Fair Guide 48

However, he was worried about the physical fitness score and combat-related exams.

A grueling process awaited Jiwon, who had below-average physical strength for a regular person.

Still, Jiwon absolutely had to complete it and become a field guide.

It was so that when Seo Gangwoo, who couldn’t receive guiding from other guides and for whom guiding substitute medicine had developed resistance and no longer worked, went to dungeon gates that took days or even weeks to conquer, he could act as a field guide.

The Center would assign work according to Seo Gangwoo’s condition, but if a high-grade dungeon gate occurred, eventually Seo Gangwoo, as an S-rank Esper, would also participate in the conquest.

* * *

“Aaahh~~.”

Jiwon screamed weakly.

“Hey there! Your posture is falling apart. Straighten your back, lift your legs more, more, more! That’s right, let’s do three more like this. One!”

Standing right next to Jiwon, who was struggling and barely performing the movements, Guide Lee Woojin counted.

Guide Lee Woojin had once been a promising professional soccer player, but just before his team admission was decided, he manifested as a guide and entered the Center, working as a field guide while also handling field practical training education.

“Three! Good job. Just one more to finish!”

“Ugh! You clearly said up to three….”

“Good! Your posture is great right now. One more!”

“I’m doing it…”

“You can do it, you got this, you got this!”

“I already did it!”

Someone save me.

Guide Lee Woojin instilled will in Jiwon, who was desperately shaking his head saying he couldn’t do it, and managed to make him do one more.

“Now! This time is really the last! Seeing you talk, you can do one more.”

“Waah! Woojin-hyeong.”

Whether it was because of Jiwon’s wailing or he had originally planned to go up to here, fortunately the villain’s chant of “one more!” stopped.

“Huff, huk, heup.”

Out of breath up to his chin, panting heavily, Jiwon collapsed.

“Let’s catch your breath for a moment and stretch.”

He didn’t even have the strength to answer now.

A moment later, Woojin grabbed Jiwon’s hand, sat him up, and had him stretch.

“Still, your stamina has increased compared to the beginning.”

Woojin, recalling when Jiwon first received field practical training education, shook his head.

When he had him do light running, he was shocked when he panted after running for 1 minute as if he had run for an hour. Jiwon had no muscles at all and his stamina crawled along the bottom.

After hearing that his body had been weak since childhood, Woojin finally understood and was adjusting the training stages to match Jiwon, gradually increasing his stamina and strength.

Thanks to that, now he could endure at least 10 minutes of light running even if it was difficult, and he could increase the number of repetitions of basic exercise movements.

“It, it increased?”

“Yeah, but even so, it’s not even up to the average for regular people.”

“Uhhh…”

At Woojin’s words that cut to the quick, Jiwon, who had raised his head full of hope, dropped his head back down.

“Pfft, don’t be disappointed. What’s important is that you’re improving! Don’t skip exercising at home either.”

“Okay.”

After Seo Gangwoo returned to duty, both of them had to end their secluded life where they stayed holed up at home and rarely came out.

Jiwon came to the Center on weekdays to receive education in order to get his field license, and Seo Gangwoo also received and handled small missions one by one.

When he had no missions, Seo Gangwoo accompanied Jiwon to the Center and did personal training. Thanks to that, the door of the S-rank Esper training facility opened for the first time in 10 years.

Except for when he first manifested as an Esper, because no guide with a matching rate appeared, he couldn’t even train, so his personal training room had remained empty. Now Jiwon was doing guiding for him every day, so there was no worry even if he trained sufficiently.

So it was usually a repetition of a schedule where Jiwon, after struggling through his workout, showered in the private room, rested a bit, had lunch together with Seo Gangwoo who returned from training, and went to attend theory education.

Guide Bae Hyeonji, who had been his first education instructor after manifestation, was also handling field license theory education.

From Jiwon’s standards, after doing intense exercise and even eating lunch, his body was tired and sleepy, making it hard to concentrate on class, but he listened to class diligently, putting strength in his eyes for passing the license.

In class, he learned about types and habits of monsters, attack methods, weaknesses, and grasped topographical characteristics.

Also, there was considerable content to learn, such as guidelines for guides to follow by field, field guiding tips, emergency response, code of ethics, and rescue requests.

Still, Jiwon was confident in studying. Since his practical score would be on the edge, he had to get a perfect score on theory.

Like that, today too, after finishing class and reviewing in the private room, Jiwon took out his work tablet.

Though he didn’t accept many because guiding his pair Seo Gangwoo was the priority, he did guiding work whenever he had time when he came to the Center.

He looked at the list of Espers that appeared and approved them in order of highest gauge. The higher the gauge, the more urgent the guiding, but guides often avoided such Espers, so even with high gauges, there were often long waiting times.

The Center was also aware of this problem and recommended the approval order to guides, but it couldn’t be forced.

At least Jiwon took care of that part to some extent whenever he came to the Center, so the stagnation of Espers with high gauge numbers decreased significantly.

This morning too, before going to exercise, he had guided two Espers with gauge levels in the 80% range.

As the pair of S-rank Esper Seo Gangwoo, his basic mandatory performance had disappeared, so he didn’t need to guide other Espers, but Jiwon couldn’t just pass by when he saw the waiting Espers on his work tablet. In the end, Jiwon decided to do guiding for Espers within the Center within limits of not overdoing it.

Jiwon, who had diligently moved and finished his schedule, checked the message at the sound of his phone ringing. It was a contact from Seo Gangwoo saying he finished his conquest mission and arrived at the Center and was coming.

Jiwon packed his bag firmly, slung it over his shoulder, and left the private room. He came down to the lobby, stopped by Cafe Ellin, and bought colorful macarons and a strawberry tart that he had asked to be packaged in advance.

“Jiwon, are you going home now?”

“Minhyeok-hyung, Gayeon-noona, hello. Have you been well?”

Two Espers who were entering from the entrance and discovered Jiwon approached. They were spatial-type Esper Lee Minhyeok and flame-type Esper Lee Gayeon.

The two had a good matching rate with Jiwon, so they guided frequently and had become close enough to call each other hyung and noona. Coincidentally, both were in Esper Team 1, the same affiliation.

“Jiwon, noona had a hard time. This bastard Minhyeok made a mistake inside the gate, so I had to do all the cleanup.”

“Ahem, hmm! People make mistakes too, isn’t that being too harsh? You also completely burned down the base camp tent before.”

“What you punk?! To your noona… %$* * ** * *^$.”

“Aaak, stop it, stop, Jiwon is here too! I said it hurts~!”

“If it hurts then don’t hit me, you bastard!”

“Haha, did you come back from a dungeon?”

Jiwon, who was watching the two bickering, approached Gayeon and held out his hand. Gayeon, who happily grabbed the outstretched hand, calmed her anger with Jiwon’s guiding.

“Uhhh… I can live now. Lee Minhyeok, you bastard! Know that you’re alive thanks to Jiwon!”

“Anyway, that temper…”

“What?!?!”

“I’m saying our Gayeon-nim is amazing. Jiwon, you know what? A while ago, nim cleaned up after our team’s rookie caused an accident, and as soon as the conquest ended, a call came for another nearby gate, and without a moment’s hesitation, she immediately supported and ran there, you know? Her character is really exceptional~. She’s a big-hearted person, a big-hearted person!”

It was Lee Minhyeok speaking with a cheeky smile to Lee Gayeon who yelled after deliberately grumbling loudly. Gayeon, who had been glaring fiercely at such a Minhyeok, changed her expression in an instant and looked at Jiwon.

“Is Jiwon waiting for Esper Seo Gangwoo?”

“Yes. Hehe, he said he’ll arrive soon.”

“You two stick together like glue. It’s nice to see. Good.”

At Gayeon’s words, Minhyeok also nodded as if agreeing.

These days, especially Center 1 Espers looked fondly at the sight of Jiwon and Seo Gangwoo going around together.

Because Seo Gangwoo’s appearance of suffering from guiding wasn’t entirely someone else’s problem, as fellow Espers they were glad about Jiwon’s appearance with a good matching rate.

“Since Jiwon came, we’ve been seeing Esper Seo Gangwoo at the Center often these days too. Before, he didn’t come to the Center much, we’d only occasionally run into him during conquests.”

“Right. I didn’t see him except very occasionally going to the research building. These days, I see him often at the training building too.”

“Oh, I saw him too!”

“Because of that, the Center atmosphere has kind of changed lately.”

“Atmosphere?”

Jiwon’s head tilted, unable to grasp what they meant.

“Yeah. Even if it seems like nothing, the sense of stability is different. Even if we pretended otherwise, Esper Seo Gangwoo was one of Center 1’s anxiety factors, but that part was settled after Jiwon came.”

“Ah…”

It was something Jiwon hadn’t thought of.

All this time, S-rank Esper Seo Gangwoo’s unstable state hadn’t remained just a personal problem but had been affecting all of Center 1 knowingly or unknowingly.

“Right. It’s none other than an S-rank Esper who couldn’t properly receive guiding and was a risk management target…. I didn’t think I was concerned about it before either, but only after seeing Esper Seo Gangwoo and Jiwon together did I realize. That I was considerably concerned.”