The Way to Love in the Place of Dead Chapter 1

Year 110 of the Liberty Calendar.

Room 5101, Pierce Central Center living quarters.

Aran, back from the front lines for the first time in nearly a month, returned to his quarters and first unfastened the buttons of his uniform. The uniform, closer to armor than clothing, was made of heavy materials for durability and weighed on him.

After stripping off his bloodstained boots, gloves, coat, vest, turtleneck, trousers, and even his undergarments, he stood completely bare and slowly lowered himself into the tub brimming with hot water.

“…”

Submerged in the water, he let the accumulated tension and fatigue melt away. Swimming in the silence, enjoying his disconnection from the world, he opened his eyes at the sound of someone’s footsteps.

“Aran! You’re back! Where are you?”

A frantic voice shattered the peace, flinging the bathroom door open without so much as a knock.

Surfacing above the water, Aran spoke to Jude, whose face was plastered with a broad grin.

“I’m washing up.”

“I can see that. Hey, massive news.”

Jude peeled off his socks and stepped onto the soaking wet floor, crouching down in front of the tub. Smack! He slapped the edge of the tub, sending a splash of water into Aran’s face as a bonus.

“It’s the second initiation ceremony tomorrow.”

“…And?”

Aran wiped his drenched face and fixed his gaze on Jude. He was excited, like he’d just landed a scoop.

“They say there’s a monster.”

“A monster?”

“A monster.”

“An esper?”

Jude rested his arms on the edge of the tub and propped his chin on them. Getting his uniform wet didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.

“Yeah. A seriously, seriously, seriously strong one. An elemental esper, even! He’s going to be a huge asset.”

“Where’d a guy like that suddenly pop up from?”

“They say he’s from Willamere. Apparently, they tried to recruit him last year too, but it fell through.”

“Why?”

“They say he didn’t want to join.”

“So, he had a change of heart this year?”

“Doesn’t seem like that either. It’s just a rumor, but…”

Jude leaned his face in closer and whispered.

“Looks like they forcibly dragged him in when he absolutely refused to come.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Aran straightened his back, making the sloshing water spill over.

“Usually… the ability users brought in from Willamere join because they need money or have something they want to protect, right?”

In modern society, the land humanity lived on was broadly divided into two. Limpus, composed of upper-level domes, and Willamere, a desert barely clinging to life, hidden beneath those domes.

Ever since the war with the androids began, Limpus recruited espers and guides from Willamere to use as military assets, and in return provided regular payments to their families, lovers, friends, or anyone they wished to protect.

Put nicely, it was scouting. Put bluntly, it was human trafficking. Still, the reality was that those from Willamere were willing, as it allowed them to escape a life of poverty.

“But this guy, they offered him an exception to join even outside of the ceremony, and he refused every single time.”

“The reason?”

“That, I don’t know either.”

It was an irresponsible answer.

“So this time they forcibly dragged him in? Are they idiots? There’s no way a guy like that’s going to fight hard on the battlefield.”

“They must have had some plan, don’t you think? Maybe they got leverage on him?”

“If he were as strong as you’re hyping him up to be in the first place, he wouldn’t have been forcibly dragged in.”

Aran flicked the water from his hand at Jude, who was filled with vain expectations.

“Ack! What are you doing!”

By then, the bathwater had gone cold, and his alone time was shattered, so Aran stood up and dried himself off with a towel. Solid muscles rippled across his exposed body. They were the product of long training and tearing through battlefields, but ironically, his skin was clean without a single scar, which only served to further highlight his presence.

Watching Aran begin to change into casual clothes, Jude quietly spoke.

“There were twenty of them.”

Aran just turned his head and looked at Jude.

“A total of twenty espers and guides, just to capture that monster. All of them A-rank or higher.”

“…”

“They say three of them were nearly dead, even. So?”

“So what?”

“Aren’t you excited? If he’s S-rank, he’ll be a huge asset in the war.”

Jude was brimming with hope, as if the war would end tomorrow if the man joined.

‘An end to the war, huh.’

A twelve-year war where defeat seemed closer than victory, with no end to the fighting in sight. The ordinary people who write off the war as nothing as long as they survive today. The soldiers who can’t go on living without going mad from hatred, because watching comrades die has become all too familiar. And even the espers and guides who have grown more accustomed to thinking of themselves as weapons rather than people, just to fight the machines.

Aran thought.

We’re all insane, every one of us—forcibly dragging humans here to use as weapons of war and slapping the label of salvation over it.

In this war with no end in sight, every human had to make themselves a weapon for their own reasons. Those gathered on the drill ground for the initiation ceremony shared this same fate.

The initiation ceremony at Pierce Central Center happened twice a year. Espers and guides who had been accumulated over half a year and wished to become soldiers, or ability users with overwhelming talent for combat or security, would join the center under favorable terms. It was an important annual event commemorating that day, and one of the few occasions where all staff gathered, barring essential front-line personnel.

“Hey. He’s here.”

“It’s my first time seeing him in person.”

“Look at the difference from his photo spreads. Does that mean a soldier is a soldier after all?”

A drill ground filled with uniforms. Amid the torrent of gazes at the center, Aran appeared. He was a face more famous than any celebrity in this land, so unlike those from Limpus who had immunity to it, for those who had lived in Willamere, it was an incredibly unreal sight.

An exterior that no words of admiration could do justice to. It was a visage both sensuous and so blindingly radiant it was near authoritative, yet so excessive for a mere human that it provoked displeasure even as one couldn’t help but love it.

Of course, the man himself who left countless people in shock was…

“Should I just push through?”

“No.”

“Why?”

Brushing back his blond hair, he was engaged in a childish conversation with his roommate.

“Because the only tolerable thing about you is your face.”

Just as Aran was about to retort, an announcement came through the microphone.

“Attention— The initiation ceremony will commence shortly. All personnel, please take your designated positions by unit.”