Chapter 60: Unexpected Encounters by the Riverbank

After punishing the whining and brazen thieving gwi, the rest of the date proceeded relatively smoothly. The remaining gwi seemed to understand that discretion was the better part of valor. They kept their already deceased forms well out of sight.

“Ethan, are you truly alright? You don’t have to come to a place like this…”

Liam and Kyle surveyed their surroundings with uneasy expressions. The lights of the restaurants lining the riverbank shimmered beautifully.

However, their current location was a riverside park, bustling with makeshift eateries that only opened at night. Despite the lingering chill, sturdy windbreaks made of prefabricated cubes shielded the seating areas, offering a reasonably enjoyable experience at an affordable price.

“I’m fine,” Ethan said, “but it seems the others aren’t.”

The tables around them, conspicuously empty, clearly demonstrated how out of place Ethan and his companions were.

“What if someone, drinking next to a person who clearly looks like a noble, lets slip some drunken insult against the country?” Kyle muttered, gesturing subtly to his side.

‘Ah.’

Ethan suddenly understood, turning his head towards Bliss. Liam and Kyle’s attempts to appear casually rugged, as if simply enjoying beer, were utterly shattered by Bliss’s presence.

Sitting upright and dignified on an uncomfortable folding chair, completely oblivious to the stares, Bliss meticulously cut the freshly served ‘sundae’ with a disposable knife. It was as if they were dining in a high-class restaurant.

“Let’s just eat this and go,” Ethan said. “We have to come to places like this if we want to buy plenty of cooked pork liver…”

Of course, raw liver was good too, but if he bought that much raw liver, everyone would be horrified.

Liam and Kyle clicked their tongues inwardly. They seemed to genuinely believe that Bliss’s incongruously aristocratic demeanor was the sole cause of this bizarre scene. Yet, Ethan, speaking as if discussing someone else, meticulously separated charcoal-grilled chicken wings with a disposable knife and fork, looking no less out of place himself.

Just as Liam and Kyle let out long sighs, the owner of the makeshift stall rushed out, having finished cooking.

“Here’s your liver!”

Liam, reaching out to take the box the owner carried, suddenly froze.

“Liam, what’s wrong?” Kyle asked in confusion, having just paid.

Liam shook his head. “No, I just thought I saw something…”

‘Like a child’s hand. That’s what it was.’

“What?”

As Kyle turned to get a closer look, Bliss, who had by then elegantly finished the blood sausage, extended a hand.

“Allow me to carry the box.”

Liam, taken aback yet swayed by Bliss’s firm demeanor, handed over the box, not even noticing it was already empty and light. Bliss calmly took the box, then called out to Ethan, who had turned towards the riverbank to summon the ‘bastard gwi’ that was playing with the water gwi.

“Ethan.”

“Oh.”

Kyle, standing a short distance from Ethan, shivered as a sudden cold wind swept through. *Whoosh*—his hair momentarily lifted and settled, stirred by the wind Ilwol had created.

“Ah, is the windbreak not properly set up somewhere?” Kyle grumbled, moving to stand behind Ethan.

“Shouldn’t you have a proper meal?” Liam urged, still looking dazed as he stared at the hand that had received the box. “Since we didn’t stop at the confectionery, we can make it to the restaurant reservation on time…”

*CRASH!*

His words were cut short. A loud commotion erupted from a table at another stall a short distance away.

“Let go of me!”

The wrist of a man, who appeared to be with two women, was gripped by another drunken man. As the two women, who had come for a drink with him, cried out, people nearby began to gather.

“You’re my Guide! I finally found you!”

Ethan and Bliss’s eyes widened. Kyle and Liam also flinched, taking a step forward, realizing the man whose wrist was seized was a Guide.

The Esper, trembling with a desperate expression as if he would never let go, already had hazy eyes and was highly agitated just from grabbing the man.

‘Could it be…’

‘Are we witnessing a 70% match rate, where guiding occurs just from a handshake?’

“Good heavens, I can’t believe my eyes,” one of them murmured.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a case like this, other than with Ethan,” another added.

Although no precise tests had been conducted, they were already convinced Ethan was a 70% match Guide. Ethan, for his part, was so caught up in the mild excitement of witnessing such a connection for the first time that he gave up on questioning it. Liam and Kyle’s voices were full of interest, but the Guide whose hand was held wore a very grim expression.

“I’m a Guide affiliated with the Center!” the Guide exclaimed. “My request for a female Esper match has already been registered!”

“W-what are you talking about? I’m an Esper registered with the Center too!” the other man retorted.

“I can’t stand to be intimate with a man!”

‘Oh, dear.’

Liam and Kyle let out sympathetic sighs.

“It was a ‘phobia’, then,” Bliss noted.

“A phobia?” Ethan asked, looking at him.

Seeing Ethan question him, Bliss extended a hand and beckoned. Though his face crumpled at the Esper’s brazen gesture for Ethan to come into his arms, Bliss nonetheless succeeded in wrapping his arm around Ethan’s waist, letting out a faint smile.

“It happens occasionally,” Liam explained, stepping in to finish the explanation for his superior, who was slyly attempting to nuzzle Ethan’s neck, satisfied with having him embraced. “While public perception of same-s*x marriage has generally improved, there are still quite a few cases where sexual identity leans strongly in one direction due to family matters or various other reasons. If a Guide has a phobia, the Center wouldn’t even list male Espers as testing candidates.”

Liam, having finished the explanation, cast a somewhat bitter gaze at the standoff. “Cases like that are truly unfortunate… huh?”

Unlike Ethan’s group, who were a short distance from the altercation, the movements of the surrounding onlookers had frozen.

“What’s going on?!”

“It’s an Esper!”

“Someone call the security forces!”

People attempting to move cried out in panicked voices. Those outside the Esper’s field quickly pulled out their tablets to make contact.

“So, a Bind-type ability user,” Bliss murmured.

As Bliss murmured, Kyle took a step forward. “Shouldn’t we help?”

It was then. The murmurs of panic transformed into screams of terror.

“Aargh!”

“Ah! Help me!”

As the onlookers scattered instantly, what was clearly revealed was a massive wolf. Bliss furrowed his brow.

“An Esper with Summoner abilities? This could be a problem…”

Just as Liam moved forward with a frantic voice, Ethan shook his head.

“It’s not a Summoner.”

“Pardon?”

If it were a Summoner, the gwi would not be silent. Moreover, it was a beast, yet even Ilwol, who had just finished playing, remained quiet.

“If it were a Summoner, that summoned beast would surely perform physical acts… huh?”

Suddenly, Ilwol’s growl, previously imperceptible, was heard. It was strange. Could that man truly possess Summoner abilities?

“A real Summoner is coming, then.”

Bliss’s arm, still embracing Ethan, tightened. Ethan, lifting his head with a curious expression towards Bliss, saw that he, along with Liam and Kyle, was staring intently at a single spot.

*Woof! Woof woof! Woof!*

Barks, slightly different in tone from Ilwol’s, grew steadily closer. From the overlapping sounds, it was clear there wasn’t just one. Ilwol’s growl resonated in Ethan’s chest, and he widened his eyes.

*Woof, GRRR!*

Five or six enormous, fully corporeal dogs surged forward, as if pouring down upon the bound individuals and the Esper.

“U-Ugh!”

“Ack!”

The bound people screamed and fell as the restraint broke, and the dogs leaped over them, biting at the Esper’s limbs.

“C-c-cgh!”

The Esper’s hand, gripping the Guide, was forcibly torn away, and his movements, as he tried to flail at the dogs, instantly became incredibly sluggish.

“…Victor Frankl.”

Bliss’s low voice was heard, and simultaneously, Ethan’s eyes met the bared fangs of a wild dog, Mark.

“I never expected to see you here, Colonel Bliss.”

Ethan instinctively recoiled into Bliss’s tight embrace. A man with a fierce, intimidating aura, his black, mane-like hair billowing, was now scrutinizing him.

“I didn’t expect the leader of the Procyon Unit to get directly involved in such matters. You must be busy, having only recently been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.”

“My promotion was a bit delayed, being a commoner,” Victor Frankl replied. “Perhaps that’s why the work I’ve done with my own hands for so long sometimes suits me better. I often go on inspections.”

Bliss’s face registered displeasure as Victor Frankl’s dark eyes remained fixed on Ethan, even as he spoke.

“That Esper will surely die if this continues. Finish what you were doing.”

Around him, droplets of water began to gather. Only then did Victor’s gaze, finally leaving Ethan, sweep across the river. It would be difficult to defeat Bliss in a place with so much water.

*Snap!*

With a light sigh of resignation, he playfully snapped his fingers. The Esper, who had been writhing grotesquely and being torn at by the dogs, gasped and screamed.

“Aaaah! I finally found him! My… C-c-cgh!”

*Gasp*

Ethan gasped in surprise. Victor, who had been standing directly in front, moved with astonishing speed, seizing the Esper’s neck.

“That’s Accelerate, a speed-type ability. The one that made that Esper’s movements pathetically slow just now was Reduction, a deceleration ability.”

Liam and Kyle, who had been tense behind Ethan, ready to confront Victor at any moment, let out long breaths. At Liam’s somewhat somber explanation, Ethan tightened his grip on Bliss’s hand, feeling a surge of tension.

“Then that person is an Esper with Movement Control.”

Movement Control was the ability to freely apply acceleration and deceleration to oneself and others. Like Bliss’s Psychic Silence, it was an ability only Espers of S-rank or higher in the Movement category could attempt. Furthermore, no Esper in the current Empire could wield it as freely as Victor Frankl. On top of that, his secondary manifestation ability was Summoner.

Liam and Kyle inadvertently glanced at Ethan’s thoughtful face. Even Bliss was watching him, but Ethan, observing Victor Frankl’s rough handling of the Esper and the Guide’s companions seemingly arguing with the security forces who had just arrived, did not notice their gazes.

Esper abilities and ranks were generally publicized in a favorable light for promotional purposes, as they could incite fear among ordinary citizens. Yet, from Ethan’s lips, often flowed details that even nobles with many Espers in their families struggled to remember, regardless of whether it concerned an Esper or a Guide.

“He’s Devon Green’s Esper, possessing the strongest physical abilities,” Bliss replied, resting his chin on Ethan’s head.

‘Are you truly an amnesiac?’

Seeing his clever Guide flinch shyly at their close proximity, his ears faintly reddening, Bliss subtly bit them with his lips.

“Ngh!”

His clever Guide understood two or three things when given one. If Ethan, a multi-Guide, were to try to leave him or become a matched Guide for another Esper, the personal desire to persuade him, even with tears, by citing the dangers of knowing important information, was now becoming a critical situation that had to be prevented at all costs.

“Even that is nullified by my Psychic Silence right now. It’s alright.”

“Bliss, are you showing off right now?”

To his Guide, who sent him a slightly incredulous look, he smiled faintly and feigned weakness.

“No. Without you, I would surely die.”

‘As long as I have you, it’s fine.’

Seeing the sympathetic eyes immediately soften, he reached out and encased Ethan’s hand in his own. Though a shield prevented guiding, there was a warmth that stirred tender feelings.

“Shall we go?”

After all, he had no intention of ever letting go.