed with a kid when I should be giving compliments?

Damn it, I should know how to give compliments.

Because of those who think they’re genuinely good when complimented, I couldn’t bring myself to compliment even when I wanted to.

But still, I must have done it sometimes. How did I do it before?

‘I see. So that’s how you did it? It’s a creative method I haven’t seen before. But do you know? There’s always a reason for not doing things in a certain way. A few years ago, there was a Hunter who tried something creative like you. Guess what happened? To cut to the chase, they were lucky to even recover his body….’

That’s not a compliment.

I recalled a situation with Yoo Ji-eun.

‘Was that really your best judgment? My, my, aren’t you clever. Yes, yes. Since you say you’re so smart. You’re the brains of our team from now on. Come on, everyone, give a round of applause!’

……That doesn’t seem right either.

“A bit faster! Yes, just like that! See, you can do it!”

Hong Seok-young was still tangled up with the kids. His voice carried a tone of satisfaction. It seemed one of the kids had made a pretty decent attack.

‘What? What did you do at school?’

I didn’t graduate from Hunter Academy.

I could have gone anytime. I awakened even before graduating elementary school. Being the adopted son of Korea’s top Hunter, I had many eyes on me.

The director subtly wanted me to enter Hunter Academy. But when I said I wouldn’t go, he nodded without any surprise.

‘Exams? It was exam time? When? If it was an exam, you should have said so! Then I could have bought you some rice cakes, some taffy…. Is that the college entrance exam? When is that? Autumn? It’s still far off, oh, it was just the finals…. No, how can finals be “just”? They must have been tough too! Hmm? The results are out?’

When asked what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to go to college. When he asked if I could study well enough, I told him not to worry.

‘Second in the whole school?! Wow, we’re getting those kinds of numbers in our family. Do you know what I did when I was your age? Nothing!’

Though he acted like he had a screw loose when it came to anything unrelated to combat, he always stepped up for my affairs.

……Even till the end.

‘Why are you so down when you did well? You wanted to be first? Do it next time! Don’t dismiss it so easily? You might drop lower next time? So what. No matter what your score is, you’ll be able to do whatever you want.’

Even if I were the last in my class instead of second, he would have said the same thing.

‘I will make sure you can do whatever you want no matter what.’

The next exam, I was first in the whole school. Until I graduated high school, I didn’t allow any other ranking.

I glanced over at Hong Seok-young. Oh Hyun-wook and Lee Seung-yeon were knocked out. Students with still unfamiliar faces were rushing towards Hong Seok-young.

Hong Seok-young smiled brightly and, holding a reed, tapped the heads of the kids one by one. Whether he had infused it with mana or not, the reed was firm and unbending.

“The timing was perfect! But you know what went wrong, right?”

“I lacked power.”

“I was a bit slow.”

“The coordination wasn’t right.”

“There’s nothing more for me to say then? That’s the right attitude! Shall we try once more?”

Hong Seok-young’s teaching philosophy was simple. Praise what’s done well. Praise even what’s not done well.

Under his teaching, Hunter Academy flourished.

So there’s nothing wrong with doing it like him. It’s a teaching philosophy that’s been proven for twenty years.

I cleared my throat and looked at Park Seo-hyun. She was clutching the stack of papers tightly and eyeing me warily.

“Ahem. Okay. I get it. You must have your own thoughts.”

Remember.

Compliments!

“Do it your way. If you want to show me later, just come find me.”

A smile is best. I’ve never been told I had a bad impression.

“I also find that working alone helps me focus better.”

While I’m at it, I need to boost her confidence too. She’s feeling down because of the mistake she made in Myeong-dong.

“Myeong…”

I shouldn’t bring up Myeong-dong, right.

“Ahem, in my opinion, you have talent. You could become an Archmage. From my experience, Archmages don’t like being interrupted because they’re stubborn from a young age.”

It’s really hard to cater to these kids.

I wonder how the director managed to say these things so easily.

Making up more words was getting tiring, and I thought this was enough, so I looked at Park Seo-hyun.

“…….”

“……?”

What is this? The atmosphere feels strange.

For some reason, a chilling wind blew from somewhere.

Gulp. Choi Jin-woo swallowed hard. He seemed very tense.

…What is it?

“…Sniff.”

Park Seo-hyun sniffled.

What’s going on? Is she crying? No, right? Could she be so moved that she’s tearing up?

“…….”

Fuck.

I’m not an idiot, I can sense this cold atmosphere.

No, but I can’t understand at all. Why? Why on earth?

“I’m… I’m sorry……..”

Park Seo-hyun lowered her head deeply. But she couldn’t hide her trembling voice.

She hesitantly held out the stack of papers she was clutching to me.

“I’ll… have you check it……..”

“No, I said you can do it your way.”

“I’m sorry….”

“It’s okay. Do it your way. It’s most important that you’re comfortable.”

“I did wrong….”

What is it, really!

Did I say something wrong? Was it me? I mean, is it wrong to give compliments!!!

* * *

Park Seo-hyun sniffled until the end of school. Choi Jin-woo kept his mouth shut and just watched me.

I still couldn’t figure out what the problem was.

“Alright, that’s it for today!”

Before I could figure out the reason, class ended.

Commuting to and from the pilot high school is primitive.

There are no good dormitories like at the Hunter Academy, so Hong Seok-young drives a van and drops the kids off at a nearby village about an hour away. For the commute, he gathers the kids in that village and brings them to school by bus.

When Hong Seok-young stops the car, the parents who come to pick up their children take them home. It’s the same for Lee Seung-yeon. Though they don’t seem like family, a man in a grand suit greets Lee Seung-yeon politely.

“See you tomorrow, teacher!”

“Goodbye!”

The kids who have trouble commuting use the lodging that Hong Seok-young has arranged, which serves as a dormitory. It’s a much better place than the inn room he got for my lodging.

How did he convince people to send their kids to such a poor school? If it were me, I’d have reported it as a scam. It must be because of the name Hong Seok-young.

“Aren’t you going to the dormitory, teacher?”

“I have something to do, so I’ll be in late. I’ll check if you’re there, so don’t wander around. Got it?”

“Yes!”

The remaining dormitory students laughed and greeted me. Among them was Park Seo-hyun.

…Now that I think about it, I was too swayed by Park Seo-hyun.

I shouldn’t have only paid attention to Park Seo-hyun; I should have looked after the other kids too. This is because Hong Seok-young barely introduced me and didn’t even do a proper round of introductions.

After the last remaining dormitory students said goodbye and disappeared, Hong Seok-young turned to look at me.

It was the most serious face I had seen since coming to the past.

“About the place you mentioned with a lot of children.”

“Yes.”

“Recently.”

Hong Seok-young’s eyes shone more sharply than ever.

“There have been more child abduction cases.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“The targets are mainly children of the awakened individuals.”

“…….”

“They don’t even ask for ransom. They don’t care about witnesses either. There were cases where they kidnapped children right off the main road.”

Wind slowly gathered around Hong Seok-young. It was a bitterly cold wind, sharp enough to cut flesh. Mana gathering.

“Is it there?”