TGIC Ch 136

Chapter 136

To be honest, I was a little curious.

That had been the first time Vasily ever talked about something personal.

Before regression, we might have believed we understood each other well—but that had been nothing more than an illusion.

We never spoke of our personal lives; in truth, our relationship was closer to that of strangers.

“Well… I’ll think about it.”

“If you’re going to think about it, do it in a positive direction. As Guide Kwon Gidam said, it might be nice for just the two of us to take a break.”

Vasily answered pleasantly and pressed more of his weight onto the body he was holding. I staggered violently and barely managed to stay upright.

“You’re heavy—stop leaning on me…! I can’t stand properly!”

“Then should we do the guiding sitting down?”

“That’s not what I meant— ngh!”

Without warning, my feet left the ground.

Vasily effortlessly lifted me and sat down in the chair with me in his arms.

Our bodies pressed together, and beneath my hips I felt a very familiar, unwelcome presence.

I pushed at his hard chest in an attempt to stand and escape whatever weapon he was sitting me on.

But the arm wrapped firmly around my back did not budge an inch.

“Stop squirming so much. You’ll knock the device off again.”

“That’s because of you, Esper-nim!”

I was in the middle of shoving his shoulder when a researcher walked in.

Even while reattaching the detached equipment, the poor man couldn’t raise his head from embarrassment.

But despite that, his eyes kept darting toward me—checking whether I was still conscious, as if bewildered that I looked perfectly fine.

He must have assumed that no normal Guide could remain intact on Vasily’s lap.

After the researcher left, the exam resumed.

If I struggled like before, the machine would get knocked off once more.

I didn’t want this dragging on, so I remained obediently seated on Vasily’s lap.

His cold, solid body was not even close to comfortable.

Had the heater on the ceiling not been blowing warm air down on us, I would’ve been shivering too much to guide properly.

Gradually, I loosened up.

Once I leaned into him, his wavelength flowed into me like a tide.

The suppression chip was fully gone now—so the sensation was identical to how it had been before regression.

The cold energy coursing through me felt vivid.

At first the intensity made it hard to breathe, but as the guiding continued, Vasily’s wavelength steadily calmed—and I found myself calming with it.

No headaches, no burning at the nape.

No more painful side effects from prolonged contact.

Just as I was adapting to this now-foreign familiarity, Vasily suddenly spoke.

“Looks like there’s a problem outside.”

A problem?

I lifted my head. Vasily was staring toward the glass wall.

Because I sat facing him, my back was toward the clear window overlooking the observation room. When I turned around, I saw exactly what he meant—several people were gathered around a monitor, whispering frantically.

We couldn’t hear anything said outside from inside the testing chamber.

We simply waited in silence until the doctor picked up the microphone.

[We apologize, but it appears the machine is malfunctioning. We’ll temporarily pause the examination.]

Ah.

I realized belatedly what was happening.

The guiding numbers being displayed were so abnormal that they assumed it had to be an error.

Their misunderstanding was only natural.

Who would imagine that someone originally evaluated as C-class had actually been an S-class Guide?

Only Vasily, who already knew the truth, watched the scene with perfect calm.

My eyes met his.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have something to say?”

“Nothing.”

Vasily could hear everything they were discussing outside.

And despite that, he hadn’t bothered to warn me.

Of course I wasn’t looking at him kindly.

I stood, peeling the sensors off my body.

“I’ll step out for a moment. Esper-nim, please stay here.”

I left Vasily behind next to the testing machine and approached the researchers gathered around the monitor.

The doctor turned and apologized the moment he saw me.

“Ah—Guide-nim. I’m sorry. The machine was functioning perfectly until yesterday, but it seems Esper Vasily’s wavelength broke it.”

As expected—they hadn’t realized anything was wrong with the assumption itself.

I exhaled steadily and spoke in a neutral tone.

“It’s not a machine problem.”

“…Pardon? How can you be sure?”

“I’m an S-class Guide. My apologies for telling you so late.”

“S-class…?”

The doctor murmured quietly.

I expected shock or disbelief.

But instead, his reaction was muddled—uncertain.

Maybe it was because I’d recently lost my memories, so my words weren’t credible.

Or maybe he suspected my memory still wasn’t normal.

Just then, I felt a familiar gaze.

I turned; Vasily had followed me out and was leaning casually against the doorway, watching.

I glared at him, and only then did he finally speak.

“Guide Kwon Gidam is S-class.”

“If even you say so, then…”

With Vasily’s confirmation, the doctor finally started to accept it.

I wondered whether we should simply return to the chamber. Just as I prepared to do so—

“How did you find out, Guide-nim? During your initial awakening test, you were clearly classified as C-class.”

“I found out… by chance.”

“By chance?”

Avoiding his eyes felt unnatural, and as I turned away, I locked eyes with Vasily—who looked like he was enjoying himself immensely.

“My Guide causing unexpected incidents isn’t new. Right, Guide Kwon Gidam?”

I glared at him sharply.

If I had truly forgotten telling him my real rank, I would have been in a blind panic right now.

Well, even though I’d improvised, the doctor would eventually connect it to the suppression chip.

He already knew I’d used it to manipulate the matching rate, so it wouldn’t take much thought to figure out the cause.

“If you’re truly S-class, then the machine wasn’t malfunctioning. We’ll resume the test.”

I nodded and returned to the examination room.

As the researchers reattached the sensors, I asked Vasily,

“Why didn’t you react? Not even a little surprised?”

“I expected it.”

Expected it, my ass.

When I first told him my real rank, he had barely suppressed the upward pull of his lips.

I only asked out of curiosity, but his shameless level of lying made my jaw drop.

If Vasily had ever deceived me in the past, I probably missed it every time.

Now every conversation we’d ever had felt suspicious.

When the machine began operating again, I faced him.

I moved to embrace him while standing, but Vasily glanced at the nearby chair and asked,

“Isn’t it more comfortable to guide sitting down?”

“No. It’s actually worse.”

With that thing pressing up from underneath, sitting was nothing short of torture—not discomfort, but something akin to sitting on thorns.

And it definitely wasn’t a size one could ignore…

I looked toward the other side of the glass.

The doctor and researchers were huddled around the monitor, staring at the guiding numbers with fascinated eyes.

The Association official was nowhere to be seen—likely gone to report to headquarters.

“Haa…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

There was truly no going back now.

My emotions were tangled, but… I didn’t feel bad.

From the moment I decided to remove the suppression chip, I had already resolved to be his Guide.

Fine.

Since things had come this far, it was better to face it head-on.