The car that arrived alongside the blaring sirens screeched to a halt right in front of them. Several men climbed out, all dressed neatly in matching suits as if coordinated.
Although he didn’t know who they were, it was both bewildering and surprising. Even when they saw the man tightly bound by Cha Jae-woo, they showed no signs of shock. On the contrary, they immediately grimaced.
“What do you think you’re doing? Release him at once. Abusing your power like this is unacceptable.”
The man standing at the front, seemingly the leader, spoke up first. Bizarrely, his words were directed as criticism toward Cha Jae-woo.
“Sure, if you say so.”
Unlike him, who was left speechless, Cha Jae-woo responded with an utterly indifferent tone. Without hesitation, he withdrew the light that had been restraining the man.
Before there was even time to react, a flash of yellow light whipped around them. The Esper, who had been struggling even while restrained, exploded into a frenzy the moment he was freed. His attack was aimed directly at him, but fortunately, Cha Jae-woo quickly erected a protective barrier, preventing any damage.
“Aaaargh!”
The ones who suffered were not them, but rather the men who had insisted that Cha Jae-woo release him. Although the Esper’s attack had been aimed at him, it was essentially a blind, indiscriminate outburst, and those who were standing nearby were struck first.
Several men were immediately thrown a great distance, tumbling helplessly across the ground. Just moments ago, they had demanded the Esper be released; now, faces drained of color, they scrambled away in panic.
Cha Jae-woo clicked his tongue in disgust at the pathetic sight. Soon after, the rampaging Esper was bound once again. It seemed he had only released him to scare them, not with any real intention of letting him run wild.
“So, what do you think? Should I let him go again?”
In just a few seconds, the atmosphere turned grim, as if a storm had swept through. Yet Cha Jae-woo’s voice remained as leisurely as ever.
“N-No, that’s not necessary.”
One of the men, who had fortunately avoided the attack, shook his head frantically. Shaking his head from such a much greater distance than before only made him look all the more foolish.
Who on earth were these people? He pushed aside his doubts and opened his mouth.
“This Esper attacked first. He’s clearly not in his right mind. You can see it for yourselves.”
It felt unnecessary to point out something so obvious, but just in case Cha Jae-woo was falsely accused, he deliberately added the explanation.
The men nodded reluctantly, looking distinctly uneasy. It was clear they wanted to argue back but were too afraid Cha Jae-woo might release the Esper again if they said the wrong thing.
“Uh… We’re not sure why he lost control, but it seems he’s overexerted his abilities. So—”
One of the men, after a brief, heavy silence, spoke up cautiously.
“Who the hell are you guys?”
But before the man could finish, Cha Jae-woo cut him off abruptly. Honestly, he was just as curious. He’d never seen these faces before.
“Ah, pardon our late introduction. We’re staff members from the Guide Association. We received a report that a battle involving supernatural abilities had broken out, so we came to investigate.”
“Oh yeah? And who made the report?”
“…It was an anonymous tip.”
His brow furrowed instinctively. Even to his ears, it sounded like a flimsy, half-baked excuse. It was impossible to believe. He didn’t even know where to start questioning them.
“Our purpose in coming here was to mediate the conflict.”
“A conflict?”
“Yes… However, it seems this wasn’t actually a fight.”
After taking a hit, it seemed the man had lost his composure; his attitude turned clumsy and uncertain. He was spouting nonsense that fundamentally didn’t make sense.
No matter how he looked at it, these men weren’t Espers. He could tell just by how they reacted when the attack came down. They must have been ordinary people. But if so, how could they possibly think they were qualified to intervene in a battle between Espers? If actual Espers had shown up, it might have made some sense—but this? This was absurd.
“First, we should focus on getting that Esper back to his senses.”
The man continued awkwardly amidst the rising tide of suspicion. His voice hardly carried any conviction at all.
He stood still, carefully scanning the faces of the men one by one. Every single one of them was unfamiliar. Of course, he had little reason to meet members of the Esper Association face-to-face, but still, a strange unease gnawed at him. No, even if they had been familiar faces, the situation would have felt just as unsettling.
“Calm him down yourselves.”
Cha Jae-woo seemed to be thinking along the same lines. His voice rang out as he ordered the men, almost as if testing them. His slight nod carried the clear message: Handle it yourselves.
“…We apologize. As you can see, we are not Ability Users. If he attacks, we won’t be able to defend ourselves.”
Knowing that, why the hell had they even come? He wanted to fire back immediately, but before he could, the man hurriedly continued making excuses without leaving any room for interruption.
“We were simply following orders to mediate the situation…”
The explanation only grew more and more ridiculous, to the point where it was unclear where to even begin picking it apart.
Were they really sent here just because they received orders? Did they seriously think a bunch of regular civilians could mediate a fight between Espers? Even a child would know that without a deep understanding of Espers, it was absolutely impossible.
“What a goddamn joke.”
Apparently thinking the same thing, Cha Jae-woo snorted and openly mocked them.
The man who had been leading the conversation lowered his head and coughed awkwardly. It seemed even he realized how absurd his words had been.
“Krrk…”
Choosing to ignore these baffling men whose intentions remained a mystery, he turned his head toward the still-rampaging Esper.
Despite everything, the Esper continued to use his powers. Unlike before, the once-invisible psychic waves were now visibly destabilizing.
He shouldn’t be using his abilities anymore. Someone needed to guide him—and fast. If not, he might fully lose control.
“…If this keeps up, he’s really going to go berserk.”
He ignored the men and whispered to Cha Jae-woo. Then he glanced down at his phone again, still unable to get a connection. What was Kim Sol doing? Not once before had it been this hard to reach him. Could something have happened?
“Call a Guide.”
As he sighed deeply, worried about Kim Sol, Cha Jae-woo spoke toward the men.
Cha Jae-woo’s judgment was right. Instead of wasting time trying to figure out why these guys had come or what they were thinking, it was far more urgent to summon a Guide to stabilize the Esper.
Of course, they had to make sure the Esper didn’t attack again first—but given how easily Cha Jae-woo subdued him with one hand, that didn’t seem like a major concern.
“A-All the Guides have been dispatched to the regional Gates.”
But there was another problem to worry about. The so-called association staff answered as if they couldn’t call a Guide at all.
His face immediately twisted into a scowl as he pulled up the number for the Guide Association and placed a direct call. He figured it would be more reliable to request help himself rather than trust these guys.
“……”
Yet even the Guide Association gave no response. The phone just kept ringing endlessly; no one answered.
“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?”
He shook his head in frustration, prompting Cha Jae-woo to mutter irritably. In truth, Cha Jae-woo had looked worn out for a while now, like the whole situation was nothing but a bothersome chore.
“But you have a Guide right here.”
In the middle of that, one of the men looked straight at him and spoke. It was as if this had been their plan from the beginning.
“We can’t just let him go berserk, so we ask that you handle it, Guide-nim—”
“So that’s why Jo Gyeong-hoon only sent non-Ability Users?”
“……”
“He really sent a bunch of useless idiots just so they wouldn’t do anything at all.”
Cha Jae-woo spoke with a chuckle, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He, who had been left dumbfounded and at a loss for words, simply stared as Cha Jae-woo laid it out plainly.
Only then did he finally grasp what was going on. After Cha Jae-woo subdued the Esper, the plan was to force him to perform the Guiding.
“Kuh…!”
The men, clearly unable to come up with any suitable response, fell silent.
Cha Jae-woo let out a disbelieving laugh, then waved a hand toward the Esper. Immediately, the blue light restraining the man slithered up to his neck, tightening like a noose.
The man twisted and writhed in agony as his throat began to constrict.
Even as he was strangling a man, Cha Jae-woo’s face remained completely impassive. His entire body tensed instinctively, and it wasn’t just him—everyone else was frozen stiff as well.
“Huk…”
No one dared utter a word; they simply stared at Cha Jae-woo.
Before long, the man’s struggles grew weaker, and his body drooped lifelessly within the shimmering blue noose. He looked so much like a corpse that chills raced down his spine.
“He’s not dead.”
As if sensing his thoughts, Cha Jae-woo spoke in a nonchalant tone. Then he withdrew his power from the man, who collapsed limply onto the ground.
He nodded slightly in relief. Truthfully, he could tell from the continuing pulse of psychic waves that the man wasn’t dead.
Still, the problem remained. Even though the Esper had lost consciousness and was no longer actively using his powers, the psychic waves were growing increasingly distorted.
“Take him and perform Guiding.”
Immediate Guiding was necessary. Yet Cha Jae-woo drew a firm line, making it clear he wasn’t going to handle it himself.
“You have to perform Guiding right now. He’s already burned through a lot of his power.”
Yet even after seeing that the Esper had stopped rampaging, the men didn’t move immediately. As if waiting for this moment, they instead pulled out a strange device he had never seen before and held it up to the Esper, then simply shook their heads.
At a glance, it seemed to be a device for measuring the Berserk Index. The readings roughly matched the level of distortion in the psychic waves he had sensed, so he made a rough guess.
“In this condition, his Berserk Index could rise even further on the way—”
“That’s why I told you to take him.”
“B-But there’s a Guide right here! Why—!”
“He can’t perform proper Guiding. He’s D-Rank. Useless.”
The men clearly wanted him to guide the Esper, but Cha Jae-woo firmly blocked them.
He couldn’t quite understand it. They had already verified his Guiding capabilities before—why were they creating this situation again?
He also realized, like Cha Jae-woo had pointed out, that this was a setup orchestrated by Jo Gyeong-hoon. That made it even harder to comprehend. Unlike before, they were seriously putting an Esper in danger just to run their little experiment.
“Just because he’s D-Rank doesn’t mean he can’t do anything at all. Even a little—”
While he was still lost in fundamental doubts, the men continued desperately pushing their agenda.
“Either way, we can’t move him like this. It would be too dangerous. We need him stabilized through Guiding first before transport.”
“Handle it yourselves.”
Cha Jae-woo couldn’t have cared less. With that, he grabbed his hand and turned away, clearly signaling that they should just go home.
“Lim Haeyul.”
But he couldn’t bring himself to move. Could they really just leave that Esper like this? The psychic waves were visibly deteriorating faster and faster.
“Lim Haeyul.”
Cha Jae-woo called his name again, twice.
Finally tearing his eyes away from the Esper, he looked at Cha Jae-woo. It was as if Cha Jae-woo already knew exactly what he was thinking, the way he shook his head.
“I’ll just do the Guiding.”
“…….”
“Just a basic one.”
There was no way he could leave someone to die like that. He could simply do a mana infusion-type Guiding. That would buy enough time for another Guide to arrive.
“Don’t.”
Cha Jae-woo’s thoughts were completely different from his.
“But still—”
“I said don’t.”
Cha Jae-woo’s tone was razor-sharp as he shook his head and tightened his grip around his hand, practically ready to drag him away if needed.
“I’ll only do it for a moment.”
“…Ha.”
“If we leave now and something really terrible happens… what then? His condition is really bad…”
His final words were whispered so quietly that only Cha Jae-woo could clearly hear them.
“Can’t you read the situation?”
Cha Jae-woo’s face hardened to a chilling degree as he asked. His cold expression was enough to make him gulp dryly.
“Anyone can see this is a situation where you shouldn’t do the Guiding.”
“…….”
“Whether he lives or dies—what the hell does that have to do with you?”
Those words, sharp enough to cut, spilled out from between Cha Jae-woo’s lips. He knew what kind of situation it was. Still—
“I don’t want to see someone die.”
That, at least, had everything to do with him.
He couldn’t stand by and watch someone die right in front of him. That was why, in the end, he shook off Cha Jae-woo’s hand and turned around. Because he truly believed this was what he had to do.
