Chapter 14. Champion
[100]
‘Hmm.’
It felt strange to be properly dressed after quite a while.
Chris frowned as he became acutely aware of the fabric touching his chest. He tugged slightly at the collar, but couldn’t avoid the slight friction whenever he moved.
The reddened, swollen skin had more or less returned to normal, but it seemed the sensation of where Yuri had bitten, sucked, and licked remained engraved.
‘To think such lightweight clothes could make me so self-conscious…’
Even minimal contact was making him ticklish.
‘It’ll get better soon.’
Chris plopped down on the bed and tried to redirect his thoughts.
He counted one by one all the things he had done since coming to the Spring Continent.
‘The guiding drug factory has been shut down. We’re checking the establishments using fake Guides one by one…’
Now their target was the illegal fighting arena they had learned about through January’s tip.
After rolling around in bed with Yuri like one body for three days and nights, they received contact from Anong.
The message stated that Chris had been successfully put on the wanted list.
Fugitive Esper, Chris Northern Light.
Chris lowered his eyes at his newly given identity.
He had thought he could permanently bury the time when he had wandered without remembering Yuri, but this job kept bringing back the past.
It didn’t feel good to keep reminding Yuri of those times.
Even Chris could read the situation to some extent.
So having the surname “Northern Light”—which he had used when he ran away—attached to him again was certainly uncomfortable.
“Yuri.”
Chris rose from his seat at the movement from the dressing room.
Yuri was standing there.
Maybe it was his imagination, but Yuri—dressed in a complete suit with gloves for the first time in a long while—exuded an atmosphere distinctly different from the people of the Spring Continent.
It felt as though a chilly wind was blowing, even indoors.
“Weren’t you going alone?”
Yuri took off his gloves and adjusted the position of his shirt buttons, then answered Chris curtly.
“I wouldn’t have specifically told you to wait if that were the case.”
“Then you are…”
“A loan shark.”
Yuri answered cleanly.
Such words might be rude to a normal lover, but they suited him well.
Though he had no coat and his suit fabric appeared thin, it was enough to evoke the image of Yuri Sobolev, the master of Baekyah.
‘Just dressing properly creates such credibility.’
Chris felt a slight guilt for treating his lover and master like a villain.
Though it wasn’t far from reality.
Nonetheless, Chris would endlessly think about the past Yuri had left behind.
The young boy who had dreamed of becoming a scholar.
“I’m the one who has your Guide as collateral. You’re an Esper fleeing from Northern Light, unable to find legal ways to make money, so you’ve crawled into the fighting arena.”
Yuri, unaware of Chris’s thoughts, explained calmly.
“Yes.”
Chris nodded stolidly.
It wasn’t a difficult background to understand.
“Your identity is Chris Northern Light, but in the arena, you’ll probably be called by a different nickname.”
“A nickname?”
“It’s an illegal fighting arena.”
Yuri’s lips curved up crookedly.
“People rarely use their real names.”
Chris nodded in agreement.
“What are your thoughts about your appearance?”
Though this was the Spring Continent, someone might recognize Yuri.
Chris himself had encountered Susanna Godrin, whom he had thought was dead. It hadn’t even been intentional—they had met because of getting entangled with January.
Fewer variables were better.
Yuri answered as if the question was trivial.
“I’ll change my face when we go out. It would be troublesome if the Locksmith jumps when a stranger emerges from our room.”
His face was utterly serene as he added that they might end up falling into lava or the blue winter sea.
Because of this, Chris realized a beat too late that Yuri had been joking.
“Well…”
“I wasn’t telling you to laugh.”
As Chris tried to force a smile, Yuri responded coldly and strode out.
Watching his retreating figure, Chris covered his mouth.
His heart sank as genuine laughter bubbled up.
He even thought Yuri might return right then and catch his twitching lips.
‘This is crazy.’
Chris repeatedly rubbed his face dry to calm himself, then followed after Yuri.
At precisely nine in the evening, Peter Garrett appeared.
“Reporting for duty today as well.”
“You’re punctual with time commitments.”
At Yuri’s words, Peter raised his eyebrow. It was less frivolous than shrugging his shoulders.
“How is the internal cleanup of the flea market going?”
“Better than expected. The Baker is actively stepping in to cover the losses.”
“The Shoemaker must not be very happy.”
“Not at all.”
Peter smiled slyly.
“I’m nudging him a bit.”
“You seem excited.”
“At first I was so angry I didn’t know what to do, but when I think about them really going at it, I can’t help feeling thrilled.”
Yuri smiled wryly.
“There’s rarely anything as entertaining as watching bastards you can’t stand grab each other by the hair and fight.”
“I wonder what was the point of all my efforts to promote fellowship. I feel empty inside, but also oddly pleased.”
Peter scratched the back of his head.
“It seems humans instinctively enjoy doing bad things.”
“If you call that level of mischief ‘bad’…”
Yuri’s voice trailed off.
Peter became a bit embarrassed.
‘Should I be grateful he’s not mocking me?’
The man before him had started with nothing, built his foundation from the ground up, and eventually brought down Rosenhauser himself.
While they were conversing, Chris emerged from the room and stood behind Yuri.
Though his face was expressionless, his platinum blonde hair was so brilliant it would likely stand out anywhere.
It sparkled so much that if the person hadn’t been so solid, they might have been consumed by that color.
“You’re not planning to take him with that face, are you?”
Yuri snorted at Peter’s words.
“Of course not.”
With a gesture, Chris lowered his head as if he had been waiting. Yuri took something out from his pocket and fastened it around Chris’s neck.
It was a collar with a chain.
Peter looked at Chris with a sour expression.
“Is this okay?”
This was truly treating him like a dog.
“…I’m fine with it,” Chris answered in a quiet voice.
“From the circumstances, it seems you’ll also be appearing in the front lines…”
Peter’s gaze shifted to Yuri.
“I looked into the fighting arena a bit more, and found that outsiders need to contract with the owner of the Colosseum to participate in matches.”
Yuri’s hand firmly wrapped around Chris’s neck.
“He’s my dog. I have no intention of handing his leash over to them.”
He was saying he would play the role of the dog owner himself, rather than even pretending to give Chris’s reins to someone else.
“Won’t that be dangerous?”
Chris also expressed some concern at Peter’s words.
“He’s right. If something were to happen to you…”
“Dangerous?”
Yuri responded indifferently.
“Given the circumstances, guiding drugs will be circulating within that Colosseum. The Thorns Order wouldn’t supply proper guiding to dogs they plan to discard.”
Peter pressed his lips tightly shut.
“Let’s say Chris is exposed to guiding drugs. As you know, guiding drugs only create a plausible illusion of having received guiding. An ordinary Esper would be killed when they realize they’re gradually entering the rampage stage.”
By putting them in more dangerous matches, for example.
“Then what about Chris?”
Yuri pulled the chain short, drawing him closer.
The harmless-looking man who was pulled in gently rested his head on his master’s hand.
Peter suddenly realized that despite knowing Chris was an S-rank Esper, he had never been particularly tense or afraid when dealing with him.
Because the master who firmly held his collar was always nearby, Peter had mistakenly thought of Chris as something close to human.
“Who could kill him?”
Peter sighed softly.
“…Ah. So that’s why.”
Yuri intended to play the role of a middleman “lending” a fighter under the pretext of being a creditor.
“Besides… in a space overflowing with Espers, it would be advantageous to me, if anything. Certainly not disadvantageous.”
After blurting this out, Yuri asked Chris:
“Isn’t that right, Chris?”
Chris hesitated before nodding.
“…Still, I would prefer if you wore a transmitter.”
“That much is fine.”
When Yuri granted permission in a plain tone, Chris brightened.
“It’s a relief they’ve already established all their countermeasures.”
Peter rolled his eyes.
“Shall we depart then?”
***
The man counting money frowned at the knock on his office door.
‘What is it this time?’
Striding over and yanking the door open, he found a somewhat ordinary-looking young man with brown hair and a relatively delicate-featured man with black hair.
The strange thing was that the black-haired man was holding a chain attached to the brown-haired young man’s neck.
‘More weirdos who heard some strange rumors and came looking.’
He hadn’t heard that anyone would be visiting today. There was nothing particularly extraordinary about their appearance either.
The employee scratched his chin and snapped:
“This isn’t an ordinary dogfighting ring. Look elsewhere.”
His overbearing attitude was evident as he treated a perfectly upright human like a fighting dog.
It was an attempt to definitively crush their spirit to keep riff-raff away.
“Is that so? But I think you’d be interested in a dog like this.”
The black-haired man, Yuri, whispered, “Sit.”
The tall man instantly got down on all fours, and his form began to transform.
His muzzle elongated, and ears pointed upward. Fur began to grow on his slender limbs, and a tail sprouted.
As Chris bared his teeth, fearsome fangs displayed their might.
Where a human had been, a wolf now slightly scratched the floor and arched its body backward.
No one was foolish enough not to realize this wasn’t to escape, but to spring forward.
“…Stay.”
Yuri gently pressed his hand down on the back of the wolf-transformed Chris.
At the ticklish sensation of his breath on his nape, Chris gradually subdued his aura.
“Whoa.”
The arena official, who had been calming his pounding heart, waved his hand.
“Certainly… an impressive entrance.”
Yuri’s face showed no sign of pride.
As if he had known things would turn out this way.
“You should have said he was an Esper from the start. Welcome. A beast transformer? That’s rare.”
Behind the smiling face was a merchant busily punching numbers into a calculator.
“He’s an enhancement-type Esper. Looks quite useful, doesn’t he?”
“Then, who are you?”
“Me?”
Yuri said as he pulled on the leash.
“I’m the vicious owner of this dog here.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
