Chapter 133 - Promotion Exam (4)

“He looks like he’s hurting somewhere?”

A murmur spread through the media room. Everyone watched Hilde floating in the sea, his face tight with pain.

He wiped his wet hand down his face, but it did nothing to erase the suffering from his expression. Pain flickered in his narrowed eyes.

Startled, the spectators whispered among themselves.

“Is he hurt?”

“Did he hit the water wrong? That really hurts.”

“He looked fine when he jumped in...”

The murmuring continued. Brows furrowed. As people exchanged puzzled remarks, Ami set down her lemon-lime soda.

Beside her, Shu’s and Iho’s eyes widened.

Riccardo frowned, his voice menacing.

“That bastard’s hiding something again...”

Only those in the same row caught his low mutter.

Iho was the one who answered.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Dunno.”

Ami watched Hilde let out a deep breath and start swimming.

“He’s looked off for a while now.”

The swim began.

Time was crucial in the sea swim, too. The recruits had to cover a considerable distance within the time limit, swimming through designated checkpoints. The test ended when they reached the cape jutting out on the opposite side.

Anyone who ran out of strength and needed rescuing failed.

Even if they reached the destination, exceeding the time limit meant failure.

Heshy Lyle led the way toward the finish, with Tom not far behind.

Everyone’s gaze shot to the recruit bringing up the rear.

“He was fine when you saw him yesterday, right?” Riccardo asked Shu.

She nodded without taking her eyes off the screen.

“He even said so himself.”

She seemed to have forgotten the opened zero-sugar cola in her hand.

“He said he felt great, so passing wouldn’t be much of a problem as long as he did well in shooting.”

“Then doesn’t that mean something happened that evening?”

“Even the creatures were quiet last night...”

At Iho’s question, Riccardo switched on his phone and checked the duty roster.

Iho and Ami craned their necks to peer at the roster in Riccardo’s hand, casting shadows over the phone screen.

“Oh, you’re right. Center Core was really quiet yesterday.”

“And even if something had shown up, they wouldn’t have called in recruits the day before their exam... Meaning he couldn’t have gotten hurt on an assignment.”

“Maybe he ate something bad for dinner?”

Ami turned back to the screen, her brows arching.

“And spent last night throwing it all up...”

No definite answer emerged.

While they offered one theory after another, Hilde swam on. He moved slowly but without stopping. He was much slower than Tom and Heshy, but unlike them, he cut through the water with almost no effort.

“He’s a really good swimmer,” Iho remarked, watching with his arms folded.

The others in his row silently agreed, though their expressions remained tense.

Every time Hilde’s face broke the surface, they could see his pain.

Time was running dangerously short, too.

The Badgers began glancing back and forth between the screen and the clock.

Then the tense silence that had settled over the media room shattered.

BANG!

The door opened.

A silver-haired man entered through the door he had flung wide. The seniors watching the clock or the screen turned their heads. Shu, Ami, Iho, and Riccardo turned as well.

His entrance was so noisy that even Angela and Karl looked away from the screen.

Only Yun refused to look at him.

But Achille headed straight for Yun, stopping abruptly only when he reached the row where the training officers sat.

“Yun.”

His voice seethed with anger.

Yun lazily shifted his eyes toward him.

The atmosphere changed in an instant. Everyone tensed as they watched the two men. There were few Badgers who didn’t know that Achille had once grabbed Yun by the collar.

Ami rose from her seat.

But Achille ignored the reactions around him and glared only at Yun.

“I need to speak with you.”

“About what?”

Yun turned his eyes back to the screen.

A precarious silence followed. Achille glared at Yun with clenched fists, then glanced at the screen.

His junior was slowly trailing his fellow recruits.

Scanning the screen with a frown, Achille spoke quietly.

“I’ll tell you outside.”

“Don’t you think you’re a little late?”

Despite having asked what he wanted, Yun spoke dispassionately, as if he knew exactly why Achille had come.

The former detective bit down hard on his lip.

Yun remained motionless, his gaze fixed on the screen.

“Just sit down and watch.”

“The hospital...”

“Sit down or leave.”

His voice was cold enough to make everyone catch their breath.

But the confrontation they feared never came. Achille hesitated with his jaw clenched, then sank into a seat. He dropped into the nearest empty chair, leaned forward, and glared at the screen with blazing eyes.

His furrowed brow showed no sign of relaxing.

Those nearby craned their necks, looking as though they wanted to speak to them.

But Yun and Achille ignored everyone around them.

Ami, who had also been craning her neck, gave up and sank back into her chair.

“I’m going to ask them the second this is over.”

“We’re counting on you. They’d just shut us out if we tried.”

“He needs to go a little faster.”

While Iho appealed to Ami, Shu anxiously checked her phone.

The test continued. Several rescue boats floated on the sea as a precaution. Of the recruits swimming through those waters, Heshy still held the lead and had almost reached the cape. The instructors overseeing the exam held up beach towels as they waited for his arrival.

Tom wasn’t far behind him. He would reach the finish soon, too.

Only Hilde was cutting it close.

Everyone watched in silence as the white-haired recruit slowly cut through the seawater.

Heshy and Tom finished the test.

“Nice work.”

“Congratulations. This batch of recruits is good, too.”

Two recruits had passed.

The spectators quietly congratulated Karl and Angela.

The man and woman answered with nods. Had all the recruits passed, even those two taciturn training officers would have accepted the congratulations with smiles. But this wasn’t the time for that.

One recruit’s chances of passing still hung in the balance.

And he was Choi Yun’s trainee, at that.

With none other than Yun’s trainee struggling, the room quickly fell silent again. Everyone looked away from the juniors wrapping themselves in beach towels and sinking onto the shore.

“Oh, he can’t stop now.”

Little time remained.

At the pace he had been swimming, the remaining distance would be a close call. With that distance still ahead of him, Hilde suddenly stopped.

Startled exclamations rose from everyone at once.

“Why’s he stopping?”

“Has he run out of strength?”

“He’s almost there.”

“If he makes a final sprint, I think he can just scrape through...”

“Come on, rookie! Just a little farther!”

They called out with desperation written on their faces.

Hilde, who couldn’t possibly hear them, floated there for a while, breathing hard.

[“Ha.”]

Then he let out a small sound, his voice laden with exhaustion. He raised a wet hand and wiped it down his face.

After rinsing his face, he closed his eyes and tipped his head back.

He stayed that way until someone murmured, “Shouldn’t they call the rescue team?”

When someone else said, “Hasn’t he basically failed now?” he opened his eyes.

Hildebert stared straight into the drone with his golden eyes.

Then he smiled faintly.

“His eyes are so beautiful.”

“He’s handsome.”

“Oh!”

The sound of splashing echoed through the media room.

“He’s moving again!”

Hilde dived beneath the water.

The media room, which had fallen quiet with disappointment and resignation, quickly grew noisy again. People cheered as the recruit glided underwater like a seal. “You’re doing great!” “Just a little more!” Encouragement poured out. Someone called out the remaining time every ten seconds, while someone else announced the distance left to the finish.

Their voices grew louder as Hilde picked up speed.

Since diving under, Hilde hadn’t once brought his face above water.

Only his silhouette beneath the dense blue sea revealed his presence. He kept swimming submerged, without a flurry of splashes or a limb breaking the surface to pull him forward.

He cut through the sea at a speed incomparable to his earlier pace.

The cape rapidly drew closer.

At last, Hildebert reached it with ten seconds to spare.

“Waaaaah!”

The media room exploded with sound.

The instant he arrived, everyone leaped to their feet.

“He did it!”

“He passed!”

“Hey, what was that? How’d he get so fast at the end?”

“Did that bastard do it on purpose? God, he took ten years off my life!”

“Woohoo!”

Ami jumped for joy, too.

“He passed! He passed!”

“Oh, my heart...”

“What a relief.”

Iho rubbed his face, looking more exhausted than ever.

Shu put down the bag of chips she had been clutching.

“I thought he was going to fail...”

They celebrated noisily.

The people standing up blocked the screen. It was hard to see the footage through their jubilant figures. In any case, few were still watching, caught up in the excitement of a close call worthy of a movie.

The room was awash with the thrill of victory.

The recruit slowly crawled out of the sea.

The seniors only realized something was wrong when Hilde, having crawled onto the shore, tried to get up and pitched forward as his knees gave way.

[“Hilde!”]

Tom’s and Heshy’s voices struck the media room.

[“Hilde! Hey!”]

Eyes widened.

People stopped in the middle of their celebrations.

Even those leaving the media room stopped in their tracks.

Riccardo shot to his feet. Achille sprang out of his chair as well.

Ami, who had been bouncing up and down, stared with eyes as round as walnuts. Shu spilled her zero-sugar cola in shock, and Iho slowly rose from his seat, his eyes wide.

Horrified, they watched the recruit who couldn’t get up from the beach.

[“Have your legs given out?”]

Heshy knelt beside Hilde and questioned him urgently.

[“Or are you hurting somewhere? You’re hurt, aren’t you?”]

[“Please call an ambulance!”]

Tom shouted as he reached an arm under Hilde.

The sounds of instructors hurrying into action followed. As soon as he saw them move, the red-haired recruit wrapped an arm around his fellow recruit to support him.

Tom’s voice trembled with tears as he looked at Hilde, who was propped on his elbows, gasping for breath.

[“What’s wrong with you?”]

[“... Tom.”]

Hilde murmured hoarsely.

[“I’m sorry, but could you let go of me...? It hurts...”]

[“My arm? It hurts? Where does it hurt?”]

[“Maybe he’s injured around there?”]

Heshy rushed over as Tom quickly unwrapped his arm, then knelt beside him.

When he took hold of Hilde’s shirt hem to remove it, Hilde let out a pained sound.

[“Wait, slowly... Please, slowly...”]

[“Why? Where does it hurt? Did you hit a rock on the way down?”]

[“No... Ngh...”]

As Heshy slowly lifted his shirt, Hilde’s brow knotted sharply.

He groped at the air, then caught hold of his fellow recruit’s clothes and began to tremble.

Cold sweat streamed down him.

[“Sorry. Hang in there. We have to see the wound to treat it.”]

[“Just take me to the hospital...”]

Unable to finish, Hilde buried his face in the sand.

Heshy lifted his shirt.

The people in the media room couldn’t see Hilde’s torso. Heshy’s and Tom’s backs blocked their view. Instead, they saw the two recruits lifting the T-shirt to inspect his injuries suddenly freeze, too stunned to move for a long moment.

Their gazes stayed fixed on one spot.

Their eyes wavered with shock.

Heshy’s dumbfounded voice echoed through the room.

[“What is this?”]

Yun rose from his seat, cut off the feed, and walked out of the media room.