Chris trailed off. If he were asked to move ten books at once, he could do that easily, but opening the pages of a book stuck together for unknown reasons was too delicate a task for him. The fact that this wasn’t his own but an item sold at Yuri’s shop added to Chris’s cautiousness.
“You’re going to buy it anyway, aren’t you? You haven’t put down a single book I’ve recommended…”
At those words, Chris felt relieved without realizing it. It wasn’t wrong. He’d bought several books at Magnolia that he wouldn’t even read.
Since his worry had disappeared too, Chris silently turned the pages. Checking the content while looking at the beautiful typeface had already become secondary, and he was absorbed in carefully separating page from page.
His body naturally leaned forward and his head was bowed toward the book.
The more Chris turned the pages, the more he felt his vision becoming hazy.
Something was strange. But even thinking it was strange, it was difficult to put this into action. As if his body and reason were operating separately.
If Chris had been in his right mind, he wouldn’t have stepped a single foot outside his lodging until he encountered his team members. No, he wouldn’t have even entered that apartment in the first place. Inside it existed bugs installed by the enemy presumed to be Yuri Sobolev.
However, despite reason’s restraint, Chris’s body, suffering from Guiding deficiency, instinctively moved to find what he lacked.
His Guide.
“Chris?”
“…Yes?”
“You seem to be dozing off for a moment, snap out of it.”
His call sounded like a gentle lullaby.
Chris continued turning pages in a daze. Strength was draining from his body. As his vision gradually submerged, Yuri’s voice lingered like an echo in his ears.
“You can’t fall asleep here.”
He wasn’t asleep—he should say that.
Chris’s body collapsed onto the floor with a thud. Yuri was looking down at him.
In the hands of the bookshop owner, who’d said not to fall asleep yet clearly knew he would collapse without supporting him at all, was a white cable tie.
He bound Chris’s hands, collapsed miserably on the floor, with the cable tie. Going to the bookshop door, Yuri turned the sign that read <OPEN> to <CLOSED>.
Just like an ordinary bookshop owner closing up and leaving work.
Yuri dragged Chris out the back door. Despite the weight of a body nearly the same height and packed full of muscle being far from light, Yuri showed no sign of struggling at all.
Opening the trunk of the Aston Martin Classic Black, Yuri shoved the unconscious Chris inside. Closing it, Yuri climbed into the driver’s seat while putting the earpiece in his ear. Removing his glove and tapping with his bare hand, the communication line activated.
“I’m securing the goods…”
An unusually cheerful smile for him rose on Yuri’s lips as he started the engine.
“Set up the scene a bit.”
***
Chris slowly opened both eyes.
A barren surroundings entered his vision. However, his ability to think returned a step later than that.
The feeling of memories slowly returning was like watching night descend and lights turn on one by one in streetlamps set up along the road.
Clearly in the last moment, he’d been turning the pages of the book Yuri had handed him. He’d collapsed as drowsiness surged in strangely.
Chris hadn’t let his guard down. Since Guiding was virtually a panacea while drugs didn’t work well on Espers, there was no reason to be wary of such a situation.
‘There’s a sleeping drug that works on Espers?’
It wasn’t difficult to understand the situation that had befallen him. He’d been kidnapped and detained by Yuri Sobolev, whom he’d thought all along was Yuri Magnolia.
He’d followed the same path as Gillian and Aparna, who’d already been captured.
A cold energy rose from his buttocks sitting on a metal chair. He tried to stand, but his body didn’t budge at all. From the pressure felt at certain parts, it seemed he was tied to the chair legs. His hands were tied in front. Meticulousness could be felt in how many times the cable tie had been wrapped around.
For ordinary people, tying them behind would be standard, but Espers were different. Depending on the ability they possessed, some activated with hand gestures. When detaining them, it was important to tie their hands in front and immediately block them if they showed any sign of trying to do something.
Chris raised his head and looked around all four sides of this barren place. It looked like an abandoned factory or warehouse, with surveillance cameras emitting red light at every corner.
He hadn’t expected such excessive effort would be put into restraining just one enhancement-type Esper.
Whether his awakening was transmitted through the camera to the other side, the door opened and someone walked this way.
At the regular stride and footsteps, Chris listened carefully.
It seemed he could know who the opponent coming to find him was without seeing their face. However, to postpone the moment of seeing this with his own eyes, he bowed his head deeply, when a shadow suddenly fell over his body.
“Did you enjoy running away from home?”
Yuri asked.
“Running away from home…?”
Chris slowly repeated those words.
Just because you hear with your ears doesn’t always mean you can understand with your head.
“That’s right, Danil.”
Yuri’s hand grabbed Chris’s chin and lifted his face.
The texture of leather touching his skin, the strong grip, and the dazzling lighting made him frown without realizing it. This entire situation seemed like a bad joke.
Both the fact that Yuri Magnolia, who’d transformed into a kidnapper, was actually Yuri Sobolev, and this situation where he was calling him Chris Danil.
He should deny it was absurd, but his lips didn’t budge as if glued with a glue gun.
The titles of the books he’d bought on Yuri’s recommendation at Magnolia came to mind. Also the word completed when reading only their first letters.
I D I O T
D A N I L
Idiot
Danil
Yuri had been giving hints and talking to him before he could even notice anything.
Chris finally looked up at the face of the man whose identity he’d come to know.
Without his glasses, he looked different from the expressionless owner he’d always met at the bookshop. He’d thought Yuri Magnolia’s purple eyes were like violets. However, Yuri Sobolev’s eyes, though the same color, felt like cold minerals.
Strangely, this felt more familiar.
Chris licked his lips, dry with tension.
“I don’t know what you mean. Mister Sobolev.”
Yuri’s brow narrowed slightly.
“I’m not Chris Danil, I’m Chris Northern Light.”
“…Masterful.”
Yuri swept over Chris’s face with narrowed eyes. Though his expression was calm, undisguisable displeasure could be felt in his gaze.
“If this is Rosenhower’s doing, I’d like to ask him how he managed it.”
Rosenhower?
It was a name he’d heard before. He’d seen his interview when joining the company. However, he couldn’t understand why the founder and former representative of the Esper Alliance, whom he’d never met face-to-face, was being mentioned from Yuri’s mouth.
“If you’re going to deny being him in front of me, you should have at least shown the sincerity to change your face.”
Yuri’s hand patted Chris’s cheek. Though he wore gloves, strangely all the hair on his body felt like it was standing on end.
Chris responded as calmly as possible while concealing his agitation.
“…You can’t say I’m Chris Danil based on face alone. There are more than one or two Espers who can change their appearance. And I can’t use telekinesis.”
The fact that S-rank Esper Chris Danil’s ability was telekinesis was widely known.
He’d learned this through the memoir of Solaria, an S-rank Esper who’d attempted to enter the Winter Continent.
The Chris Danil appearing in the records was an unparalleled powerhouse. Telekinesis itself had almost no compatibility issues, and his combat sense was outstanding, so he didn’t fall back even while facing multiple Espers simultaneously. Unlike typical elemental ability users specialized only in long-range attacks, he was also skilled in close combat and used telekinesis truly at the level of scooping water from the sea.
Northern Light had judged him as S-rank. However, Solaria’s assessment that his power could be considered outside the ranking system, considering that an ordinary S-rank Esper wouldn’t fall back against multiple Northern Light agents of the same rank but rather defeat them, drew criticism from many people. It was because she’d overrated the mafia’s dog too much.
However, the memoir of Solaria that Chris had encountered was based not on praising Chris Danil, but on the cold judgment that they needed to accurately grasp the enemy’s current status to devise countermeasures.
Solaria disappeared after publishing that memoir as her last act. Some said that the resilient Esper Solaria had made an extreme choice after losing both legs in the fight with Chris Danil and becoming pessimistic about her situation.
The Esper Alliance, repeatedly blocked by the watchdog every time they tried to cross the Winter Continent’s threshold, ultimately chose blockade.
“So?”
Yuri’s eyes gleamed meaningfully.
“Then what’s your ability?”
“I’m an enhancement-type with Beast Transformation ability. The Beast Transformation form is a wolf…”
“Try using it once.”
