Yoon Tae-ha’s eyes fluttered open at a slight jolt.

She jerked her upper body up and simultaneously groped beside her for Moglei. It wasn’t there. Neither Moglei nor the chimera. The ceiling and walls were familiar. This wasn’t the Green Hive. It was the medical room inside the Black Lizard’s airship.

Realizing that the place had changed, Yoon Tae-ha swept her hand across her face. Just then, someone quietly approached and offered her a cup filled with water.

“Are you awake?”

It was Chertan. She blankly received the cup he offered. The cup touching her palm was cold. Feeling the moisture seeping out, she slowly wet her throat before opening her mouth.

“Did I faint?”

Chertan perched on a makeshift chair opposite the medical room bed. The chair creaked under his weight.

“You did. You fainted.”

“How long… No, first, how did we get out? Is Echidna dead?”

“Don’t be redundant. You’re back here, so she’s dead. Eagle Team killed Echidna. They even cleanly destroyed the green feathers. The Green Hive was a lab densely packed with dangerous facilities, so we burned it all down as originally planned. Orca won’t be able to rebuild that facility.”

It ended well. Thank goodness. She blinked slowly and placed her hand on her chest.

“What about the doctor?”

“James Palmer is currently in the detention room. Other than drinking a lot of water, there’s nothing wrong with his body.”

Chertan held out his hand, indicating he wanted the cup. She handed him the cup and sat weakly, leaning her head against the wall. Small vibrations traveled into her head. Sounds were muffled as if she were underwater.

“You’ll be dizzy. You were properly hit by Echidna’s ability.”

“Is it like a curse?”

“They say that if she screams, she can weaken the mental strength of the person she injured. According to Mago.”

Ah. She nodded stupidly. It seemed like the scene of Mago and the other espers standing unharmed remained as an afterimage.

Belatedly, the bandage wrapped around the back of her hand caught her eye. Just then, Yoon Tae-ha, who had been sitting with her head bowed like a withered flower, suddenly stood up. It was because a person she had temporarily forgotten rose to the surface of her consciousness.

He’ll be waiting.

“Sit down.”

“What time is it now?”

“Sit.”

Chertan, who had risen from his chair, grabbed her shoulder and made her sit down again.

“Exactly six hours have passed since you fainted.”

Six hours. As she repeated his words, Chertan sighed.

“Can’t you calculate? It’s the twenty-seventh hour since we took off from Cocytus. It ended faster than expected.”

It hadn’t exceeded forty-eight hours. She wasn’t seriously injured, and the lab that had been producing chimeras and disrupting the Green Sea was destroyed. Relief slowly washed over her. She leaned into it and slumped.

Geon-young-ah.

Only one word lingered in her mouth. The more she repeated it, the deeper and wider the resonance of the name became. She missed him. The guilt of having ultimately deceived him and gotten the job done was prickly like grains of sand, but more than that, she wanted to be held by him.

If she relaxed her guard even a little, she might jump out of the airship while shouting Cheon Geon-young’s name. To maintain her sanity, she bit the soft flesh inside her mouth.

“When will we arrive in the city?”

“Already missing him? Why don’t you jump out and fly there?”

To think I had a similar thought as this man.

It felt strangely unpleasant. Yoon Tae-ha folded the blanket and got up from the bed. Chertan seemed to want her to return to the city lying quietly, but he didn’t stop her from getting up. A look of anguish crossed his deep-set eyes, which showed his age.

“There’s something you need to hear before you go out.”

Yoon Tae-ha, who had grabbed the doorknob of the medical room, turned around. Chertan looked at the corner of her mouth, which was drawing a faint arc as she dreamed of returning home, and then spoke. His expression was cautious.

“There was a problem at the Small Hive.”

A problem? What on earth.

Strength flooded into the hand gripping the medical room doorknob. Yoon Tae-ha hurriedly let go of the doorknob to avoid breaking it. Wiping the sweat from her palm on her clothes, she clasped her hands together, her face showing clear signs of tension.

“The unidentified government organization you mentioned.”

“…….”

“We encountered them at the Small Hive.”

The dream that had been shining in her eyes wavered precariously.

“We didn’t clash directly. It seems their aerial carrier arrived near the Small Hive while we were destroying the hatchery.”

Cheon Geon-young. You went there. It was a lie that your colleagues weren’t there. He went. For the same reason as her.

“There was a slight collision. But no one died on either side. One of our members sustained a minor injury, but Mago treated it without a trace.”

As soon as Yoon Tae-ha heard the word ‘collision,’ she felt strength drain from her legs. She barely grabbed the shelf next to her, managing to avoid falling inelegantly.

“May I ask why you’re so sure?”

“Because I was the first to discover them. I recognized the man and ordered a cease-fire.”

Chertan was saying that he had seen Cheon Geon-young himself. He had no reason to lie.

“A tall young man was wearing the weapon I gave him on his wrist.”

It felt like molten iron was being poured into her chest. Everything melted away weakly. So emptily. Yoon Tae-ha, overwhelmed by confused and helpless emotions, staggered backward and stopped only when her back touched the wall.

Her legs gave out, and she sank down. Chertan looked at her with concern.

“I told you to sit and listen.”

“I can listen here. Please tell me what happened afterward. We need to fix this. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have said I was leaving my post. I should have found another way somehow.”

“You should have put him to sleep with a sedative or something?”

“…….”

“I can’t do that. You can’t. You’re the one who knows best how disgusting it feels to be weakened by drugs.”

Yoon Tae-ha clutched her irregularly beating heart and rested her forehead on her knees. She hugged her body tightly with both arms, barely controlling her gasping breaths, and then raised her head.

“Chertan.”

He roughly ruffled his short hair.

“You haven’t said it’s okay, even as an empty word.”

“Damn it.”

“Please tell me what I messed up.”

Just then, the medical room door burst open. It was Mago, who never opened doors without knocking. She cried out urgently.

“Lev sent a signal with the transmitter! It means he’s alive!”

Mago, who belatedly discovered the slumped Yoon Tae-ha, was taken aback.

“You haven’t told her yet?”

“She just woke up.”

Chertan opened the door Mago had entered through even wider. The agitated voices from outside flowed into the space where they were. Regaining his composure, he spoke, emphasizing each word.

“Lev has been kidnapped by them.”

\*

Unlike the aerial carrier gracefully cutting through the night sky, the interior of the island on the flight deck was bustling.

Cheon Geon-young came down from the combat information room on the third floor of the island and encountered the people from the Great Rift Special Forces. They were classmates who had graduated from the academy together. Three of the four left without exchanging more than a nod, called away by their superiors.

Only one man with a relaxed expression remained in the hallway. It was Shin Hyun-seo, his friend and the salutatorian of their class. Shin Hyun-seo smirked and nudged Cheon Geon-young with his elbow.

“Traitor. What’s with that expression?”

Cheon Geon-young didn’t even look at him and spat out curtly.

“Get lost.”

Confirming the familiar response, Shin Hyun-seo’s smile deepened. He went to the trouble of turning back and began to talk while sticking close to Cheon Geon-young.

“We’ve been assigned to manage the evidence and witnesses Chancheon brought, next to Hangar 2. No matter how I think about it, the higher-ups seem to consider you a top-tier member of the Great Rift Special Forces. We always place second in joint training, so isn’t it problematic to use you like a secretary?”

“If you’re dissatisfied, ask to be transferred.”

“Why would I do that? I just wanted to check where and how you’re struggling.”

Shin Hyun-seo snorted with a smirk. The symbol of the Great Rift Special Forces was proudly displayed on his left arm. It was a stark contrast to Cheon Geon-young’s mercenary-like attire.

“How many people came from the Special Forces?”

“Look at this guy? Don’t try to subtly figure out our numbers when you’re in a different unit. If I asked you how many Chancheon agents are disguised as airship staff, you’d shut your mouth, wouldn’t you?”

“Consistently useless.”

“You’re really consistent too. You haven’t shown your true colors to your partner yet, have you?”

How dare he. He wasn’t even worth responding to.

Shin Hyun-seo, like everyone else, invariably asked about Cheon Geon-young’s esper.

“If you went in as a guide, you must have an esper too. What did you say to that woman before you slipped out?”

“Go to work.”

“I just came up from working. Are you going to keep acting like my superior?”

Ignoring the other’s protest, Cheon Geon-young headed to the warehouse where the evidence brought from the lab was being stored. Shin Hyun-seo informed him that they had collected a unique piece of evidence there.

“It’s more of a witness than evidence… Actually, it’s ambiguous to call it a witness. Because it’s an animal.”

They entered the evidence storage room, which was separately prepared inside the emptied Hangar 2.

Cheon Geon-young saw Oh Gi-cheol reading documents from a distance. Upon discovering him, Oh Gi-cheol nodded his chin once in greeting and headed elsewhere.

Shin Hyun-seo led Cheon Geon-young to the mobile protective cage where the problematic witness was confined. Cheon Geon-young could tell that there was something special there. Several people were wearing forced smiles and loitering in front of a transparent box. The two stopped in front of the box and looked inside.

Shin Hyun-seo said.

“We found this cat in the place where the test subjects were kept. It seems to be a foreigner. It understands human speech.”

The cat, engrossed in licking its fur, stared intently up at Cheon Geon-young.

Well-groomed tawny fur. Dark green eyes like late summer leaves. A body that was neither too big nor too small, with a particularly round face.

He knew this cat.