TGIC Ch 58

Chapter 58

“You don’t even sleep well anyway…”

“If Guide Kwon Gidam does the guiding, I can sleep, so it’s fine.”

“……”

Suddenly, I realized. Wait a second… is this seriously heading toward me having to guide him? While Vasily is lying next to me naked?

I immediately got up. But before I could run, my wrist was firmly grabbed.

“Guide Kwon Gidam, where are you going?”

“I’m just going to get a drink of water. So please let go of my hand…”

“You can drink water after the guiding is over.”

“I’m dying of thirst.”

“You’ll be fine. People don’t die that easily.”

My wrist was pulled. I tried to resist, but there was no winning in a contest of strength. I collapsed back onto the bed, still with my wrist held in Vasily’s grasp.

I didn’t want to turn around… because I knew he’d be lying there proudly, fully exposed, staring at me with an amused expression.

“Guide Kwon Gidam, when are you going to hold me?”

“…Please don’t phrase it like that. It sounds weird.”

“Really? I don’t get what’s weird about it…”

Sigh… This way of speaking made me sigh involuntarily. And the way he only pretended to be bad at Korean at times like this—every time, it was absurd.

“Please proceed with the guiding on your own, Esper. I’m tired, so I’ll just lie down and rest for a bit.”

“Your guiding attitude is seriously terrible…”

“There was no clause in the contract stating that this would be a problem.”

I faintly heard Vasily chuckle, receiving back his own words.

I really did turn my back to him and collapse onto the bed. I didn’t have the guts to confirm with my own eyes that he was lying completely naked next to me. My eyes are precious.

Anyway, I still had to perform the guiding, and since I was tired, I planned to rest a bit while lying down. Once an hour passed and the guiding was complete, I would return to the living room and sleep.

“Then gladly.”

Vasily hugged me from behind. Cold, firm arms slid around my waist and pulled me close.

To avoid contact with his lower body as much as possible, I scooted my hips forward. Whether he noticed my pitiful effort or not, Vasily didn’t seem to care and pulled me in tighter, burying his face in the nape of my neck.

His cold breath tickled the back of my neck. Unfortunately, it was right where the suppression chip was located, and every time it touched, my body involuntarily flinched.

Trying to shift my mind elsewhere, I opened my mouth and forced a conversation.

“Come to think of it, Esper Vasily, you brought my resignation letter with you, right?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then what happens to my affiliation now?”

This was an important point. I needed to get clarity on this.

“Starting Monday, you’ll be removed from the Association’s roster and officially registered as my Guide. That’s not a problem, is it? You were planning to transfer anyway, weren’t you?”

“That’s true, but… could you push it back by just a week?”

“I don’t mind. But why?”

“I need to settle my position and wrap up the tasks I’ve been handling…”

Vasily fell silent, seemingly displeased. I had assumed he’d wait at least a week, but apparently even that was too much.

“You remember the contract terms, right? The part that says you can’t guide any other Esper.”

“If you could just delay that clause by a week—”

“If I hear even a rumor that you guided another Esper, I’ll consider it a breach of contract on the spot.”

“……”

Given how the temporary guiding department worked, complying with that condition was virtually impossible. I’d just have to tidy up my spot and move directly into Vasily’s private office…

While the guiding continued, Vasily suddenly went unusually quiet.

Had he finally fallen asleep? I cautiously turned my head, only to see that he was still awake, and quickly looked away again. I wondered why he was lying there with his eyes open—but then he suddenly raised a hand and slowly brushed the area where my suppression chip was embedded.

“E-Esper Vasily?”

“If I just destroy this… wouldn’t that be enough?”

He murmured softly. I jerked back in shock, quickly evading his hand.

“Do you not remember what the attending physician said? If you tamper with it the wrong way, I could die or end up in a vegetative state!”

“As long as you don’t die, it should be fine, right?”

So he was saying it didn’t matter if I became a vegetable?

“Don’t ever touch my neck again! If you even hint at something strange one more time, I’ll only give you handshake-level guiding from now on!”

“Hmm… fine, got it.”

I scolded him seriously and continued the guiding. I was on edge, nervous he’d suddenly decide to remove the suppression chip without notice.

Thankfully, the threat seemed to work—he didn’t touch the chip again. Instead, the strength with which he held my waist subtly increased.

“You’ve lost weight since we first met, Guide Kwon Gidam.”

“Have I? Well… maybe the job was harder than I thought.”

“I guess it’s because you’re a C-rank Guide…”

It seemed Vasily hadn’t figured out that the suppression chip was the reason my level was appearing lower. Well, S-rank Guides were even rarer than S-rank Espers.

If there were ten S-rank Espers, there might be only one S-rank Guide. The fact that someone who could endure his wavelength even existed was already a miracle—he wouldn’t have expected their rank to be high too.

If that’s the case…

Then my excuse that guiding is difficult because of the suppression chip would still hold water for now.

I could probably keep pretending to be a C-rank Guide and avoid full guiding duties for a while. But once the chip was removed and my actual level revealed through a wavelength test, things would get messy. There was no way Vasily would just let it go once he realized I’d been pretending to be a C-rank.

I continued guiding him while fighting off sleep, and before I knew it, Vasily had fallen asleep.

“Sleep well…”

He was so deeply asleep that someone could carry him off and he wouldn’t notice.

It felt like I might be able to escape without getting caught this time, but the potential consequences of being caught held me back.

Next time, I might actually end up imprisoned. If Vasily really made up his mind, dealing with someone like me would be a breeze. If that happened, I’d have to risk my life to escape. Even if I revealed I was an S-rank Guide, there was no guarantee the government would protect me.

His steady breathing tickled my ears. Even though I knew I shouldn’t let my guard down, my eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

Sleep was taking over.

I opened my eyes when I sensed movement, and saw Vasily standing beside the sofa, looking down at me with displeasure.

The room was already brightly lit. Morning had come.

“You really slept here?”

“Yes. I told you yesterday I’d be sleeping on the sofa, didn’t I?”

Last night, after barely finishing the guiding while fighting off sleep, I had gotten up exactly an hour later. I’d come out to the living room, taken my medicine, and passed out on the sofa. It was so big and comfortable that it felt like a bed. Thanks to that, I’d slept quite well.

Vasily looked visibly dissatisfied. Well, he had no one to blame but himself for refusing to give me a room.

I wanted to argue about who was in the wrong, but I was still tired. I turned over to sleep some more, but Vasily spoke to me again.

“Get up and get ready. I just got word that a Gate has opened.”

“……Do I have to go too?”

“If I go alone, I get the feeling you won’t be here when I come back.”

“……”

We even signed a contract—how long is he going to keep milking that excuse?

With no choice, I slowly got up from the sofa. I’d noticed he was fully dressed in a suit, ready to go somewhere—so this must have been a Gate call.

“Can’t we just rest on Sundays?”

“You’d better start getting used to this.”

I wished he’d go alone, but from the way he was speaking, it was clear he had no intention of doing so.

Resigned, I began to prepare. Since I’d had ramyeon the night before, I wasn’t hungry yet. It didn’t seem like an urgent call, but I quickly washed up and changed, hoping to get back and rest soon.

I sat in the passenger seat and let out a long yawn as we drove.

This was my first Gate mission since becoming Vasily’s Guide.

I was slightly anxious that he might drag me into the Gate like he used to before the regression, but the terms were clearly outlined starting from Clause 1 of our contract, so I wasn’t too worried.

However, the place we arrived at was the Association.

“Why are we at the Association?”

“A Gate opened on the mountain summit, so we’ll be taking a helicopter.”

“Ah… if that’s the case, I guess it can’t be helped…”

If we were moving back and forth by helicopter, maybe that wouldn’t be too bad. With that in mind, I followed Vasily up to the rooftop. The helicopter was already prepped and waiting.

As we boarded the helicopter together and headed toward the Gate, I finally began to feel the reality of being Vasily’s Guide.

Starting tomorrow, I’d drop by the Guide Association, explain the situation to my department, and once people saw me moving around with Vasily, word would spread quickly. Even without an official announcement, the fact that I’d become his Guide would soon become common knowledge.

It left me feeling a little complicated.