Black Badger

So I’d been sleep-talking again.

Blood rushed to my face.

Kai was leaning over the railing on the second floor. For some reason, Ricardo was standing beside my bed. Kairos had pushed himself halfway upright and was looking at me, and Yun was there too.

This is... a lot of pressure.

Fortunately, when I jabbed my elbow into the mattress and raised my upper body, everyone politely averted their gaze.

“I’m sorry.”

I muttered the apology.

“Was I sleep-talking? Did I wake everyone up because of that?”

“You weren’t that loud.”

Kai, sitting on the second floor, answered.

“Go back to sleep.”

“No. I’ve slept enough.”

“It’s six in the morning. If you’re not sleeping, at least lie down for an hour and a half.”

Yun muttered as he lay back down on his bed.

Maybe he was exhausted—his eyes were already closed. His face was tinted by the dim light of the small battery-powered night lamp.

With his eyes still shut, my mentor said,

“Turn off the night light when you go upstairs.”

Ricardo gave my shoulder a light tap, switched off the lamp, and went back up.

I didn’t even get a chance to ask anything. I turned my head to ask Kairos, but he happened to be yawning, so I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

After yawning, the summoner just smiled faintly and lay back down.

In the end, I had no choice but to lie down too.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but once I did, drowsiness crept in again. I only woke up when I heard the alarm.

It wasn’t coming from the men’s sleeping quarters.

It seemed Ami had brought an old-fashioned analog alarm clock from headquarters.

“Choi Ami. Turn off the alarm.”

Yun banged on the wall with a thud.

Badgers were groggily getting up.

This place had atrocious soundproofing. I could hear movement in the next room, and the clatter as Ami knocked the alarm over while turning it off.

Cold air wrapped around my body.

Today, I’m definitely going out.

With that resolve, I started my second day.

***

“But how did the Commander suppress all the complaints?”

Breakfast duty was Ami.

Dipping bread into the warm sweet-pumpkin soup she had made, she asked the question. We were all seated at the table, bundled up in layers of clothing.

The seniors lifted their heads from their steaming plates.

The one who answered was Kai.

“They all got chewed out. As a group.”

Huh?

“Looked like he dumped every bitter thing he’d been holding back.”

“Did he tear into the Badgers?”

“They got scrubbed hard.”

Ami nodded and added,

“They lined up, did roll call, attention, bowed their heads, and got blasted while standing there. You were probably the only one who didn’t—since you were busy dragging out the guy Hilde beat up.”

“Oh. Did Yun handle that?”

“If I didn’t, who else would?”

Yun replied flatly.

“Because of that, I missed seeing Trevain. Probably would’ve been worth watching.”

“Senior Trevain got chewed out too?”

“Everyone who was there got it.”

Sophia said indifferently.

“Felt like something that’d been building finally burst.”

For some reason, the anger in her voice felt... thinner.

Even though they were talking about Yehyeon, there was no particular emotion mixed into Sophia’s tone. I couldn’t tell whether she was putting on a calm front or if her feelings had genuinely cooled.

Of course, I didn’t ask out loud which it was.

Instead, after swallowing a piece of warm bread, I asked,

“What did he say?”

“He told them to complain only after they’re pulling their weight like Hildebert.”

...Wow.

I stared, mouth hanging open.

Kai kept explaining, one point after another.

“He also said that if you were all as capable as Hildebert, he wouldn’t even be paying this much attention to Hildebert in the first place.”

“...My god.”

“He said it was natural to have questions about hiring someone through a special recruitment process, so he’d set aside time for Q&A—but that he hadn’t come out there to listen to complaints.”

Ami said, sipping her cocoa.

I was frozen in my seat, forgetting to eat altogether.

Wow.

Good thing I stormed out in anger.

The atmosphere would’ve completely collapsed otherwise.

“He also asked why it was you who thought you got to decide whether to trust a specific Badger or not~.... Said, logically, don’t you think I have more information than you do.... Or is it that you’re questioning my judgment, and I’m just too dense to pick up on it?”

“That’s terrifying.”

“At the end, he asked exactly what the problem was.”

Ami wrapped up the explanation calmly.

“Unusual recruitment? He said Hilde is fully qualified, working exemplary in practice, and it’s not like there have never been special hires before—so what’s the issue? Non-human background? He stood on humanity’s side in the First War, and I’ve judged there’s no chance of betrayal—so where exactly is the problem in that?”

“Did he raise his voice...?”

“That’s what made it scarier—he didn’t.”

Ami licked the cocoa off her lips.

“And it wasn’t just about Hilde. Felt like he was letting out things he’d been holding back. He said he’d let the recklessness of believing internal rumors slide this time.”

“Senior Trevain must’ve completely lost it.”

That man had gone there to complain about Yehyeon.

Instead of getting to vent properly, he just got chewed out alongside his juniors. There was no way he wasn’t in a foul mood.

Kai seemed to understand what I meant and snorted softly.

“So he got chewed out a second time.”

“...What?”

“Once the leadership and Director Ju left, Trevain started cracking down on the lower ranks.”

Unbelievable.

This time, I forgot to eat because I was dumbfounded. When I made a face that clearly said what on earth is wrong with him, Kai stretched his smile.

“Basically, he was venting.”

“Thank you for your hard work....”

I muttered, thinking of the Badgers who had come to defend me, only to get torn apart by their superior and then chewed out again by a senior.

“That must’ve been a rough evening.”

“Not something to grumble about in front of you.”

Kai said calmly, then resumed eating his breakfast.

As if prompted by his words, people glanced at my expression one by one.

As I forced a bitter smile, Ami set down her empty cocoa cup and added,

“Right. And honestly, it felt kind of refreshing.”

The small senior stood up and poured me a cup of cocoa too.

Meanwhile, the others rose from their seats in a rush.

One look told me they were getting ready to head out. I hurriedly stood up as well, but Ricardo’s hand stopped me cold.

“You can sit back and take it easy~.”

“Senior, that’s really not fair.”

“Someone has to stay behind anyway. If something happens, someone needs to go to the comms room and contact headquarters. If the generator acts up, someone has to deal with it. We need someone to do the dishes, take out the trash, and prep lunch.”

I listened to Yun rattle off tasks in his dry tone, eyes widening.

That’s... actually a lot to do.

In that case, I couldn’t complain. They weren’t leaving me behind for no reason.

But still....

“I don’t really have the knowledge to deal with generator failures....”

“I’ll teach you the basics. Come with me.”

Yun dropped the bomb and walked straight out of the cafeteria.

“You’re not so stupid that you can’t memorize a response plan.”

And so, I really did learn emergency generator procedures in a crash course.

Fortunately, Yun had brought a manual. He said he’d scribbled it roughly so that even an idiot who didn’t know which law of thermodynamics was which could follow it.

The explanation was actually very clear, so I clutched the manual like a lifeline.

If the generator failed, we’d have to evacuate the base immediately. It was basically our lifeline. If, at that moment, the portal malfunctioned too and we couldn’t withdraw, Yun said grimly, this place would turn into a mass grave.

“Wouldn’t it be safer if I went out and you stayed behind, Senior?”

“If I see any sign of trouble, I’ll stay and send you out immediately.”

My mentor replied indifferently.

“For now, it’s fine for a few days. If the stay drags on, that’s another story. Just finish your tasks before we get back.”

After saying that firmly, he listed everything I needed to do.

He even assigned extra tasks for if I had spare time—checking the base’s supplies, sorting out what was still usable, that sort of thing.

“Make sure lunch is at least edible.”

I’m not that bad at cooking.

When we roasted that land-whale before, everyone ate it just fine.

In any case, once again, the seniors headed out onto the glacier, dark as night. It was morning, but without any sunlight, it felt like perpetual night.

Badgers stepping outside the base with flashlights in hand, wearing clothes that weighed close to ten kilograms.

After seeing them off, I returned to the cafeteria to wash dishes.

And so the second day passed with me stuck in the base, doing odd jobs all day.

Still, having work to do made me feel better.

If I kept my body busy and my mind occupied, I wouldn’t sink inward.

“Hilde, you’re really good at housekeeping.”

Four hours later, Ami came back with her nose red from the cold and widened her eyes at the neatly sorted trash and supplies.

“Was the cabin this organized too?”

“It was a lot smaller, for one.”

I sliced the whole roast pig neatly for distribution to the seniors.

“If there’s anything you need, please tell me. I’ll prioritize looking for that in the supplies. There’s a lot more usable stuff than I expected.”

The second day passed peacefully like that.

***

The third day was much the same.

The difference was that the seniors, after moving tirelessly for three days, finally reached the Ice Dragon.

That said, the day ended with them merely setting up bamboo poles near it. They couldn’t do anything to actually wake the Ice Dragon. Apparently, the moment they got close, the blizzard became too violent.

“Seems like there’s always a blizzard around the Ice Dragon.”

“Throwing something to wake it probably won’t work.”

The siblings explained while drinking coffee.

The moment I heard that, I lifted my head.

“Should I go and send out a sword strike?”

“So the glacier cracks open, the bamboo poles we barely planted fall into the gaps, and we get lost in the dark?”

Yun’s immediate rebuttal made me droop sadly.

There wasn’t a single illogical part to it. I had nothing to argue back with....

Gloomily, I stirred the soup with a ladle.

Sophia approached, pulling off her gloves.

“The apron suits you.”

She offered a small consolation.

I replied miserably,

“Thank you.... What should I make for breakfast tomorrow?”

“Coffee, toast, and butter.”

“I want cocoa!”

“We’ll eat breakfast, head out, and wake it around noon.”

Yun declared, setting his cup down.

The Badgers stopped eating and drinking.

His dry, dark gaze found Kairos’s orange eyes.

“If you bring a megaphone, you’re confident you can shout loud enough.”

“Yes.”

Using bombs or approaching to stab it was too risky, so they’d decided to wake the Ice Dragon with noise.

It had been one of the options from the start, and Kairos seemed to think it would work.

He planned to shout in the Imperial language.

Well. It’s not like a dragon has bad hearing.

Even if the constant wind around it sounded like ASMR.

“Then I’ll just shout louder.”

“The Ice Dragon is huge!”

Ami shouted optimistically beside Kairos.

“It’s like there’s a massive hill there! It’s curled up, so it looks even bigger!”

On the third night, Kairos woke me again.

I thought I’d slept quietly on the second night. Fortunately, on the third night, only Kairos was awake. I couldn’t tell whether the others were pretending to ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) sleep out of consideration for me, or if they were just too exhausted to wake up.

Either way, the summoner gently shook me awake, smiled, and then immediately crawled back under the blanket.

‘Sorry.’

When I whispered that, Kairos pulled a hand out from under the blanket and fluttered it lightly.

The noisy alarm from the next room woke us again on the fourth day.

The day we would wake the Ice Dragon.

***

After breakfast, the seniors headed out with their radios.

They said they’d contact us if anything happened.

I was ordered to stay in the portal zone—told to be ready with my sword, since we didn’t know what might happen.

So I barely finished cleaning up after breakfast before waiting in the portal zone.

Ami’s voice came through the radio.

[It’s gone!]

Hearing her voice, mixed with shock and confusion, my eyes widened.

“What?”

[The hill is gone! The Ice Dragon vanished in an instant! It was definitely here just three seconds ago!]

“What? Where could... you mean that massive thing?”

[Yeah! It’s gone! The blizzard surged and then it just disappeared!]

[It didn’t go far.]

As if trying to calm us down, Kairos’s voice suddenly cut in.

[Nearby—.]

Thud.

Something hit the ground.

The sound came from the corridor.

At the same time as that heavy sound, the radio cut off. I snapped my head up and stared down the corridor without moving.

Something’s here.

My instincts didn’t flare, but the sharpened senses I’d honed were still there.

Something is in the corridor....

The Ice Dragon?

I moved toward the door, silencing my footsteps.

After readying myself to dash, I peered into the corridor.

A hallway with only a single light on, to conserve power.

At the far end of it, someone was standing.

“...A child?”