# Chapter 47
Even when I was possessed in a martial arts game, those types of attacks were tricky.
I felt deep self-loathing when swinging my sword at people who had lost their minds due to soul-confusing techniques and were throwing their bodies like weapons.
In the martial arts game, no one tried to use soul-confusing techniques on me; rather, those affected by such techniques would attack like zombies. So my experience then wouldn’t be helpful for my current situation.
I couldn’t know how Origin would act going forward, but I wasn’t just anxious—I was also somewhat expectant.
That probably meant my faith in the S-class Espers and Lee Ha-min had grown that much in the meantime.
Watching the S-class Espers and Lee Ha-min, I realized I wasn’t the only one who thought that way.
***
From the next day on, Lee Ha-min rarely came to the training ground and was difficult to see in the dining hall during meal times.
The S-class Espers were curious about where Lee Ha-min was, since he surely knew the meal times, but when they called to ask why he wasn’t coming, he would say he probably couldn’t make it for meal times and told them to eat first.
When asked where he was and what he was so busy with, he would typically brush it off without giving a proper answer.
Wondering what was going on, I looked to the S-class Espers, but they knew nothing and were as curious as I was.
I let it slide once or twice, but later I became so curious that I questioned him persistently about where he was, and Lee Ha-min came to me.
“What have you been doing? Not even training. What’s keeping you so busy these days?”
“Ah. Nothing.”
He was clearly hiding something, but I couldn’t grasp what it was.
Finally, I decided to follow him.
The S-class Espers offered to help, but I thought we’d only end up getting caught, so I followed Lee Ha-min alone…
This guy.
Is this how he uses his ability?
Instead of going to the training ground, Lee Ha-min was going to the research lab.
He was using his amplification ability to help researchers create stabilizers.
It wasn’t even confirmed whether his amplification ability had any effect on them, but Lee Ha-min seemed to think his presence might help at least a little.
After seeing Lee Ha-min go to the research lab and following him to find out what he was doing, I saw the researchers who looked haggard, as if they hadn’t slept properly for days.
They didn’t notice that I had sneaked in and were talking among themselves.
“Lee Ha-min Esper is driving me crazy. Why aren’t dungeons appearing as easily as they used to? It seems like they’re still appearing frequently in other countries. Can’t we send Lee Ha-min Esper on an expedition?”
“I already wrote a letter of concern to the Center Director today. I said it was too difficult because of Lee Ha-min Esper.”
“Ah, that probably won’t help. The Center Director seems unable to refuse Lee Ha-min Esper too.”
“If I had known this would happen, I would have done the work properly when I had time. Now we’re trying to do all at once what we should have been doing then.”
“Did we know this would happen? No. We thought this time would also pass with just some half-hearted efforts in the beginning, but why is it different? There have been many occasions when stabilizers were mentioned. Each time, we’d make something basic and pass it on, and he seemed satisfied with it, but why is it different this time?”
I realized what had been happening.
What Lee Ha-min had done was amusing, but the researchers’ behavior was even more so.
But the conversation didn’t end there.
“No matter what, we absolutely cannot reveal everything we’ve researched so far. If we reveal everything we’ve made, they’ll demand even more from us in the future. Then we’ll be worked to death.”
“That’s obvious.”
I was appalled.
Up until now, all that had come out was something with the effect of a D-class guide holding hands and stabilizing wavelengths, and afterward, research was known to have stagnated.
But to think that was deliberate.
I was at a loss for words at the thought that these people didn’t care at all whether an Esper’s life was in danger or not.
“If they find out we’ve made something equivalent to a C-class guide’s ability, they might demand us to produce the effect of an A-class guide’s mucous membrane guiding. That’s human psychology.”
“I heard from the Guide Team Leader that the treatment of guides will be improved soon. It seems like they’ll renegotiate contracts too. Then our value might increase as well. If they don’t sign contracts, it means they don’t have to do guiding forcibly. Then there will come a time when guides are scarce, right?”
“That’s really likely? I hadn’t thought that far.”
“Yeah. So it’s best to keep this a secret. I’ve told everyone else, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
After whispering plenty, they made death-like expressions, saying they had to go back to work now.
When they turned around to return to the lab, they were shocked to see me standing there.
“Es… per.”
They couldn’t close their gaping mouths, seemingly having no idea how long I had been there.
They seemed surprised that I had concealed my presence so well.
Even though they couldn’t see me, they probably couldn’t believe they had been so completely unaware of my existence.
They had no way of knowing that concealing my presence was nothing to me, and I turned around with an expression showing I understood their minds well.
“Es, Esper! That’s not it… that’s… What you heard just now is a misunderstanding. What we were saying didn’t mean that… Because Lee Ha-min Esper has been pressuring us so much, we had to do something like that, and we were going to tell you all our research results anyway in a little while. Because that’s the right thing to do.”
I moved away without listening to anything more they said, and they followed urgently.
But they could only follow anxiously, unable to bring themselves to grab me.
I don’t know what Lee Ha-min was doing here, but thanks to coming to find him, I learned something I had no idea about.
Though I felt so bad that I thought maybe it would have been better not to know.
When I went to find Lee Ha-min, predictable things were happening there.
The researchers appeared to be immersed in experiments, and Lee Ha-min was using his ability on them.
‘Does that really have any effect? The researchers aren’t Espers… Does Lee Ha-min’s amplification ability work on anything?’
It didn’t seem likely, but Lee Ha-min seemed to have great faith and responsibility in what he was doing.
“Lee Ha-min.”
“…”
He seemed quite surprised, apparently not having expected to see me there, and I gestured with my head for Lee Ha-min to come out.
“Eunwoo. Why are you here?”
He asked with drooping eyes, like a dog caught just as it was about to enjoy a satisfying meal after confidently taking a piece of meat from its owner’s table.
“Why are you doing this, Lee Ha-min?”
“…It’s good to help.”
“Have you received any results?”
“They haven’t come out yet, but everyone’s working hard, so they’ll come out soon. So just be patient a little longer, Eunwoo.”
“Be patient about what? I’m not waiting for anything.”
“Hey. Do you think guiding S-class Espers is easy?”
“Yeah, I think it would be easy for me. Guiding you is easy for me too. It was only difficult for you. I’m still perfectly fine after guiding you. Not even staggering. I don’t think it would be difficult at all to guide S-class Espers even after guiding you.”
Lee Ha-min seemed to realize he shouldn’t talk with me like that.
“Let’s go out first, Lee Ha-min.”
I said that because it seemed we needed to discuss this, and he followed me out sluggishly.
“Those people are deceiving you. It seems they’ve already had some results. But they’re not saying anything yet, trying to reveal it at the most advantageous time. If your amplification ability really has been effective, then you’ve been wasting your efforts until now.”
“No way. That can’t be possible.”
Lee Ha-min seemed genuinely surprised.
“They wouldn’t do that, knowing how important this is.”
“No. I clearly heard them saying that. If you tell those people to produce results by tomorrow, they will.”
He looked at me as if feeling tremendous betrayal.
“That’s absurd. How could they do that?”
From then on, I had to comfort him.
It seems like Lee Ha-min’s mistake was thinking that the people at the Center were in a mutually cooperative relationship, but he seemed really shocked.
When I took him to the quarters, the S-class Espers who had finished training started gathering one by one.
Occupying chairs in the spacious reception room, they looked at us as if wondering what had happened.
Seeing Lee Ha-min’s serious expression, they seemed to think something had definitely happened.
“Lee Ha-min. Did Seo Eunwoo Esper bully you? This isn’t the first time Seo Eunwoo Esper has done this, so why do you make such a sad face every time? By now, you should be able to just ignore it.”
Kyun In spoke with a strange assumption, and I shared what I had heard in the research lab.
Hearing this, the S-class Espers seemed to feel a betrayal almost as great as Lee Ha-min’s.
“Wow… these people are really ridiculous? People who couldn’t have survived without us are backstabbing us like this? Wow… Don’t they know that this is directly connected to Espers’ lives? They do know. How could they, when they clearly know…”
Espers and guides, and researchers too.
It was a strange chain reaction.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
