Black Badger

Kairos told those at his place to rest as long as they liked.

He announced that he had work to take care of and would head out first.

People joked that they should ransack the house while he was gone. That the sports car in the garage looked nice and they’d take it. That there was so much good alcohol they should pack up a whole box and leave....

They said it like that, but in truth they sent Kairos off with regret lingering in their expressions.

As he slipped past me, someone leaned in and whispered that I should take good care of their old comrade.

“If he gets fixated on something, he just charges straight ahead, but he’s not a reckless idiot.”

“Sorry in advance. I know taking him on as a junior will be a headache, but please look after our star driver.”

“Ah, you’ve really got your work cut out for you.”

I didn’t answer properly.

I must have replied in a half-dazed state. I was too busy digesting the massive bomb Kairos had just dropped on me.

Even earlier, I’d barely managed to suppress the urge to raise my voice.

A Ruin Spirit.

It was only after we got back that my head finally cleared.

“What the hell are you thinking.”

I asked the moment we stepped into the cabin.

At my low murmur, thick with suppressed emotion, Deltei—who had been walking over to greet us—came to a halt. Igor, who had been raking a hand through his hair and lifting his upper body from the beanbag, froze as well.

I felt the keen gaze of the black knight.

But I didn’t have the capacity to explain anything to them.

“You’re the one who told the Commander about that thing, right?”

“Yes. It was the only sure way.”

The only sure way?

Sure way my ass.

What, a brand-new method of suicide?

I didn’t say it out loud because I knew he was right.

And because I knew I wouldn’t be able to propose any alternative myself.

I stared down at the floor for a long while.

Only after I’d calmed my emotions did I break the silence.

“You always won, even in fights that looked unwinnable.”

When I lifted my head, Kairos was grinning broadly.

I frowned.

“You know that with a Ruin Spirit, coming back alive is what counts as winning.”

“Of course.”

“And if I hear that the plan is absurd, I’ll go straight to the Supreme Commander and force a cancellation if I have to.”

“Fine. Do as you wish.”

“Ruin Spirit?”

Igor cut in, brow furrowed.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

We left the cabin, leaving Deltei behind.

Kairos drove. With his smooth handling of the wheel, he explained what he’d been up to. While I’d been killing time dealing with one thing after another, Kairos had been busy as well.

He’d roughly mapped out the locations of the higher-tier monsters on Earth.

He’d even been taming the monsters needed to lure the Ruin Spirit.

All of it had been done on Yehyeon’s orders. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Yoow, who had been sitting there with his mouth tightly shut, spoke.

“You and Igor are cards meant to blindside the enemy and extract Hildebert if he gets detained. And you said you’d use one of those cards to lure a Ruin Spirit?”

“We’ll know more once we get there.”

Kairos breezily brushed off the tactician’s grumbling.

“When we get there, I’ll need you to evaluate the plan for me, Strategist.”

We met up with Rose in the parking lot.

There was a minor scuffle involving Yoow, but it wrapped up without bloodshed. I didn’t forget to ask Rose to behave herself during the meeting.

You never knew which Badger she might decide to lunge at....

I also warned her not to display her fanatical loyalty toward me in front of the seniors.

After that, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and then headed to the meeting room. It was a room I’d never set foot in before. The last time I’d participated in an operation of this scale was during the Territory Reclamation War.

With Kyle coming out to the front lines, the Badgers were apparently committing forces on par with that war.

They would have to.

No matter how you looked at it, this was an obvious trap designed to catch me—one I couldn’t avoid.

Even if you threw every top-tier Badger into it, there was no telling how things might go wrong.

Lost in thought, I walked out of HQ in a daze, and the meeting room appeared before me.

Creeeak.

When I opened the door, I saw that people had already arrived.

Figures seated at the far end of a long table.

The moment I recognized their faces, my expression relaxed.

“Ricardo!”

...Ah, and.

“Senior Kudo! You’re already here!”

“Oh~. Hey~.”

“Jonathan.”

Beside Ricardo, who was waving enthusiastically, Jonathan spoke.

The black-eyed senior looked straight at me.

I gave an awkward smile and rubbed the back of my neck.

“Ah.... Yes, Jonathan. You’re here.”

Ricardo buried his face in his hand and started shaking with laughter.

I ignored the senior trembling with mirth. With a sulky turn of my head, I surveyed the meeting room.

A massive table, and a room spacious enough that there was still plenty of space left over. No windows, one entire wall taken up by a screen. Bottles of water set out at every seat.

Seats were designated for visitors and for the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} leadership.

I glanced at the two men while gesturing toward my kin who were filing in behind me.

“These are my people.”

My kin bowed their heads quietly in greeting.

Ricardo and Jonathan nodded back in silence.

Good.

I was satisfied that their meeting had passed without incident.

Honestly, I’d been worried sick. Even when I’d introduced Kairos—the most mild-mannered of the four—the reaction hadn’t exactly been friendly.

So today’s first objective was to prevent a fight.

Between my kin and the seniors....

Bang!

The door flew open.

Ro walked in.

“Oh, Kunde.”

“Long time no see, Senior.”

I smiled faintly.

I’d given up long ago on being called by my proper name.

“You been well?”

Ro waved a hand dismissively.

But he didn’t come inside. Wearing his striped T-shirt as always, the senior stopped at the threshold and checked his phone.

Hm.

He probably didn’t care, but I still had to introduce my kin.

I opened my mouth, gesturing with the edge of my hand toward the kin standing stiffly behind me.

“Senior Ro. These are—”

Bang!

The door slammed again.

No. Someone had punched the already-open door.

Seniors whose faces I recognized but whom I’d never formally met.

The one at the front stared at me with blazing eyes.

“What kind of nerve do you have, walking around with such a calm face?”

His fist was planted against the doorframe.

The seniors who’d come in behind him were glaring at me with equally indignant expressions.

I stood blinking between my kin and the seniors.

“I’m sorry.”

“What the fuck.”

Ro lifted his head from his phone and looked at the newcomers.

“Why the hell are you wrecking the door? What is it?”

Only then did the Badgers notice Ro, and they flinched.

But the Badger who’d smashed the door didn’t stop glaring at me. The ones behind him poked at his back insistently, but he didn’t budge.

He looked like he was about to rush me and smash my face in.

As I was thinking that I’d better dodge roughly if he threw a punch, Igor stepped up behind me.

I raised a hand, palm open, to hold my subordinate back.

Igor stopped short, but hostility poured off him in silence. The Badger who’d struck the doorframe shot back an equally blazing glare.

Ro looked between them, baffled, as the air stretched taut with tension.

“What is it, I said?”

“Do you even know that an entire squad got kidnapped because of you?”

The senior ignored Ro outright.

Behind me, Yoow let out a “Huh?” under his breath.

I fluttered my palm again in a silent ‘stay put’ signal—and then, from deeper in the meeting room, came the scrape of a chair being pushed back.

“What the....”

Ricardo and Jonathan rose from their seats.

The Badgers’ eyes went wide.

“Uh.”

“Hey, hey. Senior Sordi’s here.”

“...Senior Kudo too.”

“Why’s it so noisy~?”

Ricardo muttered in a voice like something scraping against bone.

“Why don’t you stop being irritating and just come in quietly....”

His voice dropped lower and lower.

The ominous warning took effect immediately. The seniors clustered at the door hurried into the meeting room the moment he finished speaking.

Two or three of them dragged in the one who’d been glaring at me.

“What a bunch of weirdos.”

Ro muttered.

Igor and Yoow clicked their tongues.

I smiled bitterly.

This was exactly what I’d expected.

If anything, I was relieved it ended at this.

I turned my head, intending to convey my thanks to Ricardo with a look. But the green-eyed senior was already back in his chair, eyes on his phone.

Leaning back lazily, he scrolled through the screen with a bored expression.

Thanks for the consideration.

I was thinking I should be sure to thank him properly once the meeting was over when a small sound reached my ears.

Light, quick footsteps, pattering.

Ami came to a stop at the threshold.

“Why’s the doorframe broken?”

With a question mark practically floating over her head, she stared at it.

“Looks like it just broke....”

“What, that brat’s attending too?”

I was about to greet Ami when Igor blurted out,

“This organization really drags along kids who still have blood wet on their heads?”

“Hey.”

“What did you say!”

I spoke at the same time Ami shouted.

The round-eyed senior glared at Igor, eyes narrowing.

“My blood dried more than fifty years ago!”

“From where I’m standing, you’ve got a long way to go, runt. When your physical age stopped, your mental growth clearly stopped too.”

I smacked the back of Igor’s head as he snickered down at Ami.

Smack!

The sound rang out loudly.

I felt the attention of everyone in the meeting room snap toward us, but Igor—the one who’d been hit—didn’t even blink.

“What. Am I wrong?”

“Don’t talk down to Ami. She’s a senior as high as the heavens to me.”

“Hilde!”

Ami beamed.

“See? Hilde’s the best!”

She bounced in place, then grinned and thrust out a fist toward me.

Something was dangling beneath it.

“I bought you a present!”

Huh?

Blinking at the unexpected turn of events, I took a closer look at what was dangling.

For a split second I thought it was a car key, but it was actually a sheep-shaped keychain.

Fluffy and cute.

“Hilde looks like a sheep.”

When I smiled and held out my palm, the small senior placed the keychain on it.

“Sheep.”

Ro reacted.

“Sheep?”

The curly-haired senior repeated Ami’s word.

“Sheeep?”

Ami and I turned our heads at the same time to look at Ro.

Ro glanced between me and the sheep keychain, then snorted.

“Peanut, aren’t you being a bit harsh?”

“What.”

“You just insulted Kunde’s looks and intelligence.”

What?

“Isn’t this workplace harassment?”

It’s not....

Aren’t sheep cute?

I stared blankly at the unexpected comment.

Ami puffed up her cheeks and glared at Ro.

“Learn to say Hilde’s name properly, Giacomo.”

Then she suddenly floored it.

“And you’re dumber than a sheep!”

“What the hell?!”

“When are you going to memorize Hilde’s name properly, you idiot! From now on, your name is Komoja Ho!”

“What nonsense are you spewing, you peanut!”

“Alright, alright. Both of you, calm down.”

By now, I’d accumulated enough experience not to be startled by their sudden fights.

I smiled bitterly and dragged Ami back by the arm.

“The meeting’s about to start, so please take a seat. Ah, Senior Ro. These are my people.”

I shifted the topic by introducing my subordinates.

Ami and Ro turned to look at them.

Thankfully, Yoow and Rose had stayed quietly behind me the whole time. On the other hand, Igor—clearly enjoying teasing Ami—stood there with his arms crossed, wearing a smug ‘told you so’ grin.

Kairos watched the whole string of banter with a genial smile....

Ro raised an eyebrow as he looked at Yoow and Rose bowing slightly.

“Your lackeys?”

“...They’re my people. The ones I’ll be working with on this mission.”

“More hands is good.”

The curly-haired senior didn’t think deeply about it.

He glanced at them only in passing before walking into the meeting room.

“Didn’t know they’d recruited this many rookies.”

...They’re not rookies.

But I didn’t feel any need to correct him. Even if I did, he wouldn’t listen properly, and he wouldn’t care.

Judging by Ricardo’s hollow laugh and Ami shaking her head, they’d given up too.

...As long as it passed without conflict, that was good enough.

Suppressing the urge to sigh, I turned my gaze back to Ami beside me.

That was when I caught Yoow and Ami quietly staring at each other.

This bastard.

“Hilde. I am that person’s—”

Smack!

All eyes turned our way.

The conversation died instantly. Everyone in the meeting room froze and looked at me.

Mid-sentence, Ami’s eyes widened as her mouth fell open. Yoow, who’d just taken a hit to the back of the head, stared at me with a vacant expression.

A hand clutching the back of his head.

Eyes full of confusion, not understanding what had happened.

I stared flatly into those question-mark-filled eyes.

Then I said,

“Do not enter Ami’s field of vision.”