Black Badger

Luke stared at his red-haired classmate, whose expression was impossible to read.

They were walking out of the water. Nana had been taken to the medical tent by the instructors, and the sea had grown calm again.

Jack turned his head.

The classmate who had shown that strange sight moments earlier.

After confirming that Nana had safely reached land, Luke had slipped back into the night sea and found Jack.

But he hadn’t found only him.

There had also been a lifeform in the water—beautiful in a way that was almost oppressive, glowing brilliantly.

And Jack Black had been floating before that large creature emitting a blue fluorescent light.

There was no way they could have spoken, and neither side had made any discernible sound.

Yet, for some reason, Luke had the uncanny feeling that Jack had conversed with it.

It had been quite a while since he’d seen a cartoon where someone talked to fish.

Anyway, after sending the large thing away and returning to the surface with him, Jack had looked to be in quite a good mood—only to suddenly have his expression stiffen. Luke had no choice but to ask.

“Are you hurt?”

“Ah. No.”

Jack brushed back his wet red hair.

“A bad thought crossed my mind for a moment. Nothing’s wrong.”

“...If you say so.”

Is he the type to suddenly have bad thoughts?

The Jack Black Luke knew wasn’t much different from Black-Jack, the star driver shown in the media. Polite, positive, confident in his ability.

He had excellent instincts and an indescribable presence that drew attention even when he simply stood still.

So this is what a superstar is like, Luke had once thought.

It didn’t seem like the kind of person who would suddenly fall into negative thoughts.

Since Jack himself said it was nothing, Luke didn’t press further.

As they walked toward the beach, only the sound of water parting around them echoed.

Only after the sensation of water wrapping around his ankles faded did Luke ask,

“What were you doing back there?”

The red-haired classmate, who had seemed lost in thought, turned his head.

Orange eyes stared at him.

“He asked me to let him hear my heartbeat.”

Jack whispered softly, loud enough only for Luke to hear.

“Did you hear it too?”

Luke hadn’t.

And what did he ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) mean, asked to hear it?

Thinking he would ask more later, Luke headed toward the medical barracks.

***

Yun, Yehyeon, Ricardo—they must have understood what I conveyed.

A flicker of unease rose in me.

They were intelligent people. I hadn’t worried until now.

But as the moment to actually carry things out approached, unnecessary concern began to sprout.

Of course, there was no turning back.

From here, events would begin to roll forward. If things went according to plan, Colton would receive my message that I had no intention of stopping my revenge. And then the hunt that would not cease would begin.

Even so, he would avoid touching our kin as much as possible.

He knew well that one should always leave the enemy a final hole to surrender through.

And so, I had chosen to risk the humans I cared about in order to pursue vengeance for my kin.

What a trash junior I am.

Most of the seniors had no idea what choice I had made.

When the truth came out, I would surely face gazes mixed with betrayal and disgust.

I was already prepared for that.

Ricardo must have felt betrayed as well—yet I was grateful he hadn’t expressed it.

How could he not feel that way? I was effectively dragging them into danger to avenge the dead.

Rick didn’t even care much for our kind....

If Rei had been alive, perhaps—just as Colton said—I might have abandoned revenge.

I cherished the bonds I had formed here that much.

But Rei was dead.

...By my hand.

Even so, as long as Colton was one of the humans who had driven me to kill Rei, I had no intention of stopping.

If Kyle heard this, he would call me a deceiver.

He wouldn’t be wrong.

But let’s set that aside for now.

It’s not as if you can step in and stab Colton to death yourself.

“This way, please.”

Surrounded by CIS agents, I boarded a black van.

It looked like the kind used by celebrities.

It was, in fact, a transport vehicle.

Men in suits filled the seats on either side of me and in front.

Conway boarded last and shut the door. Once the space was sealed, he walked to a black case placed behind the driver’s seat.

He removed a syringe wrapped in transparent plastic.

“It’s a sedative.”

After tearing open the wrapping, Conway showed the needle and then inserted it into the inner elbow of the agent sitting diagonally across from me.

“As you can see, it is harmless to the human body.”

“Try handling your subordinates more gently.”

I muttered in disbelief as the agent fell into a deathlike sleep the moment the injection was administered.

“And I don’t feel like taking that. You expect me to accept a sedative quietly in a vehicle full of enemies who’d love to take my head?”

“We cannot allow you to see where we’re going.”

“There aren’t even any windows.”

“There is a front windshield.”

Good grief.

The vehicle started moving.

No one flinched.

I sighed at Conway, who stood over me with the syringe in hand.

“If you insist, just blindfold me.”

“Very well.”

Anthony Conway was not foolish enough to force the needle in unnecessarily.

He knew full well that even in handcuffs, I could subdue everyone inside this vehicle.

“And since Green Dream does not affect you, we will have no choice but to use another compound in its place.”

“I’m not fond of that.”

While the agent beside me rose and retrieved a black cloth from the case, Conway picked up another syringe.

A narcotic, perhaps.

“I’ll behave until I meet the Child who ordered my arrest. Do you really need to inject me?”

“If you decided to, you could cause an accident and eliminate us at any moment. Our corpses would serve as excellent nourishment for you.”

“If I had that intention, I’d have done it already.”

“Hildebert.”

Conway called my name.

When I lifted my head, he took a laptop from the case and adjusted the screen to my eye level.

“Then we start with Kairos.”

On the screen, in the draft folder, was an article exposing Kairos’s identity.

There were no illicit photographs—just neatly itemized points that could raise suspicion: educational history, the absence of parents, details that could ignite speculation.

The moment it was uploaded, the internet would burn.

You don’t need to put a gun to Kairos’s head to threaten him.

Conway pressed a key and showed other files.

“These are individuals we have begun to observe.”

Asil. Tom. Hesh. Ricardo. Jonathan. Sophia. Carl.

It felt like reopening Yoow’s stalking file—the one Kairos and I had once seen.

I couldn’t hold back a sigh.

“Fine.”

The moment I agreed, Conway tore open the wrapping on the syringe.

“You’re doing all this to obtain immortality? You’re impressive.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

He inserted the needle into my arm.

Nausea crashed over me.

In a voice that sounded almost like a murmur to himself, he spoke—human, for the first time.

Regret. Deprivation. Anger.

“Even if you did, you forgot long ago.”

I didn’t bother asking what he meant.

***

Don Child had no choice but to take me to a CIS interrogation room.

If he had any sense.

Every other option carried risk.

Put me on a fishing boat and head out to sea? Colton would clap his hands at the opportunity and sink both Don Child and me together.

Somehow make it outside the Core? Colton would drop a missile and accomplish two things at once.

The situation was similar elsewhere.

Thus, only one option remained.

A social institution Colton could not recklessly crush—yet one filled with loyal men and weapons ready to subdue me at any time.

CIS headquarters.

Child and I both desired the other’s throat.

But his ultimate goal was immortality.

Mine was the information CIS possessed.

So there was no conflict until I entered the building.

The drug makes me nauseous.

Even so, I walked obediently under the agents’ grip.

The texture beneath my feet changed from soil to marble.

After walking across marble for some time, the air shifted. I entered a room filled with artificially crisp air.

It reminds me of a laboratory.

Clank!

Heavier chains were fastened around my wrists and ankles.

That brought back older memories.

Much older.

I pushed the rising recollections aside and focused on my senses.

Only after the door shut did Conway remove the blindfold.

A vast white space appeared before me.

The chains attached to my wrists and ankles lay across the floor like massive serpents.

In the corner of the white wall was a huge ventilation shaft that looked as if it could spew smoke at any moment.

Behind it, I sensed a Creature.

Ashen Mantle.

“So we meet.”

So CIS had confined an Ashen Mantle and used it for interrogations.

After a small note of admiration, I looked at Don Child.

He appeared slightly older than in the photo Erich Erhart had shown me.

Likely from exhaustion.

But not retired.

Don Child radiated the presence of a seasoned mercenary.

Even from his profile, I had thought he resembled my master.

In person, the resemblance was even stronger.

“I didn’t expect you to come so quietly. As rumored, you are arrogant. Laying groundwork to fake your death, perhaps. Your social status and reputation must be restricting your freedom of movement.”

Don spoke.

I smiled at the motionless, sharp-featured middle-aged man.

“That’s right.”

His eyes, worn by the cruelty of the world, resembled my master’s.

Humanity shaved down by life’s pressures. Sharpened against misfortune until damaged.

My master, however, had hit rock bottom and eventually drifted into a shabby rural shrine.

There, as its guardian, he had lived a somewhat peaceful life before passing on.

Though one rustic child who kept charging at the blades he himself had honed must have been terribly annoying.

Still, I remember him gradually regaining something human.

An anecdote so old that a breath could scatter its dust.

Irrelevant now.

Don had traveled too far to be redeemed.

“I’m sorry, but your son will not achieve immortality.”

I spoke gently. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

“I’ve heard that even if you pour healing power into that child’s body, nothing will change. Both Spitfire and Sukhoi told me that.”

“Shut up.”

Don replied coldly.

“You saw the laptop. You’re not in a position to speak to me.”

“You going to kill me right away?”

He snorted.

“The moment I point a gun at you, my head will roll. I know well enough that you’re that kind of monster—even without your sword.”

“Then what will you do? Keep me here and hand me over to Colton?”

I truly wanted to know.

“Just store me?”

“I’ve conducted interrogations and torture until I was sick of it.”

So have I.

“Do you know the core of it?”

“You leave hope.”

I smiled faintly.

Just as Colton leaves our kin untouched for now—leaving me the chance to surrender.

“You leave room to believe it isn’t the worst yet.”

“Correct. That is what I intend.”

Don sighed as he explained.

He had probably been a good man, at some point.

“I’ll torture and interrogate you, but I won’t kill you.”

He looked at me.

“You understand what that means, Hildebert? Live holding onto the hope that you might strike back during the gap between torture and interrogation—until you die.”

Slowly dry me out.

A clever man.

Placed in the position of doing what Colton would have done.

Even as I thought that, I couldn’t stop the corner of my mouth from curling upward.

It won’t take long to escape.

I should leave before I grow too weak from not eating.

***

Two days passed.

“Hilde.”

At Don’s voice, I lifted my head slightly from the cold floor.

“Water.”

Drip, drip.

Bottled water spilled onto the floor nearby.

I watched it form a shallow puddle.

I should escape today.

I decided before crawling over to lap it up.

This is the right timing.

Before me stood familiar faces.

“...Rick! Ami!”

How good to see them.

“Have you been well?”