FG | Chapter 4.2

The one sent to retrieve him was none other than Gu Seungjae. It was unusual for an S-class Esper to personally come unless it was to suppress a rampage, but since he was a government-affiliated Esper, I let it slide.

‘If they were going to take him, they should’ve done it right after the raid ended.’

But when I saw Gu Seungjae again, he looked different from earlier. He was noticeably pale and on edge as he addressed Yeo Eundo.

“Esper Yeo Eundo, you need to return to the Center immediately.”

“…….”

Yeo Eundo didn’t respond. Thinking he was about to be stubborn again, I nudged him with my elbow. Only then did he react.

“See you later.”

There was no need for me to follow, so I decided to let him go alone. But just as I spoke, I felt Gu Seungjae’s gaze on me—before Yeo Eundo suddenly stepped in front of me.

He leaned in, resting his forehead against my shoulder, and whispered,

“You have to keep your promise.”

“Huh? What promise—?”

Before I could ask, he straightened up and turned away. As I watched his back, he passed by Gu Seungjae and climbed into the waiting vehicle.

Gu Seungjae followed suit, and soon, the car carrying both of them drove off into the distance.

“What promise?”

Yeo Eundo had left behind nothing but confusion.

A bad feeling crept up my spine.

If he caused chaos with a big scene, at least I’d be able to react immediately. But when he stayed quiet and then pulled something, things escalated before I could even stop them.

I had no idea what kind of trouble he was about to stir up.

“Fucking mutt.”

In the end, I headed straight for the Center myself.

»જ⁀➴

As I got closer to the Center, I felt like someone was calling out to me with an overwhelming intensity. That obsession clung to me like sticky tar, making it feel like my feet were glued to the ground with every step I took.

“Damn it.”

This was déjà vu. The same obsessive energy I had felt when Yeo Eundo went into a rampage—no, something even stronger.

But why could I still feel the sensation of our skin touching, even though we were apart? It was as if there was some invisible thread connecting us. There was only one situation where an Esper and a Guide could stay linked, even when physically separated.

I didn’t even want to think about that word.

“No, there’s never been a case where an Esper was the one to do it.”

The more I denied it, the heavier the sense of foreboding became. Suddenly, a flood of people rushed into the Center—Guides, more than thirty of them, all A-class.

They all ran in the same direction. My instincts told me they were there for Yeo Eundo.

I stopped walking and watched as they all rushed upstairs before turning away. With that many Guides, stabilizing him should be no problem.

I was about to pretend I hadn’t heard his call when—

BOOM.

A deafening crash shook the entire building.

“Urgh?!”

I staggered, barely managing to grab onto a pillar for support. At that moment, the desperate plea that had been calling me turned into an agonizing scream.

I knew I shouldn’t get involved with Yeo Eundo any more than I already had, but there was no way I could ignore that wretched cry. If I didn’t go to him, he felt like he would self-destruct right then and there.

It was unbelievable that someone as devoid of humanity as me was actually moving out of a sense of responsibility to save someone.

“That damn mutt, seriously!”

The elevator was out of the question—there was no way it would be working after that impact—so I took the emergency stairs instead. It would take time, and I hoped that, in the meantime, Yeo Eundo would calm down on his own.

But the closer I got to him, the more I realized how foolish that hope was.

I finally reached his floor. The 24th. Climbing all the way up had nearly drained the life out of me.

“Hah… haah… Forcing an office worker to do this much exercise… Yeo Eundo, you better be ready for payback.”

I straightened up just enough to grab the doorknob and push the door open.

Then I froze.

Inside, Guides in uniform were sprawled across the floor. Every single one of them was a high-ranking Guide.

For a moment, I thought they were dead, but after a closer look, I realized they had only fainted. These were the Guides who had gone in ahead of me.

“What the hell did he do?”

With each step forward, my gut screamed at me that something was very, very wrong.

A single, nagging question echoed in my mind:

Can I even handle this situation? Should I just turn around while I still can?

That was when Gu Seungjae appeared from the opposite hallway, looking like he had been dragged through hell.

“You!!”

The moment he spotted me, he rushed over and grabbed my wrist.

“What the hell took you so long?! No—never mind! At least you’re here now.”

“Wait, what are you even talking about—ugh.”

The brute force of his grip made me wince in pain. He must have realized it because he hesitated for a moment before looking me in the eye.

“I’m grateful, but right now, Esper Yeo Eundo comes first.”

Grateful? What the hell was he thankful for? Did something happen recently? Was spouting nonsense a new trend among Espers?

“This way.”

“Huh?”

Before I could process what was happening, Gu Seungjae started dragging me down the hallway where he had just come from. It took me a second to regain my senses, and I planted my feet firmly on the ground to resist.

“Where exactly are you taking me?”

“Stabilizing Esper Yeo Eundo is impossible with just A-class guiding.”

Wait.

Wasn’t Seon Jiyeol supposed to handle this?

I had a very bad feeling about this. If I didn’t do something fast, I was going to get thrown straight into Yeo Eundo’s disaster zone.

Desperate, I blurted out, “I’m just a dedicated monitoring Guide!”

“What?”

This time, it was Gu Seungjae who looked dumbfounded.

I took the chance to yank my hand free and reached for my license to prove my point. But for some reason, the ID I always carried wasn’t in my pocket.

Then I remembered—I had shown it to Yeo Eundo when he was hospitalized and never got it back.

With no other choice, I explained it verbally.

“I’m a D-class Guide. A government office worker. I was assigned as a dedicated monitoring Guide for Esper Yeo Eundo for a month.”

Gu Seungjae’s expression flickered with confusion before he suddenly glanced around. Then, as if something had clicked in his head, he lowered his voice and said—

“Understood.”

…What did he just understand?

“I’ll handle this matter as a classified case. We don’t have time to waste, so let’s move quickly.”

Before I could demand what the hell he had been babbling about, Gu Seungjae shoved me through the door.

Click.

The door shut behind me.

I stared at it, baffled.

Then—

Tap.

Something snapped. A shadow loomed over me. I had experienced this before. My temples throbbed with an incoming headache.

“This is my damn life now, huh.”

Slowly, I turned around. And there was Yeo Eundo, sniveling like a lost puppy.

“Hic… sniff….”

The guy, covered in blood, was trembling as he clung to my arm. Then, as if all strength had left him, he leaned his head against my shoulder and started sobbing outright.

At his feet lay the remains of shattered chains—the same chains Gu Seungjae had materialized. I glanced at them before scanning the wrecked room around me.

The Center had boasted that it was built with special ores refined from a Gate. That claim felt laughable now, considering the absolute ruin I was standing in.

I pitied the government employees who would have to clean up this disaster. For once, being assigned as Yeo Eundo’s dedicated monitoring Guide seemed like the better deal.

I wasn’t the one who should be crying right now.

Yet Yeo Eundo was bawling so hard I was afraid he’d pass out, so I tried to calm him down.

“Esper Yeo Eundo, how much longer are you going to cry?”

“Hic…!”

“Stop crying. You’re going to collapse at this rate.”

Even after I said that, he didn’t stop. Instead, he kept trembling and sobbing into my shoulder.

I sighed. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything harsher.

In the end, I just patted his back. That seemed to help a little, as his crying eased—just a bit.

How the hell did things end up like this?

Not long ago, my biggest problem was just worrying about overtime. That ordinary office worker life felt like a lifetime ago.

Yeo Eundo had to be the one who left Gu Seungjae in that wrecked state. They were both S-class, but it seemed their power gap was wider than I had assumed.

I glanced at the AD level displayed on Yeo Eundo’s wrist device.

268.

That wasn’t what bothered me the most. It was the blood on his clothes.

At first, I thought it belonged to someone else. But it didn’t.

The dried traces of blood around his mouth suggested internal bleeding. It looked like he had coughed up blood. It had stopped now, but that wasn’t a place where blood should be coming from.

Unless Yeo Eundo had some terminal illness, that meant he had been injured during Gu Seungjae’s attempt to subdue him.

“What the hell did they do to him?”

And where was Seon Jiyeol?

If he had received S-class guiding, this wouldn’t have escalated this far. But more importantly, internal bleeding from excessive force—that wasn’t something I could just overlook.

I needed to hear the explanation from Yeo Eundo himself. I placed both hands on his cheeks and made him face me.

He needed to pull himself together, at least a little.

So I started guiding him. Only then did he relax, closing his eyes and soaking up the guiding like it was the only thing keeping him sane.

I stopped after a short while. That alone was enough to stabilize him.