Black Badger

Chapter 307: Let’s Talk! (1)

George got back to him quickly.

“Do you think I can make this?”

[If you can help it, ask someone who’s actually good at cooking.]

The cook, whose tone hadn’t changed at all, replied curtly—but sounded to be in a good mood.

[You’re terrible at cooking.]

For the record, George said he wouldn’t be able to make time until next month.

Apparently, he’d gone on a long fishing trip. He planned to stay there for a full month before coming back. George, who’d finally gone on a trip he’d been planning forever, sounded happy. When the cook asked whether all his memories had finally returned, he laughed and said that once he was back, he’d cook one properly himself. Then he told me to take care and ended the call.

I went back to the cabin.

By the time I arrived, it was already late and everyone was asleep. Not wanting to wake the kids, I just parked the car and walked over to Kairos’s place.

I do feel a bit guilty using such a nice house as a second home.

Still, stopping by here now and then had become familiar. I went into the empty house, washed up, went into the guest room, and fell asleep like I’d passed out.

I dreamed of Rei.

A dream of when the two of us headed for the capital together.

A dream from a very long time ago.

***

When I opened my eyes, Kairos was there.

When did he come in?

I was sure he’d gotten back later than me. He’d come home after so long—he should’ve slept his fill. Thinking that, I washed up and came out, only to see the aide who was preparing either breakfast or lunch turn his head.

I walked up to the red-haired man, who was smiling broadly.

“Are you off today? Get some more sleep. I’ll do the dishes.”

The aide answered as he ladled chicken soup into a bowl.

“I’ve slept enough.”

“Don’t say ridiculous things.”

“I’m simple. I don’t dream much, and I sleep well. I can doze off anywhere. I caught some sleep here and there while I was at headquarters. Want me to pour you more?”

“No.”

The chicken soup was good.

I hadn’t known Kairos could cook to this extent. I’d thought he had no sense for everyday life.

We sat at the spacious table and ate. Surprisingly, not even the two weeks Yehyeon had mentioned had passed yet. Four more nights of sleep, and the mission would be assigned.

I wanted to know how the kidnapping case was progressing.

Even when he’d called asking why I’d gone out on a mission, Yehyeon hadn’t said a word about the kidnapping. When I explained that Jason had summoned me to headquarters and I’d heard the alarm go off, he’d only let out a long sigh.

Kairos, too, didn’t say a single word about the kidnapping.

Instead, he talked about Hesh and Tom, my fellow rookies.

I told him about what Yoow had done to them.

“I’m planning to explain everything to the two of them in a couple of days.”

When I said that, the aide nodded, saying it was a good idea.

“I’ll also ask them directly then whether they want to hear an apology from Yoow.”

“They seemed like upright kids. It’s a relief they’re your peers.”

I thought so too.

It’s not easy for people to be that free of inferiority, that unconcerned with others’ gazes. It was clear that things hadn’t gotten complicated precisely because those two were my peers.

Even if neither of them listens to a word I say....

I did the dishes.

While I took the plates from the aide’s hands and washed them despite him saying he would, Kairos hovered around me. Like he had something he wanted to say.

After setting down the last dish, I turned toward him.

“What is it? Just say it.”

Kairos grinned.

“I can’t handle you.”

“You’re making it obvious. How could I not know? What is it? What are you trying to say?”

“I thought about it, and it seems better to say it right before your break ends.”

What is it.

When Kairos said we should go work out together if I was heading out, I grabbed his shoulder.

“Say it now! I’m curious.”

“Now doesn’t seem like the right time. It’s nothing big, so don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you in a few days.”

“If you’re going to tell me in a few days, just tell me now. I might not be in a situation to listen then. Even if things don’t get messy, I might not be in the mood to hear you out.”

“You’re not the kind of person who ignores what others say just because you’re in a bad mood.”

“Tell me!”

“Can I do emotional transference one more time?”

I immediately backed away.

Kairos burst out laughing.

“See?”

I leaned my back against the wall. Still there, I studied the aide as he laughed and said, This is why I was going to say it right before the mission gets assigned.

“What now?”

The aide shrugged, smiling.

“It’s not so much a request as it is asking your opinion. Think of it lightly.”

“No, why all of a sudden? Did something happen?”

As I asked back, fear suddenly gripped me and I closed the distance.

“You didn’t make some weird kind of resolve or anything, did you?”

“You mean resolve to die? No. As you know, I value my life quite highly.”

“Then why are you acting like this?”

I asked, frightened.

Maybe it showed on my face, because Kairos spoke in a soothing tone.

“There’s really nothing going on. I just felt like doing it. Before you get assigned anything related to the kidnapping.”

“You just... felt like it?”

I was afraid of Kairos’s intuition.

Because his intuition was always terrifyingly accurate. My own instincts tended to be right too, but the aide’s were even more precise than mine or Kyle’s. Probably honed through countless matches. That wild, masculine instinct of his often played a major role in turning the tables when he was at a disadvantage.

So, still scared, I looked at him and nodded.

Kairos gave me a bitter smile.

“It’s just a feeling. No need to think deeply about it, Hilde. I didn’t think deeply about it either.”

“Okay. Anyway... do whatever you want. Follow your instincts.”

Kairos smiled gently.

And then he did exactly what he wanted.

He did it so freely that this time too, I had to stop him and tell him to quit. Kairos immediately withdrew his emotions. After gathering them back in, he looked at me and smiled brightly.

What was that?

Thanks to the raw, unprocessed emotions he’d poured out, my fear had eased.

To be precise, I was intoxicated by the other person’s emotions and couldn’t properly feel my own. Even in my dazed state from the aftereffects of emotional transference, worry was unavoidable.

I didn’t even have time to feel embarrassed about my turmoil.

“Promise you’ll stay by my side safely.”

When I murmured in a hazy state, Kairos gave a bitter smile and brought me some water.

“I told you not to worry.”

After clearing away the empty glass, he added,

“Worry about your own body.”

I didn’t bother replying with I’m much stronger than you.

Instead, I quietly nodded.

Trying not to imagine loss.

***

Two days later.

Hesh Lyle and Tom Husson arrived at the meeting place right on time.

The lobby of the old residential building.

After meeting there, we went to Tom’s place. Hesh was currently sharing a room with his younger brother, Luke Lyle. So we settled into Tom’s room, since he had one to himself.

We opened three boxes of pepperoni pizza we’d ordered for lunch and started talking.

I’d explained it several times already, so it was easy.

I finished the explanation cleanly, without excess.

But their reactions—

I was surprised by how different my peers’ reactions were from those the seniors had shown.

First of all, Tom was crying.

At some point, tears had started dropping from his eyes, and now he was pressing two tissues up against them.

“Tom.”

Once again, I floundered, not knowing how to respond to a peer’s reaction.

“I’m fine, so stop crying.”

“But....”

When the red-haired peer lowered his hands from his eyes, I saw the tissues stuck there.

Two tissues were clinging to Tom’s wet eyes.

I stared at the sight, momentarily speechless.

Then I reached out and gently peeled the tissues away.

“You didn’t have to go that far.”

As I removed the tissues from his eyes, Tom muttered,

“You didn’t have to go that far....”

“No, Tom. I made a choice for my own kin. It wasn’t altruism.”

“No!”

Meanwhile, Hesh—who had been simmering with anger the entire time—finally shouted in an agitated voice.

“It wasn’t you who acted altruistically—the ones who didn’t were the human leaders who were at the top back then! You were on humanity’s side throughout the entire war, weren’t you? And there are seniors who have something to say to you?”

“That reaction isn’t strange. Especially from veterans of the First War. The damage inflicted by tenth-class Creatures back then was enormous....”

“Even so, they have no right to blame you!”

True to his nature as a runaway locomotive of justice, my peer seemed unable to accept the fact that there were seniors who criticized me.

Grinding his teeth, he muttered, “This is seriously unfair,” then slammed his fist into the wall.

“I’m going to go say something.”

“Hey!”

This is insane.

I sprang up from my chair in alarm.

“Please don’t! Do you think they’ll listen just because you say something? All you’ll do is trash your own reputation for no reason!”

“I don’t care.”

Once again, Hesh acted like a train with no brakes.

“I can’t just sit by and watch something that ridiculous.”

“Please, just sit by and watch. This may not be a pristine, ideal army, but it is still an army. And you’re still a brand-new rookie, you know?”

“Rank doesn’t exist so seniors can unfairly crush their juniors! Hilde, there’s no reason you should be treated like that!”

“Hesh. Hesh.”

I urgently grabbed my furious peer by the shoulders.

Then I tightened my grip. After pressing him down and forcing him to meet my eyes, I asked seriously.

“No matter what criticism I hear from whatever senior, I’ll continue to value myself. So please, calm down.”

“You’re just going to let people misunderstand you? Let them push you down?”

“I won’t be cowed, and I won’t be hurt, so don’t worry. Sit down and finish your pizza.”

“You can really argue back properly, right?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be able to?”

“And don’t get hit, okay? ...Wait. You haven’t already been hit, have you?”

“Hey! Like I explained, I’m way more skilled than you are! So calm down and finish the damn pepperoni pizza!”

“If anyone says anything to you, make sure you tell us.”

At last, Hesh reached for the pizza.

Despite having grown up in a military family, my peer—shockingly unrestrained—chewed on the pepperoni pizza and emphasized it again.

“Got it, Hilde? Don’t hide it. Say something.”

Ha....

Inferiority complex, my ass.

Just like last time, this time too, my peers didn’t particularly care whether my skills surpassed Yun’s or Ami’s. To the point where I wondered if they’d even listened to my story properly, the two of them treated me as just their ordinary peer.

“Yeah, Hilde. The way Senior Trevain treated you was way too unfair.”

Tom said this while poking at the corner of his eye with a tissue.

There was something many seniors misunderstood about Tom—his disposition.

Tom Husson was emotional, but never weak.

In fact, he had even more guts than Hesh Lyle.

“If I’d known this back then, I would’ve said something to Senior Trevain....”

Scary kids these days.

Peers who didn’t care in the slightest whether I was a hundred or two hundred years old, who wouldn’t quietly endure unfair remarks no matter the gap in seniority, naturally said they wanted to face Yoow.

They didn’t harbor any particular ill will toward Yoow.

They just couldn’t understand why he’d acted the way he did.

“He apologized to you, right?”

Since both of them asked that question, I hurriedly lied and said yes.

If they found out Yoow hadn’t apologized to me, this time they’d definitely abandon the pizza and sprint out to deliver a righteous steamed-bun punch to Yoow.

No matter how painstakingly I explained how much # Nоvеlight # Yoow had suffered, they were the type who wouldn’t listen at all.

“So let’s focus on you two hearing an apology from him....”

“I’m glad he apologized to you.”

“Alright. Then let’s line up his schedule with a time when the three of us can meet!”

I answered that we would.

Feeling a little drained.

Clinging to the futile hope that these upright, unbent kids wouldn’t explode at the seniors who criticized me, I replied that I’d work out the schedule.

***

The next day.

One day before my break ended.

Around 3 p.m., Ricardo called for me.

Without knowing why, I headed to headquarters and met the green-eyed man.

A senior wearing the vision-protecting glasses he usually put on during breaks, perched on the bridge of his nose.

He smiled brightly when he saw me.

“You know~... you’ve never seen the enhanced-body adaptation room that rookies go through, right~?”

“Uh? No.”

What even is an enhanced-body adaptation room?

When I made a puzzled face, Ricardo laughed long and turned, heading toward the old building.

I followed him without asking again. I had no idea what wind had blown him this way, but I figured I’d get my answer if I followed.

I really was curious what an enhanced-body adaptation room was.

I’d never needed to adapt to an enhanced body myself.

But I’d heard that humans who received enhanced bodies for the first time took quite a long time to adjust. It seemed like a training room meant to help with that adaptation.

Wondering what it might look like, I walked across the sunlit grounds and soon arrived at a building whose purpose I’d never known until now.

The First Training Hall, where the enhanced-body adaptation rooms were located.

Ricardo strode down the cool corridor and pushed open a door at the very end.

“This is the first training room~.”

Oh.

I craned my neck and peered inside.

It looked surprisingly ordinary. Almost like a small studio apartment someone was about to move into.

I scanned the room—about the size of an eight-pyeong studio—then stepped inside.

After looking around, I turned back to Ricardo, who was standing at the threshold.

“It looks really normal.”

As I said that while looking at Ricardo’s smiling face, the back door of the room suddenly opened.

Someone else came in through the open back door.

A man stepping into the room with soft footsteps.

Shit.

I saw his face and nearly jumped out of my skin.

The one entering spotted me too and froze on the spot.

This is insane.

“No.”

Why is Jonathan Kudo here...?

Bang!

Bang!

In that instant, the training room doors slammed shut.

Ricardo closed the front door, and Ska—who had followed Jonathan Kudo in—shut the back door.

The exits vanished in an instant.

Jonathan and I both whipped around at the same time, and a senior’s voice leaked through the gap between the doors.

“Now talk it out with each other~.”

What the hell?!

Ricardo!

What the hell is this supposed to be?!