Black Badger

Chapter 147

Kudo slowly regained his senses.

But even after he recovered his reason and saw the scene unfolding before him, he couldn't grasp the situation for a moment. He knew he was under the influence of the ashen cloak.

An enormous tree towered there, too vast for him to see its entirety even when he looked up.

Golden particles drifted down from it like tiny motes.

At the base of the tree lay a creature that even he, who had encountered all sorts of beasts, saw for the first time.

Hildebert stood in front of the creature.

The somewhat young-looking junior.

Dressed in ragged clothes, with ashes spilling from beneath his cloak-like garment, he looked at the dead creature with joy.

He muttered incomprehensible words.

"ΔΦΧΤΥΥ! ΔΦΧΤΥΤ!" What the hell was he saying?

It was a sound Kudo couldn't even guess at. The junior made meaningless noises and jumped around. Jonathan Kudo stared blankly at the illusion for a while, stunned by the completely unexpected sight.

Until the joyful junior staggered toward the massive tree.

As the illusion of the young junior walked forward, another figure came into view.

It was Hildebert, climbing the stairs while blood poured from his leg.

"...You!"

Kudo's eyes widened as the strong scent of blood hit him.

It was obvious who had stabbed him with the sword.

The man pushed himself up using his arms on the stairs and staggered toward Hilde.

"βδεΛ."

His voice kept coming from afar.

"ΗΘΕΔΔ."

In the illusion, the junior knelt before the tree, stepping over the creature's corpse.

Kudo didn't even glance at the sight of golden flower seeds pouring down over Hilde like a rush. He rushed to the real Hildebert, grabbed the one trying to climb the stairs firmly, and rummaged through his clothes wildly.

He wore the Black Badger uniform.

A tourniquet waited in the pocket.

Ignoring the tree roots that started to writhe, Kudo tied the tourniquet tightly around his junior's leg.

"Damn it, stay still."

Kudo grumbled lowly at the resisting junior.

Of course, there was no reply. Now, in the illusion, the young Hilde was buried up to his neck in golden flower seeds.

Jonathan Kudo couldn't understand this illusion at all. The roots wriggled toward the praying junior. The golden seeds cascaded down over him like a waterfall.

Was he from a remote Core?

He had heard there were Cores that didn't use the common language. Maybe he had encountered some strange creature there.

He couldn't know the answer, but he didn't have time to worry about it.

He needed to get this fresh-faced new recruit, whose recovery faltered, out of the building right away. Hadn't his recovery been on par with his cohort's?

Even though he had already lost quite a bit of blood, Hilde's wound wasn't healing easily.

Jonathan Kudo bit his lip. Even if he blamed it on the ashen cloak, the fact that the wound was his doing didn't change.

But guilt was a luxury for after survival.

Holding tight to Hilde, who kept trying to climb the stairs, Kudo kicked his good leg.

Thud!

He quickly scooped up the falling junior.

Despite the fierce resistance that followed, he descended the stairs without a care.

Veins bulged on the arm that gripped the railing to avoid tumbling down.

Beyond his careful steps, the background shifted with a faint breeze.

"Hilde!"

It was the only word he could understand.

"ΕΆΓΔΥΦΦ!"

It was someone with curly white hair and yellow eyes.

He saw the illusion of the junior looking back at him. Now an adult Hilde. His white hair reached down to his waist and flowed loosely. The spiky white strands contrasted nicely with his tanned skin.

...What a weird outfit.

Not just Hilde, but everyone around him was the same. Hilde stood before people in their twenties and thirties, all clad in silver armor.

They all had swords at their waists too.

Yet it all felt strangely natural. As if everything the junior felt was shared with him.

The sight of his beloved comrades.

A swell of pride and affection rose in his chest.

"ΨΧΧΨ?"

The long-haired Hilde gave a lazy reply with a drawn-out smile.

"ηθΔΕΔ."

Thud!

The men tumbled onto the stairs.

Hilde's struggles suddenly intensified. Kudo let out a small groan as he pushed himself up from the sprawl.

His clothes were stained with blood. Not his own, but the new recruit's.

The new recruit coughed several times and then crawled up the stairs.

He sobbed profusely.

"Ray."

A word that seemed like a name slipped from Hilde's mouth.

"Ray. I'm sorry, I..."

He knew it was a comrade's name.

A distance that calls wouldn't reach. Kudo climbed the slippery-with-blood stairs toward his junior. It wasn't hard to catch up to the limping one.

Just enough, without breaking anything. He struck the back of the opponent's knee once more.

This time, he reached out and caught the body before it hit the ground.

"...Let's go."

You have people waiting for you. He muttered to himself as he lifted the wriggling Hilde.

Ironically, the scenery kept changing right in front of him, distracting his gaze.

Kudo ignored it. He couldn't understand the words anyway, and he had to focus all his attention on descending the stairs without dropping the resisting Hilde.

As if mocking him, understandable words came next.

"Live together?"

The long-haired man glared coldly at Hilde, who sat across from him, seething with anger.

"Ever thought about just blending in normally? Make some sense. Cameras are everywhere. In every human's hand, on store ceilings, in the streets! You know what the internet is? Still don't know what SNS is?"

"Calm down. It was just a hypothesis I proposed."

Hilde replied calmly.

They spoke English now. The long-haired man sat in a chair overlooking a white sandy beach, conversing.

A handsome man with jet-black hair let down. Hilde sat opposite, his white hair tied back.

No people were around.

A dazzling horizon stretched out. A blue sea sparkled. In that eerily empty place, Hilde spoke slowly.

"It's been fine so far."

"Are you kidding? Why do you think it's been fine? Because they have something to gain from us, that's why. Because we've shown them a hope they can't refuse."

"I know."

"But this precarious balance won't last long. You feel it too, right? It's the endgame now."

"Yeah."

"You don't think they'll just optimistically assume peace, do you?"

Hilde fell silent for a moment, taking in the sea.

"No. But..."

"We can win. What's so scary?"

"I've told you several times."

Now Hilde's voice rose.

Jonathan Kudo could feel the anger and fear in his voice. Even as an auditory hallucination, the emotion reached the listener's skin.

Hilde's upper body leaned toward the curly-haired man.

Hildebert stared straight into the other's golden eyes and shouted.

"Why can't you grasp the situation? Kyle, face reality!"

Thud!

The men rolled down the stairs again.

Good, Kudo thought. Thanks to tumbling down the stairs, they were even closer to the first floor. No time to delay. He sprang up without surprise.

He approached the junior, who struggled on the floor, and scooped him up.

Perhaps exhausted, the resistance was weaker than before.

"We failed again."

The surroundings shifted once more, and Hilde appeared, face buried in his hands, looking up at the ceiling.

Before him sat a pair of men and women holding cigars.

On the glass table in front of the sofa where Hilde sat was a cigar too. It looked like one he had set down after smoking.

They were in a luxurious private room.

"Again."

"That human has nine lives. What was his name again?"

"Colton."

When the woman with her legs crossed asked in a seductive voice, Hilde replied in a choked tone.

His posture, reeking of defeat, didn't change.

"Colton Wiseman."

"We should've crushed him when he was young."

The man with his back turned, face unseen, muttered to himself.

"When he was with that insignificant faction..."

Thud. Something kicked against his foot.

Looking down, he saw a shattered smartphone. A latest model from last year.

Was it that guy's?

The screen was completely smashed. Probably from when he had knocked it away.

Guilt stained his chest, and Kudo gripped the wriggling junior tighter.

The wound still wasn't healing. He couldn't even think of pulling out the sword. For a normal badger, the wound would have closed the moment the sword was removed.

Disturbed, Jonathan Kudo quickened his steps down the stairs.

The sign guiding to the first floor grew closer.

Even then, the background changed, and Hilde's desperate voice echoed.

The illusion of the junior pleaded with someone.

"Please, Ray."

It was a voice so urgent it tugged at the listener's heart.

"Please, think it over one more time..."

"Hilde."

The one in the strange silver armor.

The young man with white curly hair looked down at Hilde, who knelt at his feet, while holding Hilde's right hand.

They were in a dark room.

The man standing in the bluish darkness lowered his eyes and whispered.

"ΥΦΥδεζΔΕΖΗ. ΦΧΨθΦεχΕΔΡΠαβΰρπρΕΛ."

An unfamiliar language.

Probably the junior's native tongue. As those words poured over his head, Hilde looked up.

Golden eyes widened wide in the darkness.

Kudo read despair in the junior's clear eyes looking up at the man called Ray.

Despair and terror.

A grief whose depths he couldn't fathom.

The background shifted again.

Now there was a short-haired Hilde.

"This?"

"Yeah. Give it to someone who can handle it."

The junior, face full of exhaustion, gave a wry smile.

He handed a long package to a woman with sharp eyes.

A splendid chandelier shone light over the man and woman's heads.

"Now it's irreversible."

Countless emotions filled the golden eyes.

From that heavy emotion, Kudo read regret. He couldn't fully understand all the scenes he had seen. Why Hilde had argued with his comrade. What failure he was referring to. Why he had knelt and begged before someone presumed to be a friend.

Yet he knew the junior had made an irreversible decision.

And that he could never be free from that decision.

"Pass the sword to Jae-yeon. To the one who can wield it best."

It was a painful scene to watch.

No violence or blood, yet just looking made it hard to breathe.

Kudo started running. Holding tight to the sobbing junior. He dashed toward the approaching front gate.

Don't die.

He ignored the following illusions and sounds. Even when the voice of his late wife came, he brushed it off. He wanted to pull this peculiar junior out of his painful past right away.

Because he knew how agonizing an irreversible choice could be.

Hadn't he himself flailed in an inescapable past every moment?

Rings and faded mementos. Unforgettable people and forgotten ones.

Jonathan Kudo ran through the illusions.

He slammed open the glass door and burst out of the building.

Blurry vision.

Fresh air filled his lungs.

His smartphone began to ring.