I'll Retire After Saving the World-Chapter 110: Observer of Youth (5)

TL: SHW

When it came to Lee Seung-yeon, even Hong Seok-young seemed to have his own thoughts, so he didn’t say anything further.

Honestly, I thought I’d hear something along the lines of “just let the kids do what they want”.

Well, the old man had let me be when I said I didn’t want to become a Hunter. Conversely, if I had said I wanted to be a Hunter, he probably would have let me do whatever I wanted as well.

“Ahem.”

Well, the fact that he’s not saying anything probably means he agrees with me. Just wait and see if he tries to say otherwise later.

“……”

Hong Seok-young was glancing at me unnecessarily, gauging my reaction.

Judging by the way he kept sneaking glances, it seemed like he still had something to say. My instincts told me it wasn’t going to be something I wanted to hear.

So, pretending not to notice him, I ignored him and checked the photos Lee Seung-yeon had sent me again. I’ll be meeting this guy soon.

That annoying pair of sunglasses, his so-called trademark, was still the same. Even when the old man first introduced Han Tae-kyung to me, he had been wearing those sunglasses. About fifteen years later, that evolved further into a leather jacket and leather pants. The old man had cursed him out thoroughly for being so inappropriate for his age, but Han Tae-kyung didn’t give up on that style until the day he left for America. To top it off, the leather was made from basilisk skin, so it was of excellent quality, and the old man couldn’t even force him to take it off.

‘Hwijae.’

‘Yes?’

Every now and then, the old man would sit me down with a serious expression.

‘I’ll let you do everything you want to do, but… I just hope you don’t turn out like Tae-kyung.’

So I would respond with the same serious expression.

‘Don’t worry, even if you held a sword to my neck, I’d never end up like that.’

Han Tae-kyung himself referred to himself as my uncle whenever he spoke to me, but in reality, we weren’t that close. To me, Han Tae-kyung was nothing more than one of my the old man’s eccentric colleagues, a person I had to reluctantly see from time to time.

Well, it’s not like the old man didn’t give me a good reason to think that way. He entrusted me to the care of Hunters like Yoo Ji-eun, Oh Hyun-wook, and even Lee Mi-seon and others from Daseon, but he never once left me with Han Tae-kyung. Back then, I didn’t think much of it, but now that I see how he is, I totally get it.

If I were in the old man’s shoes, I wouldn’t trust my child with Han Tae-kyung either. What if he ended up picking a fight with someone else while babysitting and even called the police?

Thankfully, the old man had at least that much sense.

Just think about the kids who were under Han Tae-kyung back when he was a teacher. Oh Hyun-wook, Park Seo-hyun, Yoo Ji-eun… there were a few others too, but not one of them turned out normal.

Today, I once again feel grateful for my old man’s efforts.

“Um.”

At last, Hong Seok-young, having run out of patience, cautiously opened his mouth.

"Although I said you could stab him, I'd prefer if you refrained from doing so in front of the kids."

What are you talking about.

“…I’m not going to stab him.”

“You hesitated just now, didn’t you?”

“I’m not going to stab him.”

However, Hong Seok-young naturally didn't even pretend to listen to me.

“Even Hunter Lee asked that you don’t stab him inside the house unless you’re cleaning up. She suggested using the garden if you must.”

“I told you, I’m not going to stab him.”

Hong Seok-young looked at me with pity.

"You'll regret making such promises later."

If I were going to stab him, I would’ve done it already.

“But you know.”

“Hmm?”

Instead of responding to his remark, I asked something else.

"Even though I haven't met this... Han Tae-kyung ssi, I think I roughly know what kind of person he is?"

“And?”

Han Tae-kyung was someone even my old man couldn’t handle. He wasn’t someone who became more composed with age, nor was he someone who cared about others’ opinions when he was younger.

“Are you really planning to entrust the kids to him?”

“……”

So how did the old man and I manage him?

My nagging as his nephew went in one ear and out the other, but at least he pretended to listen to my old man’s words.

Because the old man suppressed Han Tae-kyung with sheer power and authority. To be exact, power. Power. No matter how many screws someone might have loose in their head, if you tighten them back in with a fist, they can at least pretend to function properly.

“You want to make someone like this a teacher?”

I held up the last photo Lee Seung-yeon had sent me.

Han Tae-kyung was leaning against a tank with jellyfish inside, making an L-shape with his thumb and forefinger and resting it against his chin. With his chin slightly lowered, he was grinning straight at Lee Seung-yeon’s camera, though his sunglasses made it hard to tell exactly where he was looking. It was utterly ridiculous. The aquarium was dimly lit, and with those sunglasses on, I doubted he could see anything at all.

Hong Seok-young’s expression turned strange.

But he tried to play it cool, raising his eyebrows as he looked at me. Does he think I’ll back down just because of that? I glared back at him just as defiantly.

More than anything, I refuse to have someone like Han Tae-kyung, who is younger than me, as my boss or even as an equal colleague. Am I insane?

“That was the plan, originally….”

Hong Seok-young spoke quietly.

“I can’t stay at the school forever, and I can’t keep leaving everything to Hunter Lee either, can I?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“You weren’t here in April, were you?”

He pouted and grumbled. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

“I needed someone who could hold their ground even if I wasn’t around.”

Hold their ground? He seems more like someone who’d drain all the nutrients around him and leave everyone but himself to wither away.

“I know very well what kind of personality Han Tae-kyung has, but I didn’t have many choices. Annoying personality aside, his skills are reliable.”

Thinking about it like that, I suppose in the original timeline, when the Myeong-dong incident occurred, Han Tae-kyung might have been the right person for the job.

Han Tae-kyung always followed the old man’s lead, so it’s not surprising he ended up at Pilot High School. Still, his younger sister might have influenced his decision as well.

Hmm. But I don’t recall hearing that Han Tae-kyung had a younger sister. Han Eun-young didn’t even die in Myeong-dong.

“As I said last time when Hunter Lee was here, even if it’s not immediately necessary, it’s not a bad idea to keep someone of his caliber tied to the school.”

“He couldn’t even handle a simple mission like tailing someone.”

“…That’s because Tae-kyung hasn’t had much experience with things like surveillance.”

“Yes, I can tell.”

Let’s put aside what I already know about Han Tae-kyung and evaluate him objectively for a moment.

Woo Hwijae in this timeline hasn’t even met Han Tae-kyung yet. But just hearing something like, “You can stab him in the garden if you must,” from Hong Seok-young, what does that make you think?

What? Han Eun-young doesn’t like her older brother? Well, I can see why!

As I said earlier, look at how the kids who were under Han Tae-kyung’s influence turned out. Park Seo-hyun, Oh Hyun-wook, Yoo Ji-eun! Yoo Ji-eun aside, I worked hard to bring Park Seo-hyun and Oh Hyun-wook back to their current mental state!

I can’t let Han Tae-kyung ruin them again.

I stared directly at Hong Seok-young.

He began to avert his gaze.

I get that he wants to keep Han Tae-kyung around, but that man should not be allowed to become a teacher. Skill and teaching are two completely different things. I happen to excel at both, but for most people, being good at even one would be enough to earn applause.

Finally, Hong Seok-young conceded.

“…As you said, there are some rough edges to his personality that make him unsuitable for working with the kids.”

Some rough edges?

Flashes of the incident reports Han Tae-kyung had written over the past ten years crossed my mind.

Maybe seeing those would finally make Hong Seok-young come to his senses.

Even the “witch” Park Seo-hyun, would stop smiling and quietly blend into the shadows whenever Han Tae-kyung was around. The “pig” Oh Hyun-wook, would pull out a flask of alcohol from his jacket and down it in one go.

Even the old man would occasionally break his nameplate after talking to Han Tae-kyung in the Director’s Office. Nobody wanted to know what went on in there.

“But what else could I assign him to do besides teaching? You don’t think Han Tae-kyung would take up cooking, do you?”

“…Why are you suddenly bringing up cooking?”

“Oh, I heard from Hunter Ji that your brother has been complaining about the dishes recently.”

“Stay out of other people’s family matters.”

“Oh, come on. Are we really strangers to each other?”

I frowned deeply. Seeing my expression, Hong Seok-young chuckled annoyingly.

“Well, for you to bring this up, it seems like you’ve got something in mind. Don’t beat around the bush and just spit it out.”

“…….”

“Don’t have anything?”

“…I do.”

Strangely, I feel like I'm losing.

Overwhelmed by a deep sense of defeat, I slowly opened my mouth.

“As Teacher Hong said, we have enough teachers for now, don’t we?”

Even without including the Hunters from Daseon.

For proof, the fact that I hadn’t taught any classes for the past few days because I was looking after Mini-me hadn’t caused any disruptions. Though it did throw off the haphazard curriculum I had put together during the container days, that’s something I can adjust later.

“So, wouldn’t it be fine not to keep him as a teacher?”

“Not as a teacher? Then what are you suggesting? The Ark?”

Hong Seok-young scratched his chin.

“Speaking of the Ark, there’ll be times when I, you, and Teacher Kim will have to leave for Ark-related matters. In that case, we’d still need Tae-kyung around.”

“…Wouldn’t it be better to use Han Tae-kyung for that kind of work instead?”

“That guy can’t do undercover missions.”

“…….”

“Did you not get that after seeing the photos Seung-yeon took? That guy gets even more troublesome when he’s not the center of attention.”

“Ah, yes… Anyway, I’m saying it doesn’t have to be as a formal teacher. He could teach classes when necessary, but let’s not leave the kids fully under his care….”

“So, what you’re saying is….”

Hong Seok-young carefully mulled over my words.

“An assistant homeroom teacher?”

“Well, more like a student teacher, I’d say. Something along those lines.”

“Hmm.”

Pretending to contemplate, Hong Seok-young slightly furrowed his brow.

If he didn’t like the idea, he wouldn’t even bother pretending to think about it. I patiently waited for his approval.

Actually, there’s no need to make him even a student teacher.

“Instead of that, making him a security guard would work. That way, he wouldn’t interact with the kids much. We could give him some sort of annex to live in. Do we have an annex at the villa? If not, we could just place a container there.”

“If you isolate him that much, the kids will get curious and go looking for him.”

“…….”

Waving his hand dismissively, Hong Seok-young said,

“A student teacher wouldn’t be bad. It’s perfect.”

He grabbed his phone from the table and stood up.

“Actually, Teacher Kim is more like a guest lecturer.”

The way he squinted and smiled made me feel… uneasy.

“You’re the only official teacher at our school. I’m the principal, after all.”

“…….”

This doesn’t feel good.

“So, whether he’s a student teacher or whatever, you’re in charge of education.”

"What?"

“Haha, Han Tae-kyung has already joined the kids. If he starts heading up here now, he’ll arrive by tonight. I’ll formally introduce him then.”

“W-Wait.”

He patted me on the shoulder.

“Your probationary period is over, isn’t it? It’s about time you had a junior.”

“Wai…!”

Before I could finish, Hong Seok-young disappeared like the wind.

…That guy. He just dumped Han Tae-kyung on me, didn’t he?

That’s what happened, right? I just got screwed, didn’t I?

*

That night.

A pristine, white classic car, something straight out of an old movie, glided smoothly into the villa. Despite its elegant exterior, a large pink cat character sticker was plastered on the hood.

“Sunbae-nim!!!!”

A man wearing sunglasses got out of the driver’s seat. A moment later, two pale-faced male students followed him out.

“Your adorable junior has arrived!! Didn’t you miss me?!!”