Black Badger - Chapter 73

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 73: A New Turn (3)

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Why had I forgotten about the portal?

Even as I swallowed at Yoon’s chilling words, I could not take my hand off the photograph. Ah. Why had I forgotten this existed?

Why had I focused only on creatures, the war, and Kyle?

I looked at my senior partner’s expressionless face and forced out my voice.

“Why did you take this?”

Yoon moved only his eyes.

“I took it on the first day of the war.”

“Was there a reason?”

“Why? Did something else come back to you?”

He answered a question with another question.

I hesitated, then closed my mouth. The words floating around inside me would not settle into place. And it was not as though I remembered everything.

I could not remember the beginning or the end.

The beginning and end on Earth.

Of course, Yoon did not look like he intended to help. He had probably called me here to interrogate me.

I bit my lip, then answered in a subdued voice.

“I want to compare what the Commander-in-Chief tells me with my memories.”

“Ah, fine.”

He seemed satisfied with my proposal.

“That’s efficient. We won’t have to do things twice.”

Ye-hyeon was not due back until two nights later.

He had been away for a brief hospital stay, and the audit season happened to overlap with it, so he was busy.

Yoon warned me that he would hear everything once Ye-hyeon returned, and until then I was to rest quietly in my cabin. In other words, I was not to go far and was to wait nearby.

“Take it slow with your recovery. Get in some shooting practice while you’re at it.”

“I really do practice diligently almost every day.”

“Not just sword practice. Practice shooting too.”

So he knew I usually only practiced with a sword.

I clicked my tongue inwardly, then turned away.

After saying I would behave, I returned to my cabin.

*　　　*　　　*

After hearing that Ye-hyeon had arrived, I visited the neighboring house around ten that night.

There, I found Ye-hyeon sitting on the sofa in a T-shirt.

“You’re here?”

“Hi.”

Yoon wandered out from inside, while Ye-hyeon blinked sleepily at me.

I was surprised to see my superior looking so much like a college student, but quickly pulled myself together.

I bowed, stepped inside, and held out a bag containing walnut pie from a supposedly famous place.

“Sorry to come by so late. It’s nothing much, but I thought you could share it.”

“You didn’t have to bring anything. Thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”

“Sit.”

Ye-hyeon thanked me casually as he peered into the bag, but Yoon firmly pointed at the sofa.

I obediently did as he said.

The conversation did not begin right away, as Yoon had wanted. My superior, who looked even thinner in a black T-shirt, slowly headed for the kitchen. It was obvious he meant to cut up and serve the walnut pie I had brought, so I hurried into the kitchen to help. Yoon grumbled and followed us in.

That delayed the start a little.

In the end, it was only after Ye-hyeon and I were seated on the sofa with a slice of walnut pie on each plate that the mood became right for talking.

Yoon let out a small sigh and drank his coffee.

“If you drink coffee at night, you won’t be able to sleep.”

Ye-hyeon nagged him while chewing pie.

Yoon sullenly set down his cup.

“It’s not like we’re about to have a conversation that’ll help us sleep.”

He was not wrong.

I gave a bitter smile, but kept eating my walnut pie. They said the place was famous, and the crust really was remarkably crisp.

Ye-hyeon seemed to like it too, continuing to chew away.

Then he suddenly got straight to the point.

“What should I tell you first?”

A walnut almost went down the wrong pipe.

“Or do you want to speak first, Hilde?”

These people must have something against warning others before striking at the heart of the matter.

I quietly set down my fork. Then I looked at my seniors seated across from me and thought for a moment.

During the two days I had spent waiting for Ye-hyeon, I had organized the memories that had returned. The memories that had surfaced when I faced Colton, the fragments that had returned on the subway, and the bits I had recovered while going about my life.

To be honest, I had wiped away tears that filled my eyes more than once.

I pressed my lips into a line before answering with difficulty.

“I’ll speak first.”

“Okay. Do whatever is comfortable.”

“Where should I begin?”

“The beginning and the end.”

Yoon spoke in a low voice.

Of all things, he had picked the question I could not answer. I gave my senior partner a bitter smile.

“I cannot remember the beginning or the end. In other words, I do not remember how I came to Earth, or how the war began.”

“Really? Then do you know exactly what you are?”

“Even before I met Col... I mean, Falcon, I knew I was not human.”

Kyle had always made that point clear.

The Kyle in my memories got along well with humans, just as I did. Our appearances were not all that different, so it was not difficult to blend in with them. Still, Kyle always kept an emotional distance from them. Aside from eye color, we did not look particularly different from humans, yet Kyle stubbornly insisted that we were a different species.

Because we had found a way to obtain immortality before we even arrived on Earth.

More precisely, we had gained the privilege of never aging.

“Isn’t that the privilege everyone has wished for since the dawn of history?”

“So the stories floating around online about human experimentation by high-ranking people were not just rumors after all.”

Yoon muttered without taking his eyes off me.

“Not that it’s especially surprising. You don’t remember anything about the experiments?”

“No. But I do remember spending a great deal of time in an obsessively white place.”

And that I enjoyed playing games there.

But I had no memory of being experimented on or participating in experiments. Perhaps such things had happened, but I simply could not remember them. That was what I guessed from Eric calling me Prometheus, and from the things Jaeyeon had shouted while going berserk.

I also remembered Kyle arrogantly sweeping black hair behind one shoulder and mentioning “our generosity toward humanity.”

Yoon gave a faint nod. Ye-hyeon continued eating pie without any change in expression.

He must really like it....

“What other characteristics do you have?”

Yoon’s cold voice brought me back to myself.

“That cannot be all. By that logic, Badgers are not human either.”

“Yes. Actually, there is one way we differ noticeably from humans....”

This was something I had only remembered after waking in the hospital room.

More precisely, it had come back to me after I woke in the hospital room, on the drive here in Yoon’s car. My senses had now fully opened. My sharpened five senses no longer overwhelmed me.

And as my senses returned, I came to understand what Colton had meant by “your greatest characteristic.”

Now, I could sense the direction in which others of my kind were located.

“No human has ever fully understood this, as far as I remember.”

“It is a sense we do not have, so there is no way we could fully understand it. Then can you sense where this Kyle is right now?”

“If Kyle is far away, I can only sense the general direction....”

Still, it was not as if I could sense nothing.

Without a word, I pointed behind my seniors.

Ye-hyeon and Yoon both turned around.

Then they slowly turned back at the same time.

Silence settled over the living room for a moment. Ye-hyeon did not seem particularly surprised, but Yoon narrowed his eyes as he studied me.

My senior partner, whose gaze held no warmth at all, said something terrifying.

“We should open you up once.”

“Commander-in-Chief.”

I immediately turned toward Ye-hyeon in an SOS.

“Please save me.”

“Yoon, no.”

Ye-hyeon briefly scolded him.

“That’s a crime.”

For a while, Yoon argued that he would open me up and close me back up without causing any trouble, while Ye-hyeon refused to allow it.

I listened to their conversation as background noise and sank into my thoughts.

All right, we had come this far. Now came the facts I had inferred from all this. Memories had rushed in like an ebbing tide after my five senses opened. As I traced those memories, scattered puzzle pieces fell into place.

The humanoid creature that had faced Ye-hyeon in the video. Its burning, inverted eyes and the black veil that coiled around its body. The humanoid creature I had encountered beneath the subway, writhing again as it regained consciousness.

I spoke slowly.

“Commander-in-Chief.”

“What?”

“When you confronted the Level 10 creature, did you already know Titans existed?”

Ye-hyeon looked quietly at me with wide eyes.

The ticking second hand struck my ears. It was a strangely cool space with a high ceiling.

I sat still and waited for my superior to break the silence.

This house always smelled of a cool breeze.

Ye-hyeon broke the silence in an unreadable voice.

“Only in fragments.”

There was no emotion in his next words either.

“My father drove me into that situation.”

“What?”

Yoon raised his voice.

He frowned and glared at Ye-hyeon beside him.

“What the hell are you talking about now?”

“Sorry. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. You never specifically asked, so I kept quiet.”

“Why is Lee Seung-hyeon suddenly coming up? What does the brat have to do with Lee Seung-hyeon?”

“Hilde and my father knew each other.”

That was true.

The problem was that all I remembered was that Lee Seung-hyeon had been a soldier recruited from Korea. I was sure we had met and spoken. But I could not remember anything else.

Maybe hearing about Lee Seung-hyeon would bring back more memories.

I watched my seniors argue back and forth, then honestly told them as much.

At my request to tell me a little about Lee Seung-hyeon, Ye-hyeon’s expression hardened slightly.

“Okay. I’ll try my best. I didn’t know my father well either, but....”

“I’m sorry for asking something so personal.”

“No. Actually, it’s something I thought I should tell you someday....”

Despite saying that, Ye-hyeon hesitated.

The pale man pressed his lips together, then slowly began to speak.

“I’ll tell you briefly about my father.”

Yoon gave a quiet snort beside him.

I had been focused on Ye-hyeon, but Yoon’s next words made my eyes widen.

Lifting his coffee cup, my senior partner said: