Chapter 51
Despite the battle seeming already decided, Dowoon didn’t release the Esper. He continued to hold him suspended in midair while smiling.
Seoyul watched the situation with suspicious eyes. Suddenly, countless objects began rising into the air around Dowoon.
In an instant, everything floated upward, and when Dowoon moved his finger, all the objects moved in one direction.
“Wow……”
Seoyul stared blankly at the scene, forgetting that he had been suspicious. The objects converged in the center, creating a vortex.
It resembled a natural disaster. The artificially created hurricane began shattering everything at a terrifying speed.
Seoyul witnessed the training ground transform into utter chaos in real time.
Seeing this, he understood why it was said that the number of S-class Espers determined a nation’s power.
“Wow. That’s incredible.”
“That must consume a tremendous amount of energy.”
“Now that he has a Guide, he’s really soaring. Flying high.”
The Espers around them muttered while watching Dowoon’s performance. Hearing this, Seoyul finally came to his senses and shook his head.
As they said, an ability user who could control gravity needed a lot of energy not just to levitate objects but to move them freely.
That’s why they rarely used it in actual combat and only occasionally during training.
But Dowoon seemed to end every training session this way, daily—no, every time. As if he were desperate to consume his energy faster than anyone else.
“Why is he so eager to show off his power? Does anyone here not know Cha Dowoon is S-class?”
It seemed other Espers shared Seoyul’s doubts. He had wondered if training was supposed to consume a lot of energy, but apparently this wasn’t normal.
‘Then why is Esper-nim behaving this way?’
…Was he relieving stress?
It was quite a plausible assumption. After all, Dowoon had spent many years wanting to use his ability but being unable to do so.
Seoyul nodded, thinking this hypothesis was probably correct. So he naturally listened for voices that would support his theory.
“Why else? He’s now…”
BANG!!
At the most crucial moment, the training room door opened with a loud crash. Dowoon had barged into the waiting room after finishing his training.
All the Espers closed their mouths as if on cue, and Dowoon scanned the surroundings with a menacing gaze.
It was a persistent look, as if he were trying to find out who had been gossiping about him.
Everyone avoided his gaze, but he discovered one person who didn’t.
“Seoyul?!”
Surprised by Seoyul’s unexpected visit, Dowoon’s eyes widened. At the same time, his menacing aura vanished, causing everyone to swallow empty air.
‘Gasp.’
‘That’s.’
‘How…’
But regardless of that. Dowoon was delighted by the unexpected visit and quickly walked over.
“What brings you here? I was just about to go receive Guiding. Did you come to meet me?”
Meet… a Guide coming to meet Cha Dowoon.
‘Was he threatened or something?’
Everyone focused on the Guide with one heart and mind.
Cha Dowoon’s Guide, about whom rumors were rampant.
Since many hadn’t properly seen the two together yet, their attention naturally gravitated toward them.
But Dowoon wasn’t the type to leave this be.
Sensitively detecting the gazes falling on his Guide, he began intimidating them with frightening looks, first to the right, then to the left.
“Ahem.”
“My next opponent.”
Of course, there were far more people pretending to scatter than those who actually did.
Since it was difficult to disperse everyone, Dowoon turned his head back and spoke.
“Did you come because you missed me?”
“Ah. Well……”
Seoyul avoided the embarrassing question and glanced at Sunghun. He answered with his eyes instead. Then Sunghun, sly as ever, waved at Dowoon and said:
“Hey babe. Long time no see?”
Dowoon’s expression immediately crumpled upon finally noticing Sunghun. His look was as if he were seeing the most worthless trash in the world.
‘They really must have fought and he’s upset.’
Finding this interesting, Seoyul watched the situation with sparkling eyes. After a brief standoff, Dowoon spoke first.
“Come here.”
“Huh? Ah!”
Dowoon pulled Seoyul to his side. Not stopping there, he wrapped his arm around Seoyul’s waist, holding him close as if claiming ownership, and growled threateningly at Sunghun.
Seoyul was flustered, but Dowoon’s aura was so intimidating that he couldn’t say anything. He could only stamp his feet nervously, wondering what to do.
But the atmosphere didn’t last long. Dowoon turned his body abruptly as if annoyed.
“Let’s go.”
Because of this, Seoyul naturally had to follow his footsteps.
Still, Seoyul felt it would be impolite to leave without saying goodbye to Sunghun, so he hurriedly looked back.
He worried Sunghun might be upset, but the man was smiling calmly and playfully said to Seoyul:
“Guide Seo. Please tell Dowoon I asked how long he plans to stay mad at me!”
The way he waved his hand casually suggested he wasn’t upset. Seeing that relaxed attitude, it didn’t seem like they had fought over something serious.
‘Ah. That’s a relief.’
His worries had been unnecessary. However, the person directly involved seemed to feel differently, as Dowoon turned around again and shouted:
“Who’s mad?!!!”
“Hahaha!”
Sunghun’s laughter echoed back. Dowoon, even more heated, began walking away while fuming.
Seoyul followed listlessly and suddenly realized that Dowoon’s hand was still resting on his waist.
‘Ah…’
Whoosh.
As he became aware of the hand at his waist, his face grew increasingly red, making it difficult to control his expression. Seoyul tried to calm himself by tightly closing his eyes, but it was useless.
‘L-let’s focus on something else…’
Would it help to direct his attention elsewhere?
Seoyul carefully glanced at Dowoon. He was still angry. Seeing him on edge after so long made unnecessary worries creep into his mind.
‘Was it wrong to come? Am I being a nuisance?’
Since Dowoon didn’t seem to be in a good mood, the bright smile that had greeted him earlier had disappeared.
Walking with such heavy thoughts, they soon arrived at an unexpectedly vast space.
“Wow……”
Before them was a wide hall. In the center stood what appeared to be a massive control tower, and everywhere were various machines and spaces for Espers to rest.
“Ah, sorry. Are you okay? You weren’t harassed, were you?”
Dowoon finally met Seoyul’s eyes and carefully examined his body. Despite his serious gaze, his touch was quite ticklish, making Seoyul burst into laughter.
“I’m fine. I told Sunghun-nim I wanted to see you, so he brought me here.”
“Really?”
Dowoon’s eyes noticeably lit up with joy. Of course, he was happy about being missed, but Seoyul seemed to interpret it differently and explained further:
“Yes. I’ve never seen Esper-nim training before, so I wanted to watch.”
“Hmm……”
Well… whatever, Dowoon thought as he asked his next question.
“Is that so? How was it?”
“It was amazing! At first, I was worried you might get hurt, but it was so cool that I kept watching!”
“Oh? Is that right?”
As Seoyul sincerely praised him, Dowoon began to soften. He hadn’t expected to appeal to Seoyul this way, and thought that perhaps even the useless Sunghun could be helpful like this.
But with the next words, he had to grit his teeth, completely taking back that thought.
“Yes! But Esper-nim, people were saying that you can fight well even with minimal power use. So I was wondering, why do you choose to fight in ways that consume so much energy?”
“……”
Dowoon was momentarily speechless.
His mind began racing. The reason Dowoon unnecessarily splurged his powers like this?
Of course, it was because he needed to receive Guiding from Seoyul frequently!
But he couldn’t tell this straight to Seoyul, who firmly believed it was for training purposes.
‘Damn it. Ji Sunghun, that bastard!! I really won’t let him get away with this!!’
Why did he bring Seoyul here and create such an awkward situation? He must have done it on purpose.
Dowoon burned with anger once more, sharpening his blade of vengeance. But he had to deal with the immediate situation first, so he grabbed Seoyul’s hand and said:
“Seoyul. Is this your first time here? Come this way. I have something to show you.”
Right. If he couldn’t answer, he simply wouldn’t.
Dowoon took Seoyul somewhere interesting to divert his attention.
“Wow.”
It was the main tower at the center of the hall.
Up close, it was much bigger than it had appeared from afar. Seoyul forgot his previous question and couldn’t close his mouth as he gazed at the towering structure.
“This is the main system tower, the pride of the Association. If there’s an external attack, the defense system activates from here to protect the Center.”
This system tower protecting the Association was quite famous. Even Seoyul, who had been an ordinary person, remembered seeing it on the news.
Since it wasn’t a space open to the general public, he found it fascinating to see it like this.
“Come over here.”
Dowoon led Seoyul to the touch pad. He entered something and proudly displayed the contents with a satisfied expression.
“Huh?”
Seoyul was startled, his eyes widening. When he turned his head with a face demanding explanation, Dowoon stood there like a victorious general, chest puffed out, and said:
“How about that? Impressive, right?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
