TGIC Ch 50

Chapter 50

Vasily continued to remain out of contact, and even through Jo Wooyeon’s acquaintance, I was unable to hear any updates about him.

Well, it’s not like Vasily would openly broadcast his whereabouts anyway.

The real issue… is that he hasn’t been showing up at the gates either. Normally, there’d be at least one or two articles mentioning his participation in raids, but ever since that last gate we went to together, everything disappeared.

There hasn’t been any incident tied to him, like the association’s water pipes freezing again, so I’d like to believe nothing serious has happened. But I know his personality better than anyone. He’s probably gotten himself into some major trouble again and is doing what he always does—muzzling the press.

Meanwhile, while looking for a new place to live, I decided to move out of the city entirely. Since things are over, I might as well settle it cleanly and ensure we never cross paths again.

They say they provide official housing if you relocate to a regional branch. For someone like me, with nowhere to go after moving out of Vasily’s place, that sounded ideal.

Once I made up my mind, I scheduled a meeting with the team leader and immediately submitted a transfer request to Sejong. Over the next six years, Sejong would be the region with the fewest incidents. I suppose this is what you’d call the privilege of someone who knows the future.

Moving out of Seoul should also reduce my workload. I plan to live a laid-back life until Vasily finally leaves Korea. Although the ending was rough… I won’t forget the 400 million won you gave me.

It would only be polite to inform Vasily of the transfer. I already had a gate assignment scheduled, so I used the opportunity to contact him.

[I’m being dispatched to a gate tomorrow.]

And… one more.

[Also, I’ll be transferring to a regional association soon. Thank you for everything up until now.]

…That should suffice.

At last, it feels like everything is truly over.

I was inside a gate.

Surrounded by monsters, moments away from death. Vasily stood at a distance, watching me with cold eyes, offering no help at all. Just as the sharp claws closed in on me—

“Gasp…!”

I woke up from the dream.

Panting heavily, I looked around. This wasn’t the inside of a gate, there were no monsters encircling me, and Vasily was nowhere in sight. It was just an ordinary dawn.

“…So it was a dream.”

I brushed a hand over my face to calm my startled heart.

I hadn’t had a nightmare in a while, so I wasn’t sure why I had one now. Maybe it was because Vasily had left me feeling unsettled.

It was still the early hours of the morning, the sky barely lit. It felt too early to be awake, but thanks to that unsettling nightmare, I couldn’t go back to sleep. In the end, I got up and began preparing to depart for the gate.

Today’s gate was a routine one. Low-level, and the estimated time for completion was just about a day. The issue was Vasily—though I had sent him a message yesterday saying I was headed to a gate, I didn’t know if he’d actually show up. Did he even check my message in the first place?

As soon as I got out of the association vehicle, I scanned the area.

“Of course he’s not here.”

There was no sign of Vasily at the gate site.

Now, it truly feels like it’s all over. Six years of hell finally ending like this… It’s bittersweet, but my heart still feels strangely empty.

It was even hotter today, without the ice pillars Vasily used to make. I was fanning myself with a sheet listing the standard safety protocols when several guides approached and struck up conversation.

“You didn’t come with Vasily Esper-nim today?”

“No. I don’t think I’ll be coming with him from now on.”

“Did something happen…?”

People were clearly puzzled to see me at the gate alone. Since gate assignments are fixed by region, most of them were used to seeing me with Vasily. Now that I had shown up solo, it must’ve seemed unusual.

“Vasily Esper-nim has become a bit busier. We’ll be operating separately from now on. I’m not his official guide anyway…”

I explained with a smile, clearly stating that I wasn’t Vasily’s guide. Now that our exhausting relationship was truly over, it was time to set the record straight on the lingering rumors.

People looked skeptical at first, but once I mentioned I’d be transferring soon, they began to accept it one by one. I knew it—relocating to the provinces was a good decision.

I should start thinking about removing the inhibitor chip too. Lately, my condition has been off. The chip heats up intensely, giving me terrible headaches, and I have a bad feeling that the mysterious red pills I’ve been taking are doing harm to my health.

Once a classification is assigned, it’s rarely changed, so there’s no need to get re-evaluated. Which means, even if I secretly remove the chip, no one would notice.

I’ll lay low until Vasily leaves the country, then request a grade reassessment. Now that I’ve started mapping out my future step by step, I’m finally beginning to feel a sense of peace.

“Ugh, it’s hot…”

I took a short break, sipping the cold water handed out by a field manager. As I watched the Espers preparing to enter the gate, I suddenly thought of the Esper who had been severely injured because of me.

I wonder if he’s recovered well. In that state, he’d have to focus solely on rehabilitation, not gate raids. Hopefully, Vasily didn’t torment him any further afterward.

Before entering the gate, Espers would often request temporary guiding and enter the tents. But these days, they glanced at me and avoided coming near. They must have heard the rumor that the Esper who received guiding from me ended up half-dead thanks to Vasily.

It felt like I was being treated as a dangerous figure on par with Vasily. I’m nothing like that psychopath—I’m a completely normal person. But I didn’t particularly appreciate the misunderstanding.

Resting my chin on one hand, I gave a bitter expression and watched as the Espers subtly kept their distance from me. Eventually, I gave up. It’s true that these rumors are hindering my work now, but I’ll be moving to a different region in a month anyway. There, no one will know me, so the rumors won’t have much impact.

Until then, I’ll just keep a low profile and stay out of trouble. Now that there’s no Esper who would come rescue me if I got kidnapped again, I really need to be careful about my behavior.

Soon, the Espers headed into the gate. I thought it would finally quiet down—but of course, things didn’t go that smoothly. As time passed, injured Espers began to emerge from the gate one by one, carried out on stretchers.

I had assumed that a low-tier gate would be uneventful…

I had forgotten that Espers are dispatched in accordance with the gate’s rank. More importantly, without Vasily here, even a low-tier gate was no longer easy.

The gate raid ended.

Utter chaos. The eye of the storm.

Wounded Espers were being carried out endlessly, and cries of pain echoed from all directions. It was nothing short of hell.

Yes, this is what a normal field site looks like. I had forgotten because Vasily had always been with me, but this was the norm. After a gate raid ends, injured Espers flood out. No wonder temporary guides are reluctant to be sent to the field.

Just then, an Esper bleeding profusely was carried out on a stretcher. I hurried over and tried to initiate guiding, but felt nothing.

My heart sank. I immediately checked for breathing, fearing he was dead—but thankfully, he was still breathing. It was just that our wavelengths didn’t match.

“The wavelengths don’t align here!”

I shouted, and another guide ran over and took over the guiding. Without even a moment to breathe, I had to move on to the next injured Esper being carried out.

Even those Espers who had hesitated to receive guiding from me earlier now looked too dazed to even recognize who I was.

“…Haah.”

I followed one critically injured Esper to the hospital and provided guiding until their official guide arrived. By the time everything was over, it was already the middle of the night.

My body felt like it weighed a ton. On the ride back in the association vehicle with the other temporary guides who had come to the hospital, everyone looked completely worn out—either dozing off or trying to clean themselves up.

I peeled off my blood-soaked temporary combat uniform and wiped the blood from my face and hands with a wet tissue.

It had been a while since I’d experienced such a hectic site. I realized anew just how much more comfortable it was, physically and mentally, when Vasily was with me. Of course, after guiding Vasily post-gate, I’d have to endure the inhibitor chip’s agony and a splitting headache—but still.

Dragging my exhausted body, I finally returned home.

Today felt impossibly long. I needed to wash off the smell of blood clinging to me and collapse into bed.

The days passed in strangely peaceful fashion.

Vasily no longer came looking for me. The number of Espers seeking temporary guiding was gradually increasing again, but it still wasn’t overwhelming.

The problem is that I’m not used to this kind of peace.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Gidam-ssi.”

Having just arrived at work, I greeted my department colleagues and took my seat. As I pressed the power button on my computer, Jo Wooyeon poked his head up from across the desk and asked me: