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The savory smell of stew filled the warm barracks. Siwoo licked his spoon clean and then dropped it onto the bowl with a clank.
“Would you like some more?”
“No, I’m done.”
Siwoo shook his head, took his bowl to the kitchen, and then returned to the sofa.
Seojun looked at Siwoo worriedly, thinking he would eat at least one more bowl. However, it was an unnecessary concern as Siwoo had already eaten more than one and a half bowls.
“Lie down and sleep. You look sleepy, Guide.”
Seojun covered Siwoo with a blanket as he sprawled on the edge of the sofa. Even with the barrier stone, there was bound to be some physical exhaustion. It was natural to get tired easily after using muscles that hadn’t been used before.
“You sit next to me too.”
Moreover, Siwoo had been providing guiding intermittently. He allowed contact with those who had been working hard, providing broadcast guiding from time to time.
“You don’t have to do that.”
Seojun hesitantly declined but sat close to Siwoo. Siwoo provided guiding to Seojun while looking out the window, half-lying down.
With a full stomach and warm body, drowsiness was creeping in. Even Siwoo felt that he was becoming more prone to sleep.
Still, after sleeping well, his body quickly became energized. It seemed his recovery speed had increased as much as he tired easily. Siwoo was gradually becoming aware of the changes in his body.
Since starting proper guiding, something had slowly begun to change. It wasn’t an outwardly visible change, so he couldn’t speak about it. It was just a feeling, hard to express in words.
Just something… like his body was becoming more suitable for being a guide.
Seojun gently leaned his face against Siwoo’s back as he absentmindedly looked out the window. Confirming there was no reaction, he softly wrapped his arm around Siwoo’s waist.
Siwoo didn’t push away his arm and just continued providing guiding. He had become very accustomed to hugs. Honestly, even to kisses, a little.
Siwoo, who had been nestled against Seojun like a cushion, suddenly opened his eyes wide. Seojun too straightened his back and raised his head towards the window.
“Guide, stay still.”
As they sensed danger with their animal instincts, a scream was heard from afar. A flash of light burst from the area where the gates were concentrated, followed by a cloud of dust.
Beep, beep―!
Seojun took out his pager before the vibration sound even started. As he expected, the pager screen showed a warning signal indicating the highest danger level.
“Go quickly.”
Siwoo stared at Seojun’s pager screen with him and pushed his body.
“I’ll stay here. Don’t worry and go.”
However, Seojun didn’t budge. Although the gate was far away, he couldn’t leave Siwoo alone.
“Then let’s go together.”
Siwoo jumped up from the sofa, grabbed Seojun’s hand, and pulled him up. Annoyed by the increasingly loud vibration, he pressed the accept button instead and looked up at Seojun.
“Let’s go.”
Seojun bit his lip and gripped Siwoo’s hand tighter. There was no other choice. He decided to go out together for now. The hyungs would arrive soon anyway.
* * *
Beep, beep―.
Geonho and Jihan’s pagers went off simultaneously. Jihan, perched on the edge of the table in the dimly lit interrogation room, checked his pager first.
“Geonho, you should go.”
Danger warning signals had occurred in three locations. Two were in A-sector where high-ranking guilds were stationed, so they could hold out, but the remaining one was in C-sector.
They needed someone who could quickly subdue the gate in the sector where low-ranking guilds and newcomers were gathered. Jihan pressed the call button on the interrogation room table and first calmed Geonho down.
“I’ll handle the rest.”
“Let go, damn it.”
Geonho was beating an Esper sprawled on the cold floor. Red blood was splattered all over the torn gray wallpaper along the cracked wall. It was where the Esper’s face had been smashed.
“Ugh, huk…”
The Esper, with already shattered ribs, coughed up blood after being hit in the abdomen. Geonho shoved the toe of his combat boot into the mouth dripping with sticky blood.
“Urgh! Ugh! Kuhak!”
As Geonho applied force as if to tear the Esper’s mouth, Jihan finally intervened. He could have stopped Geonho earlier but had remained silent.
“Geonho, we can’t kill him. There might be accomplices.”
Only then did Geonho relax his force and gave one last punch to the Esper with a dislocated jaw. Jihan had watched the Esper being beaten, as long as he wasn’t killed. He didn’t feel the need to stop it because the reason for the beating was justified.
The Esper had spat in Geonho’s face upon arriving at the interrogation room. Not just anyone’s, but Kang Geonho of the Baekya Guild.
Geonho’s eyes rolled at that moment. The anger that had been building since the man was lurking around the barracks burst in an instant.
The man was a beastkin hater. It was evident just from the look in his eyes towards Geonho.
“Ahem, you called?”
The interrogation room attendant who had received the call made his presence known. Jihan asked him to call a teleport Esper and entrusted Geonho to him.
“Clean up C-sector and then move straight to A-sector.”
He wanted to tell Geonho to go to A8 sector where Siwoo was first. However, among the three sectors that requested support, the largest gate had appeared in C-sector.
“The Guide is with Seojun, so let’s deal with C-sector first.”
Jihan said, patting Geonho’s shoulder as he belatedly checked his pager. Geonho spat on the man’s face one last time before silently leaving the interrogation room.
“If you need any help, please let me know anytime.”
The interrogation room attendant greeted Jihan with a smile, despite the blood-covered Esper in front of him. He didn’t question anything. In the past, there were numerous people who underwent interrogation in far worse conditions. During the gate saturation period, not only monsters but also humans were a big problem.
Knowing this, Jihan deliberately came to the interrogation room and went through the formal interrogation procedure. It was a space where beating someone to near death could be excused as part of the interrogation. In other words, it meant he had intended to turn him into a bloody mess from the start. They had to give a warning to those who underestimated Baekya.
“Now, we have a lot to talk about, so please come to your senses.”
Jihan grabbed the Esper by the collar, lifted him up, and shoved a green pill into his mouth. It was a drug that artificially boosted recovery. Due to severe side effects, it was only used in urgent combat situations.
“Why did you have to spit in someone’s face? Our Geonho is already hot-tempered enough.”
Jihan’s lips curled up ominously as he popped the Esper’s dislocated jaw back into place with a crack. He threw the Esper, who was writhing in pain, onto a chair and sat down across from him.
Thin blood seeped from the Esper’s mouth after swallowing the pill. But soon the bleeding stopped, and his blurry focus sharpened.
“Person?”
The man twisted the corners of his mouth, where new flesh was starting to grow, and suddenly burst into a mocking laugh.
“Are there people who walk on four legs?”
“…”
“Those things are monsters. Neither human nor beast, just monsters.”
“Haha.”
Jihan let out an artificial laugh and rested his chin on his interlocked hands.
“What era are you living in?”
The sardonic smile on Jihan’s lips deepened. He looked at the man closely, as if observing a strange new species of monster.
“Did you perhaps come from the past? Mr. Esper without fingerprints?”
The man refused to reveal his guild affiliation until the end. His face wasn’t registered in the Center’s database, and his fingerprints seemed to have been artificially worn off, looking unnaturally eroded.
His age was estimated to be in his late 30s, and his rank was presumed to be A+. Judging by his ability to skillfully conceal his waves and use invisibility to a degree that even Jihan and Seojun couldn’t detect, he clearly belonged to a high-ranking guild. And a quite prestigious one at that.
“They all need to disappear. If we leave them be, they’ll devour all of us humans!”
The man’s cracked voice echoed loudly in the quiet interrogation room. He even made the absurd claim that gates were opening because beastkin were allowed to live.
“Why do you think beastkin seizures are happening! It’s punishment! God is angry because monsters are pretending to be human!”
It was the nonsense often spouted by those with deep-rooted hatred for beastkin. They weren’t the type to engage in normal conversation.
Jihan rubbed his eyes, feeling deeply fatigued. As the man’s shouts about killing all beastkin grew louder, bile rose in his throat.
Jihan, massaging his temples firmly, drew his finger horizontally in the air. At this, the man’s mouth closed tightly as if zipped shut.
“You’re quite good at talking nonsense.”
A chilling energy swirled in his languid voice. Jihan tapped the table and glared at the man whose veins were bulging.
“Did you practice acting?”
He had an idea of who this man was.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
