My Students Regret It After I Retired

2 – Now she’s contacting me again? I’ll just block her.

I stared blankly at the distance communicator, Belin’s name displayed on it.

‘Now, of all times? Not a single call until now, after throwing me in prison, and now she’s calling me, shamelessly?’

The reason for the call was obvious without even looking. I was the first person in the Peren Empire to subdue a Red Gate, and I’d subdued the most of them. I even possessed the most knowledge about them, so it was probably a request for help.

‘Of course, it could be for a different reason.’

Since I’m not Belin, I don’t know what she’s thinking. But one thing’s for sure, no matter the reason for the call, I had nothing to say to her.

I pressed the end call button on the distance communicator, and Belin’s call was immediately cut off.

‘Just got myself riled up for nothing.’

Just as a surge of irritation washed over me,

*Thud!*

*Thud!*

I heard someone pounding on the bunker door. Human? Or monster? Didn’t matter either way.

I tossed the distance communicator towards the center of the bunker and immediately walked over to grab the sword in the corner.

-Screeeeeak…

As the door opened, I could see monsters surrounding the perimeter.

“Krrrruurr…rr…”

About five monsters, spewed out from the Red Gate, were clustered around my bunker. There was no way something as dim-witted as an ogre would find my bunker on their own.

And just as I thought, looking ahead, there was a frail girl, trembling, surrounded by the ogres.

“What are you?”

“P-Please…save me…”

Apparently, the girl, her life in danger from the monsters from the Red Gate, had stumbled upon the bunker and knocked.

“How did you know there was someone here?”

“I… I didn’t! I just saw a place that looked like a shelter and took a chance, knocking…!”

I turned back and checked the bunker again. It had been made to fend off low-intelligence monsters, so further inside was a huge steel door, blatantly revealing this place as a bunker. It was no problem for avoiding monsters, but I realized that situations like this, with other people involved, could occur, so I’d have to get it reinforced.

“Give me a reason why I should save you.”

I had decided. From now on, I wouldn’t help anyone without something in return. Except maybe for the people from the Leos Gallery who’d supported me from way back.

“Food…! I have food! I’ll give you everything I have!”

“I could just take that after you’re dead, you know?”

“…”

For a moment, the girl’s mouth clamped shut. Then she looked at my face for a second, and spoke, sounding surprised.

“You’re… You’re Leos, aren’t you?”

My face was gaunt, my hair was much longer than it used to be, so I looked different, but I was famous, so I wasn’t surprised she recognized me. However, what she said next was intriguing.

“I…I’ve been a fan of yours since before…I’ve even been posting regularly on the…the Leos Gallery…”

My body jolted as I heard her words. There weren’t many regulars using a fixed nickname on the Leos Gallery. I was curious about which of those people she was.

“Food’s secured. My mood was already shit, so this works out nicely.”

Leaving her behind, I gripped my sword and slowly walked forward. The b*stards started to circle, cautiously forming a perimeter as if testing me.

The specimens were ogre warriors. Five of the monsters, each wielding a massive axe. The moment they saw me, they lunged, swinging their axes wildly. But it was pointless.

*Whoosh!*

Dodging the first ogre warrior’s sweeping axe, I plunged my sword straight into his gut. He dropped his axe, and I snatched it up, hurling it with a clean throw, lodging it into the head of the one behind him before I charged forward.

*Chwack!*

With the sound of something tearing, the ogres fell, one by one, heads severed and clattering to the ground. Fully separated from their bodies, they were little more than lumps, no longer living beings.

Five B-rank monsters from the Red Gate. It took barely 10 seconds to kill them all.

Only after the last ogre fell to the earth did the girl beside me gasp, mouth agape.

“Wow…y-you’re really strong… I’ve never…never seen anyone take down monsters so easily.”

She composed herself, finally offering me her thanks.

“Thank you so much. You saved my life…”

“What’s your ID?”

“Huh…?”

At my question, she tilted her head, confused. Figuring it was a conversation best saved for later, I told her,

“Just get inside for now. It’s gonna be a pain if more monsters start swarming.”

*

I led the girl into the bunker. Looking around, she spoke, quite surprised.

“There are a lot more supplies than I thought. Did you know something like this was gonna happen and prepare?”

“This place was established long ago. It was just abandoned and I’m using it as is, I haven’t really done anything to it.”

“Ah, I see… It *is* you, Leos-nim.”

I tossed her a plastic bottle I’d grabbed from the corner, like I was throwing it away.

“You said you run the Leos Gallery, right?”

“Huh…? You know about Leos Gallery?”

“Found out recently. What’s your nickname there?”

Then the girl spoke to me,

“Wanna Rumble?”

“…”

Hearing her words, I slipped into a fighting stance, and the girl panicked, waving her hands to show me the distance.

“N-no… I didn’t mean fight. My nickname is ‘Wanna Rumble’…”

A name that didn’t match her face at all; I was a little taken aback, but I took the distance she gave and started checking the posts and comments she had written, one by one.

[Wanna Rumble]

Title: Is this the Gallery for simping over Leos-nim?

Body: I started simping after seeing it on the news before, is this the right place?

ㄴHeadMod: Yeah, it’s the right place

ㄴHeadMod: Read the announcement first ㄱ

[HeadMod]

Title: Leos-nim just took down the first Red Gate

Body: Leos-nim’s first Red Gate subjugation picture.jpg

ㄴWanna Rumble: Kyaaak! This picture’s amazing! Can I save it?

ㄴHead Mod: ㅇㅇ Write as you please

A few posts stood out, showing surprisingly friendly interactions with the head mod. I’d skimmed the gallery recently, but the head mod had left so many posts, I didn’t remember them all. But seeing the nicknames, checking the posts one by one, memories started to surface.

‘I thought that nickname was unique. So that was them.’

Honestly, it didn’t matter who this person was. The only two things that mattered were: had they been favorable to me *before* the incident? And more importantly, had they believed in me *after* it happened?

I’d vowed not to save anyone without a price.

But if there were people who had liked me and believed in me, completely unprompted, then saving them without a price felt like nothing at all.

In a way, this was like a survivor’s list. I intended to help the people who’d been active in the Leos Gallery, as much as I could.

The whole world had betrayed me, but these nameless people had believed in me and supported me.

“U-um… could you maybe sign something? I’m still out of it, I can’t really believe this… and I’ll give you all the food I have in my bag! I promised, so…”

I looked at her silently for a moment, then tossed her a jerky stick from the corner.

“There’s plenty of food, so keep what’s in your bag, and eat this jerky. There won’t be many places to find meat from now on.”

“Thank you so much…”

“Where are you going?”

“I can’t impose on Leos, so I was going to head out soon… I need to find somewhere to stay…”

“I scouted the area earlier and there are quite a few vagrants and looters. It’s dangerous, stay here for now.”

“R-really? Is that okay? I haven’t done anything… if you let me stay, I’ll try to get some food from outside…! Monster activity is lower late at night…!”

Honestly, her reaction was a little baffling. I was currently branded a criminal in the Peren Empire, publicly accused of s*xually assaulting my own student. Given a life sentence. How could she possibly trust me this much? How could she remain so calm, even alone with me like this?

The reason was simple. There was a similar message in her comments from before.

–

[ㅇㅇ] [155.111]

Title: This gallery’s still up, huh.

Body: Shouldn’t they be blocking this in the Peren Empire? Why are they defending criminals;;;

ㄴLet’sFight: How could someone as strong as Leos, someone who even closed the gates out of kindness, commit s*xual assault? He could meet a truckload of people who’d be into him! Think about it logically!

ㄴMod: Let’sFight, ignore that floating IP, that guy’s weird. I just banned him.

–

‘Even the students I taught didn’t believe me.’

A strange feeling started to settle in a corner of my heart. It wasn’t just words that she believed in me, it really felt like this girl actually trusted me.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Herisia! But, is it really okay for me to be here? I…I’m good at cooking! So, should I try cooking something? No, wait…there’s no way there’d be a place to cook in a bunker… Then maybe I can cl…clean instead…?”

Leaving her flustered behind, I stared at my distance.

[Bellin: I can’t get ahold of you, leaving a message. Please contact me back if you see this. There’s something I need to explain…it’s not really something for text.]

I hesitated for a moment before replying to her.

[I don’t care, get lost. And don’t try contacting me again. I’m blocking you]

I immediately blocked her number and thought. No matter what path I take in the future, I wouldn’t give any help to those who betrayed and didn’t believe in me.

Even if they died.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t even been a week since the gates fully opened. The Red Gates are getting stronger as time passes. I’ve decided to watch and see how they’ll manage to stop it without my power.