Black Badger

Ami, who had collapsed down beside Hilde, started hiccupping.

Hic—! Hic—!

The senior hiccupped like a startled child. With bloodshot eyes, she stared at Hilde, unable to turn her head away.

But Hilde didn’t spare Ami even a glance.

Normally, he would have flinched in surprise and asked if she was okay.

Right now, however, Hilde’s golden eyes were cold, fixed squarely on Jack.

Hilde pressed him quietly.

“Why didn’t you report the Venom Meridian.”

The words were closer to a whisper than speech.

But Carl saw that Hilde’s eyes had gone wild. Rage burned in those beautiful golden eyes.

So that means he wasn’t actually angry at Sophia back then.

He’d just been mildly irritated.

“You left it out on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry.”

Jack’s voice was sincere.

“I tried not to use it if I could. I kept it as an emergency measure.... I thought you wouldn’t like the fact that I had the Venom Meridian with me.”

“So you intentionally didn’t report it.”

“Yes. That’s my fault.”

Jack didn’t make a single excuse.

A wise choice.

That was what Carl thought.

Honestly, even he wouldn’t dare start rattling off excuses in front of Hildebert in this state.

“I told you not to even attempt binding.”

Hilde leaned in and grabbed Jack by the shoulder.

When he glanced briefly toward the leadership, he saw Aide Gilbert and Supreme Commander Yehyeon.

They were receiving reports from two pilots.

They didn’t look like they had the capacity to spare attention for this.

“You heard what I said properly.”

“I did. And I tried to avoid it as much as possible. I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of any other way.”

“And if Ami hadn’t destroyed the portal device at exactly the right moment?”

The suppressed emotion was so intense Carl could feel it from where he stood.

He knew he should intervene, but the cold fury in Hilde—something he’d never seen before—left him too startled to step in easily.

It seemed the other seniors felt the same.

Jack Black offered another model apology.

Hilde fell silent for a moment.

Then, in a voice so quiet even Carl could barely hear it, he spoke.

“You think it was pretty exciting, don’t you.”

“Hilde. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Look at you not denying it. So it’s true.”

Even that was said calmly.

“You need to get hit more.”

Smack!

Smack! Smack!

Clear, sharp sounds rang out across the grassland.

“What the hell?!”

“Hey! Stop him!”

Panicked voices poured in.

Carl sprang forward and lunged at Hilde.

The nearby seniors rushed in between Hilde and Jack. Along with Ricardo, Yun, and Asil, Carl grabbed Hilde and dragged him back.

Other Badgers hurried over as well, but Ricardo raised a hand to stop them.

Yoow and Igor charged straight toward Jack Black.

Only the pixie-haired, red-eyed woman planted both hands on Jack Black’s shoulders.

“Captain! I’ll hold him so he can’t run away!”

“...You.”

Carl saw Jack Black let out a hollow laugh.

“You’re impressively loyal to Hilde.”

“Calm down, you bastard~.... You save him just to kill him again~?”

“Here’s a tip. If you don’t want to be dragged off like this, you should avoid hitting the face.”

“Captain. We’ll nag you thoroughly, so go back to the doctor.”

Ricardo and Yun’s advice.

Ignoring the other Badgers muttering things like ‘He’s got more of a temper than I thought,’ and ‘He used to be really gentle...,’ Igor spoke in a calm voice.

“If you’re still not satisfied, finish it later when there are no humans around.”

“Hey, asshole!”

Isn’t that a weird way to stop someone?

As Carl was wondering that, Samuel shouted.

The doctor running over was clearly furious.

“Why are you turning someone we just saved into minced meat again?! If you’ve got that much energy, finish your treatment first!”

Hildebert should be fully healed by now.

Whether he agreed with Igor or his anger had finally subsided, once the three seniors intervened, the junior became eerily compliant. Watching that, Carl thought. Just moments ago, Hildebert had naturally absorbed while transferring. Carl had seen with his own eyes as Hilde’s severe wounds closed up.

So now he should be fine—

“What the hell? Why do you still have a fever?”

Ricardo widened his eyes as he pressed a hand to the junior’s forehead.

“Your wounds are all healed.”

“Rick.”

Hildebert murmured quietly.

“What did I do to you?”

Samuel Han arrived.

After quickly checking Jack Black’s condition, he turned back to Hildebert. He spat out a thick curse and ordered them to support Hildebert and shove him back into the medical helicopter.

“It’s sepsis!”

Carl heard Ricardo mutter a quiet stream of curses.

The anger packed into those curses intensified the moment Hildebert said, ‘Please make sure to tell me later what I did.’

Meanwhile, Yun furrowed his brow beside Ricardo, who was snapping that Hilde had no right to punch a driver in the face.

“How is this possible? Isn’t his body supposed to be completely fine after absorption?”

“Maybe the leaf-veins....”

Hilde muttered as Yun and Ricardo each supported one of his arms.

Carl didn’t understand what the junior meant.

Leaf-veins? What are those?

Ricardo and Yun didn’t seem to understand either.

But instead of explaining properly, Hilde muttered,

“This is the first time I’ve seen a case like this myself....”

I see.

Maybe it’s similar to the mechanism behind enhanced-body injuries.

Following behind the junior as he was escorted toward the helicopter by the two seniors, Carl sank into thought.

Black Badger enhanced bodies weren’t all-powerful. Most injuries healed at monstrous speed, giving people the illusion that they possessed immortal bodies. But humanity had never fully won its war against disease, and enhanced bodies sometimes produced strange errors.

Wounds that should heal didn’t. Inflammation levels sometimes refused to go down. Rare illnesses occurred. Samuel said these things happened because we still didn’t fully understand how the human body functioned.

So please stop thinking you’re invincible.

By now, it was common knowledge that severe stress drastically reduced the recovery power of enhanced bodies.

Maybe Hildebert’s fever not going down was part of that same context.

As Carl was thinking that, Hilde staggered and pitched forward.

“Hey.”

“Hilde.”

“Huh?”

Yun and Ricardo hurriedly caught the junior as he collapsed.

Then, from behind them, Jack Black’s dazed voice rang out.

“Huh?”

Carl turned his head and froze.

The juniors looked even more flustered than when Hilde had punched Jack.

Hilde’s kin stood rigidly beside Jack, faces filled with shock.

“What is it?”

It didn’t seem like they were reacting to Hilde collapsing.

Because Hilde himself—on one knee on the ground, prevented from falling over by the seniors—also looked utterly shocked by something.

It was like he’d been startled by something Carl couldn’t perceive.

The golden eyes that had widened in shock were soon dyed with an emotion Carl couldn’t decipher.

Something like shame....

“Hilde!”

Jack Black suddenly ran toward Hilde.

“You—!”

「ňķėĂĂ!」

Carl couldn’t understand Hilde’s sharp cry.

But his kin clearly did. Those who had been springing forward like cheetahs stopped dead in their tracks.

As if they’d spotted a landmine in front of them, they didn’t dare take another step.

What is it?

Carl narrowed his eyes and studied the situation.

The other humans looked just as confused. Samuel, Ricardo, and Yun all glanced back and forth between Hilde and Jack with puzzled expressions.

The leadership and other Badgers watched with shocked eyes as well.

Everyone froze, carefully observing the situation, when Hilde’s voice came out.

A wilted voice.

“I’m sorry.”

Hilde slammed his face into the ground.

“That wasn’t what I meant to do. Never....”

“Hilde.”

“Please don’t come closer.”

Even Carl could feel the shame and self-loathing packed into that choked voice.

“I know distance isn’t really the issue, but still....”

The junior’s voice trailed off.

“Still....”

Hilde’s kin didn’t approach him.

They simply stood there, eyes fixed on him, until the two seniors brought Hildebert into the medical helicopter.

Hilde never once met the gazes his kin sent him.

The hubbub gradually settled again.

The sound of the leadership issuing orders. The sound of preparations to return through the portal.

The portal activating.

Negotiations with the enemy were over.

Black Badger had recovered every last kidnapped captive.

***

「He returned alive.」

「Good.」

Kyle replied, his gaze fixed on the barrier being rebuilt.

The sun dyed the land red.

Standing atop blood-stained ground, Kyle received reports from his subordinates.

「The leaf-veins won’t recover immediately.」

Valdez stood calmly behind Kyle.

The mage’s dark-blue robes fluttered in the evening wind.

「Clyde didn’t remove the leaf-veins perfectly.... But he didn’t remove them so gently that they could be restored through absorption either. It will take a long time to recover.」

「That might actually be for the best.」

The black-haired man murmured as he weighed what had been lost and what had been gained in this incident.

His golden gaze swept over the traces left behind by the Remnant Wraith.

And the remnants of human weapons that had come through the torn barrier.

「In a sense, that will be ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) even more humiliating for him. With time, the sense of disconnection will turn into familiarity—but humiliation will never fade.」

「Yes. Because he’s someone who understands shame.」

Valdez voiced his agreement.

Kyle let out a small laugh without realizing it.

That’s right. Hildebert Taleb was someone who knew what shame was. At times, he unconsciously revealed that he came from the Temple.

However, he did not understand humiliation.

The gut-wrenching degradation felt when licking a victor’s boots.

Kyle realized far too late that Hilde didn’t comprehend that heavy emotion.

If he’d realized it sooner, he might have noticed Hildebert’s betrayal.

He’d been so focused on the survivor’s shame Hilde carried that he’d missed a crucial fact.

That Hildebert had never once failed in his revenge.

That the knight once called the “Sacred Wing of the Empire,” with his dazzling white hair draped carelessly over his shoulders, had walked out of ruins every time, stepping over the shattered bones of his enemies.

He only realized it after waking from his slumber.

It had been a long sleep that felt endless.

「Do you not regret it?」

Valdez asked quietly.

「You could have cut off Hildebert’s head right then.」

「It’s a shame, but regrettably, no. I don’t regret it.」

He had no intention of granting Hildebert the peace he so desperately desired. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He knew it wasn’t a rational response. But his mind wouldn’t change. Besides, maybe in the First War it would have been different, but under the current circumstances, this war itself wasn’t all that rational.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible to win.

Momentum could be overturned in an instant by a small trigger. Knowing that, the Supreme Commander must have forced Hildebert to the negotiating table.

To uproot even the slightest possibility of taking damage.

Naturally, surrender was never an option.

「The outcome of this round will only become clear with time.」

They’d lost Hilde and the prisoners. The barrier had collapsed. Several mages and the executioner had died. Bombs had been planted inside the barrier—ones not easily discovered.

But they had cut Hilde’s leaf-veins, dealing a blow to his maximum combat strength, and planted the means of counterattack inside the prisoners’ bodies.

Tiny seeds that would be difficult to detect without magic.

So.

「Let’s wait and see.」

Kyle murmured to himself, unheard by the Badgers.

「How it all unfolds.」

For a long time, he stared at the torn barrier.

***

The emotional bleed-through isn’t being controlled.

That was the thought that came to him the moment he opened his eyes.

Because the leaf-veins are damaged....