The Way to Love in the Place of Dead Chapter 24

Jin, having put down the notebook he was holding, looked directly into Kay’s eyes. They were so clear that one could say he wasn’t giving the slightest thought to death or danger. It was fascinating how there wasn’t a hint of reluctance at the words about selling himself.

“I think it’s a good plan, but I can’t approve it.”

“Why not?”

“There are three obstacles.”

Jin spread out his fingers.

“First, if your hypothesis is true, the scenario of ‘an S-class Esper appearing as an Aberrant’ must be avoided at all costs. Second, if the bracelet’s signal was cut off with Sector F as the last location, we could lose track of you as well. Equally dangerous.”

“I have an alternative for that.”

“Hear me out. Lastly, the third, and this is the core issue.”

Jin cut off Kay’s words.

“To sell you, we would need to change that bracelet to a ‘standard issue’ one, but we don’t have that authority.”

“Standard issue?”

“You didn’t know? That bracelet you’re wearing means you are a person belonging to Rapperd.”

Only then did Kay realize the context of the strange whispers that had followed him around the center and the questions like “What’s your relationship with Aran Rapperd?”

And even that it wasn’t a coincidence that Aran knew everything about what books he had borrowed and what snacks he had bought during his time here.

Kay turned his body following Jin’s gaze. Aran, drinking tea on the guest sofa, was wincing as if he had burned his tongue.

Kay walked straight over and stood in front of him, then opened his mouth.

“So I hear.”

“Yep. That’s how it is.”

He simply agreed shamelessly with his reddened tongue sticking out.

“Take it off. You said you trust me.”

“I trusted the fact that you’d save me, not that I trust you.”

“I won’t run. I’ve thought of another way to track the location.”

“Seems there’s a misunderstanding. Whether I trust you or not in this deal doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that you’ve already sold yourself.”

Aran put down his teacup and stood up.

“To me.”

When Kay lifted his head to look up, Aran was caressing his cheek with a smile.

“If we’re going by that logic, I sold my power, not myself.”

“Either way, as long as separation is impossible, I can’t permit selling you at the auction. It might be different in Willamere, but double-dealing is illegal here. So that being the case, this operation is rejected.”

“But you, before we came here, you clearly!”

Up until meeting Jin for this discussion, Aran had agreed, saying it was a good idea.

The plan was for Aran to use the invitation to observe the audience’s movements and the auction as a guest, while Kay would become an auction item himself to gather information about the internal operations or the other Espers who had been captured.

In other words, a pincer operation from the outside and inside.

“You said it was a good idea!”

“Right. It is a good idea. Except for selling you.”

Aran passed Kay and headed toward the desk where Jin was, saying.

“But if we change the subject, we can make plenty of use of it.”

“I agree.”

“Will you draft the plan?”

“I’ll do it. Because it’s worth looking into.”

Kay had no difficulty understanding what they meant by changing the ‘subject.’ And so, with the feeling of having done all the work for someone else’s benefit, Kay ended up participating in the full moon auction.

And so, back to the present.

Wearing a three-piece suit for the first time in his life, he…

“Hey, what are you doing?”

He grabbed the shoulder of Aran, who had suddenly started unzipping his pants. He tried to step backward, but due to the pants slipping down, it wasn’t easy to even keep his balance.

“Stay still.”

“Ugh. Don’t…!”

Thwack! He hit Aran’s back with a loud noise, but Aran ignored it and moved his hand up from Kay’s thigh to his waist. When their eyes met, Aran smiled as usual, and the anger of ‘I was tricked again’ was fleeting. From his fingertips came a click — the sound of something fastening.

“Here.”

When Aran pressed firmly, Kay felt the hard… sensation of the clip beneath the fabric touching his palm. Only then did Kay examine somewhere around his thigh and groin where Aran’s hand had touched.

“It’s meant to be clipped to the end of the shirt and fastened to the thigh like this.”

Having finished his explanation, Aran cleanly removed his hand and maintained his distance, as if he had no, not even the slightest, lewd intention whatsoever. Kay tilted his head, looking down at the shirt pulled taut against one of his legs.

“Why does it have to be like this?”

“If you move, the shirt comes untucked. It’s for keeping it in place.”

“…Okay, but why?”

Even after hearing the reason, it was a purpose difficult to understand. Wasn’t it a painfully obvious fact that clothes come untucked when you move? Rather, being pulled taut like this seemed like it would restrict mobility…

With question marks practically floating over Kay’s head as he couldn’t grasp the meaning at all, Aran raised the corners of his mouth and perched on Kay’s bed.

“Don’t worry about it and finish getting dressed.”

Holding the remaining one, Kay hesitated for a moment, then glared at Aran.

“Are you suspecting me of something right now?”

He’s quick on the uptake, at least.

“If you’re going to suspect me, you might as well think of other uses for it.”

“I think it’d be perfect to wrap around your neck and shut you up.”

“Was that your kind of taste?”

“Can I test it out?”

“Be gentle with me.”

He couldn’t exactly strangle the guy who willingly offered his smooth neck, so he was genuinely seething with anger.

To the point where he should maybe question his own learning ability, since he kept engaging in conversation despite realizing it led to this outcome every time.

“…”

Kay turned his back to him, fastened the remaining garter belt on the other side, and pulled the slacks that had slipped down to his calves back up.

In the meantime, Aran, who had been watching each piece of clothing being placed on Kay’s body with an indifferent gaze, spoke.

“Anywhere uncomfortable?”

“No. Except for being a little big.”

“It does look that way.”

Kay’s suit was a custom piece that Aran had pestered the family’s exclusive tailor to complete in just four days. Having perfectly met the request to leave a little extra room in the body measurements taken by the scanner, the suit now only lacked a necktie.

“Shall I tie it for you?”

“No need.”

“If you hate me too much, I’ll get hurt.”

“Then don’t do things that make me hate you.”

“Me?”

The way he asked while gently resting his head on the bed bar, as if with the intention of stealing his gaze, was infuriating. Even more so because that attitude, as if asking ‘Could you really hate this face?’, was so blatant.

“And stop testing people like that.”

With that answer as the last word, Kay completely averted his gaze from Aran, followed his memory to finish tying the knot of the necktie, and slowly tightened it around his neck.

The reflection of himself in the mirror, dressed so neatly as he had never seen before, was unfamiliar, and at the same time, the mood soured as he thought of the Esper who would be going in his place to the location they were heading to now.

“…”

Aran, quietly watching that unfocused face, felt the same subtle displeasure as when he had first met him and asked.

“What are you thinking about?”

As their gazes intertwined, the displeasure vanished. Aran, ruminating on the unpleasant feeling, licked the inside of his own mouth instead of Kay’s eye membrane, which was as smooth as a marble.

“That person. Will he be okay?”

Aran, pondering who he was talking about for a moment, confirmed with an “Ah.”

“The auction item?”

Kay’s eyebrows narrowed as if he didn’t like the expression.

“He volunteered.”

“I know.”

“It’s a good thing anyway. Since he says he’s a clooose friend of Simon’s too.”

Kay’s idea to find the suspect by selling himself was passed on to someone else. One of the several Espers voluntarily selected by the center strongly wished for it. An Esper named Lewis introduced himself as Simon’s friend and even pleaded to be used, gladly, please, if it would help.

“Do you feel a sense of debt?”

“It’s not quite a sense of debt, but it does bother me.”

If everything could be resolved just by convincing oneself it couldn’t be helped, how would humans be any different from machines? Above all, Kay had his own confidence. Confidence that he was the right person to handle the risks of being sold at the auction house and managing the situation.

“Isn’t it hard?”