Black Badger

There was a person inside the building.

Carl Dow stared at the half-collapsed structure.

A place where the wind spewing from the gigantic flower swept past his ankles.

But there was no sign of the mage.

He didn’t particularly try to see her, either. Carl was positioned too far for the memory fragments bursting out of the flower to reach him anyway.

His job was civilian rescue.

And right now, there were several civilians around him who needed help.

Jin Silver approached after setting a cat he’d pulled from the debris down on safe ground.

“There’s a person inside?”

“Yes. Still conscious.”

Fortunately, a drone had just dropped off a building scanner.

Carl was using it to examine the interior of the collapsed structure. As blue light penetrated the debris and passed through, the internal layout appeared clearly on the scanner screen.

He could see exactly where the person was.

Alive.

“So we just clear it out the way this thing tells us to.”

Jin said, peering at the scanner.

“Man, the world’s gotten nice. Back in the day, they didn’t even tell you what to clear first.”

“Is your arm alright?”

Before heading toward the debris, Carl glanced at Jin’s arm.

He knew very well that Jin’s arm had once been immobilized due to calcification from a Transfer.

And unlike Shu, Jin had suffered more inconvenience—enough that he’d amputated the arm and received a prosthetic.

Jin raised both hands and grinned.

“Yeah. Probably more useful than yours.”

The senior clenched and unclenched his hand.

“Stronger than an enhanced body, even. Let’s get started. Before that thing goes berserk again and starts spraying attacks everywhere, let’s get the rescue done.”

“Yes.”

Carl shoved the scanner into his pocket and walked toward the ruins.

He could feel the wind brushing his ankles growing stronger, and his hands moved faster.

This disaster was so massive it wasn’t getting focused attention, but there were injured and dead everywhere.

A city gone quiet after an explosion.

Faint screams drifting in from all directions.

He would save even one more person.

Wasn’t that why he’d received an enhanced body in the first place?

Following the scanner’s guidance, he began clearing the debris.

***

I patted Yoow on the back.

Not for very long.

Yun appeared out of nowhere and checked my condition with a bioscanner.

I looked up at the impassive Sasu with a bitter smile.

“I used a fall technique. I’m not hurt.”

Yun stared at me.

“There’s no end to your streak of bad luck.”

I smirked.

“We were talking in Imperial language anyway. Most of them probably didn’t understand.”

“I did.”

“You’re not going to interpret it for them, though.”

Yun didn’t answer.

...What?

Caught off guard, my eyes widened.

I asked hurriedly.

“Yehyeon or Ricardo or—anyway, you’re not going to go out of your way to tell the others, right, Yun? Interpreting’s a hassle.”

“If the Supreme Commander or the aide asks, I have to. What power do I have?”

“Sunbae!”

“Hilde!”

At that urgent shout, Ami came plunging down from the sky.

Holding Shu in her arms, her eyes were bloodshot.

“Hilde....”

“Why are you crying?”

Yun frowned and turned toward his younger sister.

Ami, tears streaming down her face, and Shu, eyes red-rimmed, both turned their heads toward Sasu at the same time.

Yun asked,

“You didn’t even understand what we were saying, did you.”

Ami ignored him.

“I’m sorry....”

She turned her gaze back to me and sniffled.

“I’m sorry....”

“What do you have to be sorry for, Ami.”

“You looked like you were in so much pain.”

The senior muttered through a sniffle.

“Hilde in those memories was just too... I didn’t fully understand the situation. I didn’t even have the right to....”

“I’m really fine. If anything, getting all my memories back makes me feel lighter.”

Thinking about how hard I’d struggled just to come back eased the weight in my heart.

Maybe I’d remembered it instinctively. That might be why I hadn’t felt as guilty toward the kin who waited for me for so long as I normally would have.

Well—this kind of talk could wait until the job was done.

The wind was blowing.

Gradually intensifying. I narrowed my eyes and examined the white, raging gale.

The atmosphere churned, and the surroundings darkened.

Everything around us wavered uneasily. After confirming there was no immediate barrage of attacks, I organized the information I’d gathered.

There were still unanswered questions.

No matter how I looked at it, Jaeyeon seemed like the strange one.

I could understand that Jaeyeon knew Cecil was there and threw me into the portal.

But when did I meet the Emperor, exactly?

And how did I find the exit and return? When did Kyle find Cecil?

Are Kyle’s memories intact?

How did Cecil end up appearing right in the center of Center Core?

Countless questions bubbled up.

But there was no time to dwell on them.

With this many memories surfacing, I’d thought she might regain her sanity.

Instead, it seemed to have backfired. They weren’t happy memories when recalled.

The wind speed is increasing.

“The wind!”

Ami shouted.

“Looks like it’s starting again!”

“Anyone who thinks a rampage will settle down easily is a fool.”

Yun grumbled.

“During the First War, frontline units were ground up like paper fed into a shredder.”

Was guilt fueling her rampage?

I dropped to one knee, preparing to rise.

I angled my sword in my right hand and assessed the situation.

What happened to Kairos?

“Kai—”

“Here.”

I heard the cracked voice of the Sasu.

When I snapped my head around, I saw the red-eyed Sasu slung /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ over Igor’s back.

“Get him out.”

The moment I saw his complexion, I spoke.

“Igor. Take him to a hospital or find something suitable for a Transfer.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Hospitals are overflowing right now. Find something we can Transfer to.”

Igor replied immediately and set Kairos down next to Yoow.

Kairos looked up at me with a bitter smile.

“I’m not bad enough to need a Transfer.... Captain, sorry for poking around in your memories without permission. I can’t say I don’t understand Cecil’s decision. Shouldn’t have made that game.”

“Stop talking.”

I answered firmly.

I had plenty to say about what he’d just said, but this wasn’t the time for a long conversation.

After glancing once more at the Sasu lying in the wind, I gave Yoow an order.

“If his condition worsens, report immediately.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll talk about everything else after we drag Cecil out of there.”

Yoow looked up at me with a complicated expression.

Many emotions were mixed together, but I could read the thoughts he couldn’t bring himself to voice.

“I know the chances of saving her are slim.”

I turned my gaze back toward the mage at the center of the wind.

“If she isn’t launching omnidirectional attacks, the textbook response to a rampage is to seal the area and let it self-destruct.”

“She may already have crossed the point of no return. Unless she had been controlling the rampage from the start....”

“She came to her senses for a moment earlier.”

She had clearly called my name.

Hope wasn’t completely extinguished. I wouldn’t give up on her to the very end.

“We have to try everything we can.”

WHOOO—!

The wind intensified again. Black ash mixed into the gale pouring out of the flower.

It looked like parts of Cecil’s body were burning away.

Wind and smoke shooting skyward.

Air thick with the smell of metal.

“Aaah!”

Ami screamed.

“I’m getting blown away!”

“In my experience.”

Yun dryly said, grabbing Ami by the collar and yanking her back.

“Saying ‘I love you,’ ‘snap out of it,’ all that stuff—none of it works.”

“What?”

I was caught off guard, even as I prepared to swing my sword while reading the wind’s path.

Is he talking about when the leaf veins were damaged?

Love...?

“Did you tell me you loved me?”

“Not me.”

“What?”

“That bastard made someone else do it.”

KRAAANG!

Igor returned.

He knocked away a flying steel plate with a sword strike and explained,

“He threw his weight around and made someone shout ‘I love you’ at Hildebert.”

After tossing a massive Creature corpse near Kairos and settling into a stance, the knight continued.

I asked blankly,

“Who... who did he make do it?”

“No idea. It was a guy, though.”

“A guy?”

Don’t tell me Carl or Ricardo?

He made them do something like that?

One of them shouted that they loved me?

Stunned, I stared blankly at the Sasu beside me.

Even though I knew I needed to focus....

Yoow’s voice snapped me back to reason.

“But it’s also true that the Captain mistook the Supreme Commander for a proper soldier and came to his senses.”

The tactician muttered, pulling Kairos closer to him.

“In that sense, I believe pretending to be Kysis could also be one viable method.”

What the hell is he talking about now.

Casually knocking aside debris flying in on the gale, I looked ahead with tired eyes.

“There’s no way I can imitate that man.”

“Still can’t draw out aura?”

“How would I be able to!”

“At least try.”

As I snapped back at Igor, Yoow pressed the point.

“Is there anyone besides you who can even fragmentarily imitate Kysis’s swordsmanship? This is not the time to be picky.”

Damn it.

For the first time, I regretted ordering Igor to ‘become a Swordmaster.’ Aura wasn’t something you could just force out by trying.

Up until right before the world ended, I’d thought aura was something that existed only in myths. People talked about it endlessly, but no one actually drew it out.

I’d only ever briefly seen the blue flames covering Kysis’s sword at the very end.

Just because the situation was urgent didn’t mean I could suddenly pull it out of my body at will.

“I’ll try to imitate his sword strike, then.”

That was the best I could do.

“No idea if it’ll have any effect.”

“Something’s coming out.”

Shu’s sudden words drew everyone’s attention.

“Shiny things... in the wind....”

I immediately understood.

Unlike a moment ago, when memories spilled out only if I ran over and grabbed Cecil, now memory fragments were tumbling out of the flower on their own.

Fragments of memory mixed into the ash-gray wind sparkled in midair.

Pale, brightly shining crystals.

One of them came rushing in with terrifying force—

‘What did you do?’

A familiar voice stabbed into my ears.

A familiar appearance.

Jaeyeon—Colton’s first subordinate—clutched his head with both hands.

‘You erased all of his memories?! That’s why he’s in that state?!’

‘Not all of them.... Enough for him to live as an adult....’

‘Why the hell would you do that? I sent him to be treated, and you turned him into an idiot!’

‘You should have seen Hilde’s condition! He was turning into a doll more and more by the day! Something had to be done! You came too late! You shoved Hilde into a place like this without permission!’

‘Then what was I supposed to do when there’s no one else who can treat him but me? I kept you two together so he wouldn’t lose his mind, even gave you space for a while so you could talk things out!’

‘You should have come sooner! You could have at least told him where the exit was before you left!’

‘God, this is driving me insane. Try to save one person and you get cursed to hell and back.’

“Another home video?”

The Sasu reacted flatly.

“I think I’ve seen enough. You probably came out someday using the exit that bastard told you about. He probably sent the man out first, then told you about the exit once he made up his mind. It’s obvious. Let’s deal with the rampage first and sort out the rest later.”

“I’d like to look for memory fragments involving Kyle.”

Even as I replied, I half agreed with Yun.

“I understand. As you said, stabilizing the situation comes first.”

I gripped my sword while reading the wind’s path.

Then I raised my arm to unleash a strike along the flow of the gale.

The sword strike the violet-eyed knight once showed.

To draw out that image, still vivid in my mind.

But I couldn’t.

Because a vehicle advancing through the gale toward the flower suddenly appeared in front of me.

A tank charging forward, tearing through land where nothing remained.

[Trevain!]

Gilbert shouted in my ear.

[Chen Koenig!]