Does Spring Come Even for a Dying Esper

“A Kraken?”

Lucas’s eyebrow twitched at Caleb’s answer. The Kraken was a legendary sea monster, an octopus-like creature with a massive body. With a size easily exceeding 10 meters and ten legs, the Kraken boasted strength enough to destroy submarines. Moreover, the ink it spewed was highly acidic, potentially causing severe burns if mishandled.

“Yes, other monsters include Little Krakens, Sirens, and Sea Snakes. It seems they requested support not just because of the Kraken, but due to the sheer number of monsters. I’ve heard it’s almost on the scale of a monster wave.”

“It says they’ve set up defensive lines to prevent the Kraken and other monsters from entering the safe waters, but they’ve reached their limit… Little Krakens and Sea Snakes are manageable, but Sirens are the real problem.”

Lucas clicked his tongue after muttering the contents of the official document. Sirens, once known as mermaids, were monsters specializing in sonic attacks that disrupted the nervous system. They had appeared occasionally long before the Crack Era began, using their abilities to lure and devour ship crews or wreck vessels, appearing in various myths and historical accounts.

“Can’t special earplugs block the Sirens’ sonic attacks?”

“True, but that would make communication among ourselves difficult. And these aren’t monsters we face often… Going straight into the field without practicing coordination could lead to mistakes.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Caleb’s expression darkened as he finally realized what Lucas was worried about. The date for the subjugation operation written in the document was three days away, too short to conduct separate training for countering the Sirens’ sonic attacks.

“How do the S Zone units handle things? Requesting support now for an operation three days away. Who sets dates like this?”

“I think they’re trying to subjugate as quickly as possible because the longer they wait, the higher the chance of a monster wave occurring.”

“Then they should have asked for help as soon as the Kraken appeared.”

Lucas grumbled, seemingly unable to understand. According to the document, the Kraken first appeared a week ago. He couldn’t fathom why they were only now requesting support after all that time.

“They probably tried to handle it themselves. When that became impossible, they hurriedly sought out our Major.”

Caleb replied as if it was obvious. Requesting support from a unit in a different region, not even within the same defense zone, was a matter of great pride. The S Zone commanders likely spent the past week trying to subjugate the Kraken themselves. However, that failed, and as monsters gathered around the Kraken, showing signs of a wave, they belatedly swallowed their pride and sought Iberis’s help.

“As always, incompetent fools are just full of pride.”

Lucas harshly criticized the S Zone commanders. With N Zone issues already giving him a headache, having to look after another region made him naturally curse the incompetent military.

“Has the Major accepted the request for support in the subjugation operation?”

“He hasn’t made a decision yet, but… Lieutenant Cali hinted that he seems inclined to accept, though he’s worried you might oppose it.”

Caleb answered, recalling the conversation he had with Brenda before coming here. She was still actively cooperating with Lucas.

“Hmm.”

Lucas hummed lowly, glaring at the document. He wanted to go to Iberis right away and tell him to reject the support request, but it was difficult to oppose given the appearance of an A+ grade monster.

Above all, if the S Zone units failed to defeat the Kraken and a monster wave occurred, the biggest victims would be the civilians living near the coast. Knowing Iberis’s personality, he would likely accept this support request if only to prevent that. Even if Lucas opposed, Iberis would try to persuade him somehow.

“…Since the subjugation operation is in three days, he’ll make a decision by today. The probability of going out to support is high, so start preparing from now.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You may go now.”

After dismissing Caleb, Lucas leaned back in his chair with a tired face. As he habitually tapped the armrest, he paused at the pain in his right fingers.

“…”

Complex emotions swirled in his golden eyes as he looked down at the faint teeth marks on his index and middle fingers. The wounds on his fingers were left by Iberis.

‘Ah! Nngh, s-stop, it’s, too, hard…’

‘My body feels strange…! It’s hot… hah, too, hot.’

‘Please, stop, ugh… huh?’

Recalling last night’s events, Lucas unconsciously bit his lower lip. Remembering Iberis trapped in his arms, not knowing what to do, brought a thirst that felt like his throat was burning.

Especially dangerous was the impulse he felt seeing Iberis exhausted at the end. As he recalled that sensation, his insides grew hot as if on fire, and his straight jaw tensed.

“Haaah…”

Lucas gritted his teeth, his Adam’s apple bobbing as if holding something back. He took a deep breath in that state, and as he exhaled, his tense jaw gradually relaxed. The desire boiling in his chest, whose nature he couldn’t identify, slowly subsided.

“Was it a mistake?”

His gaze, mixed with faint confusion and hesitation, turned to the test results from this morning. The effects of last night’s mana shower were far better than expected. If they continued with daily mana showers like this, it would be a great help to Iberis’s recovery. Yet, strangely, Lucas wasn’t confident about continuing this method. It wasn’t an aversion to the mana shower itself, but…

“Am I afraid?”

Of what? Lucas narrowed his brows at the emotion difficult to define and lowered his eyes. He slightly clenched his fist, rubbing the teeth marks on his fingers with his thumb.

Given an S-class guide’s healing ability, the wound on his hand would disappear without a trace within hours. Lucas found this fact rather regrettable. It was as if he wished the mark Iberis left on his body would remain.

* * *

“It’s been a while since I’ve ridden a helicopter.”

Iberis murmured, looking out the window after boarding the military helicopter. There wasn’t much need to use helicopters in the N Zone as they usually traveled by car. The reason he was taking a military helicopter now was to support the monster subjugation operation on the S Zone coast.

Two days ago, Iberis decided to take about a third of the N-0 unit members to support the S Zone. As a result, around forty people, including Iberis, Brenda, and Lucas, were dispatched for this operation.

“I hope Second Lieutenant Denver does well…”

Iberis looked with worried eyes at Caleb, who had come to see them off. Following Lucas’s opinion that at least one A-class esper should remain to respond to cracks, Caleb was assigned to command the remaining unit members. Originally, they had planned to leave Brenda in charge of the unit, but considering the battle would take place at sea, it was deemed better to bring her along.

“Don’t worry too much. We agreed he’d contact me immediately if anything urgent comes up. More importantly, put on your ear protection before your ears get damaged.”

Lucas personally put the ear protectors on Iberis as he felt the helicopter noise getting louder. He then quickly put on his own. Right after, the military helicopter carrying the two of them took off.

“Oh.”

Iberis let out a small exclamation as the helicopter rose into the sky. Perhaps because it had been a while, the view from above looked quite nice.

“How long until we arrive?”

“About 30 minutes. If no troublemakers appear along the way.”

“Troublemakers?”

“Yes, sometimes wyverns pop out from the Death Lands.”

Brenda answered Lucas’s question while keeping an eye on the window. 80 years ago, after losing the seas to monsters, only the sky remained for humanity. Fortunately, no cracks appeared in the sky. Scholars debated whether this phenomenon was evidence of the hollow earth theory or whatnot, but the reason didn’t matter. What mattered was that from that day on, aircraft became humanity’s main mode of transportation.

Of course, the sky wasn’t completely safe due to flying monsters like wyverns and harpies, but thanks to airplanes, exchange and support between countries remained possible. People agreed that if the sky had been taken too, many countries would have been isolated and perished.

In fact, most island nations disappeared from the earth in the early days of the Crack Era. It was difficult to handle the monsters surging from the sea, and it was also hard to interact with other countries. As a result, only a few island nations like the UK and Japan survived to the present day.

“I see.”

Lucas nodded and leaned back in his seat. The seats were cramped, probably because the helicopter could carry about thirty people at once. As he was resting with his eyes closed, he felt a tap on his side and opened his eyelids again.

“What is it?”

“No, uh, well…”

Despite being the one who called out, Iberis rolled his eyes at Lucas’s question. Then, as if something was bothering him, he kept glancing at Lucas’s right hand.

“Is… your hand okay?”