It was supposed to be a day like any other, heading out to close a Level 5 gate.
Except lately, Asher had been slacking on keeping his guiding levels topped up.
Right in the middle of the thunderous chaos of the battlefield, the device sharing Asher’s vitals began to beep incessantly.
60%, 50%.
Even though it was a Level 5 gate—the kind they closed nearly every day—his levels were draining faster than usual.
At that point, Lee Jaeram’s only thought was that as soon as the gate was closed, Asher would probably suck up guiding energy like a mosquito draining blood.
He had planned to interrogate Asher the moment the man started acting greedy for his touch.
—Uh, hey, I’m heading out first. I’ve got business at the Association. I’m a bit late…….
That was, until Asher Delveron spoke those words with a nonchalant face and vanished with a teleportation Esper the second the gate was shut.
Jaeram couldn’t fathom what on earth was so important that a man who usually couldn’t even handle a drop to 60% was throwing a fit and running off without receiving a single drop of guiding.
Lee Jaeram ran, his fair face contorted as his breath grew increasingly ragged.
—The person you are calling is unavailable…….
—The person you are calling is unavailable…….
—The person you are calling is unavailable…….
He kept dialing as he ran, but the damn man wouldn’t pick up.
If anything happened to an Esper, the responsibility fell entirely on the dedicated guide.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!
40%.
The sharply wailing device displayed a number just seconds away from dropping into the 30s.
The moment it hit the 30% range, it was considered the “pre-rampage” stage.
He heard the sound of emergency alerts hitting his phone—an alert that was likely being sent not just to the devices linked to Asher’s watch, but to every single person currently working at the Association.
Since the Team 2 Esper said they would report it immediately, the Association President was likely already on the move.
They could track the watch’s GPS, so they might even arrive before Jaeram.
He wasn’t even 100% sure Asher was actually here.
This was bad.
“Dammit…….”
Slam!
Cursing under his breath, Lee Jaeram slammed the master key he’d snatched on his way in against the sensor and forced the steel doors open.
This path led to a corridor lined with glass windows looking into the various training halls.
Only the sound of Jaeram’s sprinting footsteps echoed sharply through the empty hallway.
“…….”
Then, suddenly, Jaeram skidded to a halt, gasping for air.
A scent that brushed against the tip of his nose was the cause.
A scent that felt like it held the essence of spring, one that momentarily softened the heart just by breathing it in.
It was incredibly faint, but Jaeram remembered exactly where he had smelled this before.
Despite the urgency, he couldn’t help but freeze and react instantly.
Wasn’t this the very thing that had kept his nerves on edge for days?
Following the direction of the scent, which felt so fragile it seemed it might snap at any moment, Jaeram reflexively jerked his head.
Coincidentally, his objective was met right then and there.
“……Asher.”
Beyond the glass window of one of the training rooms stood Asher.
And the man holding him—the one whose identity he didn’t know—
Jaeram’s obsidian-black eyes trembled violently.
“……What is this?”
From the moment he whispered that, everything Jaeram saw felt like it was moving in slow motion.
The surrounding sounds faded, and only the scene before his eyes flowed with agonizing slowness.
Light brown hair cascaded down.
Eyes of the same hue sparkled with focus as the man looked at Jaeram’s fallen pair in his arms.
That sweet scent brushed his nose once more.
Along with it, a memory surfaced like something pulled from the depths of the ocean.
—……Lee Jaeram!!!
A massive gate yawning open, and a man helplessly being sucked inside.
Pretty, light brown eyes staring blankly at Jaeram as they met, followed by a deluge of monsters.
“……How?”
“Asher Delveron!!!!!”
Along with the question Jaeram whispered, a shout from the outside world struck his ears.
He saw the Association President and armed Espers burst through the steel doors into the training room where the man and Asher were.
At the same time, the scent that had felt faint grew in intensity.
It was rare for a guide to feel the energy of another guide.
If Jaeram felt it this strongly, what must the stimulation be like for the other Espers?
Sure enough, the Espers faltered the moment they entered.
Lee Jaeram stood frozen at the entrance, watching blankly.
A powerful guiding energy that made Espers stop in their tracks without even trying.
He saw Asher’s eyelids, which had seemed unconscious, lift to reveal green eyes that focused on the man.
Within those green eyes was a fierce greed, incomparable to anything Jaeram had ever seen from him.
“Move.”
That was when a cold voice pierced Jaeram’s ear.
At any other time, he would have glared at whoever dared to order him around, but Jaeram was currently out of his mind.
Having stepped back reflexively without knowing who it was, Jaeram’s eyes shook as he belatedly realized the identity of the person who had swept past him and entered the training room without hesitation.
Shin Hajin.
A gaze as cold and beautiful as the blue sky held murderous intent toward Asher Delveron before shifting to the man.
The displeasure in his gaze didn’t vanish, but Jaeram watched in a daze as Shin Hajin’s expression softened and turned infinitely tender the moment his eyes landed on the man.
Shin Hajin’s bare hands—exposed to the air for the first time as he cast aside his gloves—came into view.
He pulled the man into his arms as if handling the most precious thing in the world.
He saw Asher Delveron staring blankly at the man in Shin Hajin’s arms, looking like a dog that had its toy snatched away.
It was an expression Jaeram had never seen on him.
He had a vague idea, but the scattered pieces of the puzzle finally formed a single picture.
The man—the one who had been Do Yejun’s lover in the past.
The man he thought had died after being sucked into a gate.
He clearly remembered him being a regular human back then.
No, the process of how he became like this wasn’t important.
“……Ah.”
The information on Shin Hajin’s pair he had viewed: Suhyeon (S).
The name he had forgotten rose to the surface.
Chae Suhyeon (S).
Standing still for a long time, the obsidian eyes filled with malice contorted sharply.
“That son of a bitch…….”
Immediately after the alert hit his phone announcing that Asher Delveron’s guiding levels had dropped to a dangerous stage, Hajin, who had just returned to the Association, cursed and sprinted toward the training hall.
That blonde bastard was causing trouble until the very end.
Harsh curses dominated Hajin’s mind.
Because Lee Jeonghyeon wasn’t there, he couldn’t even teleport immediately.
The pre-rampage stage for an Esper was a state where reason could slip away at any moment.
Even though Suhyeon was now capable of guiding, once the level hit the 30% range, guiding often failed to take effect even for experienced guides.
Moreover, this was an S-class Esper sensitive to guiding. Suhyeon could be in danger.
“Dammit.”
He shouldn’t have left that bastard by Suhyeon’s side.
If even a single scratch appeared on those fair cheeks, he would kill both Asher Delveron and the Association President.
“Hajin!!”
Right then, the Association President appeared, leading a group of Espers.
In his stiff hands was a containment device for high-rank Espers.
Hajin wanted to rip his throat out right then and there, but securing Suhyeon’s safety came first.
Slam!
Unable to wait for the slow-moving doors to the training room, Hajin forced them open and strode inside, only to falter.
The Espers following closely behind stopped shortly after.
The faces of the Espers, who had been tense at the prospect of having to subdue an S-class colleague, suddenly turned slack and dazed.
A sweet aura—closer to radiated guiding—that felt like it could seduce someone on the spot filled the corridor.
The shimmering scent provided a sensation like stepping into a garden full of flowers.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep-beep.
The watches of the Espers, detecting the guiding, began to turn on with faint sounds.
Since it was merely the sensation of guiding, their actual levels didn’t change, but the Espers flinched and trembled at the mere presence of that faint energy.
Even Hajin, who was somewhat accustomed to Suhyeon’s guiding scent, was momentarily dazed.
But that only lasted a second. Hajin was the first to snap out of it and stride across the corridor.
“Move! What are you doing!”
He heard the Association President, who had belatedly regained his senses further back, shouting urgently.
Hajin passed through the corridor quickly, glancing at his phone which hadn’t moved for a while.
Since the automatic alerts for S-class levels had stopped coming, it seemed Suhyeon was safe.
However, the relief was short-lived.
As he drew closer to the training room where Suhyeon was, the guiding scent grew stronger, and Hajin felt a surge of irritation boiling within him.
The screen of the phone he was gripping cracked.
The fact that Asher’s levels weren’t triggering alerts anymore, and that this scent was vibrating so strongly, meant he had received a massive amount of Suhyeon’s guiding.
“Move.”
Hajin roughly pushed aside a bystander who was blocking his path and entered the training room.
His eyes landed on the fallen Asher Delveron and Suhyeon, whose hand was resting on Asher’s shoulder.
“Hajin, ah.”
The sweat beaded on Suhyeon’s fair forehead rolled down the moment he turned his head.
Seeing Suhyeon pull his hand away from the “bastard” and try to stand up only to stumble, Hajin’s irritation flared reflexively—but only for a split second.
He rushed forward and caught Suhyeon as he fell.
“Suhyeon!”
The flash of annoyance at where Suhyeon’s hand had been was momentary.
Hajin hurriedly cradled Suhyeon’s falling body.
“Suhyeon?”
As Suhyeon’s arms went limp the moment he was held, Hajin checked him reflexively, but all he heard was the sound of soft breathing.
It seemed he had fallen asleep from exhaustion; his small chest rose and fell rhythmically.
Only after confirming multiple times that nothing was wrong did Hajin let out a slow breath of relief.
And the next moment, Hajin’s blue eyes turned, holding a coldness that was worlds apart from the gaze he used for Suhyeon.
His gaze landed on Asher Delveron, who was staring blankly at Suhyeon with an expression full of thick, filthy emotion—as if he didn’t realize what he’d done or what was about to happen.
“Get your eyes off him.”
“……Uh, ah, oops.”
Asher’s green eyes remained fixed on Suhyeon as if he were being branded, until Hajin threw a fireball. Only then did Asher raise his arm.
Whoosh, crackle!!
Purple electricity barely managed to block the flames.
The smell of burning filled the air.
Hajin gently placed Suhyeon on the training room floor. His figure vanished almost instantly.
A murderous intent erupted toward the “blonde bastard” who had dared to put his only one in a potentially dangerous situation and, on top of that, received more guiding than necessary.
“Ack, hey, ugh!!!”
Boom!!!
Before Asher, whose body was stiff from his guiding levels being forced back up so abruptly, could even dodge, Hajin grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall.
Dust showered down.
“Hajin!!!”
The voice of the President running toward them from a distance reached his ears, but Hajin’s sanity had long since snapped.
