The Way to Love in the Place of Dead Chapter 26

Kay was always, even if unconsciously, observing Aran closely, and so he felt a sense of déjà vu. The tone was no different from usual, but it seemed as though the person behind the invisible mask wore an expression of displeasure. It was just a feeling he had.

“You really…”

As the auctioneer on stage called out number 209 three times and struck the gavel, a past remark from Aran came to mind.

— I’m curious. What it must feel like to be loved that much.

Perhaps the reason he couldn’t understand was because he had nothing he wanted to remember that badly.

“Try loving someone.”

So much that you love them, so much that you’d be okay with dying, and at the same time, so much that you can’t die.

Kay understood the desire to hold onto the moments that drift away with unstoppable time, the heart that wants to have at least a trace, even knowing that memory can never become that exact moment again.

Even if the memories his father wanted to hold onto weren’t out of love like that.

“Love, huh. I’m working on it.”

At Aran’s short answer, a doubt crossed his mind—’Is that something you can just work on?’—but since there was nothing bad about trying, he just let it be.

Several more items passed, and Aran, who had purchased another item among them, threw out a huge sum for someone who claimed to have no money.

And finally. At the turn of the item marked SECRET in the catalog, Kay also sharpened his senses. Murmuring spread among the audience, including those on stage.

“Looks like it’s about time.”

[“Now, the final item of today.”]

[“I believe there are those who came specifically for this, having heard the rumors.”]

[“Shall we reveal it? Are you looking forward to it?”]

[“The long-awaited final auction item!”]

A cubic box slid smoothly in. When the provocative red cloth wrapped over it was stripped away, inside was someone barely conscious, blinking dazedly.

[“You can see at a glance, can’t you? A product not easily obtained in times like these. Moreover, an Esper who has even fought on the battlefield with a well-trained body.”]

Naked, he was bound in restraints, unable to even properly hold himself up. Even while watching him intoxicated with drugs to the point where mental strength or willpower couldn’t overcome it, the numbers rose. As if they were collectively brainwashed by something, or like they had become racehorses, madly.

[“100,000! We have 100,000 from number 110. Now, next!”]

As Kay unknowingly clenched his fist, Aran asked him.

“Well? Are you grateful to me?”

“Why?”

“Because if I had permitted it, that would be you up there.”

The mouth of the deer mask moved. The antlers tilted slightly, and the eyes within observed Kay. Receiving his gaze, Kay realized Aran was mistaken about something.

“That auction I said I’d seen before. It was a slave market.”

He continued speaking over the mask, the expression beneath impossible to read.

“I was the one being sold.”

When you share a similar face, speak the same language, and have ordinary conversations, you often forget. That he and himself were from different worlds.

“So I don’t particularly feel shame from something like that.”

If the minimum requirement for a human to be human was survival, then the most luxurious emotion a human could feel as a human was neither love nor happiness, but shame, Kay had always thought. Because that was an emotion only those with an ego, pride, and something to lose could feel.

“I appreciate your concern, but.”

Before they knew it, the bidding price, having climbed as high as it could, no longer moved, and the auctioneer once again struck the gavel with three calls. The Esper sold at a high price exited the stage, no different from any other object.

∞ ∞ ∞

After the Esper, the final auction item, was sold, the two also left the now-dispersed auction house. Kay, having inhaled the early morning air deeply, was sharpening his senses in the deeper night, checking the full moon that had slowly begun to tilt.

And immediately after the auction ended.

“He’s moving.”

From above ground to underground.

Just as it was said that all logistics in Limpus moved through the logistics tunnels dug underground, even humans sold as auction items seemed to be no exception. The position of the Esper, which had descended steadily to a certain depth, paused for a moment.

“You can run well, right?”

Kay returned an answer to Aran, who was tapping the heels of his dress shoes.

“Who was it that won that bet last time?”

“Shall we do it again? A bet.”

Aran immediately bit at the end of his words.

“I’m of the opinion that we should avoid gambling-type bets.”

“How is this gambling? It’s skill. Not confident?”

“…What are you putting on the line?”

Let’s hear it out first.

“A one-day free-use pass for touching.”

“Denied.”

He shouldn’t have listened.

“Why?”

“Rub your bare skin with ice. You’ll know why immediately.”

“If you don’t want to do it for me, just win.”

“That’s not the problem.”

Even knowing full well what the issue was, he kept stubbornly insisting. He knew this would happen.

“If you win, I’ll at least draw you a hot bath.”

As someone who wasn’t unaware of how painful the side effects were, he could afford that much generosity. But upon hearing those words, Aran just stood there blankly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, his mouth slightly open.

Ah, I’m scared of whatever’s going to come out of his mouth next.

“That sounds kind of lewd.”

“How on earth?”

“You’re saying you’ll draw a bath for me? Doesn’t that sound a bit lewd?”

He was genuinely curious about the brain structure that interpreted someone’s goodwill as a sexual come-on, but decided not to ask.

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand your thought process.”

“Does that mean you’ll watch over me for a lifetime?”

He prided himself on having seen a fair share of nutjobs and perverts. But looking at Aran, meeting those kinds of people felt like a past life.

“Stop talking nonsense and follow me carefully.”

The logistics that had stopped deep underground began moving at high speed, and Kay kicked off the ground. The two, focusing silently, continued to run. Toward the west, where the moon was waning.

The worst-case scenario they had assumed was that the delivered item would cross into android territory or travel too far. However, the place the two arrived at after tracking was perfectly described by the saying ‘the darkest place is under the candlestick’ — just beyond F. Sector K, a border area, one of the regions where constant combat took place.

Overall, it was desolate. Among the uninhabited natural landscape, only the sound of bushes rustling in the wind and insects crying filled the surroundings.

“This place is…”

Kay, positioned in a tree, confirmed that the auction box being transported by drone from the underground hub was heading toward a grayish-white building. Manipulating the bracelet with movements still not quite familiar, he pulled up the full map of Sector K and checked the building. The name [Genesis Research Institute] appeared.

“It was originally an artificial intelligence research institute. The researchers would have all evacuated when it became a combat zone.”

“Then what’s that person?”

At the building Kay gestured toward with his chin, a researcher in a white coat came out pulling a cart, receiving the auction item in front of the institute marked with a ‘No Entry Except Authorized Personnel’ sign. Seeing him not even flinch when the drone self-destructed as if its job was done after he finished signing, it clearly wasn’t his first time.

“We’ll find out if we check. Give me your arm.”

Tap. As their bracelets touched and separated, the interior map of the research institute unfolded. As befitting a research institute dealing with information, all kinds of security devices were strung about. He could manage to avoid the cameras by looking at their installed angles, but a key card was needed for internal access.

“I’ll request a hack, so wait a little.”

“No. There’s no need.”

Having checked the blueprint, Kay jumped down from the tree. Entering the interior using the rooftop of the security office, he held his breath in the blind spot of the cameras, between the buildings. As he steeled himself, his presence faded even from Aran’s sight, who had been watching with both eyes.

“Huuuh.”

Kay, having killed even his breath completely, lifted a card from the pocket of a passing researcher. It was a movement exactly as the expression ‘his hand was invisible’ described. When Kay held up the card with a snap, Aran, who had been watching, also jumped down from the tree and moved to Kay’s side.

“Nice sticky fingers.”

“Don’t be sarcastic.”

“I mean it. Did that person teach you this too?”

“No. This was when I was younger.”