Black Badger

"...Did I make some kind of mistake?"

I muttered, sensing the ominous atmosphere.

Why were their faces like that?

Ricardo's eyes widened with obvious anger, which only doubled my unease. I quickly started racking my brain.

But before I could even ponder it, the answer came.

Ricardo's low voice echoed through the conference room.

"Did you write that will~...?"

That's what it was.

I had stepped out because Yoon called while I was writing it. I had just come back from putting down the person who had been sleeping soundly without moving a muscle the whole way home.

Maybe he was mad because I didn't properly fold the finished will.

I nodded and said,

"Yes. I'm sorry for leaving it spread out so carelessly. I didn't expect the two of you to come so early."

"Is that will the end of it?"

His sharp question cut off my response.

Ah.

They read the will.

He seemed angry about the content....

I pressed my lips into a straight line and carefully replied,

"Yes."

Ricardo let out a hollow laugh.

His laughter was laced with barely contained anger. Kal, with his arms crossed, scanned me up and down, and he didn't look pleased either.

No matter what I said, it seemed like it would only stoke their anger, so I just nervously glanced around.

The senior with the green eyes rolled his eyes and said coldly,

"Call Ami~."

"Yes?"

"Show that to Ami too...."

...Why?

What exactly made them so angry? Was it because I carelessly left the will and stepped away? Or was it the concise content?

Maybe both.

In any case, I didn't want to rebel and make things worse, so I obediently followed Ricardo's words.

Sorry to Ami, but she had just messaged that she finished writing her report. Since she was in headquarters, she wouldn't have far to come.

Sure enough, when I contacted her, Ami came straight to the conference room.

She had been excitedly rushing over thinking about dinner, but upon seeing the tense atmosphere, her eyes widened.

"What's going on!"

I gave an awkward smile as my senior slipped into the conference room.

The others answered with gestures. Ricardo pulled his hand from his pocket and silently pointed at the will with his finger. Kal Dow, arms still crossed, stepped back to make space for reading the will.

The ones who had created the chilly atmosphere.

Ami blinked.

"Hilde's will?"

She swung her arms as she headed to the seat where I had been sitting.

"Is Hilde mad because he left it spread out like this?"

My senior went to my seat and leaned down.

"But you shouldn't just read someone else's will without permission...."

Ami's words cut off.

I quietly watched as Ami looked down at the will with widening eyes.

Silence filled the conference room with its floor-to-ceiling windows.

She stayed frozen for a long time before lifting her head.

"Is this the end?"

I, standing at the threshold with one hand on the doorframe, quietly nodded.

I probably wasn't showing much expression.

"Yes."

Ami stared at me blankly.

I waited for my seniors' reactions without adding anything. It was very concise, but I thought it included all the necessary content. There was no one around me in a difficult situation who needed assets divided up specifically.

It was clean and nice....

As I thought that, my jaw dropped at Ami's reaction.

Ami started crying in big drops.

"Hueeng...."

Like someone whose tears burst out after holding them back, Ami bit her lip with her head down.

"Hilde is too much...."

Why?

What....

Why? Why was she suddenly like this? What was too much?

What exactly....

Why was she crying all of a sudden?

I was so flustered that I hurriedly walked over to Ami. And I peered at my senior, who was fidgeting and shedding tears like chicken droppings.

Tears fell drop by drop onto the conference room floor.

Ah.

"Ami."

I called out to her in a fluster.

"Ami. Why are you crying?"

"To Hilde... we're nothing...."

Ami said in a trembling voice.

"I was just... a passing connection.... Because the people from the past were so precious, we meant nothing to you...."

"No, that's not it."

No.

Why would you think that....

No.

A will wasn't like writing a letter, was it?

But I couldn't say that.

I wasn't that oblivious. Besides, seeing the usually bright and cheerful person crying so pitifully made my mind creak. Knowing I was the cause made my brain freeze even more.

I didn't know what to do with the person in front of me, so I bent at the waist.

Look at me.

"Ami. That wasn't my intention."

"Th-then why did you write the will like this...."

Ami wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffled.

"Why write it like someone with no lingering attachments...."

"That's..."

I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly.

"It's not that I thought it was an insignificant connection...."

I felt like I needed to explain my feelings accurately, but it wasn't easy.

What should I say?

I hadn't thought about it specially when writing it.

When my atonement ended, I did think it would be good if people weren't bothered by what I left behind. I wanted to tidy up my affairs so the scar of the void wouldn't be too deep.

In fact, I had no choice in my life.

On this matter, I couldn't fulfill my seniors' wishes. The choice of the last remaining kin would decide my remaining life.

I wasn't unaware of the attention, affection, and trust they had given me.

The affection I held for them was no less than what I had felt for my former kin.

No, from the beginning....

"It's because you're not a passing connection that I'm going out to finish my task."

I whispered without taking my eyes off Ami.

"It's the disaster we dragged in, after all."

"But why write it like this?"

Ami looked at me again, tears falling drop by drop.

I was grateful she met my eyes, but seeing her red, bloodshot eyes tore at my heart.

"Why write it like you're always ready to set it down lightly? It feels like we don't matter to you at all."

"No, really not."

I just knew that someday the time for choice would come.

At that moment, my resolve to heed the kin's wishes had never wavered. But that didn't mean I was placing humans second. If that had been the case, I wouldn't have tried to kill the kin myself.

If the new connections I built were inferior to the old ones, I would have begged to enter and live among them instead of killing the Titan myself, or just let them escape outside the core.

In fact, I sometimes dreamed of that.

A dream where the kin remaining outside turned their hearts and came into the core.

I soothed her while looking into my senior's eyes.

"I just didn't have more to write in the will."

"That's what's too much."

Ami cried drop by drop.

"Really too much!"

Why....

"Why don't you have more to write!"

Ami started sobbing loudly.

Her childlike, aggrieved crying echoed through the conference room.

What did I do.

The crying rooted me to the spot. I stood there blankly, stupidly just thinking. What did I do? How did I fix this? How did I comfort her? How did I apologize?

I never meant to make her this upset.

After spacing out for a while, I came to my senses.

Apologize first, at least.

I acknowledged my tearfully crying Ami and the quietly standing men. As I met their subdued gazes, I reached out my arms.

I gently hugged Ami, who was hiccupping.

"I'm sorry."

It was directed at the seniors in the room.

"I'm sorry. I was short-sighted."

Ricardo rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling.

That was probably his way of responding. Kal also let out a long breath and uncrossed his arms. Like he had a lot to say but would hold back since I admitted my fault.

I kept alternating apologies to them.

Then Ami's sobs gradually subsided.

As I listened to the sound of my life's light and salt calming down, I fell into thought.

I never imagined this will would cause such a stir.

I kept thinking that if Yoon saw it, he'd brush it off as no big deal, but I absolutely couldn't say that. Even reading a heartfelt will wouldn't lessen the sense of loss, so I definitely shouldn't say there was no need for a long one, right?

I patted Ami's back as she calmed, then pulled away.

"I'll write more."

Ami wiped her tears and looked up at me intently.

"I'm sorry. I'll write more. But I won't show it to you."

"That's right...."

Smack!

The situation settled with a solid whack to the back of my head from Ricardo.

My green-eyed senior seemed to have interpreted my last words differently. I meant I wouldn't show the additions I scribbled, but he took it as me saying I'd outlive them.

Well. Since it led to a positive misunderstanding, I didn't bother correcting it.

Ah....

Still, I should strive to stay alive until the moment I had to point the sword's tip at the last remaining kin's neck.

As I approached the will, I thought that.

*

"I was gonna get tempura omakase...."

"I'm sorry."

I pushed the chicken with its dazzling golden batter toward Ami and lowered my gaze.

"Next time, I'll definitely treat you...."

In the conference room.

Due to the series of events, time was running tight, so we ordered delivery and ate in the conference room. I had planned to go with safe choices like chicken and pizza, but pizza was scrapped because Ricardo hated franchise pizza.

So it became chicken and burgers.

It was the same burger brand I ate when I first fell here.

"I'll pay for this too."

I nervously glanced at the male seniors sitting across from me.

"Have the two of you... let go of your anger?"

"Just eat up already~."

"Yes, sir."

I immediately lowered my gaze.

"I'll eat well."

After dinner, I quickly cleaned up the trash.

I hurriedly sat Ami, who was trying to stand with her puffy eyes, back down and did the cleanup. I even fended off her attempt to help, mistaking it for her wanting to go out for a smoke with the seniors.

Only after hearing "Let's go smoke~" did I snap out of it and see off my seniors' smoke break.

As we made that fuss, the appointed time arrived before we knew it.

7 PM, when the entire Task Force was to gather.

We were waiting for Sophia Kallak.

"By the way, the squad leader this time is Supreme Commander Lee Ye-hyeon."

Kal Dow said in a subdued voice.

"Naturally, all orders will come from him, but it might be good to know each other's combat styles."

"Yes."

I nodded readily.

"Especially, I want to know about the two of you's...."

Clunk.

The door opened.

A woman entered the conference room.

She had jet-black hair grown to her shoulders. Her skin was as pale as Ye-hyeon's, and her eyes were as dark as his.

But unlike Ye-hyeon, her black eyes held hatred.

A coldly burning anger.

She stared straight at me with those anger-filled eyes.

I met her gaze and stood from my seat.

"Hello, Senior Kallak. I'm New Recruit Hildebert Talev."

"I have no intention of shaking hands with a creature."

When I extended my hand, a cold response came back.

"That guy has bad vibes too."

She was talking about Ye-hyeon.

I smiled wryly and lowered my extended hand.

I didn't know how she'd talk about him, but for now, I decided to hear her out.