Chapter 35
“Well, if both of you are going to run away, I’ll have to dig into the truth by myself.”
When Kim Haewon didn’t respond quickly, I poked at Nam Ihyeon. Then Nam Ihyeon immediately shouted like computer data spitting out results.
“You keep saying run away, run away. Who ran away? I was just annoyed, that’s all.”
“Then this time you can dig into it together with me. Fine. Esper Kim Haewon, you can go now.”
Kim Haewon looked at Nam Ihyeon and me with a stern expression, then continued speaking.
“Whether it’s true or not, we have to report it to the Esper Bureau. Hypnotic abilities are very dangerous.”
“Hey. Are you stupid? There might be spies in that Esper Bureau.”
Nam Ihyeon spoke to Kim Haewon as if he was dumbfounded. Kim Haewon continued speaking as if he wasn’t shaken at all. However, his words were full of emotion.
“But without any evidence, just based on suspicion, we could trouble a D-class esper. With very personal feelings of wanting to clear someone’s false accusation?”
That was criticism directed at me. At the emphasized phrase ‘very personal feelings,’ I bit my lip. Since I couldn’t say I knew about future events through the novel, I had to speak carefully.
“What if I catch evidence?”
“How?”
Nam Ihyeon asked back curiously. Kim Haewon quietly stared into my eyes without saying anything, then continued.
“If you’re thinking of doing something dangerous, stop.”
“What if with slightly dangerous actions, I could prevent more dangerous and terrifying disasters that will come?”
“Park Garam-ssi.”
“It won’t be that dangerous…”
“No.”
Kim Haewon was firm. But just because he said no didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do it. Anyway, in two days, Jeong Sanghyeop was supposed to come find me.
“If you’re that worried, then both of you help me.”
“……”
“In two days, Esper Jeong Sanghyeop will come to see me.”
“How do you know that?”
Nam Ihyeon asked. I pondered deeply about how to explain that, then brought my finger to my forehead and continued.
“Intuition?”
“Are you kidding?”
“I’m not kidding.”
Kim Haewon turned around as if he found watching the two of us pathetic. But he didn’t leave the hospital room. It seemed like leaving Nam Ihyeon and me behind bothered him. There didn’t seem to be any special meaning. He was just very strict about the morality required of paired guides. He would have treated anyone the same way, not just me.
“No, don’t you have some kind of evidence? Is it really just intuition?”
Just as Nam Ihyeon continued speaking as if he was dumbfounded, a knock-knock sound was heard. The person who opened the hospital room door was Manager Kang Muwon from the Management Department.
“Uh…? E-everyone was here having a friendly chat? I guess you became much closer while clearing the gate. Haha.”
Seeing that Kim Haewon and Nam Ihyeon were there, he seemed a bit flustered and stepped back. I quickly asked about his business.
“Manager, what brings you here?”
“Ah, well, Esper Jeong Sanghyeop said he wanted to visit you directly and express his gratitude.”
At Kang Muwon’s words, I shot up from my seat. Kang Muwon seemed a bit startled and stepped back. He stuck only his neck forward and continued.
“He seems to want to apologize to Guide Han Miyeon who got involved because of him, but visiting her is difficult. So he said he wanted to convey his apology to another guide at least.”
Kim Haewon and Nam Ihyeon looked at me with surprised expressions, and I pointed to my head with my finger and said.
“I told you my intuition came.”
When I grinned broadly, only Manager Kang Muwon, who didn’t understand what was going on, tilted his head while looking at us.
“Intuition?”
“It’s nothing. Tell him to come. When is he coming?”
“Well, that is…”
Kang Muwon took out a notebook from inside his jacket, checked it, and continued.
“He asked if the day after tomorrow around 2 o’clock would be okay. He’s also hospitalized but said he’ll be discharged by then.”
Even the date was perfect. I looked at Kim Haewon and Nam Ihyeon with a triumphant expression. Nam Ihyeon laughed as if he found it interesting, and Kim Haewon’s expression had become a bit darker. I answered toward Kang Muwon.
“Good. Tell him to come then.”
“Yes, thank you. Management Department staff won’t come separately. Please be kind to him. With this gate incident, there’s been a lot of internal turmoil in the 32 Esper Nations, so he’s a friend who’s been through a lot of emotional hardship.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll treat him well.”
I’ll mess him up good.
I thought that to myself while even nodding. As soon as Kang Muwon heard the answer, he left the hospital room so fast his tail might have fallen off. As soon as the hospital room door closed, Kim Haewon opened his mouth.
“How do you know?”
“I told you my intuition came.”
“Hey, stop joking around.”
Nam Ihyeon interjected as if telling me not to talk nonsense.
“Stop using informal speech. You young bastard always uses informal speech. Huh?”
When I pointed accusingly, Nam Ihyeon grabbed that finger, shook it, and continued.
“Yes, hyung. I won’t use informal speech. So hurry up and tell us. I’m dying of curiosity right now.”
Kim Haewon approached and knocked Nam Ihyeon’s hand away. Nam Ihyeon obediently let go, and I continued with my arms crossed.
“Think about it. When they put drugs in Esper Nam Ihyeon, what would happen if they mixed in something like ability-restricting drugs? Then who do you think would suffer the most damage?”
“Me?”
“Wrong. It’s Esper Kim Haewon. During the last four-directional gate incident, an injured S-class esper appeared, right? This time, the Association’s most famous S-class esper had problems. Then the Association would naturally dispatch an SS-class esper to gates that S-class espers could handle. Since there’s an SS-class esper in our country.”
“……”
I looked at Kim Haewon. Kim Haewon still seemed lost in thought. I continued slowly.
“I’m still the only guide who can stop Esper Kim Haewon’s rampage. Once they deal with me, it would become easier to deal with Esper Kim Haewon too. They’d just need to open a few more gates.”
“Isn’t that too fantastical an interpretation? Even though there are many suspicious aspects about the four-directional gate being naturally occurring, we can’t be 100% certain it was an artificial gate.”
Kim Haewon tried to look at the problem objectively. I couldn’t answer that it wasn’t written that way in the novel, so I pursed my lips. Then Nam Ihyeon continued.
“The monster conditions were strange too. Hell Mouse and Under Dragon… It’s been years since I’ve seen those. Do they come out that easily? The undead too. They had no attack power whatsoever but were exactly like those roly-poly toys. They’d fall down and get back up, fall down and get back up.”
Once one person thought something was strange, even trivial details that had been overlooked would start to bother them. And when those things gathered and grew, errors would reveal themselves.
Nam Ihyeon continued as if this was strange and that was strange too. Kim Haewon, who had also participated in judging the guide rankings, seemed to agree to some extent as he remained silent. After pondering for a while, Kim Haewon continued calmly.
“Let’s pretend this never happened.”
“What?”
“If this is true, then a sting operation would be more dangerous. If Esper Nam Ihyeon was affected, it probably wasn’t D-class ability.”
“Geez! How frustratingly stubborn! The evidence is coming to us on its own feet right now! And I’m not doing this without a plan.”
I took out the item from the drawer. It was my own protective shield prepared to stop Jeong Sanghyeop. Nam Ihyeon looked at the item and immediately picked it up.
“What’s this? Glasses? What? Are your eyes this bad?”
Nam Ihyeon tried them on once, then screamed and threw the glasses away.
“That can’t be. Both eyes are 1.8.”
My secret weapon was glasses with the wrong prescription. The reason was simple. It was to avoid falling under hypnosis.
“The absolute condition for hypnotic ability is making eye contact. It’s absolutely necessary for gazes to meet clearly, even for just one second. That’s why looking at old battle logs, they didn’t deploy hypnotic ability espers against monsters without eyes.”
“So you prepared these ridiculous glasses?”
“I can’t wear an eyepatch. They’ve actually used this method to block psychic-type espers’ abilities before. According to this data, it shows the effect is definite.”
“It’s pathetic.”
Kim Haewon spoke coldly. He really seemed to have mastered the art of deflating people. I sighed deeply. Kim Haewon continued speaking regardless.
“Do you really think you can face a psychic-type esper with such a makeshift method?”
“No, that’s why I called you two, isn’t it?”
“……”
“The greatest espers in South Korea.”
Kim Haewon seemed not to have expected my answer and closed his mouth. As Kim Haewon said, it might indeed be impossible if I were alone. But if an SS-class and S-class esper joined together, the story would be different. Very different.
When I looked at them with eyes suggesting we try something fun together, the two looked at each other. As if telling the other to decide first what to do. But I could tell even if no answer came out.
These two main characters of this novel would definitely join my plan. Because such ‘intuition’ had come to me.
‘This is how novels become interesting.’
The ‘intuition’ of a web novel enthusiast.
