I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Chapter 39: Shadow and Light (2)

It’s so gentle that even if hunters pluck its feathers, it remains calm.

The feathers of these guardian swans, which are closer to mana lumps than living creatures, are one of the materials favored by mages. They’re sensitive to mana, making them useful for various experiments and for detecting traps during dungeon raids.

Moreover, even if the feathers are plucked, they return to their original state the next day. Like a never-ending source, mages often carry a few feathers with them.

If you soak the feathers in Mimir’s Spring Water, which has high mana conductivity, and sprinkle some dwarf’s gold dust that temporarily amplifies mana, the feathers will amplify and reveal the faint attributes of the mana within them.

Just like now.

“Uh, Whoa!”

Vines bloomed in Kim Chae-min’s hand. Buds sprouted among the vines and quickly turned into bright red roses. The rose vines looked similar to Kim Chae-min’s unique magic seen in Myeong-dong or at the training center.

This is more like a mana mirage that momentarily amplifies mana. It will soon crumble into dust along with the feathers, but it’s perfect for confirming the mana type.

Kim Chae-min’s mouth opened in surprise.

“See, did you watch Teacher Kim? You can infuse your mana too. You don’t need to put in much.”

“Teacher Woo!!”

A rose fell off. Whether it was a signal or not, the vine crumbled. Kim Chae-min, without even brushing off the remaining dust from his hands, shouted at me.

“Teacher, who exactly are you?!”

“You know that.”

“That’s why I don’t understand even more!”

“Come on, what are you all waiting for? Hurry up and try it.”

“Teacher Woo!!”

“Let the kids try it.”

“At least explain about the mage you know!!”

“Park Seo-hyun, you start.”

“It’s the same person who made the rune, right?!”

“Hurry up.”

“Stop pretending you don’t know!”

It’s not pretending to be unaware, but I have no choice but to move on.

The mage I know must remain an enigmatic figure for my own convenience.

When runes and mana pens emerged, didn’t the status of mages decline? To restore their diminished status, mages began to gather and conduct research. Numerous magic research societies were formed and then disappeared.

Although they weren’t open to the public due to their secretive nature, they were all magic research societies. Societies for developing and training better magic.

Many of them vanished without any results. However, some made discoveries that shook the magical community. Though they didn’t kindly release their findings for free like the great French mage, the theories or magic they published through academic journals or dungeon raids led magic to a higher level. It had nothing to do with the character of mages.

While physical hunters diligently trained their bodies, magical theories progressed in this way. Although I’m not a mage, I felt these changes closely as a member of the Ability Management Agency. To deal with mages who often claimed that such things couldn’t be done with magic, I memorized magical theories more thoroughly than anyone else.

I may not be able to use magic, but when it comes to theory, I’m at an archmage level.

However, I can’t claim that I came up with all these magical theories. If I say I know the mages who established these theories… that wouldn’t make sense either. Never forget, I’m just a poor victim who escaped from Ark.

So it’s better to attribute all sorts of settings to an unknown mage.

“Please! Just tell me who it is!”

And if someone persistently asks.

“He’s dead.”

“Oh.”

I pretend to have a poignant past.

Koreans are weak to these kinds of things.

Taking advantage of Kim Chae-min’s silence, I pressed Park Seo-hyun again.

“I told you to try. Why are you just standing there?”

“…Okay.”

She must be feeling conflicted too. Now, she’s probably afraid that she might turn out to be of the light attribute. If she’s not, that would be quite disappointing in its own way.

However, Park Seo-hyun steadied herself and focused. Her expression showed a longing for magic even more than thoughts of her grandfather. She was a natural-born mage.

Park Seo-hyun’s mana started to move. The feather, dusted with gold powder, began to tremble.

“…There’s no change, teacher woo.”

“Wait. You’re still infusing mana, right?”

“Yes.”

Park Seo-hyun’s confidence seemed to wane a little.

But I didn’t doubt it.

As expected, after a moment, the feather started to change. From the base that Park Seo-hyun was holding, black patterns began to appear on the white feather.

The black patterns spread like mold, quickly turning the feather pitch black. No light touched the feather; it was as if the feather absorbed all color. It even gave the illusion of darkening the surrounding area.

…It’s not an illusion. It’s actually making the surroundings darker.

“What attribute is this, teacher woo?”

Park Seo-hyun looked at the feather with a puzzled expression. Even the hand holding the feather appeared darkened.

“Shadow.”

“…Shadow?”

“As I thought, it was an attribute problem. It’s not that you couldn’t use your grandfather’s magic because you were lacking, but because the compatibility wasn’t right.”

“…….”

Park Seo-hyun quietly looked at the feather she was holding. A pitch-black feather that cast no shadow even under the sunlight.

“Alright, Choi Jin-woo. Your turn.”

“Yes.”

Choi Jin-woo, who had been staring blankly at Park Seo-hyun’s crumbling feather, grabbed his own feather with a determined look.

I don’t know how Hong Seok-young came to bring him here. Based on what he’s said, he doesn’t even intend to become a hunter, and he’s the first in his family to awaken as a mage.

Did he just see him by chance on the street and bring him? Considering the old man’s personality, it seemed possible.

“I, I did it!”

“Wait a mo—”

Choi Jin-woo’s feather responded even faster than Park Seo-hyun’s.

Woosh!

The feather burst into flames. Fire attribute!

“Let go!”

That flame wasn’t a mirage. It was real.

Damn, I should have considered this. I should’ve kept a fire extinguisher nearby just in case.

“Huh, what?”

But Choi Jin-woo looked at me with a puzzled face. The feather was still burning in his hand.

His reaction was so nonchalant that I stopped myself from knocking the feather out of his hand.

With a fire attribute, the feather should have turned to ash by now.

“It’s not hot at all.”

“It’s not hot?”

I narrowed my eyes and brought my hand close to the flame flickering above the feather.

…There was no heat.

If that’s the case, there’s only one attribute this could be.

Without realizing it, I glanced at Park Seo-hyun. She hesitated for a moment and then reached out towards Choi Jin-woo’s feather.

“It’s just shaped like fire?”

“Seems like it… It’s not hot for you either, right?”

It was hard to read Park Seo-hyun’s expression. If she had seen her grandfather’s magic up close, she would have realized it immediately.

“Teacher, what is this? What attribute do I have?”

“…….”

Should I call this an amazing coincidence or a disappointing misfortune?

“Light.”

I answered Choi Jin-woo’s question, hoping that Park Seo-hyun wouldn’t take it to heart.

“You’re of the light attribute.”

* * *

Come to think of it, my life has never flowed in the direction I wanted.

From my childhood to this very moment.

Who would want to join a weird cult? Who would want to be adopted by Hong Seok-young… This part wasn’t bad. It’s just that I hated the gazes, attention, and whispers that followed.

But if possible, wouldn’t it have been better if I were in a more… peaceful family? It’s not that I have any grudge against the old man, it’s just that there could have been such a possibility.

There are several twists in my life that I could have avoided if I hadn’t been adopted by the old man. I don’t think it’s his fault…. People’s hearts are just like that.

Some might call it complaining from someone who’s well-off. They might say I’m an ungrateful, ill-mannered brat.

But those people are not me. They can’t know exactly what I’ve gone through or how I felt. To others, it might be the pain of a thorn in the finger, but to me, it could be the pain of a large nail driven in.

Of course, I don’t care what others say. That’s how I felt about my life. If they dragged me to a hearing, I might have spoken more indirectly, but that wasn’t the case….

However, on the flip side, because my life hasn’t gone as I wished, I might be trying harder to overcome unexpected situations.

Look at the old man. He didn’t become a hunter to create the Ability Management Agency and reform South Korea’s hunter society. It just happened that no one else could do it, so he did.

And it turned out well. He managed it successfully.

Look at me. Didn’t I succeed despite the adversities?

That’s what life is. It doesn’t go as planned, but if you keep at it, somehow things work out.

So you, too, will somehow manage….

I couldn’t say that to Park Seo-hyun.

I have enough sense to consider that. It’s not that Park Seo-hyun has a fragile mentality… This would affect anyone unless they had Hong Seok-young’s resilience.

She couldn’t use her grandfather’s magic because of attribute incompatibility. She had been troubled by this for a long time.

What? His classmate, who awakened less than a year ago, has the light attribute she so desperately wanted?

This is different from merely becoming an archmage.

That’s why Park Seo-hyun came to talk to me during break time.

“Ahem.”

Sitting down with me, Park Seo-hyun remained silent for a long time. Break time had long since ended.

I wished someone would come looking for me, but given the school’s ridiculously free-spirited nature, no one cared if someone was missing for a while. I saw Choi Jin-woo and Kim Chae-min talking animatedly.

“So…”

“Teacher.”

“……”

“……”

An awkward silence. I gestured to Park Seo-hyun to speak first.

Park Seo-hyun moved her lips, then opened her mouth.

“Teacher. I’ve been thinking.”

“Hmm.”

“I can’t use my grandfather’s magic.”

She wasn’t asking me. She was just stating a fact she knew. Park Seo-hyun probably already knew this. Today, she just decided to accept it.

I didn’t respond.

“Even without Jin-woo, that fact doesn’t change.”

Still, Park Seo-hyun’s voice was lighter than I expected.

When Choi Jin-woo had just finished his test, Park Seo-hyun’s bangs had fallen forward. Honestly, it was scarier not being able to see her eyes.

But now, her hair was pushed back. Her revealed face was calm but not dark.

“I decided to think differently.”

“…You’ve thought a lot.”

“Yes.”

Park Seo-hyun even gave a small smile.

“It’s still a pity that I can’t use my grandfather’s magic…. But I don’t want to let it go to waste. Teacher Chae-min also talked about magic that’s been lost like this. There’s too much valuable knowledge.”

…Somehow, this conversation feels like it’s going well.

Yes. Life needs days like this too. Don’t you think?

“…So?”

Trying not to show my expectations, I waited for Park Seo-hyun to continue.

“I want to become Jin-woo’s teacher.”