Chapter 83: The Unaffiliated

It was the morning, and the feeling was strange.
I felt a gaze watching me, but I couldn’t figure out who it was.
I thought there were no more stalkers, but the thought that a stalker might have attached themselves to me again made me worry.

The ominous gaze continued until I left work.
In the end, I was lying on the sofa in my exclusive room, waiting for Wonjae’s training to end.
But I heard a knock on the door.
It was rare for anyone to visit at this hour, so I sat up and said towards the door.

“Who is it?”

There was no answer to my question.
And before long, the door lock unlocked on its own, and a man in a gray training suit appeared.
At the sight of the unfamiliar man’s face, the thought that it might be a stalker made my nerves stand on end.

“How did you get in? Who are you!”

“Have you already forgotten?”

The man spoke to me in informal language, as if we were close.
Thinking that he might be someone I knew, I tried hard to remember, but as expected, it was not.

From the man’s training suit, he seemed to be an Association Esper, but since I had never had contact with any Esper other than Hyun Taewoon and Sung Yohan, I was even more wary of the man.

“You’re a cold person, Guide Lee Shinui. I even treated your wound with all my heart.”

I didn’t know what the man was thinking, approaching me, but I felt that I shouldn’t be alone with him any longer.

“I don’t know who you are. Will you please leave now?”

At my words, the man covered his face with his hand.
His face was small, so his hand completely covered it.
However, paradoxically, the moment his face was all covered, the image of one person flashed through my mind.
I was so surprised for a moment that I dropped my phone.

“You!”

“You remember now? It’s been a while, Guide-nim.”

The man who was calling me familiarly was definitely not close to me.
We had only met once, and that was only for a few hours.

The man was the leader of the anti-Awakened.
I didn’t know because he was wearing a mask, but he had a rather handsome face.

“Why are you here? Did you come back to catch me with a grudge?”

“No. I have some business at the Association today.”

“What business at the Association?”

“A secret.”

The Association would not have let the leader of the anti-Awakened wander around so defenselessly.
Moreover, seeing him wearing the Association Esper’s training suit, I didn’t think he had come through the proper channels.

“Where did you get the training suit?”

“There are many members who are from the Association. I definitely didn’t steal it.”

At his words, I remembered that there were people from the Association among the anti-Awakened.

“Don’t be so wary. I came to give you something.”

He took out a Guiding Watch and a guide ID card from his pocket and held them out to me.

“Huh?”

“I thought you might have gotten a new one, but I still wanted to give them back.”

As the leader had said, I had already been issued a new Guiding Watch and ID card, but I didn’t like my things being in someone else’s hands, and since they were originally mine, I took them.

At my meek acceptance, the leader smiled slightly and looked around the exclusive room and said.

“An S-Class exclusive private room? It’s better than the government’s.”

I was still wary and asked the leader.

“You must be from the government.”

“Yeah. I’m from the government. But now that I’m in the Association, I think I should have stayed on the Association’s side. The uniforms are cool too.”

He had already come to my side and placed his hand on my shoulder, caressing it.
I swatted his hand away and asked sharply again.

“Why are you here?”

“I told you it was a secret.”

He still said with a smile.
His smile was cool and nice to look at, but it felt ominous to me.

“You didn’t come to do anything bad, did you?”

“It seems the Association is the one doing the bad things.”

The leader said, sitting on the chair next to the bed.
I couldn’t refute his words.
After all, I didn’t think well of the Association either.

At a loss for words, I just stood there without saying anything.
He, who had given me a grin, looked around a few times and exclaimed that the facilities were good, then turned his gaze back to me.
It seemed his gaze flashed sharply for a moment, but since it was a fleeting moment, I couldn’t be sure.

“Well, now that I’ve seen your face, shall I get going?”

At the sight of the leader about to stand up, I caught him without realizing it.
For some reason, I didn’t want to part like this.

“Excuse me…”

“What?”

The leader smiled at me as if he had been waiting for me to catch him.
At that, I thought I had to say something.
As I was contemplating for a moment, a question I had wanted to ask him came to my mind.

“I have something I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“Is there a space-time travel ability Esper on the anti-Awakened’s side?”

At my words, the leader’s lips hardened into a straight line, and he stared at my eyes for a while without answering.
But then he returned to his original smile and said.

“Are you curious?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll tell you if you join our group. Abilities are confidential outside of the members.”

Even at his words that it was confidential, I sent him a look asking him to tell me, but he just shrugged his shoulders and said in a light tone.

“If you want to hear it, join the group.”

“I don’t want to.”

“It will be more comfortable than the Association or the government.”

“I have no intention of becoming a criminal.”

“Why are we criminals?”

The leader, who had been smiling until now, said with a serious face.
At that, I felt a sense of threat and closed my mouth.

“It’s the Association, not us, who are committing the crimes. Then wouldn’t that make you a member of a criminal organization?”

“…Don’t say such ridiculous things.”

“I want to be friends with you. Because you seem different.”

I also didn’t want to be on bad terms with the leader.
Just as he had seen me differently, I also didn’t just think of him as a criminal.
As Sehyun had said, it seemed the anti-Awakened also had their own circumstances, and unlike the coercive Association, they seemed free, so I didn’t feel negatively about them.

“If you change your mind, you can come to Sector 89 anytime. I’ll come to pick you up.”

And so the leader went out.
I should have told the Association that he had trespassed, but I didn’t want to.

After about 10 minutes, as soon as Wonjae came, I left work with him.
But before we could even leave the building, an emergency broadcast came on.
It was an intruder announcement.

I could tell that the leader had caused trouble.
He seemed to have escaped safely, as there was no news of the intruder being caught.
Relieved, I hoped that the day I would meet the leader again would come.

After the leader’s visit, the Association was on high alert again.
They recommended that I stay with the 01S team members for the time being, so since then, I had been spending my time in the 01S team’s exclusive room.

But Hyun Taewoon, who rarely came to the team’s exclusive room, would always open the door and come in when I was there.
At his sudden appearance, I knew that there was a spy for him here.
It didn’t seem to be Minseong, so it was probably another team member.

I talked with Minseong about the sports festival that would be held next month, regardless of whether he was there or not.

He would answer any of my questions readily.
As we were talking for a long time, I suddenly thought I should ask about the anti-Awakened.
The other guides had no information.
But if it was him, a well-informed person, he might know something.

“Guide Minseong, do you know anything about the anti-Awakened group?”

At my words, he immediately looked around.
At that, I could tell that there was something.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“I became curious after being kidnapped this time.”

At my words, he frowned slightly and said.

“Actually, you’re not supposed to talk about the anti-Awakened within the Association. It’s forbidden.”

Hearing that it was forbidden, only then did I understand the reason why the guides didn’t know much about the anti-Awakened and why I couldn’t find out about them even though I had been at the Association for three years.

In the three years at the Association, I had never heard anything about the anti-Awakened, nor had I ever met them in person.
The only times I had heard about them were once or twice when talking about the government.

“Why is it forbidden?”

“Just between us, but there are quite a few people who have moved to the anti-Awakened’s side from the Association.”

“Really?”

‘Quite a few’ didn’t seem like a small number.
I knew that there were people who had left the Association when I went to the anti-Awakened group’s hideout last time, but since I had thought it was just one or two, I was surprised by the unexpected fact.

“Yes. There are also S-Class guides and Espers.”

“Why did those people move to the anti-Awakened group?”

I was trying to leave because of him, but to be honest, the benefits that the Association provided were not at a level that could be easily ignored and left behind.

“Actually, no one knows. Because they left so suddenly.”

“Ah…”

I thought that each person probably had their own circumstances.
After all, I was also trying to leave the Association because of him.

“Have there been any people who have gone over to the anti-Awakened group recently?”

“Not recently. The last one was three years ago. It seems the Association is also managing them diligently in their own way.”

“I see.”

“Guide Shinui, are you perhaps interested in the anti-Awakened group? You must never go. If you’re caught by the government, it’s life imprisonment in the Awakened prison.”

At the words ‘life imprisonment’, I snapped to attention.
Come to think of it, when I was dragged to the hideout and asked to be let go, they had been on high alert, saying that there might be government people.

“I have no intention of going. I was just curious.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

As of now, I had no intention of joining the anti-Awakened group.

“But the anti-Awakened group doesn’t particularly cause problems, and in a way, since they have more S-Classes than the government and the Association, they’re an elite group, so there are some Awakened who secretly want to go.”

“Really?”

I asked back without realizing it at the unexpected words.
Minseong nodded and then, glancing at the team members, changed the subject.
After talking with him, I received a call from Jinseok.

At the call to come to the guiding training room, I said goodbye to Minseong and came out.
As soon as I came out of the exclusive room, Taewoon immediately followed me, as if he had been waiting.