Chapter 105: The Unreadable Guide

“When…”

Huey fell silent, having been about to ask, somewhat urgently, for the exact duration of the situation.

This was all at Devon’s behest, his own Guide. Devon had openly expressed his desire to eliminate Ethan, seizing every opportunity to attempt it.

Even appointing Huey as an instructor for Ethan’s lessons had been a calculated move to dismantle Ethan’s guard and inflict harm during the festival. As Devon’s first Esper, Huey was bound to understand and support him above all others.

‘Of course, the bastard he’d encountered outside the restaurant seemed to hold a different opinion.’

“…Pardon?”

Yet, as Huey’s gaze met Ethan’s blue eyes, his mind was consumed by confusion. Why, he wondered, did he feel such an urge to save Ethan Prescott, who wasn’t even his Guide?

‘He simply needed to read him directly. There was still time; he would first ascertain the timing of the ingestion. He could deliberate again afterward.’

He raised his wine glass, feigning a sip, composed his expression, and changed the subject.

“Since when,” he began, “did you start treating the Lord of the Cloud family as merely a friend who buys you meals? Were you planning to stir up trouble by causing a scandal with His Highness Devon’s Espers?”

Ethan, who had been focused on the food before him, looked up, his eyes widening. He had thought Huey Cloud had softened considerably, yet now his expression was chillingly stern.

It was as if he had reverted to the man Ethan first encountered at the Cloud estate.

“My apologies,” Ethan said. “I was simply in too much of a hurry… There was absolutely no other intention. We will, of course, cover the cost of the meal.”

Maxon, observing from the side, attempted to mediate with an awkward laugh, but Huey’s expression remained unchanged.

He set down his empty wine glass and slowly removed his gloves. His slender fingers, appearing unusually pale as if untouched by sunlight, were revealed.

“In that case,” Huey stated, “you should have no problem offering your hand to a mere C-rank Psychometry Esper in an unsealed space.”

“…Lord Huey Cloud!”

Maxon sprang to his feet. Yet, Huey did not avert his gaze from Ethan.

After a prolonged moment of staring at each other across the table, Ethan offered his hand with a faint smile, utterly unhesitating. Huey’s eyes widened slightly.

“What’s so difficult about that?”

Maxon intercepted Ethan’s outstretched hand, seizing it midway, and exclaimed, “Ethan, are you insane?!”

“Brother, I’m dumber than you think.”

“Hey… you think this is a joke right now…”

Maxon, gritting his teeth as he spoke, met Ethan’s gaze. Seeing the calm, settled look in his eyes, Maxon somehow felt that everything would indeed be fine.

‘After all, he was a multi-ability user with a strange shield.’

Though he had deduced the answer purely by intuition, Maxon reluctantly released Ethan’s wrist, his expression still one of unease.

Ethan offered a subtle smile and extended his hand to Huey as if for a handshake. At this point, it was Huey Cloud who flinched and drew his hand back.

“…Are you truly sure?”

“It’s fine,” Ethan replied. “I know a C-rank Esper can’t easily concentrate in an open space like this. You might pick up fragmented thoughts, but even if you read nothing at all, I won’t be offering a second chance.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

‘It didn’t matter. He wasn’t a C-rank; he was a B-rank.’

Thinking this, he clasped Ethan’s hand. Then, just as he always did, he activated his ability.

“…”

“By the way, you don’t need gloves to use your ability, do you? Is it some kind of mental armor?”

He couldn’t read him.

He was clean. Usually, when Psychometry failed, it was due to an overwhelming fog of “unreadable noise.” Yet, Ethan was utterly clean, as if demonstrating what a normal, unreadable state truly felt like.

“……I see. My target was mistaken. It’s not for me, but for the hearts of those who fear my hands.”

Huey tightened his grip on Ethan’s hand slightly, stalling for time by pretending to answer.

But.

He still couldn’t read him.

“Um, my hand is hurting a bit.”

As Huey dazedly looked up, he saw Ethan’s face, slightly contorted in a grimace. Unable to conceal his bewildered expression, Huey reluctantly released Ethan’s hand.

“You…”

‘No, that wasn’t it. In their earlier conversation, he had reminded himself that he was “merely C-rank.” But how could he ask how Ethan remained so perfectly unreadable when, in reality, his B-rank rendered such trivialities irrelevant? Their previous exchange now prevented him from even attempting a retry.’

He bit his lip. ‘It felt as if he had fallen into his own trap.’

‘The experience of ordinary human-to-human contact, devoid of Psychometry. And his own inability to ask anything, despite enduring such an unforgiving experience.’

He had merely intended to read Ethan, to learn when he had ingested the “new substance” Huey himself had created, but instead, he received a colossal shock.

“What did you read?”

“……Nothing. I couldn’t read anything.”

Maxon visibly relaxed, letting out a deep sigh of relief. Ethan smiled sweetly and selected a dessert from the electronic menu.

“Then, you’ll forget my rudeness from a moment ago, won’t you?”

Since Ethan had asked for his hand as compensation for using Huey in his situation, it was only proper. With his muddled feelings still unresolved, Huey reluctantly replied.

“……Very well.”

Just then, a notification popped up on his tablet, signaling an incoming message. Snapped back to attention, Huey checked the message on his tablet and frowned.

“…Were there other guards when you came here?”

“Yes. But Brother Maxon, being an Esper guard himself, told them they could go ahead and enter near the restaurant.”

‘They must have shaken them off.’

The regular guards assigned to the Viscount Gradis family were Victor Frankl’s informants. Judging by the deluge of messages, Victor had been notified the moment they left the Viscount’s estate.

[Dogs constantly strive to do what their masters want. Not like you, who lacks flexibility. When do you think another day will come when Ethan Prescott wanders around with just a clumsy guard, instead of Bliss Moore? Bring him out now.]

Victor was still lurking near the restaurant, targeting Ethan. Since he was supposed to be in training, he couldn’t wait indefinitely for Ethan in one spot.

Yet.

“Let’s just finish dessert and leave. Shall I order you some coffee?”

It would be dangerous to leave now.

“……Eat more.”

“…”

This time, Ethan was dumbfounded. Maxon burst into laughter, teasing Ethan.

“Aha. It seems Lord Huey Cloud intends to explode you right here.”

“…But I’m paying, and I want to stop eating.”

“From now on, I’m paying.”

As Huey handed over the electronic menu, Maxon quickly took it. It was clear that, as an Esper, he had been mindful of Ethan’s declaration to pay.

“No, if you’re going to treat us, why draw a line? Was the Cloud family always so frugal? So much so that they couldn’t even afford a single visit to a high-end restaurant?”

“To presume to use the Cloud family Lord’s time for over an hour without an appointment, you talk a great deal.”

“……My apologies.”

“Even if you manage to escape this place safely, the entire Procyon Unit will be targeting you all the way back to the Viscount Gradis family estate.”

Ethan and Maxon heard his words, yet they cheerfully selected items from the menu, completely unconcerned.

“It’s fine. We reported it.”

“…Reported?”

Huey looked rather exasperated at Maxon, who was choosing a steak as if starting over. Ethan, too, seemed a bit much, stating he’d have a light fruit salad since he was full.

“The Procyon Unit is tasked with infiltrating the city and pushing all the way to the royal palace. It was sudden, but they ‘deliberately’ incorporated us spontaneously into the training scenario, and the reason was to ‘abduct’ Colonel Bliss Moore’s Guide, the opposing commander.”

“…That’s right.”

Maxon answered in Ethan’s stead, as Ethan had already stuffed his cheeks with pie, after a slight delay.

“In that case, we figured there was no need for us to forcibly exit the scenario. After all, we barely escaped their ‘abduction plan’…”

“Barely?”

Huey clicked his tongue in disbelief, glaring at the sight of “the Guide and his guard who barely escaped abduction” still eating contentedly at a high-end riverside restaurant frequented almost exclusively by nobles.

“Having escaped with such difficulty, we ‘took out the tablet we’d protected until that moment and desperately called for help from our Esper.’ We embellished the scenario a bit. If you wait while finishing your meal, you’ll witness the complete scenario unfold: Antares Unit cars arriving, searching the vicinity, and picking up the Guide who almost got abducted.”

Huey realized that Maxon, as a guard, was just as shameless as Ethan. He sighed and looked out the window, waiting for the cars with the red scorpion mark, just as they had described. With their late meal and additional orders, they were the only ones left in the restaurant. Just as doubt began to creep in, the Antares Unit cars appeared, exactly as Ethan and Maxon had said.

“Only one car.”

“…Pardon?”

“That can’t be!”

“……Surely not.”

Huey mumbled uneasily, then froze stiff as he witnessed his ‘surely not’ become reality. The person who stepped out of the car was Bliss Moore, alone.

“…Th-this is serious… He seems really angry… Ugh!”

“Damn it, cough…!”

Watching Maxon and Huey choke and collapse face-first onto the table, Ethan, his face pale, stared blankly at his own emotionless Esper, who had just unleashed a technique typically used in battlefields, covering a two-kilometer radius around the restaurant, upon all the lurking Espers, without even blinking.

Victor Frankl, who had been hiding nearby, stumbled out, coughing violently. As an S-rank, he showed significantly more movement than the other Procyon Espers. However, Bliss would certainly not let him escape unscathed. He looked like a demon as he mercilessly battered Victor, who was trying to flee, with expert martial arts and combat skills.

Meanwhile, other Antares Unit cars arrived. As the Antares Unit members exited their vehicles, easily rounding up the weakened Procyon Unit members and cuffing them with Ekaneum handcuffs as if harvesting them, Chase tried to restrain Bliss. Observing all this, Ethan looked at the person before him, who was losing consciousness, with eyes full of guilt, and said as pitifully as possible:

‘Putting everything else aside…’

“Um… Officer, shall I offer you my hand again?”

He felt truly sorry for Huey Cloud.

He also felt truly sorry for Maxon, whose energy capacity was so vast that he had only ever worried about filling it, never once experiencing depletion.

Bliss, who had rushed into the restaurant, didn’t even glance at the fallen Maxon and Huey. Instead, he simply picked up the perfectly fine Ethan, who had been eating like a pig, cradled him in his arms, and got into the car.

“Two this time, huh?”

Bliss muttered, as if he had a slight conscience. Ethan nodded vigorously.

‘It seems I’ll need Chilbok’s large lucky pouch once again.’

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