Luke and Becky cried bitterly in the camera flashes.

The woman holding them also wept bitterly. Yun passed by the familiar scene without a glance.

A man in pitch-black combat uniform strode across the ruined street. Several cameras chased after Yun in a hurry. But he did not so much as blink at the bursting flashes as he walked toward the entrance of the underground parking lot.

The place where firefighters had drawn a security line.

Yun stepped over the yellow tape and went down into the underground parking lot, heading for the collapsed wreckage.

“Sordi.”

He approached the junior standing and staring at the wreckage.

“Move. If you can’t get a hold of yourself.”

The man whose name was called turned his head.

Hollow green eyes looked at Yun. The sharpness was gone, only a sunken gaze left.

Having watched this man for long by circumstance, Yun knew his state was not normal. Ever since the Second War, they had worked the field together, so he inevitably came to know roughly what might trigger the other.

“...What about me....”

“When someone’s trapped under a building, they lose their mind.”

Yun casually spoke words Ricardo Sordi would hate, then stopped beside him.

The collapsed debris blocked the entrance to the underground parking lot. Despite the firefighters’ protests, the flashes burst behind them. Broadcast drones hovered overhead.

The situation was not the worst. The whole building had not come down. Only the ceiling of the curved passageway in the underground parking lot had collapsed.

He narrowed his eyes, examining the shape of the wreckage.

“Stand aside.”

He spoke to the stiffened man.

“You’re in the way.”

“...What’s there to ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) be in the way of clearing rubble.... I’m fine, so let’s clear it together....”

“With those shaking hands?”

Yun answered without taking his eyes off the debris.

“Seems Jonathan Kudo is inside, that’s why you’re like this. But with a collapse of this scale, even if he was trapped, he should be fine.”

Ricardo did not reply.

Yun added no more. The words just now were a reaction from Yehyeon’s constant nagging — be good to juniors.

Since Ricardo was always with Jonathan Kudo and Ska Owen, saying it this way counted as ‘being good to a junior.’

The junior bit his lip and shoved his faintly trembling hands into his pockets.

Whether he did or not, Yun began lifting the rubble. Piece by piece, neatly, like clearing a Jenga tower from the top down. Small cement fragments fell like cookie crumbs to the ground.

The sound and light of the flashes grew more frantic.

“Mr. Sordi, why are you just standing there?”

A reporter, struggling with firefighters, raised his voice.

“Both your arms look just fine!”

Veteran Badgers had their names etched into society.

Supreme Commander Yehyeon was a figure representing an era. But he was not the only famous Badger. Heroes of the First and Second Wars, especially those active often inside the Core, were names frequently mentioned online.

“Wouldn’t the building collapse have been prevented if you caught the creature faster?”

They were long used to such baseless provocation and did not bother replying.

Yun quickly cleared the rubble. While doing so, he discovered two people trapped underneath.

White hair under an oxygen mask caught his eye. White hair contrasting with hazelnut-toned skin. Tall build, sharp and well-shaped features.

The junior who one day had suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Still breathing.

Ricardo let out a small sigh.

“Does he think being a Badger means being on a suicide squad....”

“Forden. Been a while, hasn’t it?”

Yun called to the man trembling beneath the unconscious junior.

“You’ve aged a lot.”

“Y-Y-Y....”

“Yeah. I’m glad to see you too. Looks like this brat took the whole shock of the collapse. You’re intact, so pull yourself together and get up.”

The flashes burst again.

Reporters shouting for the President of Cureus Corporation. Firefighters blocking journalists from rushing in. Yun brushed away the rubble with his hand and lifted the unconscious junior.

Clatter.

Pebbles fell from Hilde’s body.

Yun adjusted his position so the tall junior’s limbs would not drag on the ground and slung him over his shoulder. Though completely unconscious, from pulse and temperature Yun judged he would not die immediately.

Good. He wanted Hildebert Taleb to endure.

It had been a long time since someone had piqued his curiosity like this.

“President, President Forden!”

“Call an ambulance, now!”

“Jonathan.”

As Cureus staff bustled and the Cureus president staggered to his feet, Ricardo’s low voice rang.

Another man, revealed as the rubble was cleared, lifted his head.

His hands were pitch-black.

Blackened hands that spoke of how desperately he had clawed through rubble.

Jonathan Kudo looked at them with weary eyes.

“What the hell happened to you?”

Ricardo walked past Yun without pause and went to his comrade.

Ignoring his faintly trembling hands, the man pulled Kudo’s arm.

“Your face is awful.... Doesn’t look like you were crushed like Hilde.... Did you breathe in too much gas?”

“Yun.”

Instead of replying, Kudo called the name of the senior walking away.

Yun, carrying Hilde on his shoulder, glanced back. Those who had been inside the half-collapsed tower all fixed their gaze on the man draped over Yun’s shoulder.

Kudo said,

“Don’t send juniors with weak regeneration into the field.”

“He abandoned me!”

The president, having regained his senses, shouted over Kudo’s voice, pointing his finger.

“He abandoned me even when I begged!”

“If you caused trouble, you should shut up, Forden.”

Yun spoke indifferently.

“The parking lot ceiling collapsed because you panicked and fired useless civilian defense gadgets. Must have been some handheld laser cannon. Didn’t I tell you that crap is worthless?”

“U-Until that bastard abandoned me I never even pulled it out of my pocket! I begged him desperately, and yet....”

“What do you mean abandoned? If he abandoned you, how the hell was he unconscious on top of you?”

At the dry point, the president’s mouth shut in a thin line.

Yun sighed. Talking with someone whose head was empty was exhausting.

“I’m leaving.”

The two juniors looked at him.

“Do whatever you want. I have to take him to the hospital. I’ll ride the two-tone rookie’s car. If you want to get on, do, if not, don’t.”

“Take him too. He’s delirious from inhaling gas....”

“I’m fine.”

Yun and Ricardo ignored Kudo’s sullen reply.

Ricardo pulled the displeased comrade by the arm. Even while being dragged away by his peer, Kudo did not stop glaring at Hilde.

Even when Yun showed clearly he had no interest and the others should do as they pleased, Kudo kept throwing his sullen look.

Then suddenly he spoke.

“Teach him not to rush in blindly if his regeneration is weak.”

“Tell him yourself.”

Yun replied dryly.

As he walked into the blinding flash, he added,

“Not that he’ll listen.”

***

In the end they all boarded the ambulance Shu Diamond drove.

Ricardo and Kudo laid the unconscious Hilde down and sat on the opposite bench. Yun climbed into the passenger seat and pulled out his phone. Silence rushed in once the ambulance doors shut.

Reporters swarmed around the vehicle, but no one inside paid them any mind.

Shu drove off calmly.

“To the HQ hospital.”

The vehicle pushed through the crowd.

A heavy silence lingered in the ambulance for a long time. Only the steady breathing of Hildebert Taleb echoed clearly.

The two Badgers leaning back against the wall with their eyes shut. Another silently driving. One gazing at his phone screen.

The air of aftermath wrapped around them.

After a long while, the silence was broken by Hilde’s voice.

“...sor....”

At the faint murmur, heads turned.

“...Sorry.”

The seniors stared at the rookie muttering weakly in his sleep.

A silence of a different kind came over them. A hush born from all gazing at one spot.

Ricardo spoke.

“Doesn’t sound like he’s apologizing to us.... Yun, any guesses?”

“None.”

Yun narrowed his eyes at the unconscious junior.

“I’d have to know something about him.”

“But you spend the most time with him, don’t you~?”

“That he can handle a sword and is quick-witted, that’s about it.”

Yun explained indifferently, still keeping his eyes on Hilde.

“Which means I practically know nothing.”

“But his reputation’s good.”

Shu joined in with her husky voice.

Eyes still on the windshield, she muttered,

“Carl said, contrary to his worries, he seems perfectly fine....”

“He himself doesn’t cause harm. He just keeps doing things that harm himself~.”

“Well. Whether he’s truly harmless, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Yun’s voice turned thoughtful.

The words did not suit him, so heads turned his way. But he was so focused on Hilde he did not see Ricardo’s raised brow or Shu’s blink.

“No malice at all, but sometimes the feeling is... strange....”

The blurred words trailed off.

It was rare for Yun to let words fade. Ricardo blinked in surprise.

But Yun remained silent, staring motionless at the unconscious Hilde.

Just like Jonathan Kudo, who sat unmoving, eyes fixed on Hilde.

“Do you even know his name?”

As the ambulance pulled up at HQ’s main gate, Ricardo tossed a barbed question to his friend.

“Remember anything the Personnel Director said in the auditorium? Well... I guess as long as he’s alive, you don’t care who he is.”

“Hildebert Taleb.”

“Oh~. At least you remember the name. Anything else?”

“I don’t care about the rest.”

No one was surprised at Kudo’s flat reply.

“As long as he’s in working condition, that’s enough.”

Again, no one was surprised.

His indifference to new juniors was nothing new. Different from Yun’s indifference, but a kind of line, a kind of detachment.

He was not the type to take interest just because of one shared mission.

So when Jonathan Kudo left the moment he confirmed Hildebert Taleb would be treated safely, no one was surprised. And when he did not so much as show his face after Hilde woke safely, no one was surprised either.

Instead, what surprised them was the media reaction.

***

I woke up to the news that a bomb had gone off.

“You’re in the papers.”

Samuel Han said in a grave tone.

“Want to see it?”