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“Where is the guide?”
Seojun’s pupils shook violently. No matter how he heard it, it seemed like a strange question.
“The guide is right here. What’s wrong, hyung?”
Seojun muttered in an uncertain voice as he stretched out his arm holding Siwoo. Somehow his arm felt too light. He could have just looked down to check his arm, but Seojun couldn’t lower his gaze. Afraid that Siwoo might really be gone.
Geonho pushed Seojun’s head down, making him see with his own eyes.
“Guide…?”
Siwoo had disappeared. He was definitely holding him just now.
Seojun doubted his own eyes as he fumbled at his empty arms. He vividly remembered taking Siwoo out of the ice barrier and holding him. Although Siwoo felt unusually light, it was at a level that could be dismissed as just a feeling.
“Hyung, I… I r-really was holding him.”
Seojun’s golden pupils shook unsteadily. With the monsters gone and the surroundings quiet, his rough breathing sounded even louder.
“Really. He was with me just now.”
Geonho released Seojun’s collar, which he had been faintly muttering into, and lifted his chin.
There was a wound on Seojun’s neck as if cut by a knife. It was a wound that should have disappeared long ago with his young recovery ability.
However, the flesh hadn’t healed yet. The bleeding had stopped, but the trace of the knife cut remained. It meant it wasn’t from an ordinary knife.
“Who did this?”
Geonho lightly slapped Seojun’s cheek, who was lost in confusion, and pointed at his neck. Seojun mumbled incomprehensibly before finally coming to his senses.
“In the safe zone… while fighting with Jihan hyung.”
“You fought with Yoo Jihan?”
“No, that’s…”
Just as Seojun was about to explain the situation, someone called out to Geonho and climbed up the rock. It was the barrier user who had swung his sword at Seojun in the safe zone.
“Esper Ha Seojun attacked Esper Yoo Jihan!”
He reported to Geonho what had happened in the safe zone and said that they should quickly inject Seojun with a suppressant.
“Hurry! We don’t know when he might attack again!”
The barrier user hid behind Geonho’s back and even took out restraints. Despite Seojun not showing any signs of a seizure, he insisted that he should be tied up immediately.
He had just watched when Seojun was facing the monster horde alone. Only after the monsters disappeared did he come out of the safe zone to try and restrain Seojun. Naturally, Geonho ignored him.
“Shut up.”
The words Geonho was about to say came out of Seojun’s mouth. A murderous aura flowed from Seojun as he glared at the barrier user with bloodshot eyes.
It was behavior completely unlike him. At this, the barrier user became convinced that Seojun had lost his mind and put a barrier on himself.
“The guide just watched too! He even refused Esper Yoo Jihan’s guiding request!”
He failed to read the atmosphere and even brought up Siwoo. This pushed Seojun’s patience, which had already reached its limit, over the edge.
“I said shut the fuck up!”
Seojun struck the surface of the rock and shouted as if his throat would tear.
“What do you know to crawl up here and talk shit!”
Anger filled the cracks in his heart after losing Siwoo. He swung his fist at the barrier user with a much more threatening aura than when he had knocked down Jihan.
However, Geonho stepped in front of Seojun and lightly blocked his hand. Instead, he kicked the barrier user in the chest, knocking him off the rock. Then he pressed down Seojun’s trembling hand.
“Ha Seojun.”
Silver scales that appeared on the back of Seojun’s hand, which Geonho was holding, writhed. Sticky fluid pooled between the scales that had broken through the skin.
Seojun, unable to suppress his excitement, breathed heavily and grabbed his own ears. The hallucinations were starting. The voice of a young child begging to be killed tormented Seojun.
“Did I tell you to keep your wits about you or not?”
Geonho approached Seojun closely, not flinching at the pungent odor. He firmly bound both hands with telekinesis to prevent him from tearing at his ears, and grabbed the nape of his neck with his large hand.
Seojun’s neck was already covered in cold sweat. Geonho wiped it off with his broad palm and headbutted him hard. With a ‘thud’, Seojun’s skull rang.
Only then did Seojun’s blurring focus return. The pain in his throbbing forehead brought him back to his senses. Geonho straightened up the blinking Seojun.
“If you lose your mind, you die by my hand.”
Thick veins stood out on Geonho’s neck as he muttered quietly. He warned Seojun to keep his wits about him until they found Siwoo.
Seojun nodded, biting his lip until blood filled his mouth. Now was the time to find Siwoo. It wasn’t the time for seizures.
* * *
Siwoo, curled up, took a deep breath.
As the cold air filled his lungs, his fingertips trembled even more. It was because his body temperature had dropped.
Where on earth is this place?
Siwoo bit his lip to keep from screaming as he woke up after losing consciousness. Even though he had clearly opened his eyes, everything around him was pitch black. Fear rushed in, but he suppressed his presence as much as possible. His instincts, sensing danger, made him swallow his voice automatically.
Suppressing his pounding heartbeat, he recalled the moment just before losing consciousness.
‘Ha Seojun!’
It was when Seojun wrapped Siwoo in an ice barrier and threw him high. A faint crack appeared in the cold ice barrier, and a transparent liquid seeped through the gap.
In an instant, the water droplets that had formed on the ice surface gathered and transformed into the shape of a giant person. All of this happened in a flash.
‘Ha, Ha Seojun! Ha Seojun!’
Siwoo called out for Seojun, pounding the ice barrier with his fists and throwing his whole body against it. But the more he did so, the harder the ice became.
‘Kang Geonho! Yoo Jihan!’
He even shouted names of those who weren’t present at the top of his lungs. Of course, there was no answer.
Belatedly remembering the barrier stone, he tried to reach into his pocket. Suddenly, there was a ‘snap’ sound from behind him. It was the sound of friction made by snapping fingers. The moment he heard that sound, his body wouldn’t listen to him. It was as if someone had restrained his limbs.
Soon after, the same sound rang out once more, and Siwoo lost consciousness.
‘Kang…’
Just before his eyes closed, the presence Siwoo found was Taebeom. Without even realizing he had called out to him, he was dragged away with a hand on his nape.
Siwoo didn’t know who had kidnapped him. He also couldn’t tell where he was now.
His vision was blocked, and his limbs were tied. Judging by the cold metallic feel, it seemed he was bound with the restraints used on Espers.
His mind kept going blank in this completely unexpected situation. If his kidnapper was an Esper, there could only be one purpose. Guiding.
If not that, then…
“You should at least make a sound if you’re awake.”
Siwoo, who had been on edge, flinched at the sudden voice. He couldn’t immediately recognize the owner of the severely cracked voice.
“Guide Han Siwoo.”
The unfamiliar voice sounded right in front of him. Siwoo recognized the other party not by voice, but by wavelength. The unstably leaking wavelength felt as weak as a low-level Esper’s energy. However, the presence was distinct.
“Shouldn’t your precious Espers come to rescue you then?”
Goosebumps rose at the voice tinged with laughter. Siwoo gritted his teeth so hard his gums bled. Although the voice was completely different from what he remembered, once he felt the wavelength, the man’s snake-like face appeared before his eyes.
It was Kwak Seokjin, the leader of Seowol. The bastard with a reptilian-like impression.
“I’ve just temporarily blocked your vision, so there’s nothing to be surprised about.”
With the click of a lighter wheel, acrid smoke stung Siwoo’s nose. The smell of strong alcohol followed.
“Your Espers will be here soon too.”
Every time he emphasized each word, an uncomfortable metallic sound came out as if there was a hole in his throat. Nevertheless, Kwak Seokjin seemed to be in a good mood.
“They had something interesting.”
He added a note at the end of his sentence and continued to exhale cigarette smoke. Even though Siwoo didn’t want to inhale it, he had no choice but to swallow the smoke entering his nose. If he didn’t breathe at all, he felt his head would stiffen even more.
“To think I’d see the barrier stone I’d only heard rumors about in person. Thanks to that, I got to see a good show.”
The moment Siwoo realized the barrier stone had been taken, the air felt even more stifling. He recognized the cause of the dull pain that seemed to be pressing on his chest. It was the sensation he felt when he first went out to the field without the barrier stone.
“No need to rack your brains. There’s nothing you can do anyway.”
Cold fingertips tapped Siwoo’s forehead. With just that small contact, guiding was drained from Siwoo’s body. It was a reaction that occurred when an Esper’s condition was precarious.
The touch that had been tapping Siwoo’s forehead mockingly began to stroke his cheek. As the contact increased, more and more energy was extracted unintentionally.
“Ha…”
A sigh close to a sneer escaped Kwak Seokjin’s lips. It was because the tantalizing guiding suddenly cut off. Siwoo trembled as he struggled not to let Kwak Seokjin drain his energy.
“I can see why Baekya is so crazy about this.”
He grabbed Siwoo’s tightly clenched jaw and forcibly opened his mouth. Siwoo struggled as fingers brutally pried open his lips and invaded.
“Mmph, let go! Fuck!”
Kwak Seokjin chuckled and grabbed Siwoo’s hair as he shook his head.
“Ugh…!”
“I wonder how many times you’ve given mucosal guiding through here.”
He pressed his thick fingers against Siwoo’s tongue and gums as if he would tear his mouth.
“Since they’re young boys, I wonder if they used below the mouth more?”
Siwoo gagged and screamed to prevent the filthy words from entering him. With his mouth blocked, his muffled screams sounded like the cries of a young beast.
Kwak Seokjin laughed as he watched Siwoo. He giggled like a madman who had lost his mind. Even as Siwoo bit down on his fingers as if to break the joints, he just kept laughing.
“Leader, that’s enough.”
Just as Kwak Seokjin’s blood was pooling in Siwoo’s mouth, someone stopped him. Kwak Seokjin wasn’t alone. Siwoo’s anxiety surged at the unfamiliar voice he was hearing for the first time.
“Shall we make a bet while we wait?”
Kwak Seokjin slowly murmured as he wiped the blood off Siwoo’s trembling shoulders. As he continued speaking, a clearer note of laughter crept into his cracked voice.
“On who will come to find you first.”