I would have rather he’d been a ghost.

Because a ghost John Mühlen wouldn’t have the power to drag me back into that hell.

But was this really happening? That man actually coming all the way to the dorm’s old wing on the weekend?

A smile of resignation slipped out.

Tom and Hesh just stood frozen in place. Ami had both cheeks clutched in her hands. A reaction as shocked as mine.

For her, who had seen Mühlen the longest, it must have been even more shocking.

Mühlen fixed his blue gaze on me.

“You—”

Thud.

?

With a dull sound, Mühlen collapsed.

We stared wide-eyed at the same spot.

As the tall man went down, a familiar face appeared. Curly hair, striped T-shirt like a trademark.

Giacomo Ro.

“This fucking creepy bastard.”

He spoke with his hand knife still sharp.

“Ah, damn, that clears three days of indigestion. Ever since I was trapped because of this bastard, I’ve wanted to take his head off.”

Ro glared at the unconscious man, his thick brows furrowed.

Hesh and Tom stared at their senior in shock.

“Three days?”

“Fucking carnivorous plants.”

“Carnivorous plants?”

The rookies muttered, unable to understand.

But I wasn’t surprised. By now I knew the man lying there unconscious was exactly the kind of bastard to cause something like that.

The genius scientist slumped in the doorway like a deflated balloon doll.

I was glad Ro had dirtied his hands to put Mühlen down for me.

Ro looked down at him sullenly, then raised his head.

“Hey, Peanut.”

He was calling Ami.

The girl, whose face looked like a screaming painting, came to her senses. She blinked her round eyes a few times.

“Huh.”

“Why are you here?”

“Playing a game.”

Ami regained her composure.

“Hilde’s so good at the game we were clearing a boss I couldn’t beat.”

“Game?”

Ro craned his head, scanning inside.

I, meanwhile, kept my eyes on the unconscious Mühlen. Though I was glad he was out cold, I couldn’t feel at ease.

That creepy obsession.... I should have realized from the start he wasn’t someone who would respect my refusal.

Once he was out of sight, I would have to contact my mentor immediately.

While I was thinking that, Ro came closer.

“Hey.”

He stopped in front of me.

I looked up with a puzzled face.

On a sunny Saturday morning, how had this senior even known to come here?

Ro rested his chin on his hand, which he set on my arm.

“I’ve always wanted to beat the shit out of that guy, and thanks to you I finally got to.”

His voice was serious.

“Normally if John dies, they say I’d have to go to some national trial? That always stopped me.”

“State trial.”

Ami cut in flatly.

Ro ignored her.

“You’re a useful kid. I like you.”

“Thank you.”

I thought back to how I’d heard similar words from the Personnel Director on the first day.

But I didn’t care. I was just grateful Ro had personally taken down Mühlen.

A fresh breeze blew through the open window. Mixed with it came the sound of our characters dying to the boss’s attack. It had been at the very last moment, but it wasn’t a hard fight, so next time we’d clear it.

“Take Mühlen with you.”

Ami spoke to Ro.

“But why did he come here anyway? I really thought I was seeing a ghost.”

“Experimenting on him.”

Transparent question marks seemed to float above Tom, Hesh, and Ami all at once.

I chuckled awkwardly at their bewildered faces.

“Experiment? What experiment?”

“Come to think of it, you said last weekend you had somewhere to be.”

“Hilde, did you do something stupid again?”

Stupid?

I pulled a falsely wounded expression. Then quietly wondered how I should explain this situation. I could be honest with Ami, but the other two had no idea.

After hesitating, I cut everything short.

“I was asked to be a test subject, and I just said yes.”

“Huh?”

“Again!”

Hesh groaned with furrowed brows, and Ami screamed.

Tom only stared at me like he couldn’t process the words.

Now that I knew how stupid that choice had been, I laughed sheepishly and raised both palms.

“I was an idiot. Reflecting deeply.”

“Why would he even ask you to be a test subject...?”

Tom slowly asked back.

I smiled neutrally, then explained.

“Because my mentor is Yun, and I happened to cross paths with him?”

“Ah, too damn long-winded!”

Ro, having already lost interest in the conversation, hefted the unconscious scientist.

Ro wasn’t tall. So Mühlen’s legs dragged on the floor like a wet rag slung over his shoulder. He could have shifted him into a steadier position, but Ro didn’t care if the man’s limbs scraped the ground as he walked.

Thump, thud, thump.

The scientist’s body banged against the doorway and walls.

The unconscious scientist and Ro vanished from sight making grotesque noises.

“Is that really okay?”

“Yeah, that sound earlier was no joke.”

I asked Ami, and Hesh stuck his head in too. They meant the sound when Ro had struck the back of his neck.

It really had been loud.

Ami, lips pressed in a straight line, answered while watching the spot Ro had gone.

“Probably. Even Yun oppa sometimes hits Mühlen on the back of the neck like that.”

“Senior Yun?”

“Apparently he sometimes tries to set off chemical bombs.”

The rookies gaped down at Ami.

Tom, staring at her youthful face, said,

“But isn’t that man... the world-famous scientist you see in textbooks?”

“Guess geniuses are always a little weird. My oppa’s not normal either.”

Ami answered easily.

Then she looked up at me, who was nodding along earnestly. Our eyes met in the air.

She stared at me with her big, round eyes and said,

“From now on, don’t do anything stupid and stay off that man’s radar, Hilde.”

Of course. First thing Monday, I’d report this to Yun.

***

The moment Monday came, I told Yun what had happened over the weekend.

“He came all the way to the dorms?”

Yun showed a rare surprised expression.

Then, for some reason, the corner of his mouth stretched into a long smile.

“Looks like he’s really fixated.”

“Please save me.”

I gave him a desperate look.

He smoothly slid the sword he was holding back into its sheath. The sword I’d been using since last week.

Ever since returning from outside the Core, I had been training with the sword under Yun. He insisted I had to anchor my memory, and I enjoyed the sparring anyway, so I had no complaints. Though last week, I hadn’t even managed to cut a single thread of his clothes.

Yun had judged,

“It’s clear you used a greatsword before, but your dulled body can’t keep up with the memory.”

He was never the type to put things gently.

“It’ll take a month to draw out your ability. Don’t think about going on site for a month.”

So here I was again at the training ground to get thrashed. Another day no different from last week.

Except that now I knew Mühlen’s obsession hadn’t ended. Judging from two days ago, he’d definitely come for me again this weekend.

I approached the man with the dry, parched face.

“Please, Senior, save this poor soul from John Mühlen’s rampage. I didn’t recognize your sincerity before.”

“Yes. You finally recognize your benefactor.”

Yun shamelessly accepted my heartfelt plea.

And of course, he didn’t change expression one bit while saying it.

In the tall-ceilinged place where we had fought fungi, I wore protective gear, while he just wore a black T-shirt and light joggers.

“I’ll try to shove some other research work his way, so wait. He needs something else to draw his attention.”

“Can’t we persuade him with words?”

“You think that would work?”

“No. What if someone above ordered him to stop?”

“You think he’d listen?”

“No. Would threats work?”

“You think they’d work?”

“No. Just what is that man? Some kind of sociopath?”

“No. Unlike me, he does have a conscience. It’s just that his standards are too different from normal people’s.”

That did seem true.

John Mühlen seemed to have a sense of “good” completely different from normal humans. Someone who viewed the world in a wholly different way.

Amazing. So that man could even feel pangs of conscience?

According to my mentor, at least he had one, unlike himself....

...

Wait.

“Senior, did you just say you don’t have a conscience?”

“What, Ami didn’t tell you?”

Yun asked casually, like he was asking about lunch.

“That my brain has a congenital abnormality.”

If you’re going to drop a bomb, at least put some weight on it.

I stood there a long while, trying to digest that heavy fact tossed out so lightly.

Meanwhile, Yun smoothly drew his blade. A long, thin sword.

They said among all the Badgers, only two could wield a sword “properly.”

Jonathan Kudo, who used a katana. And Yehyeon, who had formally studied under someone.

Yun himself claimed he only knew it roughly. If my swordsmanship ever surpassed his, he said he’d hand me over to Yehyeon.

But right now, the man holding that slender blade was plenty threatening to me.

Looking at his neat features, I asked,

“Are you a sociopath?”

“That’s what they usually call me.”

“Don’t you scrap enhanced bodies?”

“Already plotting mutiny?”

Yun lazily pointed the blade tip at me.

White light pooled on the sword’s edge.

“Fine. You’d better have the skill for mutiny. Draw.”

Without another word, I drew my sword.

***

So time passed. Weekdays of training with live blades under a mentor who lacked a conscience. Weekends when a genius mad scientist, whose sense of “normal” was wildly off, kept coming by.

Mühlen didn’t give up easily. More precisely, he couldn’t find another research subject as interesting as “Hildebert Taleb.” Every weekend he came, every weekend Ro knocked him out with a hand strike, and every weekend Ro carried him off slung roughly over his shoulder.

I suffered. While Ro grew more impressed with me, Hesh solidified his prejudice against genius science types. Tom began to suspect there was something unusual about me. Ami kept worrying.

And Yun....

“This weekend, stay at my house.”

It was the day before the fourth weekend. The day I finally heard Yun say, “It’s about time to send you back to the field.” (Though I still hadn’t managed to cut even a piece of his clothes.)

My mentor gave the order in a flat voice.

“You need to disappear from John’s sight.”

“I feel like I’m imposing too much....”

“I’m sick of this too. Just do as I say.”

His voice held sincerity, and I didn’t have the courage to ignore it.

With a cigarette in his mouth, he showed me a string of numbers on his phone.

“I called a cab. Pack up, get in on time. Don’t come out all weekend. This weekend, it ends one way or «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» another.”

The voice of a man normally devoid of emotion, now tinged with irritation, was terrifying. The bloody knife in his other hand only made it worse.

I obeyed him.

***

A house so spacious it made me marvel every time.

As Yun had said, the house welcomed me in. On a Friday evening under a dim sky, I stepped inside, deliberately avoiding the spot where the cabin once stood.

The house, familiar from a few visits, was quiet.

A wide, high ceiling, a clear open living room.

A long sofa in the middle, and—

Huh?

Someone was lying on the sofa under a blanket.

“Ami?”

I had heard Ami might return from outside the Core today.

I carefully walked to the sofa and stopped, staring at the blanket rising and falling with steady rhythm.

Why was she sleeping here?

“Ami. You awake? It’s late, you should go to bed and sleep till morning....”

“Mm.”

A muffled voice.

The moment I heard it, I froze. My tongue locked.

The blanket squirmed. Someone half-awake shifted beneath it.

Then the figure sat up, blanket falling from his upper body.

It was clear who had been inside.

Beside me, frozen stiff, he sat with eyes closed, still heavy with sleep.

Then after a while, his long eyes cracked open, and he looked up at me.

“Hilde?”

“...I’m so very sorry, Commander.”

“Mm.”

My supreme boss mumbled in a sleepy voice.

“Hello.”