Black Badger

If the opportunity arose, I had to break free from these bonds by force and land a punch.

I tried to calm my racing heart while I glared at the man in front of me.

Jae-yeon's face was flushed, and he let out a ragged breath. The blade he held out sliced across my neck.

"...You've really lost your memories and turned into an idiot, huh?"

I could feel his hand trembling slightly with excitement. A faint cut stung, and blood trickled from it.

"Seeing you so desperate is kind of refreshing."

"What's the problem?"

My vision steadied a bit. I gauged the tension in the wires binding my arms.

"As you can see, I don't remember anything. What the hell did I even do?"

"This is fucking annoying."

Jae-yeon spat the words and slapped my cheek.

A burning pain flared, and my head snapped to the left.

"Watch your mouth."

I slowly turned my head back and spoke.

"Unless you're the type to beat people on a whim."

Thwack.

A punch.

To the right side again. It was just like Jae-yeon to target the same spot. The taste of blood filled my mouth. I furrowed my brow and spat out the blood that was already starting to clot.

As I turned my head back, I thought of ways to stoke this guy's anger. If I got under his skin, I might loosen these wires and create an opening for a counterattack. It would also keep his attention away from Ye-hyeon.

"Jae-yeon. Tell me what you want, but make it classy."

"Why are you being so cold? I'm trying to help you here."

His attitude flipped in an instant.

I looked up at him with incredulous eyes as he gazed down at me with a hurt expression.

Now that I thought about it, yeah. This guy was the type whose mood swung pathologically like this.

Jae-yeon, who had been looking down at me with lowered brows, leaned in and rested his head against mine. A quiet sigh brushed my ear.

"Haa, you won't even trust me."

"If you tell me, I'll believe you."

I responded softly to his words.

"How exactly are you planning to help me?"

I didn't bring up Ye-hyeon at all.

I acted as if the sprawled-out man wasn't even there. Questioning why I'd turned him into a bloody mess would just excite this lunatic even more, and he'd probably beat the unconscious guy senseless.

Jae-yeon grinned.

He lifted his head and loomed over my face. A drop of blood—probably Ye-hyeon's—trickled down his nose and fell onto my face. I felt him fiddling with my hair with his other hand.

Jae-yeon toyed with my hair as he murmured lowly.

"You say you've forgotten everything. I should help you remember."

I replied in a gentle tone.

"Then tell me."

I ignored the faint cuts on my neck from his playful jabs with the knife.

"What did I do to you?"

"You betrayed your kin."

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief.

"Why are you mad about that?"

"If you're going to curse us with this eternal life, then you should have joined hands with your kin and won the war. Or, if you weren't going to give us eternal life, you should have betrayed them without it...."

For the first time, anger seeped into his lengthy voice.

His face twisted in rage. Something like a blazing fire flickered in his eyes.

The blade glowing near my neck shot up into the air.

"Now I can't even hope to grow old and die!"

Stab.

My shoulder was pierced. The well-sharpened knife dug into my collarbone. A sharp pain exploded from my right shoulder, and I let out a short scream.

Getting stabbed like this had been a while.

If the chance came, I'd swing with my left fist. I clenched and unclenched my unbound left hand while I looked up at Jae-yeon, who was huffing and furrowing his brow.

"Is this about Colton?"

Judging by the anger rising in Jae-yeon's eyes, I'd hit the mark.

"It's not my fault that bastard doesn't die."

He kicked my stomach.

My breath caught for a moment. I coughed a few times before I could breathe normally again.

"Not your fault?"

Jae-yeon, questioning me back, looked like he'd truly lost his mind.

"Not your fault? Before you guys showed up, humans grew old and died. Even with Botox, skin lifts with thread, anti-aging pills, and building the Great Wall, they grew old and died. Wounds festered and killed them, fire turned them to ash, and debris crushed them?"

"We die too."

I spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.

"You, Colton—everyone."

He kicked me again.

The chair toppled backward. My body slammed hard against the floor. Before Jae-yeon could charge in rage, I wrenched free from the wires binding my wrists.

As Jae-yeon yanked the knife from my shoulder, I swung my left fist.

Thwack.

It connected squarely with his right cheek. Jae-yeon's body flew to the right and crashed into the wall with a thud.

I needed to grab that knife. I snapped the wires around my ankles and jumped to my feet, charging at Jae-yeon.

Even as he scrambled up, Jae-yeon landed a precise kick. I took the hit to my leg but bent at the waist to reach for the knife. I couldn't grab the handle, so I seized the long blade's tip with my right hand.

"You idiot bastard...!"

Jae-yeon swung a fist with his free hand and shouted.

"So you do remember swinging a knife around?"

We grappled for a while.

His strength was immense. The blade we both tugged at snapped. I wielded the broken tip, and Jae-yeon swung the remaining length. Our flesh tore, and blood sprayed.

Damn it. My right shoulder wouldn't move right.

Bam!

A dull impact hit the back of my head. Taking advantage of my right arm's hesitation, Jae-yeon slammed me into the corner and approached, spitting blood.

The wounds on his body were already healing.

This felt so unfair all of a sudden. We'd taught them the Augmented Body, so why was our recovery like this, while theirs was so damn good?

Jae-yeon stomped on me as I tried to get up.

"I have to take care of what he gave me."

He muttered to himself as he reached into his pocket.

"I'm pretty diligent, aren't I?"

He pulled out a syringe.

The moment I saw it, Colton's words from the meeting flashed in my mind. That he'd help me. That he'd try.

Was that this? It had to be. No doubt.

But I had no intention of letting some unknown liquid get injected into me without a fight.

I kicked Jae-yeon's left foot with mine. He staggered, cursing under his breath.

Even as he fell, he pressed down on my right shoulder.

"You crazy fuck!"

I shoved away the needle approaching my neck and cursed back.

"Is this how you treat a friend you haven't seen in ages?!"

"That's why you should have come straight here after reuniting."

Oh, for fuck's sake.

With that one sentence, I understood everything. Why Colton had loosened the reins just enough for Jae-yeon to kidnap Ye-hyeon and me right after the meeting ended.

Colton didn't like that I'd become Ye-hyeon's man.

It probably wasn't enough to kill over, but it had irked him. That's the kind of guy he was. The world had to be at his feet.

'Better to burn it all down if it's going to fall.'

What context had he said that in?

My attention drifted to the sudden memory fragment, and Jae-yeon didn't miss the opening.

The sharp needle pierced a vein in my neck.

Stab.

"Ah."

"Good boy."

Jae-yeon laughed long and hard as I reflexively grabbed his arm.

"Don't struggle."

The needle, which had felt like it was boring through muscle, withdrew.

A stabbing pain followed. My body felt light. Jae-yeon backed away, laughing.

My senses sharpened.

"Huh."

What was this?

"Dizzy..."

I couldn't even finish the word.

Information flooded in. I clamped my mouth shut and tried to process the onslaught of sensations.

My five senses had heightened too intensely, overwhelming me. It wasn't like being on drugs. Everything felt excessively vivid.

The pain in my shoulder, Jae-yeon's sharp laughter, the texture of the wall I leaned against. The stench of blood and metal assaulted my nose, and my vision sharpened. There was so much pouring in that I didn't know where to start. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

And layered on top of the burdensome sensations, another one.

A continuous flow of sensations transmitted along the moving parts of my body.

This was what I could never fully explain to Colton in the end.

"Looks like it worked?"

I heard Jae-yeon's voice laced with amusement.

"How's it feel?"

Drenched in cold sweat, I barely lifted my head.

Breathing heavily, I looked at the man standing before me. He tossed the empty syringe to the floor and grinned like a demon, gripping the broken knife.

If he lunged now, I'd die without a fight.

But he wouldn't kill me. Colton wouldn't allow it. Of course, he wouldn't let me go peacefully either. All that was left was for Jae-yeon to unleash his rage and violence.

There would be gaps even in the torrent of violence, so I had to aim for those...

As Jae-yeon lifted his foot, the narrow room's wall exploded.

Boom!

Yoon's boot struck Jae-yeon's side precisely. Jae-yeon's body flew into the opposite wall and embedded there. Clutching my right shoulder, I watched as my mentor strode toward him, coat flapping.

"Yoon."

Jae-yeon, sprawled on the floor, coughed up blood and laughed.

"Long time no see."

He couldn't continue.

Yoon grabbed Jae-yeon's black hair without a change in expression. Then he slammed the back of Jae-yeon's head into the floor repeatedly. Thud, thud, thud! The impacts were so forceful they cracked the floor. Jae-yeon thrashed wildly and struck at Yoon, but the mentor didn't budge, swinging his arm relentlessly.

I was scared Jae-yeon might actually die like that.

But Jae-yeon didn't die. In the end, he bled and lost consciousness.

The surroundings fell silent in an instant. Yoon released the hair and slowly straightened from his bent posture.

"Yoon."

My voice was hoarse as I called to him, and Yoon replied in a dry tone.

"You look like you're about to die?"

Even without any expression, his anger was palpable. I shook my head slowly.

"I'm fine. Check on Ye-hyeon."

Yoon glanced at me for a moment before he turned away.

He stepped over the unconscious Jae-yeon and approached my tattered superior. I followed him with my eyes.

Seeing my unmoving superior again, fear hit me belatedly.

How was he?

He'd lost so much blood, clearly. Yoon knelt on one knee in front of Ye-hyeon and gently turned over the prone body. His hair shifted, revealing the unconscious man's face.

It was pale as wax.

Fortunately, there were no wounds.

"Better than usual."

My mentor muttered lowly.

"Hard to beat both of you thoroughly at once, huh."

Was that something to say to a man with nails driven into his wrists and ankles?

But I knew Yoon had dealt with this kind of thing often, which was why he'd been on high alert throughout the salon. So I wisely kept my mouth shut. Yoon checked the pulse without a change in expression, examined the wounds, pulled a blood transfusion syringe from his inner pocket, injected Ye-hyeon, and stood up.

He approached me.

"You need to be hospitalized too."

"The ambulance?"

"It should be on its way. I already sent the location to the aide."

"It's not just superficial. Internal injuries are probably severe. Keep an eye on me."

"Your organs are probably ruptured. But he has superior recovery, and you don't."

Yoon replied flatly, then knelt before me and pulled an emergency kit from inside his coat.

I quietly watched as he used the compact kit to staunch the bleeding on my arm.

No emotion showed on my mentor's face. I knew it was because he was barely suppressing an urge to explode. One wrong move, and he might kill the collapsed Jae-yeon, so he was maintaining a cold, boiling patience.

Jae-yeon couldn't be killed.

Colton's retainer. His sole exception.

Killing something belonging to the one at the top would bring catastrophe. An unavoidable, inescapable catastrophe. Even if luck favored us and we could topple Colton, the losses would be immense. My mentor and superior weren't fools who couldn't weigh that.

That's why they'd endured like this until now.

Since before I escaped the portal...

"Hildebert."

Yoon, having finished the bandaging, met my eyes.

As I looked at him silently, my mentor slowly broke the silence.

In a rough, dry voice.

"You did well."

That was the highest praise Yoon could give me.