Chapter 6
“Please proceed inside.”
The employee checked the Esper Association certification, handed over an ID card with a blue lanyard, and gestured toward the interior. As Yeonwoo connected the blue lanyard—signifying an auxiliary-class Esper—to his ID card, he looked down at it with a complicated expression.
“Esper Han Yeonwoo?”
“Ah, yes.”
Hanging the ID card around his neck, Yeonwoo moved his feet diligently following the guidance.
“Please gaze at the small dot inside for three seconds.”
At the employee’s instruction, Yeonwoo blinked his dry eyes and brought his face to the iris scanner. While registering his fingerprint, he bit his tongue to suppress a yawn.
He was tired.
Yeonhwa had told him it was just a bad dream and not to worry about it, but Yeonwoo couldn’t help himself.Â
What if, just what if I died like that, what would happen to Yeonhwa? With this worry, he hadn’t slept a wink all night, keeping watch over Yeonhwa before coming to work.
“What’s this? You didn’t sleep again, did you?”
Seon Woogeon, Yeonwoo’s military academy classmate, waved his hand and approached after spotting Yeonwoo secretly yawning in the corner. Yeonwoo, who had been stretching slightly, smiled sheepishly. With a satisfied expression, Woogeon looked at his and Yeonwoo’s ID cards and put his arm around Yeonwoo’s shoulder.
“To be honest, I couldn’t sleep either.”
Is that so? Before Yeonwoo could respond, an employee called for Woogeon from the other side.
“Esper Seon Woogeon!”
“Yes!”
As Woogeon was about to run off, he turned and grabbed Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo wondered what important thing he needed to say that required getting so close, but it was just a bland suggestion to go up to the auditorium together later.
You’ve been at the center for years and you’re still directionally challenged?
Yeonwoo smiled slightly and nodded, and Woogeon ran off to Zone A. Heading toward Zone C, Yeonwoo inserted his ID card into the mana recognition device. He saw the person next to him glancing over and copying his actions, so Yeonwoo deliberately moved slowly as he placed his hand on the registration device.
“Esper Han Yeonwoo, Auxiliary Class C, Zone C assignment, correct?”
“Yes.”
Following the employee’s gesture, Yeonwoo channeled mana into the device, causing a sharp warning beep to sound. The employee, instead of the flustered Yeonwoo, pulled out the ID card and reinserted it, then gestured toward the registration device again.
“Let’s try again. This is just a procedure for personal verification, so please channel just a tiny bit of mana.”
But I did use just a tiny bit…
At the soulless yet kind voice, Yeonwoo placed his hand on the device and scraped just a small amount of mana from his core. As he let out a bit of mana like spinning a thread from his fingertips, a rigid mechanical voice announced, “Verification complete.”
As Yeonwoo removed his hand at the employee’s gesture, the employee retrieved the ID card and alternated glances between Yeonwoo and the card.
“I see you haven’t registered your item?”
“Pardon?”
I did that before coming in, didn’t I? As Yeonwoo touched his necklace, the employee who was stamping the registration mark on the ID card pointed at Yeonwoo’s wrist. Following the gaze to his wrist, Yeonwoo frowned. There was an unfamiliar chain bracelet on his wrist.
What’s this?
He tried to examine it closely, looking for the clasp, but the bracelet, which had no beginning or end, just kept circling in his palm.
“Esper Han Yeonwoo. One moment please.”
A mana detector suddenly appeared and scanned the bracelet. Yeonwoo watched with confused eyes and the employee with a calm expression, but there was no reaction.
“If you don’t register it now and it’s later identified as an item, you’ll be fined. Is that alright with you?”
No, it’s not. How much is the fine?
After apologizing, Yeonwoo stood in a corner and struggled to remove the bracelet. Thinking it might have an invisible latch design, he traced the bracelet endlessly with his fingertips until they turned red.
Even when he tried to forcibly remove it, it wouldn’t budge, only hurting his wrist.
“What’s the matter?”
“Ah, that person’s bracelet…”
The expressionless employee who had been waiting patiently pointed at Yeonwoo in response to another employee’s question. The employee, who had been openly showing an annoyed expression after seeing the color of Yeonwoo’s ID card, glanced at the screen and suddenly changed their demeanor.
“Ah, I’ll just process this for you. Ha ha ha. Esper Han Yeonwoo.”
Yeonwoo, who was about to ask for something like wire cutters, smiled brightly upon hearing his name being pronounced deliberately.
Having a skilled younger sister is convenient at times like this.
“Go straight inside, take the elevator up, and you’re there.”
After receiving the excessively friendly guidance, Yeonwoo bowed and went inside, where Woogeon approached him.
“What took you so long?”
“This.”
Pulling up his sleeve, Yeonwoo looked at his reddened skin and the black bracelet on it. It was an extremely light and thin bracelet that he wouldn’t have even noticed if the employee hadn’t pointed it out.
“Isn’t it from Yeonhwa?”
“From Han Yeonhwa? I don’t think so.”
“You sound so certain. But you must have received a graduation gift, right?”
At Woogeon’s words, Yeonwoo briefly searched his memory.
…It was strange. Judging by the date, he had clearly graduated recently, but his memories felt distant, like recalling events from years ago.
Yeonhwa… did give him a graduation gift.
‘Now you’ll have to find your own way in life, Oppa.’
He had argued with her to take it back right after receiving it. He had gritted his teeth, asking how she could say something so heartless, but it was true.
Although Yeonhwa was still a minor, she had received numerous offers, but Yeonwoo hadn’t. Espers with spatial movement abilities were quite common, and Yeonwoo, being one of them, was nothing special—just a Class C Esper.
To join a guild with a decent reputation, one had to be at least Class B, and only those of Class E or below could suppress their abilities and live normal lives. Since ordinary jobs weren’t enough to pay the Esper insurance premiums, after much deliberation, Yeonwoo had submitted his resume to the state-run Korean Esper Center and was accepted.
Between moving to the dormitory and attending court to maintain his qualification as Yeonhwa’s guardian, Yeonwoo’s days were busy, and it wasn’t until the day before starting at the Center that he could check Yeonhwa’s gift.
A dark blue book with silver patterns.
Looking down at the cover, Yeonwoo picked up the book with careful hands. It was the first time he had received a book as a gift since Yeonhwa had started compiling her precognitions in books.
After chaos ensued when she shared her precognitions, Yeonhwa wasn’t particularly fond of others reading books that compiled her precognitions. Knowing this, Yeonwoo had never paid attention to where those books were kept.
Yeonhwa had stopped grabbing Yeonwoo every morning, chattering about what dream she had and who had appeared in it, and kept all her precognitions to herself.
So why did she give him a book now? It was Yeonhwa’s habit to say that knowing the future didn’t do any good…
“It’s this way.”
At Woogeon’s voice, Yeonwoo shifted his gaze from the bracelet and looked around.
“Not there.”
Yeonwoo pulled Woogeon, who was about to go in the wrong direction. Bewildered, Woogeon checked the directory and then turned to Yeonwoo, giving him a thumbs up.
“As expected.”
“We just heard the explanation earlier.”
“No, but still, you can’t just find it that quickly. Is it because you’re a spatial-class?”
Yeonwoo gave a weak smile at Woogeon’s praise and quietly asked,
“Did we… ever come to the Center for a field trip when we were at the military academy?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Woogeon frowned as if Yeonwoo was saying something absurd.
These days, Espers and Guides lived among non-awakened, ordinary people, but when Adder first appeared, Espers were treated as human disasters. No matter how much anyone explained about the invisible gates, ordinary people couldn’t understand. When dungeon breaks occurred, creating danger zones, and escaped magical beasts caused all sorts of disasters, the blame fell on Espers.
Despite the Esper Association’s claim that with sufficient training and Guiding, Espers were no different from ordinary people, the general public still feared them.
Watching Espers’ abilities when handling dungeon breaks, people felt more fear than gratitude. Fear created absurd rumors that Espers carried gates with them, and those who firmly believed these rumors began to ostracize Espers.
The conflict between the awakened and ordinary people deepened, and when an incident occurred where Espers rejected help from ordinary people, the festering wound finally burst. Ordinary people joined forces to terrorize the awakened, and the awakened, avoiding the eyes of terrorist groups and gossipmongers, began to operate underground.
Even though the conflicts had been resolved, terrorist attacks still occurred. While some guilds advertised their headquarters as if daring anyone to attack, others did not.
The Korean Esper Center, being a government agency, would have kept things even more confidential. In fact, Yeonwoo had to go through three verifications before he could enter the Center building.
Yes, so this was Yeonwoo’s first visit to this place.
But he couldn’t understand why this place felt so familiar. The same was true for his ID card. Although he was seeing the ID card with his photo for the first time, it brought with it a strange sense of nostalgia.
“Wow, the line is so long.”
At Woogeon’s words, Yeonwoo emerged from his thoughts and raised his head to check the line.
A long line of people snaked around in front of the elevator heading to the plaza.
“Let’s go this way.”
Grabbing Woogeon, who was trying to figure out which line was shorter, Yeonwoo opened a side door next to the elevator and descended the stairs. Upon entering, they found an escalator in operation.
“Oh! How did you know? Is this also a spatial-class ability?”
Ignoring Woogeon’s excited question, Yeonwoo stepped onto the belt.
During the slow ascent, Yeonwoo looked down at his bracelet and then around at his surroundings.
“What’s wrong? Lost your way?”
“No, it’s not that…”
After a moment’s hesitation, Yeonwoo opened the door to the plaza, and Woogeon, following behind, froze in place and exclaimed in amazement.
For a while, Woogeon could only gasp in admiration at the beauty of the plaza decorated with dungeon plants. It’s so pretty, really pretty. Endlessly expressing his admiration, Woogeon looked at Yeonwoo as if seeking agreement.
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Yeah… it’s beautiful…”
Yeonwoo forced a smile and looked around the plaza. Everyone gathered in the plaza was marveling at the floating luminescent plants, the vine-type plants decorating the walls, and the flowers blooming brilliantly and emitting a sweet fragrance.
That should be the reaction of someone seeing the plaza for the first time, but Yeonwoo just scanned his surroundings with an indifferent expression. As if he felt no excitement for a scene he had seen for years.
His own reaction sent chills down his spine.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
