Black Badger

I stared at him with wide, startled eyes.

「At least knock before coming in.」

「Haha. Sorry.」

The man apologized without a shred of sincerity, closed the door, and walked in.

He was carrying a first-aid kit. Looks like he’d come in fully prepared.

I let out a long sigh.

「Why do you never listen to what people say.」

I muttered it, but he didn’t even pretend to hear.

The red-haired man walked over to me, where I was sitting on the bed covered with a raincoat, and set the first-aid kit down beside me.

「I’ll help.」

「No need.」

I rejected him outright.

「I don’t trust your skills.」

「It’s not like I have zero knowledge or experience.」

Kairos plopped himself down next to me against the wall, opened the kit, and pulled on latex gloves.

Then, without asking, he took out tweezers and began disinfecting them.

Was he even listening to me?

I pressed firmly against the wound on my shoulder with my right hand and shot him a look full of disbelief. Kairos tugged the corner of his mouth upward.

「And at this angle, you can’t even see the wound properly, can you? Why try to handle this alone? Are we really that unreliable?」

「I’ve spent enough time rolling around on battlefields. I can pull it out on my own. And I’ve got plenty of other things to delegate to you lot.」

「Didn’t even know you had a raincoat.」

Kairos said something strange.

「Looks like you’ve spread it out like this and handled things alone more than once. These stains look like old blood that dried in.」

Yeah. There was no refusing this anymore.

I realized it instinctively. At the same time, memories from the ecliptic—of me cleaning up after his messes—flashed back like a nightmare. Come to think of it, he’d been hopeless even before we’d suddenly grown close. His stubbornness rivaled Kyle’s and then some, to the point where neither I nor the other nobles ever managed to prevent the disasters he caused.

Let’s just get this over with....

I exhaled heavily, exhausted.

「Fine. Just finish it quickly.」

Kairos didn’t answer, nor did he comment on me backing down.

Instead, he smiled faintly and moved closer, sitting down.

「I didn’t tell the others, including the strategist.」

「Ah. You did great. Really.」

I praised him sincerely.

「Especially don’t tell Rose. Her eyes will roll back for sure. I’m planning to handle this one step by step.」

「You could just order her to calm down.」

「That doesn’t work when I’m not around.」

「Is that so?」

Kairos began extracting the bullet with the disinfected tweezers.

I clenched my teeth and replied,

「Yeah. Last time at the cabin, she nearly strangled Yoow to death.」

The handler let out a small laugh.

「I see.」

Normally, this is where he would have shut up.

But unusually, he started asking one question after another. Probably to distract me from the pain.

I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on answering Kairos’s questions.

When he asked whether Chairman Heath viewed Rose’s long absence unfavorably, I said that if that guy got treated badly, he’d have no one to blame but himself.

It was the reaction Rose had intended, sure—but even now, thinking back to how he used to treat Rose still pissed me off.

I still remembered him openly humiliating her right in front of me.

I don’t even treat Rose like that—what the hell was he thinking?

The bullet came out right as I finished saying that.

「Good work. I’ll disinfect it and close the wound quickly.」

「About your bank accounts.」

I muttered, ignoring the cold sweat collecting on my brow.

Kairos made an absent “Mm” as he disinfected the wound.

「Seems some strange articles popped up since your accountant and lawyer started defending things.」

I’d heard that from someone in media at today’s party.

Along with other things that had unsettled me. That was why my thoughts had grown heavy when I left the venue earlier.

Kairos stapled the wound shut with a medical stapler, barely listening to the words I’d struggled to bring up.

「Those kinds of articles are common. All done. Is the pain bad? I’ve got painkillers too.」

「I also saw the site a former fan made after turning on you for becoming a Black Badger.」

The red-haired man, who had been closing the first-aid kit, finally turned to look at me.

I couldn’t meet his eyes.

As I stared off toward the corner of the room, Kairos shifted his posture.

「I told you not to worry about it. I’ve always acted according to how I feel. Like just now.」

「You really should go back to living at your own place, not the safehouse.」

I said something that was clearly abrupt.

「Not the cabin nearby—the rookie dorms would be even better. This place won’t work. There are eyes on the surrounding area too.」

The cyber malice aimed at Kairos, which that media person had shown me, was shocking.

With a stage that perfect for a smear campaign, I couldn’t stop worrying about what would happen if the intelligence director decided to go after Kairos in earnest. I didn’t even want to imagine the backlash if he twisted Kairos’s Black Badger employment or his ties to me into some grotesque controversy.

So Kairos should keep more distance from us for now.

「I’m planning to go back to the cabin alone as well.」

Since Don’s target seemed to be me, not others, that would be much safer.

「I’ll live there until I deal with him.」

Still, it bothered me to tell only Kairos to leave when the rest of our kin were all staying at the safehouse.

It felt like I was pushing just him away, which made it hard to bring up.

Especially since he was someone I’d even talked about toppling a throne with in a game....

「Sure.」

I lifted my head at the easy answer.

Blinking, I met his orange eyes as Kairos smiled broadly.

「If that’s your judgment.」

「...Sorry. It’s just that you’re not exactly normally famous....」

「What’s there to be sorry about? It’s not like you’re saying you’ll never see my face again. You said yourself I’ll be showing up at Badger HQ regularly anyway.」

「Yeah.」

Even so, feeling guilty—as if I were kicking him out—I added quietly,

「I’m going to take the promotion exam too.」

「Good.」

Kairos grinned.

「Then I’ll stay in the HQ residence for a while, like you said. You’ll feel much better knowing I’m there than next door to the cabin, right? I don’t really care either way. Still, come by HQ often. Milk’s going to miss you.」

I let out a sigh mixed with apology and relief.

「Yeah. Thanks.」

Instead of answering, Kairos stood up and cleaned up.

He removed the raincoat covering the bed, wiped away the blood drops scattered around, then forcibly shoved antibiotics into my hand and told me to wash up and go to sleep.

He added that superstars were bound to provoke people in all sorts of ways.

Finally, after saying he’d at least help move my things from the safehouse to the cabin, Kairos picked up the first-aid kit and left the room.

***

The next day, I called the strategist in and made an announcement.

「For a while, I’ll be living alone at the cabin.」

Ignoring the way his eyes immediately sharpened, I continued.

「And that presence-suppressing drug—you know the one. I need to start taking it too.」

Yoow stayed silent for a moment.

The silence didn’t last long. I’d been ready to calm him down if he got angry or agitated, but instead the strategist spoke in a low, eerie voice.

「I knew this day would come eventually.」

It was an answer that encompassed both my first and second statements.

「I expected you would say this.」

Thanks.

For understanding the reason behind my decision so quickly.

Yoow gathered the others, and I reiterated my decision in the safehouse living room.

As expected, Igor, Rose, and Deltei didn’t like the idea of me returning to the cabin alone. Still, they accepted it without raising strong objections, because I explained that I wasn’t going back to overextend myself—but to operate more efficiently.

「You’ll stay in contact, right.」

「Not just stay in contact. I’ll keep assigning work even while I’m away.」

I grinned at Igor, who asked gruffly.

「I’m going alone to work beneath the surface while pretending everything’s normal. Get ready to move fast.」

Our kin hadn’t been ambushed.

However, Deltei had found out that intelligence agents had gone to see Walker yesterday. It hadn’t been an attack—they’d gone to ask about me.

「Doesn’t seem like they know Walker’s mixed-blood. They went to your other seniors too.」

「Did you hear what they asked?」

「Not in detail, but it didn’t get heated. Still, it felt like... ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) preliminary steps for an arrest.」

「I want to kill them.」

The strategist muttered darkly.

「Won’t you just send me or Rose? Killing one arrogant bastard like that would be nothing.」

「No.」

I answered immediately.

Of course, with a carefully planned assassination, it could be done.

It would be a hundred times easier than assassinating Colton, and I wouldn’t even need to get directly involved.

But I wanted to enter the intelligence agency. There was no telling what kind of gold mine was hidden inside—whether related to moles, Colton, or portal devices. If even one of those hit, it would be a jackpot.

If he’d tried to take hostages, I would’ve eliminated him right away. But since he hadn’t, there was no need to touch him yet.

「I guess I shouldn’t go check on Walker for a while either....」

Deltei sighed heavily, covering one cheek with her hand.

「I wonder if he’s doing well....」

「He’s a thousand times healthier than you, so don’t worry.」

Igor snorted at my reply.

Instead of mocking her, Yoow spoke seriously.

「Let’s not make it obvious. Just check in occasionally. Being associated with us right now brings nothing good. Until a few months ago, he didn’t even know we existed....」

「But you’ll still show your face sometimes, right, Commander?」

Rose spoke coldly, as if Walker’s wellbeing meant nothing to her.

「Once you deal with him, you’ll come back to the safehouse, right?」

Only Lin seemed visibly relieved.

He hadn’t been interrogated over the drugs, one nagging presence would be gone, and the risk of being attacked would drop—no wonder he felt relieved.

Group living hadn’t been his choice to begin with.

Even so, he tried hard to hide that relief, putting on a regretful face.

「I could help move your stuff to the cabin!」

「Kai lives right next door. No need for you to get involved.」

I didn’t particularly want to drag Lin around with me anyway—his combat ability wasn’t outstanding.

He was the kind of person who excelled at procuring pistols with erased serial numbers or acquiring clean license plates without trouble, not at fighting.

He could shoot a handgun well, sure.

But he’d survived crises with his mouth and social maneuvering.

Among civilians, he looked tough—but in situations like this, not so much.

Anyway, after sorting everything out, I prepared to return to the cabin with Kairos’s help.

(“Your shoulder’s not in great shape. I’ll move the luggage by car.”)

Right before leaving, Yoow handed me the presence-suppressing drug.

A compound the strategist had once received in bulk from Colton.

A presence-cloaking agent made by grinding down Jaeyeon.

「Thanks. I just take it after a meal, right?」

「Yes. It takes about thirty minutes to take effect. During that time, you’ll feel a dull ache around the mastoid process and the back of the neck, but it’s tolerable. Unpack at the cabin, eat dinner, then take it.」

Sounds good.

I thanked him and pocketed the drug.

After saying goodbye to the others who came to see me off, I got into Kairos’s car and headed for the cabin.

A place I hadn’t visited in a long time.

A quiet, tidy neighborhood with little foot traffic. The moment we entered the area, I sent messages to my seniors asking whether they’d received visits from the intelligence agency.

Using the base station near the cabin seemed safer.

And before checking the replies—

I stepped inside the cabin.

The cabin.

My small, cozy space.

That Tig would be diligently cleaning—

...?

I blinked when I saw Tig sitting in the middle of the stairs.

“Tig?”

How did you get up there?

“How did you climb up there?”

Don’t tell me someone broke into the cabin—

Whirr.

The moment I tensed, the top panel of the robot vacuum opened.

Then two propellers popped out.

Like a beetle’s wings.

Wooooong.

The propellers spun.

BrrrRRRRRrrr!

Tig took off in a spectacular emergency ascent.