I'll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

Anyone who manages an organization must always be cautious of one thing.

Here, “organization” includes everything from simple friend groups, school clubs, various small gatherings, to corporate teams, but especially refers to groups with a small number of members.

The number of people does not matter in running an organization. Depending on the purpose, there are groups that operate only with a small number of elites. If I had to compare, the raid teams of the Ability Management Agency fall into this category as well.

Before I came back to the past, the Agency’s Raid Division had only Team 1 and Team 2. When I had just joined the Agency, there was up to Team 3, and when my father had just formed the department, there were five teams.

The number reduced to three because dungeon operations stabilized thanks to the mana meter. Teams 4 and 5 were evenly distributed among the remaining three teams.

However, Team 3. I had a lot of bad memories about Team 3….

What do you think is the reason a perfectly well-running organization falls apart?

An incompetent boss who only speaks loudly?

A dumb subordinate who is just overly enthusiastic?

That could be. But in my experience, the fastest and most definite way to destroy an organization is through human relationships within it. Especially those involving men and women.

Team 3 had the smallest number of members among the raid teams. That was because Team 3’s role focused more on training new recruits rather than actual raids.

At most, Team 3 had only ten members, and the team leader and deputy team leader were in a romantic relationship. Yes, romantic. A couple who looked like they couldn’t live without each other were having affairs within the same team, both of them. Separately. Separately.

This love triangle no, love pentagon, involving five people including the team leader and deputy leader, came to a close with the resignation of all involved. Once half the team was gone, the remaining members drifted along and eventually quit one by one.

It happened exactly six months after I joined the Agency. And less than a month after the affairs of the team leader and deputy leader were discovered.

After that, training of new recruits was handed over to Yoo Ji-eun. Yoo Ji-eun ground her teeth, saying that if she ever saw those bastards again, she’d cut their throats. Fortunately or unfortunately, I heard the team leader and deputy leader had moved to Europe.

Well, even aside from this disgraceful stain on the Agency’s history, haven’t we all heard tearful advice from our seniors during college life, don’t date someone from your own department?

At least in college, you can take a leave of absence or graduate and avoid it.

To stop a world on the brink of destruction, there must never be any awkwardness among the students of the Pilot High School!

Why am I even teaching these kids!

…Though lately that purpose seems to have faded a bit, at least when I was first dragged here by Hong Seok-young, that was what I believed.

“You’re finally getting used to them too.”

As I stared silently at Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo, who were giggling and whispering to each other as if something was so amusing, Hong Seok-young quietly came over and spoke to me.

I watched him steadily, then responded a beat late.

"...What?"

“To your students.”

Hong Seok-young grinned. Kim Chae-min tilted her head, looking back and forth between me and Hong Seok-young.

“Haven’t you ever been told you think too much?”

“……”

“You haven’t?”

It hurt my pride.

I frowned and barely answered.

“…I have.”

“Once?”

“…Several times.”

“Right?”

Hong Seok-young laughed happily.

“I had a feeling. Looked like you were overthinking something useless.”

‘Hwijae. From what I can see, you worry way too much about pointless things.’

“You need to consider various scenarios to be prepared, don’t you?”

“You can’t prepare for everything that happens in the world.”

‘Worrying about things that haven’t happened yet is completely useless.’

“Just believe it’ll all work out. That’s the best way. No headaches.”

‘So try to think only about happy things. The world often works out better than you expect.’

Good… happy things.

If things work out well?

I looked back at Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo. They were huddled together, giggling, and when our eyes met, they burst into laughter.

Right. Park Seo-hyun, whom I had been most worried about, seemed mentally stable. Rather than worrying alone and bottling it up inside, it’s better to have a friend to open up to.

I narrowed my eyes.

Please let it stay at friendship.

If it turns into love, then do it with the intention of getting married. I can’t afford to lose a future Archmage over something like this.

…I know I’m overreacting. I scratched my head furiously.

Next to me, Hong Seok-young smiled annoyingly, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

***

It was only half a day later that I was able to hear a proper explanation of what exactly had happened to Kim Chae-min.

Having wandered through a space without a single ray of light, we had lost all sense of time. By the time we came out, checked on the kids, and roughly assessed the situation, several hours had already passed.

Kim Chae-min herself said it was a confusing situation, and she had been too busy guiding Choi Jin-woo to wake Park Seo-hyun without shocking her.

So she forgot to contact Lee Mi-seon.

I get that Lee Mi-seon panicked when she couldn’t reach her nephew and subordinates, but why did she only call Hong Seok-young and me? She should’ve at least thought of Kim Chae-min too.

Unless he was inside a dungeon, there would never be a reason to lose contact with Hong Seok-young, so the moment her calls didn’t go through, Lee Mi-seon probably lost her mind and rushed here in a panic.

But really, wouldn’t a call to Kim Chae-min have solved everything?

In the end, another staff meeting was held.

“Shouldn’t the chairman be excluded from a staff meeting?”

“Are you ignoring the chairman right now?”

“My salary comes out of Teacher Hong’s personal bank account anyway.”

“Would you still say that if Pilot High School becomes an official educational institution, Teacher Woo?”

“Surely the master of Daseon Guild wouldn’t try to ruin a poor teacher’s life?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I think there's a reporter who would love that news very much. Originally, to become a big person, you have to appear on the news and such."

Well, it’s not like I actually have beef with Lee Mi-seon.

I smiled lightly.

“You know I’m joking, right?”

Lee Mi-seon stared at me, speechless.

“Hunter Hong. Your guild member is bullying me. Don’t you have anything to say?”

“Hmm? Then you bully him back.”

“……”

“……”

Lee Mi-seon and I exchanged glances.

Hong Seok-young is absolutely no help.

I stopped joking and checked if I was properly understanding Kim Chae-min’s explanation.

"So, Teacher Kim. You're saying Park Seo-hyun's magic went out of control? While teaching Domains, by accident?"

“It happened because Seo-hyun’s attribute synergizes too well with the domain. If I had known, I would’ve been more careful…. It won’t happen again.”

“And Student Choi Jin-woo…”

“Jin-woo! Jin-woo awakened his own mana, can you believe it? I never would’ve imagined it.”

Kim Chae-min’s face lit up at the mention of Choi Jin-woo.

“To be honest, Jin-woo still has a lot of areas where he’s lacking as a mage. He got pretty decent at shield casting, probably because he practiced a lot, but other than that…”

“Right.”

“And the light magic Seo-hyun’s been teaching him hasn’t really progressed much either. I think it’s because he doesn’t really connect with it like with other elemental magic. Oh my, oh my. From now on, I should try holding night classes with Jin-woo. It’s easier to see light in the dark, right? How did I not think of something so obvious?”

“Teacher Kim.”

Kim Chae-min had gone on and on about Choi Jin-woo’s class direction before finally snapping back to reality.

Watching her like that, I couldn't help but feel a little pity. How did someone who had become an Archmage end up teaching kids here?

How? She got tricked by a rune.

"Ah, yes. Anyway, Seo-hyun was attacking me, but Jin-woo was just pushed away. So I stopped Jin-woo from going in, and suggested trying to put in magic...."

"That Lantern one."

“Yes, that one.”

Kim Chae-min straightened her shoulders.

“I’ve never seen Seo-hyun’s grandfather’s unique magic myself, so I can’t say for sure… but Jin-woo mimicked it. In his own way.”

“You’re saying he mimicked a unique magic?”

“It’s a little different from Teacher Park’s magic. Teacher Park guided the way, but he didn’t ignite that intense of a flame.”

"Still, he should be able to imitate similar results."

"Imitate?"

Kim Chae-min blinked her eyes playfully. She looked so proud of Choi Jin-woo that she didn’t know what to do with herself.

“He can perceive the terrain of the area illuminated by the Lantern. So, it’s kind of like drawing a map?”

I frowned. Rather than a map…

Isn’t that basically a map hack?

“It’s still unstable, and we don’t know yet if Jin-woo can fully develop the magic. Many mages reach this stage, but only a tiny fraction awaken it into a unique magic.”

That was coming from Kim Chae-min, one of those very few mages.

“Seo-hyun’s magic… or domain. That too is probably based on a unique magic.”

That, I had half-guessed when we were inside it.

Witch Park Seo-hyun’s unique magic.

[Lantern Sinking into the Swamp]

[Creates a swamp centered around the caster. It appears as a shadow but pulls those standing on it into the shadow.]

[What happens to those who fall into the swamp is unknown. The only mage to have entered it, Germany’s Daniel Schneider, refused to answer any questions about it.]

[Currently, five variations have been confirmed. The forms Park Seo-hyun uses most often are the swamp and the hemisphere.]

[The largest observed radius is 10 meters. According to Oh Hyun-wook's statement, this is not believed to be the limit of Park Seo-hyun’s abilities.]

She’s one of the few Archmages in Korea. Naturally, whenever there was a chance, data on Park Seo-hyun’s unique magic would be added to the records.

The space Park Seo-hyun had just created was thin enough to be torn apart with a bit of force, but the space created by the witch no, Archmage Park Seo-hyun, was surely not some flimsy shadow like that.

A darkness with not a single point of light, where even your own body couldn’t be seen. The ultimate prison with no way out.

“But the magic Seo-hyun possesses is dangerous even to herself.”

According to Kim Chae-min, Choi Jin-woo had found Park Seo-hyun within that magic we were in. He had used the magic specifically to wake her up.

But then Kim Chae-min smiled brightly once more.

“That’s why I’m so thankful Jin-woo is here! Their compatibility is just amazing, I’m telling you!”

“…Shouldn’t we say they’re incompatible?”

“It’s a good thing!”

Kim Chae-min spoke firmly.

“Seo-hyun easily sinks into her own magic, but now she has someone beside her who can always wake her up.”

“Well…”

“It’s the same for Jin-woo too. Using magic several times in an environment similar to the one where you awakened is great for getting the feel of it? But normally, you can’t create such an environment artificially…”

I didn’t need to hear more to understand.

“Every time Park Seo-hyun uses her magic, a similar environment forms, right?”

"That's right! Ah, master and disciple helping each other! Isn't that so wonderful?"

Setting aside the ecstatic Kim Chae-min for a moment.

In short, the idea is to use Choi Jin-woo as a safety device for Park Seo-hyun.

Just like how pig Oh Hyun-wook used to tear through mana storms to calm her down whenever witch Park Seo-hyun occasionally went out of control.

“…….”

Choi Jin-woo is better than Oh Hyun-wook. It’d be hard to be worse than that piglet anyway.

The so-called staff meeting was more like a situational briefing, and there wasn’t really any blame to assign.

I walked out of the meeting room, pretending not to notice Kim Chae-min chatting away to Lee Mi-seon about Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo’s talents.

“……”

I didn’t have to go far before I ran into Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo.

“Uh… um, thanks.”

“Huh?”

“If it hadn’t been for your magic, it could’ve been really bad.”

I quickly ducked out of sight and leaned against the wall, listening to the conversation between the two.

“You know, when I was little. I always thought I had to make Grandpa happy…. He would always sit staring at a photo of Dad, and when I used magic, he’d smile like he was really happy. So, I just wanted to cheer him up…”

I closed my eyes.

This is a story I’m not supposed to hear.

If I’m going to hear this story, it has to come from Park Seo-hyun herself.

I turned around and walked away without listening further. This is why having a big house is nice. There are always other paths to take.

In the end, at that age, kids just want to do everything with their friends. Especially in a boarding school where they’re together all day.

I shrugged.

It’ll probably all work out, just like father said. Worrying about it will only give me a headache.

***

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