“Thought you’d be too old to recognize .”
At Maya’s comnt, I gave a faint smile.
She hadn’t changed much.
No—her face looked far more at ease. Just as she said, she had lived her second life well.
She had briefly interacted with my kin, and after that she quit politics and washed her identity clean, which was likely how she survived. Most people connected to that matter either got purged or died. Hearing she had lived well genuinely put in a good mood.
Anyway.
“Could you stop calling by that nickna?”
It was a very old nickna—one humans made up on their own when I first arrived on ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) Earth, because they couldn’t freely say my na or Kyle’s.
Back then I had no idea what a Michael or a Lucifer even was, so I let it slide.
But now, every ti it’s used, it’s embarrassing.
I never imagined I’d be called that again.
Maya stared at squarely.
“Why?”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Now you say that?”
“It was embarrassing back then too. Ever since I fully learned human culture.”
She snorted.
Maya drank her hot Aricano like cold water while staring at without blinking.
“When I first called you that, didn’t you respond with, ‘That was another term used to refer to ,’?”
“I did. I was in a really bad mood that day.”
“It’s such a sha I’m the only one left who knows that nickna.”
Maya lifted the half-empty disposable cup and stood.
“If I call you that in front of people now, I’m the only one who’ll look insane.”
“Exactly. Thank goodness.”
“Your seniors are coming.”
She tilted her head lightly—her tone was that she had seen my face, satisfied her curiosity, and now needed to get back to her overdue work.
She carried the aura of soone who had spent long years in an office.
“I have reports to review by tonight, so I’ll be going.”
She didn’t wait for my reply.
Her na certainly wouldn’t be Maya anymore. She didn’t even bother telling her new one before leaving the café without hesitation. I gave a wry smile as I watched her walk past my seniors.
My seniors who were returning from their smoke break.
But the group had changed.
“Hilde!”
Ami had joined them.
I broke into a long smile at the sight of the light and salt of my life hopping toward .
“Ami.”
“Can I set Yun oppa’s profile picture to your Mario gif?”
...Hm?
I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
I blinked down at her. Ami pulled out the empty chair beside and sat.
A mont later, Asil sat heavily with a tired gait and Ricardo lowered himself lazily into the seat.
Ami showed her phone screen.
“You know the Hilde-Mario gif.”
“Oh. Yes.”
I knew.
Since the live broadcast, a lot had changed.
None of it good for . I had beco far too famous. Thanks to the drone, San and I managed to escape the mountain safely—but unfortunately, that drone belonged to an infamous dia company. My struggle with San aired live inside the Core and millions watched it.
I was not foolish enough to expect life to remain the sa after that.
I had suffered trendously since that broadcast.
Now that a month had passed, the chaos had settled sowhat—but my life was still far from comfortable.
It wasn’t that I was unfamiliar with fa. Back when I was a knight commander, there wasn’t a single imperial citizen who didn’t know my or Kyle’s na and face.
But here, because of SNS, the price of fa was far too steep.
The Mario gifs were one of those prices.
“This one is my favorite Hilde-Mario gif.”
I looked down at it.
A Mario gif.
It started when soone made a gif of the mont I stepped across the mushroom caps.
A clip titled ‘Live-action Mario’ went viral, spawning countless variations. Versions with San removed. Versions with video ga sound effects. Versions with ga backgrounds edited in. A “1 hour Live-action Mario” compilation where people looped the under-1-minute clip endlessly. Versions chopped up and synced to bizarre music also grew popular.
The one Ami showed was the flashiest I’d seen.
San had been erased. It really did look like a ga—which honestly was kind of funny.
“So can I set it as Yun oppa’s profile picture?”
“I’m just... not understanding that part.”
“I was originally going to set it as my profile picture!”
I didn’t understand that either, but fine—that was at least plausible.
When I nodded, Ami widened her eyes and elaborated.
“But oppa told instead to put it as his profile picture!”
“...What? Why?”
“Because in ssenger apps, you can’t see your own profile picture.”
Ah.
“So since he doesn’t want to see sothing so unpleasant, if I’m really determined to use it, I should put it on his.”
“That is... exactly sothing your ntor would say.”
I understood.
I nodded, watching Ami’s eyes sparkle.
“You may.”
“Really? Thanks!”
“You serious?”
Asil looked genuinely shocked that I had allowed it.
Ricardo, legs crossed, snorted.
I smiled as my seniors looked at both Ami and like we were not normal.
“Everything is fine now anyway.”
“I need to go to oppa. I must change his profile picture.”
“Paparazzi have cald down already, huh~?”
Ricardo leaned back lazily in his chair.
“For a while you couldn’t even walk outside properly....”
“Yes. Asil-sunbaenim told to reject all broadcasts, CF offers, and interviews, and disappear for a while—and things have quieted a lot.”
“It’ll be much better after a year.”
The one who had been in the dia for a bad reason—the Police Commissioner murder case—sipped his toffee-nut latte.
Asil had given many good pieces of advice when reporters kept sneaking into my hospital room.
I was sincerely grateful.
“The foot video and these Mario videos won’t disappear, but public interest always moves on quickly.”
“Thank you. I will buy you a al later.”
“Forget it.”
Asil scowled as if I was being ridiculous.
“I didn’t even help you that much.”
He helped more than enough.
I was about to thank him properly when Ami—rembering the actual reason she had co—jumped back into the conversation. She’d been so distracted by the gif that she had forgotten her original purpose.
The point was: the Black Badger rookie recruitnt had just ended.
And for so reason, the Personnel Director had summoned the entire TF team.
I smiled faintly and nodded.
I already knew the results were out. Kairos had shown his acceptance ssage yesterday.
This summons was because of that.
“Asil, we’re heading out!”
“I’ll leave first, sunbaenim.”
Ricardo didn’t speak; he simply flicked his eyes and waved lazily.
Leaving Asil nodding behind us, we stepped out of the café. Since we were told to gather in the evening, we had extra ti—so we decided to go to the eting room early and order dinner.
Eating outside was still inconvenient for .
I was used to strangers knowing who I was—but not to people taking photos and posting them online.
And I worried about You’s rampages.
I thought again that I’d need to request assignnts that kept out on field missions.
Thinking that, I headed to the eting room with my seniors.
***
Forget the past.
The day he had lowered the sword that was about to slit his own throat and knelt before the enemy.
The day he kissed the ring made from the Emperor’s blood—the day that still served as the stage for his nightmares—
Kyle had heard those words.
The rigid Minister of Finance had said them.
Your life starts anew from this mont. Forget everything about your past. Rembering it will only make you miserable.
Kyle had resolved at that mont.
He would never forget the past.
He would carry this humiliation to the grave.
The day he swore loyalty to the one who forced him to kneel.
More than a hundred years had passed since then.
“I thought you’d be furious.”
At Jin Silver’s mumbling, Kyle lifted his head casually.
He didn’t brush aside the strands of hair obscuring his vision; he simply stared at the man slumped in the chair.
He saw a being who hated the Black Badgers enough to flee the Core. A man who had lived in isolation after deserting and had finally been discovered by them—and was now chewing roasted earth-whale at.
“What is there to be furious about?”
Kyle, still with both long legs up on the table, shifted his gaze.
Reclining lazily, he continued polishing his dagger.
“It’s not like you lied to us.”
“Well, I did lie. A little. But it was pointless. It’s not like you told the damn thing had eyes.”
“Am I supposed to explain even that?”
“I just don’t get why you bothered calling in to check the event route.”
Jin grumbled as he chewed another bite of earth-whale.
Kyle neither responded nor looked his way. He simply stared into his own eyes reflected on the smooth blade.
The building was silent.
“Anyway, I’m glad the operation failed.”
A prisoner with impressive nerve.
But Kyle did not get angry. Jin Silver’s existence didn’t stir his temper.
With active Badgers crawling everywhere—his true targets—he had no desire to waste anger on a deserter.
Especially not when so had even turned their backs and beco Badgers.
Revenge.
Sothing Kyle had tried to achieve—but failed to accomplish until the end of the world.
This ti, he would succeed.
“He seems to have rembered everything now.”
Kyle murmured without lifting his gaze from the dagger.
“Did he look that way to you too?”
“Hilde?”
Jin’s voice sank.
A long ti passed before he replied again.
“He definitely changed a lot.”
The mont his na was spoken, Jin must have lost his appetite—the clinking of cutlery stopped.
“When I faced him before, he was just kind and innocent.”
Kyle snorted.
Many people thought so.
And that was indeed part of Hilde’s nature. Kyle knew better than anyone how unbearably gentle Hildebert could be at tis. He was not blind to that.
But who had succeeded in revenge?
Kyle never achieved his. At so point, he even found himself running around to protect the very person he once vowed to take revenge on.
When he realized that about himself, the despair had been bottomless.
He couldn’t show it—not with the innocent subordinates who trusted and followed him.
He couldn’t confide in Hilde either.
Back then, the two were closer than brothers. Kyle had told Hilde everything—his everyday life, his inner thoughts.
Everything except his obsession for revenge, the humiliation he felt when he laid down his sword, and the jealousy he felt toward Hilde who had succeeded in revenge.
How could he complain about revenge to soone who succeeded but lost everything?
Kyle hadn’t succeeded—but at least he still had people left.
As a foolish young knight, he had muttered complaints in so back alley. But he never again revealed his heart to Hilde.
“Innocent n don’t hand their blades to humans to kill their friend.”
Hildebert had taken revenge before he even beca an adult.
A boy from the temple who had probably never hard anyone before.
That boy cut down the sacred tree, took up the blade consecrated from it, and hunted down the murderers of the priests. He shoved his blade into their throats, stared straight into their eyes as they scread, and with controlled, elegant motions, pulled the blade free.
After finishing his revenge, he had stood for a long ti on a corpse-covered plain, drenched in blood.
He hadn’t burned the bodies. They didn’t deserve that rcy.
Only after wild dogs and birds began pecking at the corpses did he return to the temple to bury the priests.
And through all that, he didn’t go mad.
He said he felt that if he didn’t break the curse of the sacred tree, he would not be defeating the enemy but perishing with them—
that the battle would beco one of mutual annihilation.
So he had risked his life to seek the World Tree.
He was soone who neither died nor went insane.
That was Hildebert Taleb.
“He can turn cold as a statue when needed.”
Decades ago, that icy cruelty had turned on Rei.
Kyle could never forgive Hildebert.
He could never stop hating him. He could feel nothing except hatred and a sense of betrayal.
It was always the sa. Kyle burned like fire; Hildebert froze like ice.
“It’s finally my turn to take revenge.”
Revenge for their kin. And revenge for Rei, who hesitated when he saw the blade.
If he hadn’t hesitated, they might have won.
When Kyle learned that Rei had died because he hesitated at the sight of Hildebert’s blade—
sothing inside him died.
And it never revived again.
“How dare he miss him.”
Blood dripped from the hand gripping the dagger.
Kyle didn’t feel the pain. He only gripped the sharp blade harder.
“How dare he, after committing that sin.”
The dagger Hildebert Taleb had gifted Kyle long ago.
Kyle held that sharp blade tightly and stayed motionless for a long ti.
Feeling the presence of that hateful being moving sowhere inside the Core.
***
“You could’ve told .”
Ten minutes before the briefing.
I grinned at my ntor, who walked into the eting room looking sulky.
Yun raised one eyebrow in reply.
I laughed harder seeing Ami hop toward him to grab his phone.
“I didn’t know you cared about enough to set my gif as your profile picture. If I’d known, I would’ve gone to greet you more often.”
“Just figured it out?”
Instead of snapping, Yun sat across from , voice shaless.
“Since you know now, co to my room tomorrow night. I reserved the lab table.”
...That was a bit much.
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