To enter the apartment, he had no key, and wandering the city center in a wolf’s body over 2 meters wasn’t a wise thing. This area would definitely be turned upside down. Perhaps Don Jon might run out with the hunting rifle hanging like a decoration in his grocery store.
A sound like air escaping flowed from the wolf’s snout.
Just imagining it was funny. Perhaps because of the dangerous day he’d spent, even trivial thoughts eased his tense nerves.
No, perhaps it was because his head was heated from excessive ability use.
Chris, who decided to stay on the back mountain until Northern Light’s support arrived, curled up and lay down on a pile of fallen leaves. The wolf’s fur was so warm he could barely think this was the Winter Continent.
Chris, who had tried to sleep even for a moment, stopped. Because he felt a presence.
Had someone come for a walk in the moonlight? Chris held his breath. No matter how stealthily one moved, the sound of rustling leaves wouldn’t disappear, so he intended to eliminate his presence as much as possible.
The wolf’s golden eyes were shining like flames in the darkness.
The one draped in silvery moonlight descending between tree branches like ripples was none other than Yuri Magnolia.
He was different from usual. As if he’d popped out from the boundary between dream and reality.
If you asked exactly what was different, first of all his glasses that had covered his eyes were gone.
But it was strange for a person’s impression to change this much just from removing glasses.
What Yuri wore was a three-piece suit Chris was seeing for the first time. Though it was black and dark enough to look like a crow, perhaps because the moon’s touch had descended, the subtle luster made the wearer’s dignity stand out.
In Yuri’s hands wearing black leather gloves, a metal briefcase was held.
The same feeling as Yuri that day who had left in an Aston Martin Classic.
From any angle, he didn’t look like a neighborhood resident out for a night walk. Rather, a feeling of something more dangerous, with secret circumstances.
However, Chris’s wariness was fainter than usual. Even if Yuri coming out for a walk to the back mountain at night was suspicious, he passed it over thinking there must be some circumstances.
Just a few hours ago, he’d heard with his own two ears an Esper affiliated with White Night call another black-haired man ‘Sobolev-nim.’ He felt sorry for having briefly held suspicions about Yuri.
The normally rational Chris would have felt more doubt. But the current Chris was feeling deep relief that he didn’t have to personally report Yuri to Yont. The fear that if he’d been caught by the pursuer, he would never have seen Yuri alive again also played a part.
Above all, Chris was in a state of excessive ability use. Because of Gentle Poison and Guiding interference combined, his body had reached its limit. With his heated head, making proper judgments was close to impossible.
As if waiting for someone, Yuri, who had stopped upright, swept the surroundings. Chris tried to hide his body as much as possible, but it was close to impossible for a large wolf with silver fur to disappear in an instant. Chris wasn’t an Esper with invisibility ability in the first place.
Soon Yuri’s gaze stopped on Chris.
Chris was startled. The moment their eyes met, a gentle expression rose on Yuri’s face that had always held only a cold expression.
It wasn’t a bright smile or a grin. The stiffness felt in his gaze had softened.
“What a pretty child. Looking at your fur, you don’t seem to be a complete wild beast… Did you lose your master?”
Yuri’s voice containing tenderness felt inexplicably sweet. Surprise flashed through Chris’s mind—was he someone who could speak with such a voice?
Yuri didn’t stop at just talking. Because Yuri approached as if to come closer, he was startled.
Come to think of it, he recalled the man standing guard in front of the abandoned factory district saying the wolf-dogs wandering the November Continent were on the gentle side.
Rather than Yuri lacking wariness, it seemed the disposition of beasts wandering this area was originally like that.
Chris felt the tenderness dripping from Yuri’s voice, that aspect he’d never been able to see no matter how much he frequented the bookshop, more tempting than Gentle Poison or Guiding Delight.
Just because he didn’t bare his teeth and growl wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. He mustn’t do anything conspicuous in this area before team members arrived tomorrow. Moreover, if a dangerous beast like a wolf showed hostility toward a person, it would likely be captured.
Having barely escaped White Night’s pursuit net, if he was caught as a wild beast, things would only get complicated.
Chris finished rationalizing that way.
Even if he didn’t show his belly to express affection and submission, he decided not to bare his teeth at Yuri’s affectionate gaze.
At Yuri’s gesture of trying to approach, Chris slightly pulled his body back. If necessary, he intended to retreat by widening the distance.
Then Chris stopped. Because Yuri had taken off the gloves he always wore. The white hands revealed under the moon felt transparently pale, perhaps because they usually didn’t see light.
Chris, who had been about to move away, couldn’t take his eyes off those hands as if bewitched. Because this was the first time Yuri, who always covered his skin below the neck to an almost obsessive degree, had shown bare skin.
Yuri, perhaps reading permission in the wolf’s gaze, extended his hand without even a hint of hesitation.
The moment they touched, Chris felt the energy that had been raging inside him calm in an instant. It was like the sea that had been stormy before a typhoon becoming silent in a moment.
He couldn’t hear anything and couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t taste anything and couldn’t smell any scent. He couldn’t feel anything.
All those sensations that had tormented Chris from the moment he awoke at Northern Light subsided in an instant. A transparent stream flowed down the wide-open wolf’s eyes.
How should he describe this overwhelming sensation?
Shock and amazement, languid ecstasy and joy, wonder…
Yuri Magnolia was a Guide.
A Guide of high enough grade to calm an A-rank Esper on the verge of Rampage with a single touch not for Guiding purposes.
“Ha…”
A sound like a sigh flowed from between Yuri’s lips that looked strangely red. As if that sound had started an engine, all of Chris’s senses rushed toward Yuri.
His vision saw only Yuri. His face and slightly twisted lips. He was feeling the dark cherry scent floating in the air so vividly it seemed he could taste it. A woody lingering scent followed like an afterglow.
The senses that had disappeared for a moment were returning in order.
As if solely to feel Yuri.
Chris felt his entire world being reconstructed centered on Yuri. In this universe, the only thing he could feel was solely Yuri, just one person.
How should he describe this miracle?
He wanted to cry like a young child, and possessiveness welled up that he wanted to pull him tightly into his arms and not send him anywhere. He was feeling toward only Yuri the emotion all those numerous Espers would have held toward all Guides.
But why was it? Yuri’s eyes had become more merciless than any moment Chris had seen. Yuri’s hand that had been gently stroking his head as if soothing a puppy roughly grabbed the wolf’s jaw and pulled it forward.
“You were an Esper.”
The gaze, cold as could be, was sharp enough to cut his cheek.
“Why didn’t I notice this?”
He felt vivid pain in his jaw. However, Chris couldn’t even think of resisting and looked up at Yuri with desperate eyes.
Despite the gentle voice, Yuri’s face was cruel. The expression cast on his face, which exuded more sex appeal than usual perhaps from removing his glasses, was contempt.
Why?
Chris, who had been endlessly gazing at Yuri as if his soul had left, helplessly watched him take out a Glock from his coat and shove it into his mouth.
Bang!
With that merciless sound, Chris’s vision darkened.
Not even a beast’s whimpering cry flowed out of his mouth. Blood was draining from his body along with intense pain. It felt as if life itself was flowing out together.
Death gradually filled Chris’s body as much as life had fled.
Sensation was becoming dull from his toes. Nevertheless, Chris absolutely couldn’t understand this situation.
The ecstasy and relief that had filled him to his chin, the peace he had briefly given him dominated Chris’s mind more vividly than the pain.
As if a master he’d followed his whole life had pointed a gun at him, Chris looked up at Yuri with an innocent gaze. The wolf’s eyes, half full of expectation and half full of hope, were both sorrowful and steadfast.
However, Yuri, who had been looking down at Chris, coldly turned away.
Come, sweet death! Come, sweet rest!
Hurry and lead me to peace
The tenor’s voice that had endlessly flowed from the broken phonograph once before echoed in his ears.
I am weary of this world7)
Before closing his eyes forever, he seemed to hear a rumbling sound from afar.
“…Was it really fake after all?”
<Self-Destructive Love> Volume 2 To Be Continue
***
7) From Johann Sebastian Bach BWV (Bach Werke Verzeichnis) 478 Come, Sweet Death (Komm, süßer Tod)
