The Way to Love in the Place of Dead Chapter 7

He peeled the child off, crouched down, and wiped away her tears. Ana, who had been sniffling sadly, burst into a wail and threw her arms around Aran’s neck. Aran lifted the child who hadn’t even cried when she’d been shot, held her up and patted her back, soothing her with words—was she that frightened, as if he would ever do such a terrible thing.

With that beautiful face, the words whispered so very tenderly were enough to make even Lea, who could never be fooled, pretend to believe them, and it didn’t take long for innocent Ana to fall asleep.

Having finished his business, Aran closed the door of the orphanage and began walking.

“Hey.”

Just as he was about to step out through the main gate after a few strides, Lea called out and stopped him.

“There’s a lantern by the gate. Take it.”

“Is this you seeing me off?”

“It’s me telling you to get lost, quickly.”

“Haha. How terrifying. What about the children?”

“They’re asleep.”

“That’s a relief. I didn’t expect you to believe words like those.”

Even at Aran’s excuse, Lea remained cold.

“Don’t tell lies that won’t work anyway. You were still sincere, weren’t you?”

“I told you, no. Why would I ever do such a thing? I’m fighting for humanity.”

The blond hair, scattering white as it reflected the lamplight, and the eyes that could only be described by saying they had jewels embedded in them smiled clearly. Just as a siren’s voice bewitched sailors, his smile was more than sufficient to make a lie look like the truth.

Reason, insisting she must not be bewitched, barely held Lea together.

“What is your real purpose for looking for Kay?”

“Hmm… I wonder.”

Aran lifted the lantern and answered.

“Because I missed him?”

Just as she was about to snap that it was bullshit, Lea noticed that Aran, quietly gazing at the flame, held some emotion within.

“I missed him. Sincerely.”

On that heated face, anticipation, amusement, and even rapture mingled and sparkled.

“When he realizes he can get what he wants. What kind of expression will he make?”

And yet, it was an eerily ominous smile.

About a century ago.

Due to sudden climate change, the outbreak of viruses, and several nuclear wars, the land they had once set foot upon could no longer serve as a space for survival. So one genius, along with the most brilliant scientists of the era, gathered and built an ark. A massive artificial island made of a dome.

That ark, carrying a select few of humanity and rising above the earth, exploited even the last remaining resources of the abandoned land and gloried in their own civilization. Thus the original land was discarded under the name Willamere, and those who boarded the ark called Limpus styled themselves Limpusians, gifting those abandoned an eternal night covered by the dome. The Limpusians thought Willamere would simply perish that way.

Dressing it up with all sorts of words like force majeure or sacrifice for the greater good.

But the abandoned ones also carved out their own ground in their own way. Even if they might die tomorrow, they lived day by day according to the instinct to somehow survive today. A century passed like that, and tonight as well, Kay was keeping vigil through the eternal night atop a pole.

‘Lea?’

Kay, who had been keeping watch from atop the pole, cast his gaze toward the village.

‘Where is she going?’

Having attached a traceable flame out of concern for her way home, Kay felt the lantern’s movement and sharpened his nerves. Going anywhere at this hour was rare in itself, and the lantern’s position was gradually heading outside the village.

At length, when the lantern’s position fully crossed beyond the village wall, Kay finally moved. Pushing through the sandy desert that weighed down his feet and the sub-zero chill of the air, Kay spotted the flame of the lantern, and his lips parted involuntarily.

“El?”

It was a man with the same blond hair, opalescent eyes, and exactly identical features as her.

“Hello.”

Though it was only twice now, both times he met him, unpleasant feelings surged up.

Something that couldn’t be explained by simple dislike alone. Things like gladness and longing and disappointment and despair.

“At least say hello. Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“Seems time flows differently for you Limpus people too?”

It was far too short a period to be called glad. Kay didn’t back away from Aran as he approached, and asked.

“Why did you come here?”

This is no place for you to come. The omitted words followed naturally.

“Because I missed you.”

As if only grasping the meaning after mulling over the words, Kay’s expression shifted, emotion spreading across it. From surprise to joy, and only after a trace of sorrow spread within that joy did a sharp-edged retort return.

“What business could you possibly have to miss me?”

“Does missing someone need a reason?”

“Stop with the obvious lies.”

“I’m of the principle that one shouldn’t tell pointless lies.”

“Keep it up and you’ll be saying you’ve fallen for me next.”

“Otherwise, why would I have kissed you.”

Kiss?

Kay furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar word, but soon a scene flickered through his mind.

“Don’t call it a kiss. That was just guiding.”

“Was it?”

Aran reached out his hand.

Reflexively, Kay raised his arm to block the hand aiming for his neck, but his arm was seized and he was pulled in. In contrast to the rough sand that slipped between their shoes, the lips that met were soft. A tongue burrowed between the supple, moist lips. Mercilessly, in one stroke, it parted his teeth and thrust in, piercing the mucous membrane, and their hot breaths tangled.

“Hnng—.”

A sensation he had never once felt in his life swept through Kay’s entire body. It stung sharply, as if lightning was racing through every blood vessel. Even as he thought he must not be swept away, his body calmly lost its strength, as if his flesh and his mind had been cleaved in two.

The tongue delving deeper dragged long across the roof of his mouth, and a chilling pleasure shot down his spine.

“Ngh!”

In that moment, Kay’s reason blazed bright red, and forcing his body, which had grown languidly warm, to move, he shoved Aran away. For someone with the strength to pull Kay in even with one hand, Aran retreated quite obediently, smiling.

“That was a kiss, right?”

Kay glared at Aran with an expression of disbelief. Vigorously scrubbing his lips with the back of his hand as he did.

“What are you doing?”

“Kissing.”

“If you do that one more…!”

“Want me to?”

“…If you bring up that word one more time, I’ll kill you.”

“Kiss?”

As flames burst around Kay, Aran bit down firmly on his lip and surrendered.

“All right. All right, I get it. Like someone who just had their first kiss stolen… Ah. That one was a genuine mistake.”

Faster than Aran’s excuse, a fire arrow came flying.

“I said it was a genuine mistake!”

He dodged frantically, trying somehow to soothe Kay’s wrath. All the while enjoying the face that had figuratively blazed alight.

“Hah, hah… cough.”

Waving his hand to disperse the acrid dust wind, Aran asked the still-sullen Kay.

“Feel better now? Then may I get to the main point?”

“See. I knew missing me was a lie.”

“If I hadn’t missed you, I wouldn’t have come here in person to deliver a message.”

Having spat the sand out of his mouth, Kay asked in return.

“What words has the higher-up come in person to deliver?”

“Join the war. Then I’ll give you what you want.”

Kay didn’t even get angry anymore. He just scoffed, as if it wasn’t worth his anger.

“What do you think it is that I want?”

“You said you’re looking for someone.”

In that moment, all of Kay’s senses stopped.

“Can you find that person for me?”

“No. That person is dead.”

This was the exact expression Aran had come all this way in person, wanting to see.

This expression grown achingly distant from reality. The face of someone who wants to run away this instant, who can’t bear it. The sight of a person who had stood unwavering and aloof, crumbling miserably. Truly, he had missed it.

“…”

How much time had passed? Kay, who had been frozen as if he’d even forgotten to breathe, slowly fixed his gaze on Aran again. In those red eyes, filled with loss and hurt, something like an unextinguishable rage still flickered, and Aran, feeling a bone-chilling pleasure, made his offer.

“Make a deal with me.”