Chapter 200: A Zone (4)

He had heard words like these far too many times for them to hurt anymore.

I gave a slow smile, then stepped one pace closer to him.

“Yes. It has been a long time. Please surrender.”

“When did you become someone who feels no shame?”

“What are you holding in your hand~?”

Ricardo drawled as he wandered in, smothering the Frontier Count’s next words.

His green gaze snapped straight to the object in my kinsman’s right hand.

The others focused there as well. I, too, was curious.

I studied the sphere mostly hidden beneath the man’s palm.

It did not look like a bomb.

“What are you holding?”

“Do not come closer.”

“You are not planning to self-destruct, I hope.”

Unable to identify it, anxiety creeping in, I slowly approached him.

I stepped past scattered files, computers, and unfamiliar machines. The seniors did not follow.

I was grateful they were honoring my earlier request: If we meet him, please give me time to talk first.

Even Sophia was silent for now. Whether because of the squad leader’s order or because she was restraining herself, I did not know.

Either way, I approached him alone.

The Frontier Count grew visibly tense with each of my steps.

His body stiffened more and more until, at the distance where I could reach out and touch him, he shouted:

“One step closer and I will detonate it!”

I stopped.

Silence fell.

A heavy, crushing silence thick enough to swallow the entire storage room. Over it, I felt waves of tension.

Mine—and that of those standing ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) by the entrance, watching.

Someone among the seniors seemed ready to move, so I raised one hand to stop them.

Just give me a moment.

“Frontier Count.”

I tightened my muscles just enough to snatch whatever was in his right hand if needed.

“Calm yourself. I will not harm you.”

“Captain of the Knights.”

He called me.

“Captain!”

The raw resentment and betrayal in his voice were so intense that I swallowed the words I had been about to say.

I rolled my eyes up to meet his blazing stare.

The Frontier Count did not open his right hand.

“I believed you would stay by the side of your kin to the very end.”

My face remained expressionless.

“When even Kyle and Rei worried you would defect... Even then I insisted you would soon come to your senses.”

So he had.

Well. We had been quite close.

Before the world began to fall apart. Before I became Captain of the Knights—when I was still a regular knight. I met him back when I saved his domain from sinking beneath floodwaters.

From then on, we had maintained good relations.

Until the war on Earth began.

“Even when everyone doubted you, I believed in you to the end.”

“I am sorry.”

“You were the strongest, the kindest among us. The one who would never bend.”

His voice filled with rage.

“Yet!”

“Ease the tension in your right hand.”

“You—of all people—yielded to threats from these things! ”

His voice boomed through the Seed Storage.

“You listened to the nonsense humans spewed to save themselves, and in fear you threw away your own kin?! Taleb! It was all bluster! All posturing! Did your comrades not tell you that again and again?!”

His stern voice lashed out like a whip.

He had always been called the noble who behaved most like a commoner—yet in official halls he radiated unshakeable dignity. He rolled up his sleeves to help his farmers, yet arrived at court with a spotless uniform.

“You trusted the words of humans instead of trusting the comrades who crossed death’s line at your side!”

So even he could bare such hostility.

“You were afraid! You just did not want to die!”

I stood in place, waiting for him to expend his fury.

“You cared only about that one precious life of yours—!”

Bang!

A bullet tore past the Frontier Count’s head.

I whipped my head toward the shooter and widened my eyes.

No.

It was Ami who had fired.

“Hey. Shut up.”

She spoke in her usual cheeky manner, but her face held none of her usual smile.

“You do not know a damn thing.”

“Ami...?”

“I am pissed.”

“Ami, calm down.”

“I will kill him.”

She said it casually.

The fact that only her mouth was smiling made it far more terrifying as she raised her gun again.

Her round eyes burned with anger.

“I will kill him and get rid of him in front of Hilde.”

“No.”

Please. Not you suddenly going berserk.

Cold sweat trickled down my back as I watched her.

Then I rolled my eyes, searching for salvation.

Desperately scanning the room, I locked eyes with Yun, who had been observing with arms crossed.

The marksman raised one brow.

“Please restrain her.”

I begged urgently.

“I will capture him soon. Just until then—”

“All right.”

Yun agreed immediately.

Thank goodness.

I exhaled in relief—only for him to continue:

“Choi Ami. If you are going to shoot, do not shoot the head. Shoot a leg or a hand.”

“No.”

“Then he is going to keep spouting stupid things.”

Ami’s voice went flat and sulky, her brow scrunching.

Ricardo, a cigarette now somehow in his mouth, snickered beside them.

“What about cutting out his tongue~?”

...Yes. I should hurry.

Giving up on stopping the seniors, I turned back to the Frontier Count.

He still glared at me and the others with bloodshot eyes.

He had not let go of either object in his hands.

Suppressing a long sigh, I stepped closer.

“I told you not to come closer.”

“Sooner or later you will be captured. I do not want to use force. Please put down what you are holding.”

“So the rumor was true—you travel with those things now, hunting your own kin.”

Yes, apparently so.

“Perhaps everything went wrong from the very beginning.”

The Frontier Count glared fiercely as I approached.

His unfiltered anger crashed over me.

“It all began with your mistake. We gave humans far too much.”

Bang!

Sophia’s shot.

This time she truly aimed to pierce his skull. If Carl had not smacked her arm aside with uncanny precision, the Frontier Count would have died instantly.

I nearly rubbed my face with my hands.

“Playing the victim when you were the invaders....”

Sophia’s voice boiled.

“Strutting in and starting a war—war criminals running their mouths!”

“We wanted peace!”

The Frontier Count roared back without yielding.

“We wanted to live quietly, peacefully! But humans decided we were dangerous and tried to wipe us out. Did you think we would not notice? Did you think we would sit still, waiting for our death?!”

His emotional cry reverberated through the white room.

“Humans brought disaster upon themselves! We wanted peace—they were the cowards trembling at our power!”

“So who struck first? Who began the invasion?”

“Do you know why the decision was made? Because humans killed a child on our side.”

Then he snapped his head toward me again.

His pale-green eyes were now full of grief and resentment.

“Did you not pity that child at all?”

Adam.

I met his gaze somberly.

The child who died by the hands of humans who hated us—before even reaching adulthood.

“How could you side with humans after witnessing that?”

“If I had not, we all would have died.”

I swallowed the ache and gave a bitter smile.

He would not believe me.

Even when I fell to my knees before my friends and begged, they would not believe me.

“There would have been nothing left of this land.”

“That was bluster.”

“It was not.”

“And even if it were true, even if your claim was real, you should have stood with your kin!”

The Frontier Count cried in a cracked voice.

“You should have died protecting your pride! Did you not swear as much when you rose to Captain?!”

To give my life defending the people of the Empire.

Memory flooded in. It had been a beautiful, cloud-draped day. Rei cheering as if it were his own achievement. Kyle smirking. The knights of my division crying with joy. Hekate laughing that my hardships would now be endless.

Those proud comrades.

The Empire’s glory, unbroken by any hardship.

I had loved their brilliant pride more than words could say.

“But there were kin who wanted to live.”

I murmured softly, watching the object in his right hand.

“There were kin for whom time with those they loved, a future that might be glorious—or even a future that would simply continue—was more precious than pride.”

I had not sided with the humans solely because of Kysis’s command.

I had simply seen no other choice. None at all.

“You will not believe that either, of course. Frontier Count, let us go. You may voice the rest of your resentment inside the Core.”

“If His Majesty the Emperor were still alive, things would never have come to this.”

Slowly approaching him, I saw the resignation in his eyes.

His voice was so sad that it was strange not a single tear had gathered.

“He would never have let the situation drag this far.”

Yes. I know.

There must have been a better path somewhere.

If someone other than a clumsy person like me had been the leader, maybe all of this would not have fallen apart. Knowing that so clearly, his final words cut deep. I had grown used to accusations of cowardice and betrayal—they were like the air now—but grief-stained lamentation still hurt.

His words flew like blades and struck my heart.

I tried not to show how momentarily shaken I was and came to a stop.

“Your right hand. Give it to me.”

One last chance.

“If you refuse again, I will use force.”

Up close, I could see it clearly—not a bomb.

What is that? Some round blue orb?

I narrowed my eyes just as he tightened his grip.

“Hey!”

Yun and Ricardo shouted in unison.

At the same moment, I lunged and grabbed his right hand—yet the thing in it burst like a drop of water.

Pop!

A cute little sound, like a soap bubble popping.

Holding his wrist, I blinked.

“What is this?”

Some kind of seed-storage capsule?

“At least it is not a bomb... Ah-choo!”

Ah, maybe it held nutrients.

Looks like he grabbed something random and threatened us, pretending it was a bomb.

Given the defeated color flooding his face, it was clearly not poison.

We were lucky nothing worse happened.

I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and began restraining him.

***

“This is bad.”

A scientist in the research wing dropped her phone as she stared at the screen.

“How could this happen... We need to tell Hilde right away.”

“What is it?”

Another scientist beside her stretched her neck and massaged her throat.

“What happened?”

The lab where John Mühlen worked.

Scientists who had been drinking caffeine like water and burying themselves in research turned their eyes toward the colleague who had dropped her phone.

Because a familiar name had come up. A name frequently mentioned among the scientists.

Hildebert.

In the science building, that Badger’s name was mentioned with unusual frequency. The reason was simple.

The scientists liked Hilde.

He served as a bridge to Yun, he was good at games, and his personality was kind.

He had found Martin for them, and he willingly helped with their little requests. Normally, asking Badgers to do manual tasks was rude. They were not fixers. But if scientists were struggling with something, Hilde would rush in asking why no one had called him.

He had not a single shard of the arrogance typical of Badgers. Unlike his marksman, he was easy to talk to. When someone called his name, he always looked back with a faint smile and puzzled yellow eyes.

Ah, and he was unbelievably good at remembering names.

Name-remembering was something many scientists were terrible at.

For all these reasons, Hilde was very popular in the lab.

So they all groaned together when they saw the article.

The kind of article normal people would complain about—“Why would anyone write this nonsense?”

“Lexic is shutting down its noodle business.”

“What.”

They were genuinely horrified.

“What is going on.”

They decided instantly that they would tell him as soon as he returned.

Under the pleasant lunchtime breeze,

Sipping an Americano with who-knows-how-many extra espresso shots added,

They all thought of the yellow-eyed Badger who was currently outside the Core, but who, when inside, often stopped by to see them.