Black Badger - Chapter 19

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 19: Cabin (2)

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My house....

Even as my senior partner opened the driver’s door and Ricardo flung open the passenger door, I could not come to my senses.

My ceiling?

I really had only said I needed somewhere to shelter from the rain....

“Come to your senses and get out.”

Even through the roaring wind and rain, Yoon’s low voice came through clearly.

“Rookie. Are you listening?”

“Just tell him to stay inside....”

The seniors remained calm even as the storm ruthlessly soaked the smooth car seats.

I could not see Ricardo’s face, since he was already standing outside, but I could see him trying to close the passenger door.

“He’ll only hold us back....”

Crash!

A cabin window shattered. It was the little kitchen window. Broken glass glittered as it reflected the rainwater. Something also came pouring out along with the shards.

This is really sad.

Yoon reached in with a wet hand and turned off the engine.

“I suppose so. Just curl up behind the passenger seat.”

The wipers stopped, and rain covered the windows.

“If the windshield breaks, make sure it doesn’t get in your eyes. If the car looks like it’s about to explode, get out on your own.”

“What?”

There was no further explanation.

The seniors, without even opening umbrellas, slammed the doors shut. Bang! Bang!

The noise of rain surrounding us suddenly seemed far away. The streams of rain pouring over the expensive leather disappeared too.

Left alone inside the car, I murmured blankly.

“...You’re telling me to stay inside, right?”

Not that I expected an answer.

I vaguely saw the men who had been standing beside the driver’s and passenger doors move away. Black shadows went forward and vanished. Hunting a creature in weather like this? Could they even stand properly?

I pressed my eyes to the backseat window, trying to see what was happening.

All I could make out were silhouettes of things from my house flying around in the whirlwind.

It really was being torn to pieces.

They said a giant butterfly was causing this wind, so where was the butterfly?

Craaaash!

A tremendous noise rang out.

When I turned my head, my vision filled with wet wood. A sharply broken piece of wood had torn through the Lamborghini’s roof and come inside.

If I had not been pressed against the window, it would have split open the top of my head.

The torn Lamborghini roof, the huge piece of wood, the familiar grain.

Looking at the rain pouring through the tear and the wood, I shouted.

“My ceiling came back!”

“Does that look like it came back to you?”

Ricardo yanked the door open.

He frowned and smiled strangely before grabbing me by the collar.

“This is why climate-altering creatures....”

Crash!

The windshield shattered.

Another piece of ceiling flew in and lodged itself there. If Ricardo had not roughly dragged me out, I would have been crushed to pieces, glass burying itself in my body.

I was soaked through in an instant. A fierce gust struck my cheek as it passed.

I staggered to my feet beside the car. The senior released my collar and turned forward.

Before even turning his head all the way, Ricardo said coldly,

“Stay here.”

The smile that always rested on his lips was gone.

“Don’t run off anywhere.”

Running off? It was hard enough just to take a step.

The fierce wind howled. Even outside the car, it was difficult to see ahead. Heavy raindrops struck my whole body without pause. My socks and shoes grew wet. My hair clung to my face.

I shielded myself from the whipping wind and rain with my forearm, narrowing my eyes as I searched for the butterfly they had kept talking about.

Thud, thud, crash!

Things flew from my house with its roof ripped off. The cabin broke apart and rode the whirlwind through the air. Bagels, chocolate, a beanbag chair, a mattress, dishes, kitchen knives. I watched those things spin around in the sky on the whirlwind.

Then I spotted something like a solid shadow at the center of it all.

Is that butterfly in the center of that tornado?

And what are those engine-flame-like things tearing through the sky above it?

“Oppa!”

Ami’s clear voice rang out from above.

As my jaw dropped, she continued.

“I’ll knock it down, and you catch it!”

“Sordi.”

Yoon, who had somehow gotten close to the whirlwind, spoke.

“If it falls, pin it down.”

There was no time to understand what they meant.

Craaaash!

A shockwave struck my body and passed through. The Lamborghini beside me flipped over and flew backward. If Ricardo had not grabbed me by the collar again, I would have shared the Lamborghini’s fate.

The impact stung as it swept through me. Flailing, I grabbed the senior’s arm.

For an instant, I felt the wind stop.

The fierce wind that should have followed the shockwave suddenly disappeared.

Why had the raging wind died down?

Because Ami had slammed the butterfly into the asphalt.

A huge crater had formed where the butterfly hit.

Ami floated in midair, wearing strange boots, and looked down into the crater.

“It’s alive.”

With the wind dying down, I could hear her clearly.

“Rick. Pin it down.”

Something wriggled on the hand still gripping my collar.

Blankly, I looked at the ring on Ricardo’s hand. Today was the first time I had noticed he wore one. It was a silver ring shaped like a snake.

It moved, slowly unwinding and changing shape.

What?

I watched in a daze as the small silver snake-shaped ring lengthened and lengthened, becoming a sharp spear.

Ricardo was holding the spear in an instant.

Bang!

The silver spear flew. It traced a beautiful arc before falling into the dented asphalt.

“He’s really good.”

Ami smiled as she looked down into the hole.

“It looks like a giant butterfly specimen.”

My senior partner walked to the edge of the cracks in the sunken asphalt.

He drew a dagger. It seemed to have come from the sheath on his combat uniform. Standing behind Ricardo, I watched my senior partner lower his head.

“You’re going to harvest it?”

“If possible.”

Yoon took a light running start.

In the damp air, with the rain weakening, my senior partner disappeared into the hole.

His dry voice drifted back.

“Keep a close eye on the rookie.”

Why me?

I stared stupidly at where my senior partner had disappeared. The rain was easing. The whirlwind that had made it impossible to open my eyes was gone now too.

All I could see was the green-eyed senior standing half in front of me. Ami, her hair tied back, floated above the hole.

My senior partner had jumped into the hole and vanished from sight, and then...

Boom!

The hole exploded.

Wind surged upward. It burst into the sky with the cabin debris it had carried away, like an erupting volcano. It took the form of a waterspout, with tremendous explosive force.

Rain started pouring down again.

“Ami!”

I cried out in horror.

“Yoon!”

“They’re fine, so stay put~.”

Ricardo stretched out an arm to stop me from running forward on instinct.

He caught the spear flying back at him, then added coldly without looking at me.

“Just crouch down....”

“What?”

Crack!

Something flew at us. A piece of wood. Probably a piece of the shattered cabin ceiling. The ceiling flying toward us on the wind was split in two by Ricardo’s silver spear.

“What the hell?”

“More are coming.”

Ricardo did not answer me, only warned me.

I abruptly looked up and saw countless cabin items rising into the air on the wind.

“My beanbag!”

Thump.

The beanbag rushing at us met its end on Ricardo’s spear.

I watched blankly as Ricardo gracefully knocked away the incoming items with his spear. Pieces of ceiling being cut apart. Bagels bouncing away. Expensive chocolate bursting mercilessly.

Ricardo spun the long spear around. I watched the objects fly away in the other direction and the raindrops spray outward in a circle.

What is this situation? Are Ami and Yoon okay?

And why are these things flying this way?

Like they are trying to kill me?

Rumble!

The waterspout-like wind grew larger, and what remained of the cabin disintegrated.

Mattress, pots, cups, blankets, pillows. The cabin was torn completely apart and carried through the air by the whirlwind. Toaster. Clothes. Shoes. Umbrella.

A kitchen knife.

Its blade gleamed as it reflected the rain. It flashed briefly among the objects spinning and flying toward us. It was so small that I would not have even recognized it as a kitchen knife without that reflected glint.

Ricardo, focused on the mattress, did not notice it.

The sharp blade flew at Ricardo.

Thump.

A sharp pain shot through my arm.

“You!”

Ricardo’s short voice came through the wind and rain.

Surprise and anger were mixed into that one word.

“I clearly told you!”

“Is that the butterfly?”

After I rushed forward and took the knife hit, Ricardo grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me back. I looked into the air.

A giant butterfly was in the sky. Its lower pair of wings had been cleanly cut off. Only two forsythia-yellow wings remained attached to its body.

It looked like it could fall and die at any moment.

“Sordi!”

Yoon, looking perfectly fine as he jumped out of the hole, raised his voice.

“Stab its body and kill it! Don’t touch the wings!”

It must be poisonous.

The instant I thought that, the butterfly grew larger. It flew toward me at a speed I could never have imagined an insect could reach. My focus locked onto the butterfly, and everything around it blurred.

The yellow wings growing larger. The abdomen growing larger. The way it fluttered as if to cover us.

The enemy before my eyes lowering itself to attack.

‘A bigger target makes it easier.’

My vision overlapped with a memory.

I shoved Ricardo, who was trying to block me, backward and pulled the kitchen knife from my arm with my good hand.

Pshhht!

I stabbed the butterfly’s abdomen with the kitchen knife. Thick black liquid splattered out.

Even as the liquid soaked my body, I frowned and moved my hand. Gripping the kitchen knife tightly, I raised my arm.

Rrrrip!

As I raised my hand, I split its body in two.

I felt life leave it.

The butterfly separated to the right and left before falling onto the asphalt. Like flattened paper, it fluttered and sagged onto the ground.