Chapter 80: A Trust That Does Not Waver

“What, what happened.

Why, why is the kid in such a state, what on earth happened.”

There was no room for anyone to intervene.

The moment Special Team One came out of the Gate, Commissioner Han Dong-il rushed over, snatched Lee Rihyeon from Jaeyul’s arms, laid him down on the ground, and spoke in a flustered voice rarely heard from him.

“Something happened inside.

Rather than standing around, it would be better to move him to the center immediately.”

“Put up the screens.

And a stretcher.

Bring a stretcher.”

At Han Dong-il’s shout, the agents waiting nearby quickly unfolded screens to block the cameras.

Contrary to how serious Lee Rihyeon’s condition looked, Jaeyul’s voice as he answered the commissioner was flat, without much emotion.

“We’ll head back first.

Do we wait at the center.”

“Get checked first, and if there’s nothing wrong, go back and rest.”

At Jaeyul’s words, Park Bomyeong and Yu Eden left without hesitation.

Just from their actions, it was clear that Lee Rihyeon’s condition was not critically dangerous.

As Park Bomyeong brushed past me, our eyes met briefly.

But the gaze he directed at me felt painfully sharp, as if filled with negative emotion.

It even felt like unexplained hostility.

Watching Park Bomyeong’s rapidly disappearing back, I stepped closer to the collapsed Lee Rihyeon.

I didn’t know what the problem was, but leaving him lying on the rain-soaked ground didn’t seem right.

I judged that it would be better for me to at least check on him.

“I’ll take a quick look.”

“Ah, yes.

That would be good.

Agent Jin, please have a look.”

As I removed the hood of the raincoat covering my head, color returned to Commissioner Han Dong-il’s face when he recognized me.

Just as I bent down toward the fallen Lee Rihyeon—

“Stay back.”

Im Chan and Hwang Jiyu stepped in front of me.

It was strange.

Their eyes were no different from Park Bomyeong’s.

No, if anything, they were even sharper as they shoved me back.

They made no effort to hide their hostility, as if they would attack the moment I took another step forward.

I couldn’t understand what was going on.

Just then, someone grabbed my arm from behind.

“…Why….”

It was Jaeyul.

I looked at him with questions in my eyes, but without any explanation, Jaeyul simply shook his head slightly, telling me to stay still.

His expression wasn’t bright either.

It seemed… my bad premonition had been about this all along.

“No matter how much you dislike a teammate, how can you mess with the body of someone going into a Gate.”

Hwang Jiyu’s scream, filled with anguish, did not sound false at all.

In an instant, countless gazes turned toward me.

“A Guide can’t do something like that.

He almost died.”

For a brief moment, even I felt as though I really had done something to Lee Rihyeon.

That was how sincere and intense the protest was.

“What are you talking about—.”

Just as I opened my mouth to demand a proper explanation, Lee Rihyeon, who had been lying on the ground, grabbed Hwang Jiyu’s pant leg.

With a face completely ruined by rain, he struggled to lift his heavy, waterlogged eyelids and slowly shook his head.

“…I’m fine.

Cough… I’m fine….”

In a voice so small it was nearly drowned out by the rain, he stopped Hwang Jiyu.

Despite his words, his face clearly looked like it had a long story behind it.

As a stretcher arrived at just the right moment, Lee Rihyeon was loaded onto it, and his academy colleagues, Im Chan and Hwang Jiyu, followed alongside.

Naturally, Commissioner Han Dong-il went with them as well.

At the Gate entrance that had been so noisy moments before, only the sound of rain remained.

No one left behind could easily open their mouth.

“Let’s move somewhere else first.

The rain’s too heavy.”

“…Uh.

Yeah….”

The whirlwind of events honestly left me too flustered.

Without even hearing a proper explanation, I felt as though I had become the person who had reduced Lee Rihyeon to that state.

Together with Jaeyul, I moved into a temporary tent set up near the Gate to escape the pouring rain.

That was when I noticed strangely colored rainwater flowing down Jaeyul’s fingertips.

“Jaeyul.

You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine.

It’s nothing.”

Ignoring his reassurance, I checked more closely and saw a large wound on his shoulder.

It hadn’t been visible from the outside due to the pitch-black combat suit, but the injury was so severe that even the roughly wrapped bandage had been dyed the same color as the suit by blood.

“Sit down.

Let me treat you first.”

“I have to go report.”

“It won’t take long.

I’ll finish quickly, so sit first.”

Reluctantly, Jaeyul sat down.

I tore his top open and removed the bandage.

Gush.

Blood surged out from a wound that looked like it had been deeply slashed by something sharp.

I quickly covered it with my hand and poured mana into it.

I didn’t know if it would work on a wound this large, but I decided to try first.

“Sorry.

We came out late.

There were more troublesome bastards than I expected.

S-rank really is on another level.”

“…….”

“Are you mad because we were late.

Why aren’t you saying anything.”

I didn’t care about them being late.

I had never doubted that Jaeyul would come back.

What angered me was that he came back hurt like this.

And after that, the fact that Jaeyul wasn’t asking me anything at all.

“Why aren’t you asking anything.

It looked like all the team members believed I did something.”

Park Bomyeong, who had brushed past me first, and Hwang Jiyu and Im Chan all had the same look.

Yet Jaeyul hadn’t asked me a single thing.

The wound seemed deeper than expected.

Even though I started the treatment with my mana nearly full, it was being drained so quickly that dizziness set in.

The only saving grace was that the blood gushing from the wound stopped, and it began to heal rapidly.

As I continued the treatment, Jaeyul’s hand overlapped mine.

“There’s nothing to ask.

It’s so obvious there’s no need to ask.

Because the brother I know, Jin Se-hyeon, is not that kind of person.”

What on earth had happened inside the Gate, and what kind of misunderstanding were the other team members under.

There were so many things I wanted to know, yet at the same time, none of it seemed to matter.

If Jaeyul trusted me this unwaveringly, what did it matter what others thought of me.

As expected… Jaeyul had grown up well.

Even more than what I taught him, even more than the trust I gave him, he had become a proper adult.

“Maybe… Rihyeon misunderstood something.

It’s nothing, hyung.

You don’t have to worry about anything.”

To worry about me even with a body this injured.

He had become such a warm adult.

The warmth from Jaeyul’s hand through the back of my own calmed the violently trembling feeling in my chest.

It felt like I was the one being healed.

“…Me.”

“Yeah.

They’re saying you tried to kill him.”

Ironically, I was hearing the story of what Special Team One experienced inside the Gate through Oh Seong-gyu.

The rest of the team seemed reluctant to face me and left the office as soon as we returned to the center.

Jaeyul also hadn’t given me a proper explanation about what happened inside the Gate.

And since Jaeyul was away reporting the Gate subjugation results and giving a statement about the incident, I could only hear the rough outline through Oh Seong-gyu.

“So… Lee Rihyeon said his body felt strange from the moment he entered the Gate.

That his mana felt tangled.”

“That’s right.

They said he could still fight to some extent at first, but his condition kept getting worse, and on the second day, the accident happened.”

The rough story went like this.

Even for an S-rank Gate, it was particularly tricky.

Flying monsters, beast-type monsters, tentacle-type monsters, all kinds of them poured out.

When they had pushed deep into the Gate, one aerial monster that slipped past the encirclement flew straight at Jaeyul with its claws extended.

At that moment, Lee Rihyeon used his special ability, wind, and stepped in front of Jaeyul.

But at the worst possible timing, the technique failed to manifest properly.

Lee Rihyeon, who had complained of mana abnormalities throughout the subjugation.

Just before the monster tore his torso apart, Jaeyul threw himself over Lee Rihyeon to shield him.

That was how Jaeyul ended up with that severe shoulder wound.

Because the injury was so large that even healing potions didn’t work properly, the Gate subjugation was delayed.

“…So after that accident, Lee Rihyeon collapsed.”

“Yeah.

They said he was down like that for a full day.

So from their perspective, isn’t it natural they’d think you messed with his mana and nearly killed him.

Apparently, he kept saying several times that the guiding he received before departure seemed wrong.

On top of that, losing one A-rank Esper meant the rest of the team had an even harder time.”

It was absurd.

The probability that my guiding was wrong was zero.

Especially since Lee Rihyeon’s condition hadn’t been bad to begin with, to the point I didn’t even need to touch him.

Then why had he said such things throughout the subjugation.

“You’re thinking this right now, aren’t you.

‘It’s a frame-up.’”

Oh Seong-gyu spoke my thoughts for me.

I neither affirmed nor denied his words.

“Why aren’t you even protesting that you didn’t do it.

Aren’t you wronged.”

“Would it change anything if I talked.

I am curious about why he’d go as far as telling such a lie, though.”

Once I learned the whole story, I wasn’t even angry.

It just felt like I’d been unlucky enough to get caught in some low-grade scheme.

At my age, it wasn’t like I could grab a kid by the hair and fight him either.

“You got on his bad side.

That’s all.

Being too outstanding makes life hard.

So what, are you just going to sit there and take it.

If you stay quiet, you might really get branded as someone who did that.”

I hated these troublesome human relationships.

They kept bringing back bad memories from the past, which was why this time I had tried to live while hiding my abilities as much as possible.

This kind of childish scheme was new even to me.

It was so immature that I didn’t even know how to respond properly.

“I don’t know.

I’ll think about it.”

Leaving Oh Seong-gyu behind, I headed for the hospital room where Lee Rihyeon was admitted.

In front of the room stood an unfamiliar Esper, guarding it like a sentry.

At a glance, he looked like a guard placed there by Commissioner Han Dong-il.

“No visitors allowed.”

“Move.”

“Entry is prohibited except for authorized personnel.”

Was he that important to warrant guards.

I was wondering if I should just turn back to avoid the hassle of arguing, when—

“Let him in.”

At the voice coming from inside the room, the large guard stepped aside.

As I entered the hospital room, a scene completely different from what I had expected came into view.

“You’re here.”

Lee Rihyeon, looking perfectly fine, sitting on the bed and biting into a red apple.

“Why do you look so shocked.

Did you see a ghost.”

He even let out a loud laugh, full of unmistakable mockery.