Black Badger

“Hilde!”

Ami leapt straight up into the air.

She really jumps high.

I was just admiring her standing vertical jump when Ami was already gone from that spot.

She ran toward me at full speed.

“Hilde! Have you been well? How have you been? You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”

“Ami.”

I lightly hugged the senior who rushed over and pulled me into an embrace.

The same round crown of her head as always. After we separated, I smiled as I met the eyes looking up at me.

“Yes. I’ve been doing well.”

Ami studied me closely.

A sharper, clearer gaze than usual flew in and pinned me in place.

Is it because we’re meeting after a long time?

Just as I was puzzled by the unusual reaction, Ricardo came to stand beside us.

HQ carried that crisp, refreshing morning scent.

The green-eyed senior looked me up and down.

“You don’t look like you’ve been eating much....”

“No. I eat well. For the past few days, I’ve been staying at the cabin and eating everything Yehyeon brings me, properly.”

Ricardo stared at me as if he didn’t quite believe it.

Thankfully, he didn’t notice the shoulder wound. It had healed a lot, and since Yehyeon had already caught me once, I hadn’t applied disinfectant this time.

No need to cause unnecessary worry.

As if she’d finished observing Hildebert, Ami withdrew her sharp gaze and smiled.

“Jack, you’re here for the promotion exam?”

“Yes. Jack’s good, right?”

“Yeah. He’s good.”

Ami said.

“But what if he fails?”

“He’ll do fine. Don’t worry too much. It was Ami who taught him, after all.”

“I know he’s good, but I’m still worried! I think it’s because last year I saw Hilde take an exam way harder than his actual level!”

“That won’t happen this time.”

I smiled gently at the senior trembling with anxiety.

I’d already confirmed that there was no one planning to mess with Kairos’s promotion exam. On top of that, Yoow was tracking Kairos in real time all the way to the exam site. So if anything urgent happened, we could respond immediately.

Like last time, even getting to the exam venue itself was part of the problem. And this time, I’d heard the exam was being held even farther away than before.

Because of Kairos’s fame, apparently.

To block reporters from getting access....

In any case, he’s impressive in more ways than one.

“By the way, why did you come so early~?”

Ricardo’s voice cut in.

I looked at the green eyes.

“I had something to take care of. I figured I’d handle it, eat lunch, then go watch.”

“Hilde, do you already have someone to eat lunch with? If not, eat with us! I’ll buy you something tasty!”

“I don’t. Let’s eat together, Ami.”

“Yes!”

“Did you decide to sell something secondhand again~?”

Ricardo asked beside the bouncing Ami.

I let out a small laugh.

“No. And I have a decent amount of cash right now. You don’t need to worry so much.”

“Well.... let’s say that’s true for now~.... If it’s not secondhand trading, then what is it~?”

“I’m here to update my will.”

Badgers can go to the place where their wills are stored and update them whenever they want.

Some people obsessively update theirs every month.

Since I was coming to HQ anyway, I figured I might as well update it.

At this point, with some time still left before the arrest, Don Child was being relatively quiet, probably making preparations of his own.

Who knows when there’ll be another day without any attacks. Better to handle things while there’s time....

Lost in thought, I only belatedly realized that the two seniors had stopped walking.

What.

My body tensed instantly.

What now.

Am I getting scolded?

Why?

Last time I got scolded for writing only one line in my will.

This time I’m going to add things, so why this reaction?

“Is Hilde dying?”

While I was nervously reading the atmosphere, Ami asked, her expression gone blank.

I looked down at her in shock.

“What? No, not right now.”

“What do you mean, not right now?”

“What? I mean.... everyone dies eventually....”

I looked down into those round eyes I couldn’t read.

Black eyes staring straight up at me.

I hurriedly explained.

“I’m not dying right now, Ami. I just thought of more things to write.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Why would I suddenly die?”

Only then did her expression soften.

Ricardo, who’d been standing quietly beside us, didn’t get angry.

Instead, he asked in a voice devoid of emotion.

“Why now, all of a sudden?”

I lifted my head and cautiously read the tall senior’s mood.

“I just had some time, and there were quite a few things I wanted to add or revise.... You’re not angry, right? I mean, other people go update their wills whenever they feel like it too, don’t they?”

“That’s true....”

Despite the words, his voice was ominous.

When my eyes darted back and forth, a sigh followed.

But it wasn’t Ricardo who sighed.

It was Ami.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go update your will. I should update mine too while I’m at it.”

“Ah, are you adding things too, Ami?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I last wrote one. I have things to add for Hilde and Jack too.”

Oh....

I couldn’t tell whether she meant it sincerely or was just following me.

Either way, it didn’t matter.

I knew they weren’t the type to be so flustered that they’d suddenly read my will.

“Then after that, we can go to the executive lounge and order lunch~.”

Ricardo said casually, his ominous tone gone.

“With Jack Black’s promotion exam and all, the nearby restaurants are crawling with reporters....”

Kairos, your sins are deep.

I started walking again, thinking of the handler who had stood at the center of rumors since Imperial days.

All the while carefully watching the seniors’ expressions.

In any case, I felt relieved that I wasn’t getting seriously scolded and headed toward the will archive.

***

“What are you carrying around like that~?”

The executive lounge.

According to Ami, when Yehyeon was Supreme Commander, this was a place Ricardo tried hard not to set foot in. Sitting in the room where I’d stayed for a week after falling out of the portal, Ricardo spoke.

We were eating lunch.

I was just thinking how this whole setup really stirred old memories when the question came flying.

I swallowed the basil lasagna I’d been chewing.

“You mean the reporters?”

“Not that.”

I couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

As expected, he’s sharp.

He’d immediately realized that Don Child’s people were mixed in all over HQ.

Is it really okay for intelligence agents to be spotted this easily?

Of course, I wasn’t surprised. By now, I knew Ricardo’s sharpness well. It must bring him fatigue, but at the same time, it must’ve played a major role in his survival.

Picking up a large arancini piled on paper, I said,

“I’m sorry. As you know, there are people paying a bit of attention to me. Have they been bothering you too, senior?”

“The CIS kids are always politely bothersome....”

“So it was like that after all. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

“It’s not something you need to apologize for....”

“Why are they acting like that?”

Ami asked, her cheek puffed out from taking a big bite of arancini.

“Can I ask?”

Honestly, it would’ve been better not to.

But from the moment they started knocking on my seniors’ doors, I had no choice but to explain things to some extent. They were people who’d had to deal with unpleasant visitors because of me.

I had to tell them as much as I could.

And judging by how many had gathered, it looked like things would proceed today, just as I expected.

I should give them a heads-up so they wouldn’t be shocked.

It took a bit of courage to start.

After swallowing the warm arancini, I said,

“They’re probably planning to take me in today.”

Splash!

Ami spilled her water.

“Ack! I’m sorry!”

Ricardo and I stood up at once and quickly dealt with it.

We cleared away the empty cup and wiped the water with the towels provided.

As we sat back down, Ricardo asked,

“What’s the charge....”

I smiled awkwardly.

“Attempted Core overthrow.”

“What?!”

Ami exploded.

“What is that supposed to mean! That’s ridiculous.... That makes no sense!”

“They know it’s nonsense, and so do I. It’s just a pretext for arrest. You don’t need to worry too much, Ami.”

“You hired a lawyer, right~?”

Ricardo asked, sitting with his legs crossed.

In his green eyes, sharpness flickered beneath the usual laziness.

“With an accusation that absurd, it should be easy to defend against....”

“Ah, actually, I’m just planning to get arrested.”

I said with a smile.

“I have a feeling it’ll happen today. It’s according to my expectations and intentions, so please don’t be too surprised.”

Ami’s mouth fell open.

She stared at me without a sound, completely speechless.

Ricardo, on the other hand, didn’t move.

He narrowed his eyes, scrutinized me for a long while, then finally spoke.

“Why?”

Scary.

Moments like this, Ricardo is really scary. Other people should hear the menace, the cutting sharpness, the bone-chilling cold packed into that single, clean word.

It makes the back of your neck prickle.

I started watching his mood again.

“...Because it’s more convenient for me that way. It’s not resignation or being unable to counterattack — it’s something I’m choosing to do, so you don’t need to be angry.”

“How is that more convenient?”

The green-eyed senior leaned his upper body back against the chair as he asked.

Relieved by his slightly relaxed tone, I answered.

“If I’m taken in, there won’t be cameras around.”

“But that’s a double-edged sword.”

Ami said anxiously.

“That means they can do whatever they want to Hilde when there are no cameras! What if they inject you with some weird drug!”

“Weird drugs can be slipped in even under normal circumstances. But in places with cameras, my movements are more restricted.”

I didn’t want to explain further, so I stopped there.

Instead, I carefully reassured them. I told them they knew my abilities were on a completely different level now compared to when I’d spent that week here.

I also firmly promised that I would come back.

“There’s no way I’m dying while Kyle’s still alive.”

Only after that did Ami’s and Ricardo’s expressions finally soften.

They didn’t like it, of course.

But with very dissatisfied faces, they grudgingly accepted it.

Ami let out a long sigh and pushed the remaining food on the table toward me.

“Eat a lot. They might not feed you.”

“I’ve eaten plenty. This grid-pattern cookie is good — you should try it, Ami.”

“Come back in one piece~....”

Ricardo said, wearing a look like he wanted to light a cigarette immediately.

“I really hate watching someone get taken away....”

Ah.

I suddenly lifted my head.

A senior who’d grown up under a mafia father.

As the eldest son with a sharp disposition, he must have keenly noticed things his parents tried to hide. Or maybe they hadn’t even tried to hide them at all.

I looked straight at the neat senior sitting across from me.

“Yes.”

I have to wash off every trace of blood and show up looking perfectly fine.

“I will definitely come back.”

Of course, there will be greetings I’ll have to deliver while keeping myself hidden.

And if possible, I hope I get arrested somewhere Ricardo won’t see.

Thinking that, I finished lunch.

After lazing around in the cozy space for a while, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) we left the room forty minutes before the promotion exam began.

***

I thought of Kairos staring straight at me when I erased my presence, and Lin calling in shock.

The handler who’d said it might look excessive, but he wouldn’t feel at ease unless he could see me still existing right in front of him even if my presence was erased.

Lin, who hadn’t been listening closely and didn’t know I’d taken a presence-concealment agent — so the moment my presence vanished, he panicked and called.

How were the others outside reacting?

A presence that’s cut off by death is different from a presence that’s erased.

Knowing that, they’d realize I wasn’t dead.

And yet, would they feel relieved that they could no longer sense my annoying presence?

They’d wanted to sever my leaf-veins so they wouldn’t have to feel it anymore.

Or would it make them uneasy that it hadn’t been cut, but simply vanished?

Like how it feels unsettling when an enemy hides their presence with the help of magic.

Turning over thoughts without answers, I arrived at a place crowded with people.

In the past, I could’ve easily predicted your reaction, Kyle.

Now, thinking that I no longer understand you.

***

We arrived at the venue for the 63rd promotion exam.

The famous Black Badger promotion exam that all rookies must take.

Two men who’d arrived at the venue two hours early were now, with thirty minutes left until the exam, busy calming Nana Dol down.

“Jack.”

Nana said, her face on the verge of tears.

“They caught you getting into a car near the venue on paparazzi footage.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t like having my picture taken. I’ll contact them and—”

“They’re probably posting things like, ‘Isn’t that Black Jack’s girlfriend? Where did he pick up such a useless loser?’ Saying, ‘What is that ugly, spaced-out thing?’”

“They’ll know she’s a fellow trainee.”

Luke tried to calm her, but fell silent when Nana said, “Even an acquaintance I’m not close to messaged me asking what I am to Jack.”

Kairos’s comment — “You’re absolutely not ugly” — didn’t help either.

Honest with her peers, Nana sniffled.

“I’m going to get stabbed by one of your obsessed fans someday!”

“Oh.”

Kairos looked down at Nana with an awkward smile.

“That won’t happen. I’ll contact the reporters as soon as the exam ends. The exam’s about to start, so calm down.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a command rang out.

“Form up!”