“I tried to come as quickly as I could, but aren’t you making me feel too embarrassed right to my face?”
The Center Director wasn’t in perfect condition either. It seemed there had been quite a few obstacles on his way here, as he looked much more disheveled than before. And I could tell that his brash action of breaking through the wall was due to urgency.
‘Well, the Center Director must have felt the core being activated too.’
When it’s a dormant dungeon, an A-class Esper is sufficient, but once the dungeon is activated, the difficulty changes to one that barely two S-class Espers can clear. From his perspective, this must have been an unexpected situation too.
“Just now, I wasn’t feeling well. I removed the dungeon core…”
The Center Director abruptly grabbed my wrist upon hearing that I wasn’t feeling well.
“What’s your risk of going berserk?”
More precisely, he was asking while looking at the band on my wrist. I had turned it off earlier because the warning sound was too noisy after checking the reading, but I could imagine what expression the Center Director would make when he saw it.
“I’m fine. I can endure it. And I just need to go back quickly and receive Guiding.”
I tried to somehow downplay the situation, but it didn’t work with the Center Director. When he lightly touched the band to turn it on, the loud alarm sounded again, and red numbers appeared on the band.
“165.”
The figure that came from the Center Director’s lips was higher than what I had checked. While the numbers could fluctuate by 2-3 points within the margin of error, the figure the Center Director mentioned far exceeded that range.
‘But when I handled the A-class dungeon, it was 121, so isn’t this good for having handled an S-class alone?’
Compared to my first mission, this wasn’t a bad result.
‘Since there are Guides, if I return to the lodging immediately and receive Guiding, it should be fine.’
As soon as I thought that, a heat that I hadn’t felt until just now suddenly rose, making my head spin.
Fortunately, I didn’t stagger, but I was shocked as I touched my forehead.
First I thought, ‘Why has my body become so weak?’ but then I remembered that it wasn’t that I had weakened, but that this was the 22-year-old body not accustomed to field experience.
“Let’s get out quickly.”
Contrary to my worries, the Center Director didn’t scold me. He merely wiped my forehead, which was beaded with cold sweat due to the rising heat, with the back of his hand and said a word.
We escaped the dungeon not through the way I had come, but through the path the Center Director had taken. I briefly thought of the dog-sized hole I had made, but even if I were alone, I couldn’t ask the Center Director to exit that way.
“The labyrinth was activated midway, and monsters suddenly appeared, so I was delayed a lot.”
Unlike my path, the routes the Center Director had passed through were intricately intertwined in a very complex structure.
“Couldn’t you just break through the walls?”
“Unless you want to blow up the entire labyrinth, breaking the walls of the labyrinth is absolutely something you should never do. The dungeon will detect the danger and either block the path you came from or change the path you’re on, completely trapping you.”
The Center Director told me that I should have learned this in theory before I was 20, but he didn’t know that I had forgotten the core details. How could I remember everything I learned more than seven years ago? Even though I had been through countless dungeons, I had never experienced a labyrinth.
‘If we had gone in opposite directions at the fork in the road earlier, it could have been a real disaster?’
I would have forgotten even this basic knowledge and tried to use my ability to break through, and I would have been wandering in the labyrinth continuously. Meanwhile, the Center Director would have found the monster and been killed. Though it’s already past, thinking about it that way makes me realize how fortunate it is that both of us are safely escaping the dungeon now.
As I was sighing with relief, the Center Director, who was supporting me as we walked, pulled out a bracelet from his pocket.
“What is it?”
“An artifact.”
Adding that he had obtained it in the labyrinth, he put it on my arm. The simple bracelet with a silver ring had complex-looking patterns engraved on it, and a blue bead was threaded in the middle of the ring. Although I would need to appraise it to know for sure, just by looking at its appearance, it didn’t seem like a particularly good artifact.
“It’s a mental type artifact, so I haven’t tried using it, but I have a promise to keep with you.”
It was disappointing that it wasn’t a healing type, but anything would be helpful. I was looking at the bracelet, lightly turning my wrist, when I grabbed the Center Director’s arm. I intended to thank him, but suddenly the blue bead made a woong sound and started absorbing my energy.
At the same time, countless memories flowed into my mind in a panoramic mix. And the Center Director’s memory played in my head.
* * *
He was sitting in the Center Director’s seat, flipping through the documents in front of him. And beside him, a woman with short bobbed hair was holding a document envelope, waiting for the Center Director’s response. The woman’s face was shadowed and not clearly visible.
“She has post-traumatic stress disorder. She also has a strong aversion to male Espers.”
The Center Director, looking at the documents, nodded and responded casually.
“Good, you found well.”
“Should we match them as is?”
At the businesslike voice of the woman, the Center Director briefly pondered with his chin resting on his hand. A wrinkle formed between his brows and then quickly smoothed out.
“What’s the matching rate?”
“65%.”
“Change it to 85%.”
With that final remark, the Center Director stood up. Then he walked steadily to the window with a view of the blue sky and leaned against it. Seeing a bird soaring, he reached out his hand as if to catch it and grasped the air. Simultaneously, the wings of the bird flying in the sky bent grotesquely, and it plummeted down.
“Sometimes, dramatic staging can feel like fate.”
* * *
Hearing the Center Director’s leisurely voice, I opened my eyes with a start.
I was definitely escaping the dungeon with the Center Director just a moment ago, but now I was seeing the hotel ceiling where I had fallen asleep the night before.
‘What was that memory?’
I had no intention of peeking at the Center Director’s memories, but it seemed like I had seen something I shouldn’t have.
‘Manipulating the matching rate…’
Considering his position, it was entirely possible, which made it even more unsettling. But that was as far as it went. The Center Director managed many Espers, not just one or two. Since I had peeked at his memory without his permission, I didn’t want to delve deeper.
Moreover, the current Guides were personnel that I had personally requested and selected from the ‘Guide Dedicated Matching Team.’ Since the Center Director wasn’t involved in matching them, I could be confident that the memory I had just seen had nothing to do with me.
“You’re awake.”
Lost in thought while staring blankly at the ceiling, I turned my head at the familiar voice coming from beside me. Then I saw Jeong Seyeon sitting in a chair next to the bed.
“I’ve been providing temporary Guiding while you were unconscious. Since the reading was high, the Guiding isn’t complete, so please remain lying down.”
I noticed my hand being held by Jeong Seyeon. Without realizing it, his energy had been seeping into me from his hand all along.
“I’m fine. It’s not like I’m injured or anything.”
Although it was my first time raising my ability to 100%, and my body had taken that shock, there was nothing that could be called a wound from the outside. Feeling embarrassed about being treated like a patient, I abruptly raised my upper body and leaned against the headboard.
“Hyung, can I know how much time has passed since I lost consciousness?”
“About a little over an hour, I think.”
“Did you touch my body by any chance?”
I was referring to the cat I had brought from the dungeon, but Jeong Seyeon’s eyebrows twitched slightly. He slightly lowered his head, avoiding my gaze. Due to his long eyelashes, his shadowed eyes made it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
“It was Guiding out of necessity.”
It wasn’t surprising that there had been physical contact while I was unconscious. As a Guide, he had just done what was natural. However, his uncharacteristic agitation in response was unfamiliar.
‘Did he do something other than Guiding?’
At that thought that flashed through my mind, my heart skipped a beat. And though I had been fine until just now, I suddenly felt heat rising throughout my body. Before I knew it, words escaped my lips.
“Where did you touch me?”
“……”
Jeong Seyeon’s black eyes looked into mine as I asked the question. Under his calm gaze, I realized what I had just blurted out.
‘What the hell, why would I ask that? To imagine it if I knew?’
Was I, perhaps, a pervert?
My thoughts started to run wild. The heat that had been evoking strange feelings now burned my face for a different reason. As I was thinking I should quickly say something about this embarrassing situation, Jeong Seyeon’s lips parted.
“If I tell you, will you forgive me?”
It’s just Guiding, there’s nothing to forgive, that’s how I should have responded, but strangely, my lips wouldn’t move. Jeong Seyeon’s gaze lowered to my lips, and I swallowed dryly.
His gaze, which had lingered on my lips, very slowly traced down my neck, then across to my shoulder, and touched my chest. His face was as indifferent as usual, but wherever his gaze touched felt as if it was burning. When Jeong Seyeon’s gaze finally looked at my hand that he was holding, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and covered my flushed face with my other hand.
By this point, even I couldn’t ignore what was happening. The places his gaze had passed over were probably the areas he had touched for Guiding.
“Does that answer your question?”
He loosened his grip on my hand and rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb. His eyes were looking into mine again.
I bit my lip. The heat pooling in my stomach was embarrassing. I wished he wouldn’t know about the changes I was experiencing, but his eyes seemed to see through everything.
“Hyung.”
In the end, I was the one who surrendered first. To escape his gaze, I decided to bring up the monster I had brought.
“Was there anything in my clothes by any chance?”
“You mean the kitten?”
“Yes, well, the kitten.”
“Joo Seolhyeon took it.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
