I’ll Retire After Saving the World

TL: SHW

“Come to think of it.”

“Hm?”

“I don’t know why I didn’t recognize you as soon as I saw you, Teacher.”

The place where Mini-me and I were was what you’d call the teacher’s dormitory. It’s an area divided by a central corridor. Originally, there weren’t any restrictions on children’s access, but with Mini-me being around, we decided to impose one. You have to pass through here to reach the study room used by Lee Mi-seon or the rooms where other Daseon Hunters stayed, but since the place was spacious anyway, the kids never had any reason to come this far.

However, Kang Tae-woo entered the restricted area and smiled brightly. On his wrist was a tacky bracelet made of red beads.

“You two look so alike. Is this what they call being blind?”

More like mentally blind.

Before I could say anything, Mini-me, who was holding a spoon and eating fried rice, glared at Kang Tae-woo.

“Go to hell!”

“…….”

I wasn't that harsh with my language at that age.

Was it because he entered the orphanage a year earlier than I did? At the research lab, it was hard to hear rough words unless it was from the head of the lab, who clearly disliked me. Even if you stayed mostly within the orphanage, you could easily pick up age-appropriate swearing from places connected to the outside world.

“Who taught you to say such mean things? You shouldn’t say that to your hyung.”

“Hyung?! The only hyung I have is my brother!”

“Woo I-rok. I told you not to act rudely.”

“But!”

“Woo I-rok.”

“…….”

"Oh my, don’t scold the kid so much, Teacher Woo. Kids can be like that sometimes.”

Hong Seok-young approached with a cheerful smile and placed fried rice in front of me and Kang Tae-woo. He even drew a smiling face on it with ketchup.

I stared at Hong Seok-young with dull eyes. Hong Seok-young, wearing an apron. Hong Seok-young, holding a frying pan and cooking fried rice.

“At that age, eating well and playing well is enough. I-rok, should we go out with Teacher and watch your hyung and noona during class?”

I already knew he had a soft spot for kids. I figured this out after observing Hong Seok-young for a long time, but even without that, it wasn’t hard to notice.

But so far, the kids around Hong Seok-young were teenagers in their late teens. There hadn’t been a child as young as Woo I-rok.

Right.

A young child the same age as his dead son.

Should I have expected this? But my father never acted so foolishly toward me. Is this the difference between someone else’s child and your own?

Even so, making fried rice, which he hadn’t even made for the pilot school kids? Or had he, and I just didn’t know about it?

Either way, the smiling face on the fried rice was annoying. I quickly wiped it off with my spoon.

“You should eat too. This is the only dish I know how to make.”

“…You do know how to cook something, after all?”

“When you’re my age, you need to know at least one dish.”

When my father brought me from the orphanage, he said he saw himself in me, not his deceased son.

I never fully believed those words. From what I’d heard, my father spent nearly a year as a wreck after losing his biological son.

How did he die again? Was it because he was unlucky enough to get caught in a dungeon break? Even with the strongest Hunter as his father, it seems bad luck was something you couldn’t avoid.

I didn’t think everything my father said was a lie. When he saw me waiting for my brother, he might have overlapped his own image with mine.

But now, Hong Seok-young hadn’t seen Woo I-rok waiting for his brother. Rather than projecting his own image onto Woo I-rok, he didn’t even seem to remember pestering him persistently until he got an answer.

So… maybe he was seeing his own son in him. That’s why he was making fried rice with a smile like this.

The same person who was pushing the children hard just this morning...!

…Not that this was something I should be annoyed about.

The fried rice made by Hong Seok-young, which I hadn’t had in a long time, tasted exactly like the version I’d eaten to the point of getting sick of it. Despite likely using expensive, high-quality ingredients stocked by Daseon, it still tasted exactly like fried rice made with random groceries from a local market. I had to admit, that was impressive in its own way.

Mini-me and Kang Tae-woo weren’t picky eaters. Regardless of how sick I was of the monotonous taste of fried rice, they were eating so well it was almost irritating. Hong Seok-young watched Mini-me with satisfaction.

“Is it good? Do you want some more?”

Mini-me’s hands, which had been moving nonstop, suddenly stopped.

Mini-me carefully observed Hong Seok-young. From his messy hair, the unkempt stubble starting to grow on his chin, his tanned skin, rough hands, and trained body.

Mini-me’s lips curled up into a sly smile. This feels ominous.

"Woo I..."

Sensing some unknown trouble, I tried to cover Mini-me’s mouth. But Mini-me was a little faster.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Go to hell!”

Why on earth is he like this? I didn’t grow up like that. It’s so unfair.

“Woo I-rok…”

I called Mini-me while holding my head. He doesn't even pretend to listen to me.

Would the Earth be destroyed if I killed him now? Seeing as nothing happened even after meeting him, maybe the Earth would be fine?

"Ah, I told you to go away!!!"

"WOO I-ROK!!!"

Even if I’m playing the role of a caring hyung who treasures his little brother, there’s a limit to how much I can tolerate.

Sometimes, when I threw unreasonable tantrums at the research lab, my hyung would scold me. Did he feel the same way as I do now? If I had known this karma would come back to me, I would’ve treated my hyung better.

“Woo I-rok. Come with me for a moment.”

“Teacher Woo.”

“Don’t butt in. This is a family matter.”

With his shoulders hunched, Woo I-rok followed me. Before entering the room, I turned to look straight at Hong Seok-young and warned him.

“Don’t even think about eavesdropping.”

“Ahem.”

That damned old man.

I didn’t feel like saying anything more, so I entered the room. Mini-me hesitated and stood in front of me. His eyes were already brimming with tears.

I sighed and softened my voice. No matter how you look at it, it’s not easy to scold a kid half your size.

“I-rok. Your hyung…”

“You only need to care about me.”

Mini-me cut me off.

“I don’t like it when other people are around. You said it’d be just the two of us. I don’t want to be here.”

“…….”

That makes sense.

I tried to think about it from Mini-me’s perspective.

The hyung who promised to take him away suddenly disappeared. The atmosphere at the research lab became so strange that they even moved out. The children were scattered and sent to orphanages. He might’ve been happy to breathe outside air freely for a while, but soon enough, there was still no word from his hyung, and there was no certainty about what would happen next.

All that time, he’d been trembling with anxiety. Finally, when his hyung returned… instead of staying by his side like before, his hyung kept running off somewhere as a teacher.

It’s no surprise Mini-me’s acting like this.

After a moment of thought, I crouched down and spread my arms. Mini-me immediately ran into my embrace.

The most urgent task: I need to socialize Mini-me.

It’s going to be difficult since there aren’t any kids his age around, but if I don’t do something and he ends up developing separation anxiety, that’ll be a huge problem.

“I-rok. The man who made you fried rice and everyone here are people helping your hyung.”

“…….”

“I know you feel uneasy. But you know your hyung wouldn’t keep bad people near you, right? Hm? I-rok, look at me.”

“Sniff.”

“You’re not crying. Good boy.”

Still, Mini-me sniffled and wiped his nose.

“You didn’t like it when strangers got too close, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Then you should’ve said you don’t like them getting close. Do you think it’s okay to yell like that?”

“…No.”

“They’re helping us, so you need to be kind to them, okay?”

Woo I-rok nodded while hugging me tightly.

Is this enough? It’s already hard to raise a normal ten-year-old boy, but now I have to raise a kid who’s spent his whole life in a research lab. The difficulty level of this parenting task is way too high.

I let out a sigh, who knows how many times I’ve done it now, but then I looked at Mini-me. No matter what, I shouldn’t sigh while holding a kid in my arms.

Instead of sighing, I hugged Mini-me tightly once more and stood up.

I need to... give Mini-me something to do. Something to play with, at the very least. To keep him too distracted to think of anything else.

*

Whether Mini-me was around or not, life at the high school continued as usual.

After about two days, the children had grown accustomed to the short figure flickering by the window. Mini-me, fascinated by the kids playing around in the garden, often stood by the window watching them.

“You can take a few days off, you know.”

Hong Seok-young approached me quietly as I stared at the window where Mini-me stood.

"You can take a few days off to help your brother settle in."

“No.”

Like I'm crazy enough to stick by his side all day. I'd rather teach kids next to Hong Seok-young.

“If you give in to everything, he’ll just keep acting spoiled. Besides, I can’t always stay by his side anymore.”

“But he’s still young, isn’t he?”

“…….”

"Alright, alright. You probably know better, he's your brother. I won't meddle anymore."

I took my eyes off the window and looked at the children in the garden. To break up the monotony of dealing with the same people, the Hunters from Daseon were supervising the kids today. Honestly, I didn’t think the kids were skilled enough to fall into such routines, but if the boss says it, it has to be done.

I frowned. One person was still missing.

“Where’s Lee Seung-yeon?”

“Hmm.”

Hong Seok-young scratched his cheek and avoided my gaze.

“Is he still in his room?”

“I heard Hunter Lee decided to leave him be until Sunday.”

“Sunday?”

“It seems he was really shaken…”

“But he doesn’t look shaken at all.”

I pointed at Kang Tae-woo, who was meditating on a yoga mat alongside Yoo Ji-eun.

“Well, that guy’s just exceptional.”

“…….”

“They said dragging him out forcibly would just make things worse, and his guardian said to let him be. What can I do? It’s not entirely wrong. He’ll come out when he’s sorted out his feelings.”

Hong Seok-young spoke lightly.

Hearing him say this somehow made me uneasy. But since I didn’t really have anything to argue back with, I just nodded. My hands were already full. I decided to leave Lee Seung-yeon’s case to his aunt, Lee Mi-seon.

“Or… I know. What if we send Kang Tae-woo to talk to him? Didn’t Tae-woo used to, what was it, do activities with the National Heart.....?”

“National New Heart and Spirit Association, yes.”

“Yeah, that. I heard he shared his experiences and stuff there.”

“Although I’m not sure how true those experiences really are.”

“Either way, if they spend time together, it might help him open up a bit.”

Nodding as if he’d just thought of the greatest idea, Hong Seok-young immediately called Kang Tae-woo. This man was the type who couldn’t rest until he put his ‘great ideas’ into practice.

When Kang Tae-woo heard Hong Seok-young’s request, he tilted his head.

“You want me to talk to Seung-yeon, hyung?”

Did he just call him hyung?

I was surprised. He hadn’t really mixed much with the other kids yet, so I didn’t expect him to be close enough to call Lee Seung-yeon hyung.

Hong Seok-young must have thought the same, as he briefly showed a surprised expression before speaking.

“It seems like he’s really shaken, so I thought talking to you might help him feel better.”

“Ah… Sure. It’s not that difficult. I’ll go talk to him after classes are over.”

Honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to the matter, figuring it was just a minor kids' stuff. Besides, with Mini-me trailing behind me like a goldfish, I didn’t have the energy to worry about it.

But I should’ve known better.

“Te-Teacher!”

That night.

Lee Mi-seon came running to me, her face pale as a sheet.

“Seung-yeon, Seung-yeon has disappeared!"