Chapter 9
“…Why? Don’t you think so?”
“No. I think that’s right. I think so too. There’s no end, is there? This world will eventually face its doom, right?”
Even I don’t know that.
“Ha-min.”
He looked at me.
“You’re strong. Much stronger than you think. Don’t let others treat you carelessly. You don’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
“…”
In my sister’s novel, Ha-min’s potential was mentioned several times.
Each time, I had hoped that Ha-min’s potential would burst forth soon, but even past the middle of the novel, it never happened.
Though I say middle, the novel was never completed, so it’s impossible to know which part of the whole story that was.
When I asked my sister if it would ever happen, she said she didn’t know either.
If only this child’s potential could awaken early.
“Thank you, Eunwoo. You’re the first person to say something like this to me. Everyone else just gets annoyed when they see me…”
I put a fried egg in my mouth, wondering if there was a way to help Ha-min.
It was then that a part of the novel suddenly came to mind.
After making a fuss about not reading some weird novel next to me, I had a big fight with my sister, and for a while, she didn’t read the novel to me, but later, curious about what happened to Ha-min, I found my sister’s novel and read it myself.
It wasn’t hard to find since she was posting it on a site under the exact title she told me.
At the time, I didn’t think it was a significant description, but the novel clearly contained such content.
When Ha-min passed by the equipment that detected Esper awakening, the equipment activated…
No one noticed it, and even Ha-min passed by without knowing it, but wasn’t that a foreshadowing indicating that he was an Esper?
If Ha-min was both a Guide and an Esper, couldn’t a different ending arrive in this world?
It seemed like too far-fetched a thought, but then again, who knows?
“Ha-min. Do you want to train with me?”
At my words, Ha-min’s eyes widened.
“Guides don’t receive separate training… except for the education we get.”
“This is just my thought, but I think you might have attack abilities too.”
“Me? Do you really think so?”
What I was saying was absurd.
At this stage, there was no evidence, and there had never been anyone who was both a Guide and an Esper.
So if I said this, it would be right to laugh and ask what nonsense I was talking about.
But Ha-min’s eyes were filled with expectation.
“I’d love it if that were possible. If it were only possible… if such a thing happened, I’d be so happy.”
“There’s no law saying we can’t try.”
“Do you think I can do it, Eunwoo? The training, I mean. Training together with you.”
“Yes. I’m a good teacher.”
Then a smile spread across his face.
Is it the training with me itself that he likes more than having attack abilities?
“Okay. I’ll be in your care. When do we start?”
“I don’t postpone.”
“Wow. That’s an enviable personality. I always procrastinate.”
“If you do it with me, you won’t be able to postpone. I…”
Should I say I’ll nag until it’s done?
“What is it?”
Ha-min asked with an expectant face.
“I plan by the minute. And somehow, I always try to accomplish what I’ve set as my goal. I get really sensitive if I can’t, but I usually succeed.”
“Wow…”
Ha-min looked at me as if wondering whether agreeing to work with me was actually a good idea.
“Can I say I don’t want to do it, even now?”
“Of course not. I’ve already made all the plans.”
“Okay. I understand.”
Ha-min smiled with a satisfied face.
It seemed like he was just testing with his question about backing out.
“But can I ask why you said that to me?”
“What else? I don’t have many people to talk to at the Center.”
“Why? That’s not true.”
Ha-min laughed as he said this.
He probably meant that I have Kyun In and Byun Tae-young.
Speaking of which, on that day, the S-class Espers must have been plotting something together because they didn’t come to the cafeteria.
It felt like I could really live for once in a long time.
Just the fact that those two humans didn’t come to the cafeteria could make things so peaceful.
It was pitiful and frustrating to think about why we had to live with that peace taken from us all this time.
“But I won’t be able to go to the Esper training facility.”
“Then I can go somewhere else. Do you know a good place? We don’t particularly need equipment, just a quiet place.”
“There is such a place, but is that really okay? You don’t need equipment? How do you train?”
“I have my own method.”
He’ll probably be shocked when he sees it.
I smiled without realizing it, and then became self-aware again about what I was doing.
The self-deprecating bottom surrounded by obsessive yanderes in a bleak novel.
I wondered if I was getting too close to him now.
Although I’m diverging from the original plot and trying to keep my distance from the S-class Espers, according to the original story, I’d die hanging around them…
But I couldn’t just ignore Ha-min either.
There were other reasons too.
As time passes, the monsters coming out of the dungeons become stronger and harder to conquer.
Even when several S-class Espers are deployed together, there are dungeons they can’t conquer, and injured Espers continue to emerge.
I began to think that in this hopeless world that approaches dystopia, Ha-min might be the hope my sister prepared.
I didn’t even want to think about what would happen to me if this world were destroyed.
Does my sister know?
That because of the setting she created, her cute younger brother might die here?
Because of what I said, Ha-min seemed to be in a much better mood than usual and full of energy.
“Eunwoo. I’m really in a good mood these days. Because of you, I eat well too. Actually, I used to be afraid of going to the cafeteria. When I went there, people would bully me and make fun of me, so I would eat just a little and run away. That’s why I always had stomachaches and couldn’t digest properly, but these days, maybe because of you, no one bullies me. Oh, and I went to the broadcast room, and they just told me to go ahead, which would never have happened if it weren’t for you.”
After that, Ha-min continued to recall past events and expressed his gratitude.
“Me too. I’m grateful too. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had anyone to talk to and wouldn’t have had a friend. It’s better to train with someone than alone, and I think training with you will be helpful.”
There was definitely something to look forward to with Ha-min.
Whether that part of the novel was really foreshadowing or not, it seemed like I would soon find out.
***
The place Ha-min took me was the entrance to a forest.
No one came there, and it was a bit sad understanding how Ha-min knew such a place.
It seemed like he would come there alone when things got tough and hide in silence where others don’t wander.
“Ha-min. I think the current guiding method needs to change a bit. There are situations where a Guide can’t provide guiding.”
“That’s true. But that’s unavoidable.”
“No. It’s just that no one has tried to solve the problem until now, but if we look for a method, we can find one somehow. I think we could create something like a stabilizer that works on Espers. After having seen Guides provide guiding and Espers stabilize because of it all this time, would it really be completely impossible for researchers to create something like that?”
“Stabi…lizer?”
In the novel, the stabilizer comes out a few years later, but if I tell Ha-min about it now, its development might be expedited.
No matter what anyone says, Ha-min is the dedicated Guide for S-class Espers, and it’s fair to say the S-class Espers hold absolute power within the Center.
And although they haven’t realized it yet, all the S-class Espers like Ha-min, so if Ha-min makes a request, there’s a high chance they’ll comply.
If the stabilizer is created, handling dungeons will become much easier.
Even if it can save just one Esper from dying due to a surge, the situation would become much more favorable.
“Eunwoo, you’re really amazing. I’ve never thought of that. I just assumed that an Esper’s surge could only be stopped by a Guide’s guiding. You’re truly incredible.”
“It’s not completely impossible. The problem is that if a lower-ranked Esper like me says it, they won’t even listen.”
“That’s right. Same for me… It’s a shame. It would be good if higher-ranked Espers could think like that.”
Ha-min. Don’t give up. There are S-class Espers swarming around you, so why do you have that face?
For now, I kept quiet, hoping that Ha-min would realize it himself.
Ha-min seemed to think it was time to start doing something and looked at me.
“What should I do? How do we do physical training? I have seen what other Espers do.”
“Ah. Forget everything you’ve seen.”
“Huh?”
“For building strength and endurance, the horse stance is the best.”
“…Horse stance?”
“Yes. Enduring in a horse-riding posture.”
Ha-min looked at me as if wondering if he had misheard.
It’s okay, Ha-min.
I understand everything.
But it’s better if you believe what I say.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
