Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: The Rumored Youngest (1)
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Ricardo headed down to the office with Ska.
“If you don’t want to go to the hospital wing, at least take a shower.”
His old friend nagged him on the way down.
Ricardo didn’t argue with him. He had to wash up anyway if he was going to write the report in the office. He wanted to finish the report as quickly as possible, even if it was just a minute faster, wrap up the mission, and be done with it.
He also needed to check on his juniors.
“If you submit yours, I can head out too.”
Ska muttered as he got off on the Command Staff floor.
“Finish up and come back. Let’s leave together.”
Ricardo followed his advice.
After showering in the communal shower room, he went straight to the PC. Luckily, no one was in the office with the report PC. He didn’t have the mental energy to talk to anyone right now.
He sat down quickly, wrote the report, and headed to the Command Staff office.
Fortunately, only Ska was there.
His friend gestured for him to sit and wait.
Ricardo sprawled out on the guest sofa.
“Asil will be fine.”
Ska delivered the news without even looking up from his desk.
“He’ll suffer a bit, but they say he’ll recover fully without any aftereffects.”
“Aah….”
Ricardo let out a long breath.
He swallowed the wave of relief rising within him. Defeat, shame, worry—a host of negative emotions had gripped him. Amid all that, this one bit of positive news eased his breathing a little.
Barbie’s case probably wouldn’t improve, though.
“They say Barbie’s holding up better than expected.”
His comrade always had a deep understanding, even when no explanation was needed.
That casual thoughtfulness hadn’t changed even after gaining power.
“She wants to keep working in the field. She’ll struggle with phantom pain for a while, but she’ll adapt eventually. Her skills have improved a lot too.”
“Yeah… Here’s hoping….”
He had no right to chime in.
Barbie was his responsibility in the end. From now on, every time he saw Barbie Winter’s legs, a sharp self-loathing would rake across his heart.
He gave a brief reply and fell silent again.
Ricardo stared into the vast office shrouded in quiet.
It was dawn.
Only the on-duty staff and those pulling all-nighters remained. The mission should have ended before midnight, but here he was, not even on night shift, watching the clock creep toward 3 a.m.
In this place he’d never grown fond of, no matter how long he stayed, he began retracing the causes of the mission’s failure once more.
As he did, Ska looked up.
“You okay?”
“Fit as a fiddle~.”
The aide snorted softly.
Ricardo gave a faint smile. He knew it wasn’t about physical health, but he had no intention of being honest about his mental state.
His counterpart sighed, knowing no answer would come from further pressing.
“Hilde’s getting a chest tube.”
Ricardo furrowed his brow.
He wiped away the habitual smile and looked at Ska.
“Why?”
“Rib fractures damaged his chest wall. His healing factor’s better than a normal person’s, so it should heal fine.”
“Ha.”
Ricardo let out a hollow laugh.
He should have stopped the kid from going to the arena to the bitter end. He’d looked fine on the surface, so he’d reluctantly allowed it. Who could’ve known the rookie was enduring the pain with a straight face?
No, maybe he should have known.
He grimaced, recalling their conversation in the narrow passage.
The rookie who’d laughed, saying he was completely wrong.
In that moment, he hadn’t seemed like a green rookie—he’d looked like a battle-weary veteran soldier.
“Anything else~?”
“Besides hemothorax? Didn’t hear, so I don’t know. If they only reported the ribs, the rest should be okay.”
“He got injected with a massive dose of drugs….”
The memory soured his mood instantly.
“You think he’d admit that himself~?”
“Ah.”
Ska made a short sound.
“I’ll pass it on.”
Ricardo clammed up again.
The events in the prison cell soured his mood. The memory of the white-haired rookie huddled in the corner, groaning, was still vivid. Amid the chaos, he’d rolled into the corner to avoid touching the depowered normals.
Back then, he’d thought about how to handle this likable but reckless guy.
Now he realized the pain must have been severe. The guy who’d run around with a straight face despite fractured ribs had buried his head and clawed at the floor.
The idiot doesn’t know how to take care of himself.
Lost in regret, Ska stepped out from behind his desk.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s clock out.”
“Ska.”
Ska stood.
The office was bug-proofed, Ye-hyeon and his second aide Gilbert were absent, and Ska had dropped his authority. Ricardo looked at his friend.
He wasn’t about to miss this timing.
“What’s with Hilde?”
Ska didn’t answer.
“How’d he get ejected from the portal?”
“Who knows.”
“Guess that’s not the important part….”
Ricardo wasn’t a fool, and he knew Hilde wasn’t ordinary.
Nothing from their first meeting to now had been normal. The unusual Enhanced Body, the Supreme Commander’s odd reaction, the exceptional master.
Golden eyes like the sun, impossible in nature.
Yet the rookie seemed to think of himself as just a normal newbie.
“Seems like some memories are coming back….”
“…He said that?”
“More or less…. I just heard he remembered some.”
He’d let it slide until now.
He hadn’t wanted to know the details. At his age, he knew full well there were times when ignorance was bliss. He was curious about how he’d popped out of the portal and liked him enough to take him on missions, but not enough to invest deep emotions.
As long as he didn’t get a proper Enhanced Body.
A guy who could die any moment. So even when curiosity about the rookie’s past became unbearable, or when he wanted to drag around this kind yet resilient soul, Ricardo had tried not to get too attached.
Recalling the recklessness of charging forward in the typhoon and the wounds that wouldn’t heal.
Teach him well, but don’t pour in as much care as he would for a comrade.
That had been the plan….
“If his memories return, hear it from him.”
Ska’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
“That’d be the most reliable way.”
“Ah~…. You don’t have the authority to tell me~….”
“It’s personal.”
His comrade, looking pristine as if he’d just arrived despite the 3 a.m. hour, sighed.
“And I don’t know the details either.”
“He said he’s not someone reliable….”
Ricardo still didn’t believe Hilde’s words.
Now, even more so. Shouldn’t he believe someone reliable?
“He thinks people see him too positively or something…. Like he’s a war or disaster survivor…. He definitely seemed to feel that survivor’s guilt….”
“The youngest said that?”
“More or less~.”
“His condition must be pretty bad.”
Ska walked over to the sofa where Ricardo sat, frowning.
The aide shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Didn’t realize. He must be rotting inside like you? I should say something to the HR Director.”
“Why drag me into this~?”
“You still look for that revolver sometimes, don’t you?”
Ska looked down at Ricardo with a wry smile.
“You probably restocked the ammo I tossed too. How long are they gonna keep producing those?”
Ricardo didn’t reply.
The three-drawer chest in his living room, revolver in the top drawer. It was ancient. Ska was right—it was astonishing ammo was still made for it.
It had been his father’s treasure.
The man had always carried it. Even until crushed under a collapsing building, he hadn’t let go. Beside the mangled corpse, barely recognizable, the gun had retained its form chillingly well. Ricardo had kept it ever since.
And he sought it out sometimes.
On cold nights.
Nights when memories surged: his little brother’s eyeball staring up from the rubble, his mother’s skirt hem, his father’s body. He’d pull out a wooden dining chair, spin the revolver’s cylinder, and stare into the barrel for a long time.
The impulse was always intense.
Jonathan Kudo and Ska Owen always searched his place and ditched the ammo when they visited.
But….
“I don’t think he’d commit suicide….”
Ricardo murmured like to himself.
“No matter how much he neglects himself….”
“Yeah?”
Ska’s voice brightened.
Ricardo nodded slowly.
His judgment was probably right.
He’d survived war and known many who couldn’t bear the aftermath and chose the worst path. He even knew those perpetually on the brink. It had honed his unwelcome ability to read their unique aura keenly.
The faint air of peril.
Hildebert had none of that.
“I heard he doesn’t take care of his body.”
“That’s only when he’s tangled up with others—. Normally….”
The rookie had a strange resolve instead.
Something like a determination to face the pain accompanying self-loathing. A vow not to drown in emotions, flail, and abandon everything to flee.
“I get why you’re eyeing him as Command Staff material….”
Like the heroes of myth.
“A fine image of a leader….”
“Exactly.”
Ska smiled faintly.
“In character, anyway. A perfect ideal leader. Ability’s another story.”
“The issue is keeping that attitude consistently~.”
He tilted his chin up, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
The kid always saw others’ wounds, not his own, erasing his self to focus on theirs.
Even hyperventilating, he’d bared his own flaws— so very like him.
For a youngest, no less.
“But we need to teach him to show when he’s hurting.”
Ricardo lowered his raised head at Ska’s words.
“He can’t die young.”
Hah.
So there really is something.
Ricardo caught the oddity in Ska calling Hildebert “he” and saying flatly that he couldn’t die young. Ska Owen’s words now weren’t those of a senior agent. They were from the Black Badger Command Staff.
Officially.
As one bearing responsibility to lead this bizarre war to victory.
“I’m heading to the hospital wing on the way down. You coming?”
“Of course~.”
No point asking—he wouldn’t tell. He’d find out himself.
“Gotta pick the right moment to chew him out~?”
He grinned, standing up.
He followed his nagging friend, who muttered something about scolding him just right.
Silently, he resolved to keep eyes on this bizarre rookie from now on. Teach him to fake pain, act his age as the youngest, watch him long-term, and uncover his past.
Plus, advise the agents who’d go on missions with Hildebert ahead.
A warning that the fool only saw others blindly, so someone else needed to watch him.
Grateful his seniority let him warn most agents, Ricardo headed to the hospital wing.
***
“Huh.”
Lying bored with painkillers pumping through me, I blinked at Ricardo and Ska.
“Still here?”
You haven’t clocked out?
I blinked repeatedly at the approaching men. I couldn’t believe my seniors hadn’t gone home yet.
It was almost dawn.
Did they take so long visiting Asil and Barbie’s rooms?
I’d heard both were in better shape than expected. Were they talking with them and lost track of time, or was it something else?
Either way, seeing seniors who hadn’t clocked out yet made me uneasy.
I wanted him to go home quick and recover with sleep.
“Senior.”
So as the two stopped by my bed, I asked right away.
“You didn’t come after resting, right? Go sleep.”
Smack!
I got flicked hard on the forehead.
My mouth dropped open at the flick so fast the finger was invisible.
It stung heavy.
…And that smiling face looked downright menacing.
I pressed my lips into a line, glanced at Ricardo cautiously, and asked carefully.
“…You mad?”
“You’ve got a real talent for pissing people off with words~.”
“Ah, Yoon said the same thing just now.”
As I replied, Yoon, sitting beside me, looked up.
My master.
The grateful soul who’d rushed to the rooftop the moment I returned. Despite the emergency surgery at dawn, he hadn’t left, watching the whole thing—a true senior….
Choi Yoon was curious about my body’s surgery process, since Green Dream didn’t work on it.
“Isn’t he the best master ever?”
“This punk’s getting ruder to me by the day.”
Yoon lazily uncrossed his legs.
“Proof I’m treating you comfy. Don’t you think so, Aide?”