Black Badger

As soon as the holiday ended—meaning, at midnight when the holiday ended—I got a message from Yehyeon.

At this point, I don’t get flustered by things like this anymore.

Yun had done something similar before. He’d said ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) he’d leave me alone on the weekend, and then the moment Sunday ended, he came looking for me.

Without being surprised, I opened the message.

It had come from Yehyeon’s official work number.

[Supreme Commander: Asleep?]

The sound of a vehicle reached me.

I sprang up and went outside the cabin.

And I ran into Yehyeon coming out from the garage.

“You’ve arrived?”

My superior—who looked even paler in the dark—nodded.

“Did I wake you?”

“No, sir.”

I really had been awake. Hugging Milk, I’d been retracing what Kairos had said, and the emotions he’d transferred to me.

“Yeah. Shall we go in?”

In a low, subdued voice, Yehyeon spoke and walked into the house.

“Sorry to call you out so late.”

All the lights inside were off.

I couldn’t tell right away whether Yun and Ami were asleep, or simply not home. But soon, Ami came trudging out from the second floor with her eyes barely open. Yehyeon patted her head as she stumbled out in striped pajamas, then sent her back upstairs.

“Hilde’s here too.”

Ami rubbed her eyes as she went back up the stairs.

“I’m gonna have nightmares....”

Yehyeon brewed me a decaf capsule coffee.

Said water was enough for him.

While I watched the coffee drip into the cup, my superior came back after hanging up his jacket and loosening his tie.

He gestured for me to sit across from him.

“I’m going to assemble the Badgers tomorrow evening, but I have to go out on a trip in the morning and afternoon.”

With his eyes lowered, Yehyeon drank water.

“I didn’t have time otherwise, so I had no choice but to contact you now.”

“I rested well all day yesterday. To be honest, I was already waiting for continuous summons.”

“Hilde.”

The sound of a cup being set down on the solid wooden table.

Yehyeon looked at me with a strangely businesslike gaze.

“Do you know your own stride length?”

I blinked at the unexpected question.

“Are you referring to my marching pace?”

“Yeah.”

“About one hundred meters in one hundred and twelve steps.”

When I answered, Yehyeon slowly nodded.

Then he threw the next question.

“Have you learned how to find your position by the stars? Land navigation?”

“I grew up herding sheep and gathering herbs, so I’m fairly good at finding my way in the forest. I’d struggle in a desert, but I did learn how to read Earth’s stars.”

“Shooting?”

I gave a bitter smile.

“I’m somewhat decent now.”

“Using Claymores or other mines? Disassembly and assembly?”

“I’ll learn.”

If the questions kept going like this, it felt like I was going to get scolded in the end.

Even as fear crept in, I answered honestly.

Yehyeon narrowed his eyes and sized me up.

Then he let out a heavy sigh and dragged a hand down his face.

“In the end, I have no choice but to treat you like a piece of combat power too.”

So this was why he’d called me.

I gave a wry smile, then leaned forward, lowering the distance between us.

“That is what’s right.”

If Yehyeon truly had no other choice, he was in a position where he would have to shove even Yun and Ami into a killing field. That was his seat, and he was the kind of man who could do it.

“If you don’t treat me that way, I’ll be angry instead.”

“I want to request reinforcements from the Titans under your command, too.”

“Igor has probably been counting the days. Kairos is already under your command, Commander, and Yoow will require some persuasion. There’s also a subordinate named Rose—if I call, she’ll come. Shall I draft their personal dossiers and submit them?”

“Do that.”

The Supreme Commander lifted his fatigue-heavy face from his hands and took a sip of water.

“The blue-eyed woman—non-combatant?”

“Deltei, sir? She falls under non-combatant. She has the most disastrous physical abilities of anyone I’ve ever seen.”

I’d given up on teaching her exercise decades ago.

Deltei truly had no talent for physical training. Well—there are people like that in the world.

She’s an incomparable Saint, but I can’t take her outside the Core.

“Everyone else aside from her is competent. They’ll add to our strength. The problem is conflict with the Badgers....”

“I’ll tell the Personnel Director about that.”

Yehyeon muttered in a tired voice.

My superior rubbed at his eyes with long fingers. I nodded, watching the exhaustion carved into him.

Now, I trusted the Personnel Director’s ability as much as Yehyeon trusted Ju.

The Personnel Director was someone with talent so outrageous that even the Emperor would roll his eyes and still want him close by.

So he’d find a way to smooth over the friction between the Badgers and my subordinates during joint operations.

As I was making that assumption on my own, the Commander broke the silence.

“I’ll have HQ issue passes for all incoming Titans, so come to the conference room tonight at 8:30. Detailed instructions will be delivered through the duty system.”

“Understood.”

“For those being deployed on this operation, we plan to notify them in advance about the identities of the Titans, including you. That you’re humanoid Creatures who stood on humanity’s side since the First War. So go and introduce your kin with an easy mind.”

“Yes, sir.”

“In the end, you’ll have to stand at the negotiation table.”

Yehyeon explained in a weary voice.

“My ability isn’t enough. I can’t see any other way.”

“I anticipated as much.”

I smiled, long and slow.

“I’ve been awaiting your orders.”

“Please come back safely.”

All at once, the businesslike edge vanished from his voice.

In the space where the hardness disappeared, heavy fear and sorrow settled in.

“I’m begging you.”

I reached out and patted Yehyeon’s head.

Yehyeon stayed still while I ruffled his soft hair. With his large eyes lowered, he gloomily stared at the decaf coffee.

I studied his face, which looked even paler than usual.

Why does he look thinner?

Ttidi-dik!

As I narrowed my eyes and withdrew my hand, I heard the front door open.

We turned our heads at the same time.

A man with a dry, arid air to him walked in slowly.

“Worked hard.”

In a half-hoarse voice that had grown even huskier—like it was partly locked—Yehyeon greeted Yun.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. Take it easy tomorrow.”

“What is this about?”

Yun addressed Yehyeon with crisp, respectful honorifics, and at the same time, looked at me.

Yehyeon briefly explained why I was here while Yun took off his outerwear. After he finished, he asked—soft-voiced—whether Yun wanted something to drink.

While the two of them talked, I drank the fragrant coffee.

Then, when their conversation wrapped up, I asked,

“Yehyeon. Have you not been eating much lately?”

Yehyeon’s eyes widened as he turned to me, and Yun added,

“Yeah. Like he says—haven’t you lost weight recently?”

“Have I? I don’t really know....”

“If you lose any more, you’ll disappear entirely.”

At Yun’s words, Yehyeon turned his head away.

The kid stared straight at Yun with big eyes and said,

“It’s not that bad.”

I let out a small laugh.

After finishing the decaf coffee, I greeted the men and left the house. I gave Yun a rough look—telling him, wordlessly, to keep an eye on the gloomy Yehyeon—and felt reassured when it seemed like my senior understood perfectly.

When I opened the door after saying goodbye, the bluish dawn air greeted me.

I need to resolve this quickly.

With Yehyeon’s shirt hanging loose on him and his pale face, and Kairos’s face full of exhaustion in my mind, I returned to the cabin.

***

I went to Kairos’s house in the early evening.

Tti-tti-dik!

Igor had already finished preparing and was sprawled out.

Surprisingly, Yoow was also in the middle of getting ready to depart. I didn’t even need to persuade him. When I relayed about half of what Yehyeon had said, he immediately declared that he would go as well.

Igor, Deltei, and I all stared in shock.

We looked at Yoow with round eyes, but the tactician didn’t explain himself.

“They’re giving us entry tags, right.”

That was all he said before disappearing, claiming he needed to gather materials.

That was why I’d come to see Kairos a little early. Rose said she’d come straight to HQ.

If he wasn’t home, that meant he was at HQ, so I should call—

I was looking down at my phone as I stepped into the house when I stopped dead in the entryway.

Several pairs of eyes were staring straight at me.

People stood there with beer bottles and champagne in hand, mouths hanging open.

Startled, I opened my mouth too.

For a brief moment, silence settled inside the building. No one moved from where they stood.

The silence broke when someone snapped out of it.

“That’s Hildebert!”

Right.

“That amusement-park Badger!”

“Mario Badger!”

“The guy who stole Jack!”

People cheered and surged toward me.

Flustered, I took the hands they thrust out at me.

Every time I clasped one, they yanked me in for a hug and slapped my back hard. Amid cheers from people whose names I didn’t know, I awkwardly patted backs in return.

They all smelled moderately of alcohol.

Only the last man to approach me leisurely didn’t smell of it.

With a confident motion, he offered a handshake and flashed a grin.

“So you’re the one who took away my rival.”

An F1 driver, apparently.

I took his hand and replied politely.

“Black Badger Hildebert Taleb. I’m not very knowledgeable about F1....”

“Ed Armermajor.”

The man laughed as he shook my right hand with a powerful grip.

“It’s an honor to meet you. Jack’s been hiding you away like a treasure, wouldn’t let anyone see.”

Whether he was serious or joking—

I couldn’t tell, so I just smiled awkwardly.

I quickly rolled my eyes, assessing the situation. It seemed people from the F1 scene had come to visit Kairos’s house. Judging by the rows of empty bottles and the half-finished food on the solid wooden table, they’d been here quite a while.

I needed to take Kairos away before eight.

Was this really going to wrap up before then?

“Come in and have a drink!”

“Let’s take a photo!”

“One with me too, please!”

“Hilde.”

Kairos came out from deeper inside.

Every head snapped around.

Feeling like I’d just been saved, I called out to him.

“Jack!”

“Did something else fall apart? According to the duty system, the meeting’s scheduled for eight.”

“No. Eight’s right.”

“Blackjack!”

The crowd’s shouts drowned out my words.

“You said you’d introduce Mr. Taleb!”

“What, you’ve got a mission tonight?”

“Ohhh. A mission. That’s cool. A rookie like you already getting missions?”

“Hey, if you had work at night, you should’ve said so. We felt bad you weren’t drinking.”

“Not felt bad—if he says he’ll drink, we’re the ones who have to stop him. What if he gets drunk and snaps one of our hand bones while shaking hands?”

“Black.”

Armermajor, standing beside me, smiled slowly.

“Introduce us properly. We’re all just staring at each other in fascination.”

Kairos set the beer bottles he was holding down on the wooden table.

Then he dragged me around and introduced me to everyone one by one.

As expected, Ed Armermajor really was an F1 driver. They’d been on rival teams, constantly competing for rankings. But when Kairos quit outright, Armermajor suddenly became the fastest driver. Even so, the label of “the driver who never surpassed Blackjack” stuck to him, and it didn’t seem to make the situation particularly joyful.

The others were all F1 people as well. Mechanics. Drivers from former teams. A team CEO. Race engineers. Pit crew members....

Even for someone like me, who’s good at remembering names, it was dizzying. Somehow, after all that, we ended up taking a group photo.

Then Kairos abruptly asked for their understanding, grabbed me, and pulled me into his study.

“Sorry.”

He apologized the moment he closed the door.

“I should’ve said something beforehand. If you leave them alone, they’ll entertain themselves, so you don’t need to worry. Is everyone waiting? Give me three minutes. I’ll be ready right away.”

“No. We didn’t need to persuade Yoow anymore, so I came early. We’ve got time—no need to rush.”

Even as I soothed the hurrying executor, I couldn’t hide my complicated feelings.

Of course, the executor read my expression instantly.

He studied me closely.

“What’s with that look? Are you torturing yourself again with that ridiculous guilt—dragging subordinates who were living just fine into this place?”

“It’s not that... well, not entirely. I just didn’t know you were this popular, and that when you left that world, you were called a traitor.”

“I’ve always done what I wanted. You know that.”

“I know. That’s not what’s bothering me most.”

I swallowed the anxiety rising up my throat and grabbed his shoulder.

Then I looked straight at Kairos as he blinked and said,

“Why did you invite them now?”

“Oh. Because it’s the day of the meeting? Sorry if that made you uncomfortable. This was the only time I had....”

“Did you think you should greet people before going on this mission?”

Even as I asked, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to hear the answer.

“Did you get that kind of hunch?”

Kairos smiled bitterly.

Because he knew exactly what I was afraid of. I desperately hoped he would clearly deny it.

But Kairos didn’t sweep away my worry so cleanly.

Instead, he gave an awkward smile and said,

“It’s not a last farewell, so don’t worry. But there’s something the Supreme Commander asked me to tell you before the meeting starts.”

“Hm? I met Yehyeon at midnight yesterday—well, early this morning.”

“He wouldn’t have told you. I said I’d deliver it directly. He agreed that would be better.”

“What is it.”

I was genuinely scared.

“What is it?”

Kairos wore a subtle smile.

An expression mixed with apology, bitterness, and resolve.

But also the stubbornness that was uniquely his.

“I’m going to awaken the Abandoned Spirit.”

Kairos said it plainly.

“To lure Kyle.”