Chapter 38: The Lunatic Who Realized Too Late That His Guide Had Been Sitting Right Next to a Human-Type Monster

“No! It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it.” Ki-jun glanced around nervously, as if he’d said something he shouldn’t have. His huge eyes darted everywhere—it was all visible. How could someone’s inner thoughts be this transparent? He clearly looked like an adult, yet everything he did felt like a child.

He can’t even lie properly…

The mood felt like he’d answer anything right now. Lee Chae swallowed hard and carefully asked,

“Ki-jun-ssi, do you know how I got here?”

“Our house?”

Lee Chae nodded.

“The shadows left, so hyung brought you!”

“…The shadows brought me?”

“No! The shadows disappeared, so hyung carried you!”

So Yeo-jun brought him here while the shadows were gone. That part he already knew. He probably wasn’t fluent in Korean, so more specific questions were needed.

“That’s not what I meant. We could’ve gone to the hospital—why here?”

“Ah, h-hospital… um… oh right! Hospitals were packed, couldn’t go. So he brought you home first! Couldn’t leave you on the street!”

“You’re sure he didn’t bring me here on purpose?”

“No! Why would you say that? W-well… hospital was full, so… wait, no! That’s not—! There were too many people at the hospital! Why do you keep asking the same thing?”

Ki-jun flailed, spouting nonsense. His face looked like he didn’t even know what he was saying. Watching him only confirmed that the weird feeling Lee Chae had wasn’t imagination.

“Why? What’s wrong with that? If a friend collapses, you can bring them home.”

“That’s… uh… right! He’s kind, so he brought his collapsed friend home. Y-Yeo-jun is nice!”

“You just said I was kind. Is Yeo-jun hyung kind too?”

“Huh?”

He looked shocked, as if that was the strangest question ever.

“Y-Yeo-jun is different from you…”

He started, then—HIEEK—froze mid-sentence.

“Why’d you stop? What were you going to say?”

“N-no, can’t say that.”

Ki-jun shook his head, terrified. They hadn’t known each other long, but Lee Chae was certain: this guy was terrible at lying. If he was this scared to talk, getting more information was impossible.

“If you don’t want to say it, that’s fine. Just do me one favor.”

He turned, eyes round with curiosity.

“Favor?”

“My phone disappeared—do you know where it is?”

“Ph-phone?”

“Yeah. I need to contact my parents.”

“Parents?”

“Mom and dad! You don’t know?”

Repeating the same thing was infuriating. But then Lee Chae remembered—Yeo-jun had once mentioned his parents were gone. Saying it like that was incredibly rude.

“…If I said something wrong, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. My parents will be worried. They’ll know about the attack and might think I’m dead.”

Ki-jun’s lips drooped sadly.

“I-I really don’t know where the phone is… I don’t know anything… sorry.”

Yeo-jun gripped the phone so hard it creaked, brows furrowed. The voice on the other end had just ordered him to kill Jung Lee Chae—the only guide who could fully control Cha Haejin, a potential threat to their entire species.

But Yeo-jun had no intention of killing him.

Not out of pity. He felt no sympathy for humans. Jung Lee Chae was the only bait that could restrain Cha Haejin. Killing him would be a waste.

Yet Kelvetero, the shadow captain, was threatening to send waves of shadows if Yeo-jun didn’t kill Lee Chae immediately.

“I’m grateful for your help. But can you really handle the consequences? What if Lord Cyclops finds out?”

Silence. They knew challenging Cyclops—who had both power and intelligence—was suicide. Yeo-jun pressed the sore spot while pretending to back down.

“If you can handle it, I’ll obey. Even if it starts a war, our side won’t lose.”

Click. The call ended without a word. Kelvetero, leader of the formless shadows, was no match for Yeo-jun—right-hand of Cyclops, leader of the humanoid types.

Just a minor annoyance.

Compared to the number of enemies, the battle ended pathetically easily. Espers who had rushed in expecting a massive fight stared dumbfounded as the shadows retreated. It was so stupid it felt like their intelligence had dropped instead of risen.

No gate had opened, no attack warning—completely defenseless. Even with terrifying espers on their side, a determined assault could’ve caused serious damage.

Yet they did nothing and left… Haejin shook his head and asked Jae-hyung,

“Anything?”

“Nothing. It was weird from start to finish—I don’t even know what I was supposed to feel.”

“What does that mean?”

“Think about it. Shadows communicating with a scout-type is already bizarre, and the whole point was to bring you here? But they didn’t even attack… This is too strange…”

Listening to Jae-hyung, Haejin suddenly grabbed Jin-woo’s arm.

“Hey. What if this was a diversion?”

Jin-woo’s eyes widened. There had been a similar battle before. Jin-woo recalled it out loud.

“That time… the target was a guide at headquarters. They pretended to attack HQ, lured every S-rank into the city center… Wait—”

Every esper present dropped to the ground in despair. Most were imprinted; their guides were their lives. Someone might have been kidnapped.

But losing morale mid-battle was suicide. Haejin shouted at the collapsed espers,

“Do you have time to sit there? If you’re imprinted, you can see their location, right? Check now! Our scouts will sweep the school—”

The stunned espers focused, searching for their guides.

Soon reports came in.

“It was a diversion, but my guide is fine—location shows headquarters.”

“Same here. In a lecture hall. No threat detected.”

It looked like a diversion, but no one was taken… Jin-woo, finding it suspicious, yelled,

“S-rank guides—are you all safe?”

“Yes, no issues.”

“Seems fine.”

Haejin cursed and jumped into the car. Diversion confirmed, S-rank guides safe, only he was specifically named—everything felt off.

“Should’ve just imprinted already. At least I’d know where he is!”

Jin-woo and Jae-hyung caught on and followed.

“You don’t even know where he is!”

“I got complacent. That guide who was always with Lee Chae… I think it’s a humanoid-type monster.”

“Human-type? Not beast-type?”

Jae-hyung trembled in horror.

“N-no way. I checked earlier—they were guiding together…”

“If a humanoid decides to hide, they can do anything.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. If a human-type possessed someone, you would’ve felt the energy.”

Haejin’s face was grave.

“Not possession. The actual body.”

“No way…”

“No…”

The three couldn’t close their mouths from shock.

Human-type monsters mainly used possession and illusion. Until now, every sighting had been through possessed humans. They were so cunning that the truth was only discovered after massive losses—making them the species that caused the most damage to humans.

Jin-woo muttered, regaining his senses,

“Before, human-types only used illusions. They mutated to possess humans, so the main body never had to appear. But a perfect human-looking main body showing up…”

The main body had never revealed itself before. If it did now, there was a clear purpose.

And that purpose had to be Jung Lee Chae.

The bigger problem: if the main body decided to hide, they had no way to find it.

“F*ck! Conditional contract or not—I should’ve just taken him!”