Black Badger

I’m shaking too much.

All of a sudden, it felt a little sad that I wasn’t rich enough. I wished I were rich like Yun or Colton. If I were, the moment I met the owner, I could just say, I’ll pay you a salary, so please make Lexic noodles for me.

If that didn’t work, couldn’t I at least buy the recipe for an enormous sum?

What if I met him and he said he’d already earned enough money and didn’t want to work anymore?

And what if he said the secret recipe couldn’t be made public?

I’d somehow gather the money—any way I could—and ask him to please release the recipe.

Tightly wound with nerves, I followed behind Bobby.

We were at a restaurant located in the financial district, a short distance away from Center Core. According to Bobby, you had to make a reservation months in advance just to barely get in. Sure enough, the place was full of well-dressed people, but none of the interior design registered in my eyes at all.

When we entered the private room, it felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest.

I followed the jingling blond hair inside.

The person who stood up when we entered.

The man greeted us in a plain, unassuming way.

“Hello.”

He had a bit of stubble on his chin, and hair that wasn’t very long, tied back into a short ponytail.

Black-rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.

“I’m Okazaki. Good to see you again, Ms. Winter.”

“Hello~.”

Bobby waved her hand, her bracelets clinking, then shoved me lightly in the back.

“Good to see you again. This here is Hildebert, the cider maker I told you about.”

He’s younger than I expected.

I thought that as I looked at the owner of Lexic.

He looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He was wearing a gray jacket and black pants, all of it stylish and perfectly suited to him.

He seemed like someone who knew his own taste with absolute certainty.

The kind of person who would lazily get up late and casually drop by a newly opened restaurant.

He extended his hand toward me.

“Nice to meet you. I heard you’ve been looking for me quite desperately.”

“Yes.”

I clasped his hand politely and replied with urgency.

“I really wanted to meet you, sir.”

Bobby and Okazaki chatted lightly about business until the appetizers arrived.

I ate the appetizer quietly, listening closely to their conversation. From what they were saying about branches and such, it sounded like Okazaki had other chains as well.

That’s ridiculous.

I felt a small sense of betrayal, though I didn’t show it. But didn’t that mean those other chains were doing so well that he’d abandoned Lexic noodles?

How could he do that...?

“Mr. Taleb.”

“Ah, please call me Hilde.”

Okazaki spoke to me, and I snapped my head up.

The man readily said yes, sure, and continued.

“Hilde.”

“Yes.”

“This may be sudden, but...”

He slid the phone he’d had face-down on the table toward me and asked,

“Do you happen to know this person?”

That really is sudden.

“He’s the one who taught me the recipe.”

I nearly dropped the fork I was holding.

I stared, mouth agape, at the photo of someone I knew. It was definitely someone I knew. Even though his overall impression had changed in many ways, there was no way I couldn’t recognize him.

Why is this person here?

“Georges?!”

“I thought so.”

Okazaki didn’t look surprised.

“I figured you’d know him. He’s the one who insisted I never remove Lexic’s basic noodles from the menu.”

I couldn’t answer right away.

Eyes wide, I stared at the man in the photo. Georges, his skin nicely tanned, was wearing a fishing vest. He held a fishing rod, wore sunglasses, and sat leisurely in a fishing chair, gazing out at the sea.

He looked happy....

The massive muscles and the veins bulging over them were still the same.

For reference, his profession is a chef.

“How do you know him... no, I mean, how did you come to know him...?”

“You can speak comfortably. Georges talked about you so much after you appeared in the media that I got sick of hearing it.”

“What? You know this guy?”

Bobby set her fork down and turned to look at me.

The gold earrings hanging from her ears swung back and forth.

As I nodded blankly, Okazaki spoke casually from across the table.

“About half the reason that unsellable noodle menu stayed on for so long was because of Hilde.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Bobby raised an eyebrow.

“You kept that on for a really long time, didn’t you? Even if you only switched to a chain recently, the original shop before the chain had quite a history.”

“That’s right. I bought that shop and turned it into a chain. After that, the original owner mostly just managed the junior chefs.”

“So you really are older than you look?”

The senior tilted her head, scrutinizing my face.

I made an awkward expression, wondering how I was supposed to respond.

Then I read the emotion on her face.

Bobby spun the bracelet on her right wrist with her left hand and asked,

“Want me to step out so you two can talk comfortably?”

“Senior. You really don’t care what I actually am, do you?”

“That’s right.”

Bobby flipped her blond hair back over her shoulder with her glittering nails.

“Sorry. Was it that obvious?”

“A little.”

“I tried to hide it out of politeness, but it’s not going very well. Still, don’t be too hurt. I am very interested in going to parties or clubs with you. It seems like it’d be pretty fun if I dragged you along.”

“I don’t really like that sort of thing....”

“I’m also interested in the men you’d introduce to me.”

“You should fix your taste in men.”

“It’s encoded into DNA. Taste, I mean.”

“Anyway, thank you for arranging this meeting even though you weren’t really interested.”

“You’re welcome.”

Bobby speared a strawberry from the small salad with her fork and popped it into her mouth.

Then she set the fork down and stood up.

The course hadn’t even started yet.

Startled, I asked what she was going to do about dinner, and Bobby waved her right hand dismissively.

“You can just pause mine. This place is run by a friend of my dad’s anyway, you know? I’ll take care of the bill before I go, so talk comfortably and head out when you’re done.”

“Thank you.”

“Have a good evening.”

Knowing there was no point trying to stop her, I thanked her, and Okazaki offered a casual farewell.

Bobby accepted our goodbyes coolly and clicked her way out of the room.

When the sound of her heels faded, Okazaki continued his explanation.

He wasn’t the type to beat around the bush. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“I’m about third generation. Not a human hybrid.”

I stared intently at the descendant of our kind I’d met for the first time.

Okazaki calmly met my gaze, then turned his body slightly and showed me behind his ear.

“You see it, right?”

“Who gave you that name?”

It was a Japanese name, no matter how you looked at it.

“Did you change it?”

“No. My parents gave it to me. They said they thought the sound was pretty. Apparently, Japanese people usually use this as a family name rather than a given name, but they really messed that up.”

What were they thinking, naming a child like that.

As I thought that, I studied him closely, trying to see who he resembled. But I couldn’t find an answer. Still, judging by behind his ear, he was definitely one of our kind. I was overwhelmed by the shock of meeting kin in such an unexpected place, and I sat there blankly until the next dish arrived.

Only after the waiter set down the seafood oil pasta and left did Okazaki break the silence.

“Do you know what Lexic noodles originally were?”

I couldn’t even think about eating the pasta.

“No.”

“You know that Georges used to be the exclusive chef of the Renyr family, and that just before the world ended, he caught the princess’s eye and received immortality, right? He’s told that story hundreds of times.”

There was no way I didn’t know.

There was no way I couldn’t know. The skill of the chef the Renyr family hired in its later years was so extraordinary it stole people’s souls. If it were Georges, he could easily have become an imperial palace chef. There was only one reason he hadn’t.

Because Swordmaster Rei Renyr had been his savior.

I’d never even imagined he’d remain on this side.

“Why....”

My murmured voice trembled.

I didn’t know what to ask first.

It felt like the origin of the food I loved was finally resurfacing in my mind. But I didn’t really want to trust the memories that were coming back.

I just wanted to eat Lexic noodles again.

Okazaki didn’t rush me.

He simply ate his pasta quietly and remarked that the noodles would go soggy.

Even as I picked up my fork, my mind was only half there.

“Why did Georges stay on this side?”

It was closer to a mutter than a question.

“He was more devoted to Rei than anyone....”

“That was true of you as well, wasn’t it?”

Okazaki’s question wasn’t a comforting counter meant to console me. He seemed genuinely puzzled.

Leaning back lazily in his chair, the man narrowed his brows.

“Georges used to say that every time. That there was no one closer to his master than the Captain of the White Order.”

I felt like crying.

Because Rei came to mind. My first meeting with Rei, and my last meeting with Rei.

I met Rei before I ever met Kyle or Kysis. It was back when I had absorbed an entire village, lost my objective, and was wandering aimlessly wherever my feet took me. That was when I ran into Rei, in a mountain cabin with only half its roof left.

Rei had been stranded at the time.

Though he denied that fact for quite a while.

‘You there. What are you doing out here?’

That was the first thing Rei ever said to me.

Judging by his clothes and his manner of speech, it was obvious to anyone that he was a noble, so I remember kneeling on one knee and replying in formal speech.

‘I was climbing the mountain and stopped to rest briefly after finding a suitable shelter.’

‘Is that so? Then you were on your way down?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. Guide me.’

‘Pardon?’

Back then, I was lacking both drive and soul.

‘I don’t actually know the way either....’

And that was how we ended up spending the night together on the mountain, opening the door to familiarity.

That was the beginning of our bond. Kyle and I were different in many ways, but Rei and I were not. We never really had disagreements. Not until we came to Earth.

Unlike Kyle and me, Rei was the son of a noble count’s family with real pedigree. But he wasn’t soaked in arrogance like other nobles. We became close quickly. So quickly that despite the difference in status, Rei eventually dragged me all the way to the imperial capital, saying that if I had nowhere to go, I should come with him.

The longest bond.

A bond that never wavered over an endlessly long time—one we both believed would never waver.

“Georges believed you were right. That’s all there is to it.”

Rei’s voice echoed in my head.

‘I’ll ask our chef to make a new menu item based on that soup.’

‘You know how skilled our chef is. He wants to try putting noodles into the soup.’

“Then why did you keep that noodle on the menu when it didn’t even sell?”

I said it without tasting the oil pasta at all.

I tried desperately not to show how unstable I felt inside, and fortunately, Okazaki didn’t seem particularly interested in my condition.

After chewing and swallowing a piece of octopus, he answered.

“There were quite a few older patrons who liked that menu.”

It did taste like something they would like.

“And among humans, there was a small but devoted fanbase for it as well. And Georges said that if you ever came back alive, he wanted you to taste it. That it was a menu created for you.”

“He must have seen the footage.”

I had no desire to swallow the pasta at all.

I set my cutlery down, then lifted my head and ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) looked at the man who was meticulously clearing his plate.

“He would have recognized my sword. Doesn’t he resent me?”

“That story, too, is one I’ve heard so often my ears have grown calluses.”

The waiter came in, cleared the plates, and set down the next dish. A well-grilled steak. At least this felt like something I could get down.

Okazaki didn’t speak until the waiter had moved far enough away.

In a voice devoid of any heavy emotion.

“He said he had no right to resent you, and more than anything, he saw Rei hesitate. That’s why he wanted you to eat this menu.”

“So because Rei hesitated when he saw my sword and died, he wanted me to eat Lexic noodles?”

“No. Because he saw with his own eyes that Rei couldn’t bring himself to hate you until the very last moment. That’s why he made noodles instead of soup.”

Okazaki skillfully cut his steak and opened his mouth wide to taste it.

After carefully evaluating the flavor, he added a polite explanation.

“He said that now, on Earth, the only ones who could properly mourn Rei would be himself and the Captain of the White Order.”

“...What is Georges doing now?”

“He’s retired. To be honest, Lexic noodles aren’t a menu that’s popular enough to franchise. After taking consecutive losses over the past few months, Georges and I were seriously discussing closing the place down. Then the moment we heard through a part-timer that you had come, we withdrew the shop.”

“Isn’t that a little too fast?”

Even while drowning in longing for Rei, guilt, and rising self-loathing, I still said what needed to be said.

Remembering why I’d come here, I spoke desperately.

“I want to keep eating those noodles.”

“Shall I give you the recipe so you can make it yourself? The cooking process isn’t that difficult.”

Okazaki tapped his phone screen lightly, then held it out.

“If you give me your number, I’ll send it to you. Or I can give you Georges’s number. You can contact him directly. He’s been obsessed with fishing lately, so he doesn’t stay on land very often.”

I gave him my phone number.

I received his as well. Georges’s number, and the recipe for Lexic noodles. I stared at the noodle recipe for a long time. After reading it until it felt worn thin, I opened the messenger and spent a long time looking at Georges’s profile picture.

He looked happy. There were dozens of photos of him grinning broadly while holding a fish nearly as big as his own body.

A menu devised to cure my absorption phobia.

One Rei had specifically asked Georges to create.

“Are you all doing well?”

When I muttered that, Okazaki—who had been ladling the warm soup that came after the steak—looked at me.

He seemed so very human.

If I hadn’t checked behind his ear, I wouldn’t have believed his claim of being third generation.

“Yes.”

The man who might well be a grandson of my kin replied readily.

“As you can see, we’re adapting better than anyone. We don’t actually know our homeland. Most of us can’t speak a word of the imperial language, and purebloods like me among third-generation descendants are extremely rare. There are many families who’ve drifted away from this community entirely. Even among those who remain, there are plenty of kids who don’t know anything about the Empire.”

That was exactly what I had hoped for.

It must have been the result of Yoow’s efforts.

I smiled faintly as I scooped up some soup, and Okazaki added,

“I’m a special case since I’m close to Georges and heard various stories from him, but I’m sorry to say that the Empire doesn’t really feel real to me either.”

“That’s to be expected.”

“But it’s an honor to meet you.”

For the first time, Okazaki smiled.

It was a smile completely free of creases, one that reminded me of Hesh or Tom.

“It feels like I’ve met a famous celebrity. I was already a fan after hearing all sorts of stories, but after watching the amusement park video, I became a full-fledged fan.”

The man apologized for the meeting being delayed due to other franchise matters.

But now that he was finished with everything, he said to contact him anytime. Looking at the clear face of a member of my kin who knew nothing of war, I let out a soft laugh.

And even under the weight of longing and guilt pressing down on me, I thought that I had made the right choice.

This was what I wanted to see.

Kin who were forgetting about the Emperor, about the burned World Tree, about the ruined world.

Kin who, regardless of whether other kin existed outside the Core, worried about the very human problems right in front of their eyes.

My kin had blended so thoroughly among humans that I couldn’t even find them.

That fact made me unbearably happy.

Once again, I was glad from the bottom of my heart.

***

Fifty years ago.

Ami stood facing a blazing sky.

“What is that?”

She muttered as she watched a fighter jet falling in the distance.

“What on earth is that?”