When he saw the room’s blank interior, Yuichiro realized he was dreaming. The room looked familiar. The wallpaper and floor were bleached white, and in the middle of the room was an aluminum desk and two chairs facing each other. He was sitting on one of the chairs. His wrists were handcuffed, and the chains of the handcuffs were fixed to an iron ring in the middle of the desk. On his right side, a large mirror was hung on the wall. He saw himself in the mirror with a vague expression on his face. His entire body was covered in fresh wounds and painfully wrapped in blood-splattered bandages. It was a younger version of himself, in his twenties.
He felt a gaze staring at him from behind the mirror. From the other side of the magic mirror, people were watching Yuichiro with wary and watchful eyes. Yuichiro recognized them. As he gazed into the mirror with vacant eyes, the door to the room suddenly opened. Yuichiro’s eyes widened for a moment when he saw the person who entered. However, his body in the dream did not even flinch.
“Hello, Ogami-san.”
It was Oz who entered the room. The man’s entire body was still pierced with grenade fragments, and crimson blood was dripping from the gaps in his torn military uniform. The flesh from the corner of his right mouth to his right cheek had been ripped open, revealing white teeth and a red tongue when he smiled.
“How are you? Are you feeling better?” Oz continued to ask. However, Yuichiro remained silent and did not return a word. Oz pulled up a seat and sat down in the chair directly across from him. As he did, Oz clasped his hands together, which were stained with mud and blood.
“I’m counselor XXX. Would you mind speaking with me for a moment?”
Yuichiro remembered the man’s voice’s tone, which sounded as if the he was talking to a kindergartener. The words and tone of voice belonged to the counselor with whom Yuichiro had spoken more than ten years ago. Although the man in front of him looked like Oz, the actual counselor should have been a middle-aged man in his fifties. The next thing Yuichiro knew, both of his arms moved on their own, against his will. When he tried to raise his hands, the handcuff chains collided with the iron rings and clanked loudly. The counselor’s brows twitched in response to the sound.
“Could you please remove them?” Even his own mouth moved by itself. Yuichiro had said the exact same words ten years prior. Was he reliving his life in his dreams?
The counselor in the form of Oz smiled troubledly at Yuichiro, who stood motionless with his arms outstretched. “I can’t do that. I am not permitted to free you from your restraints.”
“On whose orders?”
“It was 2nd Lieutenant Colonel Shirai’s.”
He felt a fierce hatred well up within him when he heard the name, making his stomach churn inside out. His fingers tingled with numbness and trembled slightly in midair. Nonetheless, Yuichiro’s expression remained unchanged. He stared at the counselor with an expressionless face and a somewhat vacant look in his eyes.
The counselor’s smile deepened, and then he extended his hands. As he did so, he placed his palms on Yuichiro’s still-held-out hands and gently lowered them onto the desk.
“Once the counseling session is over, you will be allowed to be released from your restraints. Will you talk to me?”
“Yes, sir,” Yuichiro replied like an obedient student. Seemingly satisfied with his response, the counselor nodded broadly, “Well, first, tell us your affiliation and name.”
“I’m the commander of the 4th squadron of the Ground Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF), Special Armored Forces. 1st Yuichiro Ogami.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Thank you. How are you feeling?”
“My body hurts a little,” he said lightly, looking around and noticing blood was still oozing from fresh wounds in some places.
“I see. I’ll give you some painkillers later.”
“That will help.”
“Can you recall how you got that injury?”
“Yes. It was because I beat Lieutenant Colonel Shirai and got into a scuffle with other group members in my unit just as they were about to apprehend me.”
The counselor looked at Yuichiro up and down as he answered briskly and replied back in a slightly implicated voice, “Lieutenant Colonel Shirai suffered a broken nose and three broken teeth.”
“I am very sorry for that. I would like to meet him and make a formal apology.”
“That’ll be difficult. You not only battered him, but you also pointed your gun at him.”
“Excuse me, but I was very confused at the time.”
“Was it because of the death of your wife and child?”
Yuichiro paused for a moment in response to the counselor’s direct question. He fixed his gaze on the counselor before nodding shallowly.
“Yes, it is.”
“Do you believe Lieutenant Colonel Shirai is the cause of your family’s death?”
“No, I don’t think so right now. I’ll say this again, but right after that incident, I was really confused and couldn’t tell the difference between friend and foe.”
“So, have you finally calmed down?”
“A lot more than before.”
Yuichiro smiled for the first time since entering this room. The corner of his mouth was about to convulse as he desperately tried to appear composed. In reality, he could hear someone else’s voice screaming in the back of his head, “It’s a lie, it’s a lie.” Dark clouds of hatred and murderous intent filled his mind inside his heart.
“Do you remember what you said to Lieutenant Colonel Shirai?”
“Was it when I was attacking him?”
“That’s right.”
“I asked why he abandoned me. And why did he let me do it. He responded that he had no choice but to order it and that it was for my own good.”
“Is that all?”
Yuichiro lowered his gaze to the counselor’s query. He pursed his lips and stared at his knuckles, which were peeling in places and exposing red flesh.
“ I also asked him if money is more valuable than life. As for this, he couldn’t answer it.”
“Then, what do you think? Is money more valuable than life?”
Yuichiro raised his gaze and looked at the counselor. Staring at Oz’s reddish-black eyeballs, which looked congested and slightly popped out, Yuichiro glanced at him and smiled, appearing as if he were on the verge of crying.
“I’m not sure if it’s worth it,” he said. “But surely gold is more precious than life.”
A human’s heart weighed only about 21 grams. His wife’s and daughter’s hearts combined weighed only 42 grams. The scales easily tilted in favor of money, and he abandoned his wife and daughter. They were killed in a way that Yuichiro found too cruel. That was the only truth that was left to him in this world.
“Have you accepted that very belief?” the counselor asked quietly.
Yuichiro’s grin widened. He couldn’t tell if he was smiling or not because the corners of his mouth were upturned. What was his current expression like? Was he happy, sad, or angry? His lips moved subtly as he looked down into the ground.
‘If that is true, I loathe this kind of world,’ he whispered silently like a child.
Finally, the dream came to an abrupt end.
⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜
*Short flashback*
Temeraire saw his god that day. In a narrow, enclosed underground cavern, a beautiful goddess covered in blood and mud.
“Don’t spill your blood on the carpet.”
An indifferent voice infiltrated his vague, hazy thoughts. He noticed a trickle of blood dripping from his lower lip when he looked down. Temeraire’s mouth was covered with a cloth before he could reach for it, as he had apparently cut the inner lining of his mouth when he was punched earlier. He glanced to his side and saw Evelise, dressed as an attendant, gently placing the white cloth over Temeraire’s lips.
When Temeraire and Evelise’s exchanged looks, the woman smiled vaguely. He found her somewhat strange. She seemed to be smiling, yet she looked as if she were crying.
“I’ll take care of it later,” her guilt-ridden voice whispered into his ear as though she had inflicted the wound herself. Temeraire shook his head from side to side at the faint sound of her voice.
“Don’t worry about it,” he whispered back. However, his voice sounded awfully muffled due to the cut and swelling inside his mouth. The muffled sound of his voice almost made him laugh unintentionally. When he asked Yuichiro to give him a single blow to the face, that one blow was unexpectedly powerful. Because he had been beaten in the same spot the day before, Temeraire felt a spark of pain behind his eye and almost rolled around on the ground when Yuichiro’s fist hit his right cheek.
In contrast, the person who had knocked him down had a complacent expression on his face, as if confirming the extent of the bruise he had inflicted on him. His cold gaze was devoid of any trace of remorse. It was a colloquial expression as if he was simply doing what needed to be done on the battlefield.
One would think that he was truly a terrible person. Rather than terrible, perhaps ruthless would be a more accurate description. The man didn’t hesitate to hurt or kill others. From the beginning, the man had no interest in other people’s lives or deaths. He might not even care about his own life or death. Clearly, he had no intention of saving this country. Although he claimed to be doing it for money, the man was probably never particularly attached to money either.
The man, in Temeraire’s opinion, simply desired to destroy everything in his path. He concluded that Yuichiro was merely playing with the world in a reckless and chaotic manner as if it were a game.
The man’s spirit was infinitely closer to a beast rather than a human being. Furthermore, when Temeraire first met him, he could not cease his yearning for him. Temeraire remembered caressing the man’s tanned skin just the other night. Yuichiro’s body twisted and writhed underneath him. The man’s inside was scorching hot. The exhilaration and joy he felt as he penetrated the strong, arrogant man who had never before been pinned down from above were unforgettable.
Temeraire’s thoughts had drifted away when he heard a sudden knock on the door. The soldier leading the way was knocking on the door in front of him.
Once the door opened, an office came into his view. There were flowerless vases, long-woolly carpets, and other furnishings that appeared to cost a fortune placed everywhere.
At that moment, Temeraire noticed a man sitting at a white office desk placed in front of a huge window. It was a familiar face he had seen before, with glossy white hair brushed back with oil, a large, chiseled nose, along with an air of pretentiousness. The man’s inadequate youthfulness seemed to have brought his inner shallowness to the fore.
“Hello, Temeraire. It’s been a long time.”
Although the man’s voice sounded nimble, it appeared to be peppy. Temeraire was annoyed by the man’s effrontery in addressing him in an overly familiar manner, despite having only met once. Nonetheless, Temeraire camouflaged his emotions and responded with a dewy-eyed stare at him, “Lord Weldham…” intentionally raising a forlorn voice with a hint of flattery. In return, Lord Weldham grinned, not bothering to hide his delight at the sight of Temeraire’s bruised face.
LECHER ALERT LECHER ALERT! CODE 101 ACTIVATED. NO HORNY BONK HAMMER ON STANDBY. ALL-BITCHES-ANNIHALATION ON STANDBY. this guy alr reeks perv S vibes.
also waiting to witness the mcs opness!
thanks for the chapter!
never thought to meet Oz in that way.
That dream sequence was brutal…
Thank you for sharing ❤️❤️❤️
thanks for the chapter!
of course men feel lust through dominance😒
I really wish there is switching so he could feel it too cause sometimes the arrogant thoughts be making me annoyed as hell