Does Spring Come Even for a Dying Esper

“My hand?”

Lucas tilted his head, somewhat puzzled by the unexpected question.

“No, yesterday, I again…”

Iberis mumbled, lowering his eyes like someone who had committed a crime.

“Yesterday again…? Ah.”

A glimmer of understanding flashed in Lucas’s golden eyes as he quickly realized what Iberis was trying to say. Over the past two days, Lucas had conducted additional mana showers on Iberis.

After experiencing strange emotions during the first mana shower with Iberis, he had been unsure whether to continue. However, given that they were going to support the subjugation operation, it was necessary to get Iberis’s body in top condition.

So, he reluctantly poured his mana into Iberis for three consecutive days. Fortunately, the effects of the mana shower were evident. The matching rate rose to 72%, and all metrics such as internal mana contamination, circulation, and physical damage rate improved noticeably.

Just when things seemed to be progressing smoothly, a small incident occurred last night. Iberis discovered the teeth marks on Lucas’s right index and middle fingers.

‘Wait, Captain. What’s that on your hand?’

‘Hm? Oh, it’s nothing.’

‘Nothing? You’re bleeding!’

The moment Iberis saw the wound on Lucas’s fingers, he realized he was the culprit. He remembered biting Lucas’s fingers when he tried to stop Iberis from chewing his lips as he struggled with the sensation of mana constantly flooding his body. He had done this for the past three days.

‘I’m sorry, did I do this? I think I did it yesterday and the day before too…’

‘It’s fine. This kind of wound just needs some ointment. Don’t worry too much. More importantly, you need to dry your hair properly.’

‘Is my hair the issue right now?’

‘Of course catching a cold because you didn’t dry your hair properly is a bigger problem than your clear teeth marks on my fingers. You have to go support the S Zone tomorrow, don’t you? Come, sit down.’

‘Why are you so sensitive about scratches on my body but so indifferent about your own injuries?’

Iberis asked accusingly, with an expression of incomprehension.

‘Because I’m healthier than you, Major.’

‘What?’

‘It’ll disappear naturally in half a day even if left alone. I’ll treat it after drying your hair, so please sit down for now. And if you feel sorry for hurting me, you can just not bite your lips next time.’

‘Ah, really… You never back down.’

Once again, Iberis was defeated. Shaking his head, he sat down in the chair with a look of complete surrender.

After that, there was no further discussion, so Lucas thought the matter of his finger wound was over. He was a bit surprised that Iberis was still concerned about it.

“Captain?”

Iberis cautiously called out to Lucas when he remained silent instead of answering his question. Last night, he had fallen asleep unknowingly due to exhaustion, and this morning he was too busy with departure preparations to check if Lucas’s finger wounds had healed.

It had been bothering him, so he took the opportunity to ask now, but Lucas’s lack of response made him anxious.

“…”

Lucas slightly furrowed his brow as the image of Iberis’s disheveled appearance from last night overlapped with the innocent face now looking at him apprehensively. On second thought, the finger wound was indeed trivial. The real problem was himself, being enveloped by sinister impulses every time he performed the mana shower.

‘Hngh, C-Captain, stop…’

‘It’s strange, haa… My body is so hot, I feel like I’m melting.’

‘L-let go of my hand. Please, I won’t run away, ah! N-no, sob!’

During the three days of mana showers, Iberis showed intense reactions. It was enough to make Lucas worry if something had gone wrong. However, considering it took over a week for Iberis to adapt to level 1 guidance, this wasn’t strange.

Moreover, while the mana shower didn’t involve direct physical contact like kissing, the sensation the esper felt seemed closer to level 2 guidance. It was natural for Iberis, who wasn’t used to physical intimacy with others, to find it overwhelming. Especially considering the amount of mana poured in at once.

‘Don’t avoid it.’

Whatever the reason, Lucas didn’t like how Iberis acted as if trying to escape from him every time he received a mana shower. So he deliberately held Iberis’s body tighter and poured in his mana more forcefully. It was a small act of spite.

Yesterday, Iberis seemed to be struggling more than usual, so Lucas embraced him completely while conducting the mana shower. With his arms wrapped around Iberis’s trembling waist and his hand pressing firmly on his back to prevent him from pulling away, Iberis could no longer resist.

‘Captain… hic.’

Unable to escape from Lucas, Iberis instead clung to him. As if Lucas was the only one who could save him.

Lucas felt a strange satisfaction from Iberis’s behavior. When Iberis, who could casually slaughter monsters on the battlefield, relied on him in such a powerless and disheveled state, an odd elation bloomed in his chest. It was an emotion similar to possessiveness. The thought that he was the only one who could see Iberis like this.

At the same time, Lucas found it increasingly difficult to control the desires that kept surging within him. Iberis, covered in his mana and breathing heavily, was extremely dangerous. When he saw Iberis’s usually pale cheeks flushing a beautiful color, and his slender neck, which seemed like it could fit in one hand with room to spare, trembling, an inexplicable thirst kept rising in him.

Several times already, Lucas had felt dizzy from the sensations: the sweat-drenched black hair tickling the nape of Iberis’s neck as if teasing him, and the unusually warm breath seeping into his skin in a strange way. He felt a fierce impulse to devour Iberis whole. Iberis was the first person to evoke such desires in Lucas during guidance.

Because of this, Lucas had spent the past few days in confusion and bewilderment. He was unsure whether this was a side effect of the mana shower or if it was because he regarded Iberis as special. To be honest, he hoped it was the former.

He couldn’t afford to be distracted by other matters now. He needed to uncover the truth about his parents’ death as soon as possible and take revenge on those who killed them. Hadn’t he lived solely for that purpose for the past 12 years?

“…tain, Captain!”

“Ah.”

“What are you thinking about so deeply? You’re not even answering.”

“I’m sorry. For a moment, I didn’t understand your question and was pondering… What did you mean by ‘again yesterday’?”

Finally snapping out of his thoughts, Lucas cleared his throat awkwardly. He deliberately pretended not to know and asked again.

“Uh, well, that, I… to your right hand…”

Iberis trailed off, rolling his eyes from side to side. Currently, there were over ten squad members in the helicopter, including Brenda. He was reluctant to say he had bitten Lucas’s fingers in such a situation.

“You mean when you bit my right fingers? It’s fine. The marks have completely disappeared now.”

“Cough!”

“Gasp!”

Lucas nonchalantly answered, shattering Iberis’s efforts. At his statement, squad members who had been pretending not to eavesdrop coughed or inhaled sharply here and there. Even Brenda looked at them with wide, surprised eyes.

“No, if you say it so loudly…”

Iberis didn’t know how to react to the attention focused on him. Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, his ears burned with embarrassment.

“It was an accident during guidance, why are you so embarrassed?”

Lucas, who had slightly raised the corners of his mouth at Iberis’s flustered state, showed him his right hand.

“Look, it’s clean, isn’t it?”

“…So it is.”

Iberis was relieved to see that the teeth marks on the index and middle fingers had disappeared. The long, straight fingers were as pristine as if they had never been injured. As expected of an S-class guide, his recovery ability was truly remarkable.

“My hand is fine, so you should worry about your lips instead. It seems you forgot to apply lip balm again…”

Lucas narrowed his eyes, staring at the lips in front of him. Though they had become smoother and more moisturized than before due to consistent care, there was still a slight hint of dry skin.

“No, I applied it earlier.”

“Then apply it once more now. Oh, and hand cream too.”

Despite Iberis’s protest, Lucas took out lip balm and hand cream from his pocket. He then habitually tried to apply it himself.

“I’ll, I’ll do it myself.”

Hurriedly stopping Lucas, Iberis took the lip balm from his hand and applied it himself. He couldn’t tell if he was being overly conscious of people’s gazes or if Lucas was just insensitive, given how boldly Lucas acted.

“Take off your gloves and hold out your hand.”

Lucas blankly watched Iberis apply the lip balm on his own, then picked up the hand cream. With a familiar motion, he squeezed a line of cream onto the back of Iberis’s hand.

…What’s this? What am I seeing right now?

Brenda stared blankly at Lucas and Iberis, her expression questioning if the scene unfolding before her eyes was real. Both Iberis holding out his hand to Lucas and Lucas squeezing out hand cream seemed natural, as if they had done it often.

While she personally welcomed the two becoming closer, seeing it like this was somewhat ambiguous. There was a subtly sweet atmosphere, almost as if…

No way, surely not.

She shook her head, denying the thought that suddenly popped into her mind. Even so, thinking they might be dating seemed too far-fetched. But the conversation she had just heard was incredibly intriguing.

How could Iberis bite Lucas’s fingers during guidance?

Brenda repeatedly opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. She wanted to ask the two but couldn’t, making her mouth itch with curiosity. The expressions of the other squad members were not much different from hers.

Whether aware of them or not, Lucas and Iberis continued to bicker, talking about things only they understood until they arrived at the S Zone. Thanks to this, the curiosity of Brenda and the squad members only grew.