MTM 151

That night, Harto dreamed of a white butterfly. Its wings radiated a light so bright it was almost blinding. Harto watched the butterfly flying in the dim hospital room, with the blinds drawn.

“…Huh?”

This dream was pleasant, unlike his previous ones, but Harto suddenly felt a disturbance in the air. It was because the butterfly, which had been flitting between the medical equipment hung with tubes, the window, and occasionally over his shoulders and the backs of his hands, had suddenly soared up and now circled near the ceiling.

Only then did Harto realize something was wrong.

“W-water…!”

Water seeping in from somewhere began to rise from the floor of the hospital room. It rose so quickly that he hadn’t noticed, and soon lapped up to just below his bed.

Panicked, Harto struggled to escape, but his body wouldn’t move. His screams went unheard, and though he hoped a nurse holding a chart would appear, the closed door wouldn’t open. In desperation, he could only stare back and forth between the butterfly and the window with its blinds drawn.

Was this just another nightmare destined to end in tragedy? Harto closed his eyes to turn away from the coming terror. He desperately wished to wake up from this dreadful dream.

Then it suddenly dawned on him.

‘I know it’s a dream… so why do I feel so helpless?’

After all, once he woke up from this dream, all fear would be over. Thinking that, Harto felt himself relax. It occurred to him that perhaps this was a dream created by his subconscious, urging him to face the sudden crisis head-on.

He mustered his courage and gently opened his eyes. As he did, the scene before him became clearer.

“Ah…”

Before he realized it, the water had completely engulfed his body. Yet he didn’t feel suffocated or short of breath. Even in a dream, he had expected the water to be cold, but it was warm like a human embrace. A pleasant sensation submerged his body. And his stiff limbs began to move.

Harto swam and lifted his head toward the ceiling. The white butterfly was no longer on the ceiling. Instead, it had landed on the objects bobbing on the water’s surface.

Only then did Harto realize that the water filling the hospital room was not a threat, but a kind of protective barrier created by the butterfly.

“Who… are you…?”

For the first time, Harto questioned the butterfly’s existence.

Until now, he had believed that this recurring dream was merely a fragment of his subconscious, born from the trauma of his past life and the anxiety of his present one. After all, terrible memories, like the sight of the nurse melting away while mentioning Hartiros amidst the flames, had often consumed his dreams.

But now he was certain. Beyond the rippling visit our site waves and the butterfly’s wings, this dream aimed to convey an important message to him.

“Ah…”

Just as that thought crossed his mind, Harto returned to reality. It felt as though the physical sensations from the dream still lingered, and he spaced out for a moment.

A moment later, he realized he was lying in his quarters at the temple. And beside him was Zed, with whom he had shared warmth and fallen asleep the night before. Judging by the lightening darkness outside the window, the sun would rise soon.

Harto rolled onto his side and turned his head toward Zed. In the quiet room, where only the sound of breathing could be heard, Zed’s sculpted face filled his vision. As he gazed upon his beloved’s beautiful form, a gentle smile appeared on Harto’s lips.

He cautiously reached out and gently stroked Zed’s face, which remained perfectly composed even in sleep. Starting from the smooth bridge of his nose, tracing the gentle curve of his lips, and ending at the upturned corners of his mouth, he traced their contours. At that slight touch, Zed’s facial muscles twitched. Startled, Harto quickly pulled his hand away. Fortunately, Zed didn’t wake up.

Harto lowered his gaze to Zed’s slightly parted lips. They were flushed a deeper red than usual. He knew exactly why. It was because those lips had tormented him all night long.

‘Harto, don’t close your eyes. Look at me…’

‘Call my name. Keep calling it.’

‘Don’t avoid me. Please…’

Zed’s plaintive voice tickled his heart once more, and Harto’s cheeks flushed crimson.

Others might have thought it was just a whiny display of affection, but throughout the night filled with passion, Zed had constantly yearned for him. Under normal circumstances, he would have turned his head away in embarrassment and refused, but last night, he simply couldn’t bring himself to do so.

‘Zed… uh, Zed…’

Harto willingly complied with Zed’s wishes. He wanted to quell his anxiety, so he embraced him far more passionately than usual. He stretched out his arms to wrap them tightly around Zed’s neck, and despite the shame, he did not avert his gaze. He simply could not turn away from the pity he saw in those fiery golden eyes.

Even though Harto had given him permission to do whatever he wanted, Zed never made any unreasonable or forceful demands. Instead, he simply caressed and savored every inch of Harto’s pale body as if he were starving.

His hot breath touched Harto’s delicate skin, and he pressed his lips against his inner thighs, ankles, and even licked the secretive areas of his armpits, Harto couldn’t help but let out a series of moans.

‘Ah, ha, don’t… Zed, hng! Ahg…!’

‘Harto?’

‘Huh, ha, I told you not to, uh, I did… hic…’

Eventually, overwhelmed by the sensation, Harto burst into tears. Before those tears could even roll down his cheeks, Zed wiped them all away. It was an obsession, as if he didn’t want to miss a single thing coming from Harto.

‘Zed…! I, uh, what should I… Hic, what, what came out…!’

Even after that, as he lay in Zed’s arms, a thin liquid poured out from the tip of Harto’s half-erect penis. Faced with this unfamiliar sensation he’d never experienced before, Harto felt as if his heart had suddenly dropped. He was suddenly terrified, wondering if he’d done something wrong.

But Zed gently soothed the shocked Harto. Since there was no smell, it was just something that came out because he was feeling it so intensely, and it was fine. Zed also seemed surprised, saying that theoretical knowledge learned at the imperial palace was different from actual experience, but his eyes were brighter than ever.

‘Ugh, heh, I’m exhausted… Now… stop… Ugh…’

After that, he lost count of how many more times he connected with Zed. Every time his body shook, a watery substance kept trickling out of his genitals, and Zed pressed his lips against it as if even that were adorable. Harto couldn’t even bring himself to ask to stop as he watched Zed suck on the tip of his glans.

The good news was that the more Zed immersed himself in sex, the more his anxiety seemed to subside. Unlike Harto, who could barely answer his questions, Zed looked as lively as ever.

“Harto… Shall we go back to the cabin? Let’s live there and hunt like we used to. Without anyone knowing, just the two of us.”

Those were the words Zed whispered into Harto’s ear as they lay connected to the very depths. At the time, Harto had simply replied, “Yes…,” but now that he thought about it, he wondered why Zed had said such a thing.

“Could it be….”

Overcome by a sudden wave of anxiety, Harto clutched the blanket tightly.

“I mean… if it’s because of me…”

His voice caught in his throat, and he couldn’t say anything more. He didn’t know what to do if the reason Zed had suggested leaving everything behind and going to the cabin just the two of them was because of him. No, actually, he knew it. He knew he had to leave Zed. That he had to accept his predetermined fate, even now….

But Harto didn’t want to. He had vowed time and again to defy fate as he continued his journey with Zed and fell in love with him. Yet now he felt that such resolve and promises alone were insufficient. That was likely because he hadn’t been able to properly face the true nature of the being known as “Hartiros” himself, and had been turning away from it all along.

‘That note Robert gave me…’

Harto recalled the note Robert had entrusted to him to deliver to Zed. He thought it would be best to see for himself the books said to contain records about Hartiros. He wondered if that might have been the meaning behind the message in his dream. He could no longer use his ignorance as an excuse to avoid the issue and put Zed’s heart in jeopardy.

As if to prove Harto’s determination, dazzling sunlight streamed through the small window. He gently shielded Zed’s face with his palm so the light wouldn’t touch him, then rose silently to his feet.