Black Badger

Chapter 117

Oh my god.

At Lucia's innocent question, I gaped, my mouth hanging open.

The others, including Dawson, turned to her with shocked expressions.

Yoon raised his head expressionlessly, and she continued speaking.

"I couldn't eat dinner because of the emergency muster in the evening."

"Here!"

The one who quickly cut her off was Isaac, who frantically rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a chocolate bar.

He stretched out his arm to hand the chocolate bar to Lucia and gave an awkward smile.

"Want this? Chocolate bar!"

"But a chocolate bar isn't enough for dinner..." "Lucia Kwon."

Everyone except Lucia flinched at the mentor's emotionless call.

The senior with the round bobbed haircut asked blankly.

"Yes?"

"Should I boil some of the larvae outside for you?"

By now, even Lucia seemed to realize something was wrong.

She stared at the squad leader, who had a face like a ghost, and spoke in a shrinking voice.

"I'm fine..."

"Once the mission's over, everyone gather to console her."

Of course, there was no way he'd just let it slide.

"Aren't you managing your junior properly?"

Isaac Lane gave a bitter smile, Jerry Jones groaned and rolled his eyes upward, and the pair of sociopaths blinked.

Since the mentor moved after saying that, no voices of protest emerged.

No one had the guts for that.

While Lucia fumbled to unwrap the chocolate bar, people moved to their positions.

I headed to the rooftop with Yoon.

*

"So, did you remember?"

"Yes?"

As I lit the cigarette dangling from Yoon's mouth, the question came flying.

I blinked and closed the Zippo lighter's lid.

"What do you mean?"

"How the Titans control creatures."

Yoon exhaled a puff of smoke and leaned against the rooftop railing.

"Or how Tier 10 kept coming back to life."

I shoved the Zippo lighter into my pocket.

My kin had already detected me. It was quite a distance from Zone 5, so I couldn't pinpoint the exact location or numbers, but I could definitely feel that they had changed targets.

But that wasn't what the mentor was asking.

"Those are two different techniques. I'll explain the latter first."

"Go ahead."

"Could I describe it as an intuitive method of acquiring nutrition?"

Thinking of Ray made my mood sink.

"It revives by absorbing the energy from living beings. However, almost no one could actually use it. Just me, Kyle, Ray... And it's not a technique you can use lightly."

"Because it burns you out?"

"Yes. There's a limit to how much energy the body can handle."

Yoon had clashed with Ray too.

I'd heard that Yoon hadn't seen Ray's end.

I felt the urge to light a cigarette, even if it tasted bad, and cast my gaze beyond the rooftop railing. The ruined city was buried in darkness.

Once upon a time, I might have wandered these streets with Ray, eating ice cream.

The returning question was dry.

"Why could only you three use it? If you'd taught it to your kin, you would have won the war."

I let out a short laugh.

I'd thought about that a lot.

But it wasn't something that could be learned, nor was it granted only to the talented.

"It's a bit hard to understand in Earth's terms, but it's not a learned skill—it's more like a scar that remains only for survivors."

Yoon gestured silently for me to continue.

I dredged up memories from my growth period, which now sometimes felt like a fantasy novel.

"There's a curse you incur when you anger a tree, and it's like the scar left on those who survive that curse. Think of it as how your constitution changes after surviving an illness."

"The whole sentence sounds nonsensical, and I want to argue, but whatever— that's how it was in your world."

I laughed again.

That was so like him.

The explanation was the unvarnished truth. With my hand on the knife hilt, I continued the story, gazing into the distance.

Even there, most trees were just trees. But some were not—ones that had received magical blessings, grown in blessed soil, or were born with talent from their seeds.

Those trees grew into sacred trees.

Anyone who cut down a sacred tree incurred a curse and slowly died.

"Why cut it down?"

"There were things we could only oppose with swords made from sacred trees."

It had happened before I turned twenty.

"The norm was to buy or obtain swords made from already-dead sacred trees. But we didn't have the means. The war broke out, making it impossible from the start."

The temple burned.

The priests who raised me with love were torn apart and killed by the enemy. It was an era where violence was everyday life. I, an orphan protected and raised in the temple, could call myself fortunate. But eventually, the temple got caught in the flames of war. The enemy squeezed oil from the priests' corpses and used it to fuel the fire that burned the temple.

To cut their throats, I felled a sacred tree and made a sword.

After revenge, I buried the bodies that were barely recognizable.

After burying over 300 priests, I prayed for the dead's peace and set out on a journey to lift the curse.

"Did you meet Kyle and Ray on that journey?"

"No. I met them after lifting the curse."

But wasn't this story boring?

"They seemed to have lifted their curses at different times. I was alone the whole time on my journey to lift mine."

"How did you lift the curse?"

"You go to the world tree standing in the ruins of a city."

The problem was that most died before reaching the world tree.

With your body weakened by the curse, all sorts of creatures came at you. It was only after lifting my curse that I learned cursed ones formed parties to reach the world tree.

I was lucky.

Even with a party, the survival rate out of that city was less than 5 percent.

"But are you really curious about this boring story?"

"Quite."

"What's the point of hearing it? It's a ruined world anyway. You couldn't go even if you wanted to."

"Tier 10..."

Yoon exhaled a puff of white smoke.

The chilly air scattered and erased it.

"...killed thousands of humans alone."

Back to Ray's story.

I nodded, trying not to let melancholy take over. My heightened senses detected creatures closing in.

But they were still a ways off, so I decided to continue the conversation.

"Until the whites of his eyes burned away, he controlled creatures."

"Yes. Controlling creatures and absorbing them are completely different techniques. The former can be learned, but the latter, as I said... The Shadowed Eye is one of the hallmarks of the latter. From the moment you start using the technique, the whites of your eyes begin to burn."

"There's a reason Ye-hyeon became a hero of the chaotic times."

The flat statement wounded my heart.

I gripped the supply dagger tightly.

"Those who survived the First War hate it."

Yoon flicked his finger, dropping the cigarette butt below the building.

"Those who remember the First War fear it. Later generations just remember it as the final boss of that era."

"...Well. It's the story of someone who's gone now."

"Don't ever let it slip that you're mourning his death, even by mistake."

I must have frozen like an idiot.

Yoon narrowed his eyes and observed me.

Then he added.

"Ami was in a coma for two years after getting caught in your kin's rampage. If she hadn't woken up from that state, she might have tried to kill you just for being related to it and having ties."

"...And now it doesn't bother you?"

"For me, only Ami's and Ye-hyeon's lives matter."

Yoon shrugged and drew his gun.

The distance was getting dangerously close. This man didn't have my senses, so how did he know so uncannily?

I could hear Leonard and Silvia on the lower floors loading their guns.

Unbelievable badgers aside, there were three with solid skills.

At this speed, those things would reach B-7 Zone in ten minutes.

"Don't bother saving the ones who get in the way. If you do, they'll run off to save their own skins."

"They run?"

I knew we'd deliberately herded the messed-up ones here, but I didn't realize it was bad enough for them to flee the battlefield.

How were they still operating as badgers?

For now, humanity was in a state of war.

"Is fleeing allowed?"

"No. Desertion is punishable by death."

Right. That was normal on a battlefield.

But then the logic didn't add up. As I furrowed my brows and looked at Yoon, he smirked with one corner of his mouth.

"They just haven't been caught on video yet."

"Ah. So there was no evidence to punish them."

"Until now. Who knows what'll happen today."

He seemed excessively amused.

Sounds started to reach me. The footsteps of the approaching creatures tickled my ears. About seven minutes left. As long as the local creatures didn't block their progress.

I saw Yoon turn on the radio to relay the situation to the squad members.

But before he could speak, a voice burst from the radio.

[Zone 7!]

It was Richard Green.

[Tier 9!]

Oh.

And I sensed a familiar presence. The presence of my kin.

Among my kin, the presence of one I knew.

The presence of someone I'd fought alongside on the battlefield.

She was a famous general beloved by the empire.

[Heading for Grid!]

Hecate.

So I'd get to see your face again.

You wanted to fight me seriously. Feeling her approaching presence, I smiled bitterly. Now that it was happening, I wondered what face she was making.

She was at the front of the group.

"Silvia will be pleased."

Yoon muttered.

Why call Silvia Kipf just Silvia?

Holding onto that trivial curiosity, I drew my supply sword.

"You seem to be the type loved by weird people."

"Senior Silvia's love is a bit scary."

The people on the third and first floors seemed to be in a minor panic, but I ignored it.

If needed, I'd jump down to the ground, so I placed one foot on the railing.

The wind shook my white hair.

"Any specific plan?"

"No."

They were starting to come into view now.

Creatures crawled heavily out of the darkness.

My old comrade with green hair.

"Do as you want, but get some shooting practice in."

Yoon nodded toward the gun I had no intention of drawing.

As gunfire began to pour, the man put on his helmet.

"Don't trust anyone at your back, and don't die from some stupid mistake."

"Got it."

"And since you've been on the battlefield, you know this."

Even with his face covered by the helmet, I could see the mentor's smile.

A smile full of malicious expectation.

"Mutiny and desertion are punishable by death."

The mentor clicked his bayonet and began pulling the trigger.

"Deal with the enemy."

The thick fishy smell came with the sound of flesh bursting.

The battle had begun.