Among the three S-rank Espers who showed a high matching rate with that D-rank Guide, one was Han Jigang. He’d been abruptly summoned by the Center Director and sent on a mission to retrieve a Guide—that was how it all began.
“Oh. They all just look like ordinary people. One of them’s already dead, though.”
“No, the Director said there’s a Guide here. Isn’t it this kid? Faint as it is, I can sense some Guiding mana from him.”
Han Jigang had already guessed who it would be. The boy was so battered with injuries that his face was hardly recognizable, and he gave off the impression of someone awkwardly caught between adolescence and adulthood.
Han Jigang hadn’t liked being dragged into this mission at the last minute, and he liked even less the Director’s insistence on assigning a Guide when machines could handle the job just fine.
He made no move to pull Nabin out of the wreck. His expression twisted in annoyance, the hard lines of his striking face sharpening as if to expose his displeasure.
“He might be a Guide, sure… but at this level, isn’t he basically the same as a civilian? Do we really need to drag him along? A machine would do.”
Clicking his tongue, he was about to dismiss the boy when Kim Yong-ho, pulling the corpse of the driver from the seat, snapped at him.
“Stop complaining and bring him.”
With a sigh, Han Jigang finally shoved aside the man lying across Nabin. The two were so tangled it was as if they were fused together. The man’s faint groans didn’t matter—he could live or die for all Han Jigang cared.
To him, this Guide was hardly different. His Guiding mana was so weak it was laughable. Taking him along would only cause trouble.
It would have been simpler if he’d died like the driver, but the boy’s ragged breaths refused to stop. Irritated, Han Jigang grabbed Nabin’s arm and yanked him roughly out of the wreckage.
“Ugh…”
Even half-conscious, Nabin cried out in pain as his broken arm was wrenched. Alarmed, Kim Yong-ho, who was checking the bodies, quickly grabbed Han Jigang’s arm.
“Hey! You can’t just manhandle someone who’s already injured!”
“They’re gonna feed him a Healing Potion anyway.”
The reply, casual as if to ask what’s the problem?, made Kim Yong-ho grit his teeth. Of course—this was exactly the kind of man Han Jigang was. With a scowl, he carefully pulled Nabin into his own arms.
“You really need to fix that rotten attitude of yours.”
How warped did someone have to be to treat a half-dead person so carelessly? Kim Yong-ho couldn’t understand it. Though he muttered a rebuke, Han Jigang simply turned away and walked toward the parked vehicle.
“Ahh…”
At the sound of another pained groan, Kim Yong-ho quickly fished out a Healing Potion and poured it between Nabin’s lips. The boy was frighteningly thin, his body so light it hardly felt adult. Though tall, his gauntness only made him look smaller, almost fragile.
His skin must have been pale to begin with, but the heavy blood loss had turned what little unsoiled flesh remained a bluish white.
Anyone with a shred of humanity would’ve hesitated to handle someone so injured so roughly—but Han Jigang lived up to his nickname of “psychopath” without a shred of hesitation.
He treated this fragile Guide like a hardened criminal.
Most Espers had a natural softness toward Guides, but not Han Jigang. Aside from the one Guide assigned exclusively to him, he was openly hostile toward the rest. Worse still, the other two S-rank Espers matched with Nabin were just the same. No wonder the Center Director’s hair was turning white.
Even as Kim Yong-ho tried to administer the potion, most of it spilled from Nabin’s slack lips. Still, half a vial went down—enough to count as emergency treatment.
“Just hold on a little longer. We’ll get you to the infirmary soon.”
But the potion could only do so much, especially since it wasn’t a top-grade one. They needed to get him to a healing Esper immediately.
Held against Kim Yong-ho’s chest, Nabin slowly began regaining consciousness. Instinctively, he swallowed the liquid, and some of the pain wracking his body eased.
He could tell instantly—this was nothing like the potion he’d once desperately procured for his mother. This was official, state-distributed quality, not some back-alley counterfeit. He had no idea why they were giving him something so valuable, but with the pain lessening, he felt like he might actually survive.
When the red-haired man had yanked him out, his already throbbing head had slammed, and he’d bitten his tongue. Back when the car had rolled with Kim Minsu, his tongue had already been shredded between his teeth. Now, as the potion seeped in, the torn flesh began knitting together, easing yet another torment. His body slackened, and he drifted back into unconsciousness.
Adjusting his grip on the boy’s limp frame, Kim Yong-ho carried him to the car. Han Jigang didn’t so much as glance their way, staring absently out the window. Knowing this was just who he was, Kim Yong-ho didn’t bother urging him to help.
“Is this the Guide we’re supposed to rescue?”
“Yeah.”
The other Espers in the car eyed Nabin with curiosity. All they’d been told was that this urgent mission involved saving an important Guide. Only Han Jigang and Kim Yong-ho knew about the matching rate—the Director had revealed it only because Han Jigang wouldn’t have moved otherwise, and Kim Yong-ho needed to understand the mission’s weight.
“Are you sure he’s an adult? He looks way too young.”
“As far as I know, he’s twenty-four.”
“Seriously? He looks younger than me…”
Lee Su-chang, a twenty-two-year-old A-rank Earth Esper, looked genuinely stunned. Kim Yong-ho silently agreed—the unconscious Guide looked young enough to pass for a high school student in uniform.
Looking at that almost baby-faced profile, Kim Yong-ho felt a pang. Even the scars visible on the surface were too many to count.
Most striking was the mark around his neck, as though someone had strangled him with brutal force. And the jagged scars around his lips, torn and healed again and again, were wounds too cruel to ask about.
His gaze drifted toward the red-haired Esper sitting with his arms crossed, eyes closed. That man was one of the S-rank Espers Nabin was destined to guide.
If only he’d been matched with ordinary Espers…
Every single one of the S-ranks assigned to him had serious character flaws. Not just Han Jigang, who had manhandled him like trash—the others were no better.
But there was nothing Kim Yong-ho could do. This was a special directive from the Director himself. All he could do was pray that the boy would somehow endure.
***
Nabin woke slowly, his senses registering something unfamiliar.
The place he’d lived had no windows and always reeked of mustiness. Every time he regained consciousness there, the stench hit first—blood, sweat, and other fluids, from him and from the “guests” who came to him. The foul odor in that sealed space was so strong it made him grimace before he even opened his eyes.
But now, the scent was different. Clean, faint traces of disinfectant… the comforting fragrance of laundry dried under sunlight.
It was the same scent his blanket had carried back when his father was alive, when his mother would hang it out in the yard on bright days.
The nostalgia tugged a faint smile onto his lips—until it vanished at the sound of an unfamiliar male voice.
“Guide Kim Nabin, are you awake?”
It was a voice he’d never heard before. Gentle in tone, filled with concern—yet the very sound of a man’s voice made Nabin shrink back, curling up and trembling violently.
The reaction startled Kim Su-hyun, the healing Esper in charge of Infirmary One at the K Ability User Center. He’d only meant to greet the boy, nothing more. He hadn’t even touched him.
And yet the Guide reacted like someone suffering from deep, violent trauma. Thinking of the Espers this boy was soon to serve, Kim Su-hyun’s expression darkened.
