Does Spring Come Even for a Dying Esper

“…!”

Love? Who? Iberis opened his eyes in surprise at the unexpected words. His mind cleared as if splashed with cold water. It was that unbelievable. He sat up without even fully shaking off his sleepiness. He wanted to confirm if he had heard correctly.

“Then I’ll… Hm?”

Lucas, who had been continuing his call by the window, twitched one eyebrow upon noticing Iberis had woken up.

“No, it’s nothing. I’ll hang up first.”

Lucas quickly ended the call and approached Iberis, who was sitting on the bed with a drowsy face.

“Are you feeling alert? I was worried because you weren’t waking up.”

Iberis flinched his thin shoulders at the warmth cupping his cheeks. His gaze turned to the window where twilight was settling. Realizing quite some time had passed, he moved his lips.

“What time is it… Cough!”

“Have some water.”

As Iberis burst into a dry cough, Lucas picked up the water glass from the bedside table. Then he brought it to Iberis’s lips himself.

“Ah…”

Iberis didn’t refuse Lucas’s kindness. After emptying the glass in one go, he exhaled deeply with a more relaxed expression. The lukewarm water moistening his dry mouth finally made him feel alive.

“How long did I sleep?”

A very hoarse voice flowed from between his lips despite drinking water. Iberis looked out the window again. He couldn’t tell the exact time, but it seemed closer to night than evening.

“You slept for about 4 hours. It’s 9 o’clock now.”

Lucas checked his wristwatch and informed him of the time. After guiding the unconscious Iberis, Lucas had brought him to the infirmary and stayed by his side, waiting for him to wake up. He had just been on an important phone call that he couldn’t ignore.

He had briefly considered going outside to avoid disturbing Iberis’s sleep, but he couldn’t readily leave his post, not knowing what might happen while he was away. In the end, he decided to take the call as quietly as possible. Seeing Iberis awake, it seems he had failed.

“I slept for 4 hours?”

Iberis looked flustered, realizing he had slept much longer than he thought. He couldn’t clearly remember returning to the unit or receiving guiding. That’s how deeply he had slept. No, at this point, it was closer to having fainted.

“Was the rift closed well?”

“Yes. It was closed without any issues, and the surrounding area has been restored.”

“That’s a relief…”

“You must be hungry? I’ll contact the cafeteria right away. I’ll tell them to prepare something easily digestible.”

“It’s fine, I don’t have an appetite… I’ll just go back to my room and rest like this.”

Iberis shook his head and tried to get up. He wasn’t cold, but strangely, he felt weak. Somehow, he didn’t feel well.

“That won’t do. Your strength is greatly depleted, so you need to eat something, even a little. You also need to take your medicine…”

After conducting thorough examinations at the military hospital, Lucas had prescribed several medications suitable for Iberis’s condition. And he made sure Iberis took them regularly with meals. He was absolutely uncompromising on this point.

“While you might skip anemia medication or liver function improvers, the physical damage recovery medicine is very strong and bad for your stomach if taken on an empty stomach.”

“But…”

“Please eat at least some soup and fruit. Or should I ask them to make porridge?”

“Porridge?”

Iberis reacted to the unexpected dish name.

“It’s what people in Korea and other Asian countries eat instead of rice when they’re sick. There are various types, and it’s nutritious, so after consulting with the medical officer and nutritionist, we decided to introduce it to our unit. It’s food that’s effective when eaten by patients.”

“I know, I ate it often when I was young. My mother used to make it.”

Iberis replied that he already knew about it to Lucas’s explanation. His Korean mother occasionally made various dishes from her home country for him.

Especially for her son who had a cold year-round, she made various porridges like pumpkin porridge, sweet potato porridge, beef porridge, vegetable porridge, and egg porridge. Among them, Iberis’s favorite was egg porridge.

“Is that so? Then would you like to have porridge?”

“Can it be any kind of porridge?”

Iberis showed interest and asked back. Although he still didn’t have an appetite, the thought of eating a nostalgic dish slightly appealed to him.

“Well… I think we’d have to ask the nutritionist about that.”

“Can you ask if egg porridge is possible?”

“Understood.”

Lucas muttered “egg porridge” as he picked up his phone. Perhaps because he had told them earlier to stand by for when the Major wakes up to eat, the call connected quickly.

“It’s me. The Major has woken up…”

Iberis stared blankly at Lucas talking with the nutritionist. Recalling the voice that had said “I love you” to someone earlier made his heart flutter for no reason.

“They say it’s possible. It will take about 30 minutes. I told them to bring it here, so let’s rest a bit more.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Lucas, who quickly ended the call, approached Iberis again and examined his complexion.

“Aren’t you cold? I turned up the temperature, but…”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you really alright?”

Lucas asked with a doubtful voice as he placed his hand on Iberis’s forehead. The body temperature he felt through his palm seemed lower than when he checked about 30 minutes ago. Frowning slightly, he proposed a new plan.

“We should keep a dedicated heated mat for you in the infirmary as well.”

“It’s a shared space, there’s no need for that…”

Iberis grimaced at Lucas’s words. The medical office was divided into an infirmary for simple treatments, an office for paperwork and other duties, and a recovery room for unit members injured during missions.

The recovery room always had a few injured unit members staying there, so recently Iberis had been almost monopolizing the infirmary. Even so, it wasn’t that people didn’t come and go at all, so he felt reluctant to bring in items solely for his use.

“I’ll have my personal office next week. Don’t worry about using it for just a few days until then. There’s no one who would dare say anything about it anyway.”

Lucas spoke as if it wasn’t a problem at all, implying who would dare criticize the unit commander for bringing personal items to the infirmary or using it alone.

Construction was underway for an integrated office for Lucas, who had become both the guide team leader and head of the infirmary. Lucas had decided to install a bed exclusively for Iberis there. Since Iberis was the only patient he would be taking care of anyway, he judged it better to set up a space just for him. Even if he needed to care for someone else in rare cases, he could use the unit’s guiding room or the existing infirmary, so there was nothing to worry about.

For this reason, Lucas had received support from Winfried for various items such as machines that could simply check mana contamination levels and physical damage rates, and a mattress with built-in heating function. He also planned to upgrade the examination room and guiding room with the latest machines so that they wouldn’t need to go to the military hospital for detailed examinations.

“As I always think, Major, you could be a bit more brazen.”

“…Alright.”

“Then lie down and rest a bit more.”

Lucas laid Iberis down and pulled up the blanket. Then he sat on the edge of the bed.

“…”

Iberis lay quietly as Lucas directed, repeatedly glancing at him as he checked his phone. Having been contemplating whether to ask about the question occupying his mind for a while, he cautiously opened his mouth.

“Um… Captain.”

“Hmm?”

“There’s something I want to ask…”

“…? Go ahead.”

“Earlier, well, I didn’t mean to overhear…”

Despite Lucas’s permission, Iberis hesitated for a long time. He wanted to ask him, but he wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask such a thing. But just letting it go felt like a thorn stuck in his fingertip, constantly bothering and worrying him.

“What are you trying to ask that you’re hesitating so much?”

“Well, um, Captain… Didn’t you tell me before that you were saving yourself for marriage?”

“Pardon?”

“No, I really didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but when I opened my eyes, I just happened to hear that sound…”

Iberis emphasized the word ‘mean to’, stressing that it wasn’t intentional.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about…”

“The call earlier. I was wondering when you got a lover…”

“A lover?”

Lucas frowned as if bewildered by the somewhat abrupt statement. Then, as if realizing something, he made an “Ah” sound.

“I understand what misunderstanding you might have, Major, but I’m not in that kind of relationship with the person I was just talking to.”

“If you’re not in that kind of relationship, why…”

The question of why he said “I love you” rose to his throat, but Iberis couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. The desire to confirm with Lucas and regret for bringing it up arose simultaneously. Unable to finish his sentence, he lowered his eyes, not daring to look at Lucas. Then he quickly raised his head at the answer that came back.

“It’s my younger sibling.”