Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Escape (3)
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Luke and Becky wept bitterly amid the camera flashes.
The woman holding them in her arms was weeping bitterly as well. Yoon passed by the familiar scene without a second glance.
A man in pitch-black combat gear strode across the ruined street. Several cameras hurriedly chased after him. But he walked toward the underground parking entrance without so much as blinking at the bursting flashes.
The area where firefighters had set up a perimeter.
Yoon ducked under the yellow tape and descended into the underground parking lot, heading toward the collapsed debris.
"Sordi."
He approached his junior, who was standing there staring at the rubble.
"Step aside. If you're just going to stand there like a zombie."
The man whose name had been called turned his head.
Sunken green eyes stared at Yoon. A gaze that had lost its sharpness and sunk into dullness.
Having spent a long time around this man against his will, Yoon knew his condition wasn't normal. They'd been running field ops together nonstop since the Second War, so he couldn't help but roughly grasp the triggers that set the guy off.
"What about me...?"
"When someone's trapped under a building, they lose it."
Yoon casually tossed out words he knew Ricardo Sordi would hate, then stopped beside him.
The underground parking entrance blocked by collapsed debris. Flashes bursting behind him despite the firefighters' protests. Broadcast drones hovering overhead.
The situation wasn't the worst. The whole building hadn't come down. Just the ceiling of the curved passage in the underground lot had collapsed.
He narrowed his eyes and examined the shape of the rubble.
"Step back."
Yoon said to the rigid man.
"You're in the way."
"...What's in the way about standing here...? You look fine, so help clear it... "
"With those shaking hands?"
Yoon countered without taking his eyes off the rubble.
"Jonathan Kudo's inside, I hear. But with a collapse this size, even if he's pinned, he'll be fine."
Ricardo didn't reply.
Yoon didn't add anything else. The explanation he'd just given was a reflexive response from Ye-hyeon's periodic training—be good to the juniors.
Ricardo always stuck close to Jonathan Kudo and Ska Owen, so this counted as "being good to the junior."
The junior bit his lip and shoved his coarsely trembling hands into his pockets.
Whatever. Yoon lifted the rubble. He cleared it piece by piece, like dismantling a Jenga tower from the top, methodically setting it aside. Small cement fragments fell to the ground like cookie crumbs.
The flashes grew even more frantic in sound and light.
"Why's Mr. Sordi just standing there?"
A reporter wrestling with firefighters behind them raised their voice.
"Your arms look perfectly fine?"
Long-surviving Badgers get their names etched into society.
Supreme Commander Lee Ye-hyeon was an icon of his era. But he wasn't the only famous Badger. Names of First and Second War heroes, especially those active in the Core, circulated frequently online.
"If you'd caught the creature faster, couldn't you have prevented the collapse?"
Veterans inured to ridiculous provocations didn't even bother responding.
Yoon swiftly cleared a path through the debris. As he did, he spotted two people pinned inside.
A shock of vivid white hair stood out inside an oxygen mask. White locks contrasting with hazelnut skin. Tall build, sharp and well-defined features.
The junior who had suddenly appeared out of thin air one day.
He was still breathing.
Ricardo let out a small sigh.
"Does he think Black Badger is a suicide squad or something...?"
"Porden. Long time no see?"
Yoon called out to the man shivering under the unconscious junior.
"You've aged a lot."
"Y-Y-Y-..."
"Yeah, good to see you too. Looks like this kid took the full brunt of the collapse impact. You're unscathed, so snap out of it and get up."
Flashes burst again.
Reporters clamoring for the Cureus Company chairman. Firefighters blocking reporters trying to rush in. Yoon brushed aside the remaining rubble with his hand, then hoisted up the unconscious junior.
Rustle.
Chunks of stone fell from Hilde's body.
Yoon adjusted his grip so the tall junior's limbs wouldn't drag on the ground, slinging him over his shoulder. He was completely out, but his pulse and body temperature suggested he wouldn't die anytime soon.
Good. He wanted Hildebert Talib to hold out longer.
It had been a while since he'd encountered someone this intriguing.
"Chairman! Chairman Porden!"
"Call an ambulance, now!"
"Jonathan."
As Cureus Company staff bustled noisily and the chairman staggered to his feet, Ricardo spoke in a low voice.
Another man, revealed as the rubble was cleared, lifted his head.
His hands were stained pitch black.
Blackened hands that suggested he'd been frantically digging through the debris.
Jonathan Kudo looked at the men with weary eyes.
"What's with your getup?"
Ricardo walked past Yoon, who was indifferently stretching, toward his comrade.
The man ignored his own faintly trembling hands and grabbed Kudo's arm, pulling him along.
"Your color's awful... Doesn't look like you got pinned like Hilde... Too much gas?"
"Yoon."
Instead of replying, Kudo called out to the senior walking away.
Yoon, carrying Hilde out of the underground lot, glanced back. The gazes of those who'd been inside the half-collapsed tower flew to the man draped over Yoon's shoulder.
Kudo said,
"Don't send juniors with weak recovery to the field."
"He left me behind!"
The recovered chairman raised a finger, overriding Kudo's voice.
"Even when I begged him!"
"If you're a nuisance, shut your mouth, Porden."
Yoon said flatly.
"The ceiling caved because you panicked and fired off that useless civilian self-defense gadget. Portable laser cannon or whatever. Didn't I tell you that crap's worthless?"
"I didn't even pull out my self-defense stuff until that bastard ditched me! Even when I begged desperately..."
"What do you mean ditched? How's the guy who 'ditched' you passed out on top of you?"
The chairman's mouth clamped shut at the dry point.
Yoon sighed, exhausted from conversing with someone whose brain seemed empty.
"I'm out."
His two juniors looked at him.
"You two do whatever. I gotta get this one to the hospital. Taking the two-tone hair rookie's car, so ride if you want, or don't."
"Take him too. He's not right in the head from the toxic gas..."
"I'm fine."
Yoon and Ricardo ignored Kudo's grumpy retort.
Ricardo dragged his displeased comrade's arm. Even as Kudo was pulled along by his fellow recruit, he kept glaring sullenly at Hilde.
He continued shooting grumpy looks even after Yoon's expression made it clear he didn't care what they did.
Then, abruptly, he said,
"Teach them not to charge in recklessly if their recovery's weak."
"Tell him yourself."
Yoon shot back dryly.
He added as he walked into the blaring flashes,
"Though I doubt he'll listen."
***
In the end, they all piled into the ambulance Shu Diamond had brought.
Ricardo and Kudo laid the unconscious Hilde down and sat across from him. Yoon climbed into the passenger seat and pulled out his phone. As the ambulance door shut, heavy silence rushed in.
Reporters swarmed around the vehicle, but no one glanced outside.
Shu started the engine matter-of-factly.
"Headed to HQ hospital."
The vehicle pushed through the crowd.
A thick silence lingered in the car for a long time. Only Hildebert Talib's steady breathing rang clearly inside the ambulance.
Two Badgers leaning against the walls with eyes closed. One Badger driving silently. One Badger staring at his phone screen.
The air that settles after a big incident wrapped around them.
Much later, it was Hilde's voice that broke the silence.
"...Sorry."
Heads lifted at the small mumble.
"Sorry."
The seniors stared fixedly at the rookie murmuring faintly in his sleep.
A different kind of silence descended—one born from everyone staring at one spot.
Ricardo said,
"Doesn't sound like he's apologizing to us... Yoon. Any guesses?"
"None."
Yoon narrowed his eyes at the unconscious junior.
"I'd have to know something about him."
"You spend the most time with him, though~?"
"Knows how to handle a sword, quick on his feet. That's it."
Yoon explained indifferently, still not looking away from Hilde.
"Basically, I know nothing."
"His rep's good, at least."
Shu joined in with her husky voice.
Staring at the front windshield, she muttered,
"The sword's fine, way better than I worried... seems like a solid kid...."
"He won't harm anyone else. Just picks stuff that'll harm him~."
"Not sure. We'll see if he's really harmless."
Yoon spoke in a thoughtful tone.
Heads turned at the uncharacteristic remark. But he was too focused on Hilde to notice Ricardo raising one eyebrow in disapproval or Shu blinking.
"No malice at all, but sometimes he gives off this weird vibe..."
The trailing words faded without continuation.
It was rare for Yoon to trail off like that. Ricardo blinked his green eyes in surprise.
But Yoon stayed silent. He didn't move from staring at the unconscious Hilde.
Just like Jonathan Kudo, who glared at Hilde without stirring.
"You know this kid's name?"
By the time the ambulance reached HQ's main gate, Ricardo lobbed a pointed question at his friend.
"Remember anything from what HR said at the auditorium? Eh... Honestly, as long as he's alive, I don't care who he is."
"Hildebert Talib."
"Ooh, you remember the name. Anything else?"
"Don't care beyond that."
No one was surprised by Kudo's flat reply.
"As long as he's functional."
No surprise there either.
His indifference toward his new juniors wasn't a one- or two-day thing. A different flavor from Yoon's apathy. His unique line. His unique disinterest.
He wasn't the type to take interest after one joint mission.
So no one batted an eye when Jonathan Kudo left the moment he confirmed Hildebert Talib would get treatment. Or that he never showed his face even after Hilde woke up safely.
Instead, people were shocked by the media reaction.
***
The moment I woke up, I heard a bomb had gone off.
"You made the news."
Samuel Han said ominously.
"Wanna see?"