Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Resolve (3)
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The first to react were Ami and Ricardo.
While the other Badgers sat there with their mouths agape in shock, the two rushed over to the rookie with his head buried low.
The Badgers showed a variety of reactions, but only those two actually moved from their spots. Ami stroked his back and checked his complexion, while Ricardo grabbed Hilde's upper body and propped him up.
"What, freaked out by a corpse?"
Jason snickered as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"He's still got a long way to go!"
"Too graphic, Richard."
Aki stood up and turned to Richard.
"That looked way too much like a human head."
William Walker wore a subtle expression.
But he didn't say anything noteworthy for a while. Instead, he silently watched Hilde hacking up bile until his stomach was empty.
Ami rubbed Hilde's back and offered him a water bottle every time he lifted his head.
A heavy silence descended. Everyone kept their eyes on Hilde for a while. Richard frowned at him and grumbled,
"I didn't realize the kid was this pathetic."
As soon as he finished, Gale Dawson quickly chimed in.
"I can't imagine him handling any missions if he can't even look at that."
"But isn't it surprising that he's still more useful than you?"
"That punk stayed unfazed even when an illegal Enhanced Body implant exploded like a balloon."
Yoon muttered indifferently while gazing at the sky, and Walker roughly jumped into the conversation.
Dawson's face flushed red.
But ignoring him completely, the veteran operative cracked his knuckles—each the size of a child's head—with sharp pops.
"And he pukes his guts out at the sight of a non-human head?"
"Maybe it's severe internal injuries?"
"Oppa! Got more water?"
Aki muttered, and Ami craned her neck.
"If you've got more, toss it over!"
Yoon and Jason pulled out water bottles and threw them.
Ami caught both bottles, twisted off the caps, and thrust one at Hilde the moment his vomiting paused. Ricardo gripped Hilde's clothing again and lifted his upper body upright.
The green-eyed man closely observed the white-haired rookie wheezing raggedly.
His next words were for Hilde and Ami alone.
"He saw a spectator turned into a sandwich and a terrorist with their lower body crushed like a doll, and he was fine. No way something like that's gross enough to make him hurl."
Ami remained silent, her face expressionless.
And for the first time since he started vomiting, Hilde spoke.
The rookie gave a small laugh as he stared at the ruins.
"Guess my guts are messed up."
"Ah~. Heard a similar excuse last time... Back then it was drug aftereffects, right~?"
"Yes."
Hilde let out a long breath and closed his eyes.
Hiding his beautiful golden eyes, he continued in a whisper laced with laughter.
"This time it's my internals."
"You've been running around clutching your damaged guts just fine until now~.... So suddenly you feel like puking again, just like then~?"
"Yes."
He replied and emptied his stomach again.
Even with nothing left to bring up, the retching continued. Once it finally stopped, the rookie's body began to tremble uncontrollably. Ami firmly held Hilde's body as it tried to slump. She'd heard the entire conversation between him and Ricardo but showed no particular reaction.
Instead, she squinted at him seriously, stroked his white hair, and pressed her forehead.
Her dark, round eyes widened even more.
"He's burning up!"
"Looks like PTSD symptoms...."
Ricardo grumbled as he straightened from his crouched position.
As the Badgers approached, he pulled away the rookie, who was still hanging his head and gasping.
"Why not just open a portal and send him back quick~? He's out of it...."
"What's his portal compatibility percentage?"
Richard asked bluntly.
The casual question made the two Badgers behind him flinch.
Yoon ignored them entirely.
"No idea. They shoved him through a portal before compatibility testing."
"What?!"
Richard whipped his head around.
"You sent him through without even testing?!"
The other Badgers turned to Yoon with incredulous looks.
Jonathan Kudo blinked in surprise, Ricardo narrowed his eyes with a frown. Aki and Walker raised their eyebrows. Jason let out a delinquent "Huh?" and arched a brow.
Even Ami gaped.
Yoon observed the reactions before replying indifferently.
"While I was gone, Gale Dawson and Joe McDonald shoved him through the portal."
Gale and Joe's faces turned pale.
"I roughed them up once already."
The key point was that Richard still hadn't punished them.
Richard roared.
Under Richard's bellow of rage, the punishment began. Even though chaos had erupted due to Mashu Sarin's death, the man—who had held back his scolding—finally unleashed. He yelled, stomped the ruins to rubble, and vented his fury by punishing both the perpetrators and the bystanders.
He didn't care even when Lucia burst into tears.
Normally Ami would step in to mediate, but this time she showed no sign of moving.
The little Badger draped several layers of clothing over Hilde, who could barely keep his eyes open.
"Let's contact HQ. If the portal seems too risky, ask for a fighter jet. I can fly him to E Zone myself."
"Hey, isn't this some kind of portal side effect?"
Jason nodded toward the shivering rookie.
"He's really out of it."
They contacted HQ.
After starting a video call, they brought in Doctor Samuel Han and a portal engineering expert for consultation.
The two experts were furious that Hilde had used a portal without compatibility testing. They ranted about the dangers, insisting that even if he survived once unscathed, there was no guarantee for a second time, and vehemently opposed using it again.
Samuel slammed the table and shouted.
"Tell Ye-hyeon to send a fighter!"
But when Richard Green actually reported to Ye-hyeon, the response was the complete opposite.
[He'll be fine. Send him back via portal.]
It was a curt order.
No further explanation. After issuing it, he didn't take any more calls.
Jason Tvein bristled at the Supreme Commander's judgment. Complaints filled with hatred poured out.
"That guy's always treating our lives like fly lives!"
No one echoed his outburst, but he didn't stop grumbling. It had to be because sending a fighter was expensive, so use the portal. Trying to wrap things up cheaply with portals. Still treating Badgers like consumables....
The others didn't voice their dissatisfaction so openly, but the mood wasn't one of acceptance either.
Still, they couldn't defy the order.
"Mind if I take him?"
As they prepared to return to Zone 14 where the portal device was installed, Sylvia broke her silence while looking at Hilde.
Everyone gaped at her unusual behavior.
Yoon cut in with a short reply.
"No."
"Why? Someone has to escort him."
"Not you."
Yoon glared at the woman with eyes full of visceral disgust.
"Keep your nerves off the kid."
They eventually returned to Zone 14 where the portal device was and went back through it. Yoon took charge of the completely exhausted Hilde. William Walker and Ricardo Sordi had volunteered to escort him, but were refused.
Yoon piggybacked Hilde—with the creature's head in a bag tied to his belt—and stepped through the portal.
The other Badgers followed behind him.
And so the emergency assembly, which had cost one life, came to an end.
***
After shoving the dazed rookie into the hospital, the group dispersed.
Ricardo and Kudo changed out of their combat gear and emerged from the lockers.
The two men wordlessly left the portal zone and headed out of HQ.
The streets were starting to stir slowly.
Kudo broke the silence first.
"Not going to check on the rookie?"
Ricardo rolled his eyes.
"You've been paying him extra attention lately."
Ricardo didn't reply right away.
The man in the perfectly fitted black coat walked in silence beside his comrade for a while. Kudo didn't press for an answer.
They walked their usual route. They'd walked it so much they could do it with their eyes closed.
As they approached the alley where they always parted ways and stopped at a signal,
The early dawn streets were nearly empty of people on both roads and sidewalks.
The chill of the cold morning mingled with the silence.
Ricardo shattered it irritably.
"Gonna hide your own issues to the bitter end, huh?"
It was clearly about Hildebert Talib.
"Always pretending to be fine.... Hiding your festering problems—just like you. Sick of watching it~."
Kudo blinked, caught off guard by the sudden hit.
But before he could retort, the signal changed.
Ricardo strode across the crosswalk without waiting.
Kudo followed.
As he caught up, he mulled over his comrade's words before responding slowly.
"Why not just ask him directly?"
Ricardo turned back with an exasperated look.
He slowed his pace and raised a brow, his eyes saying, "Does that even make sense?" But the expression didn't last. He soon snorted in a way Kudo couldn't read, then quickened his steps more irritably than usual.
At the fork, he split off onto his own path.
Without so much as a glance at his blinking friend.
***
Ska gave Ye-hyeon a brief report that Hilde had been safely hospitalized.
Ye-hyeon, who had been resting his forehead in his hand waiting for the results, lifted his head.
Eyes heavy with fatigue and sorrow.
The man looked up at Ska through those eyes.
"Yeah."
His voice was hoarse.
"Good work."
"The HR Director is handling Mashu Sarin's death procedures."
"Didn't you say we couldn't recover the body?"
"Yes. But we've pinpointed the location. They'll notify the next of kin and retrieve it if possible."
"Yeah. Retrieve the body unless it's absolutely impossible."
"Yes. And it doesn't seem like Hilde's sick because of the portal...."
Ska paused his slow report.
The office fell quiet. The tall man stared at the hologram panel for a while before asking.
"How did you know Hilde could use the portal without issue?"
"Falcon."
The Supreme Commander answered curtly.
"I asked him."
His aides looked at their superior.
But the Supreme Commander didn't lift his head despite their gazes. Ye-hyeon kept his head down, dry-washing his face several times.
Then he muttered to himself, voice thick with exhaustion.
"No one knows Hilde like Falcon does...."