* * *
Raon couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not.
Even with his past life and experience with all kinds of people, Ruka was unlike anyone he’d ever met.
His smile froze into awkwardness.
“What the hell are you saying, Doctor?!”
Haedam suddenly yelled from beside them.
Raon was more startled by his voice than Ruka’s question.
“What? What’s wrong with asking?”
“This is exactly why we can’t leave you alone with patients! I knew you’d pull something with Team Leader Raon!”
“‘Pull something’? I’m being serious, you know.”
“Oh, I’m sure you are.”
As Haedam and Ruka bickered, Raon quietly withdrew his hand and offered a tight smile.
Haedam turned to him with an apologetic look.
“Sorry, Team Leader Raon. The doctor’s always like this—please don’t take it seriously.”
“Haha, it’s okay.”
“I wasn’t pulling anything!”
Ruka retorted loudly, his expression surprisingly earnest.
“You never know unless you ask someone good-looking, right?”
“Honestly…”
Haedam shook his head, clearly done with it, and began preparing for the exam by himself.
The room wasn’t crowded—probably because it was lunchtime.
Most powered personnel preferred early checkups before heading out on missions, so the Center likely scheduled break times around that.
“Looks like I came in while everyone else is resting.”
“It’s okay. That’s why I came along, after all.”
Haedam smiled reassuringly as he deftly handled the machine.
Ruka, who had been quietly standing by, let out a long yawn and walked over to the equipment.
Raon also took off his coat and attached a patch to his forearm.
“Hm? You seem used to the tests.”
“Well, I’ve done several compatibility tests before. I’ve also had a toxicity screening once.”
In truth, Raon had undergone it a few more times before his regression.
Keeping that to himself, he quickly finished preparing for the test.
The large machine connected to the patch on his arm started to hum and clatter.
“Ahh, I wonder if there’s any Esper interested in regular people.”
“Maybe the problem is your lack of seriousness, Doctor.”
“What do you mean lack of seriousness? You won’t find anyone more grounded than me.”
The two couldn’t go a minute without bickering again.
Ruka protested in self-defense, clearly feeling wronged by Haedam’s jab.
Raon watched them with curiosity.
The Ruka he’d met before his regression wasn’t like this at all.
Back then, with the world on the verge of collapse, Ruka had a face full of despair, looking ready to fall apart at any moment.
Of course, not many people were different at that time.
‘So this is what he’s like when things are normal… so lively.’
Seeing him banter with Haedam brought a smile to Raon’s face.
Ruka, noticing Raon smiling, clicked his tongue.
“Wow, you look even more handsome when you smile.”
“Cut it out, seriously.”
“What? I’m not allowed to admire someone?”
He even joked about asking for an autograph later.
Raon watched the cheerful Ruka and casually spoke up.
“You wrote the paper ‘Basic Principles of Gates and Their Effects on Humanity’, didn’t you, Doctor?”
“Huh?”
At Raon’s words, Ruka widened his eyes behind his glasses, then immediately perked up.
“What, you actually read it?”
“Yes, it’s quite well-known. It’s even included in guide training materials.”
“Most people don’t even know I wrote it though.”
Ruka scratched his head sheepishly—an uncharacteristic moment of bashfulness.
Well, no one really cared about the authors of academic papers.
It wasn’t like school where names mattered for grades.
But Raon had paid attention to that paper even before his regression.
Even if it was all part of a fictional world, he’d learned a lot from reading it.
“The truth is, even now, countless experts haven’t fully figured out how Gates work, have they?”
“Right. There are just too many theories.”
And among them, the one considered most credible now was Ruka’s.
While many scholars had argued Gates were naturally occurring, Ruka disagreed.
He insisted they were intrusions—gateways to another world.
He described Gates as bridges connecting to unknown dimensions beyond, emphasizing that if they weren’t stopped, invasion was inevitable.
Critics of his theory had no solid counterargument to explain the creatures inside the Gates, and now Ruka’s view had become the prevailing one in academia.
Raon agreed with it too.
“Espers awakened their powers due to the Gates’ influence—especially the more powerful ones.”
“What about guides, then?”
“You said you read my paper, didn’t you? You’re asking on purpose.”
“Haha, you caught me.”
Ruka gave Raon a sideways glance, but seemed pleased—maybe it had been a while since someone showed genuine interest in his work.
“There’s little debate that Espers’ abilities awaken due to Gates. Their physical readings align with Gate wavelengths.”
“Right.”
“But Guides are different. Physically, they’re the same as regular people. Their bodies don’t match the Gate’s wavelengths, and whenever they return from inside one, we have to test for toxicity separately.”
“So Guides have nothing to do with Gates?”
“No—this part probably isn’t in the Center’s official materials. But I believe Guides are affected by the Gates, same as Espers. The difference is what exactly is doing the influencing.”
“The subject of the influence?”
“Exactly.”
Ruka nodded while fiddling with the machine, his violet eyes behind the glass turning serious.
“I think Guides are this world’s response—created to oppose the Gates.”
“Hm, that’s a fresh perspective.”
“Think about it. When Espers get contaminated, they go berserk. It’s a power from another world, so of course it causes side effects when overused here. So this world—maybe subconsciously—produced Guides to stabilize them.”
“Like a god intervening?”
“Is that what you’d call it? I just see it as a kind of homeostasis.”
“Like how the ocean doesn’t let itself get polluted?”
“Something like that.”
Even hearing it again, Raon found Ruka’s theory deeply intriguing.
Before his regression, when he wasn’t bound by the system while acting as Han Raon, he had secretly read Ruka’s paper.
Coming from another world himself, Ruka’s ideas had struck him especially hard.
Beep.
“Test results are in.”
A mechanical voice chimed as Haedam checked the machine.
Raon peeled off the patch and pulled his sleeve back down, then slipped into his coat.
“Hm, this is…”
“No abnormalities, right?”
Raon ran a hand through his hair, expecting a routine answer.
Even before the regression, his body had been surprisingly robust for a Guide, so he assumed the results would be the same.
His conversation with Ruka had been unexpectedly pleasant, but it was time to return to the training field—too much left to do.
As Raon quietly started gathering his things, Ruka furrowed his brows and spoke.
“Yeah… it’s fine, but it’s too fine.”
“Pardon?”
Raon looked up.
Ruka, still watching the screen, asked instead of answering:
“This was your second time inside a Gate, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Then there should at least be some rejection reaction, or minor toxicity.”
Ruka twirled a pen in his fingers out of habit and tapped the screen.
“It’s spotless. Like, Esper-level clean.”
“That’s… unusual?”
“Well, not exactly normal, no.”
Raon frowned at Ruka’s serious tone.
Up to now, every time he’d been tested post-Gate, they’d just told him everything looked fine.
Back then, Ruka had been too busy to personally examine him, so someone else had done the test.
They’d simply thought his clean numbers were convenient, not odd—not something that needed extra scans or treatment.
“C’mon, Doc. Being healthy’s a good thing.”
Trying to lighten the mood, Haedam chimed in awkwardly. Ruka tilted his head.
“Well, yeah, that’s true.”
“He’ll be tested again after the next Gate anyway. Might be best to just keep an eye on it?”
“Right, maybe he’s just someone who reacts more slowly to Gate exposure.”
Ruka finally relaxed a little, nodding. Raon bowed slightly and exited the testing room.
‘Could it be… because I’m a possession?’
Even before the regression, Raon hadn’t reacted to the Gates.
He’d just assumed that was how Han Raon’s body worked—or maybe that being an S-rank Guide made him more resilient than most.
But after talking about Ruka’s paper today, he couldn’t shake an odd feeling.
‘Maybe I really am an outsider, so the Gates can’t affect me…’
It felt too unsettling to chalk it up to “just getting isekai’d by reading a book.”
Deep down, Raon had always had a few doubts.
“Ugh…”
But thinking about it too hard made his head hurt. He stopped in the hallway and let out a low groan.
* * *
