Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Spooning
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Doyoung snapped to his senses for a moment.
The smell was like early dawn. The room was as dark as when he had first woken up. But now Gamal was in his arms.
Piled together in one direction like spoons, Gamal's hair pooled between them like a black puddle.
Gamal's cheeks were round as she breathed quietly in sleep. Thinking about how hard it must have been for her while she endured the infection, Doyoung gently stroked her cheek.
At that sensation, Gamal opened her eyes and glanced back at him.
“Doyoung….”
Then Gamal took Doyoung's hand and gripped it lightly as she murmured sleepily.
“Feels good….”
Desire reared its head in Doyoung's gut. Was this kind of ability turning into Luas too? It had never been this intense before, but perhaps because the other person was Gamal, it still left him unsatisfied.
His hand slowly trailed downward.
Gamal flinched a little but did not wake. Doyoung felt delighted.
“Mmm….”
In that instant, it seemed Gamal had woken up.
Unable to grasp the situation, Gamal looked bewildered for a moment before feeling the man's body radiating hot breath against her back and turning to look.
“Doyoung?”
Doyoung nibbled at Gamal's earlobe.
“So you were just putting on an act.”
Gamal gasped for breath.
“No….”
***
Even with Luas stamina, they sweated this much as they continued making love.
Gamal writhed in ecstasy for what must have been the umpteenth time. She clutched and yanked at the sheets, kicking them away until her feet went numb.
Finally, she sprawled out in a mess atop the thoroughly wrecked sheets.
Her brain was so overstimulated that she could not even fall asleep, lost in a hazy daze. It felt as though every bone in her body had melted away.
Doyoung kissed Gamal's cheek and whispered.
“You did well.”
“Did I… do well?”
Confused as to whether it was something worthy of praise, Gamal asked. Finding her adorable, Doyoung smiled faintly.
“You did well. Felt good, didn't it?”
“Too… tiring.”
Gamal barely managed to turn her body away from Doyoung as she spoke.
“You have less stamina than I thought.”
She had felt so overwhelmingly powerful when he was human, but now that their baseline physical abilities matched, his shortcomings were visible.
In truth, separate from his swordsmanship skills, he had been hiding out on the island for so long that there had been no opportunity or reason to build up his endurance.
Doyoung grabbed Gamal.
“Where are you going.”
“Again?”
A chill ran down Gamal's spine.
She had run out of stamina long ago. She had been holding on through sheer force of will alone, yet Doyoung looked hardly different from when they had started.
“Gamal….”
A low whisper drifted into her ear from behind.
“We're still far from done.”
***
Doyoung continued kissing Gamal. Her panting grew deeper. It seemed he had held back more than he himself had realized, for something still felt unfulfilled.
Then suddenly, Gamal pushed Doyoung away slightly and said.
“Doyoung… I'm low on blood.”
Not immediately comprehending her words, Doyoung looked at Gamal.
“Your eyes… they've gotten fierce.”
It was the same for Gamal. Separate from her melted, hazy expression, there was a feral glint flickering in her eyes.
Now that she thought about it, they had gone who-knows-how-many hours without eating anything.
“Sorry. I didn't think about it.”
Doyoung sat up and walked over to the refrigerator.
Gamal panted shallowly, lying there as she watched Doyoung walk away.
She was too exhausted, too hungry, and too dizzy to move. She had not pushed her body this hard in ages.
She wondered how much time had passed, but it was even difficult to turn her head to check the clock. No matter how much of a Luas she was, there could be no stamina left after exercising nonstop for this long.
Moreover, Doyoung had only just opened his eyes after a long coma—why was he not just fine but overflowing with energy? She could not understand it.
For Doyoung, who had only just become a Luas, it was probably not easy to distinguish the human sensation of 'being hungry' from the gnawing hunger that welled up from the soul.
And yet, unlike those who had become Luas after lives of indulgence, he clearly knew how to control his own desires.
Doyoung opened the small refrigerator by the bed. The stacks of packs, just like a single man's fridge piled with nothing but beer, were a familiar sight.
He took out one Floss and tried drinking it. Even before bringing it close, a sweet aroma wafted over. It was a scent he had never smelled once as a human.
He took a sip, and it was sweet. But it was qualitatively different from the sweetness of something loaded with sugar.
It was less like drinking a beverage and more like downing a cup of raw vitality—the energy reached all the way to his fingertips and toes.
“Feels strange.”
Doyoung approached Gamal with the Floss. He drank some himself, then pressed his lips to hers.
“Mmm….”
After several rounds of what could hardly be called kisses or even meals, Gamal finally felt a little alive.
Doyoung laid her down. Just as she thought she might rest now, Doyoung whispered atop her lips.
“Luas sure is convenient. All you have to do is drink like this.”
“But everything, as long as it doesn't kill you….”
Gamal muttered, gripped by despair.
“Doyoung, turn human again.”
***
Doyoung opened his eyes. Gamal was asleep in his arms, using his arm as a pillow.
The holographic clock floating on the wall showed morning—three days had passed.
And there they were, naked and tangled in the blankets on the floor.
The bed nearby had one corner collapsed. It had been specially made to withstand Luas weight, but apparently it could not endure the constant shaking.
It had given way at some point, and Doyoung had neatly dragged Gamal down to the floor to finish what he started.
If even 1% body fat had remained on him, it would have been completely burned away this time.
But Doyoung felt reborn, even more so than when he had first awakened as a Luas. When he inhaled, his lungs swelled with cool air, and power rippled through his legs.
Perhaps because he had exhausted his stamina to the very end and passed out cold, sleeping for so long, he felt no particular fatigue. On the contrary, it was as though all the accumulated grime on his body had been scrubbed clean.
Doyoung gripped Gamal's shoulder and shook it lightly.
“Gamal.”
At once, Gamal curled up as if avoiding him and mumbled.
“Mmm…. Stop….”
It really was not that this time, leaving him feeling like the boy who cried wolf. Doyoung stroked her shoulder and asked.
“Aren't you hungry?”
“Yeah… stop….”
She must have been truly tormented, for Gamal fell asleep again after that. Fortunately, she did not seem to be in pain anywhere.
Doyoung chuckled softly and got up to inspect the collapsed bed.
The blanket fell away, exposing his naked body. Flaunting his firm rear, he headed straight into the bathroom. In the mirror reflected a man wrapped in a gruesome scar around his neck.
He stood under the showerhead, and water began pouring down. Doyoung slicked back his hair and tilted his head up.
After finishing his shower and coming out, Gamal was still sleeping in the exact same position as before, showing no signs of waking.
Doyoung opened the closet and pulled out his neatly folded uniform. He tugged on the pants and slipped into the military t-shirt that clung like a second skin.
“Gamal.”
He went over to the bed and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Rest up.”
Gamal, deep in sleep, gave no response.
Doyoung left the room. He had not walked far down the corridor when a voice called from behind.
“Major.”
It was a military doctor in a white coat.
“Come take a look for a moment.”
The doctor beckoned and walked ahead. Doyoung followed him to his office.
The military doctor said.
“Truth be told, I should have checked you on the first day.”
It was probably because Doyoung had holed himself up in the room right after waking that it had been hard to drag him out for an exam. And after hearing testimony from the other team members, he would have known exactly why.
“Let's just run a few light checks on your condition. Have you eaten?”
The military doctor, a lieutenant colonel, asked.
“I had some Floss.”
“Then let's get to it.”
Once the checks were done and he had changed back into his clothes, the lieutenant colonel was already reviewing the exam results on his pad when Doyoung came out. He set the pad down and said.
“Everything looks fine.”
Then he added.
“I didn't expect any side effects anyway. You used your abilities for three straight days with no problems.”
It seemed making dry jokes with a cool face was just this military doctor's style.
“The only side effect is the scar on your neck, though….”
The lieutenant colonel glanced at Doyoung's scar and trailed off.
“Whether it's because you were infected with a carrier strain of the virus, or because it was such a vital area like the neck—we have no idea. Both cases are completely unprecedented for us.”
Then the lieutenant colonel added.
“At any rate, since it didn't disappear even after you fully turned Luas, it'll probably stay that way.”
The massive scar crossing two-thirds of his neck was far too ugly to call attractive even as an empty compliment, but Doyoung figured it was a cheap price to pay for saving Gamal—and successfully becoming a Luas.
Not that he wanted to live forever so much as he wanted to be with Gamal, which even struck him as absurd.
Of course, he had joined the TASIL Project with his own ambitions of getting a second chance.
At any rate, the fact that the Archduke had tried to cleanly decapitate him made it abundantly clear just how obsessed that guy was with Gamal.
What a psycho.
“It's fine. A scar's nothing.”
“Well, just coming back alive is a miracle from the heavens.”
When he thought about it, it was an ironic statement. Back in the old days, if he had become a vampire, he would have been told God had forsaken him.
“May I go now?”
“You'll need psychological counseling soon too.”
“Understood.”
Doyoung waved and headed out to the mess hall.
Everyone he passed on the way to the mess hall recognized him, whether he knew them or not.
He picked up a tray and went to get his food, and the mess hall staffer piled three pork cutlets onto his tray as she said.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.”
“Thank you.”
Doyoung set his tray down and took a seat.
Having apparently heard the rumors about Doyoung becoming a Luas, people glanced at him curiously as they passed by.
It was rare for an active-duty operative to become a Luas, but even setting that aside, he felt like a zoo animal. If he had looked even a bit more approachable, they seemed ready to poke him as they went by.
He was well into his meal when someone set a tray down across from him and sat.
“It's been a while. Even though we're on the same base.”
It was a sergeant.
Instead of a greeting, Doyoung just lifted his spoon once and set it down.
“Likewise.”
“Don't you have to go to the Floss distribution room now instead of the mess hall?”
“Old eating habits die hard.”
With that, the two of them began eating while chatting as though they had shared a meal just yesterday.
“I almost walked right past without recognizing you.”
“I'll have to buy a whole new wardrobe anyway.”
Not only had he grown taller, but his shoulders were broader too, and his entire frame seemed readjusted.
It felt a bit awkward to say it himself, but his body felt complete now. He had thought it was already pretty good before, but the fact that there had been room for even more perfection taught him a belated lesson: no room for complacency.
As the sergeant ate, he asked.
“Don't they cover that? It's a kind of uniform expense.”
“I'm not hoping for that mu—”
Mid-sentence, Doyoung suddenly grimaced and clamped a hand over his mouth.