Chapter 31: Two Espers, One Guide

He seemed to have taken the act of Guiding as praise.

That wasn’t what it meant at all, it was meant to calm him down and make him release Sierra….

Seeing Sierra’s face turn visibly pale, Lee Juju hurriedly shook his head.

“That’s not it. I wanted to ask whether Sierra could be accepted into the company. Sierra- well, um… could she become a soldier, like you, Colonel? Or if not a soldier, could she sign a free contract like I did?”

“Espers cannot enter free contracts. If they do not become soldiers, they are subject to termination.”

“But-!”

At the word killed, Lee Juju’s face drained of color, and the colonel’s brows knit together.

“Sierra is my friend.”

“I believe I just heard that she tried to kidnap you.”

“We became friends. Please don’t kill her.”

He knew, rationally, how childish it sounded to say don’t kill her because she’s my friend.

But the long, carefully planned explanation flew straight out of his head.

If he hesitated even a little, it felt like Sierra would really die.

When Lee Juju grabbed the colonel’s hand and shook it, the colonel released Sierra with visible reluctance.

The moment she was free, Sierra, who had been on the verge of suffocating, sprang upright and expanded her shadow.

“Sierra!”

“Master, come here! That bastard is insane!”

“…”

For a brief moment, Sierra’s voice from the previous night, saying he liked hearing people scream, flashed through Lee Juju’s mind.

‘As if you’ve been normal for that long yourself…’

Lee Juju let out a small sigh and rubbed between his brows.

Sierra and Colonel Shan’s gazes snapped to Lee Juju at the same time, then returned to glaring at each other.

He’d tried to stop the colonel from attacking Sierra, only for the situation to reverse so that Sierra now looked ready to attack the colonel.

His head felt like it was going to split.

“Can’t you both just listen to me for a second?”

The headache seeped naturally into his tone, making it sharper than usual.

“The colonel stopped, right, Sierra? Then you need to behave too. It’s true that you tried to kidnap me. And the colonel is the person in charge of this base. You need his approval to stay here.”

Colonel Shan’s face hardened frighteningly, he hadn’t expected Lee Juju to intend to keep Sierra on the base.

But Lee Juju wasn’t looking at him, so he didn’t notice.

Only Sierra, standing face-to-face with the colonel, caught the flash of hostility in his eyes.

Hah.

Of course.

Anyone would want to monopolize their master.

Sierra’s eyes glittered unnaturally brightly.

“Sierra can take care of you too, Master.”

“I can take responsibility.”

Sierra tried to move closer to Lee Juju, her face desperate.

But with a dull thump, she was shoved backward, unable to advance any further.

Her face twisted instantly.

“No, Sierra.”

“I- Is Sierra not enough?”

With tear-filled eyes, Sierra pounded on the invisible wall of air the colonel had erected.

“Master, isn’t Sierra enough? I’ll do well. Let’s leave this place that keeps hurting you and be alone together, just the two of us. Please?”

There was a heavy, pleading force in Sierra’s voice.

She kept crying out, desperately.

For her master, Sierra could do anything.

…And she truly meant it.

But Colonel Shan Pei couldn’t be that honest.

He had subordinates he had to choose instead of Lee Juju.

Men who belonged to the Ghost Company for his sake alone, subordinates as close as blood relatives.

Something inside the colonel burned sharply.

What boiled up wasn’t anger, but inferiority.

He had never once wanted to abandon his men.

‘Who do you think you are, making me feel this miserable?’

Killing intent surfaced on Colonel Shan Pei’s face.

He wanted to tear Sierra, pleading through tears, pink hair swaying, into tens of thousands of pieces.

No, he wanted to fold space itself and crush her beneath it, erasing her without leaving a trace.

Destructive urges he hadn’t felt since a mistake in his childhood surged like a tidal wave.

“No.”

Lee Juju’s firm voice cut cleanly between Colonel Shan Pei and Sierra.

Sierra’s tear-bright face drooped.

And the colonel, caught between jealousy and inferiority, finally regained his senses.

Looking at the red-stained eyes of Colonel Shan Pei, Lee Juju let out a deep sigh inwardly.

He’d thought it would be easier.

That wasn’t Lee Juju’s fault.

No, strictly speaking, it was his fault.

When espers fixated on the same guide were put together, things inevitably went to ruin.

There was even a saying that if you spotted two espers circling a guide, you should get out of there immediately.

But that logic hadn’t applied here.

Discipline and hierarchy were so strict that no one dared challenge Colonel Shan.

And the cohesion of the group was so strong that no one had tried to break away just to monopolize Lee Juju.

He’d thought including Sierra in the company would make him easier to manage…

“If you can’t stay here, then you’ll have to leave on your own, Sierra.”

Colonel Shan Pei could still feel Lee Juju’s hand resting over the back of his own, and the Guiding flowing from that touch.

His chest, which had felt violently churned up, slowly began to settle, as if nothing had happened.

In contrast, Sierra’s body began to tremble violently.

Without Guiding, she couldn’t live.

Never, never, never….

“M-Master. Sierra was wrong. I’ll behave. I’ll be good…”

“Colonel.”

“…”

Colonel Shan looked at Lee Juju.

Sierra’s act of appearing weak to stir Lee Juju’s sympathy was likely just an esper’s instinct to monopolize a guide.

The colonel’s impulse to kill Sierra, and his inability to do so in front of Lee Juju, both stemmed from the same desire: not wanting to be hated by his guide.

So then….

“Will you accept her?”

The colonel’s face remained unreadable, but Lee Juju understood the espers present better than anyone.

The colonel would accept.

“…I will.”

Lee Juju let out a relieved sigh.

****

Sierra was assigned a room in a newly expanded building.

The completed structure stood five kilometers away from the main facilities.

Captain Russell offered a brief explanation.

“Lieutenant Colonel Miles’ unit will not be fully absorbed into our company. From the rank of major onward, officers are meant to command their own units. Therefore, a certain amount of distance is necessary to distinguish independent forces.”

Sierra puffed her lips slightly in dissatisfaction, but surprisingly didn’t argue.

For Lee Juju, who had been worried Sierra might cause trouble, that was a relief.

Sierra quickly blended into the company and began to settle in as one of its members.

When word spread that the new recruit was a woman with an unusual appearance, curiosity followed, but in the process, it became clear that Sierra’s personality was less difficult than expected.

Watching Sierra, who had survived by rolling around back alleys, gradually socialize after initially keeping his guard up was deeply satisfying.

It was also remarkable that after receiving Guiding several times, Sierra stopped clinging anxiously to Lee Juju whenever she saw him and began treating him like any ordinary person.

Sierra wasn’t the only one beginning to grow independent from Lee Juju.

The other espers were the same.

Once people filled one emptiness, they naturally sought another or chased a new desire.

After receiving sufficient Guiding, espers always took on new expressions.

If espers fell in love every time they were guided, things like matching rates or imprinting wouldn’t even exist.

Still, when the gazes that followed him everywhere disappeared, and the faces that flushed whenever their eyes met were gone, the sense of strangeness was unavoidable.

Lee Juju wasn’t a guide who needed constant attention from every esper, but he had grown used to it over the past month.

There had been many cute squad members, and more than anything…

They weren’t skilled enough to smoothly change their attitude the way espers in the old world did, those who maintained good reputations among guides because they never knew when or with whom they might imprint.

Lee Juju hadn’t wanted a flirtatious esper who showered every guide with charm, but still.