Chapter 32
I felt my blood turning cold.
If I had trusted them, I wouldn’t have come to the gate.
There were clearly the uncle and aunt, and other high-ranking Espers in a comfortable formation, but…
Why were these kids lying down like this, and why were other people running around frantically?
I approached the aunt who had a blank expression.
“Soo-young…”
Seeing her trembling, I couldn’t ask what had happened.
The one being loaded urgently into the ambulance wasn’t Yoon Cheong or Ji Yeohoon.
It was Guide Oh Chan-seok, Ji Yeohoon’s father.
An S-class Guide had fallen into reverse guiding.
This could happen if the matching rate wasn’t right, but Guide Oh Chan-seok was the country’s top veteran.
He must have worked with Calling’s Espers many times, and they wouldn’t form a raid team with incompatible Espers and Guides.
That meant the uncle’s condition was due to either Ji Yeohoon or Yoon Cheong.
Ji Yeohoon was his son, and Yoon Cheong had known the uncle since childhood and had even received direct guiding from him when he manifested, so their matching rate or affinity couldn’t be low enough to cause reverse guiding.
Why did this happen?
Moreover, a veteran Guide like the uncle would likely have carefully controlled his Vigor to minimize the chance of reverse guiding.
Unlike the previous practice, the gate was relatively safe with Calling’s Espers, and there should have been no reason for the guys to go berserk with their powers enough to cause reverse guiding.
And why weren’t the kids who were lying down opening their eyes?
“Uncle needs to go to the hospital first. I’ll watch over Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon, so please go with uncle first.”
“…I’ll leave it to you. I’m sorry, Soo-young.”
“It’s okay. I’ll follow when they wake up.”
It seemed like there were no other Guides who entered the gate besides the uncle, and the aunt was using her healing ability carefully as she boarded the ambulance.
I don’t know what ordinary people would say about leaving the collapsed children behind, but everyone was busy due to the uncle’s situation and didn’t pay much attention to the two lying down.
The conclusion was simple: the guys weren’t injured, but they were put to sleep urgently due to the sudden reverse guiding phenomenon.
“Who put these kids to sleep?”
“Oh, how did you know? Chae Seon-ah! When will these kids wake up?”
“About… 10 more minutes!”
I wondered why everyone was looking for water, but it was for the guys to drink after they woke up.
The Espers who noticed me standing near Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon handed me two water bottles.
They asked me to tell the kids to drink when they woke up, then some headed to the hospital, while the Guild Master and some Espers stayed behind to discuss post-raid procedures with Association staff.
“What happened? I need to guide these guys, but they’re sleeping now, so there’s no one to ask.”
When I approached an Esper who had gone in with them, he looked hesitant about whether to tell me.
Only after I said “I’m their Guide” did he finally speak.
“The inside of the gate distorted. If things had gone as expected, we would have just told Cheong and Yeohoon to assist, but the ground collapsed and Cheong used a lot of power. So Yeohoon, who was trying to support him, also used more power than expected. Since Chan-seok was the only Guide who went in, he was guiding us, and when the kids got dizzy, he approached them, but suddenly went into shock.”
“…Under normal circumstances, he shouldn’t have gone into shock. He even helped these kids when they first awakened.”
“That’s what’s puzzling. I know you guys came to the guild for testing, so there shouldn’t be any incompatibility, but reverse guiding still happened. Even though they’ve grown a lot lately, they’re still kids… Wait, what am I saying to you? Anyway, you don’t need to worry too much. We’ve taken all emergency measures, and your friends will wake up soon.”
The previously frantic Esper spoke as if lamenting to me, then came to his senses and finished his words.
So these two weren’t in danger.
No matter how bad the situation inside the gate was, or even if the same thing had happened without these two, the people there had enough strength to overcome it.
When the uncle suddenly collapsed from reverse guiding and Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon were shocked, the Esper who was leading this raid put the children to sleep, performed first aid on the uncle, and quickly cleared the gate.
The gate gauge began to rapidly decrease just before I called to ask if I could come.
It was literally divine timing.
I sat between the two lying down and looked down at them quietly.
Unlike the noisy surroundings, the guys who had been forcibly put to sleep looked peaceful.
After waiting a bit longer, their eyes tensed up, and they frowned a little before lifting their eyelids.
“Sleep well?”
I wasn’t thoughtless enough to urgently ask what happened to the guys who must have been frantic inside the gate.
They would be confused and might blame themselves, and I couldn’t add to that.
The two looked at me, then jumped up from their spots and asked me urgently.
“Dad, huh? Hyung, Dad…”
“Ah, Uncle…”
“Calm down, both of you. He’s gone to the hospital now.”
They didn’t seem to think about why I was here.
It was both pitiful and sigh-inducing to see the guys who had promised to come back safely looking like their world had collapsed, so I clenched my fist.
“Ow!”
“What, hey…”
When I hit their heads with a thump, their faces that looked like they were about to cry returned to normal.
“You bastards, what should I do about you breaking your promise?”
“Ah, no, we didn’t do it on purpose…”
“Shut up. You’re noisy. Get on your knees.”
“…”
“Say you’re sorry.”
“We’re sorry…?”
“Good.”
They seemed confused having just woken up, but this was the right approach.
There’s no way these guys would reject the uncle’s guiding, and even if they did, the affection for the uncle embedded in their hearts couldn’t be removed at will.
There was no way to identify the problem right away.
If the situation occurred due to a problem inside the gate, there was even less we could do here now.
Even if that wasn’t the case, identifying the problem was something doctors or researchers should do, not us middle schoolers.
The fastest way to solve this was to run to become research data or research subjects, not to stir up the surroundings.
For now, I set aside my worries and looked at the kneeling guys quietly before spreading my arms.
“Who wants to receive guiding first?”
“…Hyung, while we were guiding… Dad…”
“Shut up. You received guiding from me last time, remember?”
“Still. You might be in danger too.”
“You kids worry too much. Have I only known you for a day or two?”
“Worry depends on your fate,” I thought as I grabbed the necks of the two with both arms.
They were kneeling and couldn’t do anything but be embraced, which made me feel sorry for them and sigh, so I exhaled deeply, and they mumbled.
Vigor flowed out, but as expected, no reverse guiding occurred.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but you guys need some guiding. My Vigor is draining fast.”
“Hyung, do you feel any pain or anything…”
“None. At all. Never. Really none.”
You don’t need to worry, you idiots.
When I spoke quietly, they both calmed down and soon relaxed.
As they leaned their heads on me, I patted them and moved my body’s energy to flow Vigor to them like blowing wind.
I couldn’t understand it.
Espers wouldn’t reject a Guide’s guiding, nor could it be rejected arbitrarily…
After the two calmed down somewhat and the amount of guiding gradually decreased, I separated myself from them.
I placed water bottles in their hands and said:
“Drink some water, and let’s go to the hospital.”
I stood up, holding the hands of the two.
Now I could see Yoon Cheong’s sapphire-like blue eyes, which had become almost ethereal, and Ji Yeohoon’s olive-green eyes that were beginning to shine.
“Let’s go. The Guild Master is over there.”
Keep making faces like you trust me now. I didn’t want to see colors darkened by frustration and helplessness in these guys.
When I led the two in front of the Guild Master, she looked at me with a troubled face.
“Going to the hospital? Our prospective guild members?”
“I keep telling you they’re not confirmed yet. They’re too worried to let it go. Which hospital was Uncle taken to?”
“The nearby university hospital. After some treatment, depending on the situation, they’ll move him to Gangnam.”
“Then we’ll go to that university hospital first.”
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to go home and rest since you must be tired too?”
“If you look at their expressions, I don’t think you’d say that.”
At my words, the Guild Master looked at Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon and nodded as if she understood.
Their faces were full of worry, but thanks to my guiding, they looked stable.
Their anxious faces and worried energy were so intense that it made my body tingle. It seemed necessary to show the guys the uncle’s condition directly, whatever it was.
Throughout the journey to the hospital, the guys held my hands on both sides like before.
Unlike their strangely excited appearance after finishing their first practice, they were heavily subdued, staring intently out the window.
They didn’t even blink properly, as if staring like that would make us arrive faster.
“No matter how much you stare at the window, the red light won’t change, so please, both of you, lean your backs against the seats?”
I remembered the aunt using healing on the uncle in the ambulance.
Even if it wasn’t the miraculous power of a foreign S-class healing specialized Esper, the aunt would have at least healed the uncle enough for him to walk around properly once he woke up.
My prediction wasn’t wrong. When we arrived, far from going to another hospital, we could see the uncle completely fine, paying the medical bills.
“Why aren’t you still lying down…”
“My body is completely fine, so lying down would actually be worse~”
The uncle smiled even more brightly, perhaps to show the guys that he was completely fine.
The aunt also stood holding the uncle’s hand, as if everything was okay since he was fine.
“Our boys, come here. Were you worried about Dad?”
Although their bodies had grown a lot, the guys were still children.
Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon, who immediately looked like they were about to cry, ran straight to the uncle, and I followed behind them.
Even though my mind was complicated, everything was okay for now.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
