Black Badger

Ami was eating yukhoe, sliced raw beef blocks, and salmon.

What kind of combination is that.

A late-night meal? While thinking that, I stepped inside, and Ami grinned.

“These are the foods Oppa likes!”

“Ah. This is the revenge of the frappuccino, isn’t it.”

Cute.

I had the impulse to pat her round crown, but held myself back since she didn’t seem to like that sort of thing.

So Yun likes yukhoe, sliced raw beef blocks, and salmon.

“They’re all raw.”

“Yeah. Oppa likes raw things.”

Truly a disgusting man.

Without bothering to manage my expression, I sat in the chair Ami pointed at. I politely declined her offer to try some.

Only then did Yun lift his head from his phone.

“You did well.”

Those were the first words he said when our eyes met.

“The Carrot–Taleb plan. According to the article, it seems to have ended very successfully. You worked hard.”

“Article? Well, it didn’t fail. We succeeded in capturing Yoow, and Yehyeon wasn’t hurt. But Seunghyun got shot three times while shielding him...”

“So it ended very successfully.”

This man.

I stared dully at Yun.

By the way... does Ami know about Lee Seunghyun?

Wondering how much I should say, I turned my head slightly, and Ami shoved a chunk of raw beef into her mouth and said:

“Yehyeon Oppa’s dad?”

She knows.

“Choi Ami. Swallow your food before speaking.”

Ami chewed the raw beef a few times and then gulped it down.

“He got hurt?”

“Yes. This time... fortunately, the surgery went well.”

“Tsk.”

Yun clicked his tongue as if it were a pity.

Suppressing the urge to rub my face dry, I stared at Yun.

I fully understood why he disliked the man, but still...

“Just now, Yehyeon yelled at Seunghyun at the top of his lungs and stormed out.”

“I know.”

“Huh? You know? Did Yehyeon come here?”

“No. He messaged.”

Yun answered dryly and showed me his phone.

I blinked at the message window reflected on the screen.

Uh...

“Why did he send π repeatedly?”

Wait. Isn’t that the mathematical symbol π?

The message Yehyeon sent two minutes ago appeared to me as nothing but “ππππππππ.”

But judging from the messages from a few days ago, it seemed to be in a language I couldn’t read. I could see conversations in a language unfamiliar to me.

Judging by Yun’s faint laugh, my guess was right.

My superior put the phone down and asked:

“Did he get hit?”

I let out a sigh instinctively.

“Lee Seunghyun threw a glass at him. Does he normally do that?”

“What were you expecting from that bastard?”

“Should I go check on Yehyeon?”

Trying to calm my troubled mind, I cracked my knuckles for no reason.

“I received calming meds from Samuel, but...”

Instead of answering, Yun tapped his phone.

I didn’t interrupt. He seemed to be sending a message. Probably Yehyeon—after every clash with Lee Seunghyun, he must have always contacted Yun.

A few minutes later, my superior lifted his gaze from the screen.

“No need to go. He’s working. According to the article, he had a seizure once at the crime scene and then calmed down.”

“Yes... Seeing Seunghyun collapsing in front of him seems to have hit the switch...”

“He should’ve stayed collapsed.”

Yun muttered the unfiltered words.

I sighed so deeply it felt like the floor dropped under me.

“Yun. Please don’t ever say things like that in front of Yehyeon.”

“I know. I said something like that before and we had a huge fight.”

“Understandably. It’s a miracle he didn’t hit you.”

“I still don’t get why he can’t cut ties with his father.”

“Really?”

Ami, who had been silently eating salmon, inserted herself into the conversation.

“I kind of get it.”

We both turned toward her.

Ami, round eyes blinking as she chewed salmon.

She swallowed.

“He does nice things for him once in a blue moon. And since he saved Yehyeon Oppa every time, I think it’d be hard for Oppa to hate him freely, the way Oppa is.”

“Saved him?”

Yun asked as if he had heard a foreign language.

Ami nodded.

“He said the biggest thing was when he saved him at age six and then took him to the hospital every day until his trauma was cured, and locked the perpetrators in prison. And he dragged him out and trained him so he could survive the war, and even during the war he would show up to check if he was alive—Yehyeon Oppa can’t just overlook all that, I think.”

“Don’t you think that’s just what any human should do?”

“Hearing that from you feels strange.”

Yun ignored my mumble.

“Oh, and there’s this too!”

Ami set down her chopsticks, which had been lifting yukhoe like noodles.

“Once, Yehyeon Oppa ran into his father on the way home from school.”

“When he was a student?”

“Yeah. When he wore a school uniform. They met on the street, he stared at him, then suddenly told him to follow. Then he took him to a department store and bought him a really expensive coat and padded jacket.”

“He’s lived for over 70 years and keeps rolling around five or six memories that others wouldn’t even consider special. Isn’t that strange to you?”

“Do not say that to Yehyeon.”

This time Yun sighed.

Ami swallowed the last chunk of raw beef.

“But sometimes when my second brother is nice to me, I feel like forgiving him for bullying me when I was little too?”

“That crazy bastard? He bullied you?”

The rude man I met at the Choi estate?

While gathering the empty containers, Ami said casually:

“Second brother doesn’t like us siblings.”

Yun rolled his eyes without replying.

I stopped myself from getting angry. These two had practically cut ties with the Choi family already, and neither seemed to care much about Choi Hyunseok. It was different from the situation with Yehyeon.

And I had something else to say to them.

“We caught the one who stabbed you, Ami. I will make sure he bows his head in front of you later.”

“Oh.”

Ami widened her eyes and looked at me.

“The guy Hilde caught today ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) was that guy?”

“Yes.”

“I’d forgotten he existed.”

Seriously?

“He’ll apologize?”

“I’ll make him. But please wait a bit.”

“Where’d you stash him.”

Yun asked in a low voice.

At that moment, instinctive danger awareness shot down my spine.

I needed to move Yoow’s confinement location the moment this man was discharged.

“For now, the cabin. But I’ll move him.”

“Yeah, sure. Hide him well.”

His indifferent reply was terrifying.

I pressed my lips into a straight line and changed the subject.

“Seunghyun will be hospitalized for two weeks. I want to keep Yehyeon from worrying...”

“Here?”

Yun raised a brow and turned his head toward me.

“Yes. I transferred him here in a rush, so he’ll stay hospitalized here for two weeks before being discharged.”

“The hospital room.”

“Please don’t ask. Yehyeon is surely already not okay inside.”

Yun scoffed but didn’t argue.

After sighing a few more times, I left the room. Yun told me that if I got too worried, I should just message Yehyeon. He said that Yehyeon failing to stand his ground before Seunghyun and then eventually exploding and rebelling was something that happened periodically. He had never succeeded entirely, though.

The reason was simple. Seunghyun wasn’t the type to bend, and he was humanity’s strongest. No matter what Yehyeon threw, no matter how much he yelled, no matter how fast he ran with relay-race-winning legs, it was useless.

Come to think of it, the soldiers we trained with also practically bowed before Lee Seunghyun.

I should text him.

Fiddling with my phone, I walked toward the parking lot.

***

When I stepped into the cabin, Igor greeted me.

“Captain.”

I beamed at my subordinate’s expressionless face.

Because of the Carrot Plan, I had postponed feeling glad to see him, but once I let go of the impatience, I really was happy.

“Igor. Now I can finally ask. How have you been?”

Instead of answering, Igor yanked up my top.

I closed my eyes and gave a resigned smile.

“I told Kairos this too, but I also have something called privacy.”

“Lab rat?”

My subordinate didn’t listen.

In his characteristic low voice, he spat out a single word.

So Kairos must have told him. He wouldn’t have been able to read the word from the remaining scars alone.

From deeper inside the cabin, Deltei came out and examined the scars together with Igor. She stared at the wounds with her blue eyes in silence.

I sighed and brushed away Igor’s hand, which was gripping my top.

“Where’s Yoow.”

Igor met my eyes.

“Breaking his legs wouldn’t be enough.”

“Breaking them won’t change anything. Deltei. Yoow.”

“He’s upstairs unconscious. Kairos is watching him.”

The color in her face had returned a little.

I smiled faintly and stepped inside.

Igor followed behind me as I climbed to the second floor.

“There should be a line one doesn’t cross.”

My massive subordinate spoke in what could have sounded like a mutter.

His heavy, familiar footsteps. Without looking back, I gave a faint smile.

“Right. Fortunately, I caught Yoow before he crossed that line.”

“I think he already crossed it. If I’d caught him first, I would’ve slit his throat.”

There was no exaggeration or lie in that.

I could clearly feel the quiet, suppressed anger beneath it. I stopped with one stair left before the top and turned around.

“And if you kill him?”

Igor stared straight at me.

“What changes if he dies? It’s better to make him live and atone. No matter what, I’ll make sure our tactician bows his head to his peers and seniors.”

“Then will you permit me to chop his head off after that?”

“No. He has to live in regret.”

Holding onto the railing, I smiled.

“Because Yoow is someone who knows how to regret.”

And living in regret 365 days a year is a hell of its own.

My steadfast knight lowered his head slightly. It was his way of saying he would obey my decision, even if he didn’t like it.

Still loyal, as always.

With a bitter smile, I climbed to the second floor.

Yoow was lying on the floor beside the bed.

Next to him, looking down at him, stood a red-haired handler. Kairos hadn’t even changed out of the formal suit he’d worn at the banquet.

Why did you dump a person like cargo?

“...Put him on the bed. Or at least on a bean bag.”

“This is your bed.”

Kairos tore his gaze from Yoow and grinned.

“Wrapped things up well? What now?”

I gave the simple instructions.

Yun would be discharged in five days if nothing else happened. So in five days, I planned to move Yoow. My superior was someone who would genuinely storm the cabin and drag Yoow onto a dissection table.

I would move him to a hotel or to Igor’s house.

Before that, for the five days, at least two people would stay in the cabin at all times. It was to prevent Yoow from going berserk or escaping. Because Igor and Deltei were freelancers (well, more precisely, Igor was unemployed), arranging schedules wasn’t hard. Their homes were a bit far from here, but they could take turns sleeping in the cabin.

Though it was cramped.

“If he still doesn’t look normal after five days, I’m planning to call the Personnel Director.”

“What?”

Deltei blinked.

“What do you mean? What director?”

“There’s a genius of personnel at HQ. If things don’t go well, we should get help.”

I hoped we could find an answer before that.

I knew very well that mental treatment wasn’t something solved overnight, nor something amateurs could handle. I said I’d explain the details later and changed the subject.

We had established the big pieces; now the rest needed sorting too.

First—

“Where are Adam’s parents now?”

I asked while organizing my thoughts.

In an instant, the atmosphere inside the cabin froze.

“...Why do you ask that suddenly?”

Deltei pressed her lips shut, then answered in a thin voice.

Straightening from my thinking posture, I looked at the Saint casually.

The moment our eyes met, Deltei showed a strange expression. With a frightened look, she stepped back, lowering her gaze diagonally.

Kairos narrowed his eyes and examined my face.

Igor was the one who answered.

“They passed away.”

“Why?”

“A car accident.”

My black-haired subordinate leaned against the wall with arms crossed.

“The two of them died at once.”

“An unforeseen accident?”

“At least that’s what we were told.”

Igor uncrossed his arms and turned his body toward me.

“Why do you ask this?”

Smiling, I looked at my kin.

Those who supported me. Those who didn’t forget me. Those who came to follow me even though the Empire had long since fallen, calling me by that old-fashioned title.

Those who stayed alive and kept waiting for me.

“I heard they left a game for me. The last game is in Yoow’s vault.”

“You’re going to look at it?”

“I have to. It’s a letter written to me.”

“Is there any need to look at it right now?”

Deltei lifted her head and spoke urgently.

“It wouldn’t be too late after things settle down. It’s not like the game is going to run away...”

“Why are you so scared, Del. Do you know what’s written in the letter?”

“No. I have no idea. They never showed it to anyone. Not even to Yoow. They said they put an Easter egg only you could unlock. That’s why it scares me more.”

Ah.

I understood her fear.

Honestly, even I felt my stomach twist at the thought of opening the message. I feared the reproach and resentment I might face. I feared the guilt and regret that would flood me afterward.

And the heavy sadness that would no doubt come.

But looking away from the problem in front of me was not an option.

Avoiding never makes things better.

“I have to face it.”

That was how I had lived all my life.

“It’s what was left for me.”

It was also the result of my choices.

My kin didn’t argue further. They looked at me for a moment and each, in their own way, indicated they understood. Then they hurried me off to rest when I smiled and thanked them.

All three said they planned to sleep in the cabin tonight.

As if the massage chair didn’t already make the place cramped.

“Kairos, at least you go home.”

“What if I refuse?”

“Then I’ll go to your house?”

My kin didn’t stop me. On the contrary, they chased me out to Kairos’s house as if saying, Oh, that option existed?

Unbelievable...

***

At dawn, I left the house.

I planned to secretly go to the columbarium where Adam’s parents were laid to rest.

Around 5 a.m.

Letting out white breaths of cold air on the road, I came face-to-face with a child trudging toward me.

“Yehyeon.”

I shouted his name in shock.

“What are you doing without a car?”