WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 3: Black Badger (3)
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Still out of it, I was dragged to the infirmary.
I followed the doctor alongside the three people who had been watching me. A spacious room came into view. It was white and brightly lit, with a desk and several chairs for visitors.
The spotless room carried the scent of a cool breeze.
The man who had kicked open the door and rushed out earlier strode over to the desk and sat down.
He gestured for everyone who came in to take a seat.
“Samuel? Is something wrong?”
People settled into chairs scattered around the room. Ami was the only one who remained standing, coming to stand beside me as she questioned the man in the doctor’s coat.
The man called Samuel waved a hand.
“It’s a little complicated to explain. There’s no health issue, aside from his stomach being completely empty.”
“If it’s not a health issue, then what could be wrong?”
Ami asked, her eyes widening.
“He just had a checkup. If there’s a problem with the checkup, doesn’t that mean there’s a problem with his health?”
Right. That was perfectly reasonable.
Yet the doctor shook his head.
“First, get him something to eat.”
The doctor spoke gruffly, his eyes fixed on the screen.
“I’ll explain while showing you the images. Get ready to contact Ye-hyeon.”
“The Commander-in-Chief?”
“You’ll freak out when you see it too.”
What was it?
What else could be wrong? Listening to the doctor and the others talk, I was terrified. It was confusing enough to wake up in a completely unfamiliar place with my memories gone. What other problem could there be?
Everyone but Ro went stiff.
My insides turned cold.
The rattle of the mouse wheel sounded unusually loud. Telling us to wait, the doctor searched for something on his computer.
I bit my lip, tense.
I had no idea what was wrong, but what if it was serious?
I clenched my sweat-damp fists.
Then Ami spoke.
“Hilde.”
Startled, I turned my head.
“Yes?”
“What do you like?”
Do you remember what you liked? Ami looked at me with round eyes. Her phone showed pictures of all kinds of food.
I stupidly looked back and forth between the screen and Ami.
“Ah... I don’t remember very well. I’m sorry...”
“It’s okay.”
She answered readily, then tilted her head as she studied my face.
“You don’t look well.”
“Of course not. Would you be in a good mood if you were told you had a serious health problem?”
“No, I said it’s not a health problem.”
The doctor let out a long sigh at Ro’s irrelevant comment.
Judging by the fact that neither Ami nor Ricardo looked especially surprised, Ro must often say things like that out of nowhere. Watching Ro raise his eyebrows and say, “Huh? Then what are you talking about? This is an infirmary, and you’re a doctor,” I gave an awkward, worried smile.
Exactly. What was any of this supposed to mean?
“Then I’ll just order a hamburger,” Ami said.
I slowly nodded as I watched her tap at her phone.
“Look at this.”
I turned at the doctor’s voice.
“You can read this graph too, right?”
He pointed to a holographic window.
What was that? I blinked stupidly at the new display. The clear window was filled with numbers and explanations I couldn’t understand.
I couldn’t read it.
But the others seemed able to make sense of the information.
Their voices rose.
“Huh? This really belongs to Hilde?”
“Ah?”
“What? What does that mean?”
Their reactions were mixed.
The holographic window showed an adult human body and several graphs. Numbers and incomprehensible words were written on them. But no matter how many times I blinked and looked again, I couldn’t understand what the numbers represented.
Thankfully, Ro looked just as confused as I was.
Ricardo and Ami, however, wore undisguised bewilderment on their faces. For a while, they only stared silently at the graphs.
A chaotic silence settled over the infirmary.
The doctor was the one who explained.
“He has an enhanced body too, just like you all.”
“I’ll go report this to the Commander-in-Chief.”
“Huh? Hey, say something that makes sense!”
Ricardo rose from his seat and left the room, while Ro raised his voice.
“I’ve never seen a Badger like this! And it’s been years since the war ended. There’s no way there could be an unregistered Black Badger! Huh? I may be dumb, but even I know that!”
“That’s why this is serious. And keep your voice down, you idiot! This is an infirmary!”
“Wow.”
Ami muttered to herself, her eyes wide.
Unable to understand what the doctor had said, I sat there like an idiot and turned my head. Ami stood beside me, staring at the holographic display.
Ignoring Ro and the doctor bickering, she added brightly, “This is serious enough to make the Head of Personnel come back and work overtime.”
What was a Black Badger?
And what did it mean that I had an enhanced body? Less than a few hours after coming to my senses, I was confronted with more words I couldn’t understand.
And unlike before, it didn’t seem like things would be resolved easily.
I quietly kept my mouth shut amid the excited people.
It was the best way to protect myself among all these unfamiliar things.
A white infirmary. Excited, startled strangers. Unfamiliar smells and unfamiliar surroundings. Unfamiliar names and unfamiliar words.
Suddenly, I was terribly hungry and exhausted.
I just wanted to forget this whole situation and go to sleep.
* * *
Ricardo came back with hamburgers.
His green eyes curved gently, but he radiated an unmistakable tension. He opened the infirmary door with a bag of hamburgers in hand.
“Hilde,” he called warmly.
I turned toward him.
Instead of the ominous black outfit he had been wearing earlier, which I assumed was a combat uniform, he was dressed in a neat shirt and trousers.
The glasses he wore suited him surprisingly well.
He walked into the infirmary with a smile.
“Hamburgers... You haven’t been waiting too long, have you?”
“No, thank you so much.”
“Hey. He really does have an enhanced body.”
I politely accepted the paper bag of hamburgers with my now-freed hands, while Ro swung his legs from his chair.
Ricardo looked down at Ro through his glasses.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I arm-wrestled him myself.”
And I had lost badly.
A few minutes earlier, Ami had removed my handcuffs and told me to arm-wrestle Ro, so we had a match. Of course, I hadn’t expected to win. Ro had the sturdy build of someone hardened through exercise.
I lost to Ro without being able to do a thing.
But Ami and the doctor hadn’t focused on who won the arm-wrestling match. They seemed focused on the fact that my muscles were unharmed despite arm-wrestling Ro.
Ricardo appeared to be the same.
His green eyes traveled over my arm.
“This is getting stranger and stranger...”
“Peanut says she went somewhere to make a report. I don’t know what else she thinks needs reporting.”
“Of course. This is an unprecedented emergency.”
Ricardo replied, his voice carrying an odd amusement.
With a rustle, I took out a hamburger and kept glancing at the man in front of me. It was all right to eat here, wasn’t it? I had been starving since entering the infirmary.
As if he had read my thoughts, Ricardo added easily, “You can eat here comfortably. That’s why I brought it here.”
“Ah, thank you.”
“You don’t look well.”
He watched me unwrap the hamburger.
“Is it because everyone’s expressions changed and they started making calls everywhere over the enhanced body? You don’t need to worry too much. Even if there’s a problem, it’ll be our higher-ups who are in trouble, not you...”
“Um... I’d rather not cause trouble for anyone.”
“That makes sense. It should be fine as long as the higher-ups handle it well. Your existence hasn’t become known outside, right?”
Ricardo smiled, then used his long foot to pull over a chair with wheels.
He perched on it and waved a hand as if telling me to eat.
“Eat. You must be hungry...”
“Thank you.”
After thanking him, I bit into the hamburger.
The juices, hamburger sauce, and crisp lettuce burst blissfully in my mouth. My eyes widened at the unexpected taste. It was delicious. Strange. The hamburgers in my fragmented memories hadn’t tasted this good.
I looked over the wrapper, but didn’t recognize the brand.
Either way, I should eat it gratefully. My appearance seemed to have caused all sorts of problems, yet these people were still treating me kindly. I was thankful for that.
Ricardo’s gentle smile grew.
“How much did Samuel Han explain to you?”
So Samuel’s full name was Samuel Han.
I swallowed my hamburger and answered.
“Not in much detail... He only said that the enhanced body had been implanted successfully, so there were no physical problems.”
“That sounds like him. He only gave a medical opinion... Since he didn’t know how much he should say, he avoided saying anything outside his field.”
“What would be the problem with explaining it?”
Ro, who had been playing a game on his phone, joined the conversation.
His dark eyebrows curved as he looked at us.
“You can at least explain Black Badgers and enhanced bodies, can’t you?”
“Well... yes. Explaining some of it would probably put both Hilde and us more at ease.”
“If you don’t mind, please do.”
I asked politely as I picked up a fry. I had heard bits and pieces, but the new situation had brought new questions.
I wanted to hear about enhanced bodies and Black Badgers.
Ricardo stared at me with unreadable eyes, then gave a small laugh.
“I can’t just ignore you when you look at me like that...”
Thanks.
“Put simply, you’re like a handgun with no registered serial number.”
That was a clear explanation.
“People with enhanced bodies are treated as living weapons. So when an enhanced body is implanted, the recipient’s personal information is registered in a database, and they remain under headquarters’ control afterward. But you aren’t registered with headquarters, and you’re an enhanced-body holder whose existence we didn’t even know about. That’s why it’s a problem. You also suddenly appeared in a Portal Zone. Would it be a fitting comparison to say that a missile we didn’t know existed suddenly popped into thin air in a dangerous area?”
“Ah.”
I roughly understood.
My body didn’t feel especially different. Still, I could almost understand why everyone had panicked after seeing my examination results. An enhanced-body holder was probably closer to a missile than a handgun. They wouldn’t report directly to the Commander-in-Chief just because a mysterious handgun had appeared.
Anyway...
“Why do I have an enhanced body?”
Having no memories was driving me mad with frustration.
Ricardo gave a small laugh at my foolish question.
“Exactly. How did you come to have an enhanced body...? It’s something none of us could have imagined, so I have no guess either...”
“Did you get illegal surgery somewhere? Maybe the aftereffects of the surgery wiped all your memories.”
“Ro... An implantation this perfect isn’t possible through illegal surgery. And if he had received illegal surgery, he wouldn’t be sitting here and talking normally right now...”
“Wow!”
The conversation cut off.
The infirmary door flew open with a loud bang. I reflexively jolted in my seat. Eyes wide, I looked at the person who had thrown open the door.
It was Ami, her round black eyes wide. She had gone out earlier saying she needed to speak with someone named Yoon.
What was going on now?
Ricardo and Ro also raised their eyebrows at Ami.
Silence followed the sudden disruption. For a while, we only blinked at one another, unmoving as though someone had pressed pause.
Then Ami spoke.
“Joo is coming back to work overtime.”
Thud!
Ro dropped the phone he had been holding.
“He’d already made it home, but he’s coming back!”
“Crazy!”
Bang! The chair Ro had been sitting on toppled backward as he stood up.
The atmosphere around us changed. Ricardo, who had seemed unlikely to be surprised by anything, asked, “The Head of Personnel?” Ami nodded frantically at both Ricardo and Ro, who kept asking, “Hey, really? It’s true, right?” Then she rushed wildly into the infirmary and darted energetically around it.
After struggling to contain her excitement for a while, Ami finally turned toward me, still dazed.
“It’s thanks to you, Hilde!”
Ami cried out happily.
Ro marveled.
“Hey, you live long enough, you see everything.”
The curly-haired man walked over and thumped my back.
“You did well. You accomplished what neither Ye-hyeon nor his predecessor could. You’re the only one who made Joo come back after leaving work.”
There was genuine joy in his words.
Even Ricardo gave a small laugh.
I could only stupidly watch everyone’s reactions. I didn’t really understand what was happening, but... if this was an emergency serious enough to call someone I didn’t know back to work, was it really all right for them to be this happy?
I didn’t say the thought aloud.
Instead, I sat quietly with my hamburger and gave an awkward smile until Ro and Ami calmed down. All the while, I was consumed by curiosity over what sort of person this Head of Personnel, Joo, was.
I wanted to meet the Head of Personnel as soon as possible.
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