Episode 2
“Hi?”
My job was to bring him his meal.
He should’ve been able to receive his own tray, so at first I didn’t understand why they bothered assigning an A-rank to this task.
The reason soon became clear.
“Ugh…”
It was because of the awakening-inducing drugs. After being injected with them, subjects were put through a series of experiments.
I’d gone through them myself once, but whatever Z-ranks endured was far beyond what I had imagined.
Most Z-ranks, after the experiments, could do nothing more than keep their eyes open.
They couldn’t move their arms or legs properly, and if they resisted during testing, they ended up like Z-999.
Right in front of me was Calisten.
A restraint collar circled his neck, his arms were bound behind his back, and another restraint around his waist chained him to the wall.
“Are you okay?”
He glared at me with drug-clouded eyes.
Jet-black hair. Red eyes.
He looked terrifying, like a black jaguar staring down its prey. Still, I had to pull out the death flag.
He killed Aselia—the sickly protagonist of the original story—because she didn’t smile.
Then I just had to smile until he was sick of it, and treat him well.
If so, he wouldn’t kill me for the same reason as in the original.
“Get out.”
“Then who’s going to feed you?”
Today was my first time being assigned to this room. Even if you were considered useless, you weren’t made to manage the same Z-rank for long.
The caretaker rotated about once every two weeks.
Which meant I had two weeks left to live.
My body trembled.
Maybe it was because I knew he was the one who would eventually kill me. The red eyes I’d once thought beautiful when reading the novel now gleamed dangerously—like a predator about to pounce on prey.
Fear ran down my spine, my senses shivering as if cold water had been poured over me.
“Um… sorry.”
When he continued to glare, I sat down nearby and gently wiped his face with the handkerchief I’d brought.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s blood on you. I was just wiping it off.”
Calisten frowned deeply and turned his head away. I dampened the cloth with the drinking water I’d brought and tried again, but the temperature must not have suited him, because his frown deepened.
“Stop.”
“There’s a lot of blood. You’ve even got scabs on your face.”
Though he said he didn’t like it, he stayed still once my hand touched him. I couldn’t tell whether he truly hated it. Most of the test subjects here had been sold as slaves.
Some were even nobles—people who had rebelled or committed treason and been reduced to slaves.
“If it’s really uncomfortable, I’ll stop.”
When I said that and looked into his eyes, his lips twitched with an unreadable expression. They, too, were cracked with dried blood—probably from biting them during the experiments.
After cleaning his face, I gently wiped his lips.
“Ugh…”
“Sorry!”
A scab came off, and he frowned in pain.
“Go.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I said go.”
“But I still have to feed you…”
He let out a deep sigh. Looking closely, his clothes were stained with blood in several places. Compared to the other test subjects, Calisten resisted fiercely.
The fact that he was sitting so quietly right now was, honestly, remarkable.
“There’s nothing in it for you to be nice to me.”
His voice was very low.
Here, Espers were subjected to experiments starting at age eighteen—because once awakening happened, growth stopped.
That was why experiments began at eighteen, when most physical development was complete. No one knew what kind of ability would manifest, so awakening too early was dangerous.
“I’m doing this because I want to.”
He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe that.
But compared to the way he’d glared at me earlier, his expression had softened.
“And… we’ve met before.”
“….”
“You saved me once.”
“When?”
I remembered this because I’d at least skimmed the original story. Aselia never learned this before she died.
But when Calisten killed her, it appeared in his flashback.
“Back when you were being experimented on, I accidentally went into the wrong room while running an errand.”
“….”
“If you hadn’t distracted the researchers then, I would’ve been killed.”
In the original story, Aselia had wandered into the wrong room during an experiment. Low-ranking staff did lots of menial work, and if they were caught spying on experiments, they were disposed of on the spot.
Calisten had drawn the researchers’ attention before they noticed her.
He was both the man who saved me—and the man who would kill me.
“Do you hate me doing this?”
He didn’t answer. His face had gone blank again.
So I picked up the tray I’d set down earlier. When he stood up from the floor, I realized just how big he was. I was in an adult male body now, yet he was still a head and a half taller than me.
Broad, square shoulders, thick muscular arms, a thick neck, and a face that somehow balanced it all perfectly.
Every time he breathed, the shabby experimental uniform—something that should have looked pitiful—seemed almost beautiful on him, like an illusion.
Our eyes met, so I smiled.
He scowled in response.
I only had two weeks left to live. His scowl didn’t bother me anymore. So I smiled even more brightly and met his gaze.
Then I picked up the spoon and stirred the thin porridge on the tray. Since it was basically empty gruel, it had no smell at all. They could’ve at least added salt.
It was already lukewarm.
“Ah.”
He didn’t open his mouth, just stared at me.
Ah… maybe he thought something was mixed into it?
Just then—
*Grrrk.*
My stomach growled out loud.
His eyes widened, and he stared at me in disbelief. My face burned with embarrassment, heat rushing even to my ears.
“H‑Hurry up and open your mouth.”
“You thought something was in it.”
“There’s nothing in it!”
He jerked his chin as if telling me to eat it myself, so I had no choice but to put some in my own mouth.
Wow.
It really had no taste at all.
Plain rice soaked in water would probably taste better. Food designed only for digestion was obviously never meant to be enjoyable.
“See? Nothing in it, right?”
Only then did he open his mouth. Since I couldn’t use the spoon I’d used, I took a spare one I’d brought along. Each room was given an extra spoon and fork, since once you entered, the door couldn’t be opened again for a set time.
I’d brought extras on purpose.
“Ugh…”
He took a bite of the porridge and made the same face I had.
“You have to eat it all, okay?”
When his brow furrowed deeply, I instinctively pressed my finger against it.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re going to get wrinkles.”
“Move it.”
“Hehe.”
Just moments ago my knees had been shaking in fear, but maybe because he was restrained, that fear was slowly melting away.
“Haa…”
When he sighed, I offered him the dry bread.
“How do you know there’s nothing in that either?”
“Okay.”
I tore off a small piece and ate it first, then handed it to him. He accepted it. I broke the bread into smaller pieces and placed some dried, shriveled bacon on top.
“The meat smells bad.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t want to eat it.”
“O‑oh. Okay.”
So I put it back down.
“If you leave food, I might get in trouble.”
If he didn’t eat, it would be considered my fault. These awful meals were actually carefully calculated for nutrition.
“That’s not my problem.”
“Yeah.”
He said it coldly, but I still held the bread out to him.
“Take it away.”
“But could you just eat this much?”
When he turned his head away in refusal, I scooped up some sweet potato salad and offered it instead.
“Ah.”
“I hate sweet potatoes the most.”
“What?”
That wasn’t in the original. I was pretty sure he’d eaten whatever he was given.
“Feed me that.”
“But you said that tastes bad.”
“No.”
Since he said so, I gave him the porridge again. He ate it with a deeply displeased expression, but in the end, he finished all of it.
His face didn’t look happy at all.
I looked at the remaining food, worried—if I left like this, I’d definitely be punished.
“That.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t want to get in trouble, you deal with it.”
…Was pulling the death flag impossible after all?
For a moment, I wondered if he was just taking his irritation out on me—then another thought struck me.
“Y‑You’re doing this because you’re worried I might be hungry?”
“No.”
He denied it immediately, and my heart jumped ahead of my reason.
Calisten reacted positively when I smiled at him.
Then maybe…
If I didn’t want to die like in the original, shouldn’t I make sure we didn’t miss each other emotionally? If I showed interest first, wouldn’t he dislike me less?
Killing someone just because they didn’t smile—
Then if I showed interest first, maybe it would be okay?
“I like you.”
I was a rat cornered with no escape.
And to survive, I was willing to do anything.
