WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 89: Actors and Audience (1)

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A lion with a black mane.

That was what I thought when I first met Kyle. Sleek, thick long black hair. Sharp eyes that turned upward at the corners. Brilliant golden eyes.

Kyle looked like a lion and drew people’s attention. So I stood there for a long time, watching Kyle.

Until Kyle turned to look at me with a smile, one hand resting on the pommel of the sword.

Kyle noticed my gaze immediately.

“Ah.”

I remembered Kyle’s jet-black hair fluttering in the wind.

“Are you Hildebert?”

We first met at the training ground.

Those were bold days. Days when we sought opponents who could sharpen the swords at our waists. I met Kyle, already famous for many reasons, and Kyle did the same.

That was how our tenacious bond began.

A bond that lasted until the world ended.

It was never a light bond. The memories I shared with Kyle weighed heavily on me. We did countless things together. Hunting magical beasts. Suppressing rebellions. Wars. Dragon hunts. Searching for sacred relics.

As we faced trials where we had to entrust each other with our backs, our world grew wider too. We met people like Deltei, Ibon, and Rin. Together, we formed new bonds, or introduced the other to people one of us had met.

Kyle and I were very different. Perhaps that was why our bond lasted so long. We made up for each other’s weaknesses and kept moving forward.

There was a time when I only had to look after myself. When going out on a hunt only meant preparing to risk the lives of myself, Kyle, and those who came with us.

As those good days passed, we had more and more to take responsibility for.

Yet even until the world ended, my friendship with Kyle remained firm.

We watched the world collapse together.

Even the portal where boundless darkness spread out....

“If you’ve seen enough, then it’s time you tell your story, Hildebert.”

A cold voice flew into my ear.

“If you take, you have to give too.”

That was only fair, but....

I didn’t want to get on an operating table while perfectly healthy....

I lowered my head and groaned.

After I sat there all hunched over for a while, someone in a white coat approached me. I raised my head and looked at the figure walking through the darkness. A fluttering white lab coat and a tall frame.

A black turtleneck beneath the research coat.

John Mueln stopped in front of me.

“You came on an empty stomach this time, right?”

The gray-haired scientist asked in a low voice.

“Test Subject Zero.”

Whiiiiir!

The Chainsaw spun.

The genius scientist of the century pressed the Chainsaw to my throat when I couldn’t answer.

The words that followed were terrifying.

“No, Hildebert Taleb.”

Why was he calling me by my name....

Argh!

Wait.

Someone!

“Help! Somebody help!”

“Whoa!”

Thunk!

A dull pain struck my head.

I blinked my dry eyes several times.

I accepted the sensations flooding in all at once.

I was used to this sort of situation by now, so I grasped what was happening quickly. My seniors were looking down at me with expressions of disbelief. Ricardo was sitting against the wall, snorting. Bobby was seated with wide eyes. Asil was looking down at me with worry and disbelief.

It seemed Asil had shaken me.

As I got up, I slammed my head into the nearby wall.

I tried and failed to rub my still-aching head, then lay on my side.

Then, as I took in the sight filling my vision, I gained more information.

We were still locked up.

“Feeling better~?”

Ricardo gave a small laugh as he looked at me blinking blankly.

Fortunately, my seniors, including Ricardo, looked unharmed.

I opened my stiff eyes, quietly looked at Ricardo, then nodded.

“Yes.”

“How are you feeling?”

Asil, kneeling right beside me, narrowed his eyes.

At the question, I rolled my eyes and assessed my condition.

First, I desperately needed artificial tears, and my head hurt from hitting the floor. And.... My body was tingling. It felt as though my entire body had cramped up.

It was probably because those lunatics had forcibly injected me with some unknown drug.

Still, this was fortunate. There were no hallucinations or ringing in my ears. Once the tingling throughout my body faded, I would be able to get up and move normally.

I met my seniors’ clear gazes.

“Do any of you have artificial tears?”

The three seniors silently looked at me.

Bobby was the one who answered.

“Do you have dry eyes?”

“No, but.... My eyes really do feel dry.”

“Isn’t it because you cried so much?”

Asil said roughly.

He looked at me with an expressionless face, then wiped away the dried tear tracks on my cheek with a thumb.

“You kept crying.”

I felt as though I had been caught without washing my face.

It was a little embarrassing. I didn’t move at all, or rather, couldn’t move, and gave Asil an awkward smile.

“Thank you. My hands and feet are still tingling, so.... I’ll make sure to wash my face later.”

“Your hands and feet are tingling?”

Ricardo asked again in a sharp voice.

Keeping my awkward smile, I looked into my senior’s green eyes.

“Yes. Other than that, I’m fine. The tingling should wear off soon.”

The three seniors did not answer.

What were those suspicious looks for? Seeing the looks from the three of them, Ricardo especially, made me feel a little wronged.

I was someone who truly took good care of my body.

They had very little faith in me.

More importantly, how were we supposed to get out of here now?

As I rolled my eyes around and assessed the situation, Asil spoke.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

Ah.

The moment I remembered the dream, I was exhausted.

“Yes. I dreamed John Mueln called me by my real name.”

“Hm?”

Perhaps it wasn’t the answer Asil expected. His blue eyes blinked.

“John Mueln? That genius scientist in the lab?”

“Yes.”

“Why is that a bad dream?”

Ricardo began chuckling.

I ignored my senior’s laughter and vaguely said something had happened. Even thinking about it again, it had been a truly chilling dream. It had to have been a nightmare caused by the unknown drug.

It was horrible. Seriously.

Though the tears must have come from dreaming about Kyle.

Fortunately, Asil did not press further.

Instead, the silver-haired senior asked if I wanted help sitting up. I politely said I was fine. I appreciated the offer, but I wanted to lie down for a while. I did not even mind the chill of the cold floor.

More than anything, I wasn’t confident I could sit up properly.

When would the drug wear off? I was the only one who could properly use my strength right now, so I needed to recover quickly.

I only lifted my chin slightly and examined the pale corridor beyond the iron bars.

It was a place where cold air lingered. There was no sign of anyone. I had expected them to lock us up with the illegal implant recipients, but we were the only ones in this cell.

Ah.

The timing was perfect.

“What are you doing?”

Bobby asked in disbelief as I wriggled toward the iron bars.

“Do you need help?”

“No, I’m almost there.”

The cell was small, so I reached the bars quickly.

Ignoring the sensation that felt like cramps, I stretched out my hand. I did not care whether my hand shook or my seniors looked at me in disbelief.

Was this the time to worry about dignity?

First, I had to get out!

Crackle!

“Ugh!”

“Hey!”

The moment I pulled my hand back with a short groan, Asil shouted sharply.

I couldn’t answer because of the shock that ran through my body. My senior roughly grabbed the back of my neck and dragged me away from the bars.

“Idiot! They wouldn’t be ordinary iron bars!”

“That brat is driving me crazy....”

I heard Ricardo getting up from where he had been sitting against the wall.

Clicking his tongue, he walked toward me. I lay with both hands that had gripped the bars spread limply at my sides, cheek pressed to the floor.

That hurt so much.

Ricardo sighed and dragged me farther away from the bars.

“Don’t be reckless when you can’t even sit up properly....”

“But I’m the only one who can properly use my strength right now.”

“Do you see the handcuffs around your wrists and ankles?”

Ricardo pointed at my left wrist and ankle as I lay sprawled on the floor again.

I nodded, now aware of the foreign weight around them, and he explained.

“There’s a bomb inside.... There are CCTV cameras on the ceiling. If we go beyond the bars, they’ll probably explode~.”

“Ah, damn. They’re thorough.”

I had been thinking of trying a few more times, but that would have been pointless.

Ricardo snorted as if he had read my thoughts. Still, I pretended not to see my seniors’ sullen reactions. At least for now, this was not the time for them to worry about me.

I might have been too drugged to sit up properly, but that didn’t mean my recovery had dropped to an ordinary person’s level.

The other three, meanwhile, were completely ordinary people now.

I could tell from the hands pulling me away that their grip strength was lacking. We had to find a way out before things got worse.

“We just have to win.”

Bobby, who had been sitting quietly, spoke up.

She let down the hair she had pinned up and sat with both palms on the cold floor.

“Those illegal implant recipients win matches and gain fame. Why can’t we do the same?”

That was the cleanest scenario, but.

There was no way they would send out a creature the others could defeat with ordinary bodies. My expression remained creased. It seemed my seniors had agreed to enter the match and win while I was unconscious.

I did not like that agreement.

I ignored Asil asking whether I was always this reckless, and Ricardo saying I had never not been reckless and wouldn’t change no matter how much I was scolded. I focused on finding a solution. Sharpening my senses, I carefully went over the situation.

Our weapons had all been taken before we were thrown in here, but fortunately, Ricardo still had his ring, and we had the protective suits beneath our civilian clothes.

A small mercy in the midst of misfortune.

Still, if anything happened to them, I would protect them with my own body.

I pulled my still-tingling arm toward me.

If I had not heard the sound of dress shoes, I would have told my seniors about the Hildebert Meat Shield Plan.

Click, click.

Footsteps.

The sharp sound echoed through the barren space. My seniors stopped moving at once.

I stopped wriggling as well and only raised my head slightly.

The sound came from the end of the bluish-white corridor.

Thud, thud.

At some point, the sound of dress shoes changed into the sound of military boots.

The steps did not stop, but their echo changed. Orderly yet lazy, heavy but not lumbering.

The owner of those footsteps walked leisurely out of the darkness.

Wearing a neatly pressed blue police uniform.

The moment I saw the man in the crooked police cap smiling, all five of my senses sharpened.

“Senior.”

He was smiling at Asil, not me.

“It’s been a long time. Have you been well?”

Bang!

Crackle! Bang! The moment Asil threw himself against the bars, electricity ran through the metal. Ricardo and I sprang up and pulled Asil away from them.

I even had to pin down Asil, who kept trying to lunge at the person outside the bars.

Caught beneath my arm, Asil ground his teeth.

He kept trying to break free, then shouted.

“Jaeyeon!”

Damn....

I had hoped it wouldn’t be this person.

I swallowed the complaint rising in my throat. Then I pressed my forearm down harder on the senior struggling as he glared at Jaeyeon. Since Asil had been hit with Green Dream, it was not difficult to restrain him.

Ricardo and Bobby watched the situation without moving.

Holding back the urge to sigh, I looked outside the bars.

Black shoes and a blue uniform. The hair was short. Yet the upturned, foxlike eyes and handsome nose were unchanged.

Today, Jaeyeon was in a man’s form.

Jaeyeon, who surprisingly seemed to know Asil, smiled for a long time, probably looking just as he had when Asil knew him.

“First time since that day.”

I had to put more strength into the arm restraining Asil.

“I heard you quit the police and became a Badger.”

“You....”

Anger and betrayal dripped from Asil’s rasping voice.

“Was it you who withdrew the police?”

“Ding-dong, correct.”

Jaeyeon answered brightly despite the quiet, fury-filled question.

He casually nudged his police cap back into place.

“It was me again this time.”

“Someday, I’ll put you behind iron bars.”

Asil made an impossible vow.

It was something only someone unaware of who stood behind Jaeyeon could say.

“The person behind you too.”

Jaeyeon burst out laughing.

The laughter echoed through the cold corridor. It was filled with pure delight. Of course it was. How amusing and delightful Asil Pisker’s words must have been to Jaeyeon.

Even I was surprised that Asil had survived after encountering Jaeyeon in his “Jaeyeon state.” The sight of the person in a police uniform broke through the dam holding back my memories. Even before the war broke out, Jaeyeon had been a truly unique existence.

Those who saw Jaeyeon’s face usually died at Colton’s hands. Unless they held an unusual position, like the Elders and their right-hand operatives.

But there were many who had met Jaeyeon when not in the “Jaeyeon state.”

A genius actor.

Flawless method acting. Someone who ignored physical constraints such as sex and height. Only Colton could recognize Jaeyeon when disguised as someone else. Jaeyeon even sometimes forgot that they had become another person.

Kyle and Ray called Jaeyeon a shapeshifter.

A being who had lost even their own identity because of an exceptionally outstanding ability to mimic others.

Jaeyeon could only be identified by the aesthetic features they preferred. Upturned eyes, a foxlike air, beauty-like features.

After laughing for a long while, Jaeyeon wiped away the tears gathered in his eyes with his pinky.

“Ah, that’s why I like you, Senior.”

Deep enjoyment filled his voice.

“Buddy, please, don’t give up. I’m always counting on you.”

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