What if Yuri had been even slightly weak? If there were even the tiniest gap in him…
“Do you need me?”
Even if it was such a monster, if Yuri wanted it, Chris had no choice but to offer himself.
“Need?”
Yuri spoke as if he’d heard something ridiculous.
“You’re still an idiot.”
Yuri, releasing his chin, grabbed Chris’s collar and pulled his face close.
Their lips were so close they might touch or might not.
“You don’t need to do anything for me.”
White Night runs perfectly fine even without the likes of Chris. Yuri had made it that way. He could accomplish everything alone—clearing away obstacles that blocked his path, tearing apart and burning old enemies.
What he wanted from Danil was just one thing.
For this detestable dog not to run away forgetting his own debt.
“Then why don’t you just abandon me and leave me alone?”
Chris asked in a resentful tone. He didn’t know the identity of Danil, so he couldn’t acknowledge it. However, he had seen and heard too much to deny it completely. Everything fit together perfectly.
He had followed Yuri as if it were love at first sight. Now he knew it was because of the imprinting phenomenon.
Before he could even call it first love, he had experienced heartbreak. Before they could even share their hearts, his body was already being tamed. Even when his chest fluttered intoxicated by the Guiding that Yuri let flow, his head recognized that this could never become anything more.
Because Yuri, who had a cleanliness obsession, would never get involved with a dog.
“To abandon a dog—you must see me as quite a terrible person. Well, I suppose you’ve been hanging around with Rosenhower’s people, so you’ve been tainted.”
Yuri, who had condemned Rosenhower and Northern Light together as one, released his grip on Chris and said:
“It would be best not to think about escaping. I have no intention of sharing you with Rosenhower, and no one in Northern Light will be able to help you.”
Chris rubbed his neck area and answered:
“Where would I go with a prohibition locked in my head?”
“Who knows. But you already have a history of leaving me behind once.”
A sharp blue edge glinted in Yuri’s eyes. Chris thought he understood why he had come back to find him despite being busy.
“I can’t go back.”
Chris growled.
“Where would I go with a body imprinted on you?”
His body could not find satisfaction from any guide other than Yuri, not before, and not now. Escaping from Yuri was impossible.
Moreover, he had learned that Northern Light was ruthlessly exploiting Espers, especially psychic-type Espers.
If I had been psychic-type too… I would have been thrown into the Hive-Net.
Despite the response being firm enough to be felt as anger, Yuri’s expression softened a little. The change in expression was very subtle, but Chris sensed it keenly.
Yuri’s hand that had been cupping his cheek began to fiddle with Chris’s lips. At the nuance of Guiding that suddenly pushed through, Chris froze in his kneeling position.
This feeling…
“Should I give you a reward for being good?”
At the suggestive voice, Chris desperately shook his head. His fingertips were already tingling at the Guiding energy that began to overflow with sexual implications.
All the gentle and soft energy from before seemed to have been washed away. Instead, something heavy and sticky that invaded deep into his lungs took its place.
This was actually more familiar to Chris, but it was a sensation he could never welcome.
“You smelled of semen. Wasn’t your body in heat?”
“You don’t need to do it. I can… handle it myself.”
Chris said through gritted teeth.
“I’m already in full Guiding state, so you don’t need to endure the disgust.”
Yuri let out a hollow laugh.
“So that’s why you became less talkative—you were having strange thoughts.”
Chris pressed his lips tightly shut. It might be a strange thought to Yuri, but to Chris it was an important matter. He didn’t want to burden him when he found touching others unpleasant.
The emotions that remained incompletely scraped away, rattling awkwardly, reacted to Yuri’s every move. He wanted him to be happy and hoped he wouldn’t suffer.
That ticklish, shallow yet impossible to let go of—like molted skin—such feelings tormented Chris, feelings he couldn’t bring himself to voice.
“Yes. You’re right. I hate humans. I hate Espers even more.”
Deep disgust dripped from Yuri’s voice.
It was a fact he already knew, but hearing it from his mouth made his heart sink.
Chris bit his lip. It was something Yuri had told him not to do, but he couldn’t help it.
“But I’m not disgusted when I touch my dog.”
At the words that followed, Chris raised his head. Yuri sighed and pressed his thumb firmly against his lips.
“Knowing that I can do non-contact Guiding, you really worried about something useless.”
Yuri’s tone was cold. However, he didn’t remove his hand until Chris relaxed the tension he had in them.
“…Did you do contact Guiding before too?”
Perhaps sensing that Chris’s spirit had diminished, Yuri generously answered while withdrawing the Guiding energy he had been pouring out.
“No. You never made that request.”
Though they had spent over ten years together, Yuri had never tried to touch Chris either.
If contact was necessary to imprint the dog that had run away on its own, he was prepared to endure that much. Before removing his gloves, the revulsion that had long been imprinted on him surged.
Then he remembered the night he had killed Chris.
The sensation of silver fur wound around his fingers, those eyes that looked only at him as if not knowing—or not caring—what was entering his mouth. And the image of the massive wolf that docilely entrusted its body while holding the gun barrel in its mouth erased Yuri’s hesitation.
Yuri, who had touched Chris, learned the warmth of human body temperature that he had long forgotten.
“Looking at you now, you seem to have been under a great misunderstanding before too.”
Because Yuri’s words sounded like a reprimand, Chris laughed. It was the first time he had softened his expression like this since being dragged to White Night.
At least when he was in his right mind.
“Mr. Sobolev wouldn’t know. How terrifying it is to fall out of your favor…”
Chris trailed off. Only after blurting out words that should have been kept inside did he come to his senses.
Yuri, who frowned for a moment, looked at Chris as if seeing a strange person. Even after being treated like a dog, he was grinning like this, so he might think him a madman.
Tensing about what words might come out, Yuri bluntly said:
“Don’t act like you’re unrelated and just call me by my name.”
It was telling him to stop the stubborn form of address, “Mr. Sobolev.”
“…Yuri.”
After a brief pause, his name rolled on his tongue was lukewarm. It didn’t sparkle and pop like stars, nor was it sweet like candy. It wasn’t hot like lava, nor cold like glaciers. He had thought that the moment he called that name something tremendous would change, but it turned out to be less of a big deal than expected.
And yet calling just a name was such a difficult thing for Chris.
“Much better.”
Yuri’s eyes narrowed slightly. Since he was a man whose expressions weren’t generous, that much could be considered a smile.
“Just be careful not to touch me first before I allow it.”
Chris obediently nodded.
He recalled the warnings Yuri had given him.
Don’t bite your lips, call him by name, and don’t touch him first before permission.
This much was easy to remember. Biting his lips was a habit so he’d have to be more careful, but calling him by name and not making contact first just required sufficient attention.
“How’s the tracking of Anastasia going?”
“First, I heard about the properties of the Guiding drugs from Jessica. The drugs seem to be coming into the November Continent from outside, am I right?”
“That’s right. Even if not Guiding drugs, the plants that become ingredients for ordinary drugs usually grow in hot and humid places, so the production sites are in foreign countries.”
Yuri said in an ominous tone that there must be coca tree groves or poppy fields somewhere on the Summer Continent.
The extremely prosperous Summer Continent was full of forests of tall buildings. It felt strange to think that somewhere among them there might be drug cultivation sites.
“Since the airships coming and going are controlled, we can consider the air routes closed, and there must be people moving by ship or submarine. Can I know how many abandoned ports there are in total on the November Continent?”
“Four that we’ve identified on our side.”
Yuri brought up a hologram map and pointed out the locations of all four places.
“It’s impossible to hack satellites with psychic-type Espers like Northern Light does to look down at the earth. It’s also difficult to grasp all the geography. Due to the nature of all Winter Continents, there exists Permafrost where people don’t travel, so we have to rely on exploration rather than natural discovery. I personally piece together old-era maps and dispatch organization members to every place I can guess to confirm whether ports still exist there.”
