Chapter 289: Chronos Cult (1)

Ah. I forgot.

Blinking, I touched the hair tie and spoke.

“I didn’t get the timing to let it down.”

“You should’ve loosened it before you parted at the end.”

Is that so?

I still didn’t understand Igor’s lessons. To begin with, I didn’t even understand why I had to let my hair down. Whether it was tied or loose, it was the same face.

Thinking that asking more wouldn’t help, I just fastened my seatbelt.

Igor did the same, then turned to look at me before starting the car.

“Try loosening it.”

“Now?”

“I want to see how you do it.”

Isn’t it all the same? You grab the tie and pull.

I reached my right hand behind my head and yanked the tie straight out.

My hair fell with a soft thud down my back. Igor made a face of utter disbelief.

“How can you let your hair down that sloppily?”

“What do you mean sloppily? How is there a right or wrong way to let your hair down?”

“Haven’t you seen Deltei or Kyle do it? You’re supposed to let it cascade from the back, like waves.”

But I’d always let my hair down like this.

When my expression made my lack of comprehension clear, Igor clicked his tongue in pity. Then he asked me to tie and untie my hair a few more times.

I followed his request with a sullen face.

Watching my third attempt, Igor burst out laughing.

“This won’t do. Don’t try to loosen it in front of anyone. Just go with it already loose.”

Even as I stared at him flatly, I didn’t argue back. I didn’t point out that my hair wasn’t long enough to sway prettily anyway. Even when it reached my waist, I didn’t think I’d ever let it down elegantly.

As long as the appointment was set, that was enough.

Igor started the car, and I told him what had happened at the mansion.

“Rose was there.”

Igor looked surprised.

“That fanatic?”

I nodded with a faint smile.

“Thanks to that, things went very smoothly.”

After I explained everything, Igor let out an incredulous chuckle.

Night had fully settled. Core 3 was much quieter than Center Core.

Silence seeped into the sedan as the subordinate drove.

Igor didn’t dwell long on the story I’d told him.

“Good. While the Captain is meeting the Chairman, I’ll inspect that cult’s headquarters.”

“Thanks. But if the seniors tell you not to follow, pull back appropriately.”

“Got it.”

The subordinate ran a hand through his short hair as he replied.

“And you come back safely tomorrow, Captain.”

Why say something like that?

Green Dream didn’t work on me, and by now I was skilled enough to escape humans who picked fights with me.

When I explained that, Igor scoffed at me.

“Did you think I was worried about the safety of your body?”

“Then what were you worried about?”

“The safety of your lips.”

I was horrified.

“He likes Rose!”

“He has no self-awareness.”

“But he wouldn’t try anything with me!”

“It’s dangerous to assume everyone thinks as tightly closed-off as you do.”

Clicking his tongue as he drove, Igor added,

“Guess you can’t hide where you’re from. Right?”

“That’s not a background issue, is it?”

“Anyway, let’s each do what we have to do tomorrow and review operations in the evening.”

The subordinate waved my words away lightly and snorted.

“I’m curious how far that Chairman will try to go.”

I sat in silence until we reached the residence.

***

“Squad Leader Sordi.”

Ricardo slowly turned his head.

“We blew everything up.”

Smoke from the cigarette in his mouth drifted across the corner of his vision.

Ricardo didn’t move until the smoke cleared. Only after the cigarette had burned short enough did he pull the butt from his mouth with two fingers.

He clenched his fist and crushed the ember out in his palm.

Outside the Core.

Zone B.

Creature corpses were piled near a dilapidated safe house. The juniors had just finished dealing with them. The temporary shelter, unprotected by the Core, was flimsy; after one night, it had been surrounded by bizarre, gigantic fungi.

It was a small mercy that the fungus wasn’t highly toxic.

If it had been, they would’ve suffocated to death in their sleep. They had posted a rotating watch, of course, but the juniors noticed the growing fungus too late.

“Supply status?”

“At best, two days’ worth,” David answered politely.

“In this situation, getting to Zone A is impossible....”

Yeah. It was impossible. With this lineup.

If they’d been a TF team, supplies wouldn’t have run short, and they wouldn’t have turned back in Zone B. They would’ve noticed the fungus immediately. Even without rations, they were people who could push on to Zone A without starving.

But that kind of combination was something they’d never experience again. Ordinary Badger squads couldn’t sweep through Zone A like it was Zone C; they struggled even in Zone B.

Ricardo decided he needed to forget the good times he’d briefly tasted in organized operations. The longer he clung to those memories, the harder it would be to endure the pile of shit waiting ahead.

Especially since he could sense the situation would only get worse.

“Senior.”

As he was giving orders to repair the safe house and prepare to return, Cheon Lin shuffled closer.

Ricardo didn’t bother turning his gaze toward him.

“Yeah~?”

“Is the rumor true?”

So he was finally asking directly.

“What rumor~?”

“Hildebert Taleb.”

His tone was cautious, likely mindful of his relationship with that impudent junior.

“They say the humanoid Creatures.... The humanoid Creature that kidnapped the squad can speak English, and that while dragging the squad members away, they demanded that junior’s head.”

“Is that so~?”

“...Yes. So some Badgers are suspecting that the junior might actually be one of the humanoid Creatures.”

Cheon Lin tapped near his own eye.

“The eye color is exactly the same as a 10th-class, isn’t it.”

He’d wondered how long they’d keep whispering among themselves.

It had been irritating all mission long, watching them huddle together and murmur. Now that he was asking outright, Ricardo almost felt like crying with relief.

Ricardo lifted the corner of his mouth and looked at Cheon Lin.

Only after the junior who’d spoken lost his nerve and dropped his gaze did Ricardo reply.

“The eye color is pretty, though~. Don’t you think?”

“...Do you know why Hildebert went to Core 3 at a time like this?”

Even with some years under his belt, the clueless junior didn’t back down.

“Whether that rookie is a Creature or not, four squad members were kidnapped. Shouldn’t someone go outside the Core?”

“Yo?”

“Sorry. Am I wrong?”

So it begins.

Ricardo thought cynically.

Now the rumor would spread like wildfire. Any humanoid Creature encountered by Badgers would drag Hilde’s name into it. No matter how much the higher-ups, including Jason Trevain from the rescue team, tried to clamp down on it, tongues would wag busily.

Some would glare at Hilde with distrust and anger, just as Ricardo himself had foolishly done in the past.

Not even the Supreme Commander would be able to stop it.

“He probably went because an order came down~.”

Suppressing the irritation rising in him, Ricardo started walking.

“If you’ve got complaints, go tell the Commander yourself~.”

Cheon Lin wasn’t a completely hopeless junior.

Not someone worth bringing along to Zone B, but at least someone you could drag to Zone C. His personality was usually passable. Spineless, sure, but not obstructive during missions, and he didn’t openly defy superiors.

And yet even someone like that reacted this way—so how much worse would Trevain or Green be?

That idiot wouldn’t even make excuses.

Ricardo pulled out a new cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it.

Then he exhaled smoke thick with weariness—and irritation at his past self, who’d made it impossible to freely curse those pointing fingers at Hilde.

Jonathan Kudo, that stupid bastard.

Next time he saw him, he’d punch him and knock that stubbornness right out.

***

“Ugh, again!”

Ami shouted in frustration as she leapt into the air.

“Back to square one!”

“What the hell?”

Giacomo Ro frowned as he looked up at Ami stomping in midair.

“Hey, Peanut! Failed again?”

They were at the boundary of Zone A.

The river dividing Zone A and Zone S. Spring sunlight had melted the ice, and the river surged downstream with brisk speed.

The Badgers kept failing to cross it.

The moment they tried to swim across, the current intensified. A few nearly drowned. Boats didn’t work either—neither the ones they’d made by cutting down trees nor the inflatable rubber ones.

So Ami had tried flying across with her boots.

But she couldn’t reach the far bank. The moment she thought she had, she found herself snapping back like a ghost to the place she’d launched from—the spot where the Badgers were waiting.

With a sigh, Ami landed beside Ro.

“How did the rescue team get in?”

She muttered with a dejected face.

“I don’t even have a clue what we’re supposed to do.”

“Did they even get in?”

Ro picked at his ear with his pinky and looked across the river.

“What if they’re just running around in circles like us?”

They couldn’t see what was happening in Zone S.

Trees planted along the riverbank drooped their wet leaves like soaked mops, blocking the view beyond. They looked like willows, but their purple leaves boldly proclaimed that they were anything but.

Ami stared across the river with a deflated expression.

“Senior.”

Footsteps approached and stopped.

Ami and Ro turned their heads.

“That gray-streaked bastard is a Creature, right?”

Ami’s eyes narrowed.

In contrast, Ro’s eyes went wide.

A Badger pulled his tattoo-covered left arm out of his pocket. Ro arched his thick brows, looking at yet another junior whose name he couldn’t remember.

“Uh.... That guy with the long name?”

Beside him, Ami snapped curtly,

“Don’t call Hilde ‘gray-streaked,’ Bance.”

“If we shove that rookie forward, won’t they come out anyway? Four people were kidnapped, after all.”

Bance ignored Ami and jerked his chin.

“Four to one. Not a hard calculation. And that one is almost certainly a Creature.”

“Why would Hilda be a Creature?”

Ro couldn’t follow the conversation.

“He looks human, doesn’t he?”

“Humanoid Creatures are still Creatures, Senior. Hildebert is one of those humanoid Creatures.”

“But he’s a Badger.”

“Which means a humanoid Creature became a Badger.”

“What are you talking about? Why?”

“I don’t know. Something must’ve happened. Not my concern.”

“Huh?”

Just as Ami furrowed her brow, about to argue, Ro made a puzzled sound.

“Isn’t it enough that he’s a Badger?”

For the first time, Bance shut his mouth.

Ro raked his black curls.

“No, seriously, say it so a human can understand.”

“...What I mean is, Senior. The humanoid Creatures that kidnapped the Badgers demanded Hildebert. They said they wanted that gray— that rookie’s head. That’s proof he’s one of them. The eye color is proof too.”

“Ah, hell.”

Irritation crept into Ro’s voice.

“Is he our enemy?”

“...I think we’d have to see.”

“But.”

“The gray-streaked bastard’s identity—”

“Hey! What kind of bullshit are you spouting!”

The curly-haired Badger snapped, his patience gone.

“Why the hell does it matter what that bastard is?!”

Bance stood there, speechless, facing Ro’s fury.

“Creature, Creature grandpa—why the hell should I care! What does rescuing the kidnapped guys have to do with figuring out who the hell that bastard is?!”

“It’s not ‘gray-streaked,’ it’s Hil-den-deng.”

“If he’s something else, does that let us cross this damn river? Huh?!”

“If Hildebert comes out, we might be able to rescue the kidnapped Badgers.”

Bance blurted quickly. Ro raised his eyebrows.

“Who the hell said that?”

“The kidnappers did.”

“The kidnappers diiid?”

His voice went up an octave.

The junior clamped his mouth shut. Ro looked at him again—what was his name?—then turned his ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) gaze to Ami.

In a voice without a hint of deception, he said,

“Hey, Peanut. This guy seems kind of... not too bright.”

Ami, who’d been clenching her lips in a straight line, trembling as she held back laughter, let out a shrill sound.

“Hm?”

“Man.... No, really.... Take better care of him. It’s pitiful.”

Ami’s body shook like a phone on vibrate.

But Ro didn’t notice she was holding back laughter.

He shook his head, unaware of Bance’s clenched teeth and Ami’s desperate state, and walked past the junior.

“Damn soldiers....”

Ro’s muttering drifted back on the wind.

“Is it because they’re kids these days.... trusting the enemy.... Jesus....”

Ami kept trembling as she watched Ro disappear from view.

***

The seniors were pleased with the news I brought back.

They were especially delighted by the fact that Doug Clark had tried to steal Green Dream to kill them.

The deserter-capture unit utterly failed to hide their excitement upon hearing my report.

Leonard replied with a casually feigned, “Really?” and covered his face with his palm. But I could see the smile spreading behind it.

Sylvia snorted softly and tilted her head to the side.

Her pale fingers rolled bullets with a faint clatter.

“Nice.”

A long smile hung on her lips.

“It would’ve been even better if Doug had gotten Green Dream.”

Ha....

Evening came again.

Once more, I got out of the car Igor had driven.

“Blessings upon Hildebert Taleb’s lips.”

After stopping the car and spouting that nonsense, the subordinate made a dumbfounded face and traced a sign of the cross over my lips.

“Come back safe, Captain. And give my regards to Rose.”