Black Badger

The sleep didn't last long.

I woke up to a cold shower of water.

"Since things have turned out this way, why don't we share some information?"

Water soaked my stinging forehead.

I looked at the droplets falling from my hair and spoke.

The twin who had brought something like a whip looked down at me.

"It's a deal where neither side loses out. I get my curiosity satisfied before dying, and you get the Badger information."

"You're still full of energy."

The woman smirked.

I thought she was pleased, but apparently not. The masked kidnappers flew into a rage.

"You still don't know your place and keep acting cocky! You lab rat!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. My bad. Just go ahead and kill me properly."

"What are you curious about?" 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The curly-haired man neatly folded the whip. He knelt on one knee beside me.

The hem of his dark suit brushed against the dusty floor.

"If you tell us something useful, we'll show you some final mercy."

His hand swept back my bangs again.

It was like he was admiring the seal he'd stamped on my forehead.

I quietly felt the pain on my forehead and spoke.

"I've been asking since earlier, but who are the ones who kidnapped me?"

The masked ones let out exasperated sighs, as if tired of the question.

Only the twins smirked instead of getting annoyed.

"You must really be curious about that."

"Of course. I want to know who led me to my death before I die."

The curly-haired man and woman exchanged glances.

While they silently discussed, I let my gaze wander boredly. Why bother choosing words in front of someone they were going to kill anyway?

Anyway, kids, answer me before Colton arrived.

The woman was the one who answered.

"It was done by a newbie who joined our organization six months ago."

"Huh?"

My voice rose in pitch.

"A civilian?"

"You're really arrogant."

The woman mocked my surprised expression.

She shot me a look as if I were an ignorant pup who didn't know its place.

"You think there's no way you'd get kidnapped by a civilian?"

To be honest, yes.

I didn't say it out loud, but my thoughts must have shown on my face.

The kidnappers burst into laughter at my expression.

"Look at that guy's face!"

"What can we do? He has to realize that aside from having an augmented body, he's completely ordinary!"

"Hey, isn't it time to drop that arrogance?"

"Even after the boss stamped the seal, it's no use!"

"These things just don't learn!"

The mockery dragged on.

Laughter echoed through the cold space. Footsteps rolled with thuds as they couldn't contain their amusement.

The man, who had been listening to his subordinates' gleeful jeers with a smile, brushed back my white hair.

"Living at the bottom of society and then becoming a Black Badger must have made you think the world was yours."

What nonsense.

Becoming a Black Badger didn't make the world mine. And I didn't live miserably either.

But to these people who had researched me, it must have looked that way. Administratively, I was an orphan, never went to school, and didn't have any notable records before becoming a Black Badger.

So they probably saw me as some street rat who never got a proper education.

"Did you even graduate elementary school?"

"I thought they at least checked brains to some extent. But who knew they'd recruit someone who never even went to school."

"A sudden rise in status like that, and he doesn't know his place."

"A newbie who can't even run missions alone, and you're shocked a civilian kidnapped you?"

"What kind of person is that newbie in your group?"

I stubbornly asked amid the torrent of discriminatory mockery.

The woman's eyes, looking at me, held mockery, contempt, and amusement.

"Ah. You still can't accept that the one who kidnapped you is an ordinary person."

Yes.

"But he really is just an ordinary guy. Quiet, always looking at the ground, a scrawny kid with the habit of biting his nails when anxious."

Jae-yeon.

Was Jae-yeon disguised as a civilian and involved in kidnapping me? That didn't make sense otherwise. There was no way I wouldn't notice a real ordinary civilian approaching.

It might have sounded arrogant to others, but it was true.

This was really weird!

I struggled to find a plausible explanation, unable to accept the twins' words.

The kidnappers delighted in my confusion.

"It must hurt your pride?"

Not really.

"Your expression still can't accept reality. You know, you might not realize this yet, but getting an augmented body doesn't make you invincible all of a sudden."

"Why did that newbie kidnap me? Did you have him handle it as grunt work?"

"No. He insisted on doing it himself."

The male twin stroked the whip with his hand.

"He said to trust him and leave it to him."

They woke me with water, and now they were going for the whip.

It was a good thing I was chosen as the kidnapping target. I'd lived enough life that I could handle this without mental trauma.

But if it were Tom or Hesi, they'd have been hit hard mentally.

A small sense of relief spread in my chest.

"Why did he insist on doing it himself?"

"What a guy."

Crack!

The whip lashed my wet body.

A burning pain came, but it wasn't as bad as I'd thought.

I shook my head lightly to clear the hair covering my eyes.

I should keep asking questions.

"What's the name of the guy who kidnapped me?"

"What good does knowing do? You're going to die anyway."

"I want to shout the name of the one who kidnapped me as I die."

"He still can't accept reality."

"Hey! How many times do we have to say it? You got stupidly kidnapped by a loser!"

The masked ones enjoyed my denial of reality.

They laughed so hard it resonated, then pointed at me accusingly.

"By that stuttering nerd you've never seen stand straight—you couldn't lift a finger against him!"

"Ah, I want to show you what that loser looks like. Seeing his pathetic state would shock you more."

"But he's still a newbie on your side, isn't that too harsh?"

"He's still in denial."

The kidnappers seemed to find it amusing to mock the 'arrogant newbie Badger who couldn't accept being kidnapped by an ordinary civilian.'

But it wasn't arrogance...

Ah. No matter how I explained it, it sounded cocky.

I gave up on further explanations at some point. They didn't seem to know much about the one who kidnapped me anyway. They just kept emphasizing how pathetic he was. Stuttering, hunched back, biting nails when anxious, and never seen exercising.

When they got tired of that, the male twin grabbed my hair.

He lifted my head and smirked.

"Our arrogant Talev."

Madness and superiority gleamed in his eyes.

"The time has come to teach you a lesson in humility."

The dialogue was cheesy.

Holding the whip in his pitch-black suit, the picture was bizarre.

I sighed as I watched the twin raise his whip-holding hand.

"No one will come to save you, even if you beg for mercy in tears."

My sigh must have felt like provocation, because the man said,

"Even if Ye-hyeon saw the email, there's no way he'd find this place in time."

"Oh, really?"

"No one would bother trying to rescue a worthless newbie."

Gleeful spark in his eyes.

His lips curled up.

No matter what belief he was asserting, right now it seemed like he was thrilled just by crushing a Badger.

He swung the whip.

"Your arrogance is what killed you, Talev!"

Bang!

The hand exploded.

Bang!

The other twin's hand flew off too.

The kidnappers froze in place like after a bomb went off.

The man and woman stared blankly at their missing hands.

I blinked at them, who had forgotten even to scream.

Ah.

This time, my skills were really lacking; I didn't sense the presence.

"Aaaah!"

A sharp scream pierced my ears.

"Aaaah! My hand! My hand!"

"Ugh! Aah!"

"It's a gun!"

"Save me!"

"When did you get there?"

I let out a hollow laugh at the man standing ghost-like in the dark corner of the room.

"I didn't even hear you come in."

Lee Seung-hyun didn't answer.

He replied by stepping out from the corner's darkness, footstep by footstep. The kidnappers, screaming in shock at the blood soaking the floor and scattered flesh, belatedly noticed him.

The fearful shouts grew thicker.

Lee Seung-hyun walked toward me as if he couldn't hear the terrified noises.

"Thanks."

"Lab rat?"

The man swung his arm once to free my bonds, then raised one eyebrow as he looked at my forehead.

"You let them stamp something like this on you?"

"I was injected with a ton of drugs, so I wasn't confident in controlling my strength."

I let out a small groan as I pushed off the floor to raise my upper body.

My hands had been tied too long and were bluish.

"They kept filming the whole time... If I couldn't control my strength and that part got edited and spread, it'd be a big problem."

Even an elder couldn't erase every video that spread online.

I really didn't want to put Ye-hyeon in a tough spot.

Lee Seung-hyun snorted wordlessly as he watched me slowly stand. His thoughts were clear without words. From getting kidnapped to now, it was pathetic.

Not wrong, but...

The branded spots on my forehead and stomach still hurt.

I let out a heavy sigh and met his eyes.

"But I didn't expect you to come. I was waiting for Colton."

His disciple didn't spare a glance at the screaming kidnappers or the twins flailing pale as they tried to staunch their wrist wounds. He raised an eyebrow.

Yekaterina's retainer.

A man who looked just like Ye-hyeon but lacked Ye-hyeon's characteristic pallor and fragility spoke in a low voice.

"You still haven't grasped the situation?"

"Huh? What?"

"You seem to have no idea about the reactions around you."

My hearing caught the approaching engine sounds.

Sounds of several cars stopping. People getting out.

Lee Seung-hyun stepped back a pace from me.

"You'd better realize it now."

The door opened.

Light stabbed my eyes, accustomed to the dark. Approaching footsteps. Amid the kidnappers' panic-filled screams, I sensed the bustling presences drawing near.

People entered casually. Familiar faces. Eric looked extremely pleased, in contrast to the blond who looked displeased.

Shashinsky, who looked as displeased as the blond for some reason.

As they crossed the threshold, Jae-yeon burst in through the broken wall, looking as pleased as Eric.

This time, in a male body.

"What the!"

The kidnappers shouted in panic, but no one paid attention.

"Who are you guys! Who are you!"

It wasn't an elder meeting, so why were they arriving one after another like this.

I was just waiting for Colton. I felt overly honored by this treatment.

The population density rose in an instant. This shabby place had turned into a gathering spot for elders.

Shashinsky and the blond knocked out the panicking kidnappers trying to flee with solid punches.

"Ah, you're in quite the state."

Eric, stopping at an appropriate spot, spoke as soon as he saw me.

"I almost want to take a photo to remember this."

"You already saw the video."

"Of course. That's why we rushed here."

"Ah, damn it."

Jae-yeon scanned Lee Seung-hyun, Eric, and the group, then spat a curse.

"You guys come in all excited, but seeing Ye-hyeon's dad and the cultists ruins the mood."

The fox-like man irritably ran a hand through his hair.

Lee Seung-hyun didn't react to his eye-rolling attitude, while Eric winked skillfully.

I watched Jae-yeon raise both hands and flip off Eric with middle fingers.

Then I asked.

"Why'd you take so long to get here?"

"You complain even after we came."

Jae-yeon turned his head from Eric.

He glared at me with furrowed brows, then burst into laughter upon seeing my forehead.

"Hey! Seeing it in person, it's really a sight!"

"Yeah. Thanks for worrying."

"Too bad. If it weren't for the exam, I'd have let you suffer a bit longer."

His eyes curved like crescent moons.

"Then we'd have gotten an even better video."

As expected, everyone saw that video.

Then Ye-hyeon and Ska must have seen it too. Both the first and second videos.

Realizing that, a wave of embarrassment surged up. It wasn't embarrassing shown to the people here, but thinking of Ye-hyeon or Ska seeing it made it unbearably shameful.

I closed my eyes briefly to calm my troubled mind.

While my vision was blocked, I heard Shashinsky and the blond steadily dealing with the kidnappers. They were trying to keep the twins alive, staunching the man and woman's wounds to drag them somewhere.

Well. The elders would handle them from now on.

I breathed slowly.

"Hey, come on, hurry up."

Then I opened my eyes at Jae-yeon's irritated words.

"Aren't you taking the exam?"

I am.

Opening my eyes, I turned my gaze to the tall man standing before the crumbled wall.

The one I'd briefly suspected as the culprit and still hadn't fully cleared.

I stepped toward him.

"Ugh."

My body pitched forward.

Lee Seung-hyun beside me reached out and caught my stumbling form firmly. I felt his solid arm. If he hadn't, I'd have face-planted on the floor.

Ah...

Smelling the blood on my disciple, I gave a wry smile.

"Sorry."

This was really embarrassing.

"Thanks."

"Hildebert."

The following voice.

It was the voice I'd been expecting to hear.

And in this situation, one I absolutely didn't want to hear.

Elegant and charismatic.

A voice that could change the air just by opening his mouth.

"Get in the car."

Colton Wiseman.

Standing beyond the broken wall in impeccable form.

He stared at me with eyes burning blue.