Black Badger

I couldn’t bring myself to look at Kyle.

I had never imagined that this emotion would burst out.

To begin with, what did it even mean for an emotion I had bound up tight inside to burst out?

Feeling heat rush up to my face, I lowered my gaze.

On the rippling surface of the water, my eyes—filled with shame—were reflected.

This was the one thing I hadn’t wanted anyone to notice....

“Stop.”

Kyle spoke.

Clyde’s cutting came to a halt.

“If the procedure is not continued, there is a high chance of incomplete removal.”

The executioner’s flat voice fell down onto my back.

“Moreover, Hildebert Taleb is a child of the World Tree. Unless the procedure is carried out perfectly, there is a possibility that the sixth sense damaged by absorption could recover—”

Thud!

A heavy pain struck my abdomen. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“Ghk!”

A cough burst out of me.

Thanks to being suspended by chains, I wasn’t sent flying far away and smashed into anything. Instead, the parts bound by the chains tightened painfully. Frowning through the pain, I picked up the sound of Clyde’s scalpel dropping into the water, the startled voices of the mages—

—and Jin inhaling sharply.

After that, the cave fell silent.

“If a problem arises, we can simply start over from the beginning.”

Kyle’s suppressed Imperial tongue broke the silence.

“Executioner. Step back if you don’t want to get caught up in this.”

Clyde’s face, reflected on the water’s surface, was indifferent.

He wasn’t startled. He wasn’t frightened.

On the red-tinted surface, his wavering face held no emotion at all.

The bureaucrat who had displayed machine-like detachment soon bowed his head and took a step back.

Kyle splashed through the water as he approached.

I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes.

A rough hand came up and grabbed my chin.

“Hilde.”

Kyle’s hand, forcibly turning my face, was trembling with rage.

“What is this supposed to be?”

Even his voice quivered faintly.

“Explain. What the hell is this?”

“...What is there to explain.”

I muttered in resignation.

My head was forced around, but I couldn’t bring myself to look into Kyle’s golden eyes.

“It’s not like I showed it. You’re the ones who pried my emotions open on your own....”

Smack!

I was hit.

The taste of blood filled my mouth. As I spat it out, I felt a strange sense of relief that my head had turned away. I no longer had to force my gaze down or deliberately avoid his eyes.

I couldn’t tell whether my inability to meet his gaze came from shame or from anger.

I didn’t particularly want to know.

“Shameless bastard.”

I saw Kyle’s clenched fist reflected on the water.

That fist, smeared with a few drops of my blood, was shaking with fury.

“How dare you....”

I wished Kairos would arrive soon.

Swallowing saliva that tasted of blood, I thought of a kin I couldn’t locate no matter how much I groped with my sixth sense, thanks to Colton’s measures.

Even if it wasn’t him, I wished anyone would come.

I had planned to hide this emotion for my entire life.

I had thought it would be better to die than let Kyle find out.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just kill me?”

Murmuring as I looked at Kyle reflected in the rippling water.

“Then neither of us would have to see something we can’t stand, right?”

Thud!

A fist flew at me.

And it didn’t stop.

As Kyle unleashed blow after blow, unable to rein in his rage, I watched the images reflected on the water’s surface. The water on the ground made it convenient in many ways. I could grasp the situation while hiding the movement of my eyes.

Jin lowered his gaze, wearing an expression that said he couldn’t bear to watch.

I had to get him out of here safely.

Even as I was being beaten, I rolled the poison capsule I hadn’t swallowed or crushed around on my tongue.

If my life had truly been in immediate danger, I would have crushed the poison and run while carrying Jin on my back.

But now wasn’t the time yet.

“Hand it over.”

As I rolled the capsule, the beating stopped.

Blood dripped down ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) into the pond.

I looked at Kyle and Clyde reflected on the surface, now clouded red.

A man extending his hand toward Clyde.

“It hasn’t cooled yet, has it.”

“It hasn’t cooled, but I truly recommend proceeding according to proper protocol.”

Clyde’s brow creased faintly.

He really doesn’t like this, apparently.

“If you proceed so arbitrarily, the likelihood of incomplete removal—”

Ssssss!

Agonizing pain crawled across my skin.

It was pain I had never felt in my life.

I couldn’t even scream.

Or maybe I did scream, and just didn’t register it.

Either way, I thrashed wildly.

It hurts.

I want to dunk my neck into the water.

It’s too hot.

“Knight-Commander! Please stop now! If you continue, clean removal will become impossible!”

“You don’t deserve this sense.”

Through a vision smeared with sweat and tears, I saw Kyle’s trembling fist.

“How could you.... Fuck, what the hell were you thinking....”

Tears and sweat dripped down onto the water’s surface.

“You killed Rei!”

Kyle’s rage echoed through the cave.

“You killed Rei! And yet how dare you miss me!”

I know.

I know too well that I don’t have the right to miss you. That killing Rei is no different from something I did myself.

But what could I do? Even if I understood it in my head, longing still surged up.

Now I remember the despair I felt when I heard that Rei’s rampage had begun.

And the soul-piercing grief I felt when his presence disappeared.

Why didn’t you trust me?

Feeling the heat crushing my flesh, I thought blankly.

If it weren’t for those I carried on my shoulders, I would have liked to fight alongside you and die without regret.

In truth, right up until the very end, I believed you might trust me after all.

I thought that since I knelt and begged, you would run away with me. You had once bent your knee before the Emperor; I thought you would wisely take a step back this time as well.

A futile faith I couldn’t let go of until the war was right at our doorstep.

The sound of a scalpel being heated struck my ears.

Accepting the reality to come, I closed my eyes.

***

Rose froze upright.

She sat there staring ahead blankly, as if she had turned to ice.

The two men who noticed something was wrong with her turned their heads.

The ones seated in the driver’s seat and the passenger seat.

The one who spoke was Igor.

“Rookie.”

That was what he always called Rose.

In truth, Igor was considerably older than her. Compared to Yoow, Kairos, and Deltei, Igor was still on the younger side—but still.

And Rose had never taken issue with his form of address.

The two of them got along fairly well.

Her trembling red eyes turned toward Igor.

“Keep your guard up.”

“...The Commander....”

Her eyes and voice shook faintly.

“The Commander’s presence just now....”

“Which is exactly why we need to hurry.”

Suppressing his emotions, Igor turned his head forward.

“Staring blankly won’t make the situation any better.”

Even as he said that, his fists were clenched tight.

Veins bulged vividly along his neck. Rage and fear churned and writhed within the blood vessels protruding beneath his skin.

All of this was because a presence they hadn’t felt for so long had suddenly spiked sharply for an instant.

Like being struck by something, it lashed at the senses they had honed to a razor’s edge.

And then vanished like a mirage.

There was only one situation where a presence wavered and jumped so unstably.

When someone was tampering with the sixth sense.

“If it’s done by the book, it’s a procedure that takes at least five hours.”

Yoow muttered gloomily beneath his hood.

Even as he spoke, he couldn’t suppress his anxiety and gnawed at his thumbnail.

“They won’t kill Hilde during that time. So as long as we arrive before five hours are up, it’s fine. The handler will arrive soon as well.... Clyde will definitely be the one doing the procedure, and he’s obsessively strict about following protocol when it comes to removing the sixth sense. No matter how much Kyle goes berserk, he won’t shorten the time. That man has an abnormal fixation on the sixth sense. So surely....”

“We’ll have to give it back to them exactly as it is.”

Rose bowed her head and murmured.

“Fanatics blinded by martyrdom.”

If it were the usual Igor, he would have smirked and said, ‘It feels strange hearing that from you.’

But right now, he didn’t have that kind of leeway.

Instead of replying, Igor stepped on the accelerator.

Without even thinking to unclench his fists.

“Hold onto your sanity.”

The two answered with silence.

***

[Jack says to increase speed.]

Yun received the report from his younger sibling.

[They say Hilde’s presence is strange.]

“What do you mean, strange?”

When he asked back with a frown, the Badgers all stiffened at once.

They stood still, listening to the transmission.

Yun focused on Ami’s unusually flat voice.

[They’re in the middle of sixth-sense removal.]

Her emotionless tone conveyed the gravity of the situation.

[It’s usually a five-hour procedure.]

Yun didn’t ask anything further.

No matter what he asked, nothing would change.

After glancing down at the GPS signal, he replied shortly.

“Increasing speed.”

[Yeah.]

The end of his sibling’s reply wavered.

[Please take care of Hilde.]

Yun ended the transmission.

After checking the GPS once more, he pressed the accelerator without looking back.

The squad members had all heard it anyway.

Yun could smell the stench of rage and fear spreading through the air from his team.

“Prepare to engage immediately upon arrival.”

No one objected.

***

Kiiiiiiiii!

The vehicle spun violently.

By the time it completed a 180-degree turn and faced the Remnant Wraith, the occupants were already outside the vehicle. Both of them had flung the doors open and jumped out the instant the wheel turned.

The moment she was out, Ami shot up into the sky.

Kairos positioned the defensive barrier created by the mages behind him.

Above his head was an angel.

What had been crouched on the plain like a gigantic flower bud, waiting only for its master to arrive, bloomed brilliantly and covered the sky.

A monster spreading six wings and revealing hundreds of eyes.

The angel began to sing.

Ah ah ah ah ah!

Sonic waves struck and passed through the Remnant Wraith’s body.

Sand was pushed and swept away by the waves.

The Remnant Wraith, which had been looking up at Ami soaring into the sky, lowered its head.

A higher-ranked monster gazing at the angel without expression.

After stopping at a certain distance, the Remnant Wraith began to move. Watching it close the distance, Kairos gently stroked Milk inside his front pocket.

A small body trembling violently.

Without taking his eyes off the Remnant Wraith, he took Milk out.

“It’s okay.”

He whispered as he set the creature down on his leg, telling it to go down.

“Stay back, Milk.”

Milk let out a whimpering sound, but obeyed.

The small lifeform turned transparent and hopped far away.

In the Empire, they called creatures like that thief snowflakes.

Extremely timid, making wild specimens hard to find, but cute and gentle, which made them popular as pets.

However, depending on how they were raised, they could become dangerous creatures. Milk soon stopped in a safe place and turned back to look at Kairos.

Hearing Milk’s worry-filled cries, the handler let out a small laugh.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make it back safely.”

Standing beneath the shadow cast by the angel, he stared straight at the Remnant Wraith that had come to a halt before him.

The higher-ranked monster, upper body raised, looked down at the angel and Kairos.

From its sunken eye sockets and gaping mouth, nothing but darkness could be seen.

Within that unfathomable abyss, light began to gather.

What was called the light of annihilation.

Something no mage or Swordmaster had ever been able to block perfectly.

Feeling the angel wrap its wings around him, Kairos gazed at the sphere of light.

Listening to Echo hum her song, he fixed the light in his sight.

At the final moment, he had to dodge that.

The light of annihilation meant to sweep him away would tear through the defensive formation behind him.

A gamble where failure meant death.

“Fire.”

Kairos whispered, watching the sphere of light form in the Remnant Wraith’s mouth.

“Now.”

BOOOOOOOM!

The light unleashed by the monster tore through the air.

***

In his fading consciousness.

Valdez’s sharp shout pierced his ears.

“The Remnant Wraith has awakened!”