“The cognitive-type is recording all guild members, every single moment without exception. Even without writing something like a contract, solo action is impossible.”
It meant that right now was no exception either. Yeo Dowoon immediately became indignant as soon as he finished speaking. He turned his head toward Yoon Minoh and asked.
“Fuck…, was that bastard watching even when I kissed you?”
It was because the humiliating moment of climbing onto Yoon Minoh while holding ice invaded his vision.
Not only that, the memory of being attacked by Yoon Minoh’s black sleeveless shirt and kneading that chest a few times also randomly swept through his head. Yoon Minoh placated him nonchalantly.
“There are probably many people doing worse things, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
But Yeo Dowoon’s murderous glare didn’t withdraw. A voice that had become markedly lower than before whispered gently as if soothing Yeo Dowoon.
“Unless you sucked on something other than a tongue…, just a kiss can’t get you any attention.”
Thwack, Yeo Dowoon pushed away his face and spoke in a sharp tone. There was a proper reason for him to personally come visit Yoon Minoh and face his slippery mug.
“Where is that bastard hiding right now.”
“Haha. Are you going to find him and kill him?”
Yoon Minoh burst into bright laughter saying he didn’t disappoint. However, he couldn’t reveal the cognitive-type Esper’s whereabouts. Raising his upper body, he wrapped his arms around Yeo Dowoon’s straight back and said.
“Sometimes I want to kill him too, but I can’t. Without that person……”
“Cognitive-types can both expose Espers and hide them.”
For some reason, Yeo Dowoon didn’t refuse Yoon Minoh’s one-sided back hug. He remained embraced without resistance and locked gazes with Yoon Minoh intensely.
“Is it true?”
The moment those four syllables flowed out, Yoon Minoh blocked Yeo Dowoon’s mouth with his own mouth. It was a light kiss that touched with a smack and then separated.
“……Hyung.”
The thought that if he started to taste him any more than this, he wouldn’t be able to stop the act midway anymore made Yoon Minoh freeze.
But Yeo Dowoon unhesitatingly placed his hand on his cheek.
He grasped it without hurting and twisted the angle of his head. At the distance that seemed to herald a kiss, Yoon Minoh gulped and swallowed hot saliva. His heart pounded wildly. Yeo Dowoon recited definitively.
“I need that Esper too.”
If he could hide perfectly while living, there was no reason to pathetically cling to Kwon Jeonghoo asking for retirement permission.
The existence of the cognitive-type made Yeo Dowoon, who had been pessimistically predicting his future, swell with anticipation. To think that Tartaros, which he had only considered a fantasy, actually existed—there was no better harvest than this.
“How can I meet him?”
Even though he wasn’t one of those idiots who had wasted time searching for Tartaros.
Yeo Dowoon changed his question and asked.
“How can I get in? Your guild.”
“……”
“Do I have to take an entrance exam or something?”
So it was natural that Yoon Minoh burst into guffaws. He rolled on the bed and doubled over with laughter. The longer the giggling time went on, the more Yeo Dowoon’s expression clouded. Yoon Minoh shouted refreshingly.
“What era are we in to have entrance exams!”
Yeo Dowoon asked back skeptically.
“There aren’t any?”
“Hehe, no. It’s still that era.”
…I have no idea what the hell this bastard is trying to do.
Just as Yeo Dowoon was about to spit out profanity, Yoon Minoh began explaining with a rather solemn expression. His eyes were also in a straight line without a drop of mirth.
“The real chimera experiments are being conducted in the underground dungeon. You’ve heard before too, hyung, that there’s no Esper who entered there and came back alive, right?”
Yeo Dowoon worked his jaw. Even kindergarteners would be going around reciting the superstition about the underground dungeon without missing a single syllable.
But the word ‘real’ caught his attention. Yeo Dowoon asked as if puzzled.
“What’s a real chimera experiment. Are there fake chimera experiments too?”
“Ah, it’s not that important.”
Yoon Minoh paused for a while then prattled on.
“The suitable age range for chimera experiments is from 9 to 14 years old. At that time, there’s little rejection reaction, so not just protein fusion but even body fusion experiments are possible. There were cases of success even when they removed an arm or leg and attached a monster tentacle……”
But reaching the end, he choked up his voice as if sorrowful.
“Hyung…. Will you put me to sleep before you go today?”
Yeo Dowoon hadn’t heard the entry conditions yet, but looking at his bloodless face, he reached out his hand without hesitation. He pushed Yoon Minoh down onto the bed with a thud and stretched out his own legs as well, promising.
“Okay. I’ll put you to sleep before I go.”
“Thank you.”
“You just finish telling me the conditions.”
“……You’re calculating as always.”
Opening his eyes wide, he leaned his head on Yeo Dowoon’s arm and whispered.
“The plan is to slaughter the goddamn underground dungeon first. Next will be the Esper base’s turn.”
“……”
“The operation name is <Liberation>.”
“……”
“Hyung, become our Heracles. That’s all.”
***
Yoon Minoh, who fell asleep in Yeo Dowoon’s arms, spent a wonderful time drooling clear saliva.
“This is crazy.”
Yeo Dowoon, who had inadvertently dozed off together with him, pushed away Yoon Minoh who was burying his face in his chest as if he was dirty.
Pitiful whining sounds echoed, but he didn’t care and put his feet down. The blanket that had been warmed toasty warm by their body temperatures touching felt really disagreeable.
‘Hyung, become our Heracles.’
Yeo Dowoon reflected on Yoon Minoh’s voice he had heard before falling asleep. Since his education was short, he actually didn’t properly understand what metaphor he had used to attach conditions to him.
Heracles, isn’t that the one? The person wearing the lion skin from Olympus mythology. I think he was Zeus’s son…, right?
“I’m leaving.”
Since he didn’t want to wake him up to ask, he covered Yoon Minoh with the blanket and left the hospital room. There was so little sincerity in his touch that it was just a state where he had roughly thrown the blanket over him.
It seemed he hadn’t closed his eyes for as long as he thought, as time was only now running toward 9 AM. Staff members going to work or visitors who had come for hospital visits fleetingly filled his vision.
By the way, where should I go….
“Why is it so cold.”
Perhaps because it was morning, the air was quite chilly. In the cold weather, Yeo Dowoon pulled up the zipper of his jumper.
He was in the midst of not being able to grasp whether he should return to Kwon Jeonghoo’s officetel or go back to his own officetel. He took out his phone that was ringing with a buzz and checked the caller’s name.
Ah, it’s Kwon Jeonghoo.
“You woke up early.”
He thought it was interesting seeing him wake up early even during his vacation period.
Kwon Jeonghoo basically had a diligent personality, but surprisingly had a lot of morning sleep and would start weekends late. It was when Yeo Dowoon, who had pressed the call button, was about to greet him with a pleased look.
“What’s the occasion for already……”
-You colt-like bastard. Come to work at the base.
Beep, the phone hung up immediately.
Yeo Dowoon was dumbfounded and couldn’t continue speaking.
He moved his lips going “uh-uh” then calmly pressed Kwon Jeonghoo’s number. But only the ringtone repeated, and he didn’t answer the phone. As a result of persistently trying, he was able to hear a voice full of fatigue.
-Just come to work, man. Just come to work.
“Why would I come to work on a vacation day?”
Yeo Dowoon asked seriously. The sound of Kwon Jeonghoo letting out a sigh came over the receiver.
-You dispatched the support team on your own, and you weren’t even prepared to come to work on a vacation day?
“If it’s because of the incident report, I can go after the vacation ends……”
Yeo Dowoon, who had been trying to persuade him, changed course midway and suggested.
“…How about you play hooky with me?”
-Forget it. Your tricks won’t work.
“I really don’t feel like going to work today. It’s better than going and making a mess.”
Especially when he saw the Secretary General’s photo hanging at the base entrance, he felt like he would burst with anger and want to tear it to shreds.
Demeter was disbanded? The Guild Leader died? You cunning scammer bastard!
No matter how much it was a guild he had no sense of belonging to or affection for, he didn’t want to harm the guild members’ nest. He hadn’t signed a contract with the base wanting to crush the sanctuary they had chosen.
“I’ll drive the car over. Come down when I call.”
Yeo Dowoon struggled to endure the rising sense of betrayal. Just recalling the voice of the Secretary General who had cunningly coaxed him made his chest pound hotly with anger.
He had spent a full 10 years devoting himself to the base.
Frankly speaking, Yeo Dowoon had never even considered his circumstances unreasonable.
Although he had slight complaints about the contract period being beyond imagination, it wasn’t at a level he couldn’t accept. It was just like office workers who occasionally badmouth their company—that was all he had lamented.
-Do you have something wrong with you somewhere?
“……No. I’m fine.”
Still, damn it. You can’t backstab someone like this.
-Tell me your location. I’ll go to you.
He hadn’t mentioned it separately to Yoon Minoh, but Yeo Dowoon wasn’t particularly disgusted about them conducting chimera experiments on him. He didn’t think it was deception either.
“Captain.”
-……
“Captain….”
-Where are you?
He didn’t care whether his body that had rolled as much as it could roll became porridge or rice.
-Dowoon-ah.
Even if monster bastards’ cells were really flowing inside him, he didn’t have the slightest intention of disgracing the base because of it.
So what Yeo Dowoon truly felt nauseated by could be said to be the lazy response that his past self had chosen.
-Are you alone?
