Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 175
Chapter Title: Farewell (1)
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Things kept rolling along chaotically.
The mortician must have worked on Sion's body. I knew well what a corpse untouched by artificial hands looked like.
A dead person truly looks dead.
But Sion looked like he was just peacefully asleep.
I stared down at him for a long time.
Then I was dragged to the hospital by the seniors.
I went through a frantic check-up, got an IV hooked up, was laid in a bed, and hauled off to a private room.
During that time, I spoke to the seniors who had been by my side.
“I have something urgent to report to the Supreme Commander.”
“I’ll make the call.”
Ami answered promptly.
“Rest up.”
I arrived once more at that familiar private room. The same place where I’d been hospitalized before.
This place felt like another home now.
Staring at the ceiling, I organized what I needed to report to the boss when he came.
As I passed the time that way, the Command Staff entered quickly.
Ricardo and Karl stood to greet them.
Ye-hyeon accepted the light greeting.
“Good work. Mind stepping out for a bit?”
Neither of them were the type to argue.
Soon, only the Command Staff and I remained in the room. The Supreme Commander and his aides had already changed into crisp suits. Ominously, all three were dressed in pitch-black ones.
The black neckties were definitely odd.
But now wasn’t the time for questions.
I swallowed my doubts and spoke the moment Ye-hyeon approached the bed.
“During the standoff, Sequoia said something strange.”
The three from Command Staff looked down at me silently.
I reported the situation in detail.
The report wasn’t long. Ye-hyeon, who had been standing with a stern face, moved the instant I finished. He must have judged that acting immediately would yield more benefit than additional questions.
He nodded and strode quickly out of the room.
The two aides followed.
“Gilbert. Contact the Science Division.”
The brown-haired aide nodded.
The door opened, and corridor noises flooded in.
The crisp sound of dress shoes faded away.
Only then did the tension ease, and sleepiness crashed over me.
I’d passed on the most urgent matter, so now I could rest.
Watching the men’s retreating backs, I drifted off into sleep.
***
When I woke, Shu was there.
Shu?
Shu Diamond?
“What brings you here…?”
“I have something to tell you.”
Shu looked down at me with her usual expressionless face.
“But it might be better to tell you next time.”
“Huh?”
Was I dreaming?
I blinked, still groggy and not fully awake.
Why couldn’t I shake off this haze?
But it didn’t feel like a dream. The dull pain in my abdomen, numbed by anesthetics, lingered. A faint disinfectant smell tickled my nose too.
I forced my drooping eyes open.
“What is it? Is it about the From series?”
“Not exactly, but something came to mind while playing that series.”
“What?”
Her blonde hair ended in pink tips.
Bright blue eyes that matched her two-tone hair. Though the youngest among the formal Badgers—even smaller than Ami—she always showed a composure beyond her years.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile.
I waited for her next words amid such idle thoughts.
But Shu said no more.
“Rest.”
“Huh? I can really hear it now.”
“No.”
She replied coolly and stepped down from the chair.
She pulled out her phone, tapped something, and her hoverboard floated up to her eye level.
Shu grabbed it and tucked it under her arm.
“It’s a long story, so next time. Contact me when you’re discharged.”
“Yes, alright…. Oh, no questions about the From series?”
“That too, after discharge. I’ll answer your questions after I tell you what I need to.”
She spoke in riddles.
Then she dropped a bombshell.
“I think I have an idea how you ended up popping up in front of us.”
“Huh?”
My voice jumped.
“In front? In front of you seniors? You mean my first appearance?”
“Yeah. I think I know a bit how that happened.”
“How did it happen?”
I bolted upright in bed.
A stabbing pain shot across my abdomen, but I ignored it. Truth be told, I wanted to leap out of bed. My memories before the war were spotty, but everything after was a complete blank.
A pure white void of time.
Yet none of us—Yoon, Command Staff, or I—had pushed hard to uncover it, figuring it wasn’t that important.
I must have looked desperate. But Shu showed no particular reaction.
Instead, she replied in an even calmer voice.
“Contact me when you’re discharged.”
“…At least a hint.”
“Look into portal accidents.”
Shu said briefly and vanished from the room.
“There are more interesting stories than I thought.”
With those final words, Shu disappeared from sight.
***
I need to look into portal accidents.
That thought filled my head the moment treatment ended the next day.
But I couldn’t follow through.
Though discharge was too soon, I got clearance for walks with the IV. Right then, Command Staff summoned me—not to their office, but somewhere I’d never been.
Yoon would guide me, the message said.
Sure enough, Yoon entered the room the instant I got it.
“Let’s go.”
True to form, the Master offered no further explanation.
“We’ll take the car.”
Where the hell?
I was puzzled but didn’t ask. I’d learned that following Yoon would reveal the answer soon enough.
But could I go with the IV?
That question resolved itself naturally. I followed Yoon to an ambulance. The one he’d driven.
“My condition isn’t that bad.”
“Ye-hyeon was too worried about you.”
The Master replied curtly and started the engine.
“Truth be told, we could’ve gone yesterday. But he wouldn’t summon you until Samuel gave the all-clear.”
So they’d planned to call me yesterday originally.
Why summon me by car to wherever it was?
Sitting on the ambulance bed, I replayed the Territory Reclamation War. So much had happened, and after days cooped up in the hospital, even reclaiming the territory felt like a fleeting dream.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t watched news since entering the hospital.
Hadn’t even properly checked my phone.
“Yoon.”
Before turning on the phone in my hand to check messages, I asked quietly.
He didn’t turn around.
“What.”
“Any casualties on the Badger side?”
“Thirteen.”
Ah.
“Few compared to the previous reclamation battle.”
His follow-up didn’t seem meant to console me. It felt more like stating facts.
The facts were suffocating, though.
I hesitated briefly.
“Any among the dead that I know…?”
“No one you know.”
The Master replied in a low voice.
I sighed deeply in relief.
Cowardly, but unavoidable. With my mind eased, I sank into thought. Various emotions stirred, but I didn’t dwell on them.
Instead, I objectively assessed my situation and listed what I needed to do.
> Sion’s funeral
> Investigate Sequoia’s “success” comment
> Find From K easter egg
> Acquire and play other From series
> Look into portal accidents
> Ask about the 1/3 kin
To Colton….
The ambulance stopped as I finished mentally noting it.
Yoon flung open the driver’s door.
“Video Center.”
I grabbed the IV stand and stepped out.
“It’s not in the research building. I thought it was somewhere there.”
“Different security level.”
The Master answered dryly and headed to the building.
“You wouldn’t have access normally. Don’t go poking around alone.”
It was a very plain building.
Gray walls that looked unpainted. Uniform, monotonous square windows. Lost in thought on the way, I hadn’t noticed, but it seemed tucked in some mountain forest.
Dense greenery surrounded it.
A chain-link fence separated the greenery from the Video Center grounds. Smooth roads paved within.
We walked the deserted road into the building.
Ye-hyeon and Gilbert were on the third floor.
“Hilde.”
Spacious room. Countless monitors, a massive walnut desk big enough for ten. Chairs matching its design. Ye-hyeon, who’d been looking at one of the wall-covering monitors, looked up.
“Sorry to call you before discharge.”
I said I was fine and sat in the chair he indicated.
Yoon closed the door behind him and sat beside me. As the heavy door shut, outside noise cut off completely.
Silence enveloped the room.
The talk began.
No preamble.
“We still don’t know what the Titans did.”
Ye-hyeon leaned back in his chair and pointed to one screen.
“We scoured every frame of battle footage after the barrier fell, but found nothing conclusive.”
Ah. So that’s why he brought me to the Video Center.
He wanted to show me the footage. Their office probably had playback too, but maybe he planned to show a lot across multiple screens.
Image quality was poor from dust and explosions.
I narrowed my eyes at the screen Ye-hyeon pointed to as he continued.
“One of the hardest parts of this war is having no intel on the enemy.”
True.
That was one source of Kyle’s confidence.
As I listened to Ye-hyeon, I recalled a memory fragment. As he pointed out, “We know about humans, but humans don’t know about us” formed the basis of Kyle’s confidence. Humans only knew about “inhalation” and “transfer,” not the various Creatures.
I agreed with Kyle back then.
I’d even helped him keep the kin quiet.
The problem was, I still didn’t know what they’d done.
“You reported with that puzzled look because you have no guesses either.”
“Yes. Sorry.”
“No. Thanks for reporting quickly.”
With that, Ye-hyeon asked if I could give more details.
He ordered me to recount everything I remembered from the second engagement. “It’ll be tough, but,” he added with concern. Seeing the worry and guilt on his pale face, I gave a small smile.
You don’t need to feel that bad.
Leaving a faint smile, I followed the order.
After explaining, I relaxed languidly.
Silence returned.
“Hilde.”
Much later, a response came.
Once again, Ye-hyeon broke the heavy quiet.
The man was slowly emerging from thought.
I watched him unclasp his hands. They slowly settled on his lap.
Finally, large eyes met mine directly.
“I think the kin you saved are inside the Core.”
The owner of those eyes dropped that bombshell.