Chapter 4
‘Huu…’
Hajin had no choice but to pull up the corners of his mouth into a smile. It was better to just go along with them.
What Hajin didn’t realize was how dramatically different his face looked when smiling compared to when he wasn’t.
With his gruff personality and rarely smiling, Hajin often appeared cold. But surprisingly, when he smiled, that image completely reversed.
When the corners of his mouth turned up, his cheekbones naturally rose with them, making his eyes curve gently—his face seemed to flutter like a spring breeze.
“You must be busy enough as it is. Thank you for your hard work.”
When his previously chilly face, which had looked ready to hand out death sentences, transformed like a scholar playing a stringed instrument under a wisteria, all four people were left speechless.
“…It’s only natural to endure this much hardship to protect citizens.”
Cha Jinwoo was the first to recover and respond. Hajin felt sympathy and pity for Jinwoo’s position as team leader.
Though in a different field, feeling a sense of camaraderie, Hajin maintained his smile and exchanged a few more words, completely dissolving the tension.
“How could such hardship be natural? I’m safe thanks to you.”
The atmosphere completely relaxed after Hajin appropriately acknowledged their efforts. And right then, they reached the deepest part of the dungeon where the final boss monster would appear.
“From here on, Mr. Lee Hajin, you’ll need to follow our instructions. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
If he wanted to live, he had no choice but to obey quietly. Hajin loosened his annoying necktie and stuffed it into his pocket.
“Let’s go.”
“Oh, tough guy.”
At Lee Doyoon’s amused comment, Cha Jinwoo slightly furrowed his brow as if telling him to tone it down. Feeling chastised, Doyoon pretended not to notice and turned his head away.
The atmosphere remained surprisingly relaxed considering they were facing a boss monster.
The boss monster couldn’t even move in front of the Espers, making Hajin feel awkward for having removed his tie. There was no need for directions or for Hajin to do anything.
S-rank. The power behind that name far exceeded what he had vaguely imagined.
An invisible force tore through the ground and pulled out a monster incomparably larger than the one they had first encountered—one big enough to fill the entire cave—before a flash of lightning that hurt the eyes struck it.
Rumble. When the thunderous sound echoed, the air became electric even where Hajin was standing at a distance.
As Hajin flinched from the stinging sensation, Lee Doyoon, who had stayed nearby as a precaution, took off his outer garment and placed it over Hajin’s shoulders.
“Wear this. The Esper uniform has some defensive properties.”
“Thank you.”
Despite both being adult men, the size difference was so great that Hajin didn’t even need to remove his suit jacket before slipping his arms into the uniform top that Doyoon had draped over him.
‘The tingling sensation is definitely gone now.’
He felt much better. Meanwhile, the boss monster was being steadily hunted down.
The sight of the monster being shattered into pieces by an invisible force after being struck by lightning, then those pieces disappearing without a trace in dark red flames, felt less real than a movie.
“Hwaaam.”
But unlike Hajin’s sense of unreality, Lee Doyoon, accustomed to such scenes, was openly yawning.
“Boring.”
With those words, the boss monster melted away in the flames without leaving a single bone. Stretching his arms out, Doyoon led Hajin toward the other three.
“Dungeon clear. Everyone prepare to return.”
“Yes.”
Hajin sighed with relief, grateful that he could safely return home. Even though he had been out on a business trip, he just wanted to go home quickly.
No matter how level-headed Hajin’s personality was or how little he was affected by his surroundings, he was still human, and it was difficult to fully process everything that had happened today.
‘I want to go home, take a shower… and sleep.’
Boom.
At that moment, the entire cave shook with a boom. Everyone who had been preparing to leave the dungeon became alert at the sudden situation.
“…What’s this.”
“Ugh, urgh…”
“What’s wrong with Baek Jaan?”
The man who had been fine when defeating the boss monster was suddenly clutching his head in agony.
“Doyoon, protect the civilian.”
At Cha Jinwoo’s command, Doyoon embraced Hajin and swiftly moved away from Baek Jaan. After confirming that Hajin was at a safe distance, Cha Jinwoo called out to Baek Jaan, who had begun trembling.
“Baek Jaan! Get a hold of yourself!”
“Urgh, hwaak…!”
As if unable to hear the voice, Baek Jaan twisted his body in agony before beginning to scream.
“HWAAAAAK!”
Hajin saw it. The wavelength spreading from him.
An S-rank Esper going berserk.
“Everyone. Get away from Baek Jaan!”
“Ah, damn! I thought he was acting strange today!”
The remaining Espers began to tense up, unlike when they were handling the boss monster.
“UWAAAAK!”
When Baek Jaan screamed in unbearable pain, an invisible force spread in all directions.
The force was so strong that even though it was invisible, Hajin could see the surrounding air distorting.
‘This is insane…’
Getting caught in a dungeon wasn’t enough—now an Esper going berserk?
And not just any rank, but S-rank. Still in Doyoon’s arms as a precaution, Hajin reflexively curled up in surprise when they suddenly leaped high.
“Is that crazy bastard blind…”
Just as Doyoon jumped, the spot where they had been standing was deeply gouged.
They hadn’t realized they were being attacked because Baek Jaan’s ability was telekinesis. Hajin broke into a cold sweat at the realization that he could have been crushed like a car in a junkyard.
Doyoon wanted to join Cha Jinwoo and Han Seungho, who were blocking Baek Jaan.
But if he put Hajin down now, it was obvious he would die from the blind attacks of Baek Jaan, so he had no choice but to keep carrying Hajin while avoiding the attacks.
“Why is he only attacking us?!”
The most common reaction when an Esper goes berserk is to lose their reason, but for some reason, Baek Jaan was targeting Hajin even in his irrational state.
At first, Doyoon thought he was imagining it, but seeing how Baek Jaan was breaking through the Espers blocking him to attack them, it was no illusion.
Doyoon couldn’t counterattack and could only jump here and there while carrying Hajin.
“What’s wrong with him?! Hey, do you know Jaan? Were you enemies or something?”
At least that would make it less unfair. Hajin, who was meeting Baek Jaan for the first time today, deeply pondered what he could have done wrong.
He wondered if Baek Jaan had been upset about their earlier chest collision and was now trying to kill him in his berserk state—an absurd speculation.
“How could that be? What reason would an ordinary office worker have to know an S-rank Esper?”
“Then why is he acting like this…”
That was exactly what Hajin wanted to know. What had he done to make Baek Jaan charge at him, even pushing aside the two people blocking his way?
Even while dealing with Cha Jinwoo and Han Seungho who were blocking him, Baek Jaan’s gaze never left Hajin.
It was a predatory stare, like a hunter not wanting to lose sight of its prey, making Hajin forget to be careful about contact and unconsciously cling to Doyoon who was carrying him.
“Why is he targeting me?”
“I don’t know eith—ugh, block properly!”
Telekinetic force broke through a gap that the two defenders couldn’t cover in time. Doyoon, whose top priority was protecting Hajin, couldn’t counterattack and focused solely on avoiding the attacks.
They were struggling. Not because they were weak. It’s already difficult to subdue someone who isn’t in their right mind, let alone an Esper with destructive power.
There were two ways to stop a berserk Esper.
One was to physically subdue them, and the other was to calm them through Guiding.
The first method was excessively violent and dangerous.
Subduing an Esper who couldn’t control their abilities meant that not only the berserk Esper but also the Espers deployed to subdue them could be seriously injured.
Though not frequent, whenever such incidents occurred, they made the news, making them impossible to ignore no matter how little attention one paid.
Each time, Hajin had shaken his head at how violent and dangerous that method was.
Then the remaining option… was to reveal his identity that he had kept hidden until now. But Hajin hesitated.
Revealing his identity would inevitably require him to register as a Guide, and that would mean the end of his ordinary life.
The first S-rank Guide.
He couldn’t help but feel the weight that name carried. This was why Hajin’s father had wanted him to live an ordinary life.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
