Black Badger

Jaeyeon blinked, then looked down at the one collapsed on the ground.

The man lay motionless within the afterimage of firefly-like light. Dead. Jaeyeon felt envy and sorrow at the same time. He knew that man inside and out. That was why the sense of loss came rushing in—the loss one feels when someone familiar dies.

It was nothing compared to the jealousy he felt toward someone who had finally been allowed to rest.

Lucky.

But soon, he too...

“Hilde.”

He had been staring at the Emperor’s corpse when he called the knight’s name.

The man standing expressionless turned his head.

Golden eyes that revealed nothing looked at Jaeyeon.

“Good. Let’s end this.”

Hildebert in that mood did not show mercy.

Jaeyeon remembered very clearly just how sharp Hildebert’s sword had been. The politicians who had taken a hardline stance back then—how they had trembled at the mere sound of Hildebert’s name.

It hadn’t been irrational fear. Day after day, they had died. Those eyes of his, bloodshot with obsession to protect the people he had dragged into the fight.

And now, that gaze was directed wholly at him.

Finally!

After all that time—finally!

“Come!”

Jaeyeon beamed brightly and leapt down from the stone.

“Take it!”

Truthfully, he wanted to see Colton’s head fall with his own eyes.

If Hildebert were to bring him Colton’s head laid upon a silver tray, Jaeyeon might just fall head over heels for him.

He might even love him for life!

Of course, Hildebert would never provide that kind of service.

Besides, Jaeyeon consoled himself that he wanted to see Colton’s victory just as much as he wanted to see his death. So he didn’t need the silver tray.

As long as it ended, that was enough!

Freedom!

Freedom!!

Jaeyeon spread his arms wide, smiling brightly.

“Freedom!”

Hildebert burst into laughter.

A loud, resounding laugh that swallowed the tiresome wind blowing through the ashen world.

Jaeyeon had been running toward him, smiling radiantly—but his steps came to an abrupt halt.

The blond ponytail swaying with each step fell still.

Jaeyeon froze in place, arms still spread as if asking to be embraced.

Like one of the countless stone statues scattered across the gray world, he stood tall, staring at Hildebert.

The white-haired knight lowered his head, chuckling under his breath.

His shoulders trembled slightly as he suppressed laughter.

The tip of the sword he had drawn before being pulled into the dream rested against the ground.

The sword Jaeyeon had once received long ago and handed to Yehyeon.

When the laughter finally subsided, Hildebert turned his head and looked at Jaeyeon again.

“Freedom?”

A faint smile still lingered at the corners of his lips.

“Did you forget?”

The man once called by the embarrassing nickname Michael spoke calmly.

“I told you back then. I’d never let you rest comfortably.”

Jaeyeon stared at Hildebert blankly.

Silence fell. Even the wind sweeping across the world seemed to stop. In a stillness so complete it felt like his ears might tear, Jaeyeon simply stood there, staring at the man whose smile was slowly widening.

His arms remained outstretched as his eyes grew larger and larger.

After quietly appreciating the disharmony of that sight, Hildebert sheathed his sword.

“Why so surprised? I told you in advance.”

The knight slowly turned his body.

Then he began walking toward Jaeyeon.

“If I just cut off your head, that wouldn’t be revenge.”

A black military uniform—likely stripped from a soldier.

White hair settling over it.

Something inside Jaeyeon snapped.

He let out a sharp scream. It was a scream torn from his soul. The freedom he had believed was within reach had been an illusion. The reward he had yearned for, the thing he had thought he could finally obtain, vanished before his eyes.

“You fucking bastard!”

Jaeyeon’s body began to distort.

“You said you’d take revenge!”

A magic circle bloomed beneath his feet.

“You said you’d take revenge!”

He had copied Cecil and the Emperor. He couldn’t steal all of their power—so instead of a seven-circle array, a two-circle magic formation blazed brilliantly within the black-and-white world.

BOOOOM!

With a thunderous roar, a pillar of white light shot upward.

It pierced into the sky, bent in midair, then split into multiple arrows that rained down toward Hildebert.

Similar to the spell Cecil had fired from atop the flower—but far simpler.

BOOOOM!

Hooosh!

The moment the arrow-shaped magic struck the ground, purple mist began to rise from another magic circle.

Drawn from the dead Emperor’s memories.

Among spells that could be cast with two circles, it was known as one of the most lethal. The Emperor had known how to use it.

“When you take revenge, you don’t leave sprouts behind!”

The poisonous mist surged rapidly toward Hildebert.

Jaeyeon unleashed every useful ability he had devoured from those he had consumed.

“You’re supposed to cut off the head!”

But if his opponent refused to play along, he would have to use another method.

Jaeyeon’s body flickered. His skin melted, and scales erupted in its place. His sharpened ears caught something like a breath of laughter from Hildebert.

This was dragon mimicry.

An incomplete polymorph—yet the scales boasted defensive strength equal to his true form.

Not a true dragon, but still a dragon.

“If you don’t like that, then I’ll kill you instead.”

His fingernails lengthened into razor claws.

He now resembled something nearly half-beast.

“Die!”

Jaeyeon roared into the poisonous haze and swirling sand.

“Die!!”

The smoke split apart.

Hildebert’s figure emerged from the violet fog. He leapt lightly through the parted mist, closing the distance.

His movements looked far lighter than usual.

Clang!

Dragon claws met steel.

“Did you copy that poison spell from the Emperor?”

Claws and blade locked in stalemate.

Hildebert glanced at the creeping poison behind him as he asked.

“I didn’t know His Majesty used spells like this.”

As if merely stretching, he flicked his sword.

Clang!

One of the dragon claws was severed.

He hadn’t swung wildly. Jaeyeon almost thought Hildebert had merely deflected his nail aside.

But the claw had been cut cleanly—like ordinary steel.

Jaeyeon’s eyes widened as he saw the white light enveloping Hildebert’s sword.

“You learned aura?”

Hildebert’s eyes curved into a smile.

“Yeah.”

Hummm!

The sword resonated the instant he finished speaking.

The blade, burning with light like flame, sliced off another claw.

Jaeyeon instinctively leapt back to widen the distance, shouting even as he retreated.

“Then just kill me!”

“No.”

“Why!”

Rage overtook him.

“Why! Why! Why?! What, you can’t stand to see me go cleanly? You want to torture me? Lock me in some endless hell?!”

“I won’t torture you physically.”

Clang!

BOOOOM!

The moment Hildebert surged forward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, beams of light crashed down where he had stood.

Jaeyeon spat curses and summoned a shield in front of him.

Cecil’s defensive magic.

BOOOOM!

It was useless against Hildebert.

The aura-infused blade cleaved through a shield the size of a grown man perfectly in half.

As the split shield fell, the knight appeared before him again.

Sweat beaded down his face—exhausted from emitting aura—yet he smiled slowly at Jaeyeon.

“You bastard!”

“Jaeyeon. Stop this. Let’s go back.”

Clang!

Clang! Clang! Hildebert pressed in again. This time Jaeyeon bared his teeth and lunged at him like a wolf.

Crunch! Rrrrip! His left hand, which Hildebert hadn’t fully blocked, tore through the military uniform and raked across flesh. Skin split open, revealing muscle and bone.

Hildebert didn’t even blink.

Thud!

Instead, he used the fact that Jaeyeon was clinging to him.

The blade pierced through scaled flesh.

Jaeyeon’s left shoulder was impaled.

Like a beast skewered on a spit, blood dripping down, he glared up at Hildebert with wide eyes.

The white-haired knight exhaled something like a sigh.

“I’ll knock you out, so stay still.”

Knock him out?

Jaeyeon ground his teeth, eyes darting.

Then he opened his mouth wide for one last desperate move.

And in that instant, a brilliant idea struck him.

A way to land a guaranteed blow on this infuriating opponent.

A very effective one.

A bright smile spread across Jaeyeon’s face.

Good!

Hildebert had done it before. There was no reason Jaeyeon couldn’t do the same.

His opponent used a cold weapon and was standing right in front of him.

And Jaeyeon could imitate another of a dragon’s abilities at roughly two-sevenths of its original power.

The final death cry of a prideful monster.

“Then shall we die together?”

Preparing an internal detonation, Jaeyeon smiled brightly.

Beside his own intact heart, the dragon’s heart throbbed violently.

He liked attacks like this.

An attack method befitting his master.

If defeat was inevitable, then destroy everything.

“Huh?”

“That works too!”

The heart swelled blue.

“Explode!”

BOOOOOM!

The dragon’s heart detonated.

***

“Sunbae.”

Luke Lyle called out to Hildebert.

Beside pooled blood and torn cloth, next to the fox-eyed man who had fainted with parts of his body turned ashen, Hildebert was dry-heaving.

Not far away, a massive crater had formed.

It must have been created by the overwhelming explosion just moments ago. In that blast that had swallowed the world in white light for an instant, Hildebert had somehow survived.

The senior lifted his head.

Through strands of fallen white hair, bronze skin and yellow eyes were visible. Eyes so vividly golden they seemed inhuman turned toward Luke.

There was no sharpness in that gaze.

Only an utterly ordinary look that did not suit the black military uniform he wore.

In fact, when Luke stepped closer, Hildebert looked almost flustered.

There’s no need to be that startled.

By the way—whose clothes are these?

They weren’t Jaeyeon’s. Tattered as ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ they were, Jaeyeon had still been wearing his own.

They didn’t look like clothes someone had discarded long ago either. Though soaked in blood, they had been well maintained.

Come to think of it, hadn’t there been one more person?

The one who had been standing before the kneeling Hildebert—where had he gone?

As Luke was puzzling over that, Hildebert picked up the unconscious Jaeyeon and slung him over his shoulder.

As if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, he rose to his feet and examined Luke’s complexion.

“I’m sorry.”

It was the first thing his senior said.

Luke stared at him.

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

“Your father.”

Hildebert’s voice was heavy.

“You know it now, but his death is my fault. I can’t explain everything right now, but... I’m sorry. I...”

“If you didn’t order him killed, you don’t need to apologize.”

Luke answered firmly.

“The reason I couldn’t protect my father was because I wasn’t strong enough.”

Hildebert looked at him silently.

After standing there with a complicated expression, he spoke again.

“It wasn’t that you were lacking. They—”

“Even if they used underhanded methods, if I’d had your level of skill, I wouldn’t have lost him.”

Luke Lyle finally voiced the thoughts that had followed him ever since being dragged into this place.

Hildebert’s brow faintly furrowed.

Guilt and sorrow flickered in his clear golden eyes.

“No.”

His senior’s tone was firm.

“It wouldn’t have been easy even for me.”

His eyelids lowered slightly.

“They would have gone in fully prepared. So you don’t need to torment yourself with that kind of pointless guilt.”

“That applies to you as well, doesn’t it?”

Luke replied immediately.

“Doesn’t it?”

Hildebert’s eyes widened.

Luke calmly watched his senior, who seemed momentarily at a loss for words.

A senior close to his fellow intake Jack Black. A rare existence who, like Jack Black, had a first-generation Black Badger as his mentor and was deployed on dangerous missions despite being a rookie.

Even the strict Richard Green had never questioned Hildebert’s combat ability.

This senior had quietly become one of the most famous Badgers in Center Core.

And then one day, it had been revealed that he wasn’t human.

His brother Hesh had known all along.

‘So what?’

But Hesh, true to himself, hadn’t cared in the slightest about Hildebert’s identity.

‘Hilde’s just a ridiculously skilled Badger. A normal guy obsessed with games.’

‘His age isn’t exactly normal.’

‘What does age matter?’

Hesh had said that.

‘You’ve got good instincts like Dad. You should know. He’s absurdly simple and straightforward.’

He’d be perfect for the basketball club!

Hesh added that every single time he talked about Hildebert.

‘Core overthrow, my ass!’

And those were the words Hesh had spat out after Hildebert had been taken away.

‘That bastard’s a prosecutor! A prosecutor! You knew that and you still cut off his wrists?!’

Did this senior know how much of a shockwave his presumed death had sent through headquarters?

Luke thought of his dying father. That wise soldier who, upon hearing news of Hildebert’s disappearance, had guessed there must be a hidden truth.

Despite their father’s words, Hesh had been unable to calm down and kept going to Personnel, asking to be assigned to patrol duty.

His brother had taken the news of his comrade hard.

How much harder must the news of their father—and Luke himself—have hit him?

Luke believed in Hesh’s resilience.

But worry was unavoidable.

He did not resent Hildebert for his father’s death.

He did resent him a little for maintaining a state of social death.

“You let yourself be taken on purpose.”

Luke muttered.

Hildebert’s lips flattened into a straight line.

Guilt welled up in his golden eyes before his gaze dropped.

“Yes.”

His senior admitted it.

“I needed to be freed from public scrutiny. I was too well known.”

“So you achieved the effect of a social death?”

“To some extent.”

Despite the answer, his voice was low.

“But I also made mistakes that can’t be undone. In any case, it was my choice. I’m sorry for startling you.”

Luke did not press for details.

Instead, he thought briefly of his fellow intake. The red-haired, orange-eyed superstar of Center Core.

As flamboyant as his résumé suggested, his comrade had always been relaxed no matter what happened. Yet after the incident where Hildebert was presumed dead, his vitality had visibly faded.

It was only natural. His friend had disappeared in a shocking way.

Still...

One day, he would grab Jack Black and demand a fuller explanation.

Luke shifted his gaze to Jaeyeon.

One of the presumed root causes of all this.

“Are you not going to kill him?”

He had overheard the conversation between Hildebert and Jaeyeon.

“Why?”

“I’m not killing Jaeyeon.”

Hildebert met his eyes again.

“But I will kill his master.”

Ah.

That man.

Through vision blurred by drugs, Luke recalled the man he had briefly locked eyes with.

The man had looked utterly lacking in combat power. And yet, for some reason, he had felt overwhelming.

Luke tended to overthink and observe carefully. That man had surely treated his father like a chess piece—just something to push aside with the back of his hand.

He had undoubtedly ordered the killing.

“I’m sorry. I can’t hand over the chance to cut off his head.”

Hildebert’s bitter voice pulled him from his thoughts.

“I have debts to settle as well.”

“Yes.”

It was enough if the man died.

In the first place, that head had never been Luke’s to claim.

“What will you do now?”

“For now, we go back.”

Hildebert lowered his gaze.

The white-haired knight looked down at the massive hole carved into the gray world.

“To Earth.”

He muttered.

“To the present.”

For some reason, he looked genuinely sad.

***

Light burst from the forcibly reopened dimensional gate.

The Elders, standing in silence, turned their heads.

All eyes converged.

Colton, leaning back without the slightest disturbance, watched the knight emerging from the portal.

“So you’ve returned.”

Colton Wiseman spoke as Hildebert tossed the unconscious Jaeyeon aside and Luke Lyle crawled out after him.

“It seems my wager has failed.”

“Can’t you turn off this forced absorption?”

Hildebert grumbled, running a hand through his hair.

“I thought it’d be off by the time I came back.”

Colton did not answer.

Hildebert didn’t seem to expect one. He did not even turn around.

Instead, the knight shifted his gaze toward Yekaterina and Erich Erhart.

“Erhart.”

Pointing casually at Jaeyeon lying on the floor, Hildebert said,

“Here’s one to add to your toy box.”

“Bravo!”

“But why are there so few of you?”

Cutting off Erich Erhart’s delighted exclamation, Hildebert spoke coldly.

“Where did all your lackeys go?”