TGIC Ch 72

Chapter 72

It was clearly morning, yet I couldn’t easily open my eyes and just tossed and turned in bed. Come to think of it, I must’ve fallen asleep while guiding Vasily last night…

“Fell asleep?”

I shot up and hurriedly reached behind my neck. But what my fingers touched wasn’t overheated skin, just a normal warmth.

…Why isn’t it hot?

“Are you awake?”

Just as I was absentmindedly rubbing my lukewarm nape, a familiar voice came from beside me. When I turned my head, I saw Vasily greeting me with a bright face as if it were completely natural. He looked incredibly refreshed, as though he’d had a good night’s sleep.

Ignoring Vasily’s broad chest that was welcoming me from early in the morning, I asked curiously,

“You didn’t receive any guiding?”

“Guide Kwon Gidam fell asleep, so we had to stop. You know you shouldn’t guide for too long because of the suppressant chip.”

That was true, but…

I rubbed my perfectly normal neck and glanced at Vasily out of the corner of my eye.

Vasily usually disapproved of only being allowed an hour of guiding because of the suppressant chip. I thought for sure he would take this opportunity and insist on guiding through the entire night…

The fact that he didn’t push for it felt unfamiliar. Was it because of what he said to me yesterday? Remembering his words about wanting to build trust, I kept my mouth shut.

I had thought he said those things lightly, just to receive guiding from me—but now I was starting to wonder if he truly meant it. That thought made my mind a mess.

Suddenly, his lips caught my eye.

…I think they were soft.

It was the first time I initiated a kiss, after always being on the receiving end. And even that kiss had felt… affectionate.

As I stared at him with a complicated look in my eyes, Vasily spoke up.

“The esper participating in the joint training at the West Sea Gate was decided in yesterday’s meeting. It’ll be the S-rank esper we saw.”

It seemed he’d gotten the message while I was asleep. The worry that nothing would change despite all the fuss we made melted away completely.

Seeing my expression brighten noticeably, Vasily gave me a small smile and asked,

“Were you that worried about me going to the gate while injured?”

“Excuse me…? Not at all. I just didn’t want to have to guide you again after the mission was over…”

“Hmm. Got it.”

Vasily pulled me into an embrace and rubbed his head against my side. He must’ve thought I was just denying it out of embarrassment.

He looked far too pleased with his misunderstanding. I was too lazy to explain and correct him, so I just let him believe it.

Anyway, what time is it?

Because of the blackout curtains, I couldn’t see the sky and had no idea what time of day it was. I picked up the smartphone lying next to me to check the time.

The moment I saw the numbers on the screen, I froze.

It was well past the time I was supposed to be at work. In fact, it was nearly noon.

Did I really sleep this long? It was already shocking that I’d overslept, but the fact that I’d done so next to Vasily—for nearly twelve hours straight without waking once—was honestly horrifying.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

I asked Vasily with an incredulous look.

Before my regression, he never once let me sleep this long. He always dragged me to the training grounds the moment the sun came up and worked me to the bone.

But what was strange was that I was the same. Back then, I’d always wake up naturally in the mornings. Ever since the regression, though, I couldn’t get up unless I set an alarm.

Even though my mind remembered all the terrible days, maybe my body didn’t, since I’d never actually experienced those sufferings. It felt like I was still living in a peaceful world, deluding myself.

I told myself to pull it together and got out of bed.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get ready for work.”

“You don’t have to.”

“…?”

I turned around with a puzzled expression, and Vasily continued.

“Did you forget already? Guide Kwon Gidam personally showed them my condition at yesterday’s meeting. Thanks to that, the Association said to take the week off.”

“Ah…”

“There aren’t any gates open nearby either.”

I suppose bleeding in front of everyone made them want to let him rest for a bit. As Vasily said, since all the gates in the area had been dealt with, things would probably stay quiet for a while—there wouldn’t be a need for Vasily’s presence.

“So, you’re saying I’m not going to work today and should just stay home?”

“Yup. So you can lie down a little longer.”

Vasily lifted the blanket and tried to lure me back into bed, clearly wanting to receive guiding first thing in the morning.

The soft blanket I had just been lying on and the cool air clung to my legs, tempting me. The bed looked incredibly cozy, and I hesitated for a second—but quickly shook my head at the thought of how long I’d already slept.

Leaving the disappointed Vasily behind, I walked out of his room.

Returning to my own room, I turned on my smartphone to catch up on the news I’d missed overnight, when I noticed a message had come in.

[Korea Esper Association]

Training will be held for espers and guides who have recently formed a pair. You are strongly encouraged to attend with your respective esper or guide. For more information, please refer to the official website.

“…”

It looked like there was some kind of training coming up. Reading further, I saw that the date was this Thursday, and it would be held at the Association headquarters.

It wouldn’t have mattered if I were going alone. The problem was that the message specifically stated you must attend with your paired esper.

A cold sweat broke out on my back.

With Vasily…?

From the tone of the message, it seemed that all newly paired individuals were expected to attend. Imagining Vasily sitting in the middle of all that made the blood drain from my face.

If I went with Vasily, we’d definitely draw attention. It wasn’t even the kind of event where an S-rank esper would normally show up.

I was about to just delete the message and ignore it when a warning line at the bottom suddenly caught my eye.

※ Attendance is mandatory. Failure to attend may result in disadvantages. Please contact us in advance if you are unable to attend due to unavoidable circumstances.

“…It’s mandatory?”

I frowned at the last line.

The mention of “disadvantages” made it hard to just ignore the message. I wished it were just spam, but there were no sketchy links or requests for personal info. It was simply a notice about this week’s training.

With a deep sigh, I set the phone down.

Was there anything like this before I regressed? I’d never taken any guiding-related training, so I must have skipped it.

I didn’t even remember getting such a message. It was probably a mistake by the Association, adding me to the list.

Besides, even Association employees didn’t have full access to information about Vasily’s guide. So even if I called and insisted I couldn’t attend because I was paired with Vasily, they might not be able to verify it.

That meant the fastest solution was to push the responsibility onto Vasily. I picked up my phone and went back to find him.

“Esper Vasily.”

“I thought you left?”

Still lying in bed, Vasily naturally scooted over as if he thought I’d changed my mind and come back to join him. Ignoring that, I got straight to the point.

“Esper Vasily, did you happen to receive a message about attending a training session?”

“Training?”

Vasily responded as if it was the first he was hearing of it. As expected, he hadn’t gotten the message.

I held out my phone and showed him the screen.

“I received a message like this.”

“Do people in Korea all go to these kinds of training sessions?”

“Well, yes… I guess they do.”

“Hm…”

Vasily quietly read through the message on the screen. As his silver-gray eyes moved slowly across the text, I continued speaking beside him.

“I think the Association made a mistake and didn’t record me as your guide. If you could contact them and let them know you can’t attend—”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t like attending things like this, do you?”

“I don’t dislike them.”

Vasily smiled sweetly as he brazenly lied.

…This jerk?

Even the Association knew Vasily would never attend events like this, which was probably why they didn’t bother sending him a message. Did he think I wouldn’t know that?

I clenched my jaw, trying to keep my forced smile from twitching.

“I seem to recall you stopping me from attending the meeting yesterday just because there were other espers there. There will be other espers at this training, too.”

“That was because I was worried they might try to take what’s mine, not because of the event itself. This kind of thing is fine.”

“…”

His attitude flipped faster than turning over a palm. I was speechless.

“You’re really planning to go?”

“I’ve got a paired guide now, so why shouldn’t I? I think it’d be good for Guide Kwon Gidam to get some proper training to guide me better.”

Looking at Vasily, who had no intention of changing his mind, I let out a heavy sigh. The more often I showed up with Vasily at public events, the more likely it was that people would start saying I was his guide.

I’d worked so hard to prevent the announcement that I was Vasily’s exclusive guide, but it seemed all of it was about to be undone thanks to him.

I quickly gave up on trying to persuade him and shook my head.

Fine, go ahead and attend. He’s probably only saying this because he hasn’t yet experienced the sheer agony that is Korean-style mandatory training. After spending hours sitting through boring, useless lectures, he’d never want to attend one again.