“…87%?”
Iberis, emerging from the cylindrical examination machine, widened his eyes upon hearing the matching rate. It was an unbelievable figure.
“That’s impossible.”
Iberis rushed out of the examination room without even thinking of removing his examination gown. He hurried to Lucas’s side and checked the monitor.
87%
Iberis gasped at the number on the screen. Although he was certain the matching rate would increase, he couldn’t help but be surprised by the result that exceeded expectations.
“I thought it would be around 85% at best…”
“Me too.”
Lucas agreed with Iberis and clicked the mouse. The printer started working with a whirring sound.
“Apart from the matching rate, everything else looks good too.”
Lucas scrolled the screen sideways while waiting for the summary of today’s examination results to print. Soon, various numbers appeared on the monitor.
“If you look here… anemia, blood pressure, liver function, cholesterol, blood sugar, as well as mana contamination and circulation levels in the body…”
Lucas excitedly explained the test results. The most encouraging point was that the body damage rate had fallen below 50%. He gazed contentedly at the number that read 46%.
Although 40% range is still considered severe within the mild category and not yet a reassuring figure, considering that the damage rate was in the 70% range during the first examination, this was tantamount to achieving a near-impossible feat.
Lucas gripped the mouse tightly, his heart racing. Even though he thought he shouldn’t be so childishly excited over just this much, he couldn’t help but smile.
For over half a year, they had tried everything – daily guiding, reducing field work that strained the body, changing prescriptions multiple times to find more effective medicines – with no significant changes, which had been frustrating. But now it suddenly dropped to 46%, so his excitement was understandable.
“Now that the damage rate has entered the mild range, we should focus on managing it even better to bring it down to the normal range.”
Body damage is usually considered normal when it’s below 10%. For espers who frequently go into the field, the average damage rate is around 15%, and recently some experts argue that it’s fine as long as it doesn’t exceed 20%, but Lucas’s goal was firm.
Iberis’s body was damaged to the point of receiving a terminal diagnosis, so it could only be considered fully recovered when brought below 10%, a figure that doctors unanimously agree on.
Of course, even after escaping the terminal diagnosis, Iberis would probably need lifelong management. But that would naturally be resolved if Lucas stayed by his side, so for now, he needed to focus on bringing Iberis’s body back to normal.
“If he uses his ability excessively to the point of mana rampage, the damage rate will increase and all our efforts will be for nothing… When we return to the unit, I’ll have to gather the officers and redistribute the work.”
Lucas voiced plans that would shock the unit officers, including Brenda, with enthusiasm.
“Redistribute? They’re already doing a lot of work in my place…”
“That’s not enough. Even now, you’re taking on more burden compared to other units, Major.”
“Really…?”
“Yes. And they’ve had an easy military life thanks to you for the past few years, so they should work even harder now.”
Lucas spoke with a resolute attitude. Although the N-0 unit members weren’t bad by nature, they had many shortcomings compared to the soldiers he had met so far. He pondered how to allocate the work as he pulled out the printed papers.
An undisguisable smile played on Lucas’s lips as he carefully read through the various detailed examination results, including matching rate, blood tests, body scans, and exercise stress tests. They were just one step away from becoming an official pair with Iberis, which he had longed for.
“Except for a slight weight loss… checking again, every figure is fantastic. We should be able to submit this to the committee as is.”
“Are you that happy?”
Iberis asked curiously, seeing Lucas who looked visibly pleased.
“Yes, I feel like I could fly.”
Lucas answered with a smile as bright as a fully bloomed flower. In fact, his obsession with becoming an official pair was because he needed an excuse to stay by Iberis’s side even if they couldn’t become lovers.
Now that he and Iberis had connected emotionally, whether official or temporary didn’t matter anymore, but he wanted to proudly announce to everyone that he belonged to Iberis.
So that no one would dare desire Iberis, or even imagine walking side by side with him.
It might be a childish possessiveness, but Lucas found it unpleasant for anyone else to have sexual attraction towards Iberis.
Someone might criticize him as being gloomy for this, but what could he do about how he was born? He didn’t deny his own narrow-mindedness.
“Ahem, I want to see too.”
Iberis, feeling suddenly shy, cleared his throat and held out his hand. Although most systems are digitized these days, the defense force still had a custom of handling important agenda and records in paper form.
This was because over the past few decades, there had been several instances where sudden rifts caused computer systems to crash or even backup files to be lost, making it impossible to recover records. As a result, although it was more labor-intensive, the practice of using both electronic systems and paper documentation when handling work became established.
“Hmm.”
Iberis made a small nasal sound as he carefully read the examination results handed to him by Lucas. Even looking at it again, the figures were truly unbelievable.
Iberis had felt his internal mana stabilizing over the past few days, and the chills that frequently bothered him had noticeably decreased. Apart from fatigue from lovemaking, his condition had been excellent, so he had been hopeful, but the results were even better than expected, leaving him dumbfounded.
“…With this, the committee won’t be able to find fault, right?”
“Of course not. Not only have we achieved the matching rate they proposed, but all your numbers have visibly improved compared to your past examination records. As long as they have eyes, they can’t oppose it anymore.”
Lucas replied with a confident tone. Then he added, as if to say not to worry:
“Even in the unlikely event that the committee rejects the approval again, there’s a foolproof way to make it pass.”
“What method?”
“We can reveal that you and I have become lovers.”
“Huh?”
“Then we can reapply to the committee. It’s the military’s policy to pair up Espers and Guides who are dating, regardless of their matching rate.”
“Ah, right, that was a thing…”
Iberis exclaimed in realization, recalling signing a few pair approval requests for Esper and Guide unit members who had become couples. It was a rule he had completely forgotten about, since before meeting Lucas, he hadn’t received proper guiding or dated anyone.
“As you know, Major, there are very few couples between Espers and Espers, Guides and Guides, or ability users and ordinary people. Even if they date, it’s hard to last long. Do you know why?”
“…Because they can’t stand their partner having physical contact with others?”
“Correct. For this reason, they can’t refuse a pair request from an Esper and Guide who have become a couple. If we hadn’t achieved the matching rate set by the committee, I would have applied for an official pair using this reason.”
“You have everything planned out…”
Iberis muttered, impressed. He couldn’t help but admire how Lucas easily came up with things he hadn’t even considered.
“Then, are we going to report that we’re name partners too?”
“No, we should keep that hidden as much as possible. It would be troublesome if people found out.”
“I guess you’re right. But is it okay to tell them we’ve become lovers?”
Iberis cautiously asked, suddenly worried. Lucas had already been endangered once by Carlos. Although it was said that Carlos held a personal grudge against Lucas, there were many unclear aspects about this attack incident.
Although the identity of the person who controlled Carlos hadn’t been revealed yet, Iberis thought there was a high probability it was Livio. After all, he had a history of trying to kill Iberis using villain organizations as soon as he realized there was a problem with Iberis’s health.
Almost everyone knew about Iberis’s chronic lack of guiding. It was obvious that Livio would have noticed by now that the improvement in Iberis’s condition was due to Lucas’s guiding.
In war, if it’s difficult to eliminate the enemy immediately, the strategy is usually to remove the opponent’s helper to erode their strength. Livio targeting Lucas was probably to put Iberis back into a state of guiding deficiency.
If it became known that their relationship had developed from just an Esper and Guide to lovers, there was no telling what kind of tricks Livio might pull. As his thoughts reached this point, Iberis felt queasy.
“We’ll have to accept that much. It’s to keep strange bugs from swarming around you in the future, Major.”
