SRSBO: Chapter 4

“But aside from the good sides, there are also a lot of bad points, right? Even though they’re both Awakeners, unlike Espers, Guides don’t have the physical strength to protect themselves.”

“But do you know that the Guides are the only people who can hold the Esper’s leash and control them? Guides can live without the Espers, but Espers cannot survive without Guides.”

I firmly shook my head at those words.

“A leash? A Guide can’t choose the method of their own guiding. Just physical contact could easily lead to guiding, even forcefully. Of course, a guide can adjust the intensity or amount depending on their discretion, but calling them the ‘dominant’ one sounds strange.”

“But don’t Awakeners get to live off compensation for the rest of their lives once they finish their service? That part is so great!”

“Even if the compensation is for a lifetime, how much would that really be? Besides, the service period is 3 years, and who knows what might happen during that time?”

“Uh… Sister, do you perhaps hate Awakened people?”

When I only expressed negative opinions, the female part-time worker started to subtly glance around, sensing the atmosphere. The male part-time worker, too, seemed to find the situation strange and blinked in surprise.

“Sister, you seem to know more about Awakened people than I thought. You always seem uninterested, so I thought you didn’t know much. Did you do research on them or something?”

“Oh, my friend works at a guild….”

“I didn’t know that a Guide can’t completely choose or block their guiding. So if they come into contact with an Esper, they can definitely tell if the other party is a Guide or not, right?”

“Well, I’m not sure. While it’s impossible to completely block it, a Guide can probably lower it to the point where it’s hard to notice, almost to the limit.”

“Really? How did you know that? I’ve never heard anything like that before.”

How did I know?

Of course I would know. Because I was that Guide.

* * *

Since Han Siyoung and Yang Hyunwoo belonged to a guild, it was easy for them to access information about the Awakened ones.

About eight months ago, I was spending the day leisurely caught between the two of them.

As usual, I listened to the conversation about Awakeners coming from the two people’s mouths and couldn’t help but think that this curse was something else.

‘Espers whose lives are at risk if they don’t receive proper guidance, and Guides who are forced to hold the thread of life of another person…..’

Many Awakeners try to keep their relationship as professional as possible, but since guiding happens through physical contact, there are also quite a few cases where it develops into a romantic relationship.

Because of that, the matching rate between an Esper and a Guide was often compared to the ‘red thread of fate’.

In a way, it wasn’t wrong. It’s just that it was closer to a red thread woven with blood rather than a romantic one like fate.

However, all of them were irrelevant to me. According to the results of the mandatory medical examination I had taken before, I was classified as a non-Awakened person.

In fact, the most disconcerting part after returning to the original world was not whether there were any Awakened people or not, but the absence of the abilities I once had.

Back when I was Amelia, I used to be a healer in the war with the ability to absorb and release life force. But when I returned to my original self as Kim Eujung, I was no longer able to use it.

The fact that it disappeared wasn’t the issue.

Since it was Amelia’s ability from the beginning, it was only natural that Kim Eujung couldn’t use it. I could understand that.

The problem was that, while the healing ability had disappeared, the feeling of using the ability remained.

That day, I was thinking about it and peeling a fruit with a fruit knife. I deliberately cut the tip of my finger with the knife.

Then I tried using my ability on the bleeding finger, but all I felt was the sensation of it gathering, and the wound remained unhealed.

For example, it was similar to writing, you feel the sensation of writing something, but nothing actually appears on the paper.

“Euung! Why are you self-harming…!”

Yang Hyunwoo, who had been talking to Han Siyoung, hurriedly grabbed my arm. Clang, the knife fell to the floor.

“Look! You’re not hurt badly, are you?”

“No. I accidentally cut my finger while cutting fruit.”

I glanced at Yang Hyunwoo. Seeing that he called it self-harm, it seemed like he had seen everything I had done, but I hoped he wouldn’t just go and tell Han Siyoung about it.

If that happend, my parents would be called, and there’d be a whole commotion.

As I stared at Yang Hyunwoo, thinking it would be a hassle, I saw pure shock rippling in his eyes. His trembling pupils shifted from my arm to my face.

“… Eujung, you are a Guide?”

And that’s how I learned something I didn’t even want to know.

That I had become an Awakened one, and even worse, a Guide.

That day, I realized that the healing ability I had used when I was Amelia had been replaced by guiding.

Since the truth came out, I decided to experiment using Yang Hyunwoo, an Esper, as a subject. I discovered that my matching rate was quite high, and that I might actually belong to a high-ranking class of Guides.

“I think I’m going crazy….”

“That’s amazing, Eujung!”

…Surely I must not be C-rank or higher, right?

The possibility of being a high rank wasn’t a good thing for me at all. Espers of C-rank or higher were required to serve a 3-year mandatory service, unless there were exceptional circumstances.

I had barely gotten a year of rest, and now I was about to be dragged back into the military, which obviously didn’t suit well with me.

The one thing I realized after rolling around in the romance fantasy world for 7 years was simple. It’s best to live peacefully, doing just enough of what I want to do, even if it’s not something extraordinary.

I had already been treated as a special ability user for 7 years. And I also learned the valuable lesson that the more skills a person has, the more exhausting their life becomes.

I grabbed Yang Hyunwoo’s shoulder with a more serious expression than ever and met his gaze.

“Hyunwoo, please keep it a secret that I’m an Awakener. Siyoung, you too.”

“Yes? But if you get tested, you can get support from the state…..”

It would have been better if that support had been free.

“Please! You must! Keep it a secret. If you understand, nod your head.”

The kind Yang Hyunwoo made a face that said he couldn’t understand why an Awakened one would hide something that was highly regarded. However, seeing how desperate I seemed, he promised to keep it a secret.

The same was true for Han Siyoung, and the promise has been kept well to this day.

In the first place, Awakened people were not exactly common, and unless you go to a certain area, there wasn’t much chance of running into troubles in daily life.

As someone who had experience in controlling their abilities, I made sure to keep my guide wavelength low, playing the part of an ordinary person and maintaining peace.

According to Yang Hyunwoo, an Esper of D-rank, on whom I had experimented, couldn’t even tell I was a Guide because of how low my wavelength were.

I shook off my thoughts and got back to moving my body. Maybe because it was around lunchtime, the café started to get busier.

“Sister, I missed an order. Could you possibly take the basil pesto panini that was reheated instead?”

“What’s the table number?”

“Number 8!”

Unusually, this cafe had a bell attached to each seat.

Except for takeout, we had to personally bring the menu to the customers who were seated, take their orders, and serve them.

“Number 8… Ah.”

Carrying the tray of food, I scanned the area, and upon spotting the person on table 8, I furrowed my brow slightly.

The man from the rumor was there.

“…Excuse me. Your order is here.”

The man nodded absentmindedly while staring at his phone.

Up close, although the lighting around this spot was different, his face still looked like someone who would cause a chaos simply by existing.

With that thought in mind, I placed the plate with the panini on the table. I neatly arranged the utensils and started to clear the tray, only to notice, a moment too late, that the fork was awkwardly resting on the edge of the table.

‘It’s going to fall over.’

Thinking it might fall, I reached out toward the fork.

However, just then, the man, still staring at his phone, raised his hand and grabbed the fork. In the process, my hand ended up resting on top of his.

‘…Ah?’

My brain malfunctioned for a few seconds.

There was something warm under my palm, and I couldn’t help but wonder why was the fork so warm. His hand, despite its delicate appearance, was solid, with thick joints and a firmness to it.

What I touched…. isn’t a fork? As soon as the thought came to my, I snapped back to my senses and pulled my hand away.

“I’m sorry. That, wasn’t intentional. I just tried to grab the fork but touched your hand by mistake. I thought the fork was about to fall off the table, so I just tried to catch it before it did, but I ended up accidentally grabbing the wrong thing…”

I hurriedly explained myself. There were often women in the café who would ask men for their numbers or flirt, and I definitely didn’t want to be mistaken for doing the same.

But as I thought about it more, it seemed even stranger to be making such a long-winded excuse over something like this.

“…Haha, enjoy your meal.”

I hurried to leave, but at that time, my hand was suddenly grabbed. Hesitantly, I turned my head, and saw that the large hand from earlier was now wrapped around mine.

The man, now having taken his eyes off his phone, was staring blankly at the hand he was holding. For a moment, I thought that the sight of his long eyelashes casting a faint shadow on his cheek looked like some kind of work of art. But then, my thoughts snapped back, and my mind went cold.

─No matter what the reason, the moment I get caught like this, I’ll be the one at the center of the gossip.

Whish.

I quickly pulled my hand away with a firm jerk and immediately looked around.

Fortunately, the café seemed busy, so no one was paying attention to us.

But being with the person of the center of attention, I couldn’t completely relax, so I asked casually to try and smooth things over.

“Is there something on my hand?”

Normally, you don’t just grab a stranger’s hand for no reason. But at this point, I almost wished he would just say that was the reason.

“Ah, I guess something must have been on between my fingers.”

“….”

However, he just stared at my hand that was pulled away, without saying a word.