Black Badger

Will it fall through?

It was a thought I’d been having for a while now.

If it’s Ro, there’s a very real chance he won’t remember the date.

No—honestly, that possibility feels far more likely.

Once the physical test day passes, he’ll probably forget entirely!

Feeling hope well up inside me, I smiled faintly.

“It’s fine. It’s not something that’ll happen anyway.”

“Didn’t you just say an appointment was set?”

“He’ll forget.”

I answered Jonathan’s question immediately.

“There’s no way he’ll remember.”

“We should hope so.”

Jonathan’s words sent a chill through me.

For this quiet senior to worry like that—what on earth happens at a drinking session with the Personnel Director?

Not wanting to imagine it, I muttered, “There’s no way he’ll remember this,” and Ricardo let out a snort.

“I told you to put it off, but you just had to crawl into the training hall—so of course you ended up like this~.”

Ricardo bent at the waist and looked down at me, nagging.

“Don’t tell me you still haven’t postponed it?”

“I just did.”

I smiled bitterly.

“I figured it wouldn’t work otherwise.”

At this rate, there was no way I’d pass.

It had been less than ten minutes since I’d decided I’d have to go see Jin or Shu during the physical test period. It doesn’t matter if Mühlen fails—but if I fail, that’s a problem.

No need to take unnecessary risks....

Apparently satisfied with my decision, the seniors didn’t nag me any further.

I lay there for a while, watching them work out.

Tom and Hesh, seeing that I wasn’t being put through anything particularly brutal, relaxed and went off together to do shooting practice.

John Mühlen was collected a few minutes later by Ro, who suddenly remembered his existence and came back for him. Ro said he’d remembered Mühlen while eating dinner.

Something about seeing a cactus at a taco place reminded him that he’d left the guy behind?

Anyway. Even after seeing the scientist dragged off over Ro’s shoulder, I lingered in the training hall.

I lay sprawled on the mat until the three seniors roughly finished their workouts.

Ricardo and Jonathan had clearly come together, and Yun seemed to have just happened to have time.

The first of the three to finish was Yun.

My mentor, already showered, came over and stopped beside me as I leaned against the training hall mirror.

“What are you doing?”

I looked up at him and smiled slightly.

“I was waiting for you, sunbae. There’s something I wanted to ask.”

“What is it.”

“What’s going on with Ami?”

I was serious.

I’d wanted to contact her again after that day, but she’d gone out on a mission, so I hadn’t been able to ask directly.

I hadn’t even been able to visit their place. Hard to believe, but I’d run a fever over the weekend. It wasn’t mild, so I couldn’t really go out. My kin had locked me in the cabin and even taken my phone away.

I was genuinely curious, so I asked Kairos—but that bastard just laughed at length and didn’t give me a straight answer.

‘Stop worrying and rest. You’ve been looking too impatient lately.’

‘You’re not worried about your mentor at all? I’m absolutely against this relationship.’

‘Why worry? My mentor will make the decision she wants. Whether she dates or not, she’ll choose what’s right for her.’

‘The only right decision here is not dating.’

I’d said firmly as Kairos changed the towel on my forehead.

‘You have to nip it in the bud.’

What did Kairos say after that?

Something like, ‘Even then, my mentor will just follow her heart,’ said with a laugh.

Even after I explained the Personnel Director’s scandalous rumors, his expression hadn’t changed much. Not because he didn’t care about Ami—but because he seemed to think Ami was the same type as himself.

It wasn’t an entirely wrong assessment....

As I recalled that evening from two days ago, Yun answered dryly.

“For now, I got Yehyeon’s permission.”

I didn’t quite understand what Yun meant.

“Permission for what?”

“He said to keep it to the extent that it doesn’t interfere with work.”

Ah.

So that’s a refined way of saying beat him up, but not too much.

Of course, I understood. It made sense. It made plenty of sense. I still couldn’t quite believe the Personnel Director was actually making a move on Ami.

Yun snorted lightly.

“Ami isn’t giving a clear answer.”

“Why not?!”

I’d been relieved by Yehyeon’s permission, but Yun’s next words made me panic.

“There’s only one possible answer in the first place!”

“I said that too. But she doesn’t listen to me to begin with.”

“If I try to persuade her, do you think she’ll listen a bit?”

“She doesn’t usually listen to other people, but go ahead and talk to her. She really likes you, so she might listen to you more.”

I’ll message Ami right now.

I pulled out my phone and opened the message window.

Then I typed a message that went straight to the point. Of course, I didn’t actually think Ami would date Ju—but I wanted to eliminate even the slightest possibility.

What Trevain had said kept echoing in my head.

After sending a message along the lines of you’ve probably heard this enough, but Ju really doesn’t seem like a good idea, I hesitated over which emoticon to use.

While I was seriously deliberating, Ricardo and Jonathan approached, having finished their workouts.

“Sunbae.”

I sent a bouncy emoticon, then looked up and called out to the senior.

“Sunbae, please tell her too that the Personnel Director isn’t it.”

Ricardo didn’t answer.

Instead, with a faint smile, he turned his head and jerked his chin.

In the direction he indicated, Ami was walking into the training hall, humming to herself.

She was humming along when she saw us, her eyes widening.

The timing is insane.

“Oh!”

Ami spotted us and trotted over.

“You’re all here to prep for the physical test!”

She came right up and naturally handed her water bottle to Yun, then turned toward me.

Meeting my eyes, she asked,

“Hilde, how’s your body? I heard you were sick over the weekend!”

“I’m much better now, sunbae. My fever’s down.”

“You had a fever?”

Jonathan frowned at me.

Next to my awkward smile, Ricardo looked down at Ami.

As soon as she noticed his gaze and looked up, he spoke.

“Ami~.... Are you still taking the Personnel Director’s calls~?”

Ami nodded.

“Yeah, more or less.”

What?

“Everyone’s trying really hard to talk me out of it. But I’m still in contact. I want to take some time and decide what to do.”

“If everyone’s trying to stop you, isn’t there probably a reason~?”

Ricardo said gently.

That’s a great line, Rick!

As I shouted internally, Ami tilted her head beside me.

She looked up with her green eyes and replied,

“That’s true, but this is about my feelings, so I want to think it through carefully. At least, I don’t feel the same kind of instinctive rejection I did with Ro.”

“Really~?”

“Yeah.”

I’m going to lose it.

“So I’m trying to listen to what my heart’s telling me.”

“Will that really lead to the right choice....? I’m skeptical~.”

“I do think rationally, you know.”

“Do you~?”

“I’m still two years older than you, Rick!”

Ami grumbled.

“I’m the older one!”

Ricardo let out a small laugh.

He slipped both hands into his pockets and looked # Nоvеlight # down at her.

Then, slowly, he said,

“Why.... didn’t you say, when we first met, ‘I was in a coma for two years, so we’re basically the same age, right?’...?”

Ami’s mouth snapped shut into a straight line.

She looked up at Ricardo with a stunned expression, then said, “I’m going to work out,” took her bottle back from Yun, and disappeared into the training hall—leaving behind me and Jonathan blinking, Ricardo smiling broadly, and Yun snorting.

Please.

I really hope Ami makes the right decision. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Praying earnestly, I left the training hall with the seniors—

while being scolded from both sides about how, if I wasn’t feeling well, I should just stay quietly shut up in the cabin.

***

It’ll probably get canceled anyway, but still.

Just how strong is the Personnel Director’s drinking capacity?

While pondering that, I sent a message to William Walker.

I didn’t pad it with anything—just wrote, I’ve ended up drinking with the Personnel Director. Is he always a heavy drinker?

The reply came immediately.

Just as I was about to put my phone down, it vibrated again.

[William Walker : How did that happen?]

Before I could add any explanation, messages kept coming.

[William Walker : You didn’t make some kind of bet, did you.]

[William Walker : Don’t do drinking-capacity bets. Whatever you imagine, it’ll be worse.]

[William Walker : If there’s no bet involved, there’s no need to worry. He’s not the type to force alcohol on people.]

Just how much does he drink?

Feeling a bit worn down, I sent back a thank-you.

It was meant as a closing message. I thought that’d be the end—but surprisingly, Walker asked about my condition.

I replied briefly that I was waiting for my body to recover, and he told me to let him know when it did.

What’s that about?

I was puzzled, but didn’t ask further.

I just replied briefly that I would.

There are too many things I need to focus on right now.

So I pushed aside my curiosity about Walker’s odd reaction and turned my attention back to Yoow.

Or more precisely, to my kin in the cabin.

Don’t Yoow and Deltei find this cramped little cabin suffocating?

I still didn’t even know where Yoow’s house was. Deltei had been going back to his own place three days a week lately, saying he’d gone to record something—but Yoow was completely holed up in the cabin like Igor, not moving at all.

And yet he won’t even go apologize to his peers.

One day, I’ll definitely grab Yoow and drag him in front of them.

“I’ve thought about it for a long time, and I think this is the core issue.”

But that, too, wasn’t the right time yet.

Putting aside my desire for a three-way confrontation between Hesh, Tom, and Yoow, I listened to Yoow’s explanation.

The strategist spoke grimly.

“Kyle is trying to neutralize the Core.”

“Well, he couldn’t attack in the first place otherwise.”

When Igor asked back in a why are you stating the obvious tone, the strategist snapped sharply.

Igor raised an eyebrow.

I waved my hands quickly, stopping what might have turned into an argument.

Igor shut up at once, and Yoow turned his sullen gaze back to me.

The strategist brought up a hologram.

“I heard you’ve already seen it in person once. The flower the black mage cultivated in his nest.”

“Ah, right. Yeah. Do you know what it is?”

“I don’t know exactly either.”

The enormous flower Shu had been submerged in.

At its center was a pool of water like a pond. All of the flowers in Kyle’s camp were said to have water sloshing at their centers.

Kairos, looking at the hologram, confirmed again that the flower looked exactly like the one he’d climbed back then.

Then he re-explained what he’d experienced.

The pool filled at the very center of the flower had emitted a faint glow.

Shu’s body, half-submerged in the water, had appeared doubled, like a malfunctioning screen.

He’d also said he’d seen memories that weren’t his own.

As if possessed by the voice of a dream.

“When Kyle pushed Shu into that flower, it seems some of Kyle’s memories mixed in.”

I muttered, recalling the conversation I’d had with Shu back then.

“That’s why I think that flower might be some kind of memory-related magic.”

There were words both Kairos and Shu had heard while inside the flower.

‘You locked me in this hell and tried to live comfortably on your own?’

I thought about that sentence sometimes.

Who said it?

Was it one of our kin who sided with Kyle? Or one of my own kin attached to me? Or was it something a human said?

When I get lost in these unanswered thoughts, memories flow like water, and I find myself thinking about Shu—or Kyle.

Shu, born with a portal anomaly and kidnapped by Kyle, says he’s going to cut off his unmoving leg.

Then he’ll be able to run again.

The senior who’d smiled at me and said, ‘But you didn’t turn to ash and disappear.’

Yoow’s voice pulled me back from my thoughts.

“I understand it differently. The flowers in the black mage’s nest are usually known to be used for spatial-transfer magic.”

“Spatial transfer? But spatial magic doesn’t look like that, does it? Sorry if this is ignorant, but what exactly does ‘spatial-transfer magic’ mean?”

“It’s natural that you wouldn’t know. Those people are extremely exclusionary. Even I, who served as the Emperor’s strategist, know nothing of the basics of magic....”

Yoow stared at the hologram with gloomy eyes.

“I don’t have enough knowledge to explain it properly. But I believe those flowers are related to spatial-transfer magic. Otherwise, why would they cultivate so many of them?”

“So the upper command is planning to strike the enemy before they can use that unknown thing?”

“Yes.”

“And the investigation into the flowers?”

“I’m searching through what survived among the materials I brought from the Empire. So far, there hasn’t been much to gain....”

“Oh. There are still things that survived from what you brought from the Empire?”

I’d assumed everything had either been lost in the flames of war or taken entirely by Kyle’s side.

It was an offhand question—but suddenly, everyone in the cabin nodded at once.

Seeing them all nod so vigorously caught me off guard.

Hearing the faint sadness in Deltei’s voice caught me even more off guard.

“We kept your old clothes and documents safe, too.”

“Really? Thanks.”

I didn’t think deeply about it.

Honestly, it only half registered. More than the fact that something had survived, what Yoow was telling us weighed much heavier on my mind.

Please let me recover my condition before Kyle’s side makes a move.

As I silently pleaded to the severed leaf veins, I listened to the strategist’s continued explanation.

***

The day of the physical test.

I came to see Shu.