AAGULT Ch 103

Chapter 103

While Eiden wiped the blood obstructing his vision with his sleeve, Beomwoo lowered his body and charged forward. His complete disregard for waiting made him the very embodiment of a wicked villain. Bone collided with bone, both crying out from the impact. Eiden tried to unbalance him by hooking and pulling at his arm, but Beomwoo didn’t budge. Instead, his arm was twisted and shoved aside, forcing Eiden to roll away again to create distance.

“……”

His breath was ragged. Both arms throbbed as if they were about to burst.

Eiden hesitated for a moment. Even if he didn’t feel pain, should he just try sticking him with a bit of Guiding? It might be enough to put him to sleep. Eiden had willingly accepted this physical brawl because he wanted to punch that face with his own fist, but he was clearly at a disadvantage physically.

Even if he couldn’t feel pain, Beomwoo was still human. He needed to breathe, to drink water. For an Esper, Guiding was like air or water. Just like how he had tortured an illegal Esper with Guiding in front of Jaeha’s bar, it wouldn’t be hard to subdue him like plunging someone underwater.

And yet, Beomwoo had still dared to show up in front of him despite knowing all that… That was the unexpected part. That was why Eiden could remain composed, even while being pushed into a losing fight.

Either way, Eiden found no more reason to continue the fight when he couldn’t even land a satisfying hit. So he instinctively moved to use Guiding. Or at least, he tried to.

“……”

Then, suddenly, Eiden felt a faint and unstable psychic wave. The distinctly erratic pattern was of a type he was deeply familiar with. He looked past Beomwoo’s back. Nothing was visible yet, but purely on instinct, he withdrew the Guiding energy. As if he had never intended to use it at all. He didn’t even react to the hand looming threateningly toward him. Or rather, he pretended not to.

“Guh!”

Beomwoo grabbed Eiden’s neck. He did it with such force and aggression that even though he lifted Eiden high into the air, his arm didn’t tremble in the slightest. Perhaps he had become uncharacteristically desperate, fearing Eiden might actually use Guiding.

‘For someone who calls himself an Esper.’

Eiden scoffed internally.

Thud.

Still suspended in the air, his body crashed into the wall. The back of his head slammed into it hard enough to daze him. Cracks spread across the wall, accompanied by the sound of crumbling debris. Fragments of stone fell to the ground. This bastard—he’s just ridiculously strong…

He didn’t know just how little Beomwoo thought of him, but even if he were suffocating, Eiden could still perform Guiding just fine. He simply chose not to.

“Ugh, guh…”

Normally, his pride would’ve made him endure it in silence, but this time Eiden deliberately groaned and moaned as if in pain. Acting like he was in agony, he scratched desperately at the man’s hand that clutched his throat as if ready to tear it out. His feet, dangling in midair, kicked helplessly. He tried pushing off the wall or kicking at the man—resorting to all sorts of petty tactics. Finally, he tilted his head at a calculated angle as his breathing began to cut off. A prepared tear trickled down his cheek.

“What kind of trick is this?”

The sudden shift to a fragile demeanor was incomprehensible to Beomwoo, and his voice came out as a sneer. Eiden’s expression had become so sickeningly pitiful it was almost revolting. And Eiden—he smirked at him. Just faintly enough that the person who had run all the way there and witnessed this scene wouldn’t be able to see his smile.

Bang!

“…!”

A gunshot rang out through the space. It wasn’t from Beomwoo, nor from Eiden. Someone had fired from behind Beomwoo’s back. The bullet grazed Beomwoo’s ear and embedded itself in the wall. Eiden felt the tension stiffen in the man’s body holding his throat—he could feel it in real time, and it was immensely satisfying.

‘See that? Being a Guide is worth envying, huh?’

Eiden resisted the urge to mock and jeer for the sake of perfect performance. The reason he had been so confident Jaeha would arrive soon was because he, not Beomwoo, was the Guide who could sense an Esper’s psychic wave.

Jaeha, clutching a gun with trembling hands, reloaded as he gasped for breath. He looked just as wrecked—likely fresh from another fight. One hand couldn’t support the gun as he clutched his injured side, possibly a fractured rib. Then, with a trembling voice, he spoke.

“P-President… Please let Eiden go.”

“……”

Beomwoo didn’t respond. He didn’t even look back. He simply squeezed tighter around Eiden’s neck and stared at him. Eiden was thankful that he tightened his grip—he had nearly burst out laughing.

“Huff…”

“President-nim…!”

Eiden didn’t bother suppressing his groans. The fact that Jaeha, who had spent his whole life in this man’s shadow, had finally stepped out of it and fired a gun at him—for Eiden’s sake—was immensely satisfying.

And that was precisely why Eiden felt like teasing him. Knowing that his lower face would be half-hidden behind Beomwoo’s broad back, he…

Stuck out his tongue in a childish “bleh.”

His lips curled into a taunting smirk. That faint tremor might have been felt through Beomwoo’s hand around his neck as he laughed.

And Eiden thoroughly enjoyed the sight of Beomwoo’s jaw tensing, veins bulging, and muscles tightening. His face even twisted slightly with rage.

Standing victorious—no, childishly triumphant—in a battle of romantic rivals, Eiden thought,

Fuck, this feels amazing.

“Hurry, please let him go!”

Eiden looked like he was in severe pain. Jaeha knew too well what kind of sound someone made when they were being choked. After all, he had been taught firsthand by the man doing the choking. He might’ve been a psychic Esper rather than an ordinary person, but Eiden was a Guide. And more than that—he was someone precious to him, his savior.

The hand holding the gun trembled violently. He couldn’t even remember how he had managed to shoot him the first time. This man had been his benefactor, the one he owed a mountain of debt to—like a father and an older brother. But all of that had somehow evaporated, leaving his mind blank.

In the end, Jaeha reloaded the gun once more.

Click.

“……”

At the sound, the man who hadn’t so much as glanced in his direction slowly loosened his grip. His hand moved clumsily, like a poorly oiled hunk of metal. It seemed he hadn’t expected Jaeha, even if by accident, to reload and actually aim to shoot again.

“Cough, kuhuk, huff…”

Eiden collapsed to the ground, gasping and coughing violently. Jaeha’s heart sank. His throat was red and swollen. The angry red marks from Beomwoo’s hand looked anything but normal. They might turn blue soon.

“Eiden!”

“I—I’m okay…”

Thank goodness. Was it really okay? No, as long as the president was still standing there, the situation was far from resolved.

“Please step aside, President-nim.”

“……”

“I’m begging you…”

Fearing he might take Eiden’s life at any moment, Jaeha anxiously pleaded with him. Should he really shoot again? Forcing his stiff fingers to move, he placed them on the trigger. Click. His finger began to apply pressure.

“President-nim…!”

“…What about Kwon Ido and Seo Taegun?”

But regardless of Jaeha’s actions, the president’s voice remained calm. Only then did he turn his body and face them. He looked as he always had, and yet—somehow—he seemed a bit angry.

Jaeha looked around. He exchanged glances with Eiden, who was leaning against the wall. Eiden gave a slow nod and began shifting his body. There was no way the president hadn’t noticed, but he allowed Eiden to do as he pleased.

“……”

“No need to ask, huh.”

The black eyes rolled like glass beads and fixed on Jaeha’s hand—more specifically, the hand pierced with shards of glass and oozing blood. His hand and sleeve were soaked not just in blood but also with a bluish liquid—the suppressant.

The man tilted his head.

“So you took care of Taegun with that. And Kwon Ido…”

“……”

“Did you shoot him?”

“Yes.”

What Jaeha had done was simpler than expected. He endured the unbearable pain of reading through all the information Taegun had provided and retrieved the suppressant from his harness pocket. Holding the elongated glass vial over Taegun’s already bullet-ridden ankle, he fired again. Since Taegun had let his guard down and was chuckling over a trivial conversation with Ido, it had been possible. After the suppressant was absorbed into Taegun’s body, Jaeha fired at Ido’s abdomen. He had anticipated that Taegun would no longer be able to defend with psychokinesis.

‘Hey, you crazy—!’

‘Ugh…!’

Of course, he hadn’t managed to kill them. Jaeha’s limits allowed only for momentary confusion and a narrow escape. Moreover, since the glass vial had shattered from the bullet, fragments had embedded themselves into Jaeha’s hand, and the suppressant had started affecting him as well.

Particularly because Jaeha had taken that drug for so long, the effect hit him hard and negatively. His pupils contracted and dilated in erratic succession, his eye color flickering between teal and a pale green. His nose stung.

Soon, blood began to drip from his nostrils, running down over his philtrum and staining his lips. The president’s gaze followed that crimson trail.

“And then?”

“And then…”

—I read it.

Jaeha mouthed the words, but they didn’t come out loud. The man flexed his strangely darkened wrist with an audible pop and asked,

“Is that all?”

“……”

Jaeha closed his mouth and faintly shook his head. That alone was answer enough.

Hoo. The man let out a slow breath. Then, he lowered his body—taking a combat stance.

Jaeha didn’t hesitate any longer. Applying full pressure to the finger on the trigger, he fired the gun.

Bang!

The recoil struck his hand violently. The moment felt both unreal and distant. Suddenly, Jaeha remembered the moment the president had killed his parents. The scene he’d seen through Taegun’s memories now superimposed itself over the man standing before him.

Yes, that’s right. The president had killed his parents…

The memories he had tried so hard to suppress on his way here now resurfaced vividly before his eyes. Jaeha twisted his face in anguish.