Tae Yishin’s rage burned hotter than ever, as if the desperate sorrow he’d once shown Nabin had been nothing but a lie. The smile he wore like a mask had vanished without a trace.
“You… what the hell did you do?”
“Khugh…!”
He straddled Nabin and began choking him. Nabin gasped, words mangled in his throat, until at last his eyes met Tae Yishin’s.
The movement was eerily similar to what Kim Minsu had done in Nabin’s dream, but Tae Yishin’s strength was in a completely different league. Kim Minsu had been just a man; Tae Yishin was an S-rank Esper. Even a Mental-type Esper possessed far more raw power than any ordinary human.
If Tae Yishin hadn’t forced himself to hold back, Nabin’s neck would’ve snapped the moment his hand closed around it.
Pinned beneath him, Nabin writhed like an insect crushed underfoot. His bloodied hands clawed desperately at Tae Yishin’s wrist, but the fury blazing in Tae Yishin’s eyes didn’t waver.
“Ugh…”
As Nabin’s breath weakened under the tightening grip, his life slipping away, Tae Yishin was suddenly hurled backward, his body smashing into the wall with a thunderous crash.
“Tae Yishin—are you insane?”
“Khuhk…!”
Han Jigang stood in the doorway, back from finishing off Kim Minsu. Tae Yishin hacked up dark blood that drenched his chest, proof of the devastating force Jigang had struck him with. The clothes where Jigang’s hand had landed had been burned away completely.
Snarling, Tae Yishin wiped the blood from his mouth and glared at him. Judging the situation by appearances alone—how laughable. Both of them had been fooled by the Guide’s innocent façade.
“You… haa… did you check on Somin’s room?”
“…Why Somin?”
Jigang had stalked Minsu like a rat, stomping down on his tail so he writhed in agony, only to heal him with potions and start again, prolonging the torment.
He could’ve ended it instantly. But he wanted Minsu to suffer more than he had made Nabin suffer. He played with him until Minsu begged for death, even though Jigang wasn’t the kind to enjoy torture. It was the only way to cool the fury boiling inside him after seeing the state Nabin had been left in.
Only once the potions failed to mend Minsu’s wounds did Jigang finally snap his neck and return to the mansion.
Worried about the Nabin he’d left behind, he went straight to his room. But what greeted him through the wide-open door was nothing he’d expected.
Tae Yishin had always been harsh with Nabin, but he’d never gone so far as to try and kill him. Now the suffocating killing intent flooding the small room was thick enough to smother any normal person.
Tae Yishin’s eyes were bloodshot, burning with madness. But Jigang’s gaze fell first on Nabin.
The color had drained completely from his face. His breath was so faint and fragile it could stop at any moment. Jigang’s own reason snapped in that instant.
By the time he came to, Tae Yishin was coughing blood against the shattered wall. Even so, Jigang’s fury didn’t ease. If Gong Min—who had asked him to protect Nabin—were here now, he would’ve wanted to leave him in the same state as Tae Yishin.
“You and I—we’ve both been ensnared by him.”
Tae Yishin sneered, his voice dripping with scorn. From his perspective, the trembling boy curled up in the corner looked like the victim, leaving Tae Yishin painted as the aggressor.
But he, Jigang, and Gong Min had all been deceived by appearances. They’d left Nabin alone in this mansion with Ryu Somin, blind to whatever was hiding behind that guileless face.
“Explain yourself. Clearly.”
Jigang’s flames surged hotter, his power not lessening even as pain tore through his body with every breath. His scorched organs screamed from the blow he’d landed earlier.
Tae Yishin snatched a Healing Potion from the floor, pouring half over his burns and downing the rest in one gulp. The pain ebbed, nerve by nerve.
“Somin’s in a coma. And it’s because of your precious Kim Nabin.”
“…What?”
Jigang let him drink. He had lashed out at Tae Yishin for trying to kill Nabin, but he didn’t want him dead.
But Tae Yishin’s words were madness. Nabin, responsible for putting Ryu Somin into a coma? Impossible.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Yeah. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”
With a bitter expression, Tae Yishin pulled a folded note from his pocket and flicked it toward Jigang. Infused with mana, it flew straight to him, landing right at his face. Jigang unfolded it immediately.
[…I think he hated me. I drank the tea Nabin-hyung gave me, and… my head…]
The handwriting was crooked and shaky, nothing like Ryu Somin’s usual neat script. It looked like the desperate scrawl of a child, as though written in a rush.
“Tea…?”
Even after reading it, the situation made no sense. Why would Nabin do such a thing? And what tea was Somin talking about? Jigang’s thoughts tangled in confusion.
“Pasquinum. The flower Somin gave his Guide. You know what happens when you brew it into tea.”
Jigang’s gaze darted to the bouquet in the corner of Nabin’s room. He recognized it. But now the flowers were dried, some petals ground into fine powder.
Pasquinum—beautiful to look at, but deadly when steeped. A single cup was enough to send someone into a coma.
That was why Jigang had been unsettled when he first saw it in Nabin’s room. Despite its dazzling appearance, the flower was more poison than medicine.
And hardly anyone knew its true properties. The Center forbade civilians from cultivating it. Tae Yishin had gotten it from the black market, because Somin had begged for it.
And it wasn’t as simple as steeping dried petals. To brew it properly into poison tea required knowledge and skill.
“There’s no way Nabin could’ve done that. Not just anyone can make poison from Pasquinum.”
It was a fair doubt. Tae Yishin might be convinced, but Jigang couldn’t accept it. Why would Somin willingly drink tea offered by Nabin? And if anyone had the knowledge, it was Somin, not him.
Since childhood, Somin had been sickly and fascinated with herbs. Tae Yishin had given him Pasquinum precisely because it could be both medicine and poison.
Medicine and poison were always separated by a razor’s edge. To one person, a herb could be harmful; to another, it could be a miracle cure.
“You think you know Nabin? He’s been working illegal Guiding parlors since he was twenty. Do you have any idea how many Espers he’s been with? He looks innocent, but inside he’s more jaded than anyone. You really think none of his clients knew about poisonous herbs?”
At those words, Jigang glanced toward Nabin, still curled tightly in the corner. He could understand why Tae Yishin thought that way. But first he needed to confirm whether Somin was truly in a coma.
“Step outside, for now.”
More than anything, he had to separate Tae Yishin from Nabin. Jigang pocketed the note and gestured for him to leave.
“If anything happens to Somin… I’ll kill that Guide with my own hands.”
“Tae Yishin.”
But Tae Yishin was too far gone, consumed by rage and convinced Somin had been harmed. If he stopped to think, he might see the holes in his reasoning. But his bloodshot eyes burned with nothing but fury.
Jigang was readying his power to force him out when Tae Yishin stood on his own and left the room.
“Han Jigang, wake up.”
He left those words behind. To him, Nabin was nothing more than an Esper-only drug—once you fell under his spell, you were ruined.
Even he, who had clung to reason, had nearly lost himself. Only now, with Somin lying between life and death, did he feel as though he’d finally woken up.
His fingertips still trembled. The shock of finding Somin collapsed in that room wouldn’t leave him. And when he remembered Ryu Soh-an, whom he’d already lost, staring at the bloodless body of Ryu Somin nearly shattered him.
With unsteady hands, he pulled out the highest-grade Healing Potion he had left and poured it between Somin’s violet lips.
