Black Badger

Who’s doing what with whom?

For a moment, my thoughts completely stopped.

Then my reason came back.

“Ami’s the type who gets along with everyone—maybe she just went out to hang with someone?”

[I think so too, but....]

There was unease in his voice.

[Given who the other person is....]

That can’t be true.

I denied reality.

There’s no way my light and salt would have anything going on with the Personnel Director—of all people—known for his endless scandals.

Maybe they just happened to want to see the same movie!

No, I know the Personnel Director isn’t a bad person.

I was going to contact him anyway to ask about Byung Yeong-baek and Jin Silver.

I know he’s a good person who answers questions sincerely.

I know he’s competent and good with people, I do, but....

“Could it be....”

I pressed my brow and muttered,

“Did Choi Yun.... hear this....”

[That’s the part I’m most afraid of....]

Yeah. Figures.

[He’s apparently behaving himself in the lab right now, so it seems he doesn’t know yet....]

What happens if he finds out?

For a moment, I was seized by a fear whose origin I couldn’t quite identify.

How did this even happen?

And of all people, the Personnel Director?

Him of all people?

[As you know, Choi Yun really dislikes the Personnel Director.]

“I heard it in one sentence. That the Personnel Director had Yun hospitalized.”

I have no idea how that even happened.

Yehyeon let out a small sigh.

[Yes. It happened back when I was an aide. Around that time, too many Badgers who went out with Yun kept dying in mysterious accidents—or rather, not coming back at all....]

“No.”

Wait—was this from back when he kept making mistakes nonstop?

Then did the Personnel Director shove Yun into a psychiatric hospital to stop it?

Is that even possible?

As I kept opening and closing my mouth without saying anything, Yehyeon sighed quietly on the other end.

[It’s probably just a rumor.]

I hoped so too.

[If you hear anything once you’re back, please let me know. Given my position, rumors like this don’t really reach me.]

“Yeah.”

Honestly, I wanted to contact Ami right away.

But I held back. I’d call her once I got back to Center Core.

Still—no way. Ami was the one who first told me all about the Personnel Director’s legendary dating history.

Someone who knows him that well wouldn’t do something like that.

My life’s light and salt wouldn’t do that!

That aside, I really hoped Yun wouldn’t hear about this until the gossip died down....

Thinking that, I ended the call and walked out of the bathroom.

And there I ran straight into Samuel Han, who’d been waiting.

The doctor was leaning against the wall with a furrowed brow.

“Hey.”

He said.

“You’ve got a bad habit.”

“Pardon?”

I blinked and looked at Samuel.

“What habit are you talking about?”

There were so many things about me he could dislike that it was hard to guess which one he meant.

So I stayed quiet and waited for him to explain. Samuel pushed himself off the wall.

Arms crossed, the doctor faced me.

“You raise your hands too easily. You even hit him with that driver.”

Ah.

So that’s what it was.

Samuel had followed me all the way out when I dragged Seunghyun away, trying desperately to stop me. No matter what, he said, you don’t lay hands on a person.

By this place’s standards, he wasn’t wrong.

“But he’s never been punished for child abuse.”

“What does that have to do with this?”

Samuel rolled his eyes.

“You’re not a judge.”

“That’s true, but Lee Seunghyun isn’t part of society. You can’t put him on trial. And his wrongdoing still needs to be punished.”

“Why are you the one punishing him? Hitting him doesn’t change anything.”

Samuel had tried to stop me to the very end.

In the end, Seunghyun himself waved it off and said it was fine, but the doctor pretended not to see that at all.

We did move locations eventually, but still.

“Violence has no corrective effect.”

“Is that so? It’s an immature method, something I used to do when grabbing idiot subordinate knights who screwed up.”

Still, just talking it out felt too slow.

“When Seunghyun started talking about his past, I felt like I had to do something, even if it was late.”

I’d decided I needed to separate him and look at him more closely.

Not just treat him as one of the many human soldiers you lecture a bit and move on from.

Of course, it was all my own doing. Seunghyun even came out to the garden, and when he saw me roll up my sleeves properly like, ‘I did wrong, so hit me’, he made a dumbfounded face.

For someone who looked that shocked, he took the beating pretty quietly.

“It may be arrogant of me, but for some reason, he seems to listen to me unusually well.”

Even though when I asked, ‘Are you putting on an act in front of me, by any chance?’, Seunghyun just rolled his eyes and replied, ‘Did that brat sociopath say that?’

He didn’t answer beyond that.

He probably never will.

“So I thought if I punished him, it might have some effect.”

“You’ve got one hell of an ego.”

“I’m sorry.”

“And you chose violence for punishment?”

“In the Empire—ah. I know my sensibilities are lacking.”

But this was my best.

Because I hoped the day I truly killed Lee Seunghyun would never come.

Listening to Sajid’s story, I’d thought that someone resembling the Ice Empress would be highly likely to turn their gun on their own kind once they reached the top.

The problem was that Yekaterina’s first right hand was Seunghyun.

If the day came to strike down the Elders, Seunghyun would have to choose. And if nothing changed by then, there was a very high chance he’d obey Yekaterina’s orders.

Change takes time.

And if, when the time came, he hadn’t changed at all—

Then I’d have to draw the sword again....

I’m so sick of this now.

People hesitating, then turning their guns.

And I hate myself too, for ultimately cutting their throats. I hate situations where there’s only one choice.

I want everything that needs to be done to end quickly so I can rest—but ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) no matter how tired you are, you can’t look away from what must be done.

So I acted a bit hastily....

“Hey.”

Samuel tapped my chest lightly with the corner of his intact tablet.

“Can you say, with certainty, that there was no emotion mixed into that punishment?”

Huh?

“Punishment mixed with emotion is nothing more than venting.”

As I stood there, unable to reply, Samuel continued.

“No matter how everyone has their own way of doing things.... This isn’t it.”

Ah.

“Think it through properly. Look up the related papers.”

He might have a point.

It’s possible I failed to properly separate my position as Seunghyun’s former mentor from my position as Yehyeon’s godfather.

And that might’ve made things worse instead.

I should observe Seunghyun carefully while receiving reports from his counseling sessions.

Without forgetting Samuel’s criticism.

I bowed my head.

“Thank you. I’ll think carefully about what you pointed out.”

Samuel said nothing, standing there and watching me for a long time.

***

Trevain came looking for us.

“Where the fuck have you been running around?”

He looked extremely irritated—clearly just woken up.

Which made sense. He thought he’d been dispatched to a sweet Core, and then that Core vanished.

“Aren’t you getting ready to head back already?”

I didn’t have the luxury to care about his mood.

I strode over to the man holding a duffel bag.

Stopping right in front of the senior who raised an eyebrow like what now?, I went straight for it.

“Senior.”

“What?”

“Have you heard the rumor about Ami dating Ju?”

Trevain’s mouth fell open.

I’d never seen Jason Trevain this shocked.

He stared at me in disbelief, then shouted.

“What kind of bullshit is that?!”

“Right? It’s bullshit, isn’t it?”

“What the—.”

He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Who the hell said that?!”

“Apparently the rumor’s going around HQ.”

“That Personnel Director bastard....”

I always think this, but Trevain’s especially soft when it comes to Ami.

He’s weak to women in general, but—

I often get the feeling he treats Ami like a particularly precious younger sister.

Trevain smacked his lips, then finally found his voice.

“That’s fucking insane! No way!”

“It’s just a rumor. Ami’s really friendly, after all. Maybe they just happened to want to see the same movie?”

“That kid might do that, but is the Personnel Director the kind of guy who’d pick someone to watch a movie with without ulterior motives? Alone, at that?”

...Suddenly, I got anxious again.

I could practically hear the hopeful circuit in my head burning out.

I stared blankly at Trevain.

“Don’t you think Ami would have enough sense?”

“Do you know how many people said they’d never make that mistake, and then ended up dating the Personnel Director anyway?”

No—!

I was horrified. Trevain pulled out his phone.

The senior started hammering on the screen like a madman.

I couldn’t hold back either and opened my message inbox.

Messages piled up.

Near the top was a reply from Ami.

[Ami: How’s your body, Hilde? (peeking sparrow emoji)]

I want to ask if the rumor’s true....

But I held back and just replied that I was fine, and asked if I could see her once I got back to Center Core.

Then I read the messages below.

[Ric: As long as you do your job well, I don’t care.]

[Ric: But what the hell were you even doing in that Core?]

[Yun: If you’re too lazy to keep cutting it, you might as well just let it grow.]

[Yun: Or just use the clippers Mühlen uses regularly.]

[Kai: How’s your condition?]

[Kai: Milk’s been making a fuss about wanting to see you, so hurry back.]

[Kai: There’s a physical evaluation test coming up soon, and I’m worried you might not be able to take it in your condition.]

[Yoow: I don’t know exactly what happened, but thanks to it, it looks like we’ll be able to recover the Core devices.]

[Yoow: That said, most of them are severely corroded, so they can’t be used right away. The brass seems uneasy about what was seen inside the defensive line.]

[Yoow: You probably haven’t received a report about the flowers inside the defensive line yet. I’ll organize everything and report once you arrive.]

There was a lot of information, but for now I focused on my mentor’s messages.

Yun had replied ten minutes ago.

So he doesn’t know.

I stared at my phone, relieved.

Then I quickly opened Yun’s chat and replied.

[What are the clippers Mühlen uses?]

The reply came immediately.

[Exactly what it sounds like. There’s a shower machine too.]

I kind of wish I hadn’t learned that.

Anyway, judging by how calmly he was replying, he still didn’t know about the rumor.

I walked with Trevain toward the portal zone, my face buried in my phone.

Even while waiting for the portal to activate, I kept holding it.

Next, I replied to Ric.

[Have you heard the rumor?]

The reply came quickly.

[What rumor?]

I answered, the Ami rumor, and then there was no reply for a bit.

After a moment, a single ‘?’ came back.

Ricardo doesn’t know either?

Did Yehyeon just hear some baseless gossip?

Just as I thought that, a message from Bobby arrived.

With a photo attached.

[Bobby: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!!!!]

[Bobby: (image)]

[Bobby: Have you heard anything?!]

The moment I saw the image, my mouth fell open.

There was Ami and Ju.

Ami, eyes wide, stuffing popcorn into her mouth—

and Ju, looking down at her with the eyes of someone in love.

***

The moment I got home, I ran straight to where Ricardo was—at Café Senabi.

“Ric!”