# Chapter 21
“It was just a rough sleep-talking episode. So why suddenly a dagger… I can’t do it.”
“You must.”
“No! Why should I?!”
Ion glared at Levi irritably.
“Are you sane? Asking me to stab Levi with a knife?! Do you think that’s possible?!”
Even if a situation like earlier happened again, Ion could never do what Levi was asking. To stab a dagger into Levi, of all people.
For Ion, Levi occupied a much larger place in his heart than Levi might have guessed. To the extent that he’d rather die himself than point a blade at him.
“Is it like, ‘Since you won’t die even if stabbed, it’ll help you snap out of it’? If that’s the case, there must be other ways…!”
“No, I can die.”
Ion was struck silent by Levi’s words. He was confused about whether he had heard correctly. Then he let out a hollow laugh as if telling Levi not to joke around.
“What… are you saying? You said even if your heart is stabbed or your neck is cut, you don’t die. You can’t feel hunger so you won’t starve to death either…”
No matter how Ion thought about it, there was no way Levi could die from being stabbed in the middle of his collarbone with a knife.
Levi used a rather extreme method to make Ion believe his words.
The tip of his black hand, which had been pointing at his collarbone, dug deeply into that spot. Blood splattered and Levi’s face contorted.
“What are you doing?!”
Ion was startled and rushed over. Fearing that he might get blood on Ion, Levi pushed him away with his other hand and roughly tore out the flesh from the middle of his collarbone.
Ion let out a short scream at the horrific sight. Red blood gushed from the middle of the collarbone where the flesh had been torn away.
Levi pointed to the inside of his wound for Ion, who was too shocked to speak.
Tock—
The sharp nail of his black hand lightly tapped the inside of the wound. The sound was almost similar to tapping a glass marble.
“This is the location of my core.”
“Core…?”
Ion’s eyes, intoxicated by the bright red blood, trembled violently at Levi’s words.
“I won’t die no matter what, but if this is destroyed, I will die.”
Ion knew Levi was too honest to lie, yet he couldn’t easily believe it.
Unable to take his eyes off Levi’s bleeding collarbone, Ion only came to his senses when Levi picked up the dagger from the floor and handed it to him.
“You’re… joking, right? A core?”
“I told you. I am…”
Levi, who had opened his mouth, couldn’t finish his words and swallowed them. Despite not feeling thirst, the words he couldn’t bring himself to say scratched uncomfortably at his throat.
I am not human.
He suddenly realized again the fact he had forgotten.
Ion didn’t know, but Levi had been enduring terrible hunger all this time. Whether it was human food, flowers, or water, nothing he ate could resolve his hunger.
He thought it would be fine.
Even though he knew what would resolve his strange hunger, he still thought it would be alright.
Even though his territory was turning green because of Ion, and he could no longer take the “nourishment” he had unintentionally obtained before, he was just happy.
“No matter how I look at you, you’re human.”
“Think of it the other way. You say I’m not human because of this and that, but conversely, I think you’re definitely human because of other things. Your appearance, the ability to eat things, speaking, thinking, and so on!”
“If you count them up, there’s more evidence that you’re human, so why are you thinking so seriously about it?”
“If I’m human, then Levi is human too. Who decides who’s human?”
Just having Ion by his side made him feel as if he really had become human.
The answer he had yearned for so much flowed so easily from Ion.
He ignored the hunger that came to him because he wanted to be human. When he decided to endure it somehow, his body chose frequent sleep to protect itself. He fell asleep often, and once he closed his eyes, he slept deeply and couldn’t wake up easily. Because of this, his time with Ion decreased, but it didn’t matter if that’s what it took to endure the hunger.
He knew well what he was and what he took as nourishment, yet he had been too complacent.
The price for that soon appeared before him.
“If I were a normal person, I would have been dead by now.”
Today, when he was closer to having fainted from enduring hunger than having fallen asleep, he had almost taken the closest human as “nourishment” due to instinct.
If Ion hadn’t had his special ability, what Ion said would have come true. He would have taken the only person who told him he was human with his own hands and absorbed his vitality as “nourishment.”
What’s more terrifying was that even though his instinct recognized that his ability didn’t work on Ion, he still tried to kill him somehow. The red bruise marks still on Ion’s neck made him realize how vicious his instincts and nature were.
He saw tears welling up in Ion’s eyes.
It was his role to comfort Ion when he cried. It was his job to pat and make him smile when he was heartbroken and sad.
Making him cry… shouldn’t have been his doing.
Having seen Ion almost die because of him and his tears, Levi thought this couldn’t continue. He didn’t want to kill the only one who told him he was human with his own hands.
Rather than that, it would be better to disappear at his hands.
Levi looked down at the dagger he had placed in Ion’s hand. The blade of the dagger in its leather sheath was firm and sharp enough to destroy his core in an instant.
He could use that dagger to destroy his own core. Or he could tell Ion to shatter his core right now.
The reason he didn’t was because of Levi’s greed to stay with Ion even a little longer.
“Don’t let me kill you.”
With his eyes downcast, Levi stroked Ion’s head. That awkward but gentle touch increased Ion’s confusion even more.
“I like Ion.”
Ion flinched his shoulders and looked up at him as if stunned.
A small smile that he had seen before hung on Levi’s lips.
“So I don’t want you to cry because of me.”
He still couldn’t forget Ion’s face showing tears while being strangled by his hand. He absolutely didn’t want to see that face again.
So if Ion would cry like that again, he wished Ion would destroy his core without hesitation.
“…Are you an idiot?”
Ion lowered his voice and ground his teeth audibly.
Ion roughly brushed away Levi’s hand that was stroking his head and fiercely widened his eyes.
“Do you think someone would say ‘Yes, I understand’ and actually do it when you say that? It’s not possible unless you’re crazy.”
Ion even snorted and forcefully pushed the side of the dagger against Levi’s chest, making a sound.
“Now I see that Levi is very selfish. You don’t want me to cry because of you?”
Ion, with disappointment on his face, laughed hollowly.
“Ha, I’m really dumbfounded…”
Clearly very angry, Ion firmly gripped Levi’s shirt collar with both hands and pulled it hard. As a result, Levi’s face was jerked forward.
“I like Levi. I like you so much.”
Ion’s eyes, as he spoke with an impertinent tone, were more serious than ever before.
“So if Levi dies, I’ll definitely cry.”
Levi repeatedly thought about understanding Ion’s meaning.
“Why…?”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? I like you, I said.”
Levi, who was organizing Ion’s words in his head, trembled around his eyes.
“You’ll… cry for me?”
“Of course. How could I not cry when someone I like dies?”
Not even knowing the extent of the “like” he had uttered, Ion instinctively spat out fierce words. Then he showed a wicked smile that he must have learned from somewhere.
“If you want to make me cry, go ahead and try dying.”
Leaving those words behind, Ion irritably let go of Levi’s shirt and brushed past him.
Levi looked down at the dagger that Ion had adamantly refused and mulled over what Ion had said.
Meanwhile, Ion, who had been walking for a while as if escaping from Levi, was regretting getting so angry.
‘Was I too harsh?’
There was no need to even ask.
Ion felt self-loathing about his temperament and crouched down on the spot.
“Haah…”
Sighing deeply, Ion glared at the freshly grown weeds.
‘But how could I not get angry hearing those words?’
Whatever the reason, it was natural to be angry at someone who asked to be killed. Especially when that person was someone he liked, and they handed him a knife without understanding human feelings. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t help but get heated.
