“……Thank you.”
His heart finally began to thud wildly.
Suhyeon whispered as he tried to steady his startled breathing.
“This is why I said it’s dangerous.”
Hajin, who had remained silent until now, murmured quietly without taking his eyes off the scene.
His smooth forehead was creased with deep dissatisfaction.
-Gate cleared. Good work, everyone.
-No casualties, everyone is in good condition!
Soon, a call came through signaling that all the monsters were dead and the gate operation was wrapping up.
Hajin, who had been staring at the site without even blinking, finally looked down at Suhyeon in a hurry.
“Are you hurt anywhere? How is your guiding? Are you tired?”
“No, I’m okay.”
Suhyeon shook his head.
He was fine.
Aside from the moment his heart dropped when that tree came flying earlier, he was alright.
Color slowly returned to his face.
He felt like he finally understood what it meant for the danger of the field to involve more than just monsters.
“Wow, that was a great show!”
“Guide Chae Suhyeon, are you alright?”
Soon, a white light flashed in the air, and Lee Jeonghyeon, Lee Kyujin, and the other Espers returned.
Lee Kyujin’s playful remark and Lee Jeonghyeon’s worried voice hit Suhyeon at the same time.
It seemed they had also seen Suhyeon almost get into serious trouble at the end.
“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”
Suhyeon nodded to them just as he had to Hajin, and Lee Jeonghyeon let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Hey, come on. You have to expect that much when you come out to the field.”
“……Mr. Lee Kyujin, your words are a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
Lee Kyujin smiled thinly and spoke as if it were nothing.
Both Asher and Hajin frowned at the same time.
However, it was true, so Suhyeon simply nodded.
That flippant attitude was still somewhat unpleasant, though.
“Anyway, I saw it clearly, Guide! Hmm, I already thought your monster was pretty strong, but it was beyond my imagination. Since Esper Shin Hajin and Esper Delveron saw it too, they probably figured it out, but it seems to do the work of a low B-rank or a pretty decent C-rank Esper.”
“……Oh, really?”
Suhyeon asked back at the unexpectedly high evaluation.
Lee Kyujin shrugged and looked to Hajin and Asher for agreement.
“……Well, certainly. It was around that level.”
“In terms of pure combat power, I believe that is correct.”
Asher nodded brightly.
Even Hajin—who usually hissed at the fluffball for being a ripple in the water of Suhyeon’s safety—agreed with those words. It meant it was the truth.
“Congratulations, Guide. You’ve got real combat power now, haven’t you? That strength should be enough to keep that monster alive.”
Suhyeon bit his lip for a moment and then reflexively took the fluffball out.
“Gyuu….”
Perhaps it was tired after a big battle, as the fluffball was fast asleep, making soft snoring sounds.
“Well, from now on, it should be fine for you to come out to low-level gates like this. Once you get more used to the field and the other Espers get used to fighting alongside your monster, I think it’ll just do the job of an ordinary Esper. And, well……”
Suhyeon stared blankly at the fluffball, then snapped out of it and looked up at Lee Kyujin again.
The man trailed off and then tilted his head to the side.
“You know, Mr. Suhyeon. Taming monsters definitely wasn’t the end of your ability, right?”
“……I’m not really sure about that yet.”
Since he couldn’t say yes or no to something he wasn’t certain of, Suhyeon gave a vague answer.
Lee Kyujin hummed again and tilted his head the other way this time.
“Is that so?”
“What is it?”
Hajin narrowed his eyes because Lee Kyujin kept acting ambiguously.
When he asked sharply with a frown, Lee Kyujin playfully raised both arms.
“No, I’m just not sure if it’s because it’s been too long since I’ve been to a low-level gate like this, but it felt weaker than a normal Grade 2 gate. Oh, of course, I’m not saying the power measurement of the monster group was wrong. That much is certain. How was it for you guys?”
Lee Kyujin looked at the Espers who had cleared the gate with him, saying he was confused.
“I’m not sure……. It’s been a while since I’ve closed a Grade 2 gate myself.”
“Not for me either. I haven’t been to one since I first awakened.”
“……Me too.”
“Is that so……?”
Since they were all high-rank Espers, they didn’t seem to have a good feel for it.
“Well, I’ll just assume it was my imagination for now! We’ll find out more as we see more!”
Lee Kyujin waved it off, saying it was fine, and then cheekily said they should see each other again next time.
“As we see more?”
“Whaaat, he has to come a few more times. That’s how he keeps the monster group alive, right?”
When Hajin’s face twisted in anger, Lee Kyujin let out a light laugh and hid behind Lee Jeonghyeon, whispering loudly enough for everyone to hear that they should head back quickly.
Hajin’s expression grew even grimmer.
But Lee Kyujin left behind a quick “Sorry!” and vanished along with Lee Jeonghyeon and the rest of the Espers.
“……Wait, wasn’t I supposed to go with them?”
Only Asher, who was standing by Suhyeon’s side with Hajin, let out a dazed sound.
“Oh, they’re here. Mr. Suhyeon, it’s a shame, but if I cling to you now, I clearly won’t be able to see you next time, so let’s see each other again! Bye!”
Soon, Esper Lee Jeonghyeon seemed to realize his mistake and came back to grab Asher.
Asher waved his hand brightly with his green eyes shining before disappearing.
Suhyeon looked at the spot where Asher and the other Espers had been, the situation ending in a flash, then turned his head to look back at the scene from earlier.
As is usually the case where gates appear, the mountain valley that had been peaceful until a moment ago was now a complete mess.
At least it was a relief that there were no buildings nearby, and the horrific corpses of the monsters had already turned to ash and vanished.
This was the “field.”
Now that the gate was gone, the impulse and sense of familiarity that made him want to step forward as if possessed vanished, replaced by an awareness of the dangerous reality.
It was almost funny that he didn’t feel any actual fear, even though he had almost been in big trouble because of a flying tree and was currently looking at this wreckage.
“Suhyeon, shall we go?”
Suhyeon stared at the site for a long time before turning his head toward Hajin, who was calling him.
Hajin, standing side by side with the returned Lee Jeonghyeon, held out his hand.
When he took that hand, the now-familiar white light enveloped his vision, and his home welcomed him back.
And so, Suhyeon’s first practical experience at a gate site came to an end.
*
After that first trip to a gate site, time truly flew by.
The Association, having received reports from the Espers who went to the gate with Suhyeon, made a request—or rather, a polite demand—that Suhyeon go out to the field a bit more whenever low-rank gates appeared.
And funnily enough, once he was in that position, Grade 1 gates that never appeared during a Rush, Grade 2 gates like the previous one, and even gates as high as Grade 3 began to emerge.
It was as if the heavens wanted him to be out on the field.
Once they had been to the combat zone four or five times and Suhyeon and the fluffball became better at handling the field, the Association began sending B-rank Espers instead of A-ranks.
It was a development they had somewhat expected.
When the rank of the accompanying Espers went down and the number of support Espers even decreased, Hajin and Asher became furious.
However, the Association retorted that they were doing so precisely because those two were there and could be trusted.
Still, it was a relief that there was always at least one A-rank Esper, like Lee Kyujin or Lee Jeonghyeon, who always came out when the timing was right.
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely true. This must be one of the Guide’s abilities too.”
As time passed and Suhyeon’s number of field experiences piled up, he learned a new fact about his ability.
It seemed he was lowering the power of the gates.
Since he wasn’t the one actually fighting, this was quite difficult to understand, but it basically meant that when Suhyeon was nearby, the strength of the monsters coming out of the gate became a bit weaker.
Naturally, the Association was thrilled, and Suhyeon began to be called out every time there was a low-level gate.
It wasn’t extremely difficult, but it was still exhausting.
Plus, just because he wasn’t afraid didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous at all.
And even though Asher and Hajin watched over him with sharp eyes, something dangerous would splash or fly toward Suhyeon once or even two or three times every time he went out, just like that tree stump from the first time.
When there were buildings nearby, concrete fragments would fly, or on bad days, even the corpses of monsters would go airborne.
There was even a time when a monster approached right under his nose while the fluffball and the Espers were switching turns.
When they were in the mountains, the ground had even collapsed once.
Lately, the frequency of such dangerous situations had increased significantly, making him feel for certain that gates were dangerous places.
However, humans are creatures of habit.
After going through it every time, Suhyeon gradually became desensitized, and since Hajin and Asher blocked everything that flew his way, he felt at ease.
Hajin tried to persuade him to stop every time they returned because it was dangerous, but on the other hand, he also seemed to look favorably upon Suhyeon and the fluffball developing their abilities.
As the trips to the gate sites repeated and increased, Suhyeon eventually found himself heading to a Grade 13 gate site.
