Chapter 40
Whether he understood the silence as affirmation, Cha Yeongheon’s face gradually brightened.
That’s when it happened.
With a bang, something shot out like lightning. Cha Yeongheon, who jumped up as if asking when he’d been lying down, tried to strike it away but was instead pushed back and flew. He’d let go of his wrist as if he didn’t want to kill the Guide he’d barely obtained.
“Professor, are you alright?”
Surprisingly, the one who attacked Cha Yeongheon and pulled Ko Eungyo as if to protect him was Lee Seungwoo. He thought he’d heard this somewhere once before, right, surely…
Those were the words Nam Seonjae had said when he protected him from the falling bucket and panel. Instantly, he felt intense rejection toward Lee Seungwoo. He straightened his body that had been leaning as if collapsing against Lee Seungwoo and stepped back from him.
“I heard there was a rampage Esper so I came in a hurry…”
“……”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
Lee Seungwoo’s face was pale. It was a face too different from the cold face that had grabbed his ankle as if to break it and told him to act obedient.
Which was his real face?
He couldn’t tell if he was scared or if he hated him. Right now, it felt like he couldn’t face Lee Seungwoo properly.
“Damn, fuck…”
Slowly rising from the dust cloud, Cha Yeongheon spat out a curse. When he looked that way, startled, Lee Seungwoo reached out and pushed Ko Eungyo behind his back to hide him.
Since he’d received this kind of protection countless times, he knew exactly what Lee Seungwoo’s feelings were when he hid him.
When entering a Gate, when encountering a monster, ordinary people inevitably shrink. Because monsters aren’t people but in the form of creatures.
Surprisingly, the moment a Guide feels threatened, the Esper tries to protect them as if resonating with the Guide’s heart. Since Espers are also people before being ability users, they react to threats and have an instinct to protect themselves. But strangely, Espers also had a tendency to protect their Guides equally.
Once Espers face a threat, they don’t take their eyes off it and try to keep the Guide within their field of vision. Even if the Guide isn’t in their field of vision, if it seems their Guide feels fear, they immediately notice and react sensitively, as if they have eyes on the back of their head.
Some Espers protected their Guide with more priority than themselves. Because their own body follows their control but the Guide is another person who can’t be instinctively controlled, they considered there to be variables and tended to be even more overprotective.
He thought this was very strange. It even felt inappropriate… He’d always scolded Espers who tried to overprotect him. Because if they were preoccupied with their Guide and neglected the monster, it could lead to a drain on the team’s strength or even injuries in severe cases.
But this protection could be said to be very timely. Because this wasn’t a Gate, there were no monsters, and now Ko Eungyo was in a situation where he needed protection from someone.
While he was awkwardly looking up at the back of Lee Seungwoo’s head, Cha Yeongheon’s mocking voice was heard.
“What the fuck are you?”
“Who are you?”
“Me?”
The sound of Cha Yeongheon giggling could be heard.
“Of all things, to see a greenhorn bastard who doesn’t even know who I am presumptuously chirping away…”
“……”
“Doesn’t he need a rhythm game?”
Lee Seungwoo didn’t take his eyes off Cha Yeongheon, watching him with a hardened face. Though he didn’t know exactly what a rhythm game was, he must have learned through context that the Esper in front of him was asking the question not to him but to Ko Eungyo.
Separate from having two contradictory feelings about Lee Seungwoo, Cha Yeongheon was irritating. This wasn’t even the Joseon era, and being threatened to become his Guide was really something he’d pass on. Even that Lee Seungwoo, whose arrogance pierced the sky, had pretended to be cute and asked nicely.
First, he walked out from behind Lee Seungwoo while wiping his dust-covered chin.
“That’s right.”
When he answered, Cha Yeongheon abruptly stopped laughing as if asking when he’d laughed.
“Right?”
It was a very bleak atmosphere.
Ko Eungyo’s face hardened stiffly, sensing Cha Yeongheon’s ominous attitude.
In the past, Cha Yeongheon would have pouted his lips and asked him not to speak coldly to him. He would have chosen the method of throwing a tantrum, asking to be cherished more than other Espers, asking why he didn’t like him more when he listened best and acted most loyally.
Not acting coercive like this.
“What on earth is this behavior? If you can’t receive Guiding, you should talk to the Center and somehow find a way, not inconvenience unrelated people.”
“Unrelated? Why are you unrelated?”
Cha Yeongheon smiled, raising the corner of his lips.
“If you put me on your ‘my,’ I’ll become your Esper too.”
“I refuse.”
“Why? Because you have too many Espers?”
“……”
Cha Yeongheon’s eyes slowly rolled toward Lee Seungwoo, who was frozen like a stone statue.
“Should I reduce the number?”
Those words gave him chills.
Of course, Lee Seungwoo didn’t feel that way. Rather, as if his competitive spirit was aroused, something like a smile rose on his cold face.
“Go ahead and try…”
“Wait, Esper Lee Seungwoo.”
Ko Eungyo grabbed Lee Seungwoo, who was trying to confront Cha Yeongheon.
“I’ll talk to him.”
He’d gone on many Gate operations with Cha Yeongheon in the past. He knew that much about Cha Yeongheon’s abilities.
Cha Yeongheon’s ability was 「Assassin」. In other words, specialized in assassination. He was a stealthy blade that would secretly go around to the monster’s back while physical Espers drew attention from the front, piercing the heart from the back and taking lives. Even with the same word, when Cha Yeongheon said ‘kill,’ the weight was different from the start.
If Ko Eungyo really said here and now, ‘Alright, if not a single Esper I’m in charge of remains, I’ll take you as my Esper,’ he would try to kill Lee Seungwoo without hesitation.
“What on earth are you saying? Are you trying to threaten me?”
“I don’t act rough if you listen well to me too.”
As the gap widened between the current Cha Yeongheon showing himself and the past Cha Yeongheon, Ko Eungyo felt his heart closing.
“If I don’t listen, will you kill someone?”
“Yeah, maybe I will.”
“You’re really trash, Esper Cha Yeongheon.”
“……”
It was right then that Cha Yeongheon’s expression, which had been staring at Lee Seungwoo with eyes looking at prey, cracked.
At Ko Eungyo’s cold words, surprisingly, Cha Yeongheon looked flustered. Through the cracked expression, he could feel the real Cha Yeongheon panicking and not knowing what to do. He spoke in a tone as if urgently chasing something.
“At first I thought I heard wrong… You know my name? You know me?”
So that’s what it was about… Right, it was certainly strange that Ko Eungyo knew Cha Yeongheon’s name when even Lee Seungwoo didn’t. For now, he decided to play dumb about this fact.
“I only know your name.”
“You only know my name? But then how…”
The next words were too small to hear. Cha Yeongheon only moved his lips slightly muttering something, then widened his eyes and stared intently at Ko Eungyo.
No, he didn’t stop at just staring. Cha Yeongheon tried to approach Ko Eungyo more actively, but couldn’t because Lee Seungwoo blocked him. However, he looked at Ko Eungyo with a very desperate gaze, which seemed less intentional and more like an expression he made without realizing it.
“I know someone like you. That person was exactly like you… You’re definitely my Guide.”
That person…
‘Don’t tell me, he means me?’
He couldn’t tell where in his words Cha Yeongheon sensed Jang Iju’s nostalgia, but Cha Yeongheon seemed very convinced.
Ko Eungyo looked at Cha Yeongheon with a tongue-clicking feeling. That guy is pitiful too. Because he couldn’t find a Guide with a high matching rate, he rolled all the way to Jang Iju and now thinks a Guide who gives off Jang Iju’s feeling is his Guide—what a pitiful state.
But Jang Iju was already dead. He felt the need to decisively cut off Cha Yeongheon’s thread of hope. Only by completely escaping from Jang Iju’s shadow could Cha Yeongheon find his own Guide.
“Still going on with that? I’m sorry, but I absolutely detest Espers who are selfish like Esper Cha Yeongheon.”
“……”
“I decline an Esper who threatens to kill someone just because they won’t accept him. I don’t want to give in to such low-quality threats… I want an Esper who listens well to me, not to listen to an Esper’s words myself.”
“……”
“Then, goodbye.”
The moment he tried to turn around with Lee Seungwoo, Cha Yeongheon approached them closely.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
