Black Badger - Chapter 81

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 81: The Old Spider and Atonement (1)

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Walker really did round up illegal enhancement recipients in droves.

Shu and I caught roughly the same number. The police hauled away the illegal enhancement recipients one by one, their bodies limp from Green Dream.

Most of those being taken away were in bad shape.

I watched the police cars disappear with an uneasy feeling.

“Not bad.”

Walker said flatly as he looked at us.

“I won't be embarrassed to bring you before the Old Spider.”

“Thank you.”

Not that we had done anything particularly special.

Without another word, Walker started walking.

Shu and I took the hint and followed him. This whole mess had made it quite late. Dinnertime had long passed. I was hungry and a little tired. It also pained me that I had gone all the way to the game shop but could not even buy a single game.

Still, now that we were here, we had to meet the Old Spider.

I felt a little sorry for Shu, who had missed dinner too.

We walked without saying much and soon reached our destination. The Old Spider's house was not far away. It stood deeper in the slums, its rusted steel beams exposed like bare bones.

Walker threw open the door of a house that seemed utterly disconnected from the noisy Halloween festivities outside.

“Wow.”

Shu, who had been standing in front, looked inside and exclaimed.

“This place is crazy rich.”

My senior was right.

The moment the old metal door opened, an interior completely unlike the exterior appeared before us.

A marble foyer with gold-plated sculptures hanging from the ceiling. A smooth mirror that looked over two meters tall. A stuffed bear holding a silver tray.

Everything looked expensive.

With my mouth hanging open, I entered the house with its ivory marble floors.

A soft musk scent filled the air.

Following the pleasant scent, I trailed after Walker. Before long, we entered a reception room covered in warm-colored Persian rugs.

Someone was already sitting on the sofa, waiting for us.

There was only one person in the spacious room, and drinks had been prepared for all of us. There was no way she could be anyone but the rumored Old Spider.

I blankly looked down at the small elderly woman in a cable-knit cardigan, holding a cup of cocoa.

She looked... small and kind.

“Walker, you're here.”

Even her way of speaking made her sound like a friendly grandmother.

“Those idiots must have caused a scene again. That must be why you're late.”

I took back my first impression.

Her words were vicious despite her smile.

Still, she gave off the strong impression of being a cute, warmhearted grandmother. If I met her on the street, I would probably feel compelled to help her.

Walker did not answer. He stood in the corner of the reception room.

The Old Spider smiled and turned her gaze toward us.

“Mr. Hildebert.”

Ah, she knew my name.

“And the young Badger. You must not have had dinner, so sit down and have some panini with me.”

“Just tell us what you want and get it over with.”

“You might not be hungry, but the other two might be.”

She spoke while taking a sip of cocoa, every bit the friendly grandmother.

“Have a seat. It isn't poisoned. Oh my, look how skinny you both are.”

Shu quietly walked over and sat beside the Old Spider.

That was how we ended up having an unexpected dinner. The table was decorated with cute jack-o'-lanterns.

As I swallowed the stretching cheese, I studied the Old Spider sitting nearby.

She said she knew me.

I could not remember her. Unlike with Lee Seung-hyeon, it was not even a vague sense that I might remember. She felt like a complete stranger.

Had time carved too deeply into her face?

Only the sound of eating filled the polished reception room.

Just as I thought the Old Spider should start talking soon, she looked at Walker and Shu.

“Could you excuse us for a moment?”

Shu and Walker looked back and forth between me and the information broker.

“I have something personal to say to this rookie Badger.”

“Don't try anything funny with my junior.”

Walker got up without hesitation.

Still looking down at the Old Spider, he added,

“I don't want to get chewed out for failing to keep watch over a subordinate the Commander-in-Chief cares about.”

After that pointed warning, my senior skillfully left the reception room.

Shu followed him without a word. Just before leaving, Shu even mouthed, “Contact me if anything happens.”

I nodded.

The door closed before my eyes.

As soon as the footsteps of the man and woman could no longer be heard, the Old Spider spoke.

“Do you remember me?”

Oh no.

I looked awkwardly at the Old Spider, who had turned toward me with a kindly smile.

“...I'm sorry. Not at all....”

“Ah, that's understandable.”

The Old Spider did not seem offended.

Instead, she gave a warm little laugh as she held her cocoa. She looked as though she had expected that answer.

Feeling troubled, I apologized to her as she drank her cocoa.

“I'm sorry.”

“Not at all. It really is understandable. I only admired you from afar. It would be hard to say that we actually knew each other.”

“You admired me?”

Why?

My thoughts must have shown on my face.

The Old Spider laughed again and set down her cup.

“It seems it really is true that all your memories are gone.”

“Yes....”

“You were the kind of person a little girl would look up to.”

She looked into my eyes and smiled gently.

“You wore your spiky white hair long in a stylish way, and you always stood at the center of people, smiling with ease. Whenever I went to the Lab holding my parents' hands, I would watch you from afar.”

“The Lab?”

I had heard plenty of stories about how my hair had been long, so that did not surprise me.

I remembered an immaculate white floor. I remembered sitting there and playing games with Ray. Had I really been in something like a laboratory?

Had I given humans eternal youth there?

My stomach churned when I met someone who knew me from that time. The me who had spent time on those flawlessly smooth floors.

Ye-hyeon did not know me from then, and Colton had no intention of telling me about that version of myself.

Could this person answer me?

The Old Spider swallowed a marshmallow floating in her cocoa.

“My parents were brilliant scientists, and even at that age, I was recognized as a scientist in my own right.”

She must have been a prodigy.

“Thanks to that, I was sometimes allowed into the reception room of the most heavily guarded Lab. Unlike the authorized scientists, I could not enter any farther inside.”

“There was a reception room in the Lab?”

“Of course. You always came out as their representative. Don't you remember?”

The underworld information broker said something strange.

“You and Kyle were their representatives, weren't you?”

What?

I leaned toward the Old Spider.

“What was I?”

“The leader.”

The information broker stared at me with bright, sharp eyes.

“You were their leader, Mr. Hildebert.”

My body stiffened.

For a long time, I forgot how to move. Without properly realizing what expression I was making, I stared blankly ahead.

Then voices burst forth from somewhere in my mind.

There was more than one voice speaking to me. So many voices spoke to me in as many different tones. I recognized every single one.

Deltei, Noll, Ibon, You, Rin....

And countless others.

The people I had sworn to protect until my dying breath.

The moment I set foot on Earth alongside them.

Another mass of memories came crashing down all at once.

Nausea surged up.

“Where is the bathroom?”

“Go out of the reception room and walk straight to the end of the hall.”

The Old Spider did not seem surprised even when I suddenly stood and asked.

“If you need a sedative, just say so.”

Without looking back, I went to the bathroom.

I roughly threw open the door. I did not have the strength to close it.

The moment I stood before the toilet, I vomited everything I had eaten for dinner.

Even after I emptied it all out, my stomach would not settle. I retched until I brought up stomach acid.

The sour smell stung my nose. Tears blurred my vision.

After gagging for a long time, I slumped against the wall.

I barely suppressed the urge to cry. A memory of myself from a very, very long time ago, swearing upon a sword that I would dedicate this life to my people, was stabbing into my heart. That memory now remained only as a faint shape, like a daydream. Whenever I tried to make it clearer, it only faded away.

With the sword I had sworn would protect my people, I ordered Ray to be killed.

Saying that we should hope Ray still had a scrap of feeling left.

And that sword was now in Ye-hyeon's hands.

“No wonder they'd grind their teeth and try to kill me.”

I remembered Jin's words and let out an empty laugh.

“Even if they ground up my corpse and drank it, it wouldn't soothe their rage.”

Why had I betrayed them?

Why... had I turned my back on Kyle and pointed a blade at Ray? Why had I abandoned the people I swore to protect and stood with the humans?

I knew war was coming. I knew the day would come when I had to fight Ray. It must have been a decision I reached after careful thought.

But whatever reason I had, it did not change the fact that I had abandoned my people.

That sin would never be erased, even if I spent my entire life atoning for it. Even if I got the sword back from Ye-hyeon and slit my own throat with it. Even if I were brutally slaughtered by the hand of Colton, whose hand I had once held.

“On top of that, I had forgotten all of it so easily.”

I gave an empty laugh and mocked myself.

“Am I not the worst leader in all of history?”

I did not even have the right to cry and say I was sorry.

I stayed crouched in the bathroom, where the sour smell of stomach acid lingered, for a long time. Until Walker and Shu came to find me, grabbed my arms, and pulled me out.

* * *

I did not have the strength to stay there any longer.

The Old Spider told me to go back and rest. She said there was not much else she could tell me anyway.

She had been bright but still young at the time, a guest at the Lab. She could watch me from afar, but she had few chances to come close and speak with me. I was always surrounded by people and busy having important conversations with them.

She said we had only spoken briefly twice.

“You gave me chocolate each time.”

The Old Spider covered her mouth with one hand and laughed.

“You said you had heard from my parents that I liked chocolate. You looked so cool when you put chocolate into my hand while I was pouting.”

“Did I really do that?”

I smiled weakly.

I really could not remember.

I did not have the strength to remember anything else right now, either.

I gave her an apologetic smile.

“I'm sorry. I don't remember.”

“It would be strange if you did. You met so many people back then. I was only an immature child who desperately wanted to be among them. My parents liked you very much too.”

“What were your parents' names?”

When I asked faintly, a strange smile appeared on the Old Spider's lips.

“If I tell you that, then you'll know my name too.”

I had completely forgotten that this person was a powerful figure in the underworld.

That was the end of our short meeting. The Old Spider handed me over to the seniors waiting outside the reception room. Grumbling, Walker supported my limp body.

The information broker smiled kindly and saw us to the entrance.

“Get home safely, Mr. Hildebert. Come find me anytime you want.”

“You turned this kid into a wreck, and now you're putting on such a polished farewell.”

Walker spoke gruffly.

“Wipe that blush off your face. It rubs me the wrong way.”

Walker practically carried me out of the Old Spider's house.

I could not ask how she had gone from being a promising young scientist to a famous underworld information broker, how she knew Walker, or why someone so rich lived in such a shabby area.

I did not have the strength to ask.

Even when Shu kept looking at my face with faint concern in those expressionless blue eyes, I could not manage much of a reaction. One sentence from the information broker had completely wrecked me. Without Walker, I probably would not have been able to walk properly.

With my soul gone, I was dragged along by my senior's hand.

Somehow, Walker knew to leave me in the cabin instead of the dormitory.

“Contact us if anything happens.”

Shu spoke with concern in those cold blue eyes.

“We'll tell Senior Yoon.”

“Thank you.”

I greeted my two seniors in a completely hoarse voice.

“I caused you too much trouble.”

“Sleep.”

Walker spoke ominously as he left the cabin.

“We'll finish talking later.”

The door closed carefully. The house across from me, decorated with hanging pumpkins and home to Ami and Yoon, disappeared from view.