WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 90: Actors and Audience (2)

──────

It seemed Jaeyeon had pretended to be a police officer before.

That must have been Asil and Jaeyeon. I felt sorry for the Asil of the past, who had to patrol with Jaeyeon pretending to be normal.

Asil leaving the police force was probably related to Jaeyeon too.

Seeing Jaeyeon did not make me as angry as I had expected. I had anticipated that Jaeyeon would show up here somehow. If I had not been able to confirm Jaeyeon was here, I might have been even more anxious.

In any case, one thing was guaranteed now.

I would not die here.

“Green Dream.”

In that pale place, wrapped in chilly air, Asil looked up at Jaeyeon, his voice tight with restrained fury.

“Were you the one who provided that too?”

“Ah, our dear Marie?”

The trace of an amused smile remained around Jaeyeon’s mouth.

The neat-looking man narrowed his eyes.

“She isn’t mine. She’s just the futile struggle of the defeated.”

I was the only one who understood what he meant.

Assuming Jaeyeon was telling the truth, the high school girl who had administered Green Dream was the right-hand operative of an unnamed Elder defeated by Colton.

The loser had not given up yet.

Though even their final plan had been seen through by Jaeyeon and Colton. Jaeyeon must have found the struggling opponent amusing. That was why Jaeyeon had cheerfully watched the loser’s resistance, then become a police officer and helped worsen the situation.

All for personal amusement.

Ah.... This brings back old memories again.

Jaeyeon, living a life bound to Colton, often acted however he pleased.

Jaeyeon would blow off steam while Colton watched him with disdain. Whenever Colton nagged, “Stop doing such pointless things,” Jaeyeon would raise a hand and smash his master’s belongings.

Crash! Bang! Whenever I started hearing things break, I would quietly leave.

I let out a quiet sigh.

“Can you survive the match?”

Ignoring my sigh, Jaeyeon asked Asil.

Before Asil, who had been grinding his teeth, could answer, footsteps sounded from the end of the corridor.

Several pairs of footsteps.

A familiar voice sprang out of the darkness.

“Officer.”

Mick appeared first.

“Do you have any more Green Dream?”

“Sadly, no.”

Jaeyeon turned to Mick with a smile.

The sight of Jaeyeon standing with his hands behind his back and answering so obediently felt strange. It was the first time I had seen Jaeyeon use polite speech with anyone other than Colton.

But who could say which side was closer to the truth?

“Green Dream is difficult to get out through official procedures. The woman who tipped you off about this plan probably has some extra.”

“We don’t see her.”

Mick answered, and the three or four mafia members who had followed him grumbled.

Listening to their complaints, I roughly grasped the situation.

It seemed that sending Badgers into the arena had been the plan of the defeated Elder and the mafia.

The one who conceived the plan was a former Elder driven out by Colton, and the mafia seemed to have been the first helpers. The Elder must have hated the Badger leadership for being willing to stand by and let them die, while the Badgers who interfered with their business at every turn must have been an eyesore to the mafia.

Then Jaeyeon must have slipped into the scheme while pretending to be a corrupt police officer.

Mick let out a theatrical sigh, then flicked his hand.

“Can’t be helped. We’ll just have to inject more drugs.”

My seniors went rigid.

I pretended not to notice them gritting their teeth and glaring at the mafia. Shouting at the mafia now would change nothing.

Mick took a syringe from one of his subordinates.

“Rookie. Come here.”

Holding the syringe in his right hand, he crooked a finger at me.

“Stick your arm out through the bars.”

“Yes, Mom.”

I answered as casually as I could.

My seniors, who had been about to protest Mick’s treatment of me, whipped around to look at me.

Jaeyeon burst out laughing. I heard Ricardo let out a disbelieving huff. Asil and Bobby stared at me with wide, rabbitlike eyes.

The mafia watched me with similar expressions.

Only Mick’s expression did not change.

Holding the left forearm I had extended beyond the bars, Mick blinked a few times.

The mafia member studied my eyes, then laughed at length.

“You’re young, so you don’t know any better?”

He stuck the needle into my arm and pushed the liquid in.

“New Badgers are always like this. They get drunk on the strength they suddenly gain.”

“That’s why you keep drugging us?”

I smiled sweetly and asked softly.

“Because you’re scared of me?”

Bzzzt!

Thud!

I hit the floor with a heavy impact.

Ah.... That really hurt.

I curled up as electricity raced through my body and let out a small groan. The mafia’s laughter and Asil and Bobby’s startled voices fell over me.

Ricardo’s low sigh.

Jaeyeon’s scoff as well.

Mick, who had yanked me up and slammed me into the bars, immediately straightened. Then, as I panted on the floor, he remained silent.

Then he spoke.

“When the intermission ends, drag these things to the arena.”

“Yes!”

The mafia members moved.

Mick did not move while his subordinates did. He only kept staring down at me with his head lowered gloomily.

The man’s shadow stretched over my body.

“Green Dream isn’t working as well, so you think all this is funny, don’t you?”

My attitude seemed to have seriously offended him.

Mick’s voice, filled with restrained fury, fell toward the floor.

“You probably think you’ll win eventually once enough time passes. Your recovery is better than an ordinary person’s, and your strength is still intact.”

“Are you calling me arrogant?”

Even as I panted, I could not stop myself from answering with a laugh.

“You’re saying that to me?”

“You think you’ll make it back alive no matter what happens to your seniors. That delusion is why you can act like this.”

The mafia member did not even pretend to hear me.

Maybe he really had not heard. He muttered with eyes that looked as though a screw had come loose.

“Let’s see how long that confidence lasts.”

Mick turned away.

The mafia member walked off, giving off a gloomy air. As I panted, I listened to those outside the bars leave. The people who had come rushing in left in another rush.

Jaeyeon, who had been watching Mick and me with a smirk, left as well.

The receding sound of military boots changed midway into the sound of high heels.

Then, at some point, the footsteps stopped.

Pale silence.

A cold place where silence settled. The chill against my body.

As soon as the chill dispelled the lingering effects of the electric shock, the drug took hold.

“Rookie.”

Asil’s voice buzzed in my ears.

But I did not have the strength to answer the worried question.

“Are you okay?”

I need to get away from my seniors.

Confused sensations pressed heavily down on my body.

Asil seemed to jerk upright and say something, but I could no longer understand words. The other seniors’ voices only buzzed as well, impossible to comprehend.

The only thing I knew for certain was that I had no confidence I could control my strength right now.

Gathering what little judgment I had left, I rolled away from the others. Once I reached the corner of the cell, I curled into a ball.

Did they really give me drugs?

What kind of drug makes your body hurt instead of making you feel good?

My seniors kept speaking to me, but I could not understand a single word. I gave up trying to understand and held out one palm.

I barely managed a few words to the seniors who tried to approach.

“Please stay away.”

Ricardo seems annoyed.

Good thing I can’t understand him.

I smiled faintly as I watched my seniors frown.

“I can’t understand a word.”

...Did Ricardo just kick the wall?

Scary. Ricardo is really angry.

Seeing Bobby and Ricardo spring to their feet, I decided I should pretend to be unconscious.

I naturally closed my eyes and curled up in case I thrashed around and hit them.

If I held out like this, the drug would wear off.

I could not accidentally hit my seniors before then....

I struggled for a long time to hold on to consciousness. The cell was cramped enough already. I was afraid I would pass out and accidentally strike one of them.

Tormented by the unpleasant sensations, I clenched and unclenched my hands, waved them through the air as if trying to grab something, and when I confirmed there was nothing to grab, scratched the floor.

Thankfully, scratching the innocent floor with my nails kept me from passing out.

I felt someone pull me from the corner into the center.

I blinked away the cold sweat beading on my lashes.

“Should we make him throw up?”

A frightened voice spoke.

Another person answered in a low voice.

“It won’t do any good.... We just have to wait for the drug to wear off....”

“Let’s not send the rookie into the match.”

The voice was stiff.

“We’ll handle it ourselves.”

Handle what?

I listened to their conversation in a daze.

I remembered that I could not pass out no matter what, but I could not remember much else.

Why was I here like this?

The floor is cold.

Who is talking? Judging by their voices, none of them seem happy....

Ah. My hands and feet are numb.

When I shifted, the voices abruptly stopped.

Someone’s face filled my distorted field of vision.

“Hilde!”

Hm?

“Can you see me?”

Ah.

I smiled faintly at the blurred figure. Hair falling to the shoulders, round eyes staring down at me. The sight was familiar.

It seemed another troublesome matter had ended.

Watching the swaying hair, I smiled a little.

“Eve.”

The person looking at me stopped moving.

“I can see you. I guess it’s over. Where’s Kyle?”

No answer came.

The silence that followed felt strange, and I blinked.

Why aren’t you answering? I thought through the hazy feeling. She really is a talkative person.

She was especially interested in us, and every time an experiment ended, she would give a long speech in an excited voice.

Shaking that unusual two-tone hair, blue on the outside and purple underneath....

“Who are Eve and Kyle?”

Hm?

...Ah.

Damn it.

My sense of reality suddenly returned.

“Are they people he knows? Either way, he’s definitely not in his right mind.”

“I’ll carry him to the waiting room.”

Asil muttered gloomily.

“He doesn’t look like he can even walk properly.”

I should pretend I’m still out of it.

Embarrassed that I had mistaken Bobby for someone else, I kept pretending to be drugged out of my mind until Asil helped me up.

Even as I tensed so I would not burden my silver-haired senior, I kept acting until Ricardo noticed I had come back to my senses.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried