Chapter 6: When Desire Overruled Reason

The matching rate with these Espers on the brink of rampage was fairly high.

That was at least a relief.

Although the exact matching rate could only be known through a precise examination, it felt to Lee Ju-ju as if the matching rate with every Esper here was over 50 percent.

Since this was a situation where Espers, who didn’t even know what a Guide was let alone radiating guiding, were exposed to guiding for a long time, Lee Ju-ju was scared for no reason that some abnormality might occur in their bodies.

Some Espers would have allergic reactions if they received guiding that didn’t suit their bodies, and in severe cases, they would suffer from body aches or vomit.

“Hmm.”

Once he was sure that the Espers had all become lethargic, Lee Ju-ju first examined the eyes of the Colonel who was closest.

Then he raised his hand and touched his forehead to check his temperature.

It wasn’t excessively hot or cold.

As Lee Ju-ju’s hand touched his forehead, the Colonel opened his eyes and looked at Lee Ju-ju.

Ignoring the eyes boiling with fighting spirit, Lee Ju-ju took his hand off the Colonel and turned away.

Similarly, Lee Ju-ju examined the kneeling Espers one by one.

He checked if there were any abnormalities, or if they were showing symptoms of rejecting the guiding by rolling their eyes back and dying.

“That’s a relief.”

He didn’t know whether to say it was a relief that they were fine Espers, or if it was suspicious that all these fine Espers were on the brink of rampage.

Unless someone had gathered Espers who knew nothing of the world and trapped them deep in the mountains, there was no way they wouldn’t know what a Guide was.

He didn’t know which villain or mad scientist did it, but it was a pretty horrible hobby.

If they hadn’t been Espers with superhuman patience to endure the pain of being on the brink of rampage, Lee Ju-ju would have been torn to shreds and disappeared into the Espers’ mouths long ago.

In fact, even now, the Espers were looking at Lee Ju-ju with eyes struggling desperately, as if they wanted to devour him somehow.

Espers are those who sing songs about how it’s never enough no matter how much guiding they receive; if they grew up without receiving that guiding even once and then received it for the first time, they deserved to have eyes like that.

Facing the group of Espers with eyes glistening with possessiveness all by himself, Lee Ju-ju continued his examination resolutely.

“You endured well.”

Since they endured the state of rampage well by pretending to be fine, they were able to endure this kind of violent radiating guiding too.

Lee Ju-ju did not spare his praise and patted the buttocks of the youngest-looking Esper, who had knelt first.

At that, the Esper began to groan, making a bizarre moaning sound.

Lee Ju-ju pretended not to know like an adult that his body was reacting to the guiding.

Originally, when receiving guiding, all the senses of the body become sensitive and aroused.

It is natural for an Esper with a healthy body.

Once he confirmed that the black color was slowly starting to drain from the Espers’ eyes, Lee Ju-ju was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

And he began to stop playing the role of a human sprinkler.

As the radiating guiding that had been vigorously extending from Lee Ju-ju’s body slowly decreased, the Espers who had melted down like liquid here and there lifted their heads.

The sounds of groaning as if they were sick also stopped abruptly.

And what followed was a deep silence.

The Espers, keeping their prone or kneeling postures and only lifting their heads, glared at Lee Ju-ju as if they would eat him alive.

Lee Ju-ju, having used a lot of energy suddenly, looked around at them while hiding his exhaustion.

“You all look at me exactly like demonic beasts.”

It wasn’t even as if they were demonic beasts that would watch a living creature quietly in the darkness upon detecting it and then pounce.

At the accusatory words, the Espers, who looked wary, flinched.

Every single one of them had a face that looked as if they wanted to rush madly at Lee Ju-ju, yet wanted to run away from him forever.

The Colonel’s face was the most spectacular.

Lee Ju-ju saw the traces of conflict deeply revealed on his face.

‘What is he agonizing over?’

However, it was burdensome to think deeply about this situation any longer.

Lee Ju-ju slumped down next to the youngest Esper with a pale face.

The young Esper, who was unexpectedly chosen by Lee Ju-ju, caught him with surprising reflexes, and Lee Ju-ju, who had only intended to sit next to him, blinked at the unexpected situation.

He hadn’t intended to be held in his arms at all, but once he was in the Esper’s warm and soft embrace, his body became drowsy.

‘It’s comfortable to lie down.’

“Private Jason.”

The Colonel warned, but the young Esper chose to keep holding Lee Ju-ju instead of letting him go.

To be precise, he seemed very flustered by the strange phenomenon of his body and head acting separately.

“Colonel, this is, well.”

“I’m tired too, so I should rest; are you going to work forever? I gave you guiding like this, yet I haven’t heard a single thank you.”

Held in the arms of an Esper he was meeting for the first time, Lee Ju-ju, who was limp without lifting a single finger, retorted cheekily instead of being shy.

The wary eyes of the Espers looking at such a Lee Ju-ju softened little by little.

Looking at the suspicious man, whose name was Lee Ju-ju, whining like a child made their hearts flutter.

If one were to gather the comfort and warmth that could only be enjoyed in very early childhood and mold it into the shape of a person, it seemed it would be exactly that man.

Colonel Shan Pei was not the only one who realized that; it was a thought shared by all the Espers half-crumbled in this place.

About half of them recognized this as dangerous, and the other half struggled not to want to consider the man in front of them as dangerous.

The emotions at both extremes would eventually bring about division within the organization, and they would self-destruct.

It was a horrific experience, beyond words.

Colonel Shan Pei tried to keep thinking.

‘That man is a terrible Esper.’

‘He will paralyze our reason and eventually cause us to collapse slowly.’

So…

‘Damn it, why is Private Jason still holding that man?’

“Get away immediately.”

“I don’t want to.”

Lee Ju-ju raised his chin and replied firmly.

Glaring at the man acting like a young child, Colonel Shan Pei struggled to keep alerting himself.

‘That man is a very dangerous and terrible human, perhaps even more dangerous than a demonic beast.’

“What did you say?”

“I said I don’t want to. I used too much power, so I can’t stand up on my own legs.”

“…”

Highly dangerous…

Colonel Shan Pei felt that the vigilance he was struggling to awaken felt rather pathetic.

‘What kind of Guide moves on their own feet in a dungeon, anyway?’

Lee Ju-ju thought carelessly and yawned slowly.

“Then you carry me on your back or something. I’m sleepy…”

“Hey.”

And he drifted off to sleep.

It was about five minutes after the man who introduced himself as a ‘Guide’ closed his eyes.

The Espers gathered at the emergency exit confirmed that this ‘Guide’ had truly fallen fast asleep.

Judging by his chest rising and falling comfortably, his steady breathing, and his lowering body temperature, it was certain that this ‘Guide’ was truly asleep.

Because while breathing, a person’s heart rate could be controlled, body temperature was difficult to fake.

Private Jason felt he should do so for some reason, so he took off his outer jacket and carefully wrapped the ‘Guide’s’ body.

This time, even Colonel Shan Pei did not stop him.

They were silent as if they had made a promise.

To be precise, it was because no one wanted to wake the man from his sleep.

Captain Russell asked in a very quiet voice.

“What do we do now? Colonel.”

Colonel Shan Pei walked over with heavy steps, keeping his mouth shut.

Stopping in front of Private Jason, he closely examined the man called ‘Guide’ held in the young man’s arms.

This man, who had acted like a child the entire time and then fell asleep inside a Gate, looked harmless at a glance but was undoubtedly an Esper of great ability.

From the moment he looked back at him in the first place, he could have pulled the trigger to kill this man without hesitation.

He definitely intended to do so.

The problem lay in the fact that Colonel Shan Pei hesitated as if his own body were not his own.

That wasn’t even the ability of the man called ‘Guide.’

What prevented him from killing this man was solely Colonel Shan, his own instinct.

Colonel Shan Pei wore an unreadable expression as he confirmed that the monster, which had swelled up near his heart for a long time to devour him, had shrunk small like it once was when it was a child.

The noise-filled vision and the dizzying, distorted speed vanished as if they had never existed.

Above all, the dark and miserable thoughts of wanting to explode all the nearby living creatures and even kill himself at any moment had disappeared.

Lifting his eyes to look at the other squad members, he felt that they were looking at Colonel Shan Pei with faces filled with desperate pleas.

He couldn’t not know.

The squad members could see each other’s eyes, after all.

The pitch-black color of death, approaching with each passing moment, was blurred.

“Do we report to headquarters?”

“No.”

The answer was immediate.

At that, the shoulders of the Espers, which had been extremely tense, relaxed softly.

“Then, are we taking him?”

Unable to hide the face that said he desperately hoped so, Captain Russell asked.

Colonel Shan Pei could not pretend not to know those hearts.

Even he himself felt the same.

How, and for how long, could he ignore this feeling of wanting to hold that suspicious-looking man in his arms and run blindly to a place no one knew?

Every cell in his body desperately wanted that man.

They would likely never forget the thing called ‘guiding’ they had tasted once until they died.

“Yes.”

Colonel Shan Pei knelt before his desire for the first time.

And he stared piercingly at the delicate face of the ‘Guide.’

As if he would never forget it.

“We are taking him.”

None of the Espers gathered here could lift a single finger against this man called ‘Guide.’

If he was someone they could not eliminate, it was wiser to take him and hide him away thoroughly.