Black Badger

Ah.

I understood everyone’s reaction.

“It is quite tasty.”

It did not exactly look appetizing, though.

“It was something I routinely hunted and ate whenever we camped.”

“I do not know how far I can trust your ‘it is tasty.’”

Yun spoke bluntly.

“It does not taste like that weird noodle, right.”

“Lexic.”

“Yes, that.”

“It is not a taste that divides people that extremely.”

They do not trust my sense of taste.

I grabbed a senior’s gear with my chin as it slid sideways from the car shaking, and laughed.

Even Ricardo was giving me a skeptical look—great.

“Everyone ate earth-whale without trouble. Almost no one disliked it.”

“Are there people who like Lexic noodles? I objectively think they taste bad.”

What nonsense.

“There is even a fan site made by enthusiasts. Please do not underestimate Lexic noodles too much.”

“You should investigate the people signed up there. I am guessing they are all your kin.”

“But you enjoyed the apple liquor I made.”

“If you compare it—what does it taste similar to?”

Carl cut in with a metallic-sounding voice.

The vehicle jolted again. I grabbed the luggage that was about to spill toward those sitting across from me and put it back in place.

Ami seemed to have increased the speed again.

If nothing happened, we would arrive an hour earlier than expected.

Estimating the speed, I answered.

“If I had to say, it is similar to pork.”

“No way!”

Ami screamed.

“Earth-whales do not even have a neck!”

“A neck?”

“Yes. They have no neck, so they look very bizarre.”

“Well, whales do not have necks. Still, if cleaned properly they are delicious. They are not difficult animals to hunt either.”

Everyone used to be happy when we caught an earth-whale. It had been the first Creature I butchered when I had been a rookie knight.

Because it was an uncontaminated Creature, it was often used as food.

But strangely enough, no Creatures were following us this time.

What were they thinking.

I gauged the position of my kin and asked the seniors whether Creatures were ever used as food. They answered they had never tried eating any Creatures, so I explained one by one which Creatures could be eaten.

I told them so they could refer to it in case they were ever stranded, but they seemed more interested than expected.

Talking like that, we soon arrived at the base camp.

B Zone.

The place we would return to if we had trouble moving toward A Zone.

***

There was no one in B Zone.

The Badgers who had been staying in C Zone had finished setting up the base camp and returned to C Zone. The difference between the Safe Points in C and D Zones and the base camp in B Zone was the presence of Breath.

The shelters in C and D Zones were surrounded by small Breath barriers. But in B Zone, Breath did not exist.

There was only one building sturdy enough not to collapse, with various supplies piled up.

We parked the vehicle and entered the building.

It was 12:30 p.m.

“Do we really have to eat earth-whale~?”

Ricardo muttered while unloading supplies.

He really must not want to eat it.

I looked back at him and smiled faintly.

“It was right next to the building. I will catch it now and grill it, but if you do not feel like eating, you do not have to.”

“We still have plenty of rations~?”

“Would it not be better to save the supplies whenever possible?”

Our goal was the seed storage at the peak of this mountain.

The seed storage in this zone was not a Seed Vault but a Seed Bank. Meaning it was not a place that stored seeds for preservation, but a place that stored seeds for use.

A storage that received seeds as needed and sent seeds out for research or propagation.

We did not have to reach it at all costs. The goal was to check the untouched state of A Zone ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) and locate a point that could become the next base.

But if we could check the seed storage along the way, that would be good.

According to Yun, the refrigeration system would have stopped, so seeds that survived would be rare.

Even if they had a self-generated power system, that would have had its limits.

Still, he said we could not declare all seeds dead.

Get seeds, and also use the place as a base camp.

A clear and meaningful mission.

But we had to eat before departing.

After unloading, I walked toward the entrance.

“I will go catch it. Please rest in the meantime.”

“You are going alone?”

Carl asked.

I nodded and answered calmly.

“It is right in front, and it is not something that needs help. I will be back shortly.”

“What are we trusting to let you go alone?”

Sofia suddenly broke the silence.

Everyone looked her way. Ami, who had been muttering about how the kids had made a surprisingly decent base camp, Yun who had been checking the water supply, Carl who had straightened his back like he was about to come with me, and Ricardo who had been checking the condition of the rifles—all turned to one spot.

I also faced Sofia.

“You may come along.”

I had expected something like this. As I thought, Sofia seemed to be the personnel selection the Personnel Director put in in case I betrayed the humans.

“It will not be interesting, though.”

“Sofia, you heard more of Hilde’s story, right?”

Ami spoke in a calm voice.

“The Personnel Director told you everything, did he not?”

“Hearing it only makes him less trustworthy.”

Sofia did not look away from me.

Black eyes filled with desolation.

“How much must you hate humans.”

I smiled faintly.

Thinking this way is normal.

I did not feel irritated or sad.

I held up my palm lightly to stop Ami, who was about to speak, and replied.

“It would be a lie to say it is never like that.”

Sometimes I would remember that humans had left me with only one option. I had hated the humans who had left me without any choices.

If I said I never hated them, that would be a lie.

“But sometimes it is the exact opposite. You will not believe it, though.”

When I remembered the researchers who chased after my fleeing kin.

When I remembered the ones who decided to stand with humans. The researchers who could not fire a gun properly but ran to protect those who decided to live together. The humans who desperately held the hands of my kin and ran toward their vehicles. Every time I remembered them, I vowed to love humans.

The scientists who, instead of escaping the lab, ran to the computers saying they had to erase the records labeling my kin as Creatures.

The intelligence agents who protected my kin with their bodies saying saving human life came first.

There had been people naive like Eve, and people who were not naive but still kind.

I had a dream yesterday too.

A forgotten fragment of memory rolled into my dream.

‘Wear lab coats!’

The researchers ran to my kin who followed me and held out lab coats.

‘Then they will think you are humans!’

‘Let us prevent angry soldiers from mistaking you for hostile forces.’

‘Wear ID badges around your necks. That will make it look more perfect.’

‘Titans with unusual eye colors, wear sunglasses!’

Even as gunfire rang so loudly it almost deafened them, they smiled brightly and waved sunglasses.

‘We prepared them for each of your numbers!’

Many had not made it out alive.

I remembered looking down at their corpses in grief. They had been ones I should have saved but could not.

Brilliant people.

“But it is reasonable that you hate all Titans. Humans would have no reason to like Titans.”

I smiled lightly.

A heavy silence settled over the base camp. The sound of a water droplet falling felt noisy in the air.

Everyone seemed to be chewing over my words without moving.

Maybe I brought up too heavy a topic before lunch.

But it was something I thought I needed to say someday. Because the radiant kindness they had shown remained in my heart like a crystal.

Perhaps that crystal was what kept me from collapsing.

“Anyway, I will go fetch the earth-whale.”

I resumed walking.

“If your hands are free, please prepare the barbecue.”

I felt Sofia’s gaze following me, but this time I did not look back.

She would make her own judgment.

Anyway, I was looking forward to tasting earth-whale again after such a long time.

With my hand on the sword sheath, I stepped outside the base camp.

***

“It is delicious!”

Ami exclaimed with wide eyes.

“It is really good! It really is like pork, just like Hilde said!”

“I am glad.”

Her excitement was cute.

I smiled while holding the tongs.

“I will teach you how to butcher it next time.”

“Okay!”

“It is fine.”

Yun swallowed his food and muttered in a low voice.

“You just have to get rid of that obsession with those noodles.”

I am telling you, the noodles really are good....

At least the two men with picky tastes, Yun and Ricardo, were eating earth-whale without complaint, so I felt relieved.

I let out a sigh of relief and flipped the earth-whale meat.

Ricardo had narrowed his eyes and stared at the meat for a long time, but—

Being cautious with unfamiliar food was not strange. I was simply happy he was eating it without resistance after tasting a few bites.

Sofia also chewed the meat quietly.

Carl, who had helped butcher, was bent over the Creature compendium.

He seemed to be memorizing which Creatures were edible.

“What does this one taste like?”

He approached me from time to time and asked questions.

“And this one—does it not have poison?”

“Yes. If you just remove that, it tastes excellent. I will show you how to remove the poison later.”

Carl nodded silently.

Even this part of him was very soldier-like.

There was a reason even my gunner rated him highly. I silently thanked the Personnel Director for putting him in the TF.

If he had joined under my command when I had been a squadron commander, I would not have been able to help cherishing him.

I kept giving him various information.

All the way through cleaning up the base camp and heading toward A Zone.

Until Yun, driving over a road cracked wide open, suddenly stopped the vehicle.

Screech!

“Why did you stop?”

I turned my head.

I could not sense any Creature targeting us.

Sitting in the passenger seat, I gripped the glove compartment and looked at my gunner. The air in the backseat had changed instantly.

The sound of hands tightening on guns, the abrupt cutoff of conversation.

Tension filled the military truck in an instant.

Yun, who had created this, stared out the window with pitch-black eyes.

A gaze sharp enough to pierce through.

“This is strange.”

His dry voice echoed inside the truck.

“Why is the traffic light on?”