Chapter 50: A nun?

"She was born belonging to Earth."

The words inexplicably struck a chord in Bunny. Yes—she too had been born belonging to Earth.

San seemed a little sorrowful. Today was the anniversary of his mother’s death. When he was very small he could still remember how she used to hold him on the tower rooftop and watch the stars.

His father had taught her that habit. Ever since the day his father had pulled her out of a pile of corpses, she had lived inside the sentinel tower—until people from Central forcibly took her away.

"After Mother left, Father’s temperament changed completely. He seemed to pour every drop of hatred onto me."

Beatings, electric shocks, confinement in dark rooms... countless methods of torment and abuse. No matter how heart-rendingly he cried, his father never stopped.

He couldn’t understand. None of it had been his fault.

San gazed quietly at the pitch-black sky. His mother had died, and his father had followed her in death. That year he had only been eleven years old.

A sentinel who lost his guide was like a fish that lost the sea, a star that lost the moon, a sailor who lost the lighthouse.

"People are no different from everything else in this world."

The night wind grew stronger, stretching her final words into a long, soft trail.

"Your mother merely stepped out of time and became one of the most primitive components of the universe. In a thousand years, ten thousand years, a hundred million years, she will eventually reassemble into all the matter around you again."

"Just like us. When our bodies dissolve into the wind and sand and break down into particles that return to the cosmos, perhaps years later we will meet again on another planet."

That was the eternity spoken of in physics.

"San, human beings can also possess another kind of eternity—the same kind as the Rosette Nebula."

The fierce, cold wind flung her hair high, letting it dance wildly across her face. San’s gaze shifted from the night sky to her eyes. Both were pure black—yet hers seemed far brighter.

The wind carried her words straight into the center of his heart. In that instant, the sudden flutter of feeling synchronized with his breathing.

The lines of the woman’s brows and eyes became eternal in that moment.

Comforting someone was not difficult. What was difficult was empathy—the ability to truly sense another person’s emotions. A cold era produced cold people.

Fortunately, Bunny was not one of them.

She was a treasure the gods had brought them from the past.

That sentence would become a truth they believed in for the rest of their lives.

San suddenly threw himself into her arms in a full-body bear hug. Those genuine, solid muscles nearly flattened her into a pancake. He was far too heavy! She was going to die!!

She pounded desperately at his back and even tried to tickle the sensitive spots on his lower abdomen—only to find nothing but hard, unyielding abs.

"Get off! You’re crushing me!"

His embrace was so tight she could barely breathe.

Finally, San pushed his upper body up on his arms. Something like burning fire seemed to flow in his eyes.

"Can I kiss you?"

He wanted, wanted, wanted, wanted (ten thousand words omitted here...) to kiss her!

Kiss her while holding her, kiss her while pinning her down, press her onto a bed and kiss her without stopping.

Bunny gulped for air. "No!"

"Just one kiss, please? Please..."

He was persistent to the point of shamelessness.

"Get lost."

She tried hard to cover his mouth with her hands, looking exactly like a little cat pinned under a large dog, frantically scratching at its snout with her paws.

"If you keep this up, I’ll get angry!"

The guide’s threat seemed to have some effect. San stopped and studied her as if she were an alien.

"You’re a really strange woman."

Other guides, upon meeting sentinels, would immediately reach out to feel their chests and abs—sometimes even lower—to check the size and shape.

That was important. It was the primary standard for choosing a sentinel husband.

This was all senior experience gathered from the internet.

Yet Bunny acted as though she had completely severed desire. Toward a group of sentinels with full chests and firm backsides, she seemed to have zero interest.

Was she planning to become a nun?

San had no way of knowing that Bunny merely possessed the heart for it and lacked the courage.

The night was already deep. The temperature difference between day and night on Earth was extreme. Afraid she would catch a chill, San carried her back inside.

Their figures disappeared from the rooftop. At a diagonally opposite glass window, Astin coldly took in every detail of their interaction.

Hmph. The slutty ones always rose the fastest.

San delivered Bunny back to her room, then casually picked up her work tablet and began scrolling through something.

When he finally returned the tablet, the corner of his mouth curved upward.

"Bunny, if you ever need anything, you can come find me anytime."

Her gaze fell on the tablet. It was his identity information interface. One enlarged column leaped into view:

Length: 23 cm.

Holy crap!

Bunny felt as though she had stumbled into the animal kingdom.

A radio voice automatically began playing inside her head:

Spring has arrived, all living things begin to revive, and once again it is the season for mating...

STOP! The body proportions of ancient humans and sentinels were completely incompatible!

No way, no way!

"Good night, little bunny."

A kiss steeped in the strong scent of amber pine resin landed on her cheek—moist and scorching hot.

By the time she realized she had been stealth-kissed, San had already grabbed her small hand, forced it to stroke a full circle across his broad chest and abs, then strolled away with his hands in his pockets, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

Her face darkened. "You stinking beast!"

Rin floated out from somewhere unknown and began analyzing the data with complete seriousness:

"When he kissed you just now, your heart rate exceeded 150 beats per minute. When you touched his pectoral and abdominal muscles, the dopamine secretion in your brain reached peak levels..."

"Bunny, your positive-emotion threshold has remained relatively low for a long time. Evidence shows that touching the sentinels’ chest muscles more often will make you feel happier and help prevent depression."

"Stop analyzing me. Go cool off somewhere else."