Chapter 14

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

Lieutenant Erabelle Vermilion gave him an awkward smile. “It’s fine.”

All she could do was smile while staring at the most dangerous man sitting at the very top of this world’s food chain. Compared to him, the boss of 59 was nothing.

Lately, she had even been planning to increase her dealings with 59.

All because of him.

Soon, she would be dragged off to a conflict zone. She needed to prepare as thoroughly as possible.

The dangerous man who had forced her into making those preparations now slid a white dish across the table toward her—oatmeal, yet again.

“I heard the quality there isn’t that great.”

Yeah, not like it compares to the Dogs anyway.

If the Dogs were the conglomerates of the underworld, then 59 was little more than a street vendor. With nothing left to say, Erabelle simply smiled.

“Keep going,” he said casually. “Eat while you talk. So, when did you start trading with them?”

Resigned, Erabelle spooned the grainy oatmeal into her mouth and answered, “About six months ago.”

The oatmeal tasted like healthy mucus.

And this was the second day in a row.

“Six months, huh?”

Of course, she knew he wasn’t asking out of genuine curiosity. But if he asked, she had no choice but to answer.

He would find out sooner or later anyway. Whether she ended up in a conflict zone or inside some laboratory at a research facility, the truth would come out eventually.

Once she accepted that reality, several more days passed.

***

“Any idea what movie we should watch tonight?”

For the past several days, they had been clocking out together almost every night, eating side by side, and watching all kinds of horror movies.

They even did household chores together.

Laundry for two, cleaning, taking out the trash, grocery runs...

Commander Dezeb Avganis, surprisingly enough, was excellent at housework. Anything physical, really—he simply seemed to be good at it.

And through some cosmic stroke of misfortune, he was even diligent.

As a result, Erabelle’s quarters were in better condition than they had ever been since she enlisted.

After spending that much time together, she had even gotten used to seeing him open her refrigerator in the middle of the night.

She no longer felt like passing out from shock.

And that... was the real problem.

***

“Should we get to it soon?”

It was an ordinary evening.

She had grown accustomed to early mornings and late nights without complaint, and her condition had improved considerably. Maybe it was because she had stopped drinking and was living on oatmeal—but she wasn’t ready to admit that.

They had just finished a normal dinner, not gruel, and she was sorting through some leftover work she had brought home. At the same time, she was getting advice from him about new support-type licenses.

She had been concentrating on several photon-aligned spirits he had recommended and failed to process his words at first.

“...Sorry, what?”

Blinking, she looked up to find Dezeb wearing his usual composed expression.

“Our relationship, Lieutenant.”

“Wait, what...?”

“You look surprised. Why? Two grown adults living together for days on end—what’s so surprising about it?”

Because it is!

Even if they had been living together in a group, he probably would have been completely unfazed. And yet here he was, pretending to be some kind of ordinary person.

That alone was ridiculous enough.

His tone was so calm that it sounded as though he were merely suggesting dinner.

Sure, maybe to him, sleeping with someone meant less than a meal.

But for her, who had never experienced anything like this before, it was naturally a shock.

“Do you not want to, with me?”

He asked it lightly, almost as an afterthought.

“N-no! It’s not that!” she blurted out on instinct.

Shit.

But it was also the truth.

Refusing him would only make things worse. She might even end up being handed over to the Dogs.

And that would send her straight into the original storyline.

She still had no idea how she had managed to get tangled up in the narrative in the first place. She wasn’t even a main character. There was no reason to believe her ending would be better than the protagonist’s—or even that of some nameless extra.

So no.

She couldn’t refuse.

If she wanted him to keep pretending to be civilized, the safest course was to go along with it.

“...It’s not that.”

Erabelle clasped her trembling fingers together tightly.

“Good. Then let’s do it tomorrow. If we rushed into it tonight, you’d probably pass out. For now, just eat well and get plenty of sleep.”

“...Y-yes, sir.”

Dezeb said it as if it were no big deal.

And honestly, it wasn’t.

Not in Signum society.

Because of the noise emitted by Signum, intimacy was encouraged—just another part of everyday life, no different from any other routine.

As Lieutenant Camillia had once said: The sky doesn’t fall, and the ground doesn’t split open.

Nothing happens.

Really... nothing at all.

“Oh, I’m planning to increase transport volume to Molin City. We’ll raise it gradually to 17%. Lieutenant, are you listening?”

“Y-yes, I’m listening...”

Of course, she wasn’t.

Her mind had gone completely blank.

The room felt like it was spinning around her.

***

—“Have you lost your damn mind?”

Erabelle froze at the furious face glaring at her through the pad screen.

—“Or can you just not read numbers?”

Kancher, the head of security, had requested the 28bx-model spell disk for personal shielding.

But Erabelle had sent only two boxes.

It was a mistake she hadn’t made even during her earliest days after enlistment.

“I’m sorry.”

—“For fuck’s sake, do I have to personally call you over every single one of these dumbass mistakes?!”

“No, I’m sorry. I’ll take care of it right away.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

Lieutenant Erabelle Vermilion kept apologizing while Kancher, the head of security, continued cursing her out.

And it wasn’t only the security team.

She had been running around all day, scrambling to fix one mistake after another.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the Dogs beat her into the ground.

After hurriedly sending the missing items and enduring several more rounds of verbal abuse, Erabelle dragged both hands down her face.

I can’t think straight. I don’t even know how I’m making it through the day anymore. My head’s going to explode at this rate.

But honestly...

That might be better.

The tension was suffocating her.

She almost wished for stomach cramps severe enough to knock her unconscious.

But of course, her body—so infuriatingly healthy now that she actually needed a convenient illness—refused to cooperate.

Then again... even if I were sick, it probably wouldn’t matter. He’d just go through with it anyway.

“...Should we get started?”

Completely out of nowhere.

“Our relationship,” he clarified.

Over the past few days, she had imagined every possible scenario.

A laboratory.

A war zone.

Even some deranged version of “team bonding” taken at face value.

But this?

She had estimated a month.

Maybe a month and a half.

With that kind of prediction, she had clearly been far too generous.

Honestly, she was almost honored it had taken this long.

...Ha.

Suppressing a sigh, Erabelle buried her face in her hands again.

Wasn’t he supposed to not be interested in women...?

What happened to the original story?

Sure, it had never explicitly said he didn’t like women.

But if absolutely nothing happened after all those steamy scenes throughout the entire series, that had to mean something!

All this time, she had been bracing herself for a conflict zone or for being used as a laboratory experiment.

Not this.

...

She interlaced her trembling fingers and squeezed them tightly.

Her palms were slick with cold sweat.

...Me?

Why? I don’t get it.

With a physical rating of Level 2, there was nothing about her that should have interested someone like him.

Erabelle prided herself on being realistic about her own qualities.

...Guess I need to cancel all those medication orders.

She had placed a large number of extra pharmaceutical orders with 59 in case she ended up being deployed to a combat zone.

No. I should keep them. Who knows what kind of condition I’ll be in after this...

Today...

A month?

A month and a half?

Impossible.

Wasn’t the average closer to a week?

The Dogs had seriously overestimated her.

At least her two years of hard work hadn’t gone completely unnoticed.

The shipments have probably already gone out anyway.

She had even ordered a biological recovery ampoule.

Even if her limbs were mangled, she could repair them.

As long as the damage wasn’t fatal...

Today marked exactly eleven days since Dezeb Avganis had first appeared at her apartment.

Well beyond the statistical average.

Which meant...

Today would most likely be her last day.

Especially with this kind of “wager.”

...

Her thoughts kept spiraling until they finally collapsed into numbness.

She barely registered how the rest of the day passed.

Whether the Dogs were grinding their teeth over the state of her work or not, it all felt impossibly far away.

She was simply drifting along, like a jellyfish caught in a current.

And somehow, before she knew it, it was already time to go home.

“Shall we?”

Dezeb was the same as always.

Of course he was.

He had always been calm.

He would probably remain calm even if the entire universe exploded.

It simply wouldn’t concern him.

It was everyone else who had to deal with the fallout.

“You go shower first.”

“Y-yes...”

They had returned home together.

As he casually began unbuttoning his shirt, Erabelle, still dazed, panicked and hurried toward the bathroom.

“Erabelle, don’t forget to put your bag down first.”

He reached over and removed the bag hanging from her shoulder himself.

Mumbling some garbled attempt at thanks, she stumbled into the bathroom.

And the moment the door closed behind her, she slid down against it and collapsed onto the floor.