Black Badger - Chapter 59

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 59: Return and Change (2)

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Jin Silver had gone missing.

They said they had combed through the subway with a fine-tooth comb. Even after I was taken to the hospital, they had gone back several times.

They found everything I had seen. The tunnel Jin had dug. The lettuce, romaine, and chicks Jin had raised.

But there was no trace of Jin Silver.

Ami comforted me.

“It isn’t your fault.”

Ricardo also told me to stop being so self-absorbed.

“How could that be your fault~?”

Easy for them to say. I tried not to show the sickness settling in my stomach or the shame washing over me.

Strangely, it was not an unfamiliar feeling. The shame of being the only one to brazenly survive through hardship.

The seniors probably knew this feeling well too.

The worst part was the shame.

Ami and Lee Ho worked hard to comfort me before they left. Even Richard Green said something that sounded like consolation before he went. He said things would not have been much different even if I had not been there. He would ask his questions after I had recovered.

So he had no intention of letting this slide.

Anyway, those three left, while Ricardo and Yoon remained. I had thought Ricardo would leave with them.

The green-eyed man rested his chin on his hand and quietly looked down at me.

Then he smiled.

...Why are you smiling so ominously?

“Hilde....”

“Yes?”

Ricardo’s smile widened when I answered.

Ominous. I have a bad feeling about this.

My senior looked down at me as I trembled in fear, then broke the silence.

“I’ll be your supervising senior for the next mission~....”

What?

I blinked several times. Ricardo’s smile deepened.

He laughed as he looked at my dazed face.

“Get well soon.... I’m really looking forward to it....”

“...To what?”

“Hmm?”

“The mission? Or me?”

His eyes curved into slits.

Ricardo smiled with crescent-shaped eyes and spoke slowly.

“I’ve been doing this for years. Do you think I’d be excited about a mission now?”

Good lord.

He had put it so elegantly, saying he would work me like a dog. I stared open-mouthed in terror as the man rose as though he had said all he needed to say.

Still smiling, he calmly left the hospital room.

How can you toss a bomb like that and leave so cheerfully?

Why would I be doing the next mission with that person? My own senior partner was standing right beside me.

Yoon did not leave.

Only after Ricardo walked out did he turn his eyes to me.

“Hey.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I have a few things to tell you.”

“Then I’ll hear the bad news first.”

Yoon looked at me without expression.

“There’s only bad news.”

Why?

Jin Silver’s disappearance was already more than enough bad news.

I stared at the man beside me with tired, sulky eyes.

He wore a shirt pressed with obsessive neatness.

He stretched out his right leg, lazily dragged over a three-legged stool, and sat down.

Then, as usual, he got straight to the point.

“First, Jaeyeon found out right away that you returned to the Core. Do you know how many days you’ve been asleep?”

“No. One day?”

“Two.”

“How did they find out? It’s only been two days.”

“That’s just how they are.”

Yoon spoke calmly, his voice evenly coated in hatred.

I tried once more to remember Jaeyeon and failed. No matter how hard I tried, I could not remember Jaeyeon. I remembered Kyle’s face the moment I heard the name.

Fine features, hair black as ebony. Eyes full of confidence. A voice that commanded the public.

There was much I needed to ask Ye-hyeon.

Yoon spoke.

“Do you know how I found this out?”

“What? No.”

“A cabin is being built.”

I did not understand.

I silently stared at my senior partner’s neat features. His dry, cold eyes had been staring into space when they rolled toward me.

“Your cabin.”

“My cabin?”

“The one in front of our house.”

“The one in front of the Commander-in-Chief’s house?”

“Yeah.”

“But it was destroyed.”

“Jaeyeon is having a new one built for you.”

What?

I sat there in stunned silence. There were too many questions, and I did not know where to begin.

Perhaps Yoon could not be bothered to speak first. He did not say anything until I broke the silence.

I barely managed to organize my thoughts.

“You mean a new cabin is being built across from the Commander-in-Chief’s house right now?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you know it was Jaeyeon?”

“They kindly left a message.”

Yoon took out his phone and held it out to me.

I looked at the photo on its screen. The place ravaged by the climate-altering creature. The place I had watched mournfully from inside the Lamborghini.

It was now filled with construction equipment and workers. At one corner of the worksite stood a wooden sign.

There was a message on it.

In red, like lipstick smudged and scrawled across the wood.

[A welcome-back gift for Hildebert Taleb ♡]

This is insane.

What is with the heart?

“A structure in your name is actually being built.”

“What the... Is something like this possible without my consent?”

“You’re not clueless. They’re above most laws.”

I became aware of the tracking device implanted beneath the skin of my finger.

I remembered the conversation in the leadership’s office. What Ye-hyeon had said then in a heavy voice.

Once you leave the office, there are ears everywhere.

I had enough sense to understand the meaning beneath those words. Bodies that did not age and exceptional recovery abilities, privileges that seemed exclusive to Black Badger. Who would not want those?

For a long time, I looked at the photo on Yoon’s phone.

“What should we do once it is finished?”

“Ye-hyeon and I need to discuss it. I’ll let you know once we decide, so just be aware of it for now.”

“Yes. This is not the end of the bad news, right?”

“Yeah.”

My senior partner, incapable of feeling sympathy by nature, answered calmly.

I quietly returned the phone to its owner and prepared myself to hear the next piece of news. I was becoming somewhat accustomed to the way the world came rushing at me all at once.

Until my memories returned, I would probably keep getting swept along like this. Even if I had learned a lot, there was still much more to learn. And amid all that, the past I had forgotten was chasing after me relentlessly.

After steadying myself, I asked him to tell me the next thing.

“You were invited to Porden’s social gathering.”

Who is Porden?

Yoon answered the question written across my face.

“The Chairman of Cureus Corporation. The one you saved.”

“Oh, the owner of that building?”

“Yeah.”

Then my senior partner frowned slightly.

“Choi Ami, Ye-hyeon, and I are going too.”

“Do I have to go?”

Why invite me? I heard Yoon was the adopted son of a major corporation’s chairman. Ami was Yoon’s biological younger sister, so she must have been adopted with him. Ye-hyeon was a celebrity who had defined an era.

But unlike those three with their social prestige, I was an ordinary Badger. There was no reason to invite me.

Besides, he probably thought I had abandoned him.

Yoon sighed.

“It’s better for you if you go.”

“Ah, is it that serious?”

“Only selected people attend. I’m not telling you to build connections and succeed. I’m saying that if you do not go, Porden might get petty and make your life difficult. Understand?”

“Yes. That is really nasty and pathetic. Why did he invite me in the first place?”

“We’ll know for sure once we go.”

My senior partner let out a second sigh.

Then, as naturally as breathing, he cursed.

“Looks like I’ll have to see those bastards’ faces again.”

“...Are there people you dislike there?”

“Yeah. My whole family is coming too.”

Yoon rolled his cold, irritated eyes and grumbled.

“The A-Tech chairman’s family will all show up. If Ye-hyeon and Ami had not asked, I would not have gone.”

It seemed he was not on very good terms with his adoptive family.

I did not have the nerve to pry. I listened carefully as Yoon told me the date and location of the social gathering. Unfortunately, it would be held in two weeks. I would likely be discharged by the end of this week at the latest, so I could not use my injury as an excuse to avoid it.

My senior partner efficiently gave me plenty of other information as well. The dress code, where to buy clothes, keywords to search online.

And what I needed to do going forward.

In the short term, I needed to get Samuel’s permission to leave the hospital.

Yoon told me to contact him after I had accomplished that. He said he would not disturb me while I recovered.

After delivering this information in his flat manner, my senior partner slowly stood.

Seeing him about to leave, I urgently leaned my upper body forward.

“Yoon.”

“What?”

There was something I needed to convey.

Medical staff hurried along the corridor.

Amid the crowd density I had already grown used to, I traced back through the memories that had kept surfacing while we spoke. A cool breeze passing through my hair. The smell of underground air seeping deep into my lungs.

The sound of a train running along the tracks.

Someone who had suddenly and unnaturally sprung to their feet as though they had sensed something. The way they strode off, then turned and smiled. The words they spoke with that smile.

The sound of an explosion.

As I went through those memories, I opened my mouth.

“Do you know the Head of Personnel’s number?”

Yoon’s brow furrowed.

Why did my senior partner dislike the Head of Personnel so much?

Even as he gave me the number, Yoon’s expression did not smooth out. I thanked him and saved it, glancing repeatedly at his face.

That sullen expression.

“Why do you dislike the Head of Personnel so much?”

Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked.

Yoon’s brow furrowed further.

“Why do you need the Head of Personnel’s number?”

“I have something to tell him.”

It was suspicious how he avoided answering.

But my senior partner never gave me an answer. Telling me not to do anything unnecessary, he left the hospital.

That is too bad. I would find out someday.

As I sent the Head of Personnel a message, I decided I should ask the right person.

Would Ami or Ye-hyeon answer if I asked?

Though I did not know if I would have the courage to ask.

Anyway, I made plans to meet the Head of Personnel.

* * *

Kang Joo came to my hospital room the following evening.

I had just moved into a private room. I felt well enough to leave the hospital, but Samuel had thrown a fit. “Are you the doctor? Then you do the surgery and examinations!” So I was passing my time in the quiet hospital room, bored out of my mind.

Hessi and Tom were outside the Core, and the seniors did not visit because they said they would not disturb me. I had spent all my time searching for information about Porden and A-Tech on my phone.

Then Joo came.

Still looking as though flowers might bloom behind him.

“Hilde, you did well.”

He lightly approached and sat in the chair beside my bed.

“How are you feeling?”

“Very well. I think I could leave the hospital right now.”

“Really? That is a relief.”

Joo smiled brightly, dressed in casual clothes.

I looked at his outfit with puzzled eyes.

A gray sweatshirt?

Why was he wearing a gray sweatshirt at work?

As I stared at his clothes in confusion, I remembered that it was now seven thirty.