Does Spring Come Even for a Dying Esper

* * *

“Phew…”

Iberis, now changed into his pajamas, let out a small sigh. Then he glanced around the bedroom connected to the dressing room, as if checking the outside situation. The presence of someone other than himself in the house still felt unfamiliar, yet it gave him a strange sense of security.

Today marked exactly ten days since he started sleeping with Lucas every night.

Contrary to his expectation that it would be extremely uncomfortable, as he had never shared a bed with anyone except during his childhood when he lived with his mother, sleeping with Lucas wasn’t bad. In fact, apart from the awkwardness just before falling asleep, it was honestly quite satisfactory.

As Lucas had said to think of him as a human heater, he was much warmer than an electric blanket or a hot water bottle. Thanks to this, Iberis had recently been able to sleep deeply until morning without waking up in the middle of the night. Perhaps due to the effect of sleeping in Lucas’s arms, he felt less cold when he woke up.

And that wasn’t all. As Lucas had claimed, living together and sharing the same space had produced significant results in increasing their matching rate. In the test conducted four days ago, the first digit finally changed to 7. Yesterday, it even increased by another 1%, recording 71%.

‘I’m glad our cohabitation is paying off,’ Lucas had murmured, looking at the monitor displaying 71% with satisfied eyes. His golden eyes sparkled with a faint smile, as if relieved that pushing for cohabitation, even at the cost of upsetting Iberis, had been effective.

Unlike Lucas, Iberis felt a bit gloomy. His plan to immediately stop cohabitation if the matching rate didn’t increase had now fallen through.

‘Your internal mana contamination level has decreased a lot. It seems your mana circulation has improved compared to before… Although the body damage is still severe, it’s changed from critical to severe, so the amount of mana leaking out of your body has decreased compared to before.’

69% to 71%. It was only a 2% increase, but the effect of changing the first digit was tremendous. Since achieving 70%, Lucas had been conducting simple tests every day after guiding, and the improvement in the numbers was visible day by day.

Iberis himself also felt that the effectiveness of the guiding had improved. After receiving guidance, his body temperature would return to normal and he would feel warm, and the duration of this effect had clearly lengthened. Perhaps because of this, his complexion brightened and his body felt more energetic. Even when he felt cold as usual, it was less stiff and chilly than before.

Above all, the sensation during guiding had changed so much that it was surprising how much better it could get. If 70% felt like this, he was almost tempted to ask the Esper unit members what 80% or 90% felt like.

‘It would be great if we could keep rising steadily to 75%,’ Lucas had said, burning with enthusiasm about being only 4% away from the minimum pair threshold. It was natural for Iberis to feel strange seeing Lucas like this.

‘…Do you really think we can become a pair?’

‘Yes.’

Lucas had answered Iberis’s question as if it was obvious. He seemed to dream of officially becoming a pair guide as soon as possible, but Iberis thought it was realistically difficult.

‘Major General Bismarck promised to cooperate as much as possible. He was the one who sent me here in the first place. I told you on the day I first guided you, didn’t I? He said to continue matching like this and naturally form a pair unless a Name partner appears. Don’t you remember?’

‘I remember.’

‘Then what are you so worried about?’

‘I think the higher-ups will oppose it…’

‘I’m not without worries either, but we can think about that when the time comes. For now, let’s focus on increasing the matching rate.’

‘…Alright.’

Despite being told that Winfried would help, Iberis was very skeptical. Although he had spoken directly with him when Lucas was assigned to the N-0 unit, he still couldn’t trust him. The higher-ups changing their words was nothing new, and based on past experiences, it was difficult to fully trust Winfried.

Of course, during Iberis’s internal whistleblowing, he had been the most active in helping him. But he couldn’t stay by Iberis’s side until the end. As a central figure in the reform faction, Winfried’s open support for Iberis could be interpreted as a political act. In fact, Livio’s side had attempted such attacks.

Afterwards, perhaps feeling guilty for not being able to help until the end, Winfried had put in considerable effort when the N-0 unit didn’t receive proper supplies at the beginning of Iberis’s assignment due to the machinations of the conservative faction. However, it was difficult for him as an individual to overcome an entire faction. Not all people in the reform faction agreed with helping Iberis either.

So, until Lucas’s assignment, Iberis and Winfried hadn’t been in contact for a long time. It was natural for him to be wary when he suddenly assigned an S-class guide he had raised.

Whether it was due to past guilt or to use him, for whatever reason, Iberis thought it was unlikely that things would go according to Winfried’s wishes.

They might say it’s quiet now, but as soon as his condition improved even a little, the central command would try to take Lucas back. It was inefficient for an S-class guide to be dedicated to just one Esper.

Above all, Livio had returned to the Defense Force. Although he had the status of a cooperation guild leader, he would surely try to wield power in the military along with the conservative faction members.

Iberis ground his teeth unconsciously as he thought of Livio. It was problematic enough that Livio knew about his terminal condition, but Lucas could also be in danger if they weren’t careful.

Would someone who’s just waiting for me to weaken really tolerate the Captain’s existence?

Iberis’s thought was ‘no’. Livio would try to separate Lucas from him by any means necessary. Thinking about whether he could safely protect Lucas from Livio made his chest feel tight. Having lost precious people to Livio before, an inevitable anxiety arose.

This isn’t good.

Agitated, Iberis habitually bit his lower lip, but then relaxed, thinking “Oops.” It was obvious that Lucas would nag if he got injured again. Then he paused, surprised at himself for thinking that far. The fact that Lucas’s behavior naturally came to mind meant that he had become that familiar with him.

“Hmm…”

This is troublesome. Iberis frowned slightly and let out a faint sigh. He could feel himself gradually adapting to living with Lucas.

But he didn’t want to get used to this daily life. Iberis didn’t want to create more precious things or increase his responsibilities. He had had enough of the emptiness and pain when someone he cared for disappeared.

However, Lucas was rapidly infiltrating Iberis’s life. Honestly, it was surprising that it had only been a month and a half since they met. The raw warmth of another person that he felt after so long was extremely dangerous and stimulating.

Iberis realized why he was weak to Lucas. Because only he could uniquely warm his body, because being together gave him some release from the cold that constantly tormented him, his instincts kept overcoming his reason. That’s why, even though he thought it shouldn’t be done, he found himself being swayed by Lucas’s wishes before he knew it.

That’s why he was even more worried. He was afraid that if he continued to stay with Lucas like this, he would fall into the warmth and comfort he provided. Maybe he was already addicted. Just imagining sleeping alone from tomorrow made him feel a chill rising for no reason.

“Maybe it’s already too late…”

Iberis muttered to himself with a bitter smile. At that moment, a low voice was heard.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“Huh? Ah…”

Snapping out of his heavy thoughts, Iberis let out a small exclamation as he discovered Lucas standing in the doorway connected to the bedroom. It seemed he had come to check what Iberis was doing since he hadn’t come out for a while.

“You weren’t coming out, so I thought you might be feeling unwell.”

“No way. I’ve never felt better than these days.”

Iberis shrugged and headed towards the bedroom. His words were sincere. Apart from still being terminally ill, receiving guidance daily made his body feel lighter and less cold.

Suddenly, Lucas’s words about wanting to be less painful during his remaining life came to mind. He couldn’t deny it then, but now he really couldn’t say no. Just imagining going back to the days without Lucas’s guidance felt terrible.

Is this why everyone is so obsessed with guiding?

Iberis swallowed a sigh with a complicated expression. It seemed Lucas’s prediction that he too would come to enjoy guiding like other Espers might soon be realized.

“Um… Are we going to sleep right away?”

Iberis awkwardly turned to look at Lucas as he stood in front of the bed. Although he would fall asleep easily once he lay down, to his own surprise, this moment always made him nervous.

“No, there’s something I want to do with you before that, Major.”

“Huh?”

Iberis’s eyes widened at the completely unexpected answer.

“Tonight, I’d like to try a different method of guiding before we sleep.”

“…A different method?”

“Yes. It’s a method I couldn’t try before because your physical condition wasn’t good and our matching rate was low… But I think we can give it a try now.”

What is he planning now? Suddenly feeling uneasy, Iberis took a step back. Whenever Lucas was like this, unexpected things always happened.