“I never heard anything about this.”

Was it claustrophobia, or something to do with collapsing buildings?

Whatever the reason, Ricardo eventually managed to steady his breathing.

I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I watched him slowly return to normal rhythm. His complexion was still pale, but surviving the moment’s crisis was good enough.

We could check for other injuries later.

Once he lowered his trembling hands and exhaled a deep breath, I finally moved.

Raising my upper body, I brushed away the debris that had been covering my legs.

“Oh.”

And at the edge of the rubble, I saw something.

“Marie.”

Ricardo, who had been motionless, lifted his head.

I stared down at her half-crushed face.

A miserable sight.

She was still alive.

The one remaining eye rolled weakly toward me. The collapsing building had been merciless to her—everything below her ribs was buried under rubble.

A pool of dried blood had clotted on the floor.

If left like this, she would die soon enough.

“She’s alive...”

Ricardo murmured softly.

“If she were an ordinary civilian, she’d be dead already.”

I didn’t respond.

After what Jaeyeon told me, I knew she was one of the Elder’s subordinates. But I had no idea how much I should pretend to know.

Ska seemed to be hiding everything from Ricardo.

When I glanced sideways, his face was still pale.

Listening to Marie’s ragged breaths in one ear, I met his eyes.

“Are you all right?”

Ricardo ignored me.

He stayed still for a long time, watching Marie without moving. I didn’t push or speak. There was nothing we could do right now anyway.

To be precise—I didn’t even know what to do.

If we waited long enough, maybe a rescue team would come...

That thought was cut off when I saw what Ricardo was doing.

He was about to stab Marie in the throat.

“Sir!”

I lunged and caught the blade in his hand.

“She’ll really die if you do that!”

“You don’t think that’s the merciful thing to do~?”

Ricardo looked up at me and laughed.

His eyes curved into crescent moons. A chill crawled down my spine.

He’s not in his right mind.

I met his gaze squarely and shook my head.

“No.”

“Why...? You want to save her?”

“I don’t care whether she lives or dies.”

That was the truth.

I wasn’t compassionate enough to care about the life of a perpetrator. If I were, I never would have turned my sword against my own kind—or handed my blade to a human.

I just didn’t want to watch Ricardo take someone’s life.

She would die on her own anyway.

I explained quietly and added dryly,

“She’ll show up in your dreams.”

Ricardo gave a short, sharp laugh.

It was pure mockery.

“You’ve never killed anyone before, have you?”

Yes, I have.

If my own kind still counted as people, then yes. But that wasn’t something I could say out loud.

As for killing humans on Earth—I honestly didn’t know.

Instead of answering, I simply stared at my senior’s pale, derisive smile.

“She’ll die soon enough if we just leave her.”

“That’s why we should finish it before then... Ah, don’t worry about me~. I’m not such a saint that I’d have nightmares over killing a dying human~.”

“I just don’t want to see that person die comfortably.”

That, too, was true.

“I don’t pity spectators—but I don’t pity lunatics who blow up arenas full of them either.”

Ricardo studied me quietly.

Silence settled in the narrow, dark space. Only Marie’s ragged breathing, bits of falling concrete, and distant screams filled the air.

Maybe it was the drug’s aftereffects—or maybe the aftermath of the match—but my stomach churned.

I forced the nausea down and waited for him to react. He still looked unwell. The place itself seemed to unsettle him.

We needed to get him out of here soon.

Sweat beaded on his forehead before he finally broke the silence.

“Surprising~. I thought you’d insist on saving her.”

“Thank you for the kind assumption.”

“You sure you’re not just holding back because you want to save her but don’t know how to say it~?”

Ricardo narrowed his eyes.

“Be honest. I don’t want to hear later that the white-haired rookie was wracked with guilt over a life he couldn’t save...”

“Do I really look that kind?”

Persistent, aren’t you.

I appreciated the concern, but—

He didn’t answer my question, only watched me.

The floor trembled faintly.

Pretending not to notice, I straightened slowly.

There wasn’t enough room to stand fully, so I had to keep my back bent.

“Should I clear some space?”

“...What?”

“The ceiling or the passageway.”

I knew perfectly well how much he would hate hearing that, but I said it anyway.

What else could I do in a situation like this?

Losing his strength, being exposed before the crowd, having his buried past dragged into the open, and then suffering a panic attack trapped here with a rookie—it must have shredded his pride.

I knew he was holding himself back from exploding. Ricardo Sordi was the kind of man who hated exposing weakness.

But this wasn’t the time for pride. And I wasn’t the kind of person who could soothe someone’s trauma gently.

So I just spoke plainly.

“You seem uncomfortable with tight spaces.”

As expected—rage.

At me, and at himself.

Ricardo’s eyes flared.

“Cut the useless pity crap...”

I didn’t answer and turned away from his clenched jaw.

“I’ll be as careful as I can.”

I had to pick the right tiles—ones that wouldn’t accelerate the collapse.

“If it looks dangerous, tell me.”

This was Jenga, survival edition.

Ignoring the burning glare on my back, I started moving rubble aside. My eyes had already adjusted to the dark enough to see what could be safely shifted.

Luckily, I’d always been good at games like Jenga.

The space opened up quickly. With more room to move, the air felt less suffocating. Clearing debris also helped me grasp our situation.

It would be best not to touch the rubble piled toward the arena side. I wasn’t planning to move yet, but if we had to, heading in the opposite direction seemed safest—less structural damage there.

What’s Jaeyeon doing right now?

My wandering thoughts were snapped back by Ricardo’s sharp voice.

“Do you not understand human speech?”

His tone had sharpened again.

“Stop messing around and sit down.”

I turned toward him.

Ricardo—angry.

Or more precisely, hypersensitive after being forced to relive his trauma.

I’d seen this before. Back then, too, there were comrades like him—proud, closed-off, strong on the outside.

When you live by the sword, you meet people like that. And in moments like this, when you can’t avoid confronting someone else’s trauma, I’d learned to lay my own weakness bare first.

This is my fear.

Since I’ve seen yours, you can see mine.

I sat down slowly.

“I...”

The problem was, most of my past was classified.

I wasn’t even sure where the boundaries of that secrecy began or ended.

If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve asked Yehyeon for more details.

But since it was too late for that, I thought hard and said,

“What scares me most is facing the things I’ve done.”

It really did scare me.

There were times I wished I weren’t Hildebert Taleb at all.

“So lately, I’ve been... avoiding the truth.”

Ricardo blinked.

He stared at me, eyes widening a little, his expression unreadable.

It looked like he was thinking, What kind of nonsense is this guy spouting now?

“Well, I’ll have to remember everything eventually. But for the past few weeks, I’ve been running from it. I just wanted to like myself for a little longer.”

“...You got your memories back~?”

“Partially.”

That was the truth.

My bent back started to ache, and the nausea I’d been holding back crept up again.

I sighed quietly.

“Fragments keep coming back bit by bit.”

“...So that’s why your skills improved so fast in just a few months...?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right. My body still hasn’t caught up, though.”

“Then what’s this about hating yourself...?”

Ricardo slowly sat down on the floor, repeating the question.

I felt a faint sense of relief seeing him willing to talk at all.

Through the cracks in the rubble, I caught distant sounds drifting in.

“I’ve done a lot of things wrong.”

He didn’t seem satisfied with that simple answer.

He looked at me and gave a derisive chuckle.

“You~?”

“Yes.”

He’s been overestimating me all along.

“For someone as soft-hearted as you, how bad could your mistakes possibly be...?”

Ricardo smirked, resting one arm on his knee.

His green eyes locked onto me, unblinking.

“At worst, you probably just failed to save someone...”

There was deep self-loathing in his voice.

“You’re not the type to truly hate anyone—or to stab a friend in the back...”

Ah.

Ah.

His words pierced like a blade.

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

It burst out of me uncontrollably, hysterical.

Ricardo’s eyes widened in surprise, but I didn’t care.

I laughed for a long while—until I could finally catch my breath.

“No.”

I owed Colton as much as I hated him. And I had driven my sword into the backs of those who trusted me.

Ricardo Sordi was utterly wrong.

“Unfortunately, that’s a complete miss.”

The man frowned faintly.

I was content just knowing the panic had left him. His face was still pale, sweat still dripping, but he’d stabilized for now.

Though... my ankle was swelling.

I’d have to carry him.

Slowly getting up, I reached a hand toward him.

“I can guarantee you, sir—you’re a better person than I am.”

“Oh... You sure like talking out of your ass for someone who doesn’t know me...”

“We’re even then, aren’t we?”

When I smiled, Ricardo clamped his mouth shut, brows furrowing.

My smile widened instead.

“I mean it. You’re good enough that your self-hatred doesn’t have any real grounds.”

Seems I crossed the line.

Ricardo shot up with surprising speed [N O V E L I G H T] and punched me in the face. It wasn’t something he’d ever do normally. The calm version of him would’ve known hitting me would only hurt his own hand—and wouldn’t make any real impact on a cocky rookie.

I probably pushed him too hard when he wasn’t in a state to handle it.

Words can wound differently depending on how you use them, and mine had been too sharp.

I grabbed his bleeding fist.

“You can beat me up all you want once we’re out of here and you’ve got your strength back.”

“Crazy bastard.”

“I’m sorry.”

The vibrations from the arena’s direction grew stronger.

I apologized softly, then pulled my half-risen senior closer.

Moving seemed the wiser choice. Ignoring ominous signs never helped.

He resisted slightly, but I ignored it.

Supporting him almost by force, I began to move slowly toward the opposite end of the passage.

Once we reached the blocked section, I’d start clearing it.

“If you hear anything strange, tell me right away.”

“Thick-skinned bastard...”

“Yes, I know. Still, I’m trying to live properly this time. In my own way.”

“And what the hell does ‘properly’ mean to you?”

His tone made it clear what he was really thinking: How can you say something like that when you talk like this?

Crawling through the narrow gap, I carefully set him down by the wall near the dead end—close enough that I could shield him quickly if the rubble gave way.

Then I crouched beside him and began round two of survival Jenga.

As I carefully moved debris from the blocked passage, I answered a question that hadn’t needed one.

“Saving people.”

Sorry, Marie.

“And killing Creatures.”

The decision I made back then—

The mistakes born from it couldn’t be undone, so all I could do now was keep saving humans.

Because I had drawn my sword, as Yun said.

Because I had placed that drawn sword into Yehyeon’s hand.

And because...

“No matter what I do, it won’t make me the kind of Hildebert Taleb you imagined.”

Silence returned.

I kept working steadily until I finally cleared the debris blocking the passage.