Retirement

Three days since I opened the massage shop.

Not a single customer yet.

"...Quiet in here."

Chin propped on the counter, I took a slow look around the shop. Two waiting chairs sat along the wall, and above them hung my hard-won license in its frame. On a shelf nearby, the massage oils and towels were arranged in tidy rows.

It hadn't been cheap, either. I'd done the painting and furniture assembly myself to save whatever money I could — which was why my shoulder nearly gave out before the doors ever opened. Still, once it was finished, the place looked pretty respectable.

The problem was that no one was around to see it.

"Well, it's only been three days."

Worrying that the business was failing after all of three days would have been laughable. With that thought, I stood up from my seat. I was planning to close a little early today, because there was something I'd been putting off.

Going to the Hunter Association to formally surrender my hunter qualification.

Strictly speaking, I didn't have to go that far. I could simply stop taking raids and leave it at that. But I didn't want to leave any lingering attachment behind.

Six years since my awakening at twenty. I'd done what I could. I wasn't a hunter anymore — I was a massage therapist.

The Hunter Association, which I hadn't visited in a while, was as bustling as ever. The massive electronic board filling the lobby wall displayed active gates and raid schedules in real time, and armed hunters streamed in and out of the entrance without pause. Some wore armor; others carried enormous greatswords slung across their backs.

There was a time when just looking at people like that made my heart race for no reason. I'd believed that someday I could be one of them. Rank up, join a decent guild, become a hunter whose name alone turned heads. I'd had those daydreams plenty.

Of course, they didn't stir anything in me now.

"I'm here to apply for hunter retirement."

I handed my ID to the receptionist at the information desk. She checked the monitor a few times, then looked up.

"Lee ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hanseong, hunter, correct?"

"That's right."

"One moment, please. I'll call the guide in charge of your case."

"Understood."

I took a seat on the bench nearby, and before long, a woman walked toward me.

"Hunter Lee ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hanseong?"

A white blouse. An Association employee ID on a lanyard around her neck. Long black hair falling past her shoulders.

"Hello. I'm Chae Gahyeon, a guide with the Hunter Management Division. I understand you're here to apply for retirement."

"That's correct."

"Please follow me."

I followed her into a consultation room in the back. Chae Gahyeon sat down across from me and slid a few documents in front of me.

"The retirement procedure itself isn't complicated. However, once your hunter qualification is revoked, the medical support and certain welfare benefits provided by the Association will be terminated as well."

"That's fine."

"And if you ever want to return to active duty, you'll need to start over with a physical examination and mana measurement."

"Yes."

Maybe my answers had come too fast. Chae Gahyeon lifted her eyes from the paperwork and looked at me.

"It seems you've made up your mind."

"I've been thinking about it for a long time."

That's what I said, but honestly, "endured it for a long time" would have been more accurate than "thought about it for a long time."

My rank was F. It had been F from the moment I awakened, straight through to today. My ability was Pleasure — just as the name suggested, it made anyone I touched feel pleasure.

I still remembered the expression on the Association examiner's face the first time the ability was identified. It had been an exquisitely awkward one.

No offensive capability. No physical enhancement. No healing. Using it on magic beasts produced no meaningful effect, and using it on people required putting my hands directly on their bodies. As hunter abilities went, there was nowhere obvious to deploy it.

Even so, I hadn't given up at first. I figured there had to be some way to make it useful. I tried distracting the injured from their pain, if only for a moment. I tried calming people down before a battle. I tried everything I could think of.

But the result never changed.

F-rank.

And so I spent six years at the bottom. Then, in a gate I'd had the bad luck to enter, I picked up a strange curse on top of everything else.

I began to hear what was in people's hearts. To be precise, it wasn't quite their inner thoughts — it was whatever that person wanted most intensely at that moment. Desire was the more accurate word for it.

After going through that, I lost any remaining desire to keep being a hunter. So I went looking for a different line of work that suited my ability — and that was how the massage shop came to be.

...

I glanced over at Chae Gahyeon. She was reviewing the paperwork in silence, one hand raised to her shoulder.

The strange power I'd gained from the curse in that gate. At first, I genuinely thought I'd gone mad — voices were sounding in my head while people's lips never moved. But after a few years of living with it, I'd grown more or less accustomed to it.

"Is your shoulder bothering you?"

At my question, Chae Gahyeon looked at me, startled.

"I'm sorry?"

"You've been rubbing your shoulder since a moment ago."

"Ah..."

Only then did she lower the hand that had been resting on it.

"I suppose it's because I spend so many hours at a desk these days. It's just a little stiff, that's all."

"Shall I take a look at it for you?"

"Sure... I'm sorry, what?"

I pulled a business card out of my wallet.

Hanseong Body Care

Chae Gahyeon took the card and looked back and forth between it and me.

"...You run a massage shop?"

"I just opened it this week."

She smiled, as if the answer had taken her slightly by surprise.

"That's about as far from being a hunter as a job can get."

"Turns out this suits me better, honestly."

It wasn't an empty platitude. Useless as my ability had been for hunter work, the story changed completely when it was applied to massage. It dulled the unpleasant ache of the massage itself, and it deepened the sense of relief that came when knotted muscles finally let go.

Worthless in combat, but a fairly excellent ability for unwinding the human body.

"It would only take a moment. And if you're not comfortable with it, no need at all."

Chae Gahyeon hesitated briefly, then turned in her chair.

"Then... just for a moment, please."

I rose from my seat and placed my hands on her shoulders. Pressing lightly with my fingertips told me the general state of things.

Rock hard. Knotted solid.

"This area is in bad shape."

Press.

I applied slow, steady pressure with my thumb.

"Hhk...!"

With a short gasp, Chae Gahyeon's shoulder flinched.

"That's the spot, isn't it?"

"Haah... yes..."

I moved my fingers a little along the knotted muscle. Under my fingertips, I could feel the stiffness that had locked up her shoulder gradually begin to loosen.

I stopped at a reasonable point and gestured toward the business card sitting on the table.

"Come by whenever you have the time."

"Ah, yes. Thank you..."

Chae Gahyeon picked up the card, studied it for a moment, then asked:

"Would it be all right if I came this week?"

"Of course."

The moment I secured my first customer. I felt like coming to the Association today had been worth it after all.

Just as I was quietly savoring the satisfaction, the area outside the consultation room suddenly grew noisy.

"Hunter Yoo Harin has arrived!"

Yoo Harin?

My gaze turned to the door before I realized it. Chae Gahyeon reacted to the name as well.

"It sounds like Hunter Yoo Harin is here."

And a moment later, a familiar face appeared beyond the glass door.

Brown bobbed hair and brown eyes. A hunter who had climbed to S-rank at the young age of twenty-four.

Yoo Harin.

She spotted me, too. Stopping in her tracks, she narrowed her eyes. It was not a friendly face. Why is that here? — that was exactly the look she wore.

I'd crossed paths with Yoo Harin a few times at gates. Not that we'd ever fought from the same position, of course. I was support ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠labor hauling equipment; she was the core power leading the strike force.

She didn't care much for low-rank hunters. More precisely, she made a point of openly looking down on anyone weaker than herself. It was the same every time we met. When F-rank hunters were hauling gear, she would sigh loudly enough for everyone to hear, and if anyone so much as slowed a raid down, she'd dressed them down in front of the whole team.

I was no exception. Once, at the entrance to a gate, I ran into her while carrying equipment. I still remembered what she said to me then.

'You're still doing the hunter thing?'

Just that one line. It was more than enough to get the message.

Yoo Harin stared at my face for a moment. Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her eyes dropped to the documents laid out in front of me, and the corner of her mouth curved up, just barely. She said nothing. But I had a good idea what she was thinking.

So you finally quit, huh.

That was probably it. Without another glance, Yoo Harin withdrew her gaze and walked past the consultation room.

Click, click.

The sound of her heels faded down the corridor. I didn't react at all.

Maybe it would have stung a little, back in the old days. But now there was no reason to let it bother me — as of today, I wasn't a hunter anymore.

"Hunter Lee Hanseong?"

Chae Gahyeon's voice brought me back.

"Ah, yes."

"You just need to sign here at the end."

I sat back down and picked up the pen. The very bottom of the form. Application for revocation of hunter qualification. Lee Hanseong.

I wrote my name and signed.

Chae Gahyeon took the papers, confirmed everything, and nodded.

"It's been processed. As of today, Hunter Lee Hanseong's qualification is revoked."

"That was simpler than I expected."

"Most people who retire deliberate over it many times before they come here. Once you've actually made up your mind, the procedure itself is over quickly."

Chae Gahyeon held out her hand. I took the Hunter License out of my wallet and handed it over.

For six years, that card had lived in one corner of my wallet. I couldn't describe how happy I'd been the day I first received it. I'd pull it out for no reason and stare at it, again and again.

Hunter. There had been a time when those two words looked that cool to me.

And yet, watching it leave my hand now, I felt strangely fine. There was hardly any regret, hardly any sadness. If anything, I felt relieved — like finishing a homework assignment I'd been putting off for years.

"Then I'll be on my way."

"Yes. Oh —"

Just as I stood up to leave, Chae Gahyeon stopped me. She was holding the business card I'd given her earlier.

"I'll definitely come."

"That was the whole point of giving you the card, so."

At that, Chae Gahyeon let out a small laugh.

"Then I'll contact you within the week."

"Whenever it's convenient."

I gave a light bow and left the consultation room.

The Hunter License I'd carried for six years was gone. In its place, I had my first customer.

Not a bad retirement, all things considered.