Chapter 459: Rioters (1)

Hildebert left.

No one managed to speak to him again. Everyone understood it wasn’t the kind of situation where you did that.

And even if someone had failed to grasp the situation, they still wouldn’t have dared approach him.

When Hildebert stepped out of the car, something darker than ever coiled around him.

With not a single strand of hair visible, the effect was doubled.

A low, somber question slipped from his mouth.

Everyone gathered here had seen Hildebert truly enraged only once before.

Inside the Black Badger headquarters building. In the place where those who had saved him and those who refused to trust him stood together.

Back then, he had looked like a man barely suppressing the urge to destroy everything — including the headquarters itself.

The cold fury pouring from him had crushed them into silence.

But that Hildebert had not felt ominous.

This was different.

The man who had stepped out of the car just now — like a gloomy reaper — stood there briefly, radiating something bleak and indescribable, then vanished from sight.

Only after he disappeared did the Badgers seem to wake from paralysis.

Ami jumped out of the car.

“Cowards!”

Her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Cowards! Cowards! Dragging in someone who has nothing to do with this! Hesh’s father isn’t even a Badger!”

“What else would he do?”

The voice that answered was Yun’s.

Heads whipped toward the darkness as Yun approached from the main road, walking slowly toward the punctured vehicle.

“You didn’t seriously think he’d fight my junior fairly, did you? The only ones who could beat him head-on are Kyle and the Ice Dragon.”

“Wasn’t the Commander position supposed to remain vacant?”

Jonathan turned toward Yehyeon, who was staring down at his phone.

Yehyeon didn’t lift his head.

“It stayed vacant because the current President — who wanted to belong to neither side — accepted our request. I knew he might pressure the President, but...”

“Why leave it empty in the first place?”

Jonathan continued, remembering what Hildebert had told Ska months ago.

“If he’d been seated in that position, this might not have happened.”

“No,” Yehyeon replied quietly. “If Ska had been sitting in the Commander’s chair, he would’ve had to resign when the presumption of Hildebert’s death was announced.”

His voice was heavy.

“Gilbert, being in the same line, would’ve been pushed out too. Once dismissed in disgrace like that, even if the board were overturned later, Ska would never return to the Commander’s seat.... That junior didn’t want Ska forced out for his actions. So he asked that the seat remain vacant for a while.”

“Then what happens to Ska now?” Jonathan asked.

Yehyeon finally raised his head, looking at his subordinates with a complicated expression.

“For now, he’ll remain an aide. Until the new Commander conducts personnel reshuffling.”

“And Luke?”

Ami stood rigid, staring at Yehyeon in disbelief.

“Yehyeon oppa. Can we find Luke Lyle?”

Yehyeon’s gaze softened bitterly.

“No. He’ll be processed as a deserter.”

He didn’t lie.

The former Commander slowly gathered the shape-shifting weapons scattered across the ground, speaking in a troubled tone.

“We’ll be lucky if they don’t dispatch a military deserter apprehension unit. And they probably won’t use the one I had under my command.”

Pain flooded Ami’s eyes. She rubbed them with the back of her hand.

Kairos stood silently beside her, arms folded.

Yun approached them, stopped, and lit a cigarette.

“We got hit clean,” he said, exhaling smoke to the side.

“Striking me was a diversion. While we were gathered here, he crushed the President and secured a useful hostage.”

“It’s a trash way to attack! Can’t stab directly so he stabs the people around instead!”

“In a fight where lives are on the line, there’s no such thing as trash or not,” Yun said flatly at his sister’s furious outburst.

“You think he took that seat by swinging a sword or firing a gun fairly? This isn’t some martial arts world. And the opponent isn’t another Titan — it’s that junior.”

“But oppa!”

“Did you forget how the First War ended?”

Ami’s expression crumpled at Yun’s indifferent tone.

Yehyeon flinched slightly.

The cigarette ember glowed in the dark.

Yun didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. Everyone present understood the unspoken continuation.

Humanity had won the First War because a humanoid Creature hesitated at the sight of Hildebert’s sword.

Because when Yehyeon charged forward holding Hildebert’s blade, the rampaging entity mistook him for someone else for a split second.

And in that fleeting instant, Yehyeon pierced its heart with the sword that held the Heart of the World Tree.

Until that blade penetrated its heart, humanity had fed both bombs and human lives into the grinder trying to kill it.

But the board had not turned.

Soldiers pushed forward like documents fed into a shredder.

Mountains of corpses.

Hildebert was a being capable of creating that kind of catastrophe.

And Colton Wiseman knew that better than anyone.

He was a man who had once grasped nuclear annihilation and been prepared for mutual destruction.

To defeat Hildebert, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) he would use any method.

“Knowing he’s physically outmatched, he tried to bury him socially.... But that junior essentially became someone presumed dead, avoiding being cornered socially,” Yehyeon murmured.

“He’ll take a hostage and drag him onto the battlefield he wants.”

His husky voice scattered in the dawn wind.

“It’ll be total war soon.”

“You’re going to be audited,” Yun said without looking at him.

“No one comes out clean when they dig. The appointed Commander will find any reason to remove you outright.”

“Remove....”

Ami echoed blankly.

“Dispose of your enhanced body?”

“Well, I’ll defend as best I can. That video helps in times like this,” Yehyeon replied evenly.

“They won’t discard my enhanced body easily with the ‘hero’ title attached.”

“This isn’t the time to answer calmly.”

“I know. But more than me....”

At Yun’s pressure, Yehyeon turned his gaze.

Jonathan and Ricardo met their former superior’s eyes in silence.

Yehyeon’s expression softened.

“You two will be classified as Ska’s and that junior’s closest associates.”

He looked at Ricardo and Jonathan.

“Ska will try to block unjust treatment. But taking leave is an option. Neither of you has taken a sabbatical in quite some time.”

“We’re fine.”

“Even so, we won’t escape suppression~,” Ricardo replied lazily after Jonathan answered quickly.

“Back to the Age of Permafrost....”

That was what the Black Badgers called the era when an outsider had once been seated as Commander.

The first time they’d had a truly incompetent superior and the organization deteriorated helplessly.

No one denied that that oppressive season might return.

Yun exhaled smoke without expression. Ami clutched his sleeve tightly with one hand, scrolling frantically through her phone.

Jonathan stood stiff. Ricardo stared at the tire marks left by the motorcycle.

Kairos, silent and unreadable, spoke.

“If possible, I would like to see the room where Luke disappeared.”

“W-what!? Jack Black!”

But his words were cut off.

“Jack Black!? It’s really Jack Black, isn’t it!?”

Only then did the Badgers remember the driver.

Instead of fleeing, the driver scrambled out of the seat in a fluster.

The Badgers turned to him with indifference — except Yehyeon, who examined him with a cold gaze before reporting him to the police.

“I chased Black-Jack?” the driver blinked, staggering toward Kairos.

“I even shook you off once!”

Kairos stared at him with bright orange eyes.

Then he gave a short, sharp smile.

“You had talent. It would have been better if you hadn’t derailed.”

The driver threw both arms up in delight, ignoring the faint chill in Kairos’s tone.

Soon, patrol units arrived, slicing through the cold night air.

***

Push forward.

The decision came the moment I received the report.

Defense no longer had meaning. Flipping the board and launching an assault was the best option.

Even just to rescue the hostage.

VROOOOOM!

I sped toward Lynn’s flat on the motorcycle.

As I rode, I assessed the situation.

Up until now, we’d been preparing beneath the surface to strike Colton.

Searching for suitable sites to install Core devices. Fending off assassination attempts sent by his subordinate Elders.

The latest attempt had failed pathetically like this.

But we had been busy underground.

Erich Erhart and Yekaterina included.

[When do you intend to activate the Core device?]

Lee Seunghyun’s voice reached my ear as I entered Harlem.

I swerved around addicts sprawled across the road and answered,

“As soon as possible. Ideally tomorrow.”

[Understood.]

“One of them is under your protection.”

We needed guards to protect the Core devices until they were complete and Colton could be isolated.

[Yes. Preparations are complete.]

“We’ll move within twenty-four hours.”

[Yes.]

“You’re still tracking his location?”

The two Elders who had joined hands with me were handling different tasks.

If Erich Erhart protected my kin and those around me, Yekaterina tracked Colton’s movements.

[Yes.]

A short reply.

“Good. I’ll contact you again soon.”

I dodged a pedestrian stepping into the road and cut the transmission.

Silently, I cut through the ominous streets.

The atmosphere had shifted in just those few hours. I wouldn’t have been surprised if riots erupted before morning.

Time to use Lynn’s drugs.

Casual speech mode ends soon.

Screeeech!

I stopped in front of the flat.

As I climbed the stairs, I briefly thought of Hesh. I didn’t linger. Now wasn’t the time for guilt or sentiment.

I would feel everything later.

It was nearing 3 a.m., yet a strange commotion seeped from inside the flat as I opened the door.

“Ah.”

I found Lynn, thoroughly irritated — and his uninvited guest.

“Where the hell have you been? There’s some crazy old hag—”

The dawn visitor turned toward me.

“Ma’am, wrong address. Please leave—”

Then she smiled gently.

The moment I saw that warm, generous face, I remembered.

The legendary information broker I’d once encountered in this very alley years ago.

The one who had claimed to have met me in a laboratory when I was young.

The nameless figure said to have raised William Walker when he wandered the streets.

The old spider adjusted the shawl draped over her shoulders and smiled.

“You’ve been well, haven’t you?”