As their eyes met, as if asking what was about to happen, a spark flew between the dark pupils when lips met the inside of an ankle.

"Ah... Hmm!"

It was simply an expression of the joy he was currently feeling, having always wanted to kiss those feet. Yet Yuder's reaction was far more intense than Kishiar had anticipated. Yuder had always been sensitive to every touch and kiss, but this level of heated gaze made every other reaction seem insignificant.

"There...,"

"Didn't you like it?"

"..."

Yuder, who was never one to hide his feelings, couldn't bring himself to say he disliked it. He merely gritted his teeth and mumbled a single phrase.

"It's not clean enough for you to touch with your mouth."

As if there was any part of him that wasn't clean enough for that.

"There's no such place."

Had Yuder said he didn't like it, Kishiar would have stopped immediately, but since that wasn't the case, it didn't matter. With a laugh, Kishiar pressed his lips against the ankle once more. The toes and calf twitched, as if wanting to pull away, but Yuder did not withdraw his foot from Kishiar. Meanwhile, the connection between them continued to transmit a pleasure that felt almost molten, moving smoothly or rapidly as the situation demanded.

Basking in Yuder's gaze, which seemed hot enough to consume him, Kishiar softly squinted his eyes. He'd never put much effort into appearing seductive to anyone, but he felt that if he could relish moments like this for a long time, he could do so quite easily.

Slowly moving his lips up the ankle, he pressed them against the heel and bit the well-defined Achilles tendon like a fruit. Each time, Yuder tensed his intertwined body, closing his eyes tightly and reopening them, and the moans and breaths escaping both of them progressively heightened the atmosphere.

"Ah, haa... Hmm..."

"Ha, ah..."

The body that moved robustly and elastically, savoring the stimulation Kishiar gave, never let go of their intertwined hands. Even while their bodies shook and their mouths tasted each other, Yuder's gaze never left Kishiar.

He seemed intent on figuring out everything—what Kishiar was doing, what sensations he was experiencing, when his eyes closed at a nibble or movement, and what would almost make him lose his rationality. Or perhaps, he already knew half of it.

That gaze.

The look that seemed ready to devour and relish every nuance of the pleasure the other felt was, for Kishiar, more intensely stimulating than the physical pleasure their union was bringing.

Never had anyone scrutinized his pleasure so closely, so greedily.

If anyone else had tried to do so, he would have closed himself off, feeling it to be too intrusive. But because it was Yuder, he gladly opened up.

As time passed, the rhythm of their breathing began to change, becoming shorter and faster. While Yuder's physical pleasure seemed to be more focused toward the front and other parts of his body than his rear, it was somewhat natural given that his primary gender was male. Nevertheless, his body, dutifully receiving and storing up pleasure, finally sent an urgent signal to Kishiar as it neared its limit.

Sensing Yuder's impending limit, Kishiar repositioned the ankle that had still been resting on his shoulder.

Then, as if to show off, he opened his lips that were tightly sealed, kissed the curled toes, and while looking into the slightly enlarged eyes, bit them with his tongue and teeth.

At the same time, he moved his waist and penetrated deeper than ever before. Reflexively, Yuder's insides, which had been soft to accept him, smoothly opened up, making way. The sensation of his body pushing in without any resistance and hitting a wall deep inside sent shivers down his spine.

A heat that seemed to pierce from the top of his head to his toes flashed white before his eyes.

"..."

Both of them were immersed in the intense shock and pleasure, and Yuder's mouth opened silently. His wet eyelashes trembled uncontrollably, and the strength inside his body was incomparable to before. The toes that Kishiar bit seemed to have been struck by lightning, curling up and then stretching out, and a moan filled with desire flowed out.

"Ah... Ahh..."

Yuder tried to hold himself, but before he could stop it, it started between his stiff fingers. The unstoppable liquid not only wet his palm and thighs but also splashed between his chest and Kishiar's body.

The beautiful line drawn by his desperate and stiff body, the moment when the climaxing flesh seemed to melt, Kishiar watched it all without even taking a breath. The sight of his sweaty neck pulsating with his heavy breathing, the chest that had lost its original pale color and was now heaving, and the fingers wet with the hot and pungent liquid trembling and twitching.

Until the very end, when Kishiar's trembling body finally calmed down and his closed eyelids opened again, he didn't want to miss a thing. He couldn't afford to.

And only after he was certain that he had witnessed all of it, Kishiar, with eyes shining with joy, released the strength with which he had bound his body like chains. The thing that slid out of Yuder's insides immediately ejaculated in his hand. As he exhaled a long breath and opened his eyes that had been closed for a while, he saw Yuder's eyes staring at him with a peculiar expression.

"...Why didn’t you just do it??"

The cold voice that came out between the breaths that hadn't yet fully subsided was terribly provocative.

He had expected some words after it was over, but he hadn't expected such a question, so Kishiar jokingly replied, "I thought you'd complain about me biting your toes, but is that your first question?"

"I don't care about that. I'm more curious about why you didn't just do it."

To the lovely and honest question, Kishiar willingly answered, "Our primary genders are the same, but our secondary genders are different. Do you remember the research of Bertrail Shand Apeto?"

Beltrail Shan Apeto, now dead in prison, had committed horrific acts against the Awakeners in a quest to remedy his own cursed body.

He had gathered powerless commoners who had Awakened from all over the empire, almost kidnapping them. Initially, he attempted to transform himself into an Awakener by exchanging his blood with theirs, but after failing, he moved on to forcing Awakeners with second gender to conceive children, with the intention of observing the process. It was a brutal course of action born from the belief that only by understanding how certain children were born could he produce offspring not cursed with his tainted blood.

In this process, many were either killed or disposed of; half of the survivors were rescued by the Cavalry, while the other half were taken by Nahan's forces.

Kishiar had read all the research journals Beltrail had written. Speaking with survivors who had come into the Cavalry, Kishiar's conclusion was as follows:

"The chance of a child being born between Awakeners with second gender is extremely low. And even if conception occurs, the likelihood of the child being born safely is even slimmer. Beltrail noted in his journal that he had never seen a child born successfully. Every verified case ended in miscarriage or in the sudden death of the experimental subject."

Two years had passed since the Awakeners had revealed themselves to the world. Beltrail had been conducting his research for nearly a year. Since the experiments were not conducted under proper conditions, there were no instances of a child being born safely. However, Kishiar did not have even a shred of desire to associate this matter with Yuder Aile and embark on an adventure.

He looked up at Yuder, who was gazing at him with a peculiar expression, and kissed Yuder lightly on the forehead, smiling faintly.

"So, please understand."

"…Commander, um, I see."

Yuder, uncharacteristically for him, chose his words with great difficulty. Sensing what Yuder wanted to ask, Kishiar spoke again.

"It's hard to be certain whether my body is capable of having a child or not. Before I became an Awakener, it would've been definitely impossible, but after Awakening, it's uncertain. And it's not something I can test with anyone."

Even Mick Shuden, who had the ability to see the essence of things, could not provide a definitive answer on this matter, because what he could see did not pertain to the ability to conceive a child.

"…"

"Rather than that, would you come lie down next to me?"

Kishiar lay down beside Yuder and pulled him onto his body. Yuder hesitated for a moment but did not resist; he quietly and carefully rested his cheek on Kishiar's chest. The overlapping warmth of their bodies offered a deep sense of comfort, and the lingering sensation of pleasure was pleasantly felt.