Black Badger

So Kairos said we should get off work together.

When I relayed that, Yun told me to bring the handler along too.

“But I’m not sure he can even get off work right now.”

What does that mean?

I immediately pulled out my phone and sent a message, asking if he was at the Science Wing and whether he could leave work. After that, I logged into the ‘Black Badger Special Employment Mission Management Calendar.’

It was the place where the schedules of full-time Black Badgers were organized.

If you went in and typed a name, that person’s service status came up. Things like ‘4.3, 18:00~4.4, 09:00 patrol’ or ‘4.5~land-clearing’ were registered on the calendar like that. Leave, sick leave, and temporary suspension were also entered, so you could roughly check the other person’s schedule.

Kairos was...

「3.29 General Military Unit Dispatch」

“Hm?”

What is this?

“They can’t write ‘Video Center,’ so they put it down like that. I heard he’s being worked to the bone at the Video Center.”

My mentor explained it to me when he saw I hadn’t grasped the situation.

“By the way, when is your grandfather leaving? The Science Wing is a restricted area for non-affiliated personnel.”

That was what Yun said while looking at Igor.

Seeing my mentor call Igor ‘grandfather,’ I was horrified. This was one hundred percent sarcasm. Igor and Yun had no relationship whatsoever. By common sense, the two of them should have been using the same level of honorifics toward each other.

But neither of them possessed anything resembling common sense.

Igor crossed his arms and put on a dangerous smile.

“If the commander leaves, I’ll leave with him, you brat.”

“I plan to take Hildebert home in my car. I don’t know if you have a vehicle, but I hope you get home safely. You should at least have money for transportation.”

“Yun, Yun. I’ll escort him out.”

I hurriedly wedged myself between the two men.

“I’m sorry. This is my fault. Igor, go back first. If I get in touch with Kai, I think I’ll be back soon.”

“You’re telling me to ride in a car belonging to a brain-damaged bastard? Either take my car, or come in the handler’s car.”

“Hildebert is core Badger combat power, so I can’t put him in a car that might stall at any moment. I ask for your understanding, sir.”

“You snot-nosed brat who doesn’t even have blood dried on his head....”

“Stop it already!”

I shoved both of them in the chest at the same time, physically forcing distance between them.

“You’re both old enough, yet you’re acting like elementary school kids.”

Yun let out a snort of laughter and turned away, and Igor rolled his eyes.

Still, the subordinate uncrossed his arms and said he’d go wait at the cabin, then turned away. For all the bickering, he was a diligent guy.

After parting with Igor and heading back to the Science Wing, I got a message from Kairos.

[Kairos: I’m at the Center. Looks like I can get off in about 30 minutes.]

[Me: I’ll go with Yun, if you’re not uncomfortable.]

[Kairos: No, I’ll go there. I just need to go to Yun sunbae’s desk, right? I’m not uncomfortable. He seems very polite as long as you keep the line.]

He really is good at navigating social situations.

As expected of someone who, despite receiving imperial favor for decades, had never once offended their sensibilities.

I went back into the lab, pulled a chair over next to Yun’s desk, and sat down. I leaned back lazily and spaced out.

Martin is cute....

They said he’d been booted after a function upgrade, and his speed really did seem faster than before.

Even the hologram images looked richer in color. Watching the various visuals Martin projected made my sense of time dull.

A jellyfish....

“Repair!”

With a loud shout, people burst into the lab.

“Center Core’s greatest brains, fix my beloved ride for me! ...Huh? Isn’t the Weapon Repair Center on this floor?”

“Hilde!”

“Senior Bobby.”

The smells of sand, wind, and metal hit my nose all at once.

Three Badgers—Badgers who had clearly just returned to headquarters through a portal—entered the lab. Bobby, Karsten, and one unknown senior man.

They seemed to be here for weapon repairs. Karsten was holding a gun that looked broken at a glance.

Bobby, her hair tied back, strode straight toward me.

“Long time no see! I finally get to see you!”

“Did you just get back from a mission?”

I stood up as well and greeted the blond senior.

“It’s been a while, sunbae.”

“Your hair got longer? I usually really hate long-haired men, but it suits you.”

When I smiled awkwardly, Bobby stretched out her hand and brushed my hair back behind my shoulder.

“Mm. I like the color combination too.”

“Thank you.”

“You tie it up?”

“When it’s hot or gets in the way.”

“How do you tie it?”

“Pardon? Uh.... Either tightly into one bundle, or loosely just at the ends....”

“Mmm~ nice. That’s good. Oh, hey. Since we ran into each other, let’s set up that noodle promise.”

I pulled out my phone faster than anyone else.

Bobby grumbled that she needed to get her nails done but would probably be stuck doing land-clearing work for the foreseeable future as she took out her own phone. When I saw her calendar, I was a little shocked.

Her days off were completely packed with parties.

Isn’t she tired?

As I thought that and matched schedules with her, someone sidled up.

Karsten and the unknown senior.

“Hey, rookie.”

I looked at the two of them politely.

“Yes, sunbae.”

“That eye color and hair color of yours—those are natural, right?”

It didn’t sound like he was asking out of pure curiosity.

I narrowed my eyes and answered carefully.

“My hair is natural. My eyes aren’t.”

“Where did you get the iris-change procedure? When?”

“It seems it wasn’t a legally registered place. I had it done before I became an adult.”

“What was your original eye color?”

“I honestly don’t remember that.”

“Hey, I’ll just ask outright. It’s pissing me off.”

Karsten furrowed his brow and stepped closer.

“Are you even human?”

So it’s come to this.

I smiled faintly.

“If I say I am, will you believe me?”

“No.”

How honest.

“We should put him in front of a scanner.”

“Anyone got a scanner!”

The senior standing next to Karsten craned his neck and shouted.

“Hey, geniuses! Bring a scanner!”

Everyone’s attention focused on us.

Almost all of the researchers were looking this way. They froze in place, mouths tightly shut.

The air turned cold and rigid. The researchers who had been cheering and calling Martin cute just moments ago now swept the Badgers who had entered the lab with flat, flounder-like eyes.

No one moved or answered.

Veins bulged on the foreheads of the male seniors.

“We’re not saying we’re going to smash the scanner! We just need to check something, so bring any spare scanner!”

“I heard it was made here. Center Core’s greatest brains, I’ll just run a quick performance test and return it.”

Karsten spoke in a coaxing tone beside the angry man.

How do I defuse this?

As I worried and shoved my phone into my pocket, Kate shouted from deeper inside.

“There aren’t any Creatures here right now, so why do you need a scanner?”

Everyone’s gaze shifted to her.

The scientist, her hair tightly bound into a single knot, calmly looked at the two male Badgers.

“As far as I know, scanners are only issued when you go outside the Core because we’re short on them. You’ll have to look for that with General Affairs, not the Science Wing.”

“I heard they’re made here.”

“We make them and hand them all over. And you don’t need one right now, do you? It’s nothing but Black Badger personnel here.”

“We’re trying to check whether that’s really true.”

“Who are you going to check? Hilde?”

Kate now had her hands on her hips.

“Hildebert is a Black Badger.”

Now, no one was even typing anymore.

A suffocating silence. Only the beeping of experimental equipment echoed through the lab. The researchers held their breath and watched the standoff between Kate and the Badgers.

I need to get the seniors out of here.

Feeling the silence about to burst, I made my decision. I couldn’t push everyone into this uncomfortable situation because of me.

I took a step forward.

To tell Karsten and the unknown senior to go out into the hallway and talk.

Karsten raised his voice, irritation mixed in.

“You guys are stuck in here, so you don’t know how things are moving. But we’ve heard things, so we’re trying to check whether he’s human or not. If he just stands in front of the scanner and proves he’s human, it’s all over. Why are you acting like we said something so unspeakable?”

“He’s a Black Badger junior who even passed the promotion exam. Why are you doing this?”

“He could be a Creature!”

“Ah, shut up!!”

Bobby snapped sharply.

People flinched and looked at the blond senior.

Bobby roughly let her hair down with an annoyed gesture.

“I was wondering what kind of nonsense you were spouting when you barged in while I was scheduling.”

“Sunbae....”

“He could be a Creature!”

Bobby mimicked Karsten’s words in a babyish voice.

“Fuck off! Is that such a big deal? Did Hildebert stab you? Did he stab a senior or a junior? Did he try to assassinate the Supreme Commander, or point a gun at someone’s face like Lucia, or get caught stealing rations like that idiot Dawson?”

“...No.”

“No? Then I must look like some brain-dead senior who doesn’t even know the rumors going around these days, huh? Like I’m just hanging out with him, carefree and clueless. You butted into the conversation because I looked that stupid.”

“...No.”

“No?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

“Then what the fuck are you trying to do?!”

Scary.

Crushed by Bobby’s momentum, I slowly slid back toward the chair where Yun was sitting.

As expected, neither Yun nor John showed the slightest interest in what was happening in the lab.

John probably couldn’t even hear this chaos, and Yun was someone who didn’t care at all about public opinion. Unless someone shot a gun like Ruta Ayer or forcibly shoved me into a portal like the old seniors used to, he wouldn’t spare it a glance.

Especially since, from Yun’s perspective, everyone here was a far-distant junior.

I stuck close to my mentor’s chair, watching the situation while he worked on something I couldn’t understand.

From my point of view, they were far-distant seniors.

Terrified, I watched Bobby chew out the two juniors. The cold stillness had long since shattered. The researchers returned to their work, and those who had frozen in place started moving again.

After driving the two of them out, Bobby turned back with an irritated look in her eyes.

“Sorry.”

That blunt apology was scary.

All tense, I smiled weakly.

“No, sunbae. Um, I’ll try my best to match your schedule on your days off.”

“What are you talking about.”

She replied indifferently, flipping her hair back with elegance.

“Give me your phone.”

I handed it over at once.

The date was set for Tuesday a week later. As long as neither of us got suddenly called out on a mission, we’d meet that day.

A lot had happened, but just thinking that I might get to eat Lexic noodles again put me in a good mood.

I thanked her for taking the time to see me and put my phone away.

Then I noticed Bobby hesitating.

An expression like she wanted to say something but couldn’t quite get it out.

“...Sunbae. You can just ask comfortably.”

I said that despite having no idea how I’d answer.

Bobby, who had been hesitating, lifted her head and looked at me.

Clear blue eyes, as if asking whether it was really okay.

When I smiled faintly, she hesitated a bit more, then opened her mouth.

“Hey.”

“Yes.”

“You know.”

“Yes, sunbae.”

It was only a matter of sooner or later anyway.

So lying to a sunbae who had just taken my side would be rude—

“Can you introduce me to ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ a guy?”

?

“...What?”

What is she talking about?

“I was at a party last time, sitting at the same table as a guy who was totally my type. And it turns out he knows you.”

“...Who?”

Is there someone I know that Bobby wouldn’t?

Igor? ...No way he’d attend a party.

Yoow? Definitely not Bobby’s type.

Heath? He’s famous for being gay or bi, so probably not.

Wait.

Don’t tell me Lee Seunghyun?

“He was like a model, with eyes slanted up like a fox.”

“No, sunbae.”

I was horrified.

Not Lee Seunghyun—Jaeyeon?

Jaeyeon??

“That guy is human trash.”

“Yeah. He looked really slick and prickly. But you know those types are skilled, right?”

“...Are you serious?”

“Dead serious. Of all the men I’ve met so far, he’s my number one ideal type. So sexy.”

Bobby was completely serious.

I remembered what she’d said on the way to the Colosseum. According to Bobby, among male Badgers, her first pick was Jason Trevain and her second was Ricardo Sordi.

I thought she was just ranking faces.

Turns out she likes asshole-with-a-bad-personality types.

But still—no matter what—

“Introduce me!”

“As a human being, I absolutely can’t.”

“Then at least give me his number. He was literally my ideal, like he walked out of a painting.”

“What is wrong with your ideal type?”

I couldn’t hold it in and pointed it out.

But maybe she’d heard that often, because she didn’t look affected at all.

I’m going insane.

I stared at her blankly and said,

“That man is someone I wouldn’t introduce even to my worst enemy out of sheer guilt. He’s like the last line keeping someone human.”

“Your guard’s really solid. But I usually like handsome trash. Otherwise it’s boring.”

“This isn’t about fun. That bastard—”

KWAANG!

The lab door flew open.

It had to be broken. Someone had kicked it inward with force. The angle of the flung-open door was wrong.

To kick open a door that thick, you’d need an enhanced body.

Tilting my head, I looked at the men striding inside.

Jet-black combat uniforms, combat gloves still on their hands.

Burning eyes. Unhesitating steps.

Third-rank senior, then.

I don’t know his name, though—

My collar was grabbed.

“You.”

He yanked me toward him and growled,

“Running your mouth shamelessly at headquarters with that face of yours—”

KWAANG!

The ashtray that flew in was knocked away on reflex by the third-rank senior.

It shattered across the floor. Glass fragments scattered into the space where Bobby and I had just jumped away.

Short screams burst out here and there.

I looked at the glittering shards of the ashtray, then turned my head.

Yun was spinning his chair around while still seated.

“Gregory.”

So the third-rank senior’s name is Gregory.

“Nice to meet you. You look like you don’t know, so I’ll tell you—Hildebert is my deputy.”

“So?”

Third—no, Gregory—shot back as he brushed off his hands.

The seniors who had followed him stopped short. The ones in combat uniforms watched us from a measured distance.

Gregory didn’t care.

“So what?”

“I’m telling you to leave him alone.”

“And if I don’t?”

Yun smiled faintly and slowly rose from his chair.

Bobby let out a frightened sound, then suddenly grabbed my clothes and yanked me back. I couldn’t bring myself to say, ‘Please don’t fight because of me,’ and ended up being dragged behind Yun’s chair.

That ominous air returned.

The lab head’s voice rang out loudly.

“The Badgers are fighting! Clear the area!”

The scientists began evacuating in a rush, like buffalo fleeing from a lion.