It was too neat and intact.

And it seemed to be two stories tall. It looked like a spotless wooden villa.

Something felt strange. They were really giving this to me for free?

The situation didn’t add up, and while I was still confused, the car stopped.

“Get out.”

Yun said, without making any move to get out himself.

“I’ll park the car and bring the paperwork.”

I quickly got out of the passenger seat.

The spotless car drove off as soon as I stepped out. I lifted my head and observed the sight before me.

It was a beautiful street.

And an empty one. Wide, immaculate roads lined with enormous houses on both sides. In front of them stretched dazzlingly well-kept lawns. The scent of wealth that wafted from the street was indescribable.

Naturally, that cabin would have to be expensive too.

What is this.

What’s going on?

It was so nice that it felt suspicious.

I slowly stood before the cabin. The unexpected luxury made me feel small, careful even in my movements.

So I didn’t notice someone approaching.

A familiar husky voice.

“Hilde.”

I jerked in surprise.

“Wah! You startled me!”

“Sorry.”

The other was startled too, eyes widening.

The moment I confirmed it was Commander Yehyeon, my spine snapped straight as though splashed with cold water.

I didn’t forget to bow my head quickly.

“Commander. I—I sincerely apologize.”

“No.”

Yehyeon’s expression softened, and seeing my embarrassment seemed amusing to him, he narrowed his eyes with a smile.

“Don’t worry about it. Sorry for startling you. I was just about to head inside when I saw you two arriving.... Did you spend your first day well?”

“Ah, yes. Thanks to Senior Yun.... We even had a good dinner.”

“You got treated to something expensive, didn’t you?”

“Yes. It was really delicious.”

“Good. That’s a relief. And your body?”

“I’m full of energy.”

I answered promptly, and the man with his hands thrust in his pockets smiled.

Even just standing there, his presence radiated. Yet the gentle smile he wore, in contrast to his authoritative posture, created a peculiar atmosphere.

Even if he smiled kindly, it didn’t put me at ease.

“They say you agreed to take the cabin.”

I nodded at his calm voice.

“Yes. You’ve granted me such great kindness, I worry how I’ll ever repay it.”

“There’s no need to think that way. Yun was already considering paying to demolish the cabin. With you moving in, it’s convenient for him to have his trainee nearby, and he won’t need to waste money tearing it down.”

So then why had he planned to demolish such a fine-looking cabin?

I was curious but didn’t ask, and Yehyeon didn’t explain further. He simply stood watching me.

A cool evening breeze blew.

“Did Yun tell you about the administrative matters?”

I nodded.

“I memorized everything.”

“Good. Unless someone asks, don’t bring them up first.”

“Yes.”

After answering faithfully, I looked at him.

“Commander.”

“Were you about to apologize?”

The gentle question made my words stick in my throat.

Caught off guard, I stood speechless, and Yehyeon gave a faint smile. Unlike the earlier gentle one, this smile carried sorrow and the weight of years.

Staring blankly at my superior, I spoke.

“If you dislike apologies, then at least accept my thanks.”

Yehyeon’s wry smile deepened.

“Hilde. Don’t burden yourself too much. Even if you sometimes forget or misstate your disguised past, there will always be chances to smooth it over. Memory is fragile that way.”

“But you could have avoided creating trouble in the first place.”

At my words, Yehyeon’s inscrutable, bitter smile grew heavier. Seeing that expression, it was hard to keep quiet.

“You could have scrapped the enhanced body. Or just let me die when the creature was chasing me.”

“That wouldn’t be what a human should do, would it?”

“Short term, maybe not.... But I was a being who didn’t even remember what I looked like. With no clue what kind of man I had been, treating me as a dangerous element and eliminating me wouldn’t have been unreasonable.”

“You’re a good kid.”

The Commander’s voice was soft yet firm.

“Even if your memory returns, that kind nature won’t disappear.”

At his final words, my restless, tangled insides suddenly felt at ease.

The sense that I owed him a great debt did not vanish. The highest authority among Black Badgers was this man, and it was he who had made the final decision to accept me as an official Black Badger.

I must not forget this true grace.

As I resolved this, a low, cold voice rang out.

“Commander.”

Yehyeon turned his head.

“Yun.”

“Finished work?”

My mentor walked over slowly, holding the pile of paperwork he had mentioned earlier.

The Commander nodded lightly, smiling faintly.

“Just now. Speak comfortably.”

“You said you’d check the rookie before going in.”

Yun instantly switched from polite to informal speech.

I saw Yehyeon raise his brows. His hands remained in his trouser pockets.

“Don’t call him ‘rookie.’ Use his name.”

“He wouldn’t care either way.”

“But it isn’t respectful to him.”

“I really don’t mind.”

I hesitated, then joined the conversation. Both men’s eyes turned to me.

“Call me whatever you like. From your positions, I really am a green rookie. I even struggled with a mushroom.”

“Mushroom.”

Yehyeon exhaled, as though recalling something forgotten.

“Right. Mushroom.... What were you thinking?”

“Ami must have told you? But he focused well for three hours, and in the end he killed it. Without taking any lasting shock. In that time, I got a decent sense °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of what I need to teach him.”

“Three hours?”

Yehyeon’s voice betrayed open astonishment.

“You let the kid get struck by tentacles for three hours straight?”

“I told him he could give up at any time. He didn’t. I didn’t assign myself as his mentor — Personnel Director Kang Ju did.”

“He’s really fine?”

The Commander turned his head and asked me. I quickly nodded.

“Yes. I’m completely fine. And it’s true, he told me I could quit anytime.”

“If you’re not fine, don’t hold it in. Say so immediately. To anyone. If Yun is too hard, tell Ami or Ro instead. Not just today — always.”

“I’m actually really good at whining. Don’t worry.”

I answered quickly, and Yehyeon’s troubled expression relaxed. The furrow in his brow smoothed out, and his gentle smile returned.

The elegant commander laughed softly.

“You probably won’t even remember if you whined.”

“Hmm.... Sharp observation. But somehow I feel like I would be good at whining.”

“He really is fine. It shows if someone’s holding it in. Hey, take this.”

Yun spoke bluntly, handing me the papers.

I snatched them up quickly. My eyes skimmed them, and as they did, I reconfirmed my exploding affection for my curt mentor.

It was the deed of transfer for the cabin. The ownership had been passed to me.

“I love you, Mentor.”

“Your insides are leaking out.”

“I didn’t think there was a need to hide them.”

Yehyeon laughed aloud.

He was the kind of man whose aura of sorrow and gravitas vanished every time he laughed.

After that, the three of us inspected the cabin. Its condition was surprisingly good.

When I pushed open the door, the scent of wood washed over me. A small shoe cabinet and an entryway. After removing our shoes and stepping inside, I saw a living room at the end of a short hallway. A worn beanbag sat there, with a frayed but round and cute rug spread out. To the right was the kitchen, to the left a staircase leading up to the second floor. It was a duplex.

“Cozy and really wonderful.”

When I offered my heartfelt thanks, my mentor and superior gave me awkward looks.

Soon after, they withdrew. Pointing out the houses right in front of the cabin as their own, they told me to rest well after such a long day and disappeared.

Of course, the one who told me to rest well was Yehyeon.

For the first time in a while, I was left alone.

Suddenly, crushing fatigue weighed down my entire body.

I staggered into the bathroom, and without even remembering how I washed up, I collapsed into sleep.

***

When I woke up as if from a blackout, it was 7:30 a.m.

I shot up like a spring and quickly finished showering. Bursting out of the bathroom, I opened the fridge. Just as my mentor had said, it was stocked with the basics.

Milk, eggs, cheese, bottled water, several instant meals. Bread and cereal.

I poured myself some cereal, ate quickly, and threw on whatever clothes seemed suitable.

There was still some time before I had to head out to meet Yun.

Not knowing what else to do, I blankly picked up the phone. Sinking into the old beanbag, I turned it on.

After a moment’s hesitation, I went online.

In the search bar, I typed “Yehyeon.” There wasn’t any special reason. I just thought if anyone, he’d show up in a search....

Actually.

He was extremely famous.

I stared at the photos and career profile plastered across the search results. Apparently, he appeared in the news regularly. There were countless articles. Seeing online the man I’d just met in person last night felt surreal. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Maybe once I was done with today’s schedule, I’d read through them carefully.

While scrolling down, a certain headline caught my eye.

[How can it make sense that the head of Black Badger never changes when it’s not even a private company?]

Looked like a community post.

I tapped it. The thread opened, full of rapidly piling comments.

[Rotten past the point of staleness.]

[So when is that guy ever leaving his seat? There’s no such thing as a term limit?]

[This world is ruled by invisible Big Brothers! Don’t be fooled by the puppet president!]

[His term is until he dies.]

[Deformed system.]

[Maybe he’s still in place because he does his job well? Don’t you remember what happened when they tried replacing him as a trial run?]

[That’s because the replacement was the worst incompetent in history.]

[Still, the fact there’s no fixed term is a problem.]

[Absolute power inevitably corrupts!]

[Didn’t Yehyeon have a successor? Not the handsome braided-hair guy now.]

[Saul? He died a few years ago.]

I couldn’t fully understand everything, but it was certainly provocative.

The parts I didn’t get — I figured I’d ask Yun later. For now, I hit the back button.

Scrolling through, another headline hooked me.

[Did you see that creature appearance at Badger HQ?]

I tapped it.

[They say it escaped from the lab under HQ.]

[But they revealed the intrusion route transparently. No weird conspiracy.]

[First intrusion into Zone 1, and of all places, HQ gets attacked? Suspicious.]

[Must have been a leader-type creature.]

[Didn’t look like one.]

[Why no official statement from the Commander?]

[Only one injured. A minor wound, and apparently just an employee there.]

Are they talking about me?

My heart thudded. The comments kept going.

[Rumor is he got injured saving a child.]

[Badger? Civilian?]

[People say it was a civilian employee. Or a visitor. The Badgers carried him out while he was bleeding.]

[And what were the Badgers doing?]

[HQ is crawling with Badgers. How could a civilian get injured? Makes no sense.]

[They said it wasn’t serious.]

[HQ’s standards, lol.]

They did everything they could.

Even though they were just throwaway online comments, knowing the truth made my insides twist.

Of course, I couldn’t reply and correct them, so I just kept scrolling. Uncertain information, wild guesses. Some criticizing the Black Badgers, some defending them.

It was the internet — unfiltered words ran rampant.

The further I scrolled, the sharper the comments got.

[How long are people going to treat Yehyeon as a hero of troubled times?]

[But seriously, why hasn’t he been replaced? Why not? Why not?]

[Dictator.]

[Decades of dictatorship. Time to step down.]

[Honestly, isn’t he the biggest beneficiary? A nobody who rose to the top overnight.]

[You’re being deceived. Who benefits most from creatures?]

[Not this conspiracy crap again.]

[Sure. Humanity never even landed on the moon either, right, gentlemen?]

[Yehyeon is a creature.]

What the hell kind of comment was that?

I snorted and read on.

[But where did Pretty-boy even come from? Why no family info?]

[No M-map.]

[Who’s Pretty-boy?]

[┗Yehyeon]

[Creatures are just a tool. We’re being ruled by a dictator.]

[But seriously, having no relatives at all is weird.]

[Didn’t they die in the war?]

[No, his pre-war school records are there, but no info on his parents.]

[It’s weird how he appeared from nowhere with that title.]

[That’s because he killed a Stage-10 creature with his own hands. There’s even video footage.]

[Even so, would they really give him that title just for that?]

There’s a video?

I’d have to look it up later.

[Humans get experimented on and turned into creatures, right?]

[Nonsense.]

[We’re all being fooled. “Yehyeon” is just an identity — the real rulers keep changing behind the scenes.]

[Honestly, we’ve seen his face too long. Boring. He doesn’t even age...]

[That’s CGI, lol.]

[He is good-looking though.]

[Reality is he’s a homo screwing around with some chaebol heir.]

[┗Yehyeon is gay?]

[┗Who knows. He is pretty.]

I frowned and kept scrolling. The thread went on endlessly.

[Isn’t he involved in the previous Commander’s death?]

[The previous Commander died of old age.]

[That’s what they said publicly.]

[I just can’t stand him. Acting all democratic and noble, ha.]

[But the timing of this creature outbreak is too suspicious. I think it’s connected to Senator Earhart.]

[Like it’s the first time a creature incident coincided with a political scandal.]

[They said this outbreak started in the Badger research wing itself.]

[Stop with the baseless conspiracy theories. We’re talking about Yehyeon’s dictatorship, don’t derail.]

[But honestly, the fact that Black Badger was founded right after the first outbreak is kind of suspicious. Too perfectly timed.]

[And still they handled it well, but people complain.]

[The U.S. or China were already researching enhanced bodies, obviously. Who cares now. Don’t derail.]

[People like this basically think humanity should’ve gone extinct.]

Thud thud thud!

The knocking at the cabin door made me leap up.

“Yes!”

“Come out.”

My mentor’s chilly voice came through.

“We’ve got to make you usable as fast as possible.”