Black Badger - Chapter 33

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 33: Luminaries of Science (5)

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I would rather he had been a ghost.

Ghost John Mueln would not have the strength to drag me back into that hell.

But was this really happening? Was that man really here at the old dormitory building on a weekend?

A smile of utter resignation slipped out.

Tom and Hessi could only stand there, frozen and blank. Ami was clutching both cheeks. She looked just as shocked as I was.

She had known John Mueln the longest, so this must have been even more shocking for her.

Mueln fixed his blue eyes on me.

“You...”

Thud.

Mueln dropped heavily to the floor.

We all stared wide-eyed at the same spot.

As the tall man fell, a familiar face appeared behind him. Curly hair and the striped shirt he wore like a trademark.

It was Giacomo Ro.

“You creepy fucking bastard.”

Ro spoke with one hand held stiff like a blade.

“Damn, that felt good. Ever since I was trapped for three days because of this bastard, I’ve wanted to smack him in the neck.”

Ro frowned, glaring at the unconscious man.

Hessi and Tom stared at their senior in stunned silence.

“Three days?”

“Because of fucking carnivorous plants.”

My fellow recruits muttered in disbelief.

But I was not very surprised. I knew well by now that the human lying unconscious over there was capable of doing something like that.

The genius scientist was sprawled across the threshold like a deflated inflatable doll.

I was glad Ro had dirtied his hands to deal with Mueln for me.

Ro stared blankly at Mueln, then looked up.

“Hey, Peanut.”

Ro was calling Ami.

Ami, whose face looked like a painting of someone screaming, came to her senses. She blinked her round eyes a few times.

“Huh?”

“Why are you here?”

“In the middle of a game.”

Ami had regained her composure.

“Hilde is really good at games, so we were fighting a boss I couldn’t beat.”

“A game?”

Ro craned his neck and looked around the room.

Meanwhile, I kept staring at unconscious Mueln. I was glad he was out cold, but I did not feel any better.

That creepy obsession.... I should have realized from the start that he was not someone who would accept my refusal.

As soon as he was out of sight, I needed to contact my senior partner.

While I was thinking that, Ro suddenly walked over.

“Hey.”

He stopped in front of me.

I looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

It was a pleasant Saturday morning, sunlight pouring down. How had this senior found this place too?

Ro put a hand on my arm.

“I’ve wanted to beat that guy up for a long time, and I finally get to because of you.”

His voice was serious.

“Normally, people stop me, saying if John died, I’d get dragged into some kind of country trial.”

“A state trial,” Ami corrected without expression.

Ro ignored her.

“You’re a useful guy. I like you.”

“Thank you.”

I felt like I had heard something similar on my first day, because of the Head of Personnel.

But it did not matter. I was just grateful Ro had taken care of Mueln himself.

A cool breeze came through the open window. Mixed with its sound were the sounds of our characters dying under the boss’s attacks. We had been one final hit away from winning. Still, it was not that difficult. We would probably clear it on the next try.

“Take Mr. Mueln with you,” Ami said to Ro.

“But why did Mr. Mueln come here? I really thought I was seeing a ghost.”

“To experiment on this one.”

It was like transparent question marks had appeared over Tom, Hessi, and Ami at the same time.

Looking at their confused faces, I gave a weak laugh.

“An experiment? What kind of experiment?”

“Come to think of it, you said you had somewhere to go last weekend.”

“Did Hilde do something stupid again?”

What did she mean, again?

I put on a falsely hurt expression. Then I quietly considered how to explain the situation. I could tell Ami honestly, but these two knew nothing.

After thinking it over, I left out all context and said:

“I was asked to be a test subject, so I said yes.”

“Huh?”

“Again?!”

Hessi frowned and shouted, while Ami screamed.

Tom only stared at me like I was talking nonsense.

Now that I knew how foolish that decision had been, I chuckled and raised both palms.

“I was an idiot. I’m reflecting on it deeply.”

“Why would someone ask you to be a test subject...?” Tom asked slowly.

I kept a neutral smile and explained.

“Because Yoon is my senior partner, so I ran into him by bad luck?”

“Why was that so needlessly long?”

Ro, who had already lost interest in our conversation, picked up the unconscious scientist.

Ro was not tall. Mueln’s legs dragged across the floor like he was a wet rag slung over Ro’s shoulder. A different position might have made carrying Mueln more secure, but Ro did not care whether the scientist’s limbs dragged along the floor.

Thump-thump-thump.

The scientist’s arms and legs slammed into the threshold and walls.

The unconscious scientist and Ro disappeared from sight with strange sounds.

“Is that really okay?”

“Exactly. There was a huge noise earlier too.”

When I asked Ami, Hessi leaned in and joined the conversation. He seemed to mean the sound Ro had made when striking the back of Mueln’s neck.

It had been huge.

Ami looked at where Ro had disappeared, her lips pressed into a line, then answered.

“Probably. Yoon hits Mr. Mueln in the back of the neck like that sometimes too.”

“Senior Yoon does?”

“I heard Mr. Mueln sometimes tries to set off things like chemical bombs.”

My fellow recruits stared at Ami in disbelief.

Tom, looking at her young face, spoke.

“Isn’t that person the famous scientist who is in textbooks?”

“Geniuses are probably just weird. My brother isn’t normal either.”

Ami answered calmly.

Then she looked at me as I nodded along enthusiastically beside her. Our eyes met in the air.

She stared at me with her round, cute eyes and said:

“Don’t do anything stupid from now on. Stay out of that man’s radar, Hilde.”

Of course. I intended to tell Yoon about this as soon as Monday came.

* * *

As soon as Monday came, I told Yoon about what had happened over the weekend.

“He came all the way to the dormitory?”

Yoon showed a rare expression of surprise.

Then, as if something amused him, he slowly raised one corner of his mouth.

“Looks like he’s really fixated on you.”

“Please save me.”

I gave him a desperate look.

I neatly sheathed the sword in my hand. It was the sword I had been using since last week.

Ever since returning from outside the Core, I had continued practicing swordsmanship with Yoon. He insisted I needed to hold on to my memories. I also enjoyed sword sparring, so I had no complaints. Still, last week, I had not even managed to cut a single piece off Yoon’s clothing.

Yoon had evaluated me like this.

“You definitely used a greatsword, but your slowed body cannot keep up with your memories.”

He was never someone who spoke gently.

“It will take a month before you can draw out your full ability. Don’t even think about field work for a month.”

That was why I had come to the Training hall to get put through the wringer again today. It would be a day no different from last week.

The only difference was that I had realized Mueln’s obsession had not ended. Judging from what happened two days ago, he would surely come looking for me again this weekend.

I walked over to the man with a dry expression.

“Please save this pitiful soul from John Mueln’s rampage, Senior. I failed to recognize your sincerity until now.”

“Yes. At last, you have recognized your benefactor.”

Yoon shamelessly accepted my heartfelt plea.

It was very like him to say something like that without changing his expression at all.

We were in the high-ceilinged place where I had fought mushrooms like an idiot. Unlike me in protective gear, Yoon wore a black T-shirt and light joggers.

“I’ll try dumping other research work on him, so wait. We need something that can catch his interest.”

“Can’t we talk him out of it?”

“Do you think that would work?”

“No.”

“What if one of the higher-ups tells him not to?”

“Do you think he would listen?”

“No.”

“What if we threaten him?”

“Do you think that would work?”

“No. What exactly is that person? Is he some kind of sociopath?”

“No. Unlike me, he does have a conscience. His standards are just too different from ordinary people’s.”

It did seem that way.

John Mueln seemed to have a completely different line from ordinary people. He was someone who viewed the world in an entirely different way.

Amazing. So that person felt something like guilt sometimes.

According to my senior partner, unlike himself, Mueln did have a conscience....

...

Wait.

“It sounds like you’re saying you don’t have a conscience, Senior.”

“What? Didn’t Ami tell you?”

Yoon asked as casually as if he were asking about lunch.

“That I have a congenital abnormality in my brain.”

It would have been nice if he put some emphasis on a bombshell like that.

I stood there for a long time, trying to process the major fact my senior partner had casually dropped.

Meanwhile, Yoon smoothly drew his sword in front of me. It was long and thin.

Apparently, only two of all these Badgers could use a sword properly.

Jonathan Kudo, whose main weapon was a Japanese sword. Lee Ye-hyeon, who had formally learned swordsmanship from someone before.

Yoon said he only knew enough to use a sword passably. He had said that once my swordsmanship surpassed his, he would consider handing me over to Ye-hyeon.

But the man holding out his long sword was threatening enough to me.

Looking at my senior partner’s clean-cut features, I said:

“Are you a sociopath?”

“That is what people usually call it.”

“Shouldn’t they scrap your enhanced body?”

“Are you already turning on your superior?”

Yoon replied lazily and pointed his sword at me.

The white lights gleamed on its tip.

“Right. You need to be strong enough to turn on your superior. Draw your sword.”

Without another word, I drew mine.

* * *

Time passed like that. On weekdays, I trained with live blades alongside my senior partner, who had been born unable to understand conscience. On weekends, the genius mad scientist, whose standards of common sense were far too different from ordinary people’s, came to visit without fail.

Mueln did not give up easily. More precisely, he could not find another research topic as interesting as Hildebert Taleb. He came every weekend, got knocked unconscious by Ro’s hand chop every time, and was carried roughly out of sight over Ro’s shoulder every time.

I suffered. Ro’s opinion of me kept rising, while Hessi’s prejudice against genius science types became firmer. Tom started suspecting there was something strange about me, and Ami worried about me constantly.

And Yoon....

“Stay at my house this weekend.”

It was the day before the fourth weekend. The day Yoon finally told me, “I should send you back out into the field now.” I still had not managed to cut even a piece of Yoon’s clothing.

My senior partner gave the order in a flat voice.

“I think you need to disappear from anywhere John can see you.”

“I feel like I’m causing you too much trouble....”

“I’m getting tired of this too, so listen quietly.”

His voice was sincere, and I did not have the courage to ignore it.

With a cigarette between his lips, Yoon showed me a string of numbers on his phone screen.

“I called a taxi, so pack your things, get in on time, and go. Don’t leave that place all weekend. I’m ending this for good this weekend.”

It was terrifying when annoyance entered the voice of someone who was usually emotionless. It might have been even scarier because he held a sword with my dried blood on it in one hand.

I did as Yoon said.

* * *

A house so spacious it made me marvel every time I saw it.

Just as Yoon had said, the house let me in without a fuss. It was Friday evening, with faint darkness settling in. I deliberately looked away from where the cabin had stood and entered my senior partner’s home.

The house I had visited a few times was quiet.

A living room with a soaring ceiling and an open view.

A long sofa in the living room, and....

Huh?

Someone was sleeping on the sofa under a blanket.

“Ami?”

I had heard Ami might return from outside the Core today.

I carefully walked over to the sofa. Then I stopped and watched the blanket rise and fall steadily.

Why was someone sleeping on the sofa?

“Ami. Are you asleep? It’s late, so why don’t you go to bed and sleep until morning...?”

“Mm.”

A low, muffled voice.