“Can you let go?”

As he was about to open his eyes, Aselia covered his eyes, barely grasping her necklace with her free hand.

“Am I still dreaming?”

“Yes, it is a dream. So stay like that. I will hate you if you open your eyes.”

“… yes.”

Aselia gently removed her hand. He still had his eyes closed, so she reached for the necklace, feeling fortunate. As she struggled to get away from him, he loosened his arms. Then she tried to get away, but he flipped her over.

That was the moment.

“Yeah. It is still a dream.”

He said that as he closed her eyes and covered her body with his own.

“I told you not to open your eyes… .”

“It’s still closed.”

Hearing his voice in her ears, Aselia suddenly felt her face heat up. Her body was still exhausted, but it had recovered a little because she had woken up. But it was hard because her body was so numb.

“Is this really a dream?”

She stretched out her arms at his question. She reached out to the necklace between the towels. Grabbing it, she turned her body over, holding her chain in her hand.

Then, with his eyes closed, she stared at Kalisten’s muscular upper body, imprisoning her body like a barbed wire.

“Yes,”

She answered briefly, examining his collarbone and pectoral muscles. Looking at it with a clear mind, he looked like a perfect statue.

Aselia quickly put her necklace around her neck and then scratched her fingernails across the top of his chest.

“Oh… . What are you doing?”

“I do not know.”

Then, she scratched the same fingernail mark on his shoulder that she had left yesterday. When she returned to being a man, she was able to leave a more accurate mark compared to yesterday, perhaps because the strength in her hand had changed.

“Can you get out of the way now?”

Then he opened his eyes.

“You said it was a dream.”

“Yes.”

Aselia looked at him, her gaze strangely sinking.

Kalisten was taken aback. Aselia always reflexively smiled at him but now didn’t smile even when they met eyes.

“I want to go back to my room now. I am so tired.”

“Huh? When did you come?”

Without answering his words, she slowly tried to push his shoulder.

“I just came. As soon as I arrived, you hugged me.”

“Then why did you say it was a dream?”

“I… .”

Aselia’s attitude, as if she really wanted him to be a dream, came out involuntarily.

“As grade A, I must obey a Z-ranker unconditionally.”

At her words, he kept his mouth shut.

It wasn’t until around breakfast time that Ivan arrived and took Aselia back to Building A.

***

“Deputy Director.”

The deputy director gave instructions to Ivan in the lab.

“When you’re done checking, burn it.”

“Yes, but do you really only want to modify food for A-702? Then the distribution system and order will be disturbed.”

“Since when are you in a position to question my orders?”

“Sorry.”

Ivan read the documents handed over, surprised that only Aselia’s food was assigned to another test subject, not in order to be changed. Then, surprised that he hadn’t read or noticed the back page before he glanced over at the deputy director’s information.

“Ah, it’s because of the second stage of awakening. I was foolish, apologies.”

“No, it’s okay. When you’re done, go out.”

“Yes, Deputy Director.”

Ivan was uneasy when he learned that only Aselia’s routine was altered for the second stage of Kalisten’s awakening.

Kalisten couldn’t even reach the 1st stage of the 1st awakening with a tolerable shock. It seemed that for the second step, the deputy director might really be trying to display Aselia dying right in front of his eyes.

“You shouldn’t give affection.”

Even while Ivan was talking to himself like that, he couldn’t pretend he didn’t know, perhaps because he remembered Aselia’s pure expression when looking at him.

So he decided to contact Alexis secretly.