Black Badger

We cleared away the place where we’d eaten lunch and shut ourselves back into our respective compartments.

Once again, Yun was the squad leader, and this time he gave us three hours of free time.

In three hours, the train would enter a high-frequency Creature emergence zone.

From that point on, no one could afford to relax.

Even if we took turns, we’d need to stay in combat-readiness.

But until we entered that zone, it was comparatively safe.

Before departure, the satellite had confirmed there were no obstacles on the tracks.

They’d also said the rails in this section were well maintained.

Apparently, animals and monsters rarely moved through here in herds, so there was very little damage.

And so, personal maintenance time returned again.

I had promised Ami I’d tell her another story once we reached the Safe Point.

Then I proved to the seniors that I had, in fact, taken my medicine.

“Am I a child?”

“Think of it as your senior’s affection.”

Sophia replied shamelessly and without a hint of embarrassment.

Ami grinned.

“Exactly! And I’m the most senior of all!”

“I’m technically the oldest one here, though.”

“It kind of feels like if people stop aging, their mental age stops too~.”

After saying that, Ricardo vanished into his compartment without even waiting for my response.

I stared blankly at everyone scattering.

They disappeared into their rooms in an instant.

I grabbed a bottle of water and went into my own compartment as well.

Then I lay down on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

This time I hadn’t brought a book, and I’d already finished maintaining my sword yesterday, so there was nothing in particular to do.

Besides, there was barely any sign of monsters in this region.

Maybe it was because of the barren environment.

Maybe there just wasn’t anything to eat out here.

Feeling the train’s regular vibrations, I let my eyes trace the patterns engraved into the ceiling.

I should sleep for a bit.

I got lucky yesterday and didn’t dream at all, but tonight might be different.

I’d rather not end up waking the seniors who were sleeping.

Staring at the ceiling, I tried not to think too deeply.

Every time stray thoughts crowded in, I forced myself to count sheep.

As I did, drowsiness slowly started washing over me.

I set a three-hour alarm, so it should wake me on time.

My phone was charged too.

I’ll just close my eyes until we arrive....

I drifted off for a moment.

BOOOOM!

A thunderous crash rang out.

“Ugh!”

THUD!

My body flew.

The force hurled me straight into the opposite wall.

A violent collision slammed through me, followed by dizzying pain.

Buried beneath shattered wall fragments and scattered luggage, I couldn’t move for a moment.

A high ringing filled my ears.

The impact sound had been incomparable even to gunfire.

Something had continued breaking apart after the collision too.

What was that?

I let out a small sound and forced my eyes open.

There was still no sign of monsters.

But the train had definitely collided with something.

The front had to be completely crumpled, and the compartment I was in had derailed and twisted sharply sideways.

A heavy physical shock generated by sheer speed.

What about the seniors?

Fear seized me.

Even Badgers aren’t immune to this kind of physical impact....

BOOOOM!

Ignoring the sharp pain, I braced a hand against the floor and lifted my upper body—

just as someone kicked open the warped compartment door.

It was Yun.

“Yun!”

Seeing my mentor apparently unharmed, my face brightened.

His eyes flicked over me, checking my condition, then he turned away.

“What is it?”

“No idea.”

Yun answered shortly and disappeared from view.

“Don’t come out.”

How was I supposed to obey that?

I pushed myself up and first grabbed my sword, fastening it at my waist.

Then, without even thinking to pick up the communicator, I walked to the compartment doorway.

Stopping there, I looked down the corridor.

Just as expected, the very front was completely crushed.

Thankfully, Black Badgers knew incidents like this happened from time to time, so they usually didn’t loiter near the front.

Not unless they were running to the first car to stop the train.

No one was up there, right?

With the cars bent out of shape, it was impossible to see the full corridor at once.

I stepped into the wrecked hallway and shouted,

“Yun! I’m coming out!”

“Hilde!”

Ami’s voice rang out.

Thank God.

I let out a reflexive sigh of relief.

Ami’s safe too.

“Hilde, are you okay?!”

“Yes! What about everyone else?!”

“No fatalities.”

Yun’s voice from the communicator overlapped with his real voice.

“Grab essentials only and assemble outside the train.”

I exhaled in relief again.

Then I steadied the faint trembling in my hands.

Clenching my fist tight, I returned to the compartment I had been staying in and gathered what I needed.

Communicator.

Drinking water.

Emergency rations.

Spare battery.

Basic first-aid supplies.

Water filter.

Blood injections.

The train might explode.

I desperately hoped it wouldn’t, but knowing it absolutely could, I drew my sword the moment I had everything.

Then I cut open one side of the train that led outside.

Just enough for me to get through cleanly.

A gust of outside air rushed in.

I leapt through the opening and immediately turned my head to assess the situation.

An ash-gray wasteland.

Heavy clouds, darker than the plain itself.

Wind carrying a trace of moisture brushed past my cheek.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked toward the end of the derailed train.

Doesn’t look like anything’s there?

“Hilde.”

I turned toward the familiar voice.

Ricardo was approaching me with a slight furrow in his brow.

“Your condition.”

“I’m fine.”

Even as I answered, I was carefully checking his condition too.

Thankfully, there was no blood on him, and he didn’t seem to be moving with any difficulty.

We got lucky.

That was what I was thinking when Ricardo grabbed my shoulder.

“Ric. I’m not saying this for no reason—”

“Your medicine?”

...Ah.

“I’ll have to search inside. I only grabbed the truly essential things first in case the train exploded.”

“You should’ve grabbed your medicine first....”

“I would have if I’d seen it right away, but I had taken it out earlier when I was about to take it. What about the other three?”

Ricardo didn’t know either.

We moved to confirm everyone else’s condition, and just as Yun had said, we quickly verified that no one’s life was in danger.

We really had been lucky.

Sophia had suffered the worst injury.

Apparently she had smashed her elbow so hard that the bone tore through the flesh.

But she had already handled the emergency treatment herself, so now her injured left arm looked perfectly fine.

Her sleeve was soaked with blood, but she said she hadn’t lost much.

“I’ve still got plenty of spare blood injections too.”

Sophia explained while meeting my eyes.

“So relax your face.”

“Yes.”

I answered obediently.

Because I knew full well that this was an unbelievably good outcome for a train that had been speeding along and smashed into something.

“I’m really glad.”

The mystery was that we still had no idea what the train had collided with.

We didn’t waste time.

The moment we confirmed everyone was fit enough to continue the mission, we immediately moved to the next step under Yun’s command.

Ami reported to HQ.

Sophia and Carl headed to the relatively intact rear cars and began salvaging usable supplies.

Ricardo and I went with Yun to find the cause of the collision.

Fully prepared to respond to an unidentified object, we headed for the front of the train.

But when we got there, we found nothing.

That is—

there was literally nothing there except the wrecked train itself.

All three of us fell silent.

Even Yun blinked.

“Could it be an error in the train’s autonomous driving system?”

I muttered quietly as I nudged through the wreckage with my foot.

Yun answered.

“It’s clearly shaped like it collided with something. This isn’t a system error.”

“Could there be a Creature or animal corpse mixed into the wreckage~.”

Ricardo frowned at the mangled remains.

“Though of course, there’s absolutely no blood anywhere, so that seems unlikely....”

“I can’t sense any monsters at all.”

If anything, the absence felt strange.

“Could there have been some kind of structure the satellite images didn’t catch?”

“They don’t check that sloppily.”

Yun replied while scanning the wreckage with the multipurpose scanner.

He was frowning too.

“And the autonomous system in this train is designed to detect objects on the rails and reduce speed.”

Thankfully, the train hadn’t caught fire.

That let us stay beside the derailed train for quite a while.

Ami, Carl, and Sophia moved busily, sorting intact supplies.

Yun, Ricardo, and I moved away from the front and searched around the train.

Because we judged there was a high possibility some Creature was nearby that even Black Badgers hadn’t detected.

There could be something invisible.

Along the tracks.

In the sky.

Under the ground.

Or somewhere out in the wasteland stretching in every direction.

Either way, there had to be some reason the train derailed.

At this point we had no clue what that reason was, but just like the bell sound in the subway that had bewitched the Badgers turned out to be a monster, the “something” the train collided with had to exist.

The two seniors loaded their guns, and I gripped my sword {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} tightly.

Shoulder to shoulder, we watched all four directions and swept the surroundings.

“...This is kind of creepy.”

But we found nothing.

I rubbed the back of my neck with the hand not holding my sword.

“It’s been a really long time since I’ve had an experience like this.”

“I’ve had this happen from time to time~.”

Ricardo’s low voice came on the wind, which was steadily growing stronger.

“But hearing you say that makes it even creepier~. It means even with your weirdly excessive life experience, you still have no idea what this is~?”

“Yes. It does feel strange hearing you put it that way, Ric. I really did have a lot of bizarre experiences while serving as a knight of the Empire. Even so, I still don’t know.”

“I’ve got two theories.”

Yun, who had been silent until now, spoke abruptly.

Ricardo and I turned toward him at the same time.

The man known as the second-smartest mind in Black Badger HQ stared into the wasteland with thoughtful eyes.

“First. We collided with a trap made by a Creature, not a monster.”

“Ah!”

I immediately understood.

“I see. It could’ve been something like an invisible spiderweb!”

“Second. We hit some kind of defensive barrier left behind by your kin who went elsewhere, or by something that came from somewhere else.”

“Ahh....”

Ricardo muttered in a voice of understanding.

“That definitely explains why we can’t see the cause....”

We still had no way of knowing which answer was correct.

But continuing the search wouldn’t magically reveal it, so we returned to the squad members who had finished securing supplies.

True to being squadmates even Yun couldn’t criticize, everything had been organized perfectly.

The essentials each of us had brought out.

Some salvaged food from the cafeteria car.

The vehicle stored in the rear for travel to the Safe Point.

Blankets.

Toilet paper and toiletries recovered from the restroom car.

The three of them had accurately inventoried everything and were fully ready to depart immediately.

“It’s way too exposed on all sides to camp out here.”

Ami said that while looking at Yun.

Yun nodded.

“Does the vehicle run?”

“Yep! Seriously lucky! And it can definitely go at least 200 kilometers. There’s enough fuel for 400.”

“Board.”

Yun gave the order without hesitation.

“Kalak, you drive.”

Without another word, we set off.

The vehicle wasn’t large, but it wasn’t cramped enough to be uncomfortable either.

If anything, wedged between the bags and supplies, it gave a strangely stable feeling.

With all the intact cargo loaded, we headed for the Safe Point.

The moment we passed the wreckage, rain began falling from the sky.

Sshhhhh—

Then, with the sound of rain, silence fell for a moment.

The one who broke it was Yun, still sitting there with his arms crossed, deep in thought.

“So, did you find your heart medicine?”