Black Badger

Being on the same side did make things easier in many ways.

Honestly, I didn’t even need to explain myself. If I just went back to my normal routine like this, wouldn’t everything sort itself out?

I turned my thoughts over while staring at the gun aimed at me.

Considering his personality, it also felt like it might be easier to at least give a rough explanation.

I looked blankly at the chairman and spoke.

“Go ahead. Hear me out.”

Maybe because I raised both hands properly as I spoke, Heath didn’t cut me off.

I didn’t ramble on about being a Titan or anything like that. I only delivered the essentials. That I was a Badger who knew of their existence. That I had come here under Yehyeon’s orders to meet someone suspected of being part of the Chronos Cult.

In other words, I told him that you and I were on the same side.

I had no intention of trying harder to persuade Heath as he narrowed his eyes, weighing the credibility of my words.

If this was the chairman’s basic stance, there was nothing more I needed to do.

“Proof?”

“If you have ties with Yehyeon, call him.”

Given the nature of this place, it wasn’t likely he didn’t have Yehyeon’s number. He’d probably be too busy to pick up right away, but still.

Heath stayed still, maintaining his silence, then lowered the gun.

This wasn’t a place where backup could arrive easily. He had some serious nerve.

“If what you’re saying is true, then you no longer want anything from me.”

“You’re exactly right. Please let me leave now. I don’t want to stay in a cramped space like this with a sexual harasser.”

Heath snorted.

“Explain your relationship with Iza.”

He flicked the gun slightly, pointing at the photo I was holding.

“With the way you looked at that photo, you won’t claim you don’t know them.”

“We were friends, but we couldn’t narrow our differences and went our separate ways.”

I explained calmly.

Heath only studied me closely, asking no further questions. It seemed he was interpreting my reactions and answers in his own way.

As the silence dragged on, I averted my gaze and looked at the photos on the wall. Rei’s picture caught my eye first, but when I looked more closely, he wasn’t the only one whose face I recognized.

A group photo of scientists from back then.

Crouched in the center of the front row was Eve, smiling.

She looks young.

She was smiling brightly, clutching an alphabet book to her chest.

“Do you want to see that photo too?”

“Well.”

Without taking my eyes off the photo, I muttered as if talking to myself.

“At this point, I’m not sure what any of it even means anymore.”

The photo was thrust in front of me.

I slowly lifted my head and looked at the young chairman.

Heath’s sharp gaze gleamed.

“You were acting naive while pulling some half-baked honey trap, so I thought you were third generation.”

“Or maybe you’re just a sexual harasser, Chairman.”

“You seem to know Eve as well. You must be older than I thought.”

I let out a huge sigh.

Taking the photo, I lowered my gaze to Eve’s face and muttered,

“Yes. Anyway, since you say you won’t be smuggling out Green Dream, I’ll take my leave with a clear conscience.”

“Stay in the mansion until the Supreme Commander’s confirmation comes through.”

“I’m busy.”

“You’ve finished the mission you were assigned. You shouldn’t be busy anymore.”

“I need to go block the route through which the goods are being leaked.”

“So you’re heading to the Chronos Cult headquarters.”

Ah. Could Iza possibly have something like a blueprint of the headquarters or access credentials?

Now that I thought about it, it didn’t seem impossible. There was so much material here. Of course, it was far more likely that entry required biometric authentication, but even just having a layout would make things much easier.

I lifted my head and opened my mouth to ask whether such blueprints existed.

But Heath beat me to it.

“Are you going to look for Eve?”

“Huh?”

My eyes widened on their own.

“What?”

In contrast, his black eyes narrowed.

Heath shoved the hand not holding the Green Dream gun into his pocket. Without moving, he watched my reaction.

But I didn’t have the presence of mind to observe his reaction.

“Is Eve there?”

Even my honorifics slipped away.

“Is Eve alive?”

“Sounds like this is your first time hearing it.”

“She’s alive? I heard both her hands were cut off.”

“I haven’t been to that cult’s headquarters either.”

The chairman remained calm even after dropping a bomb.

“I’ve only heard rumors. That an anonymous genius scientist of the century is at the headquarters. That she’s hiding herself and continuing her research.”

“What kind of... what research? There’s no need to further research anti-aging or enhanced-body transplantation.”

She had succeeded, and in doing so, she shattered the precarious peace that had been holding.

There was no one among our kin who cherished Eve. The one closest to her was me. I was the first Titan to learn English. I was also the Titan who spent the most time with Eve. Eve always loved Titans, but her love remained unrequited.

Even Deltei couldn’t bring herself to like Eve. She disliked that I, as a representative of our kin, was becoming Eve’s test subject.

She wasn’t the only one. Most of our kin felt the same.

Kyle went so far as to try to drag me off the operating table.

‘I said I’d go! If I’d known you’d pull some shit this close to self-harm, I wouldn’t have made this kind of deal!’

‘No, Kyle. You’re going too. We’ll take turns, remember? And you know, it’s more manageable than you think. It just feels like getting a checkup from a doctor and coming back.’

Eve knew none of this.

She didn’t know, and she loved us unconditionally. She was more captivated by us than by humans.

Thinking about it now, I don’t think she liked humans very much. At least, not the humans around her.

That was understandable. She was a young woman and naive about the world, and many people looked down on her.

“Don’t trust it too much. I was planning to use you to confirm whether the rumor was true anyway.”

“Do you happen to have a blueprint of the headquarters?”

I could just confirm it myself.

“It would help a great deal if you could provide it.”

That measuring gaze again.

Heath moved slowly.

“I’ll give you the blueprint if you meet two conditions.”

“What are they?”

“The first condition is that you forget everything that happened here. Report only to the Supreme Commander, and keep your mouth shut.”

“That’s welcome news, as far as I’m concerned.”

I wanted to forget what happened here in more ways than one.

“And the second condition?”

Heath pulled out an ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ unlabeled black file.

The chairman stayed silent as he opened it and searched through the documents. I waited patiently for his answer, checking the time.

I should be able to return to the residence before midnight.

As soon as I got back, I’d report to Yehyeon and then start planning the infiltration of the Chronos Cult headquarters. While looking at my phone, I sent messages to Rose and Igor in turn.

The matter of Rose and Heath’s relationship would have to wait until after the headquarters infiltration was done...

“Hildebert.”

I looked up from sending Igor a message asking where he was.

“Are you the World Tree’s unfilial son?”

A small laugh slipped out.

I never thought I’d hear that nickname again. So even if my name and photos were gone, my old nickname had remained.

I had no memory of telling that nickname to humans, so it must have been the kin on Kyle’s side who told them.

After collecting myself, I met Heath’s gaze.

A human who had chosen to walk a different path from his grandfather.

“Yes.”

I widened my smile and added,

“That’s me.”

“Hah.”

Heath let out a hollow laugh.

After studying me for a moment, he handed me a thick sheet of paper, neatly folded.

I took it with a word of thanks—and then froze in shock at what Heath said next.

“To meet a human hero like this.”

I was dumbfounded.

“What?”

“My father used to call you a forgotten hero.”

Who.

Me?

“My grandfather told my father everything with the intention that he should seize the immortality he himself had failed to grasp. But my father had no interest in immortality.”

Heath dropped the Green Dream gun he was holding onto the floor.

“But he was very interested in the one who, through cold judgment, granted some Titans an ordinary life. Neither of us even knew that Titan’s name. We only knew him as the one with an insulting nickname, and as the only one who could dare call Kyle and Rei his friends.”

“.......”

“My father passed away believing that man was dead. But while he was alive, he made efforts from time to time to look for materials on someone whose name and face he never knew.”

“...Why....”

“He said that if it had been him, he could never have made such a choice.”

Heath made a strange sound.

Looking at me, still dazed, he added something even stranger.

“He always told me to learn from that keen grasp of reality, that cold decisiveness in execution, and that attitude of never abandoning ethics.”

“.......”

“I wouldn’t have been able to make that judgment either.”

The man who carried himself as though nothing stood above him suddenly bent at the waist.

“So I offer my thanks.”

His tone was low and courteous.

“As one human being. The gratitude that a human living in this era ought to show.”

A reaction I had never imagined.

I couldn’t answer for a long while.

***

“What the hell?”

Igor grinned when he saw me coming out, still in a daze, after being treated with the utmost courtesy.

“Looks like it worked?”

I barely suppressed the urge to smack him on the crown of the head.

I stared blankly down at my subordinate, then went down the stairs three at a time.

After giving a silent nod to the servants who had come out to see us off, I got into the passenger seat without a word.

Sylvia’s vehicle pulled away with a loud roar.

The moment the car started moving, I spoke.

“Your holy name is completely useless. Your divine power’s scraping rock bottom. Do some self-reflection.”

“Did you kiss him?”

Igor shot back.

I yelped.

“Do you think I would?!”

“If you didn’t, how do you know whether it was useful or not? If you didn’t kiss him, maybe it worked.”

“I didn’t kiss him, and it didn’t work.”

“Then it must’ve stopped at an attempt? No, wait. If it stopped at an attempt, that means it worked well. So if it was neither a kiss nor an attempt, that leaves only a peck.”

“I’m the victim here. Choose your words.”

I sighed as I watched Igor cackle, then pressed my cheek against the window.

“...Let’s get back to the residence quickly.”

I muttered in a tired voice.

“How did the headquarters scouting go?”

***

Leonard and Sylvia were exceptional assets.

Especially when it came to infiltration, abduction, and killing. The moment we returned to the residence, we grabbed an empty room and held a meeting. It turned out to be a very productive session.

The seniors learned a great deal in just one day. Security level. Possible entry routes. The best time windows for infiltration.

They even studied the blueprint and inferred where Doug Clark was likely being restrained and where the portal device would be located.

“It might not be,”

Sylvia muttered, looking down at the blueprint.

“But if they’ve got half a brain, that’s how they’d arrange it. The rule is to place portal devices either on the top floor or the bottom floor.”

“Doug might not even be tied up,”

Leonard said, failing to hide his inner hope that ‘please let Doug not be tied up.’

“If that’s the case, he’d be freely roaming around inside the headquarters. That’d be much more thrilling and fun! But if not, then if it were me, I’d have him restrained around here.”

“You’re saying there’s a rumor that the scientist is at the headquarters?”

Igor arched a brow, looking at me skeptically.

“That makes no sense. Unless she was kidnapped, there’s no way that woman would be inside that building of all places.”

“I said it could just be a rumor, so let’s go check.”

I replied while reading the message Rose had sent.

“She could’ve been kidnapped.”

Leonard would enter through the front door. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Under the pretext of searching for Doug Clark. But since no warrant would be issued, entry would obviously be denied.

The Black Badger deserter apprehension unit was walking a razor-thin line along the edge of the law. Desertion in wartime was punishable by death, but the apprehension unit didn’t have the authority to kill. Even so, they had tracked down and shot several deserter Badgers in the past, each time attaching reasons like ‘self-defense’ or ‘death during apprehension.’

It was complicated in many ways, but the gist was simple: while Leonard openly made an ‘entry request,’ the three of us would infiltrate the building covertly.

As long as we found Doug Clark, we could justify the act of intrusion.

Of course, the moment we failed to find him, we’d be dragged into a vicious legal battle.

So in the event that Doug Clark wasn’t there, we had to remain as undetected as possible.

“The Supreme Commander really trusts the two of you, assigning you something this close to illegal.”

After mapping out the infiltration route, we wrapped up the meeting.

Once the tasks were set, Igor looked at Leonard and Sylvia and said that.

Leonard smiled faintly, and Sylvia lifted an eyebrow slightly.

I let out a sigh and apologized for my subordinate’s excessive bluntness.

“I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s a fair question.”

The blond man smiled gently.

The senior, showing neat teeth that reminded one of a shark, continued.

“All of this is only possible because there’s deterrence. The two of us capture deserter Badgers. But if we desert, there’s someone who will execute us.”

“And who would that be?”

“Yun.”

Leonard smiled calmly.

“He’s the Supreme Commander’s closest aide, which is why the Supreme Commander doesn’t have to worry about betrayal.”

Why is my mentor’s name coming up here.

“And at the same time, he’s someone who has no hesitation about killing a person whose face and name he knows—someone who isn’t a Creature. If a traitor emerges from the apprehension unit, he’s the one who moves. In fact, the apprehension unit originally had three members. Now it’s down to two.”

When you really look at it, this organization runs in a truly strange way.

“That’s the collateral Yehyeon uses to assign us all sorts of missions. Feeling like you understand a bit better now?”

“Yeah. I get it.”

Igor twisted into a crooked smile and laced his fingers behind his head.

“That Yun bastard—he’s the rude asshole who barged into my house last time, right?”

Leaning lazily back in his chair, he asked.

I let out a sigh without affirming or denying it.

Then I suggested we call it a night. We should each take some time for personal prep for tomorrow. Have a good night.

The seniors nodded quietly and left.

Igor stood up from his chair after a moment of thought and looked down at me.

“Give me a chance to meet that man next time, Captain.”

I really don’t want to....

***

The next day.

Sylvia, Igor, and I infiltrated the Chronos Cult headquarters.