Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: A Zone (4)
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I've heard this kind of thing so many times that it didn't faze me at all.
I grinned and took a step toward him.
"Yes. Long time no see. Please surrender."
"Since when did you become someone who knows no shame?"
"What's that you're holding in your hand~?"
Ricardo drawled as he sauntered in, cutting off Byeongaebaek's words.
His green gaze flew to and fixed on his fellow's right hand.
The others focused on what he held in his hand as well. I was curious too.
I examined the sphere covered by the opponent's palm, not clearly visible.
It didn't look like a bomb, maybe.
"What are you holding?"
"Don't come any closer."
"You're not planning to blow yourself up, are you?"
Feeling uneasy without knowing what it was, I slowly approached my fellow.
I walked through the area scattered with files, computers, and unidentified machines. The seniors didn't follow me.
I was grateful they were honoring my request to give me time to talk if we faced each other.
Even Sophia stayed quiet for now. Whether it was because of the squad leader's order or she was holding back.
Either way, I kept walking straight toward my fellow alone.
Byeongaebaek visibly tensed with every step I took.
As his body gradually stiffened, the moment I was close enough to reach out with my arm, he shouted.
"If you come any closer, I'll set it off!"
I stopped.
A sinking silence.
It was a heavy silence that could make ears fall off in the seed vault. Over it came the tension from the people.
Mine, and those standing by the entrance watching the situation.
Sensing one of the seniors about to approach, I held out my palm to block them.
Just give me a little time.
"Byeongaebaek."
I spoke, muscles tensed in case I needed to snatch what he held in his right hand.
"Calm down. We won't harm you."
"Knight Commander."
Byeongaebaek called to me.
"Knight Commander!"
The frustration and sense of betrayal in his voice were so raw that I swallowed the words I'd been about to say.
I rolled my eyes to meet his blazing gaze.
Byeongaebaek didn't open his right hand.
"I thought you'd be the one to stand by your kin to the very end."
I didn't make any particular expression.
"When Kyle and Ray were worrying about your betrayal... even then, I insisted you'd come to your senses soon."
Was that so.
Well. We had been quite close.
Before the world started falling apart. Before I rose to Knight Commander, back when I was just a regular knight, I'd met him while saving his territory from submersion.
Since then, we'd steadily maintained a good relationship.
Until war broke out on Earth.
"Even when everyone suspected your betrayal, I believed in you to the end."
"I'm sorry."
"The you I remember was stronger and kinder than anyone. The one who wouldn't break until the end."
Rage boiled in the words he spat out.
"And yet!"
"Please ease up on the grip in your right hand."
"And yet the you who was like that bends to the threats of these lowly things!"
Byeongaebaek's powerful voice echoed through the seed vault.
"Frightened by the nonsense humans spouted to save their skins, you throw away your kin?! Talib! It was all bluff! All bluff! Didn't your comrades tell you that countless times!"
A stern voice poured out.
He was someone who'd been called more commoner than noble, but in official settings, he displayed his unique solid dignity. He'd roll up his sleeves and go to the fields for his territory's people, yet boast of his uniform spotless of even a speck of dust in the palace.
"You trusted the words of humans over the comrades who crossed the line of death with you!"
This man could show such enmity too.
"Out of fear! Just because you didn't want to die!"
I stood still, waiting for him to vent his rage.
"Just because your own life was precious-!"
Bang!
A bullet exploded past Byeongaebaek's head.
I whipped my head around and widened my eyes at the shooter.
No.
It was Ami who had fired.
"Hey. Shut up."
Ami said in her usual brash tone, but with no trace of her normal smile.
"You don't know shit."
"Ami...?"
"I'm fucking pissed."
"Ami, calm down."
"I'm gonna kill you."
She said it casually.
It was scarier because she said it with just her mouth smiling as she raised the gun barrel.
Rage gleamed in her round eyes.
"I'll kill you and clear you out in front of Hilde's eyes."
"No."
What if you suddenly go off like this.
I broke out in cold sweat as I watched Ami.
Then I rolled my eyes desperately. Searching for relief pitcher.
As I frantically shifted my gaze, my eyes met Yoon's, who had been watching the situation with arms crossed.
My master raised one eyebrow.
"Please hold her back."
I pleaded urgently.
"I'll capture him right away. So just for a little while..."
"Sure."
Yoon agreed readily.
Good.
As I let out a sigh of relief, the master continued.
"Choi Ami. If you're gonna shoot, don't aim for the head—go for the leg or hand."
"No."
"He looks like he'll keep spewing stupid shit otherwise."
Ami pouted with a sullen voice, furrowing her brow.
Ricardo, who had lit a cigarette at some point, chuckled beside her.
"How about cutting out his tongue~?"
...I need to capture him quick.
Giving up on reining in the seniors, I turned back toward Byeongaebaek.
He was still glaring at me and the seniors with bloodshot eyes.
He hadn't let go of what he held in both hands.
I barely suppressed the escaping sigh and took one more step forward.
"I told you not to come closer."
"Whether soon or late, you'll be captured anyway. I don't want to use force. Please set down what's in your hands."
"So the rumors are true—you're now running with those things, hunting your own kin."
That's right.
"Looking back, maybe it was wrong from the start."
Byeongaebaek glared ferociously as I took another step.
Raw savage emotion transmitted without filter.
"It started going wrong from the beginning due to your misjudgment. We gave too much to the humans."
Bang!
It was Sophia's bullet.
This time, it really aimed to pierce Byeongaebaek's brain. If the sword hadn't ghosted in to knock her arm away, he would've died instantly.
I barely suppressed the urge to rub my face.
"As invaders acting like victims..."
Sophia's boiling voice came.
"You bastards barge in and start a war, and now you flap your tongues!"
"We wanted peace!"
Byeongaebaek shot back without yielding to Sophia's shout.
"We just wanted to live peacefully, quietly! But humans tried to wipe us out just because we were dangerous. Did you think we wouldn't notice? Did you think we'd just wait for the day of death?!"
The emotionally charged shout resonated in the white room.
"The disaster was of humans' own making! We wanted peace, but they were preemptively terrified of our power!"
"So who struck first in the end? Who started the invasion?"
"Do you know why we decided to invade? Because humans killed one of our children."
Byeongaebaek said, then whipped his head back to glare at me.
His light green eyes now held resentment and sorrow.
"Didn't you pity that child?"
Adam.
I met Byeongaebaek's gaze somberly.
The child who died at the hands of humans who despised us, who never reached adulthood.
"How could you side with humans even after seeing that child's death."
"We would've all died otherwise."
I swallowed the grief bitterly and smiled ruefully.
He wouldn't believe it, but.
Even when I knelt before my comrades and begged desperately, they didn't believe me.
"There would've been no place left for us on this land."
"That was bluff."
"It wasn't."
"And even if that bluff, that claim was true, you should've sided with your kin!"
Byeongaebaek cried out in a cracking voice.
"You should've died upholding your pride! Didn't you swear that when you became Knight Commander!"
To devote your life to protecting the empire's people.
Memories flooded in. It was a day when the sky was beautiful. Ray rejoicing as if it were his own, Kyle grinning crookedly. Fellow knights in the unit weeping with joy. Hekate roaring with laughter that the hard times were now clear ahead.
Those proud ones.
The pride of the empire that never broke no matter the hardship.
How much I'd loved their shining self-respect.
"But there were kin who wanted to live more."
I murmured as if to myself, eyes on Byeongaebaek's right hand.
"Kin for whom time with loved ones mattered more than that pride, a potentially brilliant future, or even a not-brilliant but continuing life."
It wasn't just Kisis's order that made me side with humans.
At that time, I saw no other choice. That was all.
"You won't believe this either, but. Byeongaebaek, let's go now. I'll hear the rest of your resentment inside the core."
"If His Majesty were alive, things wouldn't have come to this."
As I slowly approached my fellow, I looked into Byeongaebaek's eyes laced with resignation.
It was a voice so sad it was strange there were no tears welling up.
"He wouldn't have let things drag on like this."
Yeah. I know.
That there must've been a better choice somewhere.
That if an unskilled one like me hadn't been the leader, the situation wouldn't have spiraled to ruin like this. Knowing that too well made Byeongaebaek's final words hurt. Cowardly rebukes and anger had become as familiar as air, but the lament tinged with loss was still unfamiliar to my body.
His words flew like a knife and stabbed my heart.
I tried not to show that I was shaken even briefly and stopped.
"Your right hand. Give it here."
Last chance.
"If you don't now, I'll use force."
From here, it doesn't look like a bomb.
What is that? Some round blue orb.
Narrowing my eyes, Byeongaebaek gripped his hand tighter.
"Hey!"
Yoon and Ricardo shouted at the same time.
At the same moment, I reached out and snatched his right hand, but what was in it burst like a water droplet.
Pop!
A cute sound as it popped like a soap bubble.
I blinked, still gripping Byeongaebaek's right hand.
"What is this?"
Some kind of capsule for storing seeds?
"Good thing it's not a bomb... Achoo!"
Oh, must've been some kind of supplement inside.
He must've just grabbed anything and threatened it was a bomb.
If it was poison, the pallor overwhelming Byeongaebaek's face was too deep.
Lucky it passed without issue.
I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and began binding Byeongaebaek.
***
"Big trouble."
A scientist in the research building dropped his phone while staring at it.
"How could this happen... I need to tell Hilde right away."
"What?"
Another scientist nearby stretched his neck while rubbing it.
"What's up?"
John Mullen's lab.
The scientists, who had been chugging caffeine like water while immersed in research as always, turned their gazes to their colleague who'd dropped the phone.
Because a familiar name had come up. A name often mentioned among the scientists.
Hildebert.
In the science building, that Badger's name came up especially often. The reason was nothing special.
The scientists liked Hildebert.
Because he bridged well with Yoon, was good at games, and had a great personality.
He'd found Martin for them and readily granted their minor requests. It wasn't polite to ask Badgers to do heavy lifting. They weren't fixers. But Hilde would rush over, puzzled why they hadn't called him when he saw them struggling with something.
He lacked the typical Badger arrogance. Unlike his master, he was easy to talk to. When called by name, he'd always turn with a faint smile and curious eyes.
Ah, and he had an uncanny knack for remembering people's names.
Remembering names was one of the things many scientists struggled with.
Anyway, for all these reasons, Hilde was popular in the labs.
That's why they all sighed in unison upon seeing that article.
The kind of article ordinary people would curse for even being published.
"Lexic Noodles is shutting down the business."
"No way."
They were genuinely shocked.
"What the hell."
We need to tell him the moment he gets back. They instantly agreed upon seeing the untimely bad news.
On a pleasant windy lunchtime.
While sucking down yet another shot of Americano—who knows what number.
Thinking of the yellow-eyed Badger not currently in the core, but one they often saw once he entered.