Black Badger - Chapter 38

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 38: Escape (1)

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Fortunately, I was ready to answer that question.

“As you can see, my recovery is poor, so my senior partner told me a little early.”

“Who was your senior partner?”

“Choi Yoon.”

It was not Kudo who reacted, but the chairman of Cureus Corporation.

He made a strange noise. I turned to stroke the head of the four-year-old, who was pulling hard on my white hair.

“Don't tell me, Choi Yoon? That Choi Yoon?”

“What do you mean, ‘that Choi Yoon’?”

“The A-Tech chairman's adopted child! What is wrong with you? How can you lack this much common sense?”

Perhaps deciding the conversation was pointless, the senior turned away.

Kudo splashed through the ankle-deep water toward the south entrance.

That area was blocked by collapsed rubble as well. The sturdy stairwell door leading to the underground parking lot was almost completely buried.

As I headed toward the senior, I answered the chairman.

“I grew up without parents, so there are many things I don't know.”

At least the chairman had enough shame to flinch.

“Choi Yoon of Black Badger is the adopted child of a major corporation chairman?”

“You call him your senior partner, yet you didn't know that? ...Well, I can't imagine he would explain it himself.”

You know him well.

I nodded and properly adjusted the children struggling in my arms. They had both been terrified when I found them, but perhaps my pointless chatter while putting on the splint had helped ease their nerves.

The children, who had been frozen stiff, gradually began moving again.

The girl who introduced herself as Becky tugged on my hair. The boy called Luke wildly waved his uninjured arm through the air.

Ignoring the pain that felt as though my hair were being pulled out and the chaos in my vision, I stood behind the senior.

“Can we get through?”

Instead of answering, Kudo gripped the sword in his right hand again.

It looked like he intended to cut through the piled-up rubble.

I stepped back.

“What is that uncle doing?”

Luke pointed at Kudo's back.

“Is that sword real?”

“It is.”

“Can a sword cut stone too?”

Becky gave my hair another long pull, tilting my head to one side.

Watching Kudo's blade carve graceful arcs through the air, I answered slowly.

“That depends on who's holding it.”

Slice.

Boom, rumble!

The piled rubble broke into small pieces and collapsed onto the floor. The cut surfaces were clean and flawless. As the delicate, graceful movements continued, the remaining ruins were sliced into even smaller pieces.

“Wow!”

Becky finally let go of my hair and gasped.

“Cool uncle!”

“Whoa! That's awesome!”

“And what are you doing?”

Beside the children admiring him innocently, the chairman pointed out the obvious.

I watched the senior brush rubble away from the door with his shoes, then turned my head.

Meeting the chairman's pitying gaze, I gave a crooked smile.

“I'm a brand-new recruit.”

“Big Brother, can't you do that?”

“Oppa can't do that!”

“Useless bastard.”

That was harsh, Becky.

The sad thing was that I could not argue. Letting out a hollow laugh, I gathered the slipping children close again.

I went over to the senior, who was clearing away rubble with his feet, and helped kick it aside. Naturally, the man called chairman did not help, and I had no intention of setting down the children who offered to help.

The senior and I silently cleared the rubble blocking the door.

Rumble...

This tower was not actually going to collapse, right?

As the building shook with an ominous sound, Kudo opened the stairwell door.

The lights were out. There was no light except what came through the open door. We would have to be careful not to miss a step. In this state, the underground parking lot would probably be pitch-black too.

Perhaps thinking the same thing, the senior turned to look at me.

“Give me one.”

After neatly sheathing his Japanese sword, he held out a hand.

Becky's body leaned toward Kudo. I handed the struggling girl to the expressionless senior.

Without any particular reaction, he held the small child in his left arm.

Then he started down the stairs. The crisp sound of his shoes echoed through the eerie stairwell.

I let the chairman push ahead, insisting that he would go first, then followed behind him.

The sound of shoes echoed through the stairwell.

“Hey!”

The chairman staggered down the stairs, shouting.

“There are cracks in the walls!”

“That is why we should get down before it collapses.”

Keeping my eyes on the senior, who seemed to be holding back his irritation, I spoke.

“Don't waste your energy for no reason....”

Boom!

I nearly tumbled down the stairs.

Rumble, crash!

The building shook again. The unstable structures on the upper floors collapsed into the lobby. The deafening noise behind us vibrated through the narrow stairwell.

Chunks of cement poured through the open doorway.

The smell of dust rushing in. The darkening space. The light entering through the stairwell swiftly diminished. In the already cramped, eerie space, even the area that had been lit was swallowed by darkness.

It seemed the falling rubble had blocked the open door.

“Use your phone to light the stairs!”

The chairman shouted, his voice trembling faintly.

“I can't see anything!”

“Please go down carefully.”

I pressed Luke, who was letting out an old-man-like “Huuuuuh,” close against me.

“It will be fine if we go slowly.”

“Are you married, uncle?”

In front of the panicking chairman, Becky boldly asked.

She was a brave kid.

Kudo's calm reply came from the darkness.

“I was.”

“Why do you say you were?”

“Hey, Becky! You shouldn't ask things like that!”

Luke stuck out his head and shouted.

“Ask something like how work has been lately instead!”

“Is this your second life or something?”

As I marveled at Luke's excessive maturity, Becky's bold voice rose from below.

“Have you ever been married, Big Brother?”

It seemed she was asking me. She had called me Big Brother instead of uncle, after all.

Carefully going down the stairs, I answered without thinking much about it.

“I don't know.”

“You don't know? Why don't you know?”

“Hey, Becky! He already answered you!”

Luke raised his voice again.

“Don't ask any more questions!”

That was not quite it.

I was a little flustered, but did not correct him. I also did not answer the chairman, who kept grumbling that I should turn on my phone light. I thought I should keep the hand not holding Luke free in case something happened.

The stairwell was narrow and dark. We probably had to descend about two floors to reach the underground parking lot. It would be a disaster if we missed a step or something fell while going down.

The state of the building was unsettling too....

...Hm?

Something grated at my senses. My steps slowed as I carefully descended with Luke in my left arm and my right hand gripping the railing.

I could see the silhouettes of the people moving below. The chairman feeling his way down. The senior, already half a floor below.

A faint scarlet afterimage flickered over their backs.

Scarlet...?

The moment I turned urgently, arrows of fire rained down.

Pshhk!

An arrow pierced my right thigh.

“Big Brother!”

“Argh! It's back again!”

Luke and the chairman shouted.

I, the one who had actually been attacked, could not even make a sound for a moment because of the piercing pain.

It hurt like hell.

But the pain sharpened my senses. I looked back up where we had come from.

A ball of flame floated above the first flight of stairs. It wriggled as it prepared to fire another arrow of flame.

“Luke. Curl up!”

I shouted, pressing the boy close to me.

“Move, move!”

The chairman panicked and ran down the dark stairs. Kudo set Becky down and rushed up toward us.

I passed him and ran down the stairs.

I had seen something before the stairwell was swallowed by darkness.

“The fire hose cabinet!”

I jumped down half a floor in a few strides and reached my right hand toward the wall.

“Senior, let's use the fire hose!”

Clang!

Clang. Clatter. Clang!

The arrows of fire struck Kudo's blade and bounced into the air. Flames struck the wall with heavy impacts, gouging the stairwell wall.

The chairman let out a cry and collapsed where he stood.

I set the silently trembling Luke behind me and opened the fire hose cabinet.

“Spray it with water.”

The senior facing the creature gave the order without looking back.

“Right after its next attack ends.”

“Yes.”

I gripped the hose and waited.

Fire Shield had an interval before it could attack again after unleashing several powerful attacks. I had to use that opening to blast it with water.

Narrowing my eyes, I watched the arrows of fire light up the dark space and waited for the right moment. Had Yoon not explained it? Seize the fleeting instant.

Just as Ye-hyeon had driven his sword into the body of a Level 10 creature....

“Spray it!”

Kudo shouted sharply as he twisted around.

Pshhhhh!

Heavy water pressure surged through the hose.

At the same time Kudo nimbly ran down the stairs and picked up Becky, the water from my hose struck the creature.

It was being pushed back. That soccer-ball-sized mass of flame floating in the air.

But why was it not going out?

“Big Brother!”

As I ran up the stairs, Luke gasped behind me.

“Big Brother! Don't go!”

[Creature “Fire Shield”]

As I drew closer, the creature guide continued reading the entry.

[It is extremely difficult to eliminate completely, and you are advised to avoid it if encountered. Its method of reproduction is unknown. It is one of the creatures that cannot be captured alive. It reacts to movement and attacks....]

Bang!

The moment the creature was pushed out of the stairwell, I kicked shut the door, red-hot from the heat.

Fwoosh!

Flames flared through the gap in the door.

“Taleb!”

The senior, who had somehow picked Luke up as well, called from below.

“We're going to the underground water tank. Run.”

Without another word, I threw down the hose and ran downstairs.

*　　　*　　　*

“Should we call Mr. Mueln?”

In the pitch-black underground parking lot, we stood beside a pillar and caught our breath after putting distance between ourselves and Fire Shield.

The chairman and the two children were silent, perhaps half out of their minds. Only the senior and I moved around in the darkness.