Black Badger

It was already dark because of the rain, even without the sun.

We searched the supply depot with our lights on. Once it was confirmed the power wouldn’t come back, we had to move quickly.

To make matters worse, the depot door had already been open when we arrived.

Either something had infiltrated it, or the previous supply team had forgotten to lock up before leaving. Judging by the traces, it looked closer to the latter, but that didn’t solve the problem.

Yun and Ricardo cursed the previous supply team viciously as they swept through the depot.

“Who was the last team through here?”

Ricardo muttered ominously.

At the sharp anger in his voice, I flinched.

While I was busy being intimidated, Carl—the Black Badgers’ top ace—moved quickly.

“I’ll identify them and report it once we return.”

That was originally what I should have said.

Coming to my senses a beat too late, I walked over to Carl.

“Sorry, senior. I’ll go in and check.”

“It’s fine.”

Carl tapped my shoulder.

“Let’s just inspect it.”

We quickly swept through the depot.

Sure enough, several wild animals had already made themselves at home on the first floor. Not Creatures—actual animals. In one corner of the first floor, a giant python lay coiled up, while on the second floor, several bats were hanging from the ceiling asleep.

Yun caught the snake without mercy and threw it outside.

Carl quickly drove out the bats.

Thankfully, after that, we didn’t find anything else alive. There were probably bugs here and there, but that much was standard for land-clearing operations. The Black Badgers plucked bugs off themselves with the same indifference as removing strands of hair from their uniforms.

Mosquitoes would have been another story, though...

“Looks like there aren’t any mosquitoes, thank god!”

Ami’s voice rang out.

“At least we’ll sleep comfortably.”

True enough.

We’d suffered because of mosquitoes in the Empire too.

Once they appeared, not only was proper sleep impossible, but disease always followed.

But our luck didn’t continue forever. The supply depot turned out to be less practical than expected. Just as Ricardo had said, there was enough food for all of us to survive a week, but beyond that, almost nothing remained.

The blankets were filthy and unfolded. The fuel was empty. There were no spare batteries to use as backup power, and the floor hadn’t been cleaned—crumpled food wrappers rolled around everywhere.

There were a couple of electric heaters, but naturally they were useless without power.

Dust hung thick in the air, kicking up in gray clouds every time we took a step.

The chairs scattered carelessly here and there had their stuffing ripped out.

Worse, in one corner of the second floor, there were still traces of people who had been drinking and simply left without cleaning up.

Empty bottles. Broken bottles. Cigarette butts.

The moment Sophia saw the cigarette butts, she muttered darkly,

“They smoked inside the supply depot?”

“That’s disciplinary action right there~....”

Ricardo nudged one of the cigarette butts with his foot.

“Idiots thinking nobody was watching....”

This really is bad.

Now, instead of being afraid of my angry seniors, I found myself sighing as I looked around.

If it was already this bad just by flashlight, it would have been even worse under proper lighting.

But unfortunately, we had no power.

There was no way to identify the irresponsible people who had trashed the place and left.

After a quick assessment, Yun gave orders.

“We sleep on the fifth floor.”

That was the emptiest floor, at least.

Even if it was covered in dust.

“Sordi, Carl. Move all the food to the fifth floor, and take anything useful for insulation to the fourth. Ami, ventilate the fifth floor and clean it up enough to sleep in. Kalak, go through the supply boxes and find candles or anything we can use as a light source. If there’s nothing, bring up anything we can burn.”

The moment the orders were given, everyone moved without a word and disappeared.

Yun turned away without saying anything else.

I panicked.

“Yun?”

My mentor turned his head in the darkness.

“What about me?”

“Stand watch by the front door on the first floor.”

Well, you could’ve said that from the start.

I thought that, but instead of grumbling, I readily turned toward the stairs.

Then I stood by the entrance and watched outside the depot until the seniors finished their work.

The rain poured endlessly.

The downpour felt like it was smothering every sense.

The sound of rain became background music beneath the noise of the others working. Even the distant cries of animals were swallowed by it.

The tracks not far away were hard to make out.

Raindrops splashed in every direction on the rails.

Even the forest stretching far beyond the tracks had turned blurry through the sheets of rain.

My eyesight is usually pretty good too.

The dense forest should still be visible, but...

“Hm?”

Did I see that wrong?

I rubbed my eyes with one hand.

But even after closing and opening them again, the phenomenon remained.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at the baffling sight.

The dark forest beyond the tracks.

Part of it looked whited out, as if it had been mosaicked over and blurred beyond recognition.

The width was about enough space for five or six conifers to stand side by side. The height looked roughly half the trees’ height. That entire section was faintly distorted.

What is this?

I’m not even looking through a lens.

I stared at that section of the rainy forest, like wet paint clumping on a landscape canvas.

Is there a small Core there?

But that doesn’t make sense...

I couldn’t sense any Creature presence there either.

The relentless rain kept undermining my confidence. To make sure my vision wasn’t failing, I rubbed my eyes once more.

And when I looked again...

“What?”

It was perfectly clear.

“It’s gone?”

Did I imagine it?

Eyes wide, I kept staring at the spot that had been distorted.

The mosaic was gone now.

The six conifers standing there were perfectly clear.

Is there something wrong with my brain?

Even while thinking that, I prepared to draw my sword.

Click.

“What is it?”

Yun’s voice came from behind me.

Without turning around, I answered,

“I think I just witnessed an anomalous phenomenon.”

“Explain.”

I briefly described what I had seen.

Yun came to stand beside me.

And then he stood there in silence for quite a while. He didn’t even ask exactly where I had seen it.

After standing motionless for nearly three minutes, my mentor quietly turned away.

“Close the door and come inside.”

“Do you know what kind of phenomenon it is?”

“I can’t say for sure. Earth has too many strange things now.”

He walked toward the stairwell lit by the flashlight beam.

Then, adjusting the angle of the rifle slung diagonally across his back, he added dryly,

“But that kind of glitch usually appears right before space opens.”

Ah.

“I have a feeling the local space around here is unstable. The train might have been part of the same thing.”

“Shouldn’t we do something about it?”

“That’s closer to a natural disaster. There’s nothing we can do.”

After answering like that, my mentor climbed the stairs, then looked back at me through the darkness.

With no light source at all, his face was buried in shadow...

“You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”

That’s true.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t know. I had crossed through countless portals.

...

Are people angry that I let my kin—those who killed their comrades—live and go free?

Are they only holding their tongues because my body still hasn’t fully recovered?

The thought suddenly surfaced, but I didn’t voice it.

I pushed the stray thought aside and moved.

After going up to the fifth floor, which the seniors had safely prepared, I blocked the staircase connecting the fourth and fifth floors with shelving.

We shut all the fifth-floor windows, then shifted the supplies around to create a usable space.

It almost looked like a giant nest.

Seeing how quickly the seniors had transformed an abandoned floor into a cozy shelter, I let out a small laugh.

“Were these blankets already here on the floor?”

“Yeah. They’re dirty, but we’ll be sleeping in our sleeping bags anyway. Thought they’d at least help with insulation.”

“There really were candles.”

“We stock every supply depot with them for situations like this.”

When I pointed at the candle burning in the center of the circle of sleeping bags, Sophia answered.

“Sometimes the simplest thing is the most convenient.”

There were candleholders too.

The candles were thick and long, and there were enough of them that it wasn’t as dark as expected.

The seniors had already turned off all their flashlights.

Thankfully, we still had some communication with HQ.

Our return report had been received.

Now our objective had changed to spending one night here, then returning to HQ.

The schedule had suddenly become much more relaxed.

We settled onto the folding chairs beside our sleeping bags and ate dinner.

It was combat rations stockpiled in the depot, and the moment I expressed that I didn’t want to eat, an incredible storm of criticism hit me.

It was truly primitive criticism.

“The one who usually eats the most is sitting there trying to act cool over nothing~.”

“You whining because there’s no food fit for that taste-dead tongue of yours?”

“Unless we’re in a situation where you’ll be locked in a bathroom, quietly take your nutrition.”

Ricardo, Yun, and Carl spoke one after another.

After being mercilessly beaten down, I wilted.

“Do I really eat that much?”

I muttered gloomily, and Ami snapped at me.

“If you keep this up, Hilde, I’m going to ask them to cancel your reinstatement!”

“Shouldn’t you be setting an example in front of your godchild?”

Sophia added.

“Your godchild is the former Supreme Commander. Can you really behave like this?”

“I’ll correct it.”

I answered quickly, not wanting to be hit by another merciless barrage from the seniors I cared about.

“The combat rations are delicious.”

After dinner, we took turns going down to the first floor to brush our teeth with rainwater.

Once we’d roughly cleaned ourselves too, we decided the watch rotation.

Even though we were inside a depot and didn’t need to stay as tense as in open camp, the mysterious train collision, the unending rain, and the strange phenomenon I’d seen meant we couldn’t let our guard down.

“If we’d made it to the Safe House, we could’ve rested easier.”

Ami sounded disappointed.

“Then I «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» could’ve heard about your first meeting with Igor, and stories from when you were still a rookie knight.”

“My first meeting with Igor?”

I had the first watch.

So as I stepped away from the ring of sleeping bags and headed toward the chair in the corner of the fifth floor, I turned my head.

Ami had already buried herself in her sleeping bag like a caterpillar.

The candlelight painted her face warm gold.

When our eyes met, she grinned.

“Yep! Igor told me to ask you!”

“He did?”

“Yeah. Yoow tells stories, but Igor just brushed it off like that. He said he met Yoow while working. Said it was nothing special, just, ‘I was introduced to him when he was appointed to some boring strategist position.’”

“That’s right.”

As I answered, I could vividly picture the expression the strategist must have had, and a small laugh escaped me.

I met him after I’d already grown used to life as an Imperial knight.

And I met Igor even later than that.

“I met Igor when I visited the village where he was working in the town watch.”

“Tell me the full story later!”

“It’s not that interesting of a story, though.”

Why did Igor specifically tell her to hear it from me?

Wouldn’t it be more accurate if he told it himself?

Thinking that, I looked at Ami, but she vigorously shook her head side to side in fierce denial.

“Every Hilde story is interesting!”

That can’t possibly be true.

“Tell me later for sure, okay?”

I smiled and humored her.

Then, after confirming everyone had finished getting ready to sleep, I walked over to the candle and snuffed it out.

When I told them to sleep well, the people buried in their sleeping bags gave short replies in their own ways.

Then came silence.

I looked around at everyone with their eyes closed and smiled faintly before walking over to the chair reserved for watch duty and sitting down.

***

For the first two hours, nothing happened.

I sat in the darkness, calmly listening to the rain.

Even with all the windows shut, the smell of rain still seeped in from somewhere.

As I sat there breathing it in, close to midnight, something like a heat shimmer suddenly flickered before my eyes.

Every muscle in my body tensed at once as I prepared to draw my sword.

But the moment the shimmer took on a faint shape, I forgot how to put strength into my hand.

I forgot even how to move and simply stared blankly.

The familiar form stood there, brow tightly furrowed as he looked at me.

“Kyle...?”