Chapter 37
What Lee Seungwoo was talking about seemed to be forced Guiding, a ‘rhythm game,’ supplied by high-grade Guides to Espers with markedly low matching rates.
Even rhythm games were completely useless. He’d never seen such an Esper. But in a world where there was even an outlandish disease called ‘Guiding allergy,’ there could certainly be Espers for whom rhythm games didn’t work. If so… how on earth had this guy survived? Even having a conversation with him so calmly like this must be difficult.
When he first checked Lee Seungwoo’s body condition, he’d felt instinctive sympathy. It was the same now. Yet he didn’t show it and worried he might have a hard time. That’s why he didn’t contact him. A chronic Guiding-deficient Esper couldn’t do that.
He inevitably realized his softening heart and cleared his throat. Then spoke in a slightly gentler voice.
“You know you can request Guiding even if you’re not in ‘my,’ right?”
“…Yes.”
Lee Seungwoo answered reluctantly.
“If I have time, I’ll do it, so request it often. Then I’ll be going…”
“Professor.”
It was a call that seemed to flow slightly through his teeth. He was pretending to be docile, but would never allow him to slip away casually.
He looked at Lee Seungwoo pretending not to know.
“What is it?”
“This is quite unfair. That I was the only one who felt such a thing.”
“Such a thing?”
“If you’ll continue to pretend not to know, I won’t ask anymore. But I can’t receive Guiding from anyone but Professor anyway, so then wouldn’t I be assigned to Professor’s ‘my’ list according to Center policy?”
“……”
Ah.
Right, that’s correct. The minimum Guiding guarantee right given to Espers with markedly low matching rates. There was that. With exactly that, Ko Eungyo had been able to hold Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo. Originally, that provision wasn’t meant to be used by Guides.
It was meant to be used by Espers.
Lee Seungwoo was saying he’d do exactly what Ko Eungyo had done to get him in his hands. He stared at Lee Seungwoo feeling slightly absurd. Lee Seungwoo, who’d been speaking with his eyes slightly lowered, raised his gaze to face Ko Eungyo.
“I don’t want to demand Guiding by force while hearing unpleasant things from Professor. But as I said earlier, it has to be Professor. I want you, Professor. When we Guided… I definitely felt it, and even now… when I’m close to Professor like this.”
“……”
“I feel it.”
His whispered voice slowly seeped into his ears.
It was as if… Lee Seungwoo was holding and pulling the thread between them. Though it was a slow voice, taut tension rippled through the air. It felt like the moment he let go of the thread, everything would sharply tilt toward Lee Seungwoo.
He really had no immunity to this sort of thing and couldn’t endure it, he thought again.
“I understand.”
So he answered.
“…Yes, so then?”
“Yes, I understand. Let’s do that.”
An Esper being drawn to a Guide was a natural phenomenon. Even more so if they were ability users whose wavelengths matched well. He’d felt a very strong attraction when he first saw Lee Seungwoo, and the situation where Lee Seungwoo was hostile toward him was so strange that he thought what happened then was a mistake.
But if Lee Seungwoo had also clearly perceived that ‘attraction phenomenon,’ there was no need to push him away anymore. In any case, he was someone accustomed to Espers who were particularly drawn to him. Though this was the first time he, as a Guide, felt such ‘attraction’ to Lee Seungwoo.
If his thinking was correct, from now on Lee Seungwoo would show him a kind side like other Espers. In any case, the past Ko Eungyo had committed the worst act of tying down Lee Seungwoo and not Guiding him at all. Now that he’d become Ko Eungyo, there wouldn’t be any problem if he atoned to Lee Seungwoo a bit.
Lee Seungwoo seemed to need some correction in his behavior and words to some degree… That was something to change gradually going forward.
‘At least he won’t beat me recklessly like Woo Sihyun.’
He forcibly raised his crouched body. Lee Seungwoo was still sitting on the floor. Looking down at such a Lee Seungwoo, Ko Eungyo said as if muttering.
“Since I understand… go to the Center and request registration. Is that good enough?”
“Why did you suddenly change your mind?”
Lee Seungwoo muttered as if finding it strange. He pretended not to hear those words and closed the open window.
Having made a difficult decision with his mind in a supersaturated state, he now wanted to let his tired mind rest.
“When you leave, go out through the door. Normally.”
“Professor.”
The moment he closed the window and turned around, Lee Seungwoo was standing beside him. Among high-grade Espers, those with high grades had physical abilities different from ordinary people. Especially since Lee Seungwoo was a wind Esper, once he decided to move, his speed was very fast. Would he have to get used to such movements from now on?
It wasn’t only Lee Seungwoo who had to change his attitude to match Ko Eungyo. Ko Eungyo also had to adapt to Lee Seungwoo and change himself. Newly reviewing that, Ko Eungyo turned his body toward Lee Seungwoo.
“Speak.”
At Ko Eungyo’s attitude, which was impossible to tell if it was friendly or not, Lee Seungwoo seemed to decide to step back for now. He concealed his sharp gaze and asked in a tone that sounded somehow desperate.
“Are you trying to deceive me? Will this become nothing by tomorrow?”
“No.”
“You’ll answer no for now.”
It was a look that said he couldn’t trust him at all.
Right, in any case, Ko Eungyo was Ko Eungyo so he couldn’t be trusted.
Though it was quite dissatisfying that his Esper didn’t trust him, he decided to understand Lee Seungwoo once more.
“If that’s the case, let’s go to the Center together tomorrow. Is that good enough?”
“……”
“Now go. I need to sleep too.”
*
To work with ability users from private companies, not ability users within the Center—that is, external ability users—he had to register documents about the cooperative company at the Center beforehand.
Precisely speaking, ordinary companies absolutely needed the Center to clear ‘Gates.’
As Gate samples were developed, it was revealed that some samples could be worth a thousand times the value of petroleum, and that high-value alternative energy sources and by-products such as electricity, water, and chemical raw materials were fully loaded. The most commonly discovered sample was a diamond mining mine of gigantic size that couldn’t be found on Earth.
Therefore, it was natural that the value of Gates rose astronomically. Even Gates with no samples at all could be used as development sites or garbage landfills, so once a Gate appeared, everyone’s attention was focused on it.
Naturally, devices and systems that could predict where and what kind of Gates would appear and what samples were buried sprang up like mushrooms after rain, even before Gates appeared.
Of course, just as it was impossible to control the occurrence of Gates, there was no way to perfectly predict when and how Gates would appear. However, before a Gate appeared, some kind of radio wave or sign could be detected, and through that, ability users would wait at every possible location and when a Gate appeared, they’d enter, clear it, and obtain by-products.
Naturally, the problem of how to distribute the samples from Gates, and further, the ownership rights of Gates, emerged as a social issue.
Originally, Gates fundamentally belonged to the nation. In the past, when clearing Gates required risking ability users’ lives, the nation had to mobilize the military to protect its citizens. Of course, all samples excavated through Gates went to the national treasury.
However, now, in a situation where the number of ability users had greatly increased, organizations eyeing Gate interests appeared one after another.
The problem was that the government couldn’t control all the Gates that appeared and disappeared like mushrooms after rain. The same was true for ability users. In the end, the government entrusted all the roles of monitoring and managing Gates to the Center. The Center was a facility with government-affiliated ability users.
All private companies and organizations could have Gate ownership recognized as long as they registered in advance with the Center as a cooperative body and cleared Gates together with ability users working at the Center.
In Ko Eungyo’s case now, since he was already a Guide at the Center, all procedures would be completed just by registering the cooperative body.
“What brings Guide Ko Eungyo here…”
He heard people whispering. In any case, he was strangely a famous person. He processed documents with an expressionless face.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
