WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 40: Escape (3)
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Luke and Becky wept bitterly amid the camera flashes.
The woman holding them in her arms was weeping bitterly too. Yoon passed the familiar scene without a thought.
A man in a pitch black combat uniform strode across the ruined street. Several cameras hurried after Yoon. Without even blinking at the flashes bursting around him, he headed for the entrance to the underground parking garage.
The area the firefighters had cordoned off.
Yoon stepped over the yellow tape, walked down into the underground parking garage, and approached the collapsed rubble.
“Sordi.”
He approached his junior, who stood staring at the wreckage.
“Move. If you’re going to stand there looking so out of it.”
The man whose name had been called turned his head.
Hollow green eyes looked at Yoon. Eyes that had lost their sharpness and sunk deep.
Yoon had spent a long time around Ricardo Sordi against his will, so he knew the man was not in a normal state. They had kept working in the field together since the Second War. He could not help learning, at least roughly, what would provoke the other man.
“What’s wrong with me...?”
“You lose your head when someone gets buried under a building.”
Yoon casually said something Ricardo would hate, then stopped beside him.
The entrance to the underground parking garage was blocked by collapsed debris. Camera flashes burst behind them despite the firefighters’ attempts to stop them. News drones hovered overhead.
The situation was not completely terrible. The entire building had not collapsed. Only the ceiling of the underground parking garage’s curved passageway had come down.
Yoon narrowed his eyes and assessed the rubble.
“Move aside.”
He spoke to the frozen man.
“You’re in the way.”
“...How could I possibly get in the way of clearing rubble? I’m fine, so let’s clear it together...”
“With hands shaking like that?”
Yoon replied without taking his eyes off the rubble.
“It looks like you’re worried because Jonathan Kudo is inside, but if it’s a collapse this small, he’ll be fine even if he’s buried under it.”
Ricardo did not reply.
Yoon did not add anything else. The explanation he had just given was a response prompted by Ye-hyeon’s repeated lessons: Be nice to your juniors.
Ricardo always stuck close to Jonathan Kudo and Ska Owen, so saying this much probably counted as being nice to a junior.
Ricardo bit his lip and shoved his rapidly trembling hands into his pockets.
Regardless, Yoon lifted the rubble. He moved it aside piece by piece, like carefully taking apart a Jenga tower from the top. Small chunks of cement scattered across the floor like crumbs.
The sound and light of the flashes grew even more frantic.
“Why is Mr. Sordi just standing there?”
A reporter grappling with a firefighter behind them raised their voice.
“Both your arms look perfectly fine to me.”
The names of Badgers who survived for a long time became etched into society.
Commander-in-Chief Lee Ye-hyeon was a figure who represented an era. But he was not the only famous Badger. The names of heroes from the First and Second Wars, especially Badgers who often operated inside Cores, were frequently discussed online.
“Couldn’t the collapse have been prevented if you’d killed the creature faster?”
The Badgers, accustomed to such ridiculous provocations, did not bother responding.
Yoon swiftly cleared the debris. As he did, he discovered two people buried beneath it.
Bright white hair stood out beneath an oxygen mask. White hair contrasting with hazelnut colored skin. A tall frame and clear, well shaped features.
The junior who had suddenly appeared out of thin air one day.
He was still breathing.
Ricardo let out a small sigh.
“Does he think Badgers are a suicide squad...?”
“Porden. Long time no see.”
Yoon called to the man trembling beneath the unconscious junior.
“You’ve gotten old.”
“Y Y Y...”
“Yeah. Nice to see you too. Looks like this brat took the full impact of the collapse. Your limbs are fine, so get a hold of yourself and stand up.”
More flashes went off.
Reporters repeatedly called for the chairman of Cureus Corporation. Firefighters stopped reporters trying to rush inside. Yoon brushed away the rubble with one hand and lifted his unconscious junior.
Rattle.
Bits of stone fell from Hilde’s body.
Yoon adjusted his position so the tall junior’s arms and legs would not drag on the ground, then slung him over his shoulder. Hilde was completely unconscious, but judging from his pulse and body temperature, he did not seem likely to die immediately.
That was a relief. Yoon wanted Hildebert Taleb to endure for a long time.
It had been a while since he had encountered anyone who stirred up this much curiosity.
“Chairman! Chairman Porden!”
“Call an ambulance, now!”
“Jonathan.”
As Cureus Corporation staff bustled about and the chairman staggered to his feet, Ricardo spoke in a low voice.
Another man, revealed as he cleared away the rubble, raised his head.
His hands were stained black.
Both hands were black, as though he had been frantically clearing debris.
Jonathan Kudo looked at the men with exhausted eyes.
“What happened to you this time?”
Ricardo walked past Yoon, who was turning away indifferently, and headed toward his comrade.
Ignoring his still slightly trembling hands, he grabbed Kudo’s arm and pulled him along.
“You look awful.... You don’t look like you got crushed like Hilde.... Did you breathe in too much gas?”
“Yoon.”
Instead of answering, Kudo called the name of his departing senior.
Yoon, who was leaving the underground parking garage with Hilde on his shoulder, glanced back. The eyes of everyone who had been inside the half collapsed tower flew to the man slung over Yoon’s shoulder.
Kudo spoke.
“Don’t send juniors with poor recovery out into the field.”
“He left me behind!”
The chairman, who had regained consciousness, raised a finger over Kudo’s voice.
“I begged him, but he left me behind!”
“If you caused trouble, you should keep your mouth shut, Porden.”
Yoon spoke listlessly.
“The ceiling of the underground garage collapsed because you panicked and started firing some useless civilian self defense weapon, right? You must have fired a portable laser cannon. Didn’t I say that thing was completely useless?”
“I I didn’t even take a self defense weapon out of my pocket until that bastard left me behind! I begged him desperately, but...”
“What do you mean he left you behind? If he left you behind, why is he unconscious on top of you?”
At the flat observation, the chairman’s mouth snapped shut.
Yoon sighed, truly tired of speaking with someone who had nothing in his head.
“I’m leaving.”
The two juniors looked at Yoon.
“You two do whatever you want. I’m taking him to the hospital. I’m going in the two tone haired rookie’s car, so get in if you want. If not, don’t.”
“Take him too. He inhaled toxic gas, so he isn’t in his right mind...”
“I’m fine.”
Yoon and Ricardo ignored Kudo’s sulky answer.
Ricardo grabbed his displeased comrade by the arm. Even as Kudo was dragged away by his friend, he did not stop glaring at Hilde.
Kudo kept shooting sulky looks at Hilde until Yoon’s expression made it clear that he did not care, so they should sort it out themselves.
Then Kudo suddenly said,
“Teach him not to rush in without thinking if his recovery is poor.”
“Tell him yourself.”
Yoon answered dryly.
As he walked out into the chaotic flashes, he added,
“Not that he seems likely to listen.”
* * *
In the end, everyone got into the ambulance Shu Diamond had driven over.
Ricardo and Kudo laid the unconscious Hilde down, then sat on the seats opposite him. Yoon took the passenger seat and pulled out his phone. Silence swept over them once the ambulance door closed.
Reporters crowded around the ambulance, but no one looked outside.
Shu calmly started the vehicle.
“We’re going to the headquarters hospital.”
The ambulance pushed through the crowd.
A heavy silence lingered inside for a long time. Only Hildebert Taleb’s steady breathing rang clearly through the ambulance.
Two Badgers leaned against the wall with their eyes closed. One Badger drove in silence. One Badger looked at a phone screen.
The air that came after a major event had ended settled around them.
After a long while, it was Hilde’s voice that broke the silence.
“...Sorry.”
At the quiet murmur, everyone lifted their heads.
“I’m sorry.”
The seniors stared at their rookie, weakly talking in his sleep.
A very different kind of silence fell. Stillness born from everyone looking in the same direction.
Ricardo spoke.
“I don’t think he’s apologizing to us.... Yoon, do you have any idea why?”
“None.”
Yoon narrowed his eyes at the unconscious junior.
“It’s not like I know anything about him.”
“But you’ve spent the most time with him, haven’t you?”
“He can handle a sword, and he’s quick on the uptake.”
Yoon explained indifferently, but did not take his eyes off Hilde.
“So you know practically nothing.”
“Still, he has a good reputation.”
Shu joined the conversation in her husky voice.
Staring through the front windshield, she murmured,
“Kal said that, unlike what he’d worried about, he seems like a perfectly decent kid...”
“He won’t harm anyone else. He just keeps choosing things that will harm himself.”
“Well. We’ll have to wait and see if he’s really harmless.”
Yoon spoke thoughtfully.
Everyone turned to look at him at the unexpected remark. But he was so focused on Hilde that he did not see Ricardo raise one eyebrow in displeasure or Shu blink.
“I don’t see any malice in him, but sometimes I get a strange feeling....”
His trailing words went no further.
It was very rare for Yoon to trail off. Ricardo blinked his green eyes in surprise.
But Yoon remained silent. He stayed still for a long time, never taking his eyes off the unconscious Hilde.
Like Jonathan Kudo, who had not moved as he glared at Hilde.
“Do you know his name?”
Around the time the ambulance arrived at headquarters’ main gate, Ricardo posed a pointed question to his friend.
“Do you remember anything the Head of Personnel said in the auditorium? Well.... You probably don’t care what kind of person he is as long as he’s alive.”
“Hildebert Taleb.”
“Oh. You remember his name. What else?”
“I’m not interested in anything beyond that.”
No one was surprised by Kudo’s indifferent answer.
“I don’t care what kind of person he is as long as he’s all right.”
Again, no one was surprised.
His indifference toward his new juniors was nothing new. It was a different kind of indifference from Yoon’s. His own distinct boundary. His own distinct lack of interest.
He was not the sort of person who would take an interest just because they had carried out one mission together.
So no one was surprised when Jonathan Kudo left as soon as he confirmed that Hildebert Taleb would receive treatment safely. No one was surprised that he did not show his face even once after Hilde woke up safely.
Instead, people were surprised by the media’s reaction.
* * *
The moment I woke up, I heard that a bombshell had gone off.
“You made the news.”
Samuel Han spoke with an ominous look.
“Want to see it?”
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