[76]
“Must be crazy.”
Peter sighed as he gripped the steering wheel.
“We came to find the Guide that Thorns Order kept hidden, and now he’s saying not to receive guiding.”
Yuri, sitting in the back seat of the car, pulled his hat down to cover his eyes.
One hundred out of one hundred people would think Yuri’s order was stupid.
In fact, Yuri himself was well aware of how inefficient his order to Chris was.
‘But.’
Chris had said he disliked it.
As if the very thought of receiving guiding from another Guide and enjoying it was a sin.
Yuri was strangely shocked by those words.
For an Esper, guiding energy was like the water of life.
Who would feel guilty about breathing or drinking water?
But Chris was clearly not lying.
“We’ve already found the target and are approaching, so it’s fine.”
“Don’t we need to approach more intimately?”
Yuri silently stared at Peter.
Peter hunched his shoulders at the sharp look transmitted through the rearview mirror.
“What if we lose our hard-found target this way?”
Peter was anxious.
How much trouble had they gone through to get here?
They had moved from the construction site using illegal immigrants to the abandoned factory district. There, they rescued exploited workers and subdued the Esper monitors dispatched by Thorns Order.
“There’s a guiding establishment operating exclusively for unregistered Espers.”
Dahlia, who had refused to speak despite intense interrogation, changed her mind and handed over a business card.
“June Buck”
The company, named after a green cocktail, had private party specialist consultants.
New clients could only make requests after receiving recommendations from at least two existing members.
Peter claimed Dahlia gave them the card to fool them.
However, Yuri asked with a detached expression:
“Do you know a place where unregistered Espers gather in the Spring continent?”
Chris, who had been hanging around the pub Peter recommended, caught unregistered Espers indiscriminately.
When Yuri worked his magic, one of them revealed information about the “consultant.”
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk…! The consultant I met is named Jay. I’ve told you, so please… give me guiding again. Aah…”
That’s how the trio reached “January.”
Peter was anxious not to lose this lead.
Although Northern Light, which had landed on the Spring continent, was pushing the mayor of Babel City regarding the abandoned factory district issue, they still lacked decisive evidence.
The mayor claimed she thought Thorns Order was a security company.
Also, as the criminal records of illegal immigrants leaked out, the situation was becoming increasingly muddled.
‘They won’t get away unscathed either… but are they just trying to buy time?’
Just before, Peter had personally testified about Martha Chafnil, the mayor of Babel City, at the Barrel Society meeting.
It was clear that citizenship was merely bait, and Chafnil was only interested in exploiting illegal immigrants.
However, direct intervention was thwarted by a majority opposition.
“Northern Light has already stepped in anyway.”
“What can we do?”
“Let’s protect the illegal immigrants in our respective regions, but be cautious for now.”
The overall consensus was to watch the situation.
Peter became more convinced that there might be collaborators of Mayor Chafnil among those he believed were his colleagues.
Given the situation, they also needed a decisive blow. Evidence that could turn even neutral executives.
“Chris will succeed.”
Yuri answered calmly.
“How can you be so sure?”
“He provides a sense of stability.”
Peter made another woeful face.
Yuri treats him like a dog, while Chris Danil is known as a living nightmare of the Winter continent.
How could such a person provide a sense of stability?
“You wouldn’t understand as an Esper. But a Guide would feel it.”
After making this incomprehensible statement, Yuri closed his eyes.
He seemed unconcerned even as Peter made whimpering sounds from the front seat.
‘I’d prefer if he at least got angry about the noise.’
Dejected by the perfect dismissal, Peter stole a glance at Chris in the distance.
Wearing glasses from who knows where, Chris looked like a rather handsome office worker.
Just as Chris, who had been reading a folded newspaper, began to move, Peter deliberately moved the car toward him.
At that moment, a hand suddenly extended from behind and pulled on Chris’s clothes as he was about to be partially hit.
“Careful!”
January stood there, looking startled.
When his eyes met Chris’s, he was alarmed and banged on the hood of Peter’s car.
“Please be careful!”
Peter pretended to apologize by rubbing his hands together and smoothly turned the steering wheel to pull away.
“Ah, thank you.”
Chris, who seemed to have just regained his senses, greeted January with a dazed expression.
‘I was planning to fake a minor accident to get support, but I didn’t expect him to step in and save me first.’
Knowing Yuri was watching, Chris had been wrapping telekinetic force around his legs to avoid real injury, but now he slowly relaxed.
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
January waved his hands and observed Chris carefully.
Honestly, he recognized Chris at first glance.
Not only was his appearance hard to forget, but the situation itself had been quite significant.
Because he had run away to check the contents of his box, he hadn’t properly expressed his gratitude.
But now it was awkward to acknowledge their previous meeting.
‘He might not even remember me.’
January was well aware of how others perceived him.
“Is the place we bumped into before alright?”
“Oh? You remembered?”
“Yes. I keep bumping into things here and there because I’m careless.”
Chris averted his gaze, seemingly a bit embarrassed.
“Ah…”
“You might not remember, but that day I broke my glasses frame, so I wasn’t wearing them. That’s why I couldn’t recognize your face immediately.”
Chris, who explained in a plain voice, smiled gently.
“But when I heard your voice, I recognized you right away.”
“My voice?”
January blinked his eyes.
Chris scratched the back of his head. He gave off a strong impression of simplicity.
“It’s a bit strange, isn’t it?”
“No, not at all.”
January waved his hand.
“I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Chris.”
Chris extended his hand as if requesting a handshake.
January confirmed that his hand was bare and lowered his own two hands that had come forward to wave him off.
“I’m Jay, call me Jay.”
“Jay.”
Chris nodded.
“Nice to meet you.”
“I’m sorry. My hands are dirty right now.”
“That’s fine.”
Despite being refused a handshake, Chris showed no displeasure and immediately withdrew his hand, allowing January to swallow his embarrassment.
“I should thank you properly, but I’m not sure how.”
“No need. Last time, Chris also helped with my box…”
“Did the contents break?”
At those words, January turned a bit pale and nodded.
“What? Yes.”
“That’s good.”
Chris smiled brightly and tilted his head.
“Well, see you next time.”
After delivering this straightforward greeting, Chris walked away, this time looking straight ahead.
January watched his retreating figure and fidgeted with his fingers.
Two coincidences.
Even such a minor incident amidst not-so-pleasant daily life gave him a sense of relief.
‘Strange.’
January began to walk. In his mind, the image of the man who left without looking back appeared and disappeared several times.
It was exactly that kind of encounter, no more, no less.
January thought as he hurried along:
‘There won’t be a third time.’
Killing expectations unconsciously was his long-standing habit.
***
“Let go of this.”
January, who had just put down a cocktail jigger, paused at the voice.
Perhaps it reminded him of how Chris had recognized him by his voice earlier that day.
“Here’s your Rusty Nail.”
January pushed the cocktail toward the customer and, pretending to wipe the glass with a dry cloth, checked the direction of the voice.
He saw a man being half-dragged between a large woman and a somewhat smaller man.
‘Chris?’
January was surprised to see the handsome man with brown hair and brown eyes.
‘I didn’t expect him to frequent a place like this.’
“Just stay still.”
“Let’s have some fun before going to the Summer continent.”
They seemed unusual for friends.
Especially given how awkwardly he was being dragged along, unable to free his hands.
“I’m going to report today’s incident to Team Leader Günter.”
“You shouldn’t have caught me on the way out. Now that it’s come to this, you’ll have to be my accomplice.”
“If you’re an Esper, you should know how to enjoy yourself. How long are you going to act like a prude?”
“Union regulations have gotten stricter, and there’s a shortage of guiding. This is a place I found out of generosity for my juniors.”
January assessed the situation from their conversation.
He thought they were unfamiliar faces, and it seemed they were Northern Light Espers who had recently come to the Spring continent.
January, who kept track of Esper movements due to his profession, easily understood this.
He was also aware that as Guides affiliated with the Union formed their own teams and asserted their rights, Union-affiliated Espers were expressing dissatisfaction related to guiding.
He had served customers who claimed to have originally belonged to Northern Light.
‘More importantly… he’s an Esper.’
His mind was complicated.
This situation, which brought about the third coincidence, felt quite remarkable.
“I’m about to leave, can you cover for me?”
When he quietly spoke to his colleague, the other raised an eyebrow.
“Why? Already picked a customer?”
“…What good is it to know?”
“Should I report to the boss? That you ran away?”
“I’ve been working three days straight and I’m not feeling well.”
“…Go ahead.”
The colleague, hesitating for a moment, waved his hand dismissively.
January went to the back room and changed his clothes.
The other person seemed to have been dragged there against his will too, and January didn’t want to meet him in a place like this.
January descended via the emergency staircase and exhaled deeply.
That’s when it happened.
The back door near the kitchen opened, and a large white dog appeared.
The dog, which looked almost as big as a person, had human clothes in its mouth.
‘No, is it a wolf?’
Too shocked, January dropped the keys he was holding.
At the clanging sound, the wolf’s yellow eyes looked at him.
January gulped.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
