WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 30: Luminaries of Science (2)

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Here.

I stared at the awakened scientist.

Samuel shot to his feet and walked over to the patient.

“Get some more sleep, idiot.”

“...Where’s Ye-hyeon?”

John Mueln did not seem to be listening to Samuel at all.

“I have something to report.”

“Is this going to take long?”

Still seated with his legs crossed, Yoon tossed the question at Mueln.

Mueln did not react to Yoon’s words, either. Instead, he pressed his lips together and stared at the ceiling. What kind of person was he? I was briefly flustered, then came to my senses.

It was not as if people like this were rare.

I got up and walked over to the scientist.

“Um, that would be me.”

I stopped beside the doctor and leaned my head forward.

Samuel turned to me with startled eyes. John Mueln’s eyes moved down. I stared into his blue eyes, which were a different shade from Samuel’s.

John Mueln’s voice was as low as Yoon’s.

“How did you enter the portal?”

“Uh, I found myself falling out of a portal without realizing it. That was about a month ago....”

“...Not that. How did you get there?”

“I barely remember anything from before that.”

“So we can have a conversation.”

My senior partner, still sitting with his legs crossed, muttered as if to himself.

“The situation must be serious, then.”

Was that really the right standard?

John Mueln seemed not to have heard Yoon. Or perhaps he had simply ignored him.

The scientist stared at me, then looked back at the ceiling.

“Yoon.”

“What?”

At the scientist’s call, Yoon uncrossed his legs.

He walked over to where we stood.

“What’s the problem?”

“Call Ye-hyeon.”

Yoon quietly looked down at John Mueln.

Surprisingly, it was Dr. Han who urged him to respond. He nudged Yoon with his elbow and said, “It seems urgent, so why don’t you call?” The doctor’s eyes were utterly serious.

This reaction really must have been unusual for the scientist.

Yoon slowly took out his phone.

We watched as he called Ye-hyeon. The conversation was not long. Yoon said, “Commander-in-Chief, Mueln says he has something to report,” then remained silent as he listened to the other person. He ended the call with a brief, “Yes.”

My senior partner shoved his phone away and gave us the result.

“He says that unless it is urgent enough that every second counts, he will contact us within three hours.”

Silence fell again.

The man who had been lying motionless like a corpse, without so much as moving a finger, finally spoke just as we began to wonder whether the conversation was over.

“Hand this person over to me.”

...Pardon?

Which person?

Did he mean me?

I was not the only one startled. Samuel looked as though he wondered whether the man had finally gone mad from not getting enough nutrition.

But my senior partner was not surprised.

He refused neatly.

“Sorry, but I got there first. He officially has to train under me on weekdays.”

“Weekends.”

“Hey!”

Samuel was the one angered by Mueln’s short, shameless reply.

I was genuinely moved by the doctor’s anger on my behalf.

“The kid isn’t an object you can just hand around! And what do you mean, weekends? What are you planning to do if you drag off someone who knows nothing on his days off?”

“....”

“It’s obvious.”

Yoon let out a low chuckle, apparently amused.

“There hasn’t been anyone this interesting in a while. You must have more than one or two things you want to experiment with.”

“You’re going to call in someone on his day off and make him undergo unknown experiments?”

“Uh, half a day would be fine with me.”

Everyone’s attention turned to me.

It was quite something, seeing such seasoned people look so purely shocked. Their gazes flew over and stuck to me. Funniest of all, the scientist who had been staring at the ceiling was now looking at me with wide, rabbit-like eyes.

You suggested it. Why are you surprised?

The men looked at me as though I were an alien.

“You’re not in your right mind either.”

Samuel finally spoke.

“You don’t know what might happen to you on weekends.”

“If that’s the case, why not come to me instead?”

Yoon said something terrifying. That was a little.... Yoon and John Mueln did seem to belong to the same sort of mad scientist category, but if I had to choose, John Mueln seemed slightly safer.

Or was he?

As I looked at Yoon with uncertain eyes, Mueln abruptly said,

“Wonderful.”

Samuel’s jaw dropped.

Yoon also snapped his head toward John Mueln and stared at him as if he could not believe it, as though he had never heard such words from him in his life.

My senior partner stared at the man like an old tree.

“Are you saying that to Hilde? I’ve never heard you say that to anyone.”

My senior partner’s read on his character kept getting more detailed.

Hearing Yoon make an incredulous sound, I felt secretly pleased.

In any case, the scientist did not answer this time, either. Instead, John Mueln raised his upper body from the bed. Even the way he sat up suited him.

But was it all right for him to sit up?

“Lie down!”

The doctor shouted.

John Mueln did not listen. Instead, he sat upright and looked at me.

The pale scientist with gray hair spoke seriously.

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow is a weekday.”

Yoon objected.

Mueln closed his mouth. This person.... He must work without any concept of weekdays and weekends, since he did not seem to know what day it was.

Samuel shouted at Mueln again.

“I said lie down!”

“You’ve been had.”

Yoon turned his head toward me and warned me.

“You think nothing will happen, right? You’ll regret it one hundred percent later. Well, if you want out, just tell me. I’ll get you out anytime.”

“No.... Well, it is true that I’m strange, isn’t it?”

I tried to ignore the anxiety surging toward me.

I had not accepted the offer on a foolish impulse. I truly did not want any more problems because of me. He said my recovery ability could not be raised, so if I could not solve that, should I not at least try to get rid of the trait that drew creatures toward me?

Of course, that old tree-like scientist had never said he would get rid of that trait.

Still, if participating in his experiments could prevent problems before they arose, I was willing to give up half a weekend day. If success were guaranteed, I would even give up a full day.

A phone suddenly appeared in front of me.

“...Your number.”

Mueln said.

The men were openly shocked. Yoon’s eyes widened, then he blinked a couple of times. The doctor’s jaw remained dropped.

I took the offered phone.

“I entered it.”

When I handed the phone back, it immediately rang.

Mueln had called me right away. While I saved the scientist’s number, Yoon and Samuel Han did not move from where they stood. They wore the expressions of people who had lived long enough to see everything.

The men did not move until John Mueln slowly lay back down on the bed.

But had he actually lain back down because he gave in to Samuel’s nagging?

“You report all of this to Ye-hyeon later, too.”

The doctor broke the silence.

“Tell him he is planning to drag this green newcomer away every weekend.”

Once again, no answer came.

The scientist lay with his fingers interlaced, looking at the ceiling, while the men stood there dumbfounded.

Not long after, I was chased out of the hospital wing. The doctor even waved me off, telling me that we were done here and I should go rest. Since I would no longer get to rest fully for both days of the weekend, should I not hurry up and rest now?

* * *

Should I buy dinner on the way in?

As I walked through the company hallway pondering that question, I came across a familiar face.

The person was tall and wore eye-catching clothes, so I recognized him immediately.

I called out to the person standing among the crowds in the Science Department wing.

“Ricardo!”

“Ah.... Newbie....”

The man strolling lazily in combat gear lifted his head and looked at me.

He had the same habitual smile on his lips as always. The sharp air that showed through it was the same, too. The only difference was that blood was caked all over him. But even to my inexperienced eyes, it was obvious that it was not Ricardo’s blood, so I was not worried.

Ricardo slowly approached me.

“Seeing you again.... Have you been well? Did you go outside the Core and come back?”

“Yes. I returned early yesterday morning. It looks like you just came back from duty. You worked hard.”

“It’s the same thing every time.... If you came back yesterday, you should be off until today, right? Then why are you walking from the hospital wing?”

Had I been injured again? Ricardo asked as he slipped one hand into his combat uniform pocket.

People hurried past us in the hallway. I shook my head and moved closer to my senior. Ricardo watched me approach with his habitual smile still on his lips.

“I went to the hospital wing for a simple checkup.”

“Ah.... Alone?”

“No. I went with my senior partner and another senior, but I came out first.”

“Which other senior? A Badger?”

Ricardo resumed his lazy walk. I followed after him.

I still had not learned my way around this vast place, so I had no idea where Ricardo was headed. But our conversation was not over, so I matched my stride to his.

I looked into Ricardo’s vivid green eyes.

“Senior Mueln. We ended up going together somehow, and we just exchanged numbers before I left.”

Ricardo stopped abruptly.

What? I stopped too, startled. Why had he suddenly stopped?

But my senior offered no explanation. Instead, he stared at me through his glasses for a long time without blinking.

What is it...?

Only after a long while did the green-eyed man ask,

“Mueln?”

“Yes.”

“John Mueln?”

“Yes. From the Science Department.”

“You exchanged numbers?”

“Yes.”

“Phone numbers?”

“...Yes.”

“Did you ask for it?”

“No, he asked for mine first.”

“What have you been doing?”

There was no laughter in Ricardo’s voice.

The habitual smile fixed at the corner of his mouth had vanished. He stared at me with serious eyes. People passing through the hallway glanced at us, but he did not move a single eyebrow.

Under his piercing gaze, I muttered,

“Well....”

When I briefly explained that I would be seeing John Mueln every weekend, Ricardo pressed his lips into a straight line.

Silence came again. The air turned stiff. He stood unmoving in the broad, crowded hallway.

I quietly waited for him to speak.

But the silence did not break for a long time.

Had I done something that got on his nerves?

As the quiet stretched on, I gradually became flustered. Yoon had no expression, but he was honest. Ricardo was the opposite, which made him harder to deal with in some ways.

I did not know what it was, but should I apologize first?

Fortunately, just as I began wondering whether I needed to beg forgiveness, he broke the silence.

The green-eyed senior put his usual smile back on his lips.

“Hilde....”

“Yes.”

“Shall we talk for a moment~?”

Ricardo put an arm around my shoulders.

I obediently nodded. Without removing his arm, Ricardo started walking. I obediently followed wherever he went.

We walked through the crowded hallway, then turned left.

We stopped in front of an emergency stairwell.

A gray door spread out before us. Ricardo naturally stood with his back to the hallway, smiling at me silently.

Then he asked,

“Were you threatened?”

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