Black Badger

I turned my body.

Through the narrow field of vision of the mask, I looked at the person who had called me.

At the same time, I ran through the process of our arrival in my head once more. We hadn’t been at headquarters for long. The portal inside the Black Badger headquarters was strictly restricted, so we had returned by car that Erich provided.

Erich's car, driven by Igor.

More precisely, Igor drove the first car.

At Yoow’s request, the subordinates who had come out to support me rode in the second car, while Igor and the members of the safe house rode in the first.

We parted ways with Lee Seunghyun.

When I asked if he wanted to come with us, he refused immediately.

‘I’ll stay here for a while before leaving.’

‘Isn’t Erich uncomfortable for you? That’s surprising. I thought you’d want to get away from here as quickly as possible.’

‘Not really.’

Just like before, he was someone who explained very little.

‘Please go inside.’

‘Make sure you get proper treatment.’

‘Aren’t you busy?’

On the other hand, Luke insisted on following us.

I accepted his request. It wasn’t because I distrusted sending him in Erich's car. Luke had simply expressed that he wanted to ride in our car.

‘You could just ask for a car.’

I told Luke before we left for headquarters.

‘Then they’ll give you a perfectly fine one. You don’t even have to return it. If it’s inconvenient, you can ride that back.’

‘Would I be a burden?’

Luke asked.

Startled, I immediately answered that he absolutely wouldn’t be.

‘Not at all. I only said that because I thought it might be hard for you to look at our faces.’

‘Why would it be hard to look at the faces of the people who saved me?’

‘...Thank you.’

His father had just died. The grief must still be carved into his bones.

Given how close he was with Hesh, it would have been natural for him to want to contact him immediately.

But Luke endured everything. Even while I was finishing the arrangements around us, he simply waited quietly nearby. Only after I finished my call with Yun and my conversation with Erich Erhart did he approach me.

Just as Hesh said, he was a very thoughtful kid.

‘I should explain everything to you at least, but it seems I’ll have to postpone even that.’

‘I can wait.’

The junior replied politely.

‘Once again, thank you for saving me and avenging him.’

It wasn’t something I deserved thanks for.

I thought that, but didn’t say it aloud. There wasn’t time. The tasks I had postponed for the sake of revenge were gathering like a tidal wave.

So, although I felt truly sorry, I added that the matter of whether I was alive or dead must remain secret, and then I got into the vehicle with him.

Luke nodded respectfully.

‘I understand, so you don’t need to worry.’

The junior answered calmly.

‘There’s Hesh’s flat on the way to headquarters. If you drop me off nearby, I probably won’t stand out.’

It was fortunate that Erich had provided such a large vehicle.

The car was a camper van.

He said it was a vehicle he sometimes used when visiting the Black Badger headquarters. It didn’t look like something an Elder’s subordinate would ride in, so he occasionally took it out when he felt like it.

Sure enough, the license plate was somehow already registered in the Black Badger headquarters parking lot.

In any case, there was no time to judge whether it was good or bad, so we quickly boarded the vehicle and departed for headquarters.

Graciously, my subordinates and the junior gave up the main bed to me.

‘Get some sleep.’

It was Yoow’s scolding, delivered with a frown.

‘If you sleep at least while we’re traveling, you’ll be able to move properly if something urgent happens.’

It made sense.

Since I had been thinking the same thing, I didn’t refuse and climbed onto the bed.

I removed my sword and set it beside me, crossed my arms, and prepared to close my eyes.

While getting ready to sleep, I picked up my phone. I intended to send a separate message to Kairos.

Now that I knew he was on the same train as Yun.

Unlike others, Kairos would be in an environment where checking messages was easy.

[ Things are mostly sorted now. No need to worry about hacking, so you can use the common language ]

[ Sorry for making you wait. I’ll assess the situation as soon as I reach headquarters and move accordingly ]

[ Should I call? ]

[ The others are fine too ]

I kept the alarm on.

There was always the possibility that the situation might change suddenly.

Besides, I knew I had wronged Kairos.

I hadn’t forgotten the contents of the letter he hid inside the game.

The letter that suggested we drag the king down from the throne together. I remembered those words clearly, yet I was aware that I had acted as if I had completely forgotten that line. If I were Kairos, I would have felt deeply hurt by my actions.

So even if he called me for something trivial, I should wake up and answer.

Thinking that, I fell asleep.

However, when I opened my eyes, there was no missed call on my phone.

[ Ah, finally ]

Instead, there was a message.

[ I’m glad everyone is safe ]

[ You worked hard ]

[ I heard about Zone X. It seems things weren’t easy. It’s truly fortunate you weren’t swept up in it ]

After sending those, the handler finally replied to my message asking if I should call.

[ No thanks ]

Seeing that, I jolted upright on the bed in shock.

‘No...?’

I muttered that while clutching the phone.

‘He doesn’t want to talk...’

‘The kid got off already, Commander. We still have a bit to go, so sleep more.’

I didn’t even have the presence of mind to answer Igor.

If Yun had replied like that, I would have thought he really didn’t want to talk.

If Ricardo had replied that way, I would have trembled in fear, but I wouldn’t have been surprised.

If Yoow had replied like that, I would have thought, that’s the strategist as usual. In fact, if he had said yes, I might have worried that something was wrong.

But Kairos replying like this?

Kairos...

Jack Black...

That man like the sun?

‘He’s angry.’

As I muttered that while gripping my phone, the others who had been approaching casually raised their eyebrows.

‘What?’

‘Who are you messaging?’

‘Kairos is angry.’

Caught in a situation I hadn’t expected after waking up, I was quite flustered.

‘How do I fix this?’

It wasn’t that I was bad at going to someone who was angry and coaxing them gently.

But the fact that it was Kairos—of all people—who was angry felt heavy. It seemed I had unconsciously believed he would surely forgive me.

‘Should I call...? No, but he said he doesn’t want to talk, so I shouldn’t, right? If I call now he’ll get even more angry.’

‘Are you talking about the handler? Just leave it, Commander! It won’t even last fifteen minutes!’

‘Well, honestly, he has every reason to be angry.’

Yoow’s snort-laced comment delivered a second shock to me.

‘If it were me, I wouldn’t even want to see your face for a while.’

‘Yoow! You agreed with my decision too!’

‘I didn’t say it was the wrong decision. I’m just saying it must have felt fucking awful to be on the receiving end. You didn’t even ask his opinion. How shitty do you think that felt? He already seemed oddly attached to you in the first place.’

By that point, I had collapsed back onto the bed like a wreck.

Over my sprawled body, Yoow drove in the final nail.

‘But the handler actually gets angry at people, huh?’

I sent Kairos a long message asking if he was angry.

‘We weren’t exactly close, but I’ve known him a long time, and in all that time I’ve never seen the Dragon Lord get angry at a person. Interesting.’

I ignored Yoow’s muttering.

Lying there gloomily, I waited for Kairos’s reply.

But Kairos didn’t read the message I sent in haste.

And so I remained lying on the bed in sadness until we arrived at headquarters.

Of course, I couldn’t stay like that forever. We eventually arrived safely at headquarters. Since I had to hide my face, Aide Gilbert came down personally to receive us.

‘Here are the passes and the protective suits.’

Gilbert looked utterly exhausted.

Without even greeting us, he threw open the camper door and shoved the items into our arms.

‘Put them on and come up.’

And that brought us to the present.

Gas mask and protective suit.

An access badge faithfully hanging around the neck.

The ones who entered headquarters like this were me, Igor, and Yoow. There wasn’t a protective suit in Rose’s size. So we had no choice but to leave Rose waiting in the camper van.

Rose looked disappointed, but she didn’t protest.

I left behind the subordinate who said she would happily wait while looking at my newly cut hair.

And then—

“Hey.”

Someone stopped us.

“Hold on a moment.”

The person who stopped us was a staff member from the Science Department.

His name was Tanya.

He spoke casually.

“You’re going to disinfect the chemistry lab in the science wing, right?”

“Yes.”

I answered obediently.

Tanya didn’t suspect me. More precisely, he seemed to recognize me as nothing more than a passing outside worker.

I had deliberately roughened my voice, but it seemed unnecessary.

“Good timing. Take this over there for me.”

Barely looking at us, he handed me a manila envelope.

“You know John Mühlen, right?”

Then Tanya began rattling off the location of John Mühlen’s desk inside the office.

Perhaps finding the situation absurd, Yoow jabbed my side lightly. It was a signal to just refuse and leave.

I understood why, but I calmly accepted the envelope Tanya held out, saying I would leave it on the desk.

I knew his reputation.

If I refused, he would only question me more persistently.

“Just leave it on the desk?”

“Yeah. No need to talk to him. Even if you try, he won’t hear you anyway. He’s really tall, so he’s easy to find. I’d appreciate it.”

“Yes.”

Ska had asked us to wait a little anyway.

After accepting the request, I quickly moved away from Tanya.

I wasn’t worried about being discovered. The science wing laboratories were already full of people dressed exactly like me. And scientists were usually too absorbed in their work to notice their surroundings.

It was far safer to run into scientists than to encounter the seniors still inside headquarters.

Many of the seniors had sharp instincts.

“They told us to come to the leadership lounge in fifteen minutes.”

“If we drop the file off first, the timing will be perfect.”

We crossed headquarters at a brisk pace.

“Let’s go.”

For the first time in a long while, I arrived at the science wing.

The place where Yun and John’s desks were located.

The place where Martin floated around the ceiling and the side-quest windows for Black Badger special personnel would appear. Repairs were ongoing, but the parts that hadn’t changed were still the same, so the moment I stepped into the science wing, a strange feeling washed over me.

Even though night had fallen, many people hadn’t gone home.

The sound of their conversations tickled my ears.

Caffeine-filled drink containers rolled around everywhere. Unknown programs ran across multiple monitors.

I could see Martin helping scientists over in the corner.

But John wasn’t at his desk.

Did he go to another laboratory?

It surprised me, but judging from the fact that the nearby scientists weren’t disturbed, he seemed to still be somewhere in the science wing.

Quietly taking in the familiar faces around me, I slowly moved deeper into the laboratory.

I left Yoow and Igor waiting in the corridor.

Without drawing anyone’s attention, I successfully stood in front of John Mühlen’s desk. Carefully, I placed the brown envelope on the cluttered desk.

Ah.

There are papers all over the floor under the desk.

Something bumped my foot, so I looked down and snorted at the papers scattered beneath the desk.

Just like always.

To pick up the papers, I bent down and pushed my body under the desk.

After pulling the wheeled chair back, I crawled inside.

And the moment I picked up the scattered papers, shouting erupted in the laboratory.

“That’s not true!”

It was a familiar voice.

“How many times do I have to say it—Hildebert is a Black Badger!”

“But it’s a Creature.”

Kate.

She was arguing with someone whose voice I didn’t recognize.

“That means he’s not human! Do you know when that thing might go berserk?”

“Why is someone who isn’t even a scientist here? Hey, get that thing out of here!”

“Are you really that heartbroken over the death of a Creature that isn’t even human?”

“Hilde is human too!”

“Human, my ass!”

“Send those bastards back to the budget department!”

“First define what a human even is. He uses the common language, eats the same food as us, and looks almost exactly like us—so that’s not human?”

“Is something that regenerates even after a Scud missile hits it human?”

“Apparently this one doesn’t regenerate limbs though.”

“Oh right, that’s true.”

“Isn’t that hilarious?”

“Thank god it died so pathetically!”

“You crazy bastard!”

Chairs scraped backward all at once.

Stunned by the scene unfolding before my eyes, I remained frozen under the desk.

Squatting there, # Nоvеlight # I blankly watched the scientists grab the collars of the people who appeared to be from the budget department.

The fight erupted in an instant, and I couldn’t bring myself to intervene.

Several of the scientists rushing in a heated group were crying, which froze me even more. With bloodshot eyes, they swung at the staff member who had provoked them—people who probably considered walking to the parking lot their only exercise.

Even when the head of the science department and staff from other departments rushed in to stop them, the chaos didn’t calm easily.

Eventually people from the personnel department ran over and dragged out those involved in the disturbance.

Only after everyone involved in the fight was taken into the corridor did I come back to my senses.

I should leave too.

I’ll think about this later.

Igor and Yoow are waiting...

“Hildebert Taleb.”

The laboratory emptied in an instant.

In the space that now resembled a weekend laboratory with no one left, a familiar voice sounded.

I opened my mouth slightly and looked up at the person who had called my name.

A presence that had approached silently.

A man holding a potted sansevieria plant in one hand, looking down at me indifferently with pale eyes.

“Academically speaking, the conclusion is that he qualifies as human.”

John Mühlen looked down at me.

“But I’d like to draw more blood. When was your last meal?”