Black Badger Chapter 33

I wished he were a ghost instead.

A ghost John Mullen wouldn't have had the power to drag back to that hell.

But was this really happening? The reality that this man had co all the way to the staff quarters in the old building on a weekend?

A resigned smile escaped my lips.

Tom and Hesi stood frozen in place, staring blankly. Ami clutched her cheeks. It was a reaction as shocked as mine.

Having seen John Mullen the longest, it must have hit her even harder.

Mullen fixed his blue gaze on .

"You..."

Thwack!

?

With a dull thud, Mullen collapsed to the floor.

We all stared wide-eyed at the sa spot.

As the tall man fell, a familiar face ca into view. Curly hair and his trademark striped T-shirt.

It was Giacomo Ro.

"That creepy bastard."

He said, his hand still sharply positioned like a knife edge.

"Ah, damn, that old indigestion's finally going down. Ever since I was locked up for three days because of that guy, I've wanted to snap his neck."

Ro furrowed his thick brows, glaring at the unconscious man.

Hesi and Tom gaped at their senior in disbelief.

"Three days?"

"Because of those damn parasitic plants."

"Parasitic plants?"

Their cohort mates muttered in confusion.

But I wasn't surprised. I knew well enough by then that the man passed out there was exactly the type to pull sothing like that.

A genius scientist slumped on the threshold like a deflated plastic doll.

I was glad Ro had gotten his hands dirty and taken care of Mullen for .

Ro stared at Mullen sullenly before lifting his head.

"Hey, Peanut."

He was calling Ami.

Ami snapped out of her dramatic, theatrical expression. She blinked her round eyes a couple of tis.

"Woof."

"Why are you here?"

"Playing a ga."

Ami regained her composure.

"Hilde's really good at gas, so we were teaming up to beat a boss I couldn't clear alone."

"A ga?"

Ro craned his neck back and scanned the room.

I ignored him and kept staring at the unconscious Mullen. It was a relief he was out cold, but it didn't improve my mood.

This creepy obsession... I should have realized from the start that he wasn't the type to accept my refusal.

The mont he vanished from sight, I needed to contact my ntor right away.

As I thought that, Ro sauntered over.

"Hey."

He stood in front of .

I looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

A pleasant Saturday morning with sunlight streaming in. How did this senior know to co here?

Ro rested his chin on my arm.

"I always wanted to beat the crap out of that guy soday, and thanks to you, I got to do it."

His voice was serious.

"Normally, when John was about to die, soone would say sothing about a national trial and stop ."

"National trial."

Ami interjected with a blank face.

Ro ignored her.

"You're a really useful guy. I like that."

"Thank you."

It felt like the first day when the HR director said sothing similar.

But it didn't matter. I was just grateful that Ro had personally driven Mullen away.

A cool breeze blew in through the open window. Mixed with the wind was the sound of our characters dying to the boss's attack. We were so close to finishing it off—just one final blow. But it wasn't too hard, so we'd clear it next ti.

"Take Mullen with you."

Ami said to Ro.

"But why did Mullen co here? I really thought I was seeing a ghost."

"To experint on him."

Question marks seed to float above Tom, Hesi, and Ami all at once.

I let out a hollow laugh at their bewildered expressions.

"Experint? What experint?"

"Oh, right, you said last weekend you had sowhere to go."

"Did Hilde do sothing stupid again?"

"Again?"

I put on a falsely hurt expression and quietly pondered how to explain the situation. I could be honest with Ami, but these two knew nothing.

After so thought, I just blurted it out without context.

"I got an invitation to be a test subject and said sure."

"Huh?"

"Again!"

Hesi furrowed his brows and exclaid, while Ami let out a shriek.

Tom just stared at like he had no idea what I was saying.

Now knowing how foolish my choice back then had been, I chuckled and showed them my empty palms.

"I was an idiot. I'm reflecting on it intensely."

"Why would they invite you to be a test subject...?"

Tom asked slowly.

I smiled neutrally before explaining.

"Because my ntor's Yoon, so unluckily I crossed paths with that guy?"

"Ah, what unnecessary connections!"

Ro, having lost interest in our conversation, hoisted up the unconscious scientist.

Ro wasn't tall. So Mullen's legs, draped over his shoulder like a wet rag, dragged on the floor. He could have adjusted for a more stable carry, but Ro didn't care if the scientist's limbs scraped the ground as he walked away.

Thud-thump-scrape.

The scientist's arms and legs banged against the threshold and walls.

The unconscious scientist and Ro vanished from sight, making strange noises as they went.

"Is that okay?"

"Right? There was that huge noise earlier too."

When I asked Ami, Hesi poked his head in, joining the conversation. He seed to be referring to the sound when Ro struck the back of Mullen's neck.

It had been huge.

Ami stared at where Ro had disappeared, her mouth a straight line, before answering.

"Probably. Yoon oppa sotis hits the back of Mullen's neck like that too."

"My ntor does?"

"Sotis he tries to set off chemical bombs or sothing."

Their cohort mates stared at Ami in astonishnt.

Tom, gazing at her youthful face, said,

"Isn't that guy the super famous scientist from the textbooks...?"

"Genius types are always a bit weird, I guess. My brother isn't normal either."

Ami replied breezily.

Then she looked up at , who was nodding vigorously beside her. Our eyes t in the air.

She stared at with her round, cute eyes before saying,

"Don't do anything stupid from now on, and stay off that guy's radar, Hilde."

Of course. The mont Monday rolled around, I planned to report this to Yoon.

*

As soon as Monday arrived, I reported the weekend's events to Yoon.

"He ca all the way to the dormitory?"

Yoon showed a rare surprised expression.

Then, as if sothing was funny, he pulled up one corner of his mouth in a grin.

"Looks like he's really hooked."

"Save ."

I shot him a desperate look.

He cleanly sheathed the sword in his hand. It was the one I'd been using since last week.

Ever since returning from outside the Core, I'd been practicing swordsmanship with Yoon nonstop. He insisted it was to hold onto my mories. I enjoyed the sparring too, so I had no complaints. No complaints, but last week, I hadn't even nicked the hem of Yoon's clothes.

Yoon had evaluated it like this:

"You're definitely used to greatswords, but your dulled body can't keep up with the mories."

He was never one to mince words.

"It'll take a month to draw out your full potential. Don't even think about going out on missions for that month."

So today, I'd co to the training hall ready to roll around again. Just like last week.

The only difference was realizing that Mullen's obsession wasn't ending. Judging by what happened two days ago, he'd definitely co looking for this weekend too.

I approached the man with his dry, rough expression.

"Please save this poor soul from John Mullen's rampage, senior. I didn't realize your sincerity all this ti."

"Fine. You've finally recognized your benefactor."

Yoon shalessly accepted my earnest plea.

His unchanging expression while saying that was so typical.

The high-ceilinged place where he'd fought those mushrooms like an idiot. Unlike in protective gear, he wore a black T-shirt and light joggers.

"I'll try dumping so other research tasks on him, so wait. He needs sothing else to catch his interest."

"Can't you just talk him out of it?"

"You think that'd work?"

"No. What if a higher-up orders him to stop?"

"You think he'd listen?"

"No. What about threatening him?"

"You think that'd work?"

"No. What the hell is that guy? So sociopath?"

"No. Unlike , he does have a conscience. It's just way off from what normal people have."

He did seem like that.

John Mullen seed to have a completely different sense of good and evil from normal people. He viewed the world in a way utterly unlike ordinary folks.

Amazing. So he did feel pangs of conscience sotis.

According to my ntor, unlike him, the guy did have one...

...

Wait a minute.

"It sounds like you're saying you don't have a conscience, senior."

"What? Didn't Ami tell you?"

Yoon asked lightly, like he was inquiring about the lunch nu.

"That there's a congenital abnormality in my brain."

I wished he'd at least emphasize when dropping a bombshell like that.

I stood there for a long ti, trying to process the monuntal fact my ntor had tossed out casually.

anwhile, Yoon drew his sword cleanly in front of . A long, thin blade.

He said only two badgers out of all these knew how to use a sword "properly."

Jonathan Kudo, who used a Japanese sword as his main weapon. Lee Ye-hyeon, who said he'd formally learned swordsmanship from soone.

Yoon himself only knew the basics. If my skills surpassed his later, he'd hand over to Ye-hyeon.

But the man who was wielding that long sword was plenty threatening to .

I looked at my ntor's neat features and said,

"Are you a sociopath?"

"That's what people usually call it."

"Won't you discard your augnted body?"

"Already committing insubordination?"

Yoon replied lazily, pointing the sword tip at .

The white light glead at the blade's edge.

"Yeah. You need the skill to pull off insubordination. Draw yours."

I drew my sword without a word.

*

Ti passed like that. On weekdays, I trained with real swords alongside a ntor who innately didn't know conscience. On weekends, the genius mad scientist whose moral compass was worlds apart from normal people dropped by persistently.

Mullen didn't give up easily. More precisely, he hadn't found another research subject as intriguing as Hildebert Talev. He ca every weekend, got knocked out by Ro's hand chop each ti, and vanished from sight each ti, slung haphazardly over Ro's shoulder.

I suffered. While Ro's evaluation of kept rising, Hesi solidified his prejudices about genius science students. Tom started suspecting there was sothing off about . Ami worried about steadily.

And Yoon...

"Stay at my place this weekend."

On the day before the fourth weekend, the day I finally heard from Yoon that it was ti to send back out on missions. (I still hadn't nicked his hem.)

My ntor issued the order in his flat voice.

"You need to disappear from John's sight."

"It feels like I'm imposing too much..."

"I'm getting sick of this too, so just obey quietly."

His voice held genuine irritation, and I didn't have the guts to ignore it.

My ntor lit a cigarette and showed a series of numbers on his phone screen.

"I called a taxi, so pack your stuff and take it on ti. Don't leave there all weekend. I'll end this by this weekend for sure."

Hearing annoyance in the voice of soone usually emotionless was terrifying. It was even scarier with the blood-dried knife in his hand that had my blood on it.

I followed Yoon's instructions.

*

A house so vast it always drew admiration no matter how many tis I saw it.

As Yoon said, the house opened its doors to readily. A subtle darkness settled on Friday evening. I deliberately avoided looking at the spot where the cabin had stood and entered my ntor's ho.

The house, which I'd visited a few tis, was quiet.

A spacious ceiling and an open living room view.

The long sofa in the living room and...

Huh?

Soone was sleeping on the sofa, covered in a blanket.

"Ami?"

I'd heard Ami might return from outside the Core today.

I cautiously approached the sofa. I stopped there, gazing at the blanket rising and falling rhythmically.

Why sleep on the sofa?

"Ami. You asleep? It's late—go to bed and sleep till morning..."

"Mm."

A muffled voice ca.

The mont I heard it, I froze in place. I stood there blankly, forgetting to speak.

The blanket, which had been rising and falling steadily, twitched. Like soone stirring from a light sleep inside.

The person wriggling soon sat up, lifting their upper body from under the blanket.

It beca clear who was under there.

Beside my frozen self, he sat on the sofa with eyes closed, still drowsy from sleep.

Then, after a long mont, he narrowed his long eyes and looked up at .

"Hilde?"

"...I'm truly sorry, Commander."

"Mm."

My workplace's top boss mumbled.

"Hello."