The war veterans came and asked me countless things.

Even Aki seemed to know Jin Silver. They hurriedly came up from the subway and bombarded me with questions. Then they moved quickly.

Leeho and Walker, who did not know Jin Silver, were left beside me. The other four (Green, Trevain, Aki, Ami) vanished back into the subway for the search.

The three of us remained on the empty road.

Leeho tore his gaze away from the seniors disappearing out of sight and looked at me.

“Hilde.”

“Yes.”

Why, sir?

I lifted my head and met Leeho’s eyes as he approached. With a troubled expression, he sat down next to me.

The man dropped his arms loosely and studied me steadily.

“Sorry.”

“Yes?”

Why is he suddenly apologizing?

Ah, same as Ami?

I stared at his face, trying to figure out exactly what he meant.

As always, the man looked exhausted, but he didn’t avoid my eyes.

“I yelled at you before.”

“...Did you?”

“You know, when your nature was revealed.”

Ah, he means back inside Safe Point.

It felt like forever ago. No, I had even forgotten it happened. Forcing my heavy eyelids to rise, I shook my head.

“It was a natural reaction, sir.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“You were angry because I hid it, right? If I had been in your shoes, I would’ve gotten angry too.”

“You think you didn’t say it because you didn’t want to?”

Leeho sighed and rubbed his neck.

“You couldn’t.”

I had no idea what to say, so I kept my mouth shut.

By now Walker had come close and was listening with his arms crossed. I stared at the seniors and recalled what had happened at Safe Point.

The horde of creatures that swarmed the military vehicle. Safe Point, surrounded. That giant creature, two floors tall, endlessly chasing me.

Even I would’ve been furious.

They hadn’t known my situation. It wasn’t some trivial thing I hid—it was something with lives at stake. Not something to easily gloss over.

I was about to insist it was a natural reaction, but Leeho waved his hand.

“Just accept it was my fault. In fact, you were the one who first told Ami to reveal it, right?”

“Wouldn’t not saying even that make me a truly hopeless piece of trash, sir?”

“See? In every way, I was the one being small-minded.”

With that, Leeho let out a long breath.

From the hollowed ground came no other sounds. Maybe it was the wind cutting at my skin, but I suddenly felt chilled. Cold and drowsy. If only I could crawl under a blanket back in the dorm inside the Core, I would need nothing else.

My eyelids drooped, and Leeho spoke again.

“And hey.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t do that again.”

“Pardon?”

Do what?

As my eyes widened, Leeho frowned.

“You fell instead of me.”

Ah.

Right, that had happened. I’d forgotten. What happened atop the gorge now felt as far away as my duel with Yun.

And in truth, I hadn’t fallen in his place. The creature had been after me, not Leeho.

I didn’t have the strength to explain in detail, so I meant to say, ‘It was my fault anyway, of course it’s only right.’

But seeing his troubled eyes, I swallowed the words back.

I nodded instead.

“I will try, sir.”

“Good. Do try. I hear you do that a lot.”

“Huh?”

When?

I gave a baffled look, and Leeho let out a heavy sigh.

What is with that expression, like you’re biting your tongue to hold back a lecture?

Even Walker, who had been silently listening, gave a short snort.

Why?

I’m not some reckless junior who runs headlong into danger, am I? Since leaving the Core I’ve been fairly obedient to orders. I’ve followed commands with my spirit crushed.

Feeling wronged, I protested.

“I love myself very much, sir.”

“Oh, do you really.”

“...I’m serious.”

“Did you cut that pillar inside the subway?”

Walker, who had only listened till now, suddenly cut in.

I forced my heavy eyelids open and looked out over the crumbling road. Then I slowly nodded. I didn’t want to sleep before the seniors came back from the subway. I was grateful they kept talking to me. Without this, I’d have already collapsed into sleep.

I smelled blood all over myself.

I answered sluggishly.

“Yes. I misjudged my strength.”

“Who taught you the sword?”

“I learned from my mentor.”

“That can’t be.”

I couldn’t understand his definitive tone.

Rolling only my eyes, I met Walker’s sharp gaze. Despite his massive frame, his eyes always gleamed with cutting precision.

Just standing there, his presence was immense. He pointed out:

“Yun doesn’t use heavy swords like yours. He prefers very practical things. He could have received your strikes and given feedback, but you wouldn’t have learned your whole swordsmanship from him.”

“...A very valid point, sir.”

“Then who taught you? If you learned alone, how?”

I don’t remember.

Because even though I faced a creature that called me traitor, even though I recalled the name and face of someone called Kyle, even though I learned I wasn’t human—still not all of my memories had returned. The holes in my past could not be patched with any lie. An emptiness impossible to explain.

Lying was exhausting now.

Looking out over the horizon, I silently apologized to Yehyeon.

“I don’t remember.”

“What?”

“I hardly remember anything from before I became a Badger.”

I felt Leeho and Walker staring.

I couldn’t meet their eyes and muttered like talking to myself.

“I only remembered my name.”

“...What, seriously? What’s wrong with you? You went to a hospital, didn’t you?”

“Yes. They found nothing unusual in my brain.”

“So it’s not that you never got a license, but that you don’t remember if you did.”

Walker hit the mark.

He was smart in many ways. He spoke little, but every word struck true. No wonder they said he’d worked as a problem-solver in the underworld.

I answered with a nod.

Commander. How can you expect me to keep secrets with someone this sharp ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) beside me? Having already let part slip, I wasn’t in a place to complain.

Still, it’s cold. It’s getting colder.

While the seniors chewed over what I’d said, I curled up shivering.

Leeho’s voice came.

“What’s wrong?”

Hugging my knees, I turned my head to him.

“I’m cold.”

“Cold?”

His eyes went wide.

“Cold? Right now?”

“Yes.”

Is it just me?

Apparently it was. Seeing Leeho and Walker’s faces harden as they rushed toward me. I stared blankly as they suddenly checked my pulse and examined the body Ami had healed.

They said something to me, but I couldn’t make it out.

No, I was too drowsy. Maybe because I had been tense too long.

Even keeping my eyes open was hard... I couldn’t understand their words.

I’ll just sleep a bit.

Five minutes...

***

A white ceiling.

“Hilde~...”

A hand pressed me down as I tried to bolt upright.

“Do you have to end up in the hospital after every mission to feel satisfied—?”

“You awake?”

A low, dry voice reached my ear.

“Long-lived, aren’t you. Good work.”

“Oppa! How can you say that to Hilde!”

“It was a compliment. What’s wrong with it?”

“Really, your way of talking hasn’t changed in decades~.”

“Samuel! The patient’s awake!”

Chaos.

Too many sensations poured in. For a while I was dizzy from the flood. Light stabbing down over my eyelids. Blurry black shapes moving busily in my foggy vision.

I blinked again and again to distinguish them.

Murmuring voices. The clatter of an IV stand’s wheels. That sharp hospital smell.

Only after I absorbed all this did I recognize the people around me.

Faces peering at me around the bed.

Richard Green, Ami, Leeho Chang. Familiar faces I had seen before closing my eyes. They stood at the foot of my bed looking down. As I squinted, their faces grew clear.

And two more familiar ones. Ricardo, flashing his reptilian green eyes in a sharp grin. Choi Yun, staring coldly at me.

The weight of those gazes bore down, fierce and unrelenting.

I sucked in a breath at the oppressive scene.

I exhaled, then spoke.

“This is kind of overwhelming.”

“Get used to it.”

Leeho answered in a weary voice.

“Better this than having the Commander or the Personnel Director standing here.”

That’s terrifying.

I pushed up on my elbows and sat upright.

My vision widened. Instinctively, I took in my surroundings. The hospital inside headquarters. Black Badger HQ, from which we had been forcibly expelled because of Jaeyeon. The place where my memory began, where difficult superiors and eccentric scientists lingered.

At last.

I was back in the place where you could buy food from others.

I sighed as my eyes roamed the conveniences of civilization.

“It’s the mundane world...”

“Ah~... did he hit his head?”

“Get a grip. You’re not discharged yet.”

Beside Ricardo, who doubted my intelligence, Yun cut in.

Cold and expressionless as always, he added:

“There is no set discharge date. Abandon the hope of ever leaving.”

“Thank you again for your always nourishing advice, mentor.”

“Good.”

Yun shamelessly accepted.

“At least you don’t seem more stupid than I feared.”

“I’m touched you thought my intelligence could sink lower.”

Laughter broke out.

I blinked and looked at their smiles. Leeho smiled with his neat teeth. Ricardo wore his sharp, sly grin. I wasn’t sure why they were smiling, but those two always smiled, so it wasn’t strange.

But even Richard Green’s lips curved faintly—that was surprising.

The man said to be as hard as steel didn’t smile long, though.

He quickly wiped it away and looked straight at me.

“Hildebert.”

“Yes, sir.”

Meeting his burning eyes, I answered without flinching.

“Well done.”

Thank you.

Though I don’t know what I did. All I remembered was causing trouble and being saved by my seniors.

Still, it made me happy to be encouraged. It felt good to be back at HQ. Passing out spared me what must have been a grueling return.

Some memories had come back, forgotten swordsmanship resurfaced.

I didn’t know why I had collapsed, but I wasn’t in pain. I had been a burden, but it wasn’t... the worst outcome.

Ah.

Wait.

“Senior.”

I lifted my head to Ami.

She quietly met my eyes.

After gazing into her firm eyes for a while, I whispered my question.

“Jin Silver...?”