Chapter 139
Chapter 139
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: Original Sin (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I stared at him for a long while, at a complete loss for words.
I figured he had every reason to resent me, so I was prepared to get hit or yelled at. But I was surprised by just how hurt I felt myself—far more than I had anticipated.
The voice I barely managed to squeeze out was a little hoarse.
“I know it sounds that way, but it’s not a lie.”
Rick raised an eyebrow, his mocking expression unchanged.
“I’ve been trying to remember, but it just won’t come back.”
His green eyes bored into me.
I averted my gaze diagonally. I could understand Ricardo’s reaction. It had to be hard to accept that I couldn’t recall something this important.
With my eyes lowered, I waited for him to speak.
“So why are you suddenly telling me all this…?”
His low voice came back at me.
I lifted my head and met his eyes.
A sharp glint in them. Heavy emotions burning in their depths.
Without shying away from it, I got straight to the point. Why I had to reveal my identity. Who I’d told so far. Why I wanted to leave the Core.
Ricardo listened to my explanation, massaging the palm of his right hand with his left.
The moment I finished, he asked,
“You expect Ye-hyeon to believe you don’t remember why you betrayed us~?”
His voice dripped with sarcasm.
I swallowed the rising heat and answered.
“Yes.”
“You’re still such a softie…”
The man let out a small scoff.
He kept his mocking smile as he lowered his eyes. I bit my lip and waited for his next reaction.
What more was there for me to say here?
The lighting grew brighter. Outside the window, the sunset had faded, and darkness was settling in. The ticking of the second hand on the wall clock sounded unusually loud.
The scene felt chillier than usual.
Ricardo spoke.
“Let me ask you one thing…”
“Yes.”
“The creatures that poured onto Earth—did you bring them?”
He had lost his family in the war.
It was only natural for him to resent me.
“Yes.”
I answered while looking into his green eyes.
“Not all of them, but some, yes.”
Ricardo leaned back against his chair.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his brow with his thumb. A cold silence enveloped us.
Only after a long pause did he narrow his eyes.
“Why?”
It was a short question.
“Our original world was collapsing, so we escaped.”
“To Earth?”
“Anywhere we could set foot on solid ground.”
“And the moment you arrived, you started a war?”
I racked my brains over those memories too.
If I had been a better leader, maybe our groups wouldn’t have turned against each other. Maybe I could have prevented the war from breaking out at all.
Every time those thoughts surfaced, a choking self-recrimination wracked me.
Yet I still couldn’t recall exactly what had sparked the war.
I couldn’t reveal that I’d been here for a long time. Ye-hyeon had instructed me not to.
Mixing truth and lies, I answered softly.
“I don’t remember the exact reason the war started.”
“You don’t remember this either?”
“No.”
“Then what do you remember?”
Ricardo snorted.
I had no choice but to shut my mouth again. There was nothing to say.
The conversation died once more. The second hand’s ticking grew more insistent. A chill seeped through my patient gown into my bones. Amid the cold, I swallowed down the burning sensation rising in my chest.
My heart ached a little.
“So betraying your own kind… means you regret coming to Earth?”
Ricardo’s voice pulled my attention back.
His sharp gaze was still fixed on me. Rage and betrayal burned in his eyes, and that intense look overlapped with a scene from my memories.
The look Ray had given me.
The betrayal blazing in his eyes.
‘No, right?’
He had pointed his sword at me while crying.
‘No, right? Hildebert. Tell me it’s not true.’
“No.”
I shoved the surging memory into a corner.
Ricardo waited for my answer without moving.
I didn’t want to lie anymore to this senior who was just standing there, watching me. I had to hide the Elders’ existence, but beyond that, I didn’t want to conceal the truth.
Especially because he had shown me concern and care.
Especially because he was a victim of the war…
“I have never once regretted escaping our crumbling world and reaching Earth.”
Thud!
I got hit.
My head whipped back and slammed into the wall. The IV stand wobbled, and the needle slipped out of my hand. A flash blinked in the corner of my vision.
It was a heavy blow. An emotional one too. It was incomparable to the shocks I’d taken when trapped in a collapsing building or struck by Grindream.
Blood in my mouth.
I swallowed the pooling blood.
After swallowing the pain too, I lifted my head.
My eyes met those of my senior, who stood by the bed looking down at me.
Eyes burning cold.
“I heard your heartfelt confession…”
There was no smile on the whispering man’s lips.
“But even that doesn’t feel true…”
“Rick.”
Betrayal swirled in his returning gaze.
“Ricardo.”
“I have no intention of forgiving your sins…”
Why does this hurt so much?
My voice caught on my name. Locked in blood, or injustice, or guilt.
But no matter how I called him, he didn’t seem inclined to listen.
Ricardo turned away without answering.
Then he left the room without looking back.
Hesitation-free footsteps.
A receding back. The hospital room door opening roughly and slamming shut. The black suit vanished from sight.
I watched it all while clutching the IV line dripping fluid.
I had no shame to run after him and grab him, no words to offer.
At some point, even the footsteps echoing down the hall faded away.
Can’t breathe.
I thought that as I inhaled the silence.
***
“Hey.”
A familiar voice snapped me back to reality.
“Why are you spacing out?”
Choi Yoon.
My former master, now freed from the duty of training me, eyed me closely.
Reality flooded back in at the same time. The surroundings slowly filled my vision.
I blinked vacantly before answering belatedly.
“Sorry.”
I had just finished the discharge procedures.
We were standing in the hospital wing lobby. Patients in gowns and their guardians milled about on the polished marble floors. Early summer morning sunlight slid across the marble.
My first official day as a Black Badger.
Taking in the rush of sensations, I walked over to my master.
Yoon had one hand shoved in his pocket and arched a brow.
“What’s the problem?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Cut the crap.”
We talked casually as we left the hospital wing and headed to HQ.
Yoon listened half-heartedly to my repeated claims of nothing being wrong, then said,
“We can’t issue a personal weapon to someone whose actions we can’t predict.”
“Do I really seem that unstable?”
“Yeah.”
So blunt.
I rubbed my neck sheepishly.
But I planned to grit my teeth and stay alive until I could make up for what I’d done.
Matching his stride, I replied,
“You might not believe it, but lately, I’ve been overflowing with the will to live.”
“Not the type to put a gun to your own chin and pull the trigger.”
“Hm? Then doesn’t that mean I can have a personal weapon?”
“You could still space out and put a bullet in someone else’s jaw.”
My master shot back indifferently.
“Just tell me what’s going on.”
The answer didn’t come right away. Explaining it was painful. I thought I was prepared, but apparently, it had shaken me more than I expected.
I hemmed and hawed until we reached our destination.
It wasn’t until we arrived at the annex that I finally said,
“I can’t believe I can’t remember such a crucial part either.”
Yoon looked at me.
His eyes held no particular emotion. Just his usual dry gaze, a mix of boredom and coldness.
He thumbed the annex door, and it slid open.
“Traumatic events to the mind often get foggy.”
Yoon replied not in comfort, but in a tone stating facts.
“Even Ye-hyeon doesn’t remember his childhood well.”
“What?”
That crazy bastard Lee Seung-hyun.
“Did he beat his son from childhood?”
“No. The nanny he hired back then was crap. Point is, it’s not that unusual for you to have memory gaps.”
“But I can’t go on without ever remembering.”
“Why?”
The time I first encountered the mushroom creature.
The annex felt just as chilly back then, devoid of any presence. We breathed in the eerie air as we headed deeper into the dim building.
“What changes if you do remember?”
Who knows.
I’d only know the answer after recalling the lost memories.
Truth be told, I wanted to recover them for my kin’s sake. But as an answer to his question, that was it.
Matching strides with my master as we crossed the hall, I said while descending the stairs after him,
“That’s not a question I can answer without the memories.”
He must have thought it made sense, because Yoon smirked.
“Not wrong.”
“Thanks.”
“You’ll get two swords.”
We reached the basement level.
The air grew one degree colder. Motion sensors triggered, lights flicking on automatically.
Yoon signaled for me to wait, then entered the steel door ahead. Must be the armory.
If I were in better shape, I’d have asked to go in with him, but I wasn’t in the mood now.
I’d planned to request to leave the Core right after discharge and getting my weapon, but now I wasn’t sure if I could. Ricardo didn’t seem like he’d come with me.
What to do in this situation.
Should I tell the HR Director the truth and just go out with the four of us…
Pondering that, I waited for him to return.
Then my phone buzzed.
[Ami: Hilde]
I stared blankly at the message.
[Ami: Did you fight with Ricardo?]
It wasn’t a fight—I became his object of hatred.
I stared at the message for a long time.
Then I slowly typed a reply.
[No fight, but Ricardo didn’t forgive me.]
Even after sleeping it off, my inner wounds hadn’t healed.
If he’d been a more aloof senior, it wouldn’t have hit me this hard. The blow was greater because it was Ricardo who wouldn’t forgive me.
When did I grow so attached?
Leaning against the wall with those thoughts, my phone vibrated again.
I blinked a couple times and picked up Ami’s call.
“Senior.”
[Hilde!]
Ami’s bright voice rang out.
[What happened? Rick suddenly muttered something like “You’ve got some nerve” and stormed off, so it seems like things didn’t go well!]