It was bitter, but once you awakened your ability and became an Esper, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say the only way to live in the light was to join Northern Light.
If there had been tranquilizers that worked on Espers, the dependency on guides wouldn’t be as high as it is now.
[Mm.]
Andrea lowered her voice. Unlike her usual light and cheerful demeanor, she looked serious.
[It’s not that there are absolutely no drugs that work on Espers.]
“Pardon…?”
Chris couldn’t hide his surprise. Andrea carefully began.
[Heaven’s Kiss, Gentle Poison, Guiding Delight… There are various names, but they collectively call such things Guiding drugs. It’s almost like an urban legend.]
“Guiding drugs.”
The reason the relationship between Espers and guides is considered fate is because there’s no substitute. But to think Guiding drugs exist—the very premise changes.
“If such a thing exists, why does the union only rely on guides?”
Since he himself didn’t find Guiding very pleasant, Chris felt welcoming toward the existence of such drugs.
[I said it was an urban legend, didn’t I? That drug has never come into Northern Light’s possession. And Espers who take Guiding drugs all suffer from serious side effects.]
“Those side effects are addiction.”
[Yeah. The feeling of being intoxicated by drugs, symptoms of addiction… There are people who think such things were mistaken for Guiding effects. I wouldn’t have thought of something like Guiding drugs either if I hadn’t seen and heard things after coming here.]
This is literally a hypothesis, Andrea muttered with a deep sigh.
“But if there were no side effects, the advantages would be greater—isn’t such research being conducted?”
Chris asked repeatedly.
Guides rarely came outside Northern Light headquarters’ strict protection. In other words, there were no guides accompanying missions in the field. Because aside from being able to Guide, they were no different from ordinary people in every way.
But the moment Espers need Guiding most is precisely when they’re in the field. When they use their abilities and the burden rapidly crushes their bodies, they desperately need Guiding that can delay the pain even briefly. That’s why Luca came all the way to the November Continent with them on this mission, taking the risk.
But if there were drugs that could reduce the Guiding burden, that alone would make the Reeducation Center worth investigating.
Northern Light’s research institute, which gathered the most outstanding psychic-type Espers across all continents, could probably improve the drug within a few years.
[Northern Light hasn’t even seen the actual substance of Guiding drugs yet.]
Andrea smiled bitterly.
[I know what I’m saying sounds a bit crazy too. But there are a few trainees receiving addiction treatment who’ve been isolated on this side, and since you said it’s the same on your side, I just brought it up as a ‘what if.’]
Chris pieced together the fragments he’d learned so far based on Andrea’s explanation.
“If that assumption is true, then Yuri Sobolev has a monopoly on the chemical formula for Guiding drugs. And he releases Guiding drugs through the black market to addict unregistered Espers…”
Then lures them out under the pretext of providing rehabilitation treatment at the Reeducation Center. And absorbs them under his command.
Though it was an incomplete puzzle with many pieces still missing, he seemed to understand the general picture.
Chris hadn’t expected to resolve the doubt he’d felt about the rehabilitation treatment story he’d heard in the vehicle coming here this way, and he felt a bitter taste.
It seemed that without realizing it, he’d been feeling favorable toward that heinous mafia because of what he’d seen and heard while staying at the center. No, to be precise, he’d wished that this environment where so many people could receive help was built on a more stable foundation rather than cold calculations.
Because he’d thought of the middle-aged woman who’d recommended the Reeducation Center to him when he’d been wandering with nowhere to go. Thinking that the Reeducation Center, which would have been a last bastion or new opportunity for some people, was only being used as Yuri Sobolev’s tool naturally made his mood sink.
[There is something strange though.]
Andrea paused for a moment. Hesitation lingered in her eyes.
[No. It’s ridiculous to bring up such things now.]
Chris didn’t press Andrea further. The content of the conversation exchanged through communication now was on the rather dangerous side.
[For now, I’ll secure the complete lists of people the center side sent to hospitals, admittees, and graduates and compare them. Then we’ll know how many Espers have fallen into Yuri Sobolev’s clutches.]
Chris slowly nodded.
Though there were many people outside the November Continent who discussed the mafia’s fearfulness, what you saw and experienced when you actually jumped into the field was different.
“The staff shift time is soon. I’ll terminate the terminal, so send the investigation results as soon as they come o—”
The moment Chris said that, the hologram flashed red.
White text appeared on the red window that rose above Andrea’s face with unexpected bad news.
<Gillian, Aparna missing.>
***
2) The road appearing in <The Wizard of Oz>. At the end of the yellow brick road is Emerald City, where a wizard who grants wishes is said to live.
Chapter 4. D A N I I L
A letter from his uncle arrived for ‘Chris’ at the center. The content said his father was critically ill, so he should stay by his side.
It was a summons from Yont.
With a hardened face, Chris left the center receiving farewells from Nasthenka and those whose faces he’d become familiar with. His expression was a mess without needing to deliberately pretend.
He already knew that coming to the November Continent involved considerable danger. Since it was the mafia’s territory that even Northern Light had failed to uproot, entry itself was risking one’s neck.
However, ‘knowing’ that danger exists and the sensation when it takes form and appears before your eyes are different.
It felt as if hot blood was surging all the way to his fingertips. He could vividly feel it to the very last ends of his blood vessels.
He felt formless fear following closely at his heels. However, Chris’s blue eyes were closer to those of a resolute wolf rather than a rabbit full of fear.
Chris changed trams several times. He deliberately walked one stop to take a tram going the opposite direction and repeatedly confirmed the presence or absence of a tail. Even before Beast Transformation, he could borrow part of a beast’s senses, so Chris’s recognition range exceeded ordinary people.
The rendezvous point wasn’t Northern Light’s November Continent branch but District 1, the most prosperous area even in Aurum. In dangerous times like this, it was better to mix in among many people. If there was a tail, it would be easy to shake them off, and the noise created by the crowd could bury the conversation content.
Entering District 1’s employment agency, Chris casually skimmed a newspaper in front of the notice board as others did. Then a middle-aged woman wearing a gray beret approached. With a face that looked dejected and tired, she was looking at the notice board across from Chris. To anyone’s eyes, she was an ordinary person who appeared to be looking for work.
“The black sable took away the rose fruit.”
Yuri Sobolev had kidnapped Gillian and Aparna.
Chris’s blue eyes gleamed slightly as he immediately understood the other person’s words.
The rose symbolized one of the three founders who first formed an organization for Espers, before the Esper Union was reborn as Northern Light. Calling agents fruit was slang meaning the fruit born from the rose.
Since only Team Crow knew that Gillian and Aparna had gone missing, this was to prove their identity, so the other person must be Jay, an Esper with transformation abilities.
“Where is the crow’s captain?”
When Chris briefly asked about Yont’s whereabouts, Jay answered.
“He followed the sable’s footprints.”
It seemed that side had decided to continue the mission.
“Since spring is not far off, track the fruit’s seeds.”
While receiving orders conveyed in ambiguous words, a man who’d been looking for work on the notice board across from them clicked his tongue, perhaps not finding what he wanted, and approached this way.
Chris sighed deeply and spoke.
“Is there… any factory hiring people?”
What about the existing mission to enter the abandoned factory district?
Jay clicked his tongue and answered.
“All the factories in Aurum have failed. Young man, if you’re looking for work, it would be better to look for something other than factories. I hear all the factory managers are tightening their belts and squeezing only the workers. The economy is bad. Very bad.”
Lower priority. Andrea will cover for the time being.
Team Crow’s captain Yont’s orders were instantly transformed into ordinary conversation. The worker who’d been chattering about this and that in front of the notice board didn’t feel anything particularly strange about Jay and Chris’s conversation and scratched the back of his head before walking to the side.
Jay walked over to Chris’s side, pretended to unfold and flip through an advertisement flyer, then returned it to its original place.
Chris, who had deliberately kept his gaze away from him, picked up the flyer Jay had left behind after he left. Pretending to rummage through it looking for work while skimming its contents, he could find one clip Jay had cleverly hidden.
A Guiding token.
