'M-Mother?'
Cain took a cold breath. He stared at the girl's quivering eyes. Luna bit her lips, trying not to let the tears gathered in her eyes spill.
Seeing her fragile expression, the boy almost loosened the grip on her wrist and gave her the freedom to leave. But his hand unknowingly clenched hard, causing the girl in front of him to widen her eyes, seeing the determination in the boy's eyes.
Cain took a deep breath, and he didn't know why, but his intuition kept blaring the alarm that if he let go of the girl's hand, things would turn out worse than they already were.
He gulped and stepped forward to shorten the distance between him and Luna. Also, when in a crucial situation that rattled one's own feelings, the presence of another person was very crucial.
His right hand reached for Luna's shoulder, which was also trembling. Cain put a bit of strength into his hand and shook her, causing the girl to focus on him. He opened his mouth, trying to speak as calmly as possible.
"What happened to your mother?"
The situation between them quickly reversed. The girl, who was worried about Cain's well-being, was now worried the other way around.
The warmth gripping her hand and shoulder spread throughout her body, making the chilling cold that enveloped her heart disappear. It brought a little clarity to her head.
Luna gaped, but could not squeeze out the words caught in her throat. She clenched her fist, her nails piercing the skin of her palm.
"It's okay. Let's calm down first."
Hearing the gentle tone coming from the mouth of the boy in front of her, Luna blinked, then inhaled the air that carried the sweet scent of the chocolate drink she had spilled.
Her blurred vision returned to normal, showing a tear streaming down her cheek. Even so, Luna regained her composure and nodded.
"...Just now I received news from my servant, she said my mother's health is declining."
"Is she sick, or what?"
The girl shook her head, her lips pressed together, slightly hesitant to reveal it in public like this.
Indeed, although a person infected with the cosmic virus cannot transmit the virus to others, what happened after was a fate worse than death, as the person would experience decay until the rotten flesh would engulf the surrounding metal to form a shell, turning them into a mindless virus beast.
Luna was aware that the news of someone being infected could cause uproar for ordinary people, who rely too much on the Babylon city's defense system.
They would surely panic due to the threat of the virus beast. What Luna feared later was that the commotion would spread like a wildfire and would cause a bad impact on her family's legacy and the people around her.
"Senior Luna?"
The girl raised her downcast gaze, her closed lips opened.
"...It's a virus, contamination."
Her voice slowly became inaudible at the end, like a whisper. But it was ingrained into the boy's head.
Luna's eyebrow wrinkled, feeling a tight squeeze on her wrist and shoulder. She glanced towards Cain's. His black pupils shrank, the boy's expressions tightened before turning flat in a blink.
Without her realizing it, her body was pulled and forced to follow as Cain strolled away from the not-too-crowded park. The girl looked at the boy's hand, which held her wrist tightly, as if he didn't want to let go.
"C-Cain?"
She tried to convey something, but the words coming from his mouth made her brain shut down temporarily.
"Don't worry, everything's going to be alright."
Her blue eyes widened, a fragment from the past reappeared, recreating the scene in which she was being pulled by a gray-haired boy in a dimly lit alley while being chased by the malicious voices of adults with bad intentions towards them.
'As I thought. You really are...'
At the beginning of their encounter, Luna already had a sense of deja vu, as if feeling a familiar aura from the boy in front of her. But it was only fleeting and did not last long, so she did not pay much attention to it.
However, in the next meeting and the others, that sensation returned with great intensity. It aroused Luna's curiosity towards Cain, which reopened her grim, yet at the same time, happy memories.
Little by little, the emotion that Luna thought she had eliminated slowly returned when she met Cain. Then, the climax came now, when Cain uttered the exact same words as the boy who led her in that darkness towards the light of salvation.
Her vision split into two, showing her younger and present selves, both seeing the boy's back merge, reigniting the long-lost warmth in her heart.
*Thump!
The throbbing in her heart reverberated in her ears. Luna reached out to her left chest, which was hot, pumping vitality through his veins, and melted all the worries in her heart.
Her quivering lips cured, showing a tiny smile.
'...Thank you, Cain.'
Cain, who was standing by the side of the road, raised his hand when he saw a blue sedan with a neon sign on top. Its four wheels screeched as it came to a halt in front of him.
The passenger door opened automatically with a click, allowing him to enter while leading Senior Luna, who had been silent all this time.
"Senior, watch your head."
After the two of them entered and sat in the soft passenger seat, the passenger door closed with a thud. Cain turned his gaze forward and locked eyes with the driver, who was wearing a blue uniform.
"Dear customer, where are you going?"
Although his passengers were children, the driver's attitude and professionalism were commendable.
Cain leaned forward, trying to peek at senior Luna's face, who was looking down and cast a sorrowful gaze.
"Senior, is the Winterfell residence our destination?"
The girl's body flinched as she glanced at his side, nodding. Cain nodded and turned towards the driver, making eye contact.
"Winterfell house, please."
"Alright. Please fasten your seatbelts."
Cain and Luna carefully pulled the seatbelt latch on the side. They then wrapped it around their chests diagonally and pushed the latch into the buckles with a click.
At the same time, the soft vibrating car engine roared, causing the four wheels below to rub against the road asphalt, and the vehicle drove away from the park.
Silence struck the narrow cabin. Cain never took his eyes off the girl who was sitting limply like a doll whose string was cut.
He gritted his teeth and, without the boy knowing, Cain clenched the girl's hand, which made her eyebrow twitch.
'How is this? I did say that to Senior Luna earlier. But, honestly I don't have a way or means to help her.'
His body could indeed absorb and store virus energy, but to absorb it from someone else's body, that was definitely not possible.
At a time like this, his conversation with Albert in that narrow room came to mind; the conversation about a cure, or the potential within him to bring salvation to many people.
If he could, Cain wanted to punch his past self for saying irresponsible things to Luna, and for not giving some space to at least look further into what the experiment Albert was going to do on him was.
He wrinkled his eyebrows, then leaned back in his seat. His skull started to throb, as if wanting to burst, his free right hand clenched hard.
'Seriously, what should I do?'
In his despair, a blue panel suddenly appeared in front of Cain as if to answer his host's lament.
[Limit Break lv 2 New abilities added!]
> The user's dantian has been opened. (It works as a reservoir to store excess cosmic virus.)
> It can now absorb and store corruption from the atmosphere, living organisms, or objects more proficiently. The stored virus can be used as fuel to enhance user parameters (5X) and can be stacked twice (using the virus in a reservoir, which will boost the parameters to 10X).
> Cooldown: 12 hours.
Cain was silent; his eyelids blinked several times. Yet the panel in front of him did not disappear; instead, it felt real, which froze him. Unable to do anything.
'You kidding me!'