WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 87: Colosseum (3)

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A student with straight black hair down to her waist.

She wore a neat gray school uniform. Asil strode toward the student, who looked as though she had just gotten out of school.

Bobby spoke in a voice full of confusion.

“Where are you going?”

He must be worried about the minor.

I awkwardly rose as well. It would not look good for the youngest to sit around blankly while a senior was on the move.

The high school girl was sitting not far away.

There was nothing particularly strange about the way she cherished a pair of opera glasses in one hand. None of the charisma or aggression I felt from the Elders. None of the piercing stares sent from places where their right-hand operatives lay in wait.

She was just an ordinary student, and none of that could be sensed from her.

Behind me, Ricardo muttered, “Always sticking his nose in...”

I followed behind my senior, who had once been a detective.

“What are you doing here?”

My senior spoke to her without preamble.

The high school girl looked up.

Asil spoke stiffly as he looked at the student, whose eyes had gone round.

“Just coming in here is illegal.”

She did not answer right away.

The student sat quietly amid the noisy arena and stared up at Asil. She looked plain. She wore no makeup, had not altered her uniform skirt, and had no notable accessories on.

Except for the expensive opera glasses in her hand.

Old-fashioned opera glasses with a long handle on one side. I shifted my gaze from her bewildered face and studied them closely.

They were high quality.

Not some crudely made thing cobbled together from cheap materials. Every intricate pattern carved into the handle looked like the work of skilled hands.

They must have cost quite a bit.

Where had she bought them? They were not something you could easily find.

Had they been passed down to her?

But why was I studying those opera glasses so intently?

Just as I began to wonder that myself, the student spoke.

“Didn’t you come here to watch the match too, Mister?”

A sharp point.

I gave an embarrassed little laugh, but Asil did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.

My senior asked in a tone that really did sound like a police officer’s.

“Where are you from? What school do you attend?”

“School is already over. I came straight here after it ended.”

She pulled down the hem of her gray skirt, which covered her knees.

“I didn’t have time to change. My school emblem is on my uniform. And my name tag is here.”

The yellow name tag beneath the school emblem read “Marie.” The name was written in a clumsy hand. After confirming the student’s neatly embroidered name, Asil furrowed his brow even more deeply.

“Do you know what kind of place this is? It is not somewhere a student who has not come of age should visit alone.”

My senior lectured her with a stern expression, but Marie was unaffected.

She looked up at Asil as though she could not understand why.

“Why not?”

“First, it is illegal. And this place is full of bad people. A minor like you, who cannot protect herself, could have anything happen to her.”

“But I love these matches!”

A smile spread across the student’s face.

It was so bright that it made those who saw it hesitate for a moment.

There was genuine, innocent delight in it.

“Creatures versus illegal implant recipients! Isn’t it thrilling and fun?”

“If you want to watch that, go to a movie theater or watch YouTube.”

“But neither one compares to seeing it in person.”

Marie did not lose the smile on her face.

I watched her bring the opera glasses close to her eyes. She looked more eager than anyone for the match that was about to begin. The warning of the man standing beside her with a deeply displeased expression did not seem to reach her ears.

Something was strange.

The student lowered the opera glasses and looked back at us.

“My father had an illegal enhanced body too.”

“Ah.”

“He was always showing off his strength at home in front of my mother and me. But then.”

The plain student’s smile widened again.

As the arena grew noisier, Marie finished with a confident smile.

“One day, a creature stepped on him, and he died without even being able to fight back!”

Waaah!

The cheers drowned out the surroundings.

I looked up and saw the main MC appear in the arena. He was a typical white man, with slick blond hair and an unnaturally white smile.

Dressed in a tuxedo, he waved to the crowd from atop an enormous drone.

A holographic screen appeared beside him.

That massive holographic board seemed to be the betting board. The figures changing in real time made my eyes swim.

How vulgar.

As I frowned, Bobby spoke from behind me.

“You need to leave!”

Ricardo and Bobby were right behind us.

Bobby grabbed Asil’s arm as he only glanced back, furrowing her brow.

“Hurry up! I’ll take care of this girl!”

“Hi, Marie~.”

Beside Bobby, who was tugging Asil away, Ricardo smiled with crescent eyes.

He acted as if he had often seen students who came to the arena on reckless little escapades, driven by twisted curiosity. Ricardo cheerfully ignored the MC shouting into the microphone, “At last! We’re back! Overcoming every hardship! At last! Back with all of you!” and looked down at Marie.

“Want to get corn dogs with us after one match ends~?”

Marie blinked several times.

While she thought it over and gave an affirmative answer, Asil quickly left the arena. Bobby urged him along, insisting that we would finish sticking our noses into this, so he should hurry on.

Ricardo continued talking with Marie.

My ears hurt, and the air was stuffy, as if I had come to an enormous concert.

While my seniors moved busily, I surveyed the betting board and the frenzied spectators. I was told that the police would storm in later and arrest everyone at once, but I doubted that could happen without trouble.

There would definitely be people crushed in the crowd. Some of them were surely armed too.

Could this really work...?

Someone tugged at my elbow.

“Hey.”

It was Marie’s voice.

At some point, my seniors were seated on either side of her. I gave a faint smile as I watched Marie hand Bobby a tub of caramel popcorn.

“What is it?”

“Sit with us and watch. Then we can go get corn dogs.”

Marie spoke brightly, like a student watching a baseball game she was rooting for in person.

Then she gave a fresh smile. She had a different air from the thrill-seeking students who occasionally came here.

Her bright smile grew wider.

“The first match is about to start!”

The barred gate opened.

The cheers abruptly died down. The EDM suddenly cut off. I quietly looked down at the student with shining eyes, then slowly turned around. My sharpened hearing told me how the match was progressing. Hesitant footsteps approaching. The footsteps of a creature plodding out from behind the bars.

The MC’s voice.

[The first match begins!]

Cheers shook the arena.

*　　　*　　　*

The first match ended quickly.

I had not expected the former Elder who had been expelled to appear in the first match. In fact, the first victim was simply an illegal implant recipient addicted to drugs. Had he gotten an enhanced body implanted illegally in a fit of anger, then failed to repay the money? Or was there another story I could not guess?

Either way, his head burst, and he died miserably.

The boar creature, its mouth split all the way to its ears, greedily licked up the brains scattered across the arena floor.

“Ah, it was too short. What a shame.”

Marie, who had been intently watching through her opera glasses, lamented.

She quietly placed the opera glasses on her lap and muttered regretfully.

“Can’t we watch just one more match before we go?”

“You have unusual tastes~.”

Ricardo, his arms folded and legs crossed, gave a small laugh.

Bobby could not accept the strangeness of the schoolgirl seated beside her. Unable to hide her expression, she shot Marie a sidelong look.

Ricardo, on the other hand, was calm. Wearing his usual sharp smile, he turned his eyes toward the arena.

I watched my senior, who looked as though he were watching a boring holiday movie special.

“What are you looking at~?”

“You look bored.”

When I answered bluntly, his green eyes rolled.

I met the gaze from those deep green eyes directly.

“All of this.”

Cheers announced the start of the second match.

Ricardo, who had been looking at me with unreadable eyes, turned his gaze forward.

I looked toward the arena again. The second implant recipient was coming out to face a wolf creature with a torn mouth.

I had not expected an answer, but my senior replied bluntly.

“Everything these bastards do is so damn obvious...”

Was he talking about the criminal organization?

“The cops’ preparations seem like they’ll take a while.... Let’s step outside after this ends....”

The second contestant was not Colton’s victim either.

He seemed like someone driven to ruin while wavering between an inflated sense of self and a reality that could not keep up with it. So overly conscious of himself that every action was unnatural.

Unlike the first victim, though, he had the will to live. With a weapon in hand, he tried to survive the match.

He failed.

The second participant was eaten alive.

The sound of the illegal implant recipient’s muscles and bones being crushed echoed through the arena.

Those lunatics had attached a microphone to the creature’s back.

Ricardo still wore a bored smile.

“Shall we go get corn dogs now~?”

As the participant’s dying scream stopped, my green-eyed senior rose from his seat with a broad smile.

With his hands in his pockets, he looked down at Bobby, who looked like she had completely lost her appetite, and Marie, who was enraptured.

“It will get crowded if we are late, so let’s hurry....”

We left the arena.

The noise immediately faded. My vision darkened. After taking the elevator down and stepping out of the building, cool air rushed over us.

With my view opening up, I felt a small sense of liberation.

I had never been so happy to see a food truck in the distance.

The food truck selling corn dogs stood to the left of the beer food truck.

We walked there, crossing an area where it had become difficult to spot anyone besides the food truck workers. A wilderness lit only by the lights around the food trucks. We reached the truck, enduring the cold wind cutting across our cheeks.

There was only one item on the menu.

Ricardo ordered enough corn dogs for all of us.

Five corn dogs went into the oil side by side. While they fried to a golden brown, Asil, whom Bobby had contacted, came running over.

“Go with this girl.”

Bobby spoke as she watched Asil run toward us through the darkness.

My senior, who had rushed over in no time, nodded as he looked at Marie with troubled eyes.

“Yes. It looks like their preparations are taking a little longer...”

“Tell them to finish quickly. Their incompetence is not exactly surprising, but still....”

“I am pressing them.”

“Here.”

Marie suddenly held out a corn dog.

“The corn dogs are ready!”

Golden-brown fried corn dogs.

Coated in sugar and drizzled with ketchup. I watched my seniors stop talking and take them. They grasped the sticks of the corn dogs Marie held out. Bobby took one first, Asil accepted one reluctantly after her, and Ricardo took the third with a smile.

Then me.

Marie held out a freshly fried corn dog to me.

I smiled faintly and reached out.

“Tha...”

Ah!

What was that?

My eyes widened reflexively.

What was that just now?

The back of my hand stung.

“A bug?”

Had I been bitten by a mosquito?

As I lifted my hand to check the wound, police officers approached from a distance.

“You there, student! Come here right now!”

Unfortunately, it was a familiar voice.

When I shifted my eyes slightly, I saw a police officer walking over with a delinquent swagger, hands shoved into a bomber jacket.

Regina approached Marie with a fierce expression.

“Do you know what kind of place this is? Why would you come somewhere like this?”

A small argument followed.

The schoolgirl refused to be taken away by the police officer. Regina refused to let Marie go. They bickered in front of the food truck for a while. But while Regina’s overbearing words, Asil’s grumbling, and Bobby’s scolding continued, I was busy examining the back of my hand.

Strange.

It definitely stung, but where had I been bitten?

Ever since reuniting with Jaeyeon, my sense of pain and touch had become so sensitive that I could even feel a mosquito’s needle going in. Yet I could not find any sign of a bite on the back of my hand.

I did not think I had imagined it....

I did not stop looking at my hand until Marie gave in and decided to go with Regina.

Until Ricardo, who had been quietly standing there and watching me, casually asked a question.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

I raised my head to look at Ricardo. Marie walked away with Regina, saying goodbye. Bobby gave a perfunctory wave before remarking, “That girl was crazy.” It all happened almost at the same time.

As did my eyes widening as I looked at my seniors’ hands.

“Ricardo.”

My sharpened vision spotted small wounds left on the bodies of my seniors, whose long service had dulled them to pain.

Wounds so tiny that they probably had not even felt them.

Wounds where a syringe needle had gone in and come back out.

“Why isn’t the bleeding stopping?”

Drops of blood the size of needle holes had formed on the backs of my seniors’ hands.

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