Black Badger

The Double Mong plan wasn’t complicated.

I believed that the simpler a plan was, the easier it was for it to succeed. That was why I liked how straightforward this one looked.

Igor was still grumbling that the name and everything else about it were weird.

But in the end, he helped me without resistance.

Yun was the same. The mentor who had volunteered to take part had already left for headquarters ahead of us. He had to go retrieve the sixty-one Mongmong kept locked away in the lab.

I hadn’t expected him to go this far to help.

But now, I could vaguely tell.

He was fairly excited.

My mentor seemed to think there was a high chance that the Emperor was Jaeyeon.

Well, it would be revealed soon enough.

After rechecking the details of the plan, I saw Kairos off as he departed first.

The handler waved a hand out the window as he drove off in an SUV crammed full with the remaining thirty-eight Mongmong that hadn’t been moved to headquarters from Yun’s place.

The moment the SUV disappeared from sight, I returned to the cabin.

When I pulled open the wooden door, I found the Emperor already downstairs, staring intently at the robot vacuum cleaner.

What was he doing?

「What are you doing?」

The Emperor turned his head to look at me.

「Tig isn’t moving.」

「Ah.」

I couldn’t help but smile faintly.

「It’s out of power.」

「It seems to have eaten its fill of trash.」

「It doesn’t eat trash. It eats other things. Sucking up trash is just its job.」

I plugged the robot vacuum, which had stopped on the floor, into its charger.

The Emperor simply stood quietly in place until I finished getting ready to leave. Whenever he wasn’t asleep, he usually watched me go about various tasks with eyes full of curiosity.

It had been two weeks since he suddenly appeared in the portal zone, but he was still fascinated by switches. He didn’t know how they worked, yet he also found it fascinating that I used them without a second thought.

When I finished preparing and approached him, he asked,

「Are we riding that bizarre carriage?」

I nodded.

「I’ll escort you comfortably.」

I borrowed a car from Ami.

The seniors had repeatedly warned me never to bring my own car. Your car stands out too much, they said. Since I was the only one who drove that car at headquarters, plenty of people already recognized it.

It was too expensive a car to begin with.

In the end, I borrowed Ami’s blue beetle-like car.

「This carriage is narrow.」

That was the first thing the Emperor said as soon as he got into Ami’s car.

「It seems small even for your build. Isn’t it uncomfortable?」

「I’ll recline the seat.」

I sat in the driver’s seat and adjusted the passenger seat for him.

The Emperor widened his eyes and stared down at the seat as it slid back with a ziiing sound.

At times like this, he looked harmless.

After smiling faintly, I fastened his seatbelt. Once again, the Emperor observed the seatbelt with curiosity. I had explained before that it was a safety measure in case of an accident, but he still seemed to find the idea that he needed such a thing questionable.

At least now, he no longer mistook the seatbelt for a restraint.

After I started driving, he loosened and fastened the seatbelt a few times.

The beeping sound that went ding, ding when he unfastened it seemed to intrigue him.

「Why does it make that sound?」

「It’s a warning sound for when you don’t do that.」

The Emperor arched his brows and rolled his eyes around, searching for the source of the sound.

I set the car to automatic driving and silently laughed as I looked at the person beside me.

The Emperor never lost his dignity throughout the fall from the portal, but he didn’t make any particular effort to hide his curiosity either.

Today, I hadn’t even used a car with curtains blocking the view outside. If he was Jaeyeon, it didn’t matter whether he could see or not, and if he was the real Emperor, he had to start adapting to society somehow anyway.

The sky past noon was dazzlingly clear.

The car drove slowly toward headquarters.

The Emperor stayed silent for a long while, gazing out the window.

After some time, my former liege spoke.

「It’s surprising how many there are who aren’t caught by the sixth sense.」

Right.

Beings in human form weren’t detected by the sixth sense at all. That had felt extremely strange to me at first too. I’d been confused when none of the humans we encountered were detected by it.

That probably made the situation right after crossing the portal even worse.

I’d thought they were approaching with ill intent, deliberately hiding their presence....

「I think I can somewhat understand how it must feel for you, with your sixth sense damaged.」

That’s not it.

But I didn’t want to talk more about it.

I changed the subject.

「Do you not need to receive a transfer?」

「No.」

「Leaf-vein damage has nothing to do with absorption or transfer. I managed absorption safely even immediately after the damage.」

「Would you like me to request a transfer?」

He asked without beating around the bush.

Keeping my gaze on the direction the car was heading, I answered honestly.

「Strangely enough, yes. I’m sorry for overstepping.」

「Despite struggling with absorption itself, you used to perform transfers without a word.」

The Emperor chuckled quietly.

He was saying that my attitude had changed a great deal. That someone who used to kneel without question and carry out transfers on command was now making suggestions first and even asking for opinions.

It wasn’t a comfortable remark, but I didn’t retract the question I’d asked.

The man answered slowly.

「Do you know that, at the moment of transfer, the child of the World Tree and the one receiving the transfer are connected?」

Of course.

They had to be connected for the nutrients to transfer.

It felt like an obvious statement, but without showing it, I nodded.

「That connecting line is sturdier than you might think.」 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

「So that’s why you’re reluctant to do transfers. That’s understandable. Your Majesty, thank you for explaining.」

「There aren’t many who succeed in receiving the World Tree’s blessing, and because of that, there are very few facts that have been accurately established regarding absorption and transfer. But one thing is clear: if magic is cast on the child of the World Tree at the moment of transfer, the person receiving the transfer will be affected by the magic as well. Even if the spell is cast with the intent of targeting only the child of the World Tree.」

Was that why Kyle kept trying to perform transfers on the Badgers?

Because their bodies would be connected at the moment of transfer? Was that why he soaked Shu in the flower and then tried to move dimensions while remaining connected himself?

...No. That didn’t seem right.

He could move dimensions without going through the hassle of a transfer. He could just jump in. There had to be another reason.

In any case, that was enough on that topic.

I could fully understand his unwillingness to receive transfers from someone with damaged leaf veins.

「It seems there’s something else you need to confirm.」

The Emperor murmured, as if to himself.

「We’re going to the same ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ place as last time, aren’t we?」

So he’d roughly memorized the geography.

He’d been carefully noting where we turned and where we went.

I recalled Hekate’s words about how surprisingly refined his swordsmanship was. I thought she was right. He was sharp, and he didn’t let many things slip by.

If he really was the Emperor, I could never afford to let my guard down.

Thinking that thought born at the end of disloyalty, I arrived at Black Badger headquarters.

The place where my kin and Yun were finishing preparations to initiate the Double Mong operation.

One hour remained until the face-to-face questioning between the leadership and the Personnel Director.

***

[Yun: Ready.]

As I parked in the leadership parking area and walked toward the elevator, the group chat notification chimed.

[Yun: You can come in whenever.]

[Kai: We’re in the control room right now. We have a clear view of every corner of the portal zone. Igor, Deltei, and Yoow are waiting at the locations you designated.]

[Me: What are you guys talking about with each other?]

I asked, suddenly unable to contain my curiosity.

It reminded me of how everyone had waited for me in complete silence the last time I’d gone to Kairos’s place.

Right now, only Yun and Kairos were in the control room. For this operation, those two alone were enough. We didn’t need more people.

I had asked my kin to stay nearby just in case of an unexpected emergency, though.

I’d expected to be ignored, but surprisingly, I received replies from both of them at the same time.

[Yun: You and Choi Ami.]

[Kai: We’re talking about you and Senior Ami.]

Good. At least they had a common topic.

Come to think of it, Kairos and Yun had never had particularly bad relations. Once, Kairos had said that Yun wasn’t a strange person as long as he kept his boundaries.

Meanwhile, Yun seemed to think of Kairos as just one of the juniors who didn’t particularly irritate him.

I was relieved that the only two people overseeing the Double Mong plan were on good terms.

Feeling reassured, I pressed the button for the open elevator.

Then I gestured to the Emperor to get inside.

Since he’d ridden it a few times already, there was no need to explain this time. Before, Yoow—who had visited a mage tower before—had needed to stick close and explain, “You can think of it as a sky-moving platform that exists in mage towers.”

The leadership elevator rose quickly.

「Are you planning to restore the leaf veins to their original state?」

The Emperor casually threw out the question as the elevator ascended.

I blinked and looked at the man’s profile.

「Yes. If possible, I definitely want to.」

「Then you’ll need to open the mana channels.」

He said something I didn’t quite understand.

「Think carefully. It’s by no means an easy process.」

What did he mean by opening mana channels?

It was the first time I’d ever even heard the term.

Back in the Empire, not knowing much about magic hadn’t been a serious problem, but since coming to Earth, my ignorance of magic had repeatedly become an obstacle in my life. I almost wanted to shake my past self for respecting the magicians’ secrecy pact and not taking a greater interest in magic.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.

I looked into the flood of light.

「Does opening mana channels take a long time?」

「No. It’s just that the pain is so severe that people sometimes die from it.」

I see.

「That’s all?」

「That’s all. For someone of your caliber, if you endure it, the channels will open.」

Then that’s fine.

As long as it didn’t take long, it was fine. I was no stranger to enduring pain.

There was no guarantee the Ice Dragon would willingly pour mana into me, but—

For now, I set aside thoughts about leaf veins and dragons and watched as the portal zone doors opened.

Beyond that door, nearly a hundred Mongmong would be standing there, transparent and still.

With damaged leaf veins, I couldn’t even sense their presence.

「Why gather so many monsters in one place?」

With a push-shhk sound, the door opened.

As the heavy door swung open and light subtly different from the corridor poured out, the Emperor spoke at my side.

I turned to him reflexively.

He was looking at me with a familiar gaze that asked for an explanation of the situation. He’d said it before seeing anything beyond the door, which meant his sixth sense was working to some extent.

Is he really himself?

「I’ll explain slowly.」

Putting on a calm front, I walked into the portal zone.

The reason I’d chosen this place for the Double Mong operation was fairly simple. It was large enough to hold dozens of Mongmong, and it had CCTV coverage with no blind spots and a control room, allowing Yun and Kairos to keenly observe any change in the Emperor’s expression.

It was also chosen because it was the place where the Emperor had first appeared. Whatever he was, the fact that he had suddenly emerged from a portal didn’t change.

Just like me.

In my case, I’d appeared wearing a random white shirt and black pants.

「Please forgive my insolence.」

The Emperor didn’t reply to my formal apology.

He simply stood at the entrance for a moment, then slowly stepped inside.

An unobstructed view. A single pale portal device, powered down, stood in the center. Excluding the portal machine, the space looked empty as I carefully stepped in.

They’re transparent, so you can’t see them.

Even back at the Colosseum, when I’d been too distracted worrying about the seniors, I hadn’t sensed the Mongmong at all. I remembered how Ricardo had stepped on the Mongmong named Fuu back then. For humans, it would be quite a troublesome creature. Invisible, and uncannily good at perfectly imitating capable opponents.

Compared to Jaeyeon’s mimicry, it was child’s play.

I guided the Emperor to the front of the portal device.

After turning to face the Emperor standing before it, I slowly knelt.

「Please forgive me for this presumptuous act.」

A Mongmong squirmed at the Emperor’s feet.

I didn’t lift my head, but I saw it from the corner of my eye. The Mongmong that had been resting on the floor began to imitate the Emperor.

It started from the feet, becoming clear.

It was on an entirely different level from Fuu, which had produced a sloppy imitation of Hildebert. The texture was chillingly similar. A second Emperor was being constructed layer by layer right before my eyes.

The Mongmong perfectly replicated even the Empire’s modest ceremonial robes the Emperor was currently wearing.

A hand bearing the faint marks of rings.

Fingernails that were always immaculate.

Arms pale from lack of sunlight, veins faintly blue beneath the skin.

The two figures shaped like the Emperor now stood facing each other completely.

I raised my head and checked the Emperor’s face.