Black Badger - Chapter 417



Only Noblemtl

417. Memorial Service (1)

Society has introduced measures to deal with the situation.

Something like a natural disaster with numerous casualties.

While they were sorting it out, Black Badger prepared a joint funeral, something he hadn’t been able to do since the outbreak. A funeral for several Badgers who had died from the plague, and three Badgers who had died from a Level 10 Creature Rampage.

In the midst of the chaos inside and out, the head of the human resources department, Kang Joo, pulled the blue ribbon.

The personnel department, after reading the full text of the will, either disclosed it or burned it according to the writer’s wishes. A will written to a specific person was delivered only to that specific person.

Gene Silver’s will is delivered to the Commander-in-Chief, the Director of Personnel, and Hildebert Taleb.

The HR manager read the message written to him without missing a single word.

[I know you’ve been waiting until the end.

I didn’t even open the will I had written before I deserted.

Thank you for not giving up even after I declared him dead.

I’m sorry that I betrayed you and ran away even though you cared so much for me.

I wanted to keep apologizing.

If you’re reading this, doesn’t that mean I died as a Black Badger?

I wish it were so. If it were a death on duty, not from illness or an unfortunate accident, I would be more than happy.

Thank you for helping me make this possible.

Thanks to that, I can live as a badger.]

The Lord cried for a long time.

Then, as usual, I sorted out my feelings and separated the parts that I wanted to convey to other recipients.

We’re both busy so we can’t tell you right now.

Ye-Hyeon had a lot to attend, including memorial services, so it was hard to even see her face.

When he finally met Ye-Hyeon after the disaster, he thought back to what she had said without wavering.

‘Someone has to take responsibility for this situation.’

There were too many casualties to just pass it over and say it was resolved.

‘I’m sitting here taking responsibility.’

Plus, there was the hiring of Hildebert Taleb.

The identity of Hildebert Taleb and the special recruitment that has been well covered up so far.

It was made visible to the media at midnight on the day the Stage 10 Creature Incident concluded.

[Golden eyes?]

The suspicions raised along with the photo turned Center Core upside down. For a while, stories related to him were coming out like crazy in the media. That he had taken online classes, but there was no trace of it. That both of the 10th stage creatures that went berserk had golden eyes.

The fact that he uses a sword as a weapon.

The similarities in swordsmanship with the Commander-in-Chief are once again being brought to light.

Everything except the photos from before the First World War has been uploaded to the web.

Surprisingly, the reaction wasn’t as bad as they expected….

‘Please put Hildebert on leave for the time being.’

It has already been done that way.

‘If the press asks, I will reply that it is a medical leave.’

‘When will you be back?’

When I asked, Ye-Hyeon’s fingers, which had been tapping on the screen of her cell phone, stopped.

The commander in chief did not move for a moment.

Only after the secretary knocked and came in did he mutter.

‘He’ll come back when he wants.’

After finishing writing and sending the message, Yehyun stood up from the desk where she was sitting.

Before leaving, he added some encouragement by twisting his upper body.

‘Thank you for keeping me centered in the midst of chaos. Please continue to do this in the future.’

The giver smiled brightly.

And after everything was sorted out, he told me to come get the will.

The superior nodded with a bitter look in his eyes and left.

The Black Badger was very busy.

Constant flashes of light near buildings and sites under reconstruction.

Returned conquests and broken weapons.

The memorial service was held amid such commotion.

***

It rained.

Attendance was not mandatory. Some badgers were unable to attend due to work-related reasons. There were also those who did not find meaning in such memorial services.

Anyway, most of the badgers showed their faces.

Countless regular employees also participated voluntarily.

Since anyone with a valid identity could attend if they applied, there were many ordinary people. A large number of reporters also attended, and many figures from the political and business world also showed up.

The main characters were the Black Badgers.

The camera follows the badgers as they walk to the chapel, holding black umbrellas.

Transparent raindrops flowing down the umbrella ribs.

Swish….

Reporters lined up in front of the chapel fired their flashes one after another.

Those with little experience usually frown upon seeing the camera being shoved in front of them.

Or I tilt my black umbrella and cover my face.

On the other hand, those with long careers did not react. They walked along the path in front of the chapel as if there were no cameras.

Ricardo Sordi, Jonathan Cudo and Sofia Carlock walk into the chapel with expressionless faces.

Then Karl Doe arrived. He came up the stairs carrying a wheelchair with one hand, carrying a normal man in it.

After climbing the last step, he pushed the wheelchair while covering the face of a civilian with an umbrella.

Behind them, the first Black Badgers appear, including Jason Tvein, Chen Koenig, and Richard Green.

Beep, click! Beep, click click!

The sound of the flash became even louder.

Now people knew that Jason Tevein and Chen Koenig were on the front lines of the disaster.

But the first generation Black Badgers didn’t even blink at the flash.

There are no reporters asking them questions as they walk up the stairs to the chapel in their black uniforms.

Because their expressions were so frozen that I couldn’t ask any questions.

Click click click click! Click click click click!

This was also because public opinion toward the Black Badger had changed positively after the disaster. Criticism poured out toward the Commander-in-Chief, who had failed to prevent the infiltration of headquarters and the rampage of the Level 10 creatures, but praise and gratitude poured out for the Badgers who risked their lives on the front lines.

So, as the memorial service approaches, most reporters paid tribute to the Black Badgers who sacrificed themselves during the disaster.

Swish….

Public opinion toward Hildebert Taleb was not all bad either. Some criticized him for trying to ‘keep alive’ a level 10 creature, but when the scene of Hildebert swinging his sword as if he was going to cut off its head, and stabbing it from behind and in front was revealed, the criticism died down considerably.

The person in question is Hildebert Taleb.

“Are you showing your face?”

The reporters were looking for him with bloodshot eyes.

The reason there are so many reporters in front of the chapel is because many of them thought that they might be able to get a picture of even one of Hildebert Taleb’s hairs here.

The rumored Badger’s whereabouts have been unknown since that day.

The last image was covered in white light.

After that, the live broadcast was cut off, and Hildebert disappeared from his seat.

Those who had remained could not have failed to see him leave, yet the Badgers made no mention of Hildebert’s whereabouts.

No one gave a clear answer to questions such as whether they knew his true identity.

Almost all of them refused to answer.

He looked back at the microphone, which was only slightly pushed in, and answered.

‘What? Kumbert?’

This is what Black Badger, a first-generation war hero, answered with a thick eyebrow.

‘He’s not human? What the hell are you talking about! Don’t you know he’s a badger?’

When I asked him if he was a creature rather than a human, even though I knew he was a badger, he replied, “He looks like a human. Is his eye swollen?”

When reporters who had given up asked him where he was, the Badger answered with his ears tickled.

‘I’ll be at home.’

When he said that it didn’t seem to exist, the war hero stared at the reporter who said that with a terrified expression.

‘Are you a stalker?’

The point is that no one knows where Hildebert is.

It was strange that, although he was normally exposed to such unwanted media, now that the whole world’s attention was on him, not a trace of him could be found.

Naturally, his disappearance did not have a very positive effect on public opinion.

However, whenever public opinion started to turn against him, a video of him charging forward as a 10-stage creature without wavering appeared.

Thus, Hildebert came to be regarded as ‘a lonely and strong humanoid creature who loved humans so much that he turned his back on his own kind’.

Of course, there were many cases where those who knew him as a solid rookie Badger felt betrayed or disgusted by his true identity.

In other words, Hildebert is now the most famous person in Center Core. There was a reason why reporters were setting up camp in every place where he might appear.

“uh.”

Aside from that, the memorial service itself was a really good event.

“These are the Choi family badgers.”

The flashes went off busily again.

Choi Yoon and Choi Ami walked to the chapel without blinking an eye.

Reporters took pictures of the famous siblings for various reasons, checking to see if Hildebert was nearby.

But it was a waste of effort.

“Surely you’re not planning on not showing up at the real memorial service, are you?”

“Then public sentiment will really fall into ruin.”

“Where on earth did you hide? Seriously, no one has caught a trace of you. Do you think you can become invisible or something?”

“The leadership is coming.”

The conversation was cut off again by someone’s words.

When the first Black Badger appeared or when the Choi siblings came up the stairs, the camera shutters started to ring louder than before. They took pictures of the leaders coming up the stairs one after another.

Commander-in-Chief Lee Ye-Hyeon and Chief of Staff Scar Owen.

Gilbert Lowell, the aide, and his secretaries and secretarial staff.

Raindrops splashed around the black shoes they had brought.

There were rumors going around that Commander-in-Chief Lee Ye-Hyeon was about to resign.

There is talk that rather than appointing an outsider as the successor, various preparations are being made to install Scar Owen as planned.

He will probably make an official announcement of his resignation soon.

Of course, none of this has been confirmed to be true.

However, as the commander-in-chief who had been the icon of the Black Badger for a long time, the public was paying great attention to his movements.

“This time, I will resign for sure.”

“There are rumors that the President has already approved it.”

“What’s important is not the resignation, but who will be the successor. Will we be able to safely place Scar Owen in the position of successor?”

As such conversations were interspersed with the sound of rain, the leaders disappeared into the chapel.

As all the secretaries entered the chapel, the open door closed.

No one came up the stairs anymore.

The reporters who were looking for Hildebert grumbled and put down their cameras.

“I guess he really isn’t coming.”

“A strong baby.”

Some went inside the chapel, while others remained in front of the building, saying they would wait a while longer.

The rain kept falling.

***

Just as the eulogy was about to begin.

Some of the badgers standing in line in black uniforms flinched.

Ricardo and Jonathan’s heads turn slightly toward the door.

Ami also raised her head with her mouth shut and looked toward the entrance of the chapel. Yoon, standing next to her, did not turn his head to check, but raised one eyebrow to express that he had detected something unusual.

Sophia rolls her eyes toward the door. Shu turns his head, holding tightly onto his father’s hand standing next to him.

Hesi and Tom look back, unable to bear it any longer, their eyes wide open.

Even though they sensed something was wrong, only the leadership maintained a perfect poker face.

Jason Tevein and Chen Koenig made impressions.

Richard Green sighed, and William Walker and Arshile Fisker looked away.

Lee Ho washes his face with a dry cloth.

A stunning flash of light comes through the chapel door.

The reporters’ excitement was so strong that it seemed to seep through the cracks in the door.

Swish… .

The door opened.

The huge umbrella folded. A red head came into view. Jack Black placed the dripping umbrella end next to his shoe.

The man next to me also folded his umbrella.

And instead of the sword he always held, he held an umbrella in his right hand. He wiped the water droplets on his suit with his left hand and slowly raised his head. His slightly wet white hair hung over his shoulders.

Golden eyes.

Geum-an, who is different from usual and cannot read the mind.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Hildebert Taleb said:

.