“Eun… su?”
Iberis mumbled, repeating the name Lucas had quietly uttered. It was a word with an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar pronunciation, and he easily realized it was the Name on Lucas’s body.
This meant it could be his forgotten birth name. No, it was his lost name. Judging by how his heart was reacting.
Thump.
Iberis bit his lip, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart. Perhaps due to the series of surprising events, his chest tightened to the point of breathlessness, and his head throbbed as if about to burst.
“Yes, Eunsu. It’s the Name engraved on my shoulder blade.”
Lucas, gripping the slender ankle, looked up at Iberis with an ecstatic expression. His golden eyes, having finally found their soul-bound match, shone brilliantly. The intelligent Lucas quickly combined Iberis’s surname with the name engraved on his own body.
“Hyun Eunsu.”
Iberis Hyun, Hyun Eunsu. Either way, it’s a good name. His smooth lips curved into an elegant smile. Lucas gently caressed Iberis’s ankle while watching his reaction. Unlike himself, flushed with excitement, Iberis’s face remained pale.
Seeing the bloodless face, Lucas felt a surge of anxiety. He tensed his mouth, as if suppressing his nervousness. He still hadn’t been forgiven for deceiving Iberis, so he had to be careful with his actions. He stared at Iberis with anxious eyes, like a criminal awaiting verdict.
“Hyun… Eunsu.”
Eunsu, Hyun Eunsu. Iberis repeatedly savored the miraculously recovered name. Then, suddenly feeling a gaze on his face, he looked at Lucas.
Iberis’s gaze swept over the golden eyes that seemed somewhat frightened, the eyelashes trembling as if in spasm, the slightly reddened cheeks, and the tightly closed lips, before settling on the broad shoulders.
My name is written below those shoulders?
With that thought, the desire to see the Name on Lucas’s body surged strongly once again. Iberis reached out towards Lucas as if entranced. Just then, a scene flashed in his mind.
‘Child, run away!’
‘Mom!’
‘No! Eunsu! Eunsu, ah!’
His mother’s desperate face as she shouted urgently, the organization members ruthlessly subduing her… These were fragments of his forgotten past. The very day he lost his mother to the villain organization members who had come after sensing his awakening, and he fully awakened.
‘N-no, get away!’
‘Ugh! What the? Gasp, crazy!’
‘Dodge! Aagh, my hand…!’
There was no way a mere low-rank guide woman could defeat espers who committed heinous crimes. Young Iberis went berserk seeing his mother covered in blood trying to protect him. The enormous mana released from his small body instantly froze the organization members.
‘M-mom, mom… Wake up, sob.’
‘Uh, Eunsu, my son, cough, ugh, haa.’
‘…! Mom!’
‘I’m sorry, mommy, doesn’t have enough power…’
‘No, it’s, it’s okay now. I beat them all. Cough!’
‘What? Ah….’
The woman who had lost consciousness barely opened her eyes at the touch of small hands shaking her body. She sighed seeing her son’s eyes changed from black to silver-gray.
The house covered in white, transparent ice to the point where its original appearance was unrecognizable, and the organization members who met their death without even being able to resist the overwhelming power… Seeing the devastation before her eyes, she realized that the child had fully awakened.
‘Cough cough! I defeated them all, ugh, cold… It hurts, sob.’
The son, who had used his ability properly for the first time, couldn’t control the mana raging inside his body. The woman, aware that she didn’t have much time left, held the hand of the child experiencing the backlash of using his ability and desperately performed guiding, squeezing out her remaining life force.
‘It’s not as cold as before, right? Can you move?’
‘Mm-hmm…’
‘Then now, leave mommy, huff, and run away, quickly… Ugh.’
The woman spat out blood and pushed her son away. Perhaps because it was her time to die, her senses became even sharper than usual. So she sensed the organization members rushing towards them, having detected the anomaly of the ice chunks that had spread outside the house. Fortunately, there was still time before they could break through the ice wall and enter.
‘You know how to open the secret passage under the kitchen floor, right? Gasp, I, I told you before. Huff, hoo, you can escape through there. Cough…!’
Due to the nature of the slums where crimes occurred almost daily, every building had a secret passage known only to the residents. The woman urged her child to escape through there. But her son wouldn’t budge.
‘No, I want to stay with you. I’ll, I’ll defeat them all. I’m strong. I just beat those bad men… Cough!’
‘No, it’s dangerous. When you get out, haa, go straight to the, the military, ugh, ask them for help…’
‘Mom!’
‘Hoo, hm, my child, my son. Our Eunsu, mommy loves you very much… You know that, right?’
The woman, reaching her limit, took in her son’s face with unfocused eyes. As she did so, she whispered her love one last time. That was the end.
‘Mom? Mom! No, no, sob, waaah!’
Young Iberis, witnessing his mother’s death before his eyes, wailed. At that moment, people appeared, breaking through the ice wall.
‘Sniff, ugh, I’ll kill you all…’
The child, consumed by anger and despair, stood in front of his mother protectively, glaring at the approaching organization members. Then he used the ability he had just awakened.
“…Major, Major!”
“…Luke?”
“Are you alright?”
Iberis, who had been lost in the suddenly rushing memories, barely came to his senses at the urgent voice calling him. Lucas’s worried face came into view through his hazy vision. At that moment, an immense headache struck.
“Ugh, uh…”
Iberis groaned in pain, clutching his head with both hands. It felt like someone was hammering his skull mercilessly.
“Major? What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”
“Me-memories…”
Iberis gasped, his face contorted in pain. Once again, fragments of his forgotten past swept through his dizzy mind. He was overwhelmed by the wave of memories crashing over him like a tsunami.
‘Here, there’s a child!’
‘My God, what is this… Did that child do this?’
‘This level is A-class. No, it might even be S-class…’
How much time had passed after he had frozen all the intruding organization members? More people appeared in the room covered entirely in ice. The child, who had preserved his deceased mother’s body in an ice coffin to protect it, shakily stood up at the appearance of new intruders.
‘D-don’t, come, closer, cough, ha…’
Young Iberis threatened the people like a hissing cat. His frostbitten hands and feet alternated between burning and freezing, his skin cracking, but he had to protect his mother despite the pain tearing at his insides from the uncontrolled mana flaring up. However, his body, engulfed in mana overload, wouldn’t listen to its owner.
Eventually, the child collapsed, unable to stop the approaching people. A warm, soft blanket covered his body, which had curled up in anticipation of violence. At this unexpected comfort, his tightly closed eyelids lifted, revealing silver-gray eyes.
‘Child, are you alright?’
‘…Who? Are you, sol-soldiers?’
Young Iberis barely managed to ask, feeling the warmth gently caressing his cheek. The woman, who looked about his mother’s age, was wearing clothes that no resident of the defense zone could mistake.
‘Yes. We came after receiving a report. We’re the Defense Force.’
‘Defense Force…’
‘Yes. We came to help you… but we were too late. I’m sorry.’
‘Ah, aah…’
‘You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? You can rest now. We’ll take care of everything else.’
The tension left the child’s body at the introduction of the Defense Force. They couldn’t be bad people if his mother had told him to go to them before she died. With that thought, young Iberis fainted in the arms of the person who resembled his mother.
“Gasp…!”
As the terrible memories continued to play like a recorded video, Iberis’s mana fluctuated violently. The cold energy flowing out of his body noticeably lowered the temperature in the living room.
Crack, crackle.
Following the uncontrolled mana, frost began to form on the sofa, table, and carpet.
“Major!”
Sensing the dangerous situation, Lucas shouted as he wrapped his arms tightly around Iberis. Quickly drawing up his mana, he whispered gently while holding Iberis in his arms.
“Calm down and take slow, deep breaths.”
“Hoo, hmmm…”
Iberis took a deep breath and exhaled, relying on the voice enveloping his ears. But it was hard to breathe, as if an invisible hand was choking him.
“Lu-Luke, Luke…”
Unable to bear the incessant flood of memories, Iberis clung to Lucas as if pleading for help. He had no one else to turn to.
Realizing this wouldn’t do, Lucas grabbed Iberis’s cheeks and kissed him. He pressed his thumb firmly on Iberis’s tense jaw and pushed his tongue in, parting the connected lips.
“Mmph, nn, huu…”
Iberis shuddered as the warm flesh invaded his frozen mouth.
“Shh…”
Lucas firmly supported Iberis’s nape with his hand to prevent him from escaping. Then he helped him breathe by blowing his own breath into him. Iberis’s dry shoulders kept twitching at the sensation of warm breath thawing his ice-cold mouth.
Holding Iberis close in his arms, Lucas rubbed his soft flesh with his tongue, mixing their saliva. As he did so, he gently massaged Iberis’s stiff neck with his hand.
