Black Badger

Yehyeon received a message from Colton.

He said Hilde had been treated and was ready to be picked up.

Abandoning all appointments, Yehyeon raced to the location marked on the GPS, where he found Hilde strapped to a bed with an IV drip in his arm. A mobile bed had been wheeled out in front of what appeared to be a private hospital.

All color drained from Yehyeon’s face.

He slammed the brakes, jumped out of the car, and ran.

One of Colton’s subordinates standing beside the bed turned his head.

“Commander. We are transferring the patient. Nutrients have been forcibly administered, so his life is no longer in danger. However, he experienced a couple of psychogenic seizures during treatment.”

“Forcing someone to absorb nutrients would obviously trigger a seizure.”

Hilde, drenched in cold sweat and staring irritably at the sky, grumbled.

“Feels like my PTSD got worse. Thanks, really.”

Speechless, Yehyeon stared down at Hilde.

The man lay buried in hospital clothes and bedding. He did not seem physically injured, but he looked unbearably exhausted. Whether from fever or suppressed pain, his white hair was drenched with sweat.

Why...

As Yehyeon stood frozen, Hilde met his gaze.

“I’m sorry.”

He gave an awkward smile.

“I caused a huge mess. I lost my mind for a moment....”

“Are you actually all right?”

“If he’s left to rest, he’ll stabilize.”

Cutting Hilde off, Yehyeon addressed the attendant, who answered blandly.

“We will transfer him into your vehicle.”

Hilde protested that he could get into the car on his own. Neither Yehyeon nor the Elder’s subordinate listened to him.

Yehyeon did not allow Hilde to move a single step until he carefully laid him across the passenger seat, adjusted the IV pack, and secured the paperwork.

Even as he pressed the accelerator to depart, he warned Hilde not to move.

Hilde listened with an apologetic smile.

Silence soon followed. It lasted until they reached their destination—because Yehyeon had told him to sleep until they arrived.

Hilde slept as if dead, then snapped awake the moment Yehyeon opened the passenger door, like a ghost stirring.

“I’m really fine.”

He glanced up at the stiffened Yehyeon with a faint smile.

“I can walk. More importantly, I should tell you what I did....”

“Talk after you lie down on the bed in the cabin.”

Yehyeon purposely hardened his tone.

Thankfully, Hilde obeyed. As Hilde washed and settled beneath the blankets, Yehyeon read through the reports sent by his subordinates.

Thankfully, Gilbert had attended the meeting in his place. It had ended without incident.

There were also messages from the Personnel Director and from Yun.

Through Yun’s concise report, Yehyeon learned exactly how Hilde had run off to Colton’s estate. Yun said those who tried to chase him simply could not catch up.

Personnel Director Kang Ju had also sent notification that the mission had been urgently deferred.

An indefinitely postponed clearance mission. After piecing the situation together from the reports, Yehyeon pulled a chair to Hilde’s bedside and sat down.

“Hilde.”

“Yes. Am I going to the brig?”

The man lying on the bed lifted himself slightly on his elbow and asked.

Yehyeon pressed his shoulder back down with a pale hand.

“Lie back.”

“Yes.”

“If anything feels wrong, tell me right away. If you’re thirsty or in pain....”

“I’m really fine.”

“Are you in a state where you can talk comfortably?”

“Yes.”

“If you’re sleepy, wake up and talk later.”

“I’m not sleepy.”

“Then talk.”

As he issued the dry order, Hilde made a strange expression.

Was he scared?

After scaring someone half to death, why was he frightened? 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Yehyeon barely held himself together, but from the moment he received Colton’s message, his heart had pounded wildly. Truthfully, it was still pounding.

Hilde, unaware of Yehyeon’s turmoil, wore the expression of a subordinate reporting his wrongdoing.

The white-haired man studied his mood before speaking.

“I remembered everything.”

Hilde spoke calmly about his past.

Yehyeon listened, aghast.

He tried to keep his expression from crumbling, but it was not easy.

A horrific tale.

It was one of the scenarios Yehyeon had anticipated—and the one he most desperately wished was not true. He had hoped Hilde had turned against his kin for some complicated, selfish reason. Something that would make him less tormented.

That would have been easier for Hilde to bear.

But of course.

This man would never have chosen selfishly.

Yehyeon had thought about Hilde often.

Even before he knew his face.

Even before he knew his voice, Yehyeon had thought of Hilde. His father had pushed him mercilessly and repeated endlessly, “You will never catch up to that man, but at least try to imitate his sword. If you cannot even imitate it, you are worthless.”

“I am merely imitating his sword style myself. I have not truly mastered it. If you cannot even surpass me, then you are useless.”

“Where is he now?”

Yehyeon would mutter while unable to stand after another failed escape attempt and subsequent beating.

“He could just do it himself....”

Lee Seunghyun never answered.

He only pushed him harder and harder.

Yehyeon only learned Hilde’s name after meeting Jaeyeon for the first time.

A gift from Hilde.

He had been too dazed then to register the words properly.

He told me to place our hopes in this.

The sword he received—

It weighed heavier than the practice blade he had swung until his hands cracked.

But it felt far more affectionate. Though identical in shape to a practice blade, unlike the cold training sword, this one seemed to hold its owner’s gentle fondness.

He had also received a voice message.

Yehyeon had listened to it over and over again.

Let’s hope for that. The odds are slim, but let’s hope.

He had thought the voice was gentler than expected.

He had expected someone as cold and merciless as Lee Seunghyun. Instead, it was unbelievably soft. The voice held sorrow, resolve, and a small fragment of gratitude toward its recipient.

He had loved hearing that small fragment of gratitude, revisiting the message often even after waking up in the hospital.

Being revered as a hero meant nothing compared to hearing that gratitude.

But now, knowing everything—

“Why is your expression like that?”

Hilde gave a faint smile, raising his upper body slightly to study Yehyeon’s face.

“Why are your eyes red?”

Yehyeon forced back the tears threatening to spill.

How could anyone remember all that and remain sane?

Just listening hurt.

Even while fighting to keep tears back, Yehyeon did not forget to gently push Hilde back down onto the bed.

Hilde allowed it without resistance.

“Yehyeon.”

The cool cabin.

The man lying there, staring quietly at the ceiling, spoke his name.

Yehyeon widened his eyes.

“Yes?”

“I thought about you while I was being treated.”

Hilde rolled only his eyes to meet Yehyeon’s gaze.

“I realized how cruel I had been to you in the past.”

Yehyeon blinked several times.

He did not understand.

He stared fixedly at the man before him—the man whose name, once reported as ‘Hildebert Taleb’ emerging from the portal, he had resolved never to lose again. The man whose voice sounding exactly like the message had made him indescribably happy when they finally met.

He remembered being grateful that his years of cultivating a poker face had served him well.

Hilde continued.

“To hand you a sword out of nowhere, then say I hoped you’d be someone ready to embrace the enemy and choose mutual destruction—or someone who didn’t care about living.”

He let out a soft laugh as he looked toward the window.

“It’s a horrible thing to say.”

“If you hadn’t said it, everything would have ended.”

Yehyeon answered in a low voice.

“You tried to choose mutual destruction with Kyle too.”

“Well, he was the calamity we brought upon humanity. If Colton hadn’t made that vow, I would’ve taken the Elder seat with the others without hesitation.”

Hilde turned his head back toward him.

“That’s the part that makes it worse. Even though I sided with humanity only because there was no other option, I still chose some unknown, promising human and told him to charge in ready to die.”

“Everyone was desperate. Why torture yourself with this nonsense?”

“It’s not self-torture. If I went {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} back in time, I would probably leave the same message again.”

Hilde said this with a gentle smile.

A smile filled with sorrow and affection.

“But I was still wrong toward you.”

Hilde looked directly at him.

“I’m sorry.”

He lifted a hand and gently brushed the corner of Yehyeon’s eye.

“And thank you for doing so well. I know I’m saying it late, but your form was flawless.”

Yehyeon began to cry.

Clutching Hilde’s arm, he shed tears silently, listening to Hilde’s soft voice asking why he was crying.

The one who prevented the destruction of the world.

Yet the one who received thanks from no one.

He was the reason Yehyeon felt all the hellish training had been worth enduring. And in person, he was even more dazzling than he had imagined.

Before the man he had resolved to protect at all costs the moment he heard his name—but had failed to protect—Yehyeon wept for a long time.

“Forgetfulness would have been a blessing.”

He murmured through tears. Hilde smiled gently.

With sincerity and affection.

“Then I wouldn’t know the wrongs I committed against you, nor that you are my disciple.”

This man still loved humanity.

***

“Commander.”

At Yun’s voice, I froze with my fork halfway through a Lexic noodle.

The voice came from the first floor of the cabin.

“Is Hildebert here?”

Right.

I ran away after making a mess.

The hand holding the fork turned to ice.

The familiar tone dragged reality back into place. Yehyeon had ordered me to stay in bed and eat something I liked, and for a moment I had forgotten.

When memory struck, a chill crawled down my spine.

I’m doomed.

I left in the middle of a mission, didn’t I?

With the senior members already prepared?

Strictly speaking—isn’t this desertion?

“Yun.”

Just as the dizzying horror hit me and the fork clattered from my hand, Yehyeon rose from his chair.

I watched the white-haired boy step toward the railing and bow slightly.

“Come upstairs.”

Please don’t let this be a desertion charge.

Or at least, please let the punishment be less brutal than the Empire’s!

Praying desperately, I listened to Yun’s approaching footsteps.