Chapter 1 - Black Badger (1)

I heard unfamiliar voices.

When I opened my eyes, I saw blurred traces of people moving busily around me. I blinked in a daze. Shadows looming overhead. Voices shouting urgently. Figures apparently rushing off somewhere.

My senses weren't fully awake yet, leaving me disoriented. I closed my heavy eyelids, then opened them again, and the smell of dirt and gunpowder tickled my nose.

Then I saw the gun barrel pointed at me.

'What the...?'

The instant the thought crossed my mind, a sharp voice jolted me awake.

“Who the hell are you?”

That was what I wanted to ask.

“Where did you suddenly pop out of?”

I sat up.

My field of vision widened considerably. Several gun barrels were trained on me. A painfully white light settled over the blurred images.

'What's going on?'

I stared blankly at the five people holding guns, the vast room with its high ceiling, and the man standing in front of me.

The voice belonged to the man holding a gun barrel between my eyes. He had curly hair and vivid hazel eyes.

“How did you get in?”

“Where am I?”

I murmured the question, looking into his clear eyes. My mind wasn't working properly.

'Did I fall asleep drinking?'

“What was I doing?”

“Hey, quit talking bullshit!”

The curly-haired man scowled.

“When did you get in, and how?”

He seemed to have a temper. But I genuinely had no idea what was going on. I watched him lean toward me.

He was dressed like the others, in specialized gear so pitch-black it seemed capable of absorbing light. He wore black gloves and carried an enormous, sturdy-looking gun.

He jabbed its black muzzle firmly into my neck. I could feel the cold metal.

'Isn't this pretty dangerous?'

“Going to keep playing dumb? Are you fucking with me?”

“Ro.”

Someone behind him spoke up.

“Something must've gone wrong with the portal. Move your gun away.”

The interruption came from a round-eyed girl. Her black hair was tied back, and she held a gun as large as her torso. Perhaps because she was the only Asian girl there, she caught my eye easily.

Why was a kid who looked like a high school student, or a college freshman at most, carrying a gun like that?

The curly-haired man called Ro whipped his head around.

“Hey, we don't know who this bastard is! Why would I lower my gun?”

“I'm telling you, I think something went wrong with the portal.”

The girl strode toward us.

“Maybe it connected to another portal for a moment or something.”

“Lower your gun, Ro,” she chided him calmly.

With both hands braced on the floor, I took in the approaching girl and the people standing behind her.

Their black clothes were striking. They didn't look like ordinary civilians. The gazes fixed on me were sharp enough to cut.

Besides, although she'd told him to move his gun away, they looked ready to shoot me the moment I did anything suspicious. The smells of gunpowder and dirt hung in the air.

Where was I? What had I been doing before I ended up here?

The pale space with its high ceiling looked unfamiliar. Judging by their reactions and my own feelings, it didn't seem to be somewhere I'd visited before. I had no way of knowing why I'd woken up here.

And what did I do, anyway?

Just as I began to feel alarmed by the past I couldn't recall, the girl stopped in front of me. Her round eyes looked down at me sitting on the floor.

“Hello!”

She greeted me brightly and held out her right hand.

“I'm Choi Ami! Please call me Ami.”

“... I'm Hildebert Taleb.”

I took Ami's hand reflexively.

“Feel free to call me Hilde.”

But I couldn't remember who had called me Hilde, or since when. My memory had gone completely blank.

When had this happened?

Alarmed by the emptiness where my memories should have been, I stared blankly ahead. My heart seemed to drop, and I began to panic in silence.

At the same moment, a handcuff snapped around my outstretched wrist.

* * *

I was led away somewhere in handcuffs.

They didn't drag me roughly. I was too dazed to do anything but follow their instructions. Shocked by my missing memories, I trailed numbly after the woman named Ami.

The others from the room flanked me and fell in behind. Ro stayed on my left, while a tall man with gently elongated eyes took my right. A small girl with two-toned hair and a man wearing a mask that covered his nose followed behind.

It looked like they were escorting a VIP.

In reality, of course, they were guarding me, not protecting me.

We walked down a broad corridor and arrived at a room.

It contained white desks and several chairs. It looked like the kind of room normally used for meetings, or never used at all.

Ami pulled out a chair at the desk in the middle of the room. I sat down obediently, my hands still cuffed.

“Hilde?”

“Yes?”

“I'm going to step out and make a call.”

Her unexpected announcement left me blinking in confusion. After staring blankly at her, I answered awkwardly.

“Oh, yes. Of course. Don't worry about me. Take your time.”

The Asian girl's eyes curved as she flashed a grin. She opened the door at the front and went out into the corridor.

Silence immediately fell over the tidy room. Everyone settled into place without a word. They seemed to be waiting for something, and it didn't look as though anything would change for a while.

I ought to take the opportunity to do some thinking.

Making full use of the silence, I began trying to remember who I was.

'This is driving me crazy. Why can't I remember anything but my name?'

There were so many things I couldn't remember. No, most things. It was as though someone had washed my memories away with water. Ever since they'd cuffed me, I'd been trying to remember where I came from and what sort of person I was, without success.

Only useless fragments kept surfacing. Looking out the window from a passenger seat. Playing a game on a handheld console a little larger than my palm. Things like that.

Frowning, I shifted in my seat.

“Need the bathroom?”

The man sitting beside Ro broke the silence with a gentle smile.

“Go ahead if you want...”

I blinked.

“No, I'm fine.”

I made an effort to straighten my back and looked at him.

“Thank you for asking.”

“Just let us know whenever you need to go.”

His eyes curved into crescents, their vivid green narrowing.

Ah. He had a nasty streak.

I decided it would be best not to get on his nerves if I could help it.

The sort of person who might always wear a smile, but was actually extremely sensitive and perceptive.

The green-eyed man lounged in a chair in front of the whiteboard. He leaned languidly against the backrest, legs crossed, both hands thrust into his pockets. Even so, I couldn't spot a single opening.

He looked like someone who would make you regret crossing the line.

Taking in his long eyes, black hair, and neat features, I added politely,

“Thank you.”

“You're welcome...”

“Hey.”

Ro, who had been tapping on his phone beside the green-eyed man, jerked his head up.

“Yes?”

“Where are you from?”

He leaned back in his chair, bobbing one foot.

“Did you say you couldn't remember?”

“Yes. I'm sorry. I'm trying, but all I can recall are useless memories.”

“Like what?”

“... Well, playing games on a handheld console, for instance...”

I furrowed my brow and tried to recall something more useful.

Once again, I failed spectacularly. Only unhelpful images flitted through my head: a clean room with two apples set out in it, coffee milk with a straw sticking out, and a half-eaten scone.

I gave a small sigh.

“... I'm sorry. I can't think of anything worth telling you. Strangely, I remember my name, but no other personal details at all.”

“Did he lose his memories crossing the portal...?”

The green-eyed man murmured as though to himself.

“I've heard similar things used to happen occasionally, but I don't know how reliable that information is...”

“Oh, for fuck's sake. What the hell is this? We come back through the portal, and some guy we've never seen before suddenly appears. I might be an idiot, but even I know that if five people go in, five people should come out. But six fucking people came out. Does that make any sense?”

“It doesn't, which is why we're sitting here doing this. I'd been planning to head straight back, wash up, and have a smoke as soon as we returned...”

The green-eyed man spoke in a slow drawl, tilting his head to one side.

“I want to get off work...”

“I'm sorry.”

The sight of the smile vanishing from his face prompted a reflexive apology.

“You can smoke in here. I don't mind.”

Ro and the green-eyed man, who had been gazing lazily into space, both turned to look at me. I could feel the stares of the people behind me against the back of my head, too.

I felt like an animal in a cage.

I met their gazes with a rueful smile.

But before I could say anything, the door opened.

“No one!”

Ami rushed in, eyes wide.

“They say there's no one who looks like Hilde, or anyone named Hildebert Taleb, anywhere in Center Core or any of the other cores.”

“Seriously, what are you?”

Ro glared at me, his thick eyebrows arching.

“Where the hell did you come from?”

“... I'm sorry. But I'm really confused, too...”

“For now, Ska said they'd get back to us.”

“Let's just sit tight until then.” Ami waved her hands as if trying to soothe both Ro and me.

I watched closely as she closed the door and approached me. The gun she'd been holding earlier was nowhere to be seen.

As she approached, I tried to absorb the information. Perhaps because all my memories were gone, I felt like a newborn learning everything from scratch. Who was Ska? And what did Center Core and cores mean?

Where had I come from in the first place? I struggled to remember my home country. It wasn't as though I'd forgotten the names of countries. America, Britain, Australia. I remembered all of them, but not the crucial detail of which one I was from.

Watching Ami set a paper bag on the desk, I asked,

“Where are we?”

Ami, Ro, and the green-eyed man looked up at me.

“Uh, I mean the country. What country am I in right now? Is this America?”

Their expressions turned strange.

Silence fell. A peculiar atmosphere filled the drab room.

I blinked, bewildered by the shift in mood. Why? I sat alone in my confusion amid the silence.

Why were they reacting like this...?

Ro broke the silence with an irritated question.

“What are you talking about now?”

“There's no country called America anymore.”

The green-eyed man cut off Ro's irritated, suspicious words. His sharp green eyes fixed on mine as though piercing through them.

“It's been a while since I heard that... that proper noun.”

I blinked at his incomprehensible words.

“What?”

“I mean national borders no longer exist. Apparently students these days have trouble grasping the very concept of a country... Do you happen to remember how old you are?”

“What? No... I'm sorry, but I can't remember that either... What? Huh?”

I spent a while repeating “What?” in utter confusion. I couldn't understand what the green-eyed man was saying.

He repeated himself. There were no national borders anymore, and everyone lived in cores. I tried to fit this new information together with my fragmented memories. But it was a fruitless effort.

I distinctly remembered there being different countries.

I remembered some of them clearly. America, Britain, China, India.

I must have floundered in confusion for a long time.

Eventually, I pulled myself together. To escape the confusion and disorientation, I deliberately focused on my five senses. The room was quiet and still. White incandescent light, and the pleasant smell of the wooden desk. The people in front of me were staring, waiting for me to speak.

Feeling the chill in the air, I finally managed to open my mouth.

“Then where are the three of you from? What country... Are you not from any country? What exactly do you mean when you say the borders are gone?”

“Ah.”

The green-eyed man, who had been sitting motionless with his legs crossed, gave a faint smile.

“That's a difficult question. The three of us happen to be rather old, you see. I was originally from Italy. Though I'm a Center Core resident now...”

“Sicily.”

Ro cut in bluntly.

“Those two rookies behind you are from Center Core. This kid's from China.”

“I told you I was from Korea!”

Ami, who had been studying me with wide eyes, sprang up. Her sudden fury made me flinch.

As I stared at her with my eyes wide, the green-eyed man chuckled at me. Whether or not Ami noticed our reactions, she looked down at Ro and banged on the desk.

“I've told you dozens of times that Yun and I are Korean! The head of HR is Chinese! Zhu!”

“Oh, really? Well, whatever.”

“It's not whatever! We've been comrades for forty years! How can you still get my original nationality wrong?”

“Hey, speaking of which, where's the head of HR? Some unknown guy pops up out of the ground, and he's not even going to come take a look?”

“Zhu says he's not coming.”

Abruptly calm, Ami spoke with her eyes round.

I saw Ro and the green-eyed man blink.

The round-eyed Ami added matter-of-factly,

“He says it doesn't seem urgent, and there probably isn't anything in particular for him to do right now.”

“Unbelievable. If a person appearing out of thin air isn't urgent, then what the hell is?”

“No idea.”

“You reported it to the commander-in-chief, right?”

The green-eyed man asked slowly.

“What did the commander say...?”

“They'll be here as soon as possible. They said Aide Ska would handle things for now. John and Yun are checking the portal's condition. Samuel says he'll have everything ready for Hilde's physical examination. HR should be ready to administer the polygraph by now.”

“Um...”

I cautiously broke in. Once again, I felt everyone's attention converge on me. It wasn't a particularly welcome response, but I couldn't suppress the question hovering on my tongue.

I was piecing together a puzzle from the scraps of information they'd given me and their conversation. For instance, I had apparently emerged from a portal out of nowhere. There were no longer any national borders, countries like America and China no longer existed, and people lived in a place called Center Core.

The silent man and woman behind me were probably the lowest-ranking people here, and...

I asked about the one thing I simply couldn't understand.

“Just how old are the three of you?”

Smiles spread across Ami's and the green-eyed man's faces. Ro wore a mischievous grin, too.

I stared blankly at their beaming faces, waiting for any of them to say something as they grinned at me.

It was Ami who answered. She smiled brightly at me, then cheerfully announced,

“Seventy!”