Chapter 116 - Emergency Mobilization (4)

What had my training officer gone off to do?

Granted, at my age, waiting for Yun to return like a chick that had lost its mother was ridiculous. He had probably left with much the same thought: I was more than old enough to handle a little rookie hazing on my own.

Isaac Lane gave me a genial smile.

"You're as handsome as the rumors say."

"Thank you."

I rubbed my neck and smiled faintly. Still wearing that faint smile, I dismounted. It didn't look as though we would be moving for a while.

Yun had told us to find somewhere to fight the creatures. He should have put a Badger in charge before he left.

None of these humans showed any inclination to make the first move.

While I was wondering, 'Is even this my job as the rookie?' a senior approached with a sneer. The senior who had shoved me in the back.

What the hell was this man's name?

"You smoke?"

I stared at the man as he blew smoke straight into my face.

"No."

"You don't even have the basics down."

Cigarettes didn't taste like much to me. I didn't see the point of breathing in and blowing out air that gave me no stimulation.

I kept that to myself. Instead, I looked down at the cigarette he thrust toward me.

"Put it in your mouth and inhale."

Forcing me to smoke?

I stood still, looking at the cigarette. As expected, no one intervened. After remaining motionless for a while, I slowly reached out and took it.

He would enjoy this more if I gave the impression I was accepting it reluctantly.

I clumsily put the white cigarette between my lips.

"Forcing a junior to smoke?"

Dawson grinned even as he poked the man who had offered me the cigarette in the back.

"What century is this initiation from?"

Should I cough for them?

I inhaled as I considered it. When I pretended to cough a couple of times, the seniors snickered in delight. I watched their nasty laughter, then blew out a puff of smoke.

"Are you sure you don't smoke?"

The senior called Lucia Kwon approached. The way she held her gun in an improper grip as she came over told me a great deal.

"You look like you've been smoking for ages..."

"Do I? Thank you."

I merely gave her a friendly smile. I pretended not to notice Dawson and his friend instantly frowning in displeasure. Why should I care?

Besides, the creatures had drawn closer before we knew it. The things watching us must have noticed how defenseless we were. These weren't particularly subject to the influence of my own kind, but they were smart enough to sniff out stupidity with uncanny accuracy.

If they attacked, I would draw my sword first, whatever anyone shouted.

As I laid a hand on my scabbard, a familiar face approached this time. Familiar, though we had never spoken.

"Hildebert."

Silver hair and pale skin.

"Stay by my side."

The others turned blankly toward Sylvia.

Their surprise was obvious. Leonard's blue eyes went round. Dawson and his friend hadn't raised their visors, so I couldn't see their faces, but both stared at Sylvia in astonishment all the same. Isaac, too, turned to her with wide eyes. Lucia slowly turned her head.

I was the only one who wasn't surprised.

Sylvia had approached without a sound, her helmet tucked under her arm. She stopped in front of me.

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes."

I gave the pale, expressionless senior a lingering smile.

"I will."

It wasn't surprising. She had been outside the core with me before, which meant she knew I attracted creatures.

She clearly liked that feature of mine. It would give her more things to hunt.

Her eyes, like clear glass marbles, held a hunger I knew all too well.

"What's this?"

Dawson really was fearless.

"You want him around because he's pretty? Didn't know you were interested in that sort of thing."

"Of course not!"

Sylvia ignored him, and Leonard answered in her stead from beside her.

The moment I caught the amusement and curiosity in his voice, despair set in. Stop. I didn't want any more attention from these freaks!

I screamed silently, but the world wasn't on my side.

"When Yun was being oddly possessive, I didn't think much of it. But now even Sylvia's interested."

Leonard approached, delight shining in his blue eyes.

"You're an interesting one, aren't you?"

He came up to me with a smile. Something about that smile provoked a visceral revulsion, but I managed to suppress the urge to take a step back.

"Not at all. Just a new recruit with unusual looks."

I laughed.

"Really, nothing special..."

THUD!

A senior went sprawling. It was the one who had so eagerly brought Yun a motorcycle. He pitched forward with a squawk.

He hadn't noticed that coming?

It wasn't even small. The larva was as tall as a person's waist. Unable to hide my dismay, I drew my short sword, only for the seniors to run in the opposite direction from their fallen comrade.

Everyone except me, Sylvia, and Leonard.

Seriously?

"Rookie!"

The fallen senior reached out a hand.

"Help me up!"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The larva burst. Sylvia fired at the creatures swarming toward us.

I hauled the senior to his feet and surveyed the situation. Giant larvae were pouring out of a wooden building.

They weren't targeting me. There seemed to be a nest inside.

Creatures everywhere.

Human-faced birds circled in the night sky. A troop of apes occupied the road we had come down, while a couple of creatures with weighty presences lurked inside the building the seniors had fled into.

Down the darkness-swallowed road where Yun had disappeared, I could sense a suffocating number of creatures.

And the presence of my own kind.

"Let's get inside!"

Still, the moment he was on his feet, the senior quickly loaded his gun and fired at the larvae pouring out like a herd of buffalo.

"Those sons of bitches! If they're inside, they should be giving us cover!"

"All this fuss over something so trivial."

Leonard smiled and lowered his visor.

Oh, he had a grenade.

I backed away fast. Sylvia could take care of herself, so I only grabbed the unreliable bootlicker by the scruff of his neck and dragged him along.

BOOOOM!

The swarm of larvae blew apart. A rain of their bodily fluids and protein fell around us.

But the bootlicker didn't even have time to finish swearing.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOM!

He was tossing grenades as though he were playing catch. Each one sailed neatly into the building spewing out larvae.

I watched the explosions bring the building down, crushing the swarm until they burst.

Meanwhile, Sylvia had lost interest in the larvae and was shooting down the human-faced birds overhead. One fell at my feet.

"The apes aren't coming any closer."

I murmured as I dodged the falling bird. Leonard, who had been playfully shooting the remaining larvae dead, looked up.

"Those things don't come near us much."

"Oh, really? They're more harmless than I expected."

"I don't know if they'll stay away from you. It's specifically me, Sylvia, and Yun they avoid."

Aha.

I smiled at the creatures, whose looks made it impossible to tell whether they were monkeys, gorillas, or chimpanzees.

Clever things.

They seemed better than the seniors who had run away.

"Aaaagh!"

A sharp scream came from the seniors who had fled into the building behind us.

"Something's stuck to the wall! The wall!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Only the bootlicking senior reacted to the gunfire from inside the building.

The male and female sociopaths didn't bat an eye. Having killed all the human-faced birds circling overhead with shots to the forehead, Sylvia turned.

She sounded bored.

"Why aren't those things coming for you?"

Leonard's gaze snapped to me.

The only reason I could ignore that intense stare and change the subject with a smile was the figure who came strolling lazily toward us.

"Wonderful."

Yun surveyed the shambles of his squad and delivered his verdict without interest.

"I was back in less than ten minutes, and you've already had the dirty work dumped on you."

"The dirty work?"

"It's messy and a nuisance, so they want you to kill everything around here before coming inside. To save their own strength."

Oh, so that was it. They hadn't run because they were scared.

As I blinked in realization, the bootlicking senior bolted toward Yun.

That man was something else, too.

"Sir! I'm so glad you made it back safely!"

He looked ready to drop to both knees beside Yun.

"I was so worried about you!"

Yun ignored him completely. My training officer walked past the man as though he hadn't seen him and approached us. He stopped in front of us, looking as though he hadn't drawn a weapon even once.

He glanced toward the building the seniors had entered.

"Has Kwon the Dud accidentally shot anyone dead yet?"

"Kwon the Dud?"

"Lucia Kwon. That useless dud."

Aha. Kwon the Dud, short for Lucia Kwon, that useless dud.

I gauged the human presences inside the building, then slowly shook my head.

"Everyone's still there."

"What a shame."

My training officer sounded genuinely disappointed.

"It's the only accomplishment we can expect from her."

"Killing allies?"

"That's a bit harsh. Let's call it mistaken fire."

"It's the same thing."

"Squad leader."

It was Leonard who interrupted us in a bright, cheerful tone.

Yun and I looked sullenly at the blue-eyed Badger waving his hand limply.

The lunatic was in a sunny mood all by himself.

"Thank you for all your hard work."

"You're as consistently revolting as ever."

"Thank you."

The senior took that shamelessly in stride. He raised his visor, smiled, and looked at the squad leader, who was rolling his eyes.

Then he asked brightly,

"So when do we start our real job?"

* * *

I finally learned everyone's names.

The bootlicking senior was Jerry Jones. The one who had apparently stuck to Yehyeon like glue at the year-end party.

At the moment, he was singing Yun's praises as Yun unlocked a five-story building with a master key.

I had wondered why my training officer had left. He had gone to fetch this. Apparently, the master key had been made for firefighters to use in emergencies and was kept in a box somewhere in the city.

I had no idea how Yun had found that box, but in any case, he unlocked the building with the key.

After opening a building that probably hadn't been opened in decades, he gave a brief explanation.

"Normally, nighttime is more dangerous, but there's an unclassified creature in Area B-6 that crawls out to bask in the sun."

We were currently in Area 7, and most of the seniors would be in Area 5. Area 6 lay between them.

So there was a reason we had stopped in Area 7.

"So if the mission runs long and the sun comes up, stay out of Area 6. Though we should be done before sunrise."

Once he had finished explaining, he assigned our positions. He didn't explain it to the squad, but this formation was meant to hold off the creatures that would swarm toward me.

Naturally, individual preferences weren't taken into account at all.

"First floor: Lucia Kwon. Jerry Jones. Joe McDonald."

"Ack!"

"Ah."

"Third floor: Isaac Lane. Gale Dawson. Massu Sarin."

Sarin was the senior I had nearly hit with my motorcycle.

"You two take the fifth floor."

Yun jabbed a finger toward Leonard and Sylvia, apparently unwilling even to say their names.

Leonard smiled and nodded. Sylvia merely blinked. Everyone else stood beside them in silence. Apart from Leonard and Sylvia, they all seemed dissatisfied with their assignments.

They didn't dare say it aloud, though. And even if they had, he wasn't the sort to listen.

"Hildebert and I will take the roof."

After giving his final order, Yun raised his head.

"Questions?"

Naturally, no one was so oblivious as to actually ask...

... Oh. Someone was.

Lucia Kwon raised her right hand high, her eyes round.

"Aren't we having dinner?"