Chapter 385: Spread (2)

The fever was high.

There was no need to press my forehead to his. Just brushing my hand against him was enough to feel the searing heat.

I grabbed Jonathan’s body.

“I’ll carry him.”

Ricardo bent his knees and lowered Jonathan to the ground.

I quickly took him and hoisted the senior onto my back—heavy in that particular way patients always are.

Strange. Leeho and Asil hadn’t seemed so bad they couldn’t even stay conscious.

Seeing a senior delirious from fever made my chest clench with fear.

Especially since just yesterday, another Badger had passed away.

This time, it was a Badger whose name I knew. Gale Dawson. The one who had shoved me into the portal.

It would be a lie to say I mourned his death.

He’d been a rotten bastard, and I wasn’t benevolent enough to love all humans. Lately, especially not.

Still, regardless of how I’d judged him, hearing that someone I knew had died was never pleasant.

I looked back at Ricardo.

“Go inside and rest.”

Ricardo stared fixedly at Jonathan, brow furrowed.

Through the mask, his voice came out muffled.

“I want to hear his diagnosis....”

“I’ll hear it and let you know.”

“Let me come too—?”

“No.”

I said it coldly.

Perhaps surprised, Ricardo stared at me.

Meeting his green eyes, I spoke firmly.

“Go inside and rest. I’ll tell you the results right away. I promise.”

The green-eyed man opened his mouth as if to say something, but I cut him off.

“Please.”

Ricardo closed his mouth.

“Please go rest.”

He held my gaze.

Then he nodded. He has no idea how relieved I felt seeing that.

The senior turned and walked out of the compound. I ran for the hospital with Jonathan on my back.

The feverish rasp of his breathing terrified me.

Once he gets antipyretics, it should come down quickly.

As soon as I burst into the hospital, the medical staff grasped the situation.

They rushed over with beds and IVs. I quickly laid Jonathan down, then followed them inside.

The positive result came back quickly.

Jonathan would be sent to the isolation ward.

I found myself staring down at the senior, groaning unconsciously.

A man who couldn’t even open his eyes.

“His condition seems worse than the other patients’. Is it all right to move him to the isolation ward?”

“They’re fully equipped, and the medical staff there are excellent.”

The doctor reassured me.

“We’ll take over now. You should return to duty.”

“Does it usually worsen this rapidly?”

“Symptoms vary from person to person.”

He won’t go into shock, right.

I knew staying wouldn’t help, but my feet wouldn’t move.

Ricardo must be beside himself too. I should watch the progression just a bit longer.

Emergency deployment orders come through here as well....

As I was about to follow the gurney the nurse was pushing, someone came running into the hospital.

“We’ve got two more patients.”

It was Kairos.

He had men slung over both shoulders.

I rushed to him and took the man draped over his left shoulder.

Chen Koenig.

“Both have severe fevers.”

“This way!”

The other one was Jason Trevain.

Seeing men who looked like they’d never caught a cold in their lives laid low by high fever unsettled me. Like Jonathan, Chen Koenig wasn’t properly conscious at all—no strength in his body, cold sweat soaking him like a wet towel.

Trevain, on the other hand, was conscious.

He sharply furrowed his brow and dropped to the floor.

“Put me down.”

His voice cracked as he shoved Kairos away.

“I can walk.”

“Sorry.”

Kairos apologized kindly, but kept his hands hovering near Trevain.

Two beds stopped nearby.

I laid Chen down.

Then I ran back to Kairos and pushed him toward the hospital doors.

“I’ve got this. Go.”

Kairos nodded and turned immediately.

Listening to his footsteps fade, I looked at the senior. Even after the nurses lowered the bed rails, Jason Trevain refused to lie down.

He stayed motionless, head bowed.

I quickly took off my black windbreaker.

“Urgh.”

Perfect timing.

Right on cue, Trevain emptied his stomach onto the jacket I’d spread beneath him.

No one was particularly shocked.

If anything, Trevain himself looked the most startled.

But he seemed too drained to speak. While the nurses and I cleaned things up together, he just groaned, gripping the bed.

I lifted the senior who kept refusing to lie down, to make it easier for the nurses.

After easing him onto the bed as gently as I could, I looked down at Trevain, who was squeezing his brow tight.

“Please rest, Senior.”

Instead of answering, Trevain just rolled his eyes.

The bed soon disappeared inside. He’d obviously test positive—there was no way he’d be this sick otherwise.

The symptoms are worse than I thought.

The fact that there’s still no proper antibiotic, when they’re in that much pain, is terrifying.

Just as panic made me reach for my communicator to contact Sasu, the hospital doors opened again.

This time, unlike before, all the staff flinched in unison.

The noise died down instantly.

Turning my head, I saw Yehyeon carrying Aide Gilbert on his back.

“He wasn’t answering, so I went to check. He’d collapsed.”

The medical staff and I ran toward Gilbert.

“And I think I need to get tested again too.”

In an instant, core manpower vanished.

Jonathan Kudo—widely regarded as unmatched in patrol duty and solidly ranked within the top twenty Black Badgers—out.

Chen Koenig—war hero who survived both the First and Second Wars—down.

Jason Trevain—considered unrivaled among Badgers in sheer aggressiveness—down.

With the exception of Ska Owen, the entire command structure was now in isolation.

[Hilde. I’ll pay whatever you ask—could I hire your subordinates for a while?]

“Talk to Yoow.”

I answered Ska’s troubled voice.

After passing Ska’s request on to my people, I disinfected myself and ran for the research wing.

To check on Yun—who still hadn’t replied to my message.

He was probably just absorbed in something, as usual, and slow to respond.

Nothing would be wrong....

***

Yun didn’t even notice I’d arrived.

“Yun.”

I called his name as I approached, but his eyes never left the laptop screen.

He truly hadn’t heard me.

There’s a difference between ignoring someone and being so immersed you don’t hear at all.

I strode up to his desk.

“Yun!”

[Doctor Yun. Hilde is here!]

Thankfully, Martin slid down from the ceiling to help me.

The orb spun in circles above Yun’s head.

[How about taking a break while you’re at it!]

Even so, Yun only snapped out of it after I grabbed his shoulder firmly.

Something only John Mühlen would usually pull.

John Mühlen—who’d been ordered into home confinement faster than anyone once the virus spread—wasn’t in the lab now. The gray-haired genius was probably doing some unknown research in his plant-filled home.

But unlike Mühlen, Yun had stamina, survival skills, and combat ability. So he hadn’t been confined and had stayed in the research wing instead....

“You did go home at least, right?”

I asked with a frown. Yun glanced up at me indifferently.

He blinked, rare for him.

“What.”

His low voice answered.

“Why are you here?”

“To check on your condition.”

As I replied, I brought the back of my hand to his forehead.

Ambiguous.

Pressing foreheads would tell me more clearly.

As I hesitated, Yun picked up the thermometer on his desk.

Beep. 36.7.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“No fever, at least. Still, please go home and rest. You are sleeping properly, right?”

“Mmh.”

Yun gave a muffled response.

A careless one. He’d already propped his chin on his hand and was staring back at the screen.

I clicked my tongue in irritation.

“Yun. If you go down too, we’re really screwed.”

“We already are.”

Without even looking at me, he replied.

“Yes. Which is why you should go rest—so it doesn’t get worse.”

“Three hours.”

Are you a child.

“You’re the one who said the brain only works properly after real sleep.”

“I’ll get called.”

Yun muttered, eyes still glued to the screen.

“B Zone.”

He was right.

An emergency manpower call rang through Black Badger headquarters. Essentially calling for me. It was the third call since sunrise.

I waved vaguely at Hiroshi, who was shouting, ‘Shouldn’t Hilde rest too?!’, and sprinted down the corridor.

As I passed out of the research wing, I shouted back,

“When I get back, you’re going home!”

If he refused, I’d drag him there myself.

Jamming the slipping communicator back against my ear, I ran for the portal zone.

***

[The problem is that two archmages have recovered.]

On my way back from the third call, I spoke briefly with Yoow.

The tactician, who came to headquarters daily from his cabin, sounded grim over the line.

[It means they can freely bloom the teleportation circle seeds they scattered throughout Center Core. There’s no way they’d miss that chance. Frankly, it even feels like an opportunity they engineered themselves.]

“Is that why they kidnapped the Badgers and then returned them safely?”

[Let’s hope that’s all it is. That there isn’t something worse hidden behind it.]

At his dark murmur, I nodded, exhaling deeply.

[As for the Elders’ movements, we’re monitoring them closely, just as you asked. This situation is an opportunity for us too.]

“Thanks. Sorry for overworking you.”

[So far, none of them seem infected. From the moment the plague spread, the entire Elder faction locked themselves away on their own estates. The virus will take longer to reach them.]

Unfortunate, and fortunate.

I would’ve liked it if some of those ugly bastards—including Jaeyeon—had caught it.

But if Lee Seunghyun had, that would’ve weighed on me. I still wanted him to live with remorse, to someday offer Yehyeon a sincere apology.

I didn’t want Lee Seunghyun to die.

His lifespan wasn’t exactly short, but still....

[But is the organization really functioning? There’s only one person left in the command structure, isn’t there? With this emergency and all the work piling up, one person can’t handle it alone....]

“Luckily, Yehyeon’s symptoms are relatively mild. He brought a PC into the isolation ward and is helping from there.”

But no one knew how long that would last.

“If we lose more manpower here, things will get truly dangerous....”

If infections exceeded a certain number, Black Badger would issue a self-defense request to society.

With no personnel to respond to Creatures, they’d demand civilian countermeasures instead.

A headquarters shutdown request—written into regulations but never once issued—was now frighteningly close.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t deteriorate that fast.”

Ending the call, I found myself standing inside headquarters again.

The building lay under a bluish dusk, the sun fully set.

General staff were moving about far more busily than usual.

Before checking on Yun again, I decided I should wash my hands.

But the moment I stepped into the restroom, I froze.

Someone inside had noticed me.

Yun looked up at me.

“You feel nauseous, don’t you.”

Pale as a sheet, my senior answered not with words, but with a sigh.