Chapter 16: Let Yourself Be Caught

“Why did you say that, Sergeant Michael?”

“It’s time to let yourself be caught, Colonel.”

“…”

“Honestly, how long do you plan on running away? Captain Russell looks exhausted enough as it is. Let’s end it here.”

“I haven’t been running.”

“Then should I say you got cold feet and tucked your tail between your legs?”

With a heavy thud, Michael’s body was slammed hard against the wall.

Colonel Shan Pei was the kind of outstanding superior who might appear only once in a millennium, but he never tolerated challenges to his authority. He hadn’t even moved a finger, yet it was obvious he was holding back.

Michael had deliberately provoked him, but that didn’t make the blow any less humiliating. A barrier had already been spread across his back, yet the shockwave still rippled through him.

“Sergeant Michael. Watch your mouth.”

“Ghk-damn it. You know it too, Colonel. Our company can’t function without a guide anymore.”

“…”

“Juju-nim is practically hope itself. A guarantee that we can grow old and die like ordinary people. What will you do if the anxiety caused by your refusal to receive guiding makes him leave the company altogether? You can’t exactly detain him by force, can you?”

“…”

“For now, we’re lucky enough to have him exclusively, but it’s only a matter of time before other espers notice his existence. And that’s a problem. When that happens, we could lose him.”

“…There’s no unit stronger than ours. Anyone who tries wouldn’t value their life.”

“Fine, let’s say we don’t lose him. Then what if Juju-nim decides he wants to go somewhere else?”

“…”

A grinding sound escaped the colonel’s lips.

“We have to do something. A contract, confinement- anything! Or at least win his heart, Colonel!”

Sergeant Michael shouted, his voice thick with desperation.

****

‘Somehow, I have to lure the colonel out.’

Juju walked around asking every soldier he met where the open ground behind the base was, then suddenly let out a deep sigh.

A breeze carrying the scent of autumn brushed past the tips of his softly curling hair. He’d fallen through the gate around August, and now it was already September. In that time, he’d done everything he could to adapt, to survive, to guide espers on the brink of rampage with all his strength.

And yet.

The problem was…

If Colonel Shan Pei decided to cast Juju aside, all that effort would come to nothing.

‘If he says he doesn’t need guiding anymore and tells me to get lost…’

Juju, a guide no different from an ordinary civilian, would truly have nowhere to stand. In this harsh, unfamiliar world, he might end up working twelve-hour days just to scrape by.

If word got out that he could guide, he might be kidnapped somewhere and drained of guiding until death, living the life of a machine guide, neither fully alive nor dead.

That was how guides were treated in the distant past, according to rumor. Even in the modern age, where the rights of guides and espers had risen dramatically, guide abductions were still not uncommon. For as long as he stayed here, it would be best to keep his status as a guide secret.

Colonel Shan didn’t seem like the type to suddenly tell him to leave, but who knew how the world might turn?

Another guide might appear out of nowhere. And if that happened, Juju would have to increase his own value somehow to preserve the comfortable, safe life he had now.

If Colonel Shan were to fall head over heels for him, that would be ideal.

Then the colonel, driven by possessiveness, would hide Juju away and devote himself to him, dramatically lowering the difficulty of adapting to this world. They wouldn’t even need to become lovers, they could be good partners.

Espers and guides were meant to be that way. Having Colonel Shan as a superior wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.

The problem arose if Colonel Shan didn’t want Juju.

Even so, seeking out another esper was far too dangerous.

In an era without guides, expecting an esper who treated a guide who’d fallen into this world out of nowhere as a human being was naïvely optimistic.

Opportunities had to be seized when they appeared. That was why Juju had proposed and signed a contract first, why he’d been unfailingly polite, addressing Shan as “Colonel” and carefully reading his mood.

And yet, Colonel Shan avoided him.

Why?

Why?!

In any case, just as Michael had said, the colonel was at the open ground behind the base.

‘How was I supposed to know there was an open space here if no one told me?’

Why he’d bothered searching the entire base, he didn’t know. Shaking off a brief bout of self-loathing, Juju muttered to himself and fastened his clothes more tightly. Dust-laden wind began to whip violently across the clearing.

When Juju appeared, the soldiers training in the open ground all turned to look at him and greeted him casually. A few even came right up to ask why he was there, but Juju waved them off with a nod or a shake of his head, sending them back to their original positions.

Colonel Shan Pei did not acknowledge Juju’s presence at all.

“Colonel Shan.”

Only when Juju called him out directly did Shan Pei turn his head and look at him, as if he had no choice.

The reluctance on his face made a surge of unfair resentment rise up in Juju’s chest, but for the sake of his goal, he began to self-hypnotize.

‘It’s fine. I’m a mature guide. Espers on the verge of rampage are mentally unstable, so I should be the adult here.’

“What is it?”

The same man who had worried a month ago about whether guiding was too hard on him now spoke coldly enough to sting. Still, Juju couldn’t give up, couldn’t very well abandon this just because he felt hurt.

“You should keep your promises.”

“Promises?”

Colonel Shan asked back with a frown.

Just that slight change in expression made the air turn icy. Juju almost hesitated, but forced himself to steady his nerves. He’d come this far, now was the time to be shameless if he wanted to get anything out of it.

“You said you’d help the members of the company receive guiding. You said it yourself. But if you don’t receive guiding first, what kind of example is that?”

“…”

“As their superior, you should set one.”

At the mention that the colonel wasn’t receiving guiding, the soldiers who had been training began exchanging glances.

Whether he had nothing to say or was simply dumbfounded, Shan Pei remained silent, facing Juju. He looked like someone who had just heard something he’d never expected.

“I’ll assume you were just too busy to find the time. I happen to be on vacation lately, so I’m free. How about some guiding?”

“…Didn’t I receive it at the gate? For quite a long time, too. I’m fine.”

“What?”

Juju’s mouth fell open.

Having finally spoken, the colonel glanced at Juju briefly before looking away again.

The colonel was blatantly dodging the issue.

Should he be pleased by this very human reaction, or angry that the man had knowingly avoided coming for guiding? He couldn’t tell.

To call emergency, radiative guiding, nothing more than a stopgap to prevent rampage, “having received guiding” was honestly upsetting.

Dropping his eyebrows slightly, Juju spoke in a coaxing tone.

“But radiative guiding isn’t real guiding.”

“I received real guiding as well.”

So dumbfounded he couldn’t help it, Juju stared at the colonel.

‘Was he always this brazen of a liar?’

The colonel’s eyes were unnervingly clear.

It felt as though, in response to Juju’s shamelessness, the colonel was matching him in kind.

“You don’t remember, I see.”

‘Is that true?’

Juju searched his memory with a doubtful expression.

Ah.

He had panicked at the sight of the colonel’s eyes on the brink of rampage and declared he would perform contact guiding. Like ink bleeding through paper, the memories of that day slowly resurfaced. The sensation of swallowing something like frozen blood down his throat was unforgettable.

Come to think of it, that had been the colonel’s first guiding.

If a guide retched during an esper’s first guiding, there was no way it could leave a good impression. Especially when the esper themselves felt as though they were flying through the sky, seeing the guide in pain would naturally make them feel like a terrible sinner.

Of course, the colonel was an unfortunate esper who had lived in a world without guides. It wasn’t his fault that he’d gone so long without receiving guiding, right up to the brink of rampage.

Juju hadn’t considered that part before…

Fidgeting, he grew embarrassed and, after gauging the colonel’s expression, cleared his throat.

“That one didn’t count. We didn’t even finish it properly.”

Whenever Juju felt guilty, he had a habit of unconsciously starting radiative guiding.

Espers who sensed it began gathering around the colonel. In turn, the colonel looked down at Juju with a slightly more relaxed expression.

He was so tall that maintaining eye contact made the back of Juju’s neck gradually start to ache.