# Chapter 50
“Um, Guide Han Jiwoo.”
“Yes?”
“Is there anything wrong with your body? If there’s even the slightest issue, you need to tell us right away.”
Looking at the researchers who were anxious, wondering if there was something wrong with him that prevented him from guiding, Han Jiwoo inwardly swallowed his laughter.
Yes, just because the Espers’ reactions were different from what he expected, it didn’t mean his value had disappeared.
“Of course. Certainly.”
Han Jiwoo smiled brightly, deliberately hiding his base satisfaction.
The researcher, not wanting to upset the seemingly happy Guide, couldn’t bring himself to ask why he had reduced the frequency of guiding sessions and turned away.
Even with reduced frequency, it was still better than Hajin, who had only dealt with Alpha Team.
He wasn’t even aware that he was comparing the two.
Since very few people properly understood Hajin’s rank, others only knew him as an S-class Guide.
When Hajin was the only S-class Guide, no one found it strange that he only managed Alpha Team. But now that Han Jiwoo had become S-class and was seen guiding various Espers, people began to question.
Why did Lee Hajin only manage Alpha Team?
It had been the Association Chairman’s scheme to tie Hajin, an immeasurable-grade Guide, closely to the Association, but ordinary researchers couldn’t know that intention.
They had subconsciously assumed that Hajin had made that choice to guide only the strongest Espers.
As a result, they couldn’t help but wonder: now that they had Han Jiwoo who guided Espers without complaint, did they really need to halt all Association business to find Lee Hajin? Such thoughts increasingly crossed their minds.
Of course, knowing it was a crime by the anti-government faction, no one voiced these thoughts. But even without saying it out loud, such feelings inevitably showed.
Another week passed, and Baek Jaan, who had gone out searching but returned empty-handed as expected, was back at the Association to check if there was any new information.
As he headed straight to the search room, Baek Jaan sensed a somewhat different atmosphere from before.
‘…They’re not urgent.’
Yes, unlike at first, they no longer showed urgency. They hadn’t stopped the search.
The Association was still mobilizing numerous personnel to find Hajin. But they didn’t seem to be giving it their all.
Baek Jaan’s gaze swept over the documents strewn across the desk.
There were papers estimating the locations of anti-government forces, but occasionally, there were also documents unrelated to the search for Hajin.
With an inscrutable expression, he opened his mouth.
“Next location.”
“Pardon?”
Since his gaze was still directed at the desk, the person who received the question didn’t immediately understand and ended up asking back.
Following Baek Jaan’s gaze, he discovered the other documents on the desk and was horrified.
He had only put them there to look at briefly, but to have Baek Jaan arrive at this exact timing was a disaster.
But the researcher, lacking the courage to pretend not to know about those documents under Baek Jaan’s gaze, tried to salvage the situation by searching through the anti-government investigation materials, but had nothing to present immediately.
‘Damn, I’m screwed!’
The researchers hadn’t been negligent in the search for Hajin at all. They couldn’t answer the demand for the next location because there were no more places to search.
‘Of all things, I had to put these up…’
If there hadn’t been other documents, he could have confidently answered that there were no more places to search, literally having combed the entire country.
But having been caught with mountains of other work-related documents, everything would just sound like an excuse.
‘Please, please just don’t let me die…’
The researcher said a prayer to no one in particular and barely managed to speak.
“W-well, you see. We’ve looked everywhere we could. Now, there’s no more place to sea- gack!”
As expected, before he could finish saying there was no place left to search for Hajin, a terrifying aura flowed from Baek Jaan.
It was only a fraction of the anger in Baek Jaan’s heart, but how could a desk-bound researcher withstand such pressure?
“Guk, B-Baek Jaan, Esper…!”
The researcher felt as if gravity was pressing down on him strongly. As his breath was blocked and oxygen depleted, his vision gradually turned white.
Tears welled up as he thought he might really die, but then the force that seemed to be strangling his neck disappeared.
“Hack! Cough, cough!”
Like a puppet with its strings cut, the researcher collapsed helplessly on the desk, dripping saliva and desperately gulping air while coughing roughly.
His body trembled violently like an aspen leaf from the fear of nearly dying.
“You said there’s nowhere left.”
But even amid the near-death experience, that voice came through clearly. It was a voice devoid of any emotion for someone who had just nearly taken a life.
The researcher forcibly raised his body while still unable to stop coughing.
He had been complacent. He knew well how dangerous an Esper desperate for a Guide could be, yet he had grown careless because there was another S-class Guide.
‘What excuse, no, how should I explain?’
How could he avoid provoking that monster?
The researcher tried to use his bleached white brain somehow, but his mind, having just faced death, didn’t work properly.
Just as he worried that Baek Jaan might get angry again and this time truly kill him, the man spoke.
“Is it true that you’ve searched the entire country?”
‘He’s… not going to kill me?’
Momentarily stunned by the normal question, the researcher snapped back to reality as if electrified when he met Baek Jaan’s eyes and hastily nodded.
“I swear! We’ve searched everywhere possible. We’ve checked with satellites and, ahem, in case they used invisibility abilities, we sent Espers who could nullify such abilities to every corner of the country, but truly found nothing.”
At the researcher’s desperate explanation, Baek Jaan lowered his eyes as if contemplating something. Then, as if he had no more business with him, he turned to leave.
Just as the researcher was about to sigh in relief watching Baek Jaan silently move away, he suddenly turned back.
The researcher’s entire body tensed up again as their eyes met. His shoulders ached, clearly having a muscle cramp, but he couldn’t even show he was in pain.
“Is there, is there something else you’re curious about…?”
“I won’t turn a blind eye a second time.”
Following Baek Jaan’s gaze, the researcher saw heavily crumpled and torn documents.
They were documents he had brought out thinking he had some spare time to handle other work.
When he raised his head again, Baek Jaan was gone. The researcher, his legs giving out, gathered the torn pieces of paper and threw them in the trash.
Meanwhile, Baek Jaan, who had just delivered a terrifying experience that would never be repeated in one person’s life, immediately gathered the other team members.
Since they too had nowhere left to search, it didn’t take long for everyone to assemble.
“If this isn’t important, you’re dead.”
When Han Seungho growled lowly like a beast, Baek Jaan’s gaze turned to him.
The two had never been on good terms, but such a tense atmosphere between them was unprecedented.
With several weeks having passed without finding Hajin, the mood among Alpha Team was becoming ominous.
They had already received guiding, so the problem wasn’t due to unstable wavelengths. It was because of the anxiety that didn’t disappear even with stable wavelengths.
“Enough. Let’s hear why he called us first.”
Fortunately, the sharp tension was resolved by Cha Jinwoo’s intervention.
The Association Chairman, who had been holding his breath, unable to open his mouth due to the raw tension, exhaled deeply to make his presence known.
“It seems you’re all determined to send me to my grave. This is no good for an old man’s heart, so please restrain yourselves in front of me.”
With that, even the subtle tension that had been lingering disappeared. Feeling much more at ease, the Association Chairman asked Baek Jaan.
“So, why did we specifically gather in the Association Chairman’s office?”
“Because there are no listening devices in this room.”
To be safe, he had used his ability to thoroughly search the room for any unforeseen contingencies. The Association Chairman asked with feigned displeasure.
“Are you suggesting there’s a traitor within the Association?”
“I don’t know. There could be a traitor, or there could be an infiltrator.”
The Association Chairman was discomfited by the statement that doubted his abilities.
Having failed to notice anti-government forces entering and even disrupting the central area where Guides lived, he couldn’t argue.
“…So what do you want to say?”
“There are no more places to search. We’ve only found buildings set up for show, without discovering even a strand of Hyung Hajin’s hair.”
The Association Chairman let out a low sigh.
Baek Jaan had brought up a frustrating problem. Although the emergence of another S-class Guide had provided some relief, they couldn’t just leave Hajin as he was.
How could they leave a Guide even more exceptional than S-class in the hands of dangerous opposing forces? They had to retrieve him at all costs.
‘…If that’s not possible, we might have to kill him.’
He thought it would be better to kill a Guide of Hajin’s caliber rather than let him be taken by the anti-government forces.
All the while, Baek Jaan continued speaking.
“That means there’s only one place left.”
“Where are you referring to?”
“Underground.”
Baek Jaan seemed almost certain. That the headquarters of the anti-government forces was underground. However, the Association Chairman didn’t seem to agree.
“I’m mentioning this in case you don’t know, but we’ve already been searching underground as well. As if we wouldn’t have considered that possibility.”
As the Association Chairman said, the underground had already been included in the search area. Even at A-class, Espers could easily withstand the weight of soil deep underground.
The method was to dig holes with machines, then have Espers enter with wavelength detection devices to search the surroundings.
Despite making holes in all sorts of places, they couldn’t detect any wavelengths underground. The underground had been searched as thoroughly as the surface.
But Baek Jaan didn’t back down from his assertion. He raised his finger, pointing down, and said.
“We need to go deeper.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
