Chapter 62

He definitely said he had work today. So why was he here?

Erabelle stared at him in confusion.

“Having fun?”

Leaning against the doorway, he tilted his head and looked down at her.

“No. I was just curious about what happens next...”

“You must be pretty curious. You’ve been watching that for seven hours straight.”

“I... I have?”

“Yep. Not a single break.”

“...”

He took her tablet, deleted every drama she had downloaded, then filled it with pictures of himself instead.

He even recorded videos.

Videos of... well.

During that.

“Hnn...!”

Tears sprang to her eyes from sheer gratitude.

“Watch these instead.”

They were far too explicit to be a substitute.

Not that she refused to watch them.

Left with little choice, Erabelle lay beside Dezeb on the hospital bed and watched them together.

“...ah... ngh... De... Dezeb...”

Dezeb tapped the tablet with one fingertip.

But Erabelle was no longer looking at the screen.

Her gaze kept drifting toward his hand, which had finally returned to normal.

His hand had recovered at the same time the alloy furnace had been removed...

Though, of course, it had only lasted for a while.

“Look. Right here. Isn’t my jawline pretty? Even my face when I’m enjoying myself is pretty, isn’t it?”

Dezeb shamelessly promoted himself as her new favorite.

“If that’s not enough, I’ll record as many more as you want.”

By the end of it, Erabelle had accumulated several dozen indecent videos of Dezeb.

If they ever leaked, she suspected the punishment would be immediate execution, so she severed every internet connection on the tablet.

In doing so, she cut herself off from both VOD services and the fan forum.

Fortunately, her fangirl fever had cooled considerably.

Clutching the tablet to her chest, Erabelle sniffled.

“Still not enough?”

“N-no, that’s not... ngh...”

“If it isn’t enough, I should record more for you.”

Well...

There had been a few unfortunate incidents along the way, but in the end, she completed rehabilitation without any major problems and was finally released from the medical bay.

Whether that was actually something to celebrate, she wasn’t sure.

***

“...”

The instant Erabelle stepped out of the infirmary, she wanted to turn around and go straight back inside.

What the hell... What is that?

She had not been completely unprepared for the sight.

Even so, seeing it with her own eyes was terrifying.

A pitch-black dead planet hung in the sky.

Molin City.

Molin City, where the Second Prince’s base had once stood, had become a dead world after a sudden Wave wiped out all life there one year ago.

Calling Erabelle’s survival there mere “good luck” would have been absurd.

And she had not been the only one to survive.

“Lieutenant, are you allowed to be walking around already?”

Majia—the private Erabelle had shoved out through the drone launch bay—was alive and well.

She wanted to ask him what had happened.

But she couldn’t.

“You doing okay?”

Because Majia had lost every memory connected to Molin City.

“Me? It’s not like I broke an arm or a leg. You’re the one who broke things, Lieutenant. Why’d you even go there in the first place?”

Majia did not remember going to Molin City at all.

Something similar had happened to Erabelle before.

After encountering them at the New Year’s Festival, she had lost three entire days of memory from before she enlisted.

“Thanks to that, I got leave, so I guess it worked out.”

“H-how many days?”

“Thirty.”

Erabelle grinned at the private six years her junior, whose face twisted with envy.

“When do you ship out?”

The company was almost deserted.

Most of its personnel had already assembled near the rift, leaving behind only the wounded and a handful of people stuck handling cleanup.

They, too, would soon be transferred to the rear.

“Next week. What about you, Lieutenant?”

“I leave tomorrow.”

“You’re going first, huh...”

“Yeah. I’m going home first. On leave. Thirty days.”

“...”

“You crying?”

“I-I’m not crying.”

“You sound like you’re crying.”

“I said I’m not...!”

While they were talking, someone abruptly interrupted.

“Lieutenant.”

It was Aries Cider.

“Yes.”

Erabelle answered immediately, but her mood soured slightly.

It was not only because the horrifying truth of what they were hung in the sky above them.

Dezeb’s Dogs had been acting strangely around her lately.

“Why are you standing out here in the cold? If you need anything, you should tell us.”

That inexplicable politeness was one of those strange things.

The first few times it happened, Erabelle had wondered whether she was still in a coma.

“And Commander Dezeb is asking for you.”

But I just got out.

“Understood.”

Whatever questions she had, habit made her answer first.

She glanced at Majia and gestured that they would talk later.

“He said to bring him with you.”

“...Bring Private Oloror with me?”

Erabelle asked again, just to make sure.

Unfortunately, Aries replied,

“That’s right.”

***

“Quite energetic, aren’t you? The moment you get out, you start flirting.”

The break room inside the medical bay contained a couch and an ancient coffee vending machine.

With a standard-issue table between them, Erabelle sat beside Dezeb—who seemed to have developed an increasing fondness for jokes lately—and faced Majia.

What kind of deranged seating arrangement is this...?

Claiming it was an informal meeting and everyone should relax, the division commander himself had even fetched a cup of vending-machine coffee for an ordinary private.

Majia looked as though his life had just collapsed around him.

“Name?”

Despite being the one who had summoned him, Dezeb asked for his name.

Majia was too nervous to notice how strange that was.

“M-Majia Oloror—!”

“This time you got it out in one try.”

“Y-yes, sir... huh?”

The corner of Dezeb’s mouth curled upward.

Majia’s face turned bright red, and he swallowed hard.

Erabelle felt a faint sense of déjà vu.

If he falls for him, his life is over.

Judging by the atmosphere, Dezeb’s shamelessness rating had to be a perfect ten.

Even the strongest man in the human realm, the Imperial Prince, only rated a nine.

Which meant Dezeb was blatantly toying with the poor kid.

If Majia suddenly dropped to his knees and confessed his love, Erabelle was fully prepared to break his jaw for his own protection.

Dezeb glanced at her tense posture and snorted.

“I heard Private Majia helped the lieutenant quite a bit while she was staying here. I called you over to thank you.”

“Y-yes, sir...”

Majia answered on pure reflex before his expression slowly turned puzzled.

He ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) clearly had no idea why the division commander was thanking him personally.

Neither do I.

At the same time, the sense of déjà vu sharpened.

The call with the Count came back to her.

“Thank you.”

“Sir? N-no, that’s...”

“Of course I should thank you. You helped my one and only lover. I’m grateful.”

“Sir...?”

Majia’s jaw dropped.

“Lo...?”

At that, Dezeb turned and looked at Erabelle.

Her expression was probably no different from Majia’s.

“Erabelle, you didn’t tell him? He looks far too shocked.”

I’m shocked too.

Seeing her stunned face, Dezeb raised one sleek eyebrow.

Erabelle flinched and immediately lowered her gaze to her instant coffee.

“Well, I suppose you had no reason to share something that personal.”

Then he added,

“Erabelle, stop drinking instant coffee. You already had a cup this morning.”

Erabelle quietly put down the paper cup she had just sipped from.

So she had only been given it as decoration.

“Ah, Private Majia, you can drink yours. The lieutenant stops eating properly whenever she fills up on things like this. She drinks too much and works herself half to death, too. I nag her constantly, but she only listens at times like these.”

What is happening...?

The déjà vu kept scratching at the back of her mind, but too much time had passed for her to place it immediately.

Dezeb, on the other hand, was a man who never forgot a grudge.

He remembered every last word from that call with Majia Oloror back in the capital.

“Um, sir... the two of you... are you...”

“Yes. Keep it quiet for now, please. I haven’t even introduced her to my family yet.”

“...”

Majia went speechless.

So did Erabelle.

“As a small token of appreciation, I told your company commander to make things easier for you. I heard you’re unwell. Go to the rear and receive whatever treatment you need. Take your time recovering. We’ll cover the expenses, so don’t worry about the cost.”

“T-that’s too much...”

“It’s my goodwill. Don’t refuse it.”

Dezeb rose from his seat, then leaned down and pressed a light kiss to Erabelle’s cheek.

Watching her dazed expression, he let out a low laugh.

“Take your time and talk. I have something to do. And don’t forget your checkup in five minutes.”

“Yes...”

Take our time? For five minutes? You could’ve just told us to go in together.

After he left, the two remaining occupants sat in silence for a moment.

“...”

“...”

Majia spoke first.

“Lieutenant...”

“I told you I had a guy.”

Erabelle cut him off, doing her best to sound as though this were completely ordinary.

“You didn’t say that guy was the division commander.”

I only found that out today too.

The “guys” she had mentioned were all celebrities.

Harmless, beautiful artificial idols who only murdered people in dreams.

“So it was... a secret?”

I don’t know either.

I guess it was.