Consciousness returned slowly.
Ow.
A frown crossed my face as pain began to crawl back into my leg. I could feel the body supporting mine — that familiar sensation whenever I woke up from the voice of a dream.
I inhaled the cold air.
“Senior.”
Why does my throat feel like sandpaper?
“I’m sorry. I’m awake now, so please let me down.”
“You’re awake~?”
Gasp.
The back of my neck prickled.
In an instant, every sense snapped into place, and my awareness cleared.
The abandoned building in the distance — the one where I had fought with my senior — was now spotless. The fog that had blanketed the streets was gone.
The road was dim, swallowed by the mixture of streetlights and shadow.
I was being carried horizontally in Kudo’s arms.
And two pairs of eyes looked down at me.
“Your leg hasn’t healed yet.”
“...I can walk.”
Why is Ricardo here?
Avoiding the green eyes staring down at me, I quietly answered Jonathan Kudo while struggling to plant my uninjured foot on the ground.
But the senior, brow faintly furrowed, refused to set me down.
“Stay still. The wound will tear open.”
“...The Creature....”
“Handled.”
Kudo answered coolly.
I pressed my lips into a line and blinked awkwardly.
It wasn’t surprising. Ricardo and Kudo must have taken care of the “Ashen Mantle.” As long as they didn’t get shaken by the illusions, it was manageable enough.
Illusions...
Ignoring the churn in my stomach, I avoided Ricardo’s gaze.
Seriously, why is he here?
Did he come after checking the missed calls?
Wasn’t he deliberately ignoring them? Or... was he unable to answer?
I didn’t have the nerve to speak first, so I stared determinedly elsewhere.
“Hilde....”
Why are you calling me?
Pretending not to feel the awkwardness, I rolled my eyes sideways.
My gaze met the deep green of # Nоvеlight # his.
Ricardo was watching me with an inscrutable expression.
“Yes, senior.”
“Let’s talk later~...”
Ah, why.
“Later. After you’ve fully recovered.”
I was doing my best not to show my fear, when Kudo cut into the conversation.
Thankfully, he looked fine — and didn’t seem inclined to let me down.
He ignored my attempts to wiggle my good leg and started walking.
There was a car nearby. The seniors turned on the hazard lights and tried to lay me down in the back seat. It looked like Ricardo’s car. No belongings, clean dark-green seats...
Wait. Isn’t this a Maserati?
I had been about to obediently get in, but froze and refused.
“Senior! You’ll get blood on your car!”
“What kind of crap— just get in~.”
“The seats are suede!”
Ricardo shot me a look that screamed you’ve got to be kidding me.
But I was deadly serious. This was an expensive car.
My small rebellion, however, was ignored.
Kudo shoved me into the back seat in an instant. My protest that bloodstains on suede were hard to clean went completely unheard. They stuffed me inside, got in the front, and started the engine.
I stared up at the car ceiling with unease.
Then I slowly lifted my injured leg to inspect the back seat...
Ah.
“I’m sorry, senior. I’ll pay for the cleaning—”
“Shut up and lie down~.”
“Do you know how much this car costs...”
“What did you do to make your junior react like that?”
Kudo, who had been silent in the passenger seat, suddenly joined the conversation. His tone was genuinely curious.
Ricardo raised his voice in protest.
“Wow~! Seriously, how is her overreaction my fault~?!”
“Given your record...”
“Neither of you! I’m acting perfectly reasonably right now.”
Of course, if it had been Colton’s car, I wouldn’t have cared.
That man had enough cars to let one rot and wouldn’t mind. Besides, I could probably demand things from him without guilt now — after all, we’d tried to kill each other and failed. When you’ve gone that far, what’s a few requests between enemies?
I just couldn’t remember why we’d tried so hard to kill each other.
That seemed... important.
The “voice of the dream” that had overturned my mind jabbed at my gut. What had I tried to say to Kyle? Why had I been so desperate, so broken, over not killing Colton?
If you’re going to dig up my past, at least do it properly, you damned thing.
Ah.
I jerked my upper body up.
“Kudo, senior.”
Kudo turned his head toward me.
“You still have the ring, right?”
You didn’t drop it in the scuffle, did you?
No immediate reply came. For a moment, Kudo just stared at me with an unreadable face.
Did I cross a line? I still didn’t really know what kind of relationship that “Sara Perry” had with him.
Just as I was wondering whether to apologize, Kudo nodded.
I exhaled in relief and lay back down. The car filled with silence, carrying a faint mixture of clean cologne and blood.
Ah, it’s driving me crazy how sticky the seat feels with my blood.
“Don’t even think about paying for the cleaning....”
How did he know?
I smiled sheepishly and kept staring at the ceiling. Suddenly I was exhausted. Listening to the tires sliding over the road, I lay still as the dead.
The dark-green sedan glided smoothly toward the Black Badger headquarters.
***
“Hildebert?”
While I was sitting in the hospital room after treatment for my thigh laceration, a visitor came.
I blinked out of my daze, eyes widening. They’d told me I’d be hospitalized for two days. I wasn’t bitter about that anymore — actually relieved it was just two days. I’d planned to lie there and sort through the fragments of my past and the scattered mistakes haunting me.
That’s when Sara Perry arrived.
She seemed far more present than when I’d seen her beside Kudo. The atmosphere around her felt different, too.
Her visit was unexpected. I could only blink repeatedly.
“May I come in?”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
I gestured toward the chair beside the bed.
Sara strode in and sat down.
Her clear blue eyes — sharper now, without hesitation. She brushed her bright hair back gracefully.
“I came to thank you.”
“Oh. Are you feeling all right?”
“Thanks to you. I came to thank you for saving me — and to tell you something about Jonathan.”
Hm?
That line was... odd.
“He said it’s fine if I talk about it.”
She smiled gently when she saw my confusion, as if she’d expected that reaction.
“He said it’d be better if I explain.”
“Miss Perry?”
“Call me Sara.”
The woman replied briskly.
I nodded slowly, watching her. She looked fine — which was a relief — but I still had no idea what to say to someone I’d barely spoken to before.
But before I could ask anything, she continued.
“As you might’ve guessed, we’re not married.”
Her tone was matter-of-fact.
“We’re bound by a contract.”
“...What?”
The words came out stupidly.
For a while, I didn’t comprehend what she’d said.
Sara laughed softly.
But she didn’t give me time to question her. She went on, as if to say I understand how you feel, but let me finish first.
“He was deeply in love with his late wife. He’s never made inappropriate demands, but my job is to dress and act like her.”
“...Excuse me? Job... what?”
“I’ve played real people in a few indie films — somehow he found that out.”
“What—”
“I’m not like that all day. Only after he comes home does the ‘performance’ start. He’s practically a block of wood, barely holds my hand. So for me, it’s easy money. For him... well, we help each other.”
I was struck speechless, staring at her.
Sara smiled and met my eyes directly.
Her gaze said your reaction is perfectly reasonable.
But her next words carried quiet pity.
“He lives in the past.”
“Ah.”
A short image flickered and vanished in my mind. My senior, stubbornly using that outdated cell phone.
The way he’d insisted he didn’t want to change it.
That story about refusing to take off his ring...
“He hasn’t moved on from those happy days.”
“...So that’s why he clings to old things.”
“Not just things. People too, I’d say. I doubt he tries to get to know anyone he’s met since the Second War.”
So that’s why he could barely remember my name at first.
If I’d been younger, I probably wouldn’t have accepted his behavior. I might’ve started avoiding him, calling him weird, creepy, unhinged.
But I grew up in an era steeped in violence — I’ve seen the aftermath too often.
The wounds of the mind, all shaped differently.
The desperate struggle to restore what can never be restored.
“Well, I just think of it as helping with a patient’s rehabilitation.”
Sara spoke slowly.
“It’s not something you can easily explain to others.”
“But why did Kudo tell you to explain this to me?”
“I was surprised too. He’s never said anything like that.”
Sara smiled again, her lips curving as she studied me.
I sat there, blank, unable to guess the meaning behind that smile.
The golden-haired woman eventually stood, apologizing for the late hour before leaving.
“Must be... an exceptional case.”
Her lightly amused voice mingled with the sound of the door closing, echoing faintly in the hospital room.
I stared at that closed door for a long time.
***
“How do you keep holding on?”
Around 3 a.m.
This time, Kudo came. I’d thought he’d already gone home.
I couldn’t answer right away.
Only when the ticking of the clock became unbearable did I speak.
“Is it hard... for you to keep going?”
When I asked softly, Kudo sat down in the chair before my bed.
His silence told me the answer. As always, he looked immaculate — still wearing the clothes crusted with my dried blood.
Loss never really heals.
There’s no closure to it. Where someone precious once stood, there remains only a black void that never fills. I knew this man was still staggering around that endless hole.
The beautiful world before the war...
I spoke slowly.
“I have something I need to finish.”
Kudo blinked.
I smiled faintly.
“There are things I have to make right, so I’m living with a sense of purpose.”
Kyle...
Killing him won’t magically restore Earth to what it was. I’ve seen Creatures I’d never encountered before — life-forms that didn’t seem to belong to my world.
Even if I killed my own kind, those things wouldn’t disappear.
I needed to find out where those strange beings were coming from.
But before all that, I had to stop Kyle.
Until then, I didn’t want to die.
“Senior, I’m sorry for peeking into your past.”
“...We’re even.”
Kudo muttered, legs crossed.
He looked much more human now. Before, he’d reminded me of John Mühlen.
“Even if it’s hard to keep going... please do.”
His gaze rose from his shoe tips to me.
“For the sake of the colleagues still here.”
Kudo stared at me.
That same unreadable expression — the one I’d seen in the collapsed tower, the look of a cat observing an insect.
He finally broke the silence.
“I told Ric not to visit you until you’re discharged. So rest.”
“...What?”
“You seem uncomfortable around him.”
His voice was clear, sure.
“His visits would slow your recovery.”
I burst out laughing.
His words were absurdly funny. I didn’t even know why — maybe because it was hilarious that Ricardo was being treated like this, or maybe because this man, around his friend, suddenly acted so human.
Either way, I laughed freely.
He’ll probably hate me once he learns who I really am.
Until that day comes, I’ll take what small kindness I can.
With that thought, I reined in my laughter and smiled faintly.
“Thank you for your concern, senior. I’ll be back to work soon — the doctor said two days.”
“...Make sure you recover completely.”
“I will. The doctor said two days should do it.”
Once I’m discharged, I’ll buy a new phone and contact Yehyeon.
And I should keep an eye on this senior. In his condition, he might make a drastic choice one day.
Quietly thinking that, I watched him leave.
I didn’t yet understand what Sara had meant by “an exceptional case.”
***
Two days passed quickly.
Discharge day.
I met Ricardo in the hospital lobby.
I flinched instinctively as he approached.
The green eyes watching me, narrowing dangerously.
“Hilde~... ready to have that talk now~?”
