Chapter 37
“Sanctum Aeternalis!”
Kairos’s silence did not last long.
He immediately sprang to his feet and raised his voice, and a clear golden angel-wing sigil appeared at the cave entrance.
“W-wait! Don’t push yourself!”
‘Sanctum Aeternalis’ was a third-tier barrier spell.
Since it blocked all physical and magical intrusions, its mana consumption was also extreme.
“Explain the situation properly first! Don’t tell me that little brat’s friends came to get revenge on you?”
“……That’s right.”
“Ha, this is insane.”
I squeezed my eyes shut without realizing it.
Well, after being beaten that badly, it made sense they would come looking for revenge.
“So how strong are those guys?”
Considering Kairos’s remaining mana, that barrier would last an hour at most.
I took the wand from inside my clothes and steeled myself.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to fight them in my place, Rene?”
“There’s no other way.”
“Don’t entertain such a ridiculous idea. I absolutely won’t allow it.”
“You’re a patient, so quit making a racket. Then what, we just sit here and wait for the barrier to break?”
Even if they only fired fireballs at the entrance, we were finished.
Besides, to take on three people alone, I needed to make active use of the forest’s complicated terrain.
“Just answer my question. What tier of magic do those guys use?”
“……”
“Kairos.”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Hey!”
“Those guys aren’t opponents you can beat, Rene! You couldn’t even handle one of them by yourself!”
Kairos raised his voice angrily.
I stiffened my expression and shot back.
“You beat that little brat earlier.”
“That’s because I’m….”
“Then are you saying I’m weaker than you?”
I bit my lip tightly without realizing it. My face went cold as well.
Kairos flinched slightly, seemingly taken aback, but soon answered with a serious expression.
“I’m not wrong, am I?”
“……”
The truth was, I knew it too. I knew that much—that I was weaker than him.
The magic I had seen during the treasure hunt had been overwhelming—not just in output, but in versatility as well.
“……Right.”
I felt all my strength drain away.
I lowered the hand gripping my wand limply and leaned against the wall.
“Then what exactly do you want to do?”
I had stepped forward boldly, but I didn’t want to die a pointless death either.
If Kairos was speaking that seriously, then they were obviously too strong for me to handle.
“……I’ll hold out until sunrise.”
“How?”
“Somehow. I can’t lose you here, Rene.”
“Ha, this is a first. You’re invoking sheer willpower.”
I sighed and looked at Kairos.
“Fine, let’s say you miraculously hold out until morning. What changes then? They aren’t vampires.”
“The knights will come.”
“The knights?”
“Yes. By then, word will have gotten out that you and I haven’t returned from the western forest.”
“……You can’t be serious.”
Of course, the knights would be dispatched.
They would probably begin searching immediately, even before dawn today.
“There’s no guarantee the knights will find this place in time. Even we couldn’t make it back after walking through the forest all day.”
I glared sharply at Kairos.
“What will you do if the knights don’t arrive until tomorrow afternoon? Are you planning to maintain the barrier through the power of miracles until then?”
“……”
“This really isn’t like you. To act so irrationally.”
With a sigh, I brushed my bangs back.
Then I took the pouch of moonlight grass from inside my clothes.
“Kairos, if you were at full power, could you beat those bastards?”
“Full power…?”
“Yeah. If your mana were full, could you beat those guys in a three-on-one fight?”
Kairos had clearly said they were ‘opponents you can’t beat.’
Not ‘opponents I can’t beat.’
“This is moonlight grass. You’ve heard of it, right?”
“W-wait, moonlight grass?”
Kairos wore an expression that seemed to say, ‘How do you have that?’
I gave a vague nod and continued.
“Could you win if you ate this?”
Naturally, it was a waste to use the moonlight grass here.
To think I had to give such a precious thing to Kairos of all people.
But moonlight grass was something I could obtain again anytime, and this was no time to hesitate over anything.
I opened the pouch and showed him what was inside.
“That….”
“Answer quickly. If you can’t do it, I’ll eat it.”
“You, Rene?”
“Yeah. I have to at least put up a fight.”
Honestly, I wasn’t confident, but Rene had a special constitution: no limiter.
If I drew out as much of the mana enhanced by the moonlight grass as possible and bombarded them with spells, perhaps a way forward would reveal itself.
……As long as I didn’t suffer a mana seizure.
“You can’t! Rene, your body won’t be able to withstand….”
“That’s why I’m telling you to eat it if you can.”
Whether I passed out from a mana seizure or collapsed after being beaten by those bastards, the result was the same.
I held the moonlight grass out even closer and urged him on.
“So what are you going to do? Decide quickly.”
Kairos’s eyes began to waver anxiously.
Only after a long while did he answer in a small voice.
“The moonlight grass… not yet.”
……Well, even Kairos, of all people, would naturally be afraid.
Moonlight grass had powerful effects, but its side effects were just as serious.
“Really?”
If he didn’t want to eat it, I couldn’t force him.
I nodded and tried to bring a root of moonlight grass to my mouth.
“Wait!”
At that moment, Kairos grabbed my wrist.
When our eyes met, he continued in an even more serious voice.
“Instead, Rene, give me your mana.”
“My mana?”
“Yeah, after you eat the moonlight grass.”
“……”
So I was supposed to take on the risk of eating the moonlight grass while he simply reaped the results for himself?
My face went cold without my realizing it.
Perhaps noticing my expression, Kairos hurriedly waved his hands.
“That’s not what I mean!”
He hastily added an explanation.
“Moonlight grass ‘amplifies’ mana, right? Naturally, the person with more mana to begin with will get a greater effect.”
……He certainly wasn’t wrong.
Multiplying 1 by 100 gives you 100, but multiplying 100 by 100 gives you 10,000.
“Besides, you have a special constitution, Rene, don’t you? The mana amplified by the moonlight grass won’t be wasted by hitting a limit, either.”
That was true as well. With this much moonlight grass, an ordinary person would quickly hit their limiter and be unable to draw out its full effect.
“……You really are an honor student. Even in a situation like this, you’re thinking about efficiency.”
I lowered my head and quietly looked down at the moonlight grass in my hand.
Kairos’s voice continued cautiously.
“O-of course, Rene, if you don’t want to, I’m not going to force you….”
“It’s fine. We don’t have a choice right now.”
Essentially, it was impossible to transfer one person’s mana completely to another. It was like being unable to share the energy of a healthy person with someone exhausted from exercise.
That was why mana transfer was always carried out indirectly.
For example… by creating a medium infused with A’s mana and having B consume it.
“Let’s start right away. We don’t have time.”
Of course, creating a ‘medium that can’t store 100% of one person’s mana’ was impossible even with current technology.
What was more, in this empty cave, we couldn’t even create a ‘medium with moderately high storage capacity.’
Therefore, the only method that was both possible and efficient was the most primitive yet effective form of mana exchange.
In other words, exchanging that person’s essence… saliva, through the mouth.
“I’m sorry….”
“You don’t need to apologize. This really is the best option.”
I sighed and sat down in front of Kairos.
Then I lined up the moonlight grass from the pouch on the floor.
“Don’t worry about me. Take as much as you can. That should also help prevent a mana rampage.”
“Mmhmm….”
By now, Kairos had put his shirt back on and sat facing me.
I glanced at his side and asked.
“Speaking of which, are you sure that fracture is okay?”
“Yeah. If I have enough mana, I should even be able to immobilize it completely.”
Kairos nodded, then asked cautiously.
“But are you really okay, Rene?”
“What?”
“You know… kissing me.”
“……”
My expression hardened on its own.
I spoke firmly, as if he had asked something absurd.
“Would you hesitate to perform CPR on someone who’d collapsed?”
“That’s….”
“The fact that you’re even thinking about it disgusts me. So don’t say something like that again.”
To be honest, of course I hated it.
Even in an emergency, I couldn’t believe I had to kiss this insane, perverted, eccentric psycho bastard.
But this was literally a life-or-death situation, and it was also true that there was no other way.
Even if I were Evan right now, nothing would have changed.
If anything, I was even relieved that I was in Rene’s body.
“You know how to do it, right?”
I looked at Kairos as I gathered all the moonlight grass at once.
Kairos clenched his fist, then nodded firmly.
“Yeah.”
The hesitation from earlier was gone; his answer even carried a sense of confidence.
As though this were not his first time exchanging mana like this.
‘Has he done this before?’
I was suddenly curious, but I had no intention of prying into his personal circumstances.
I took a deep breath and lifted the moonlight grass.
Then, without hesitation, I emptied it all into my mouth.
‘Urgh….’
Bitterness, astringency… and an unbearable burning sensation spreading throughout my mouth.
I clenched my jaw and quickly chewed and swallowed it.
“……!”
At the same time, Kairos’s arm wrapped around my waist—so naturally, as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
‘……Ah.’
Then, before I had time to say anything… a softness that nearly stole my breath covered my lips.
The movement was absurdly natural. Kairos’s tongue moved softly, as though caressing the inside of my mouth, smoothly drawing my saliva over to him.
‘This bastard… he’s damn good at this….’
It was my first time kissing someone, but I could tell instinctively.
This was absolutely… not the skill of someone doing it for the first time.
His tongue tangled skillfully with mine, and whenever it stimulated different parts of my mouth, hot saliva welled endlessly from beneath my tongue. And every time Kairos’s tongue touched that saliva, the scorching mana that seemed to boil up from my heart was gently neutralized and flowed out.
‘What incredible speed….’
The rate at which he took my mana exactly matched the rate at which the moonlight grass amplified it.
Even though I had eaten so much moonlight grass, the total amount of mana inside me barely changed, which was astonishing.
‘Isn’t he way too good at this…?’
The thought briefly crossed my mind, but the sensation of his tongue moving around inside my mouth was too intense to dwell on it.
Before I knew it, my head had gone hazy, and both my hands naturally wrapped around his waist.
Inside the narrow cave, only lewd, wet sounds continued to fill the space.