Chris didn’t seem like the type of person who loathed Guides. Rather, he was more polite than any other Esper Luca had met. So perhaps he felt aversion to contact with others.
Having grown up as a Guide within Northern Light’s complete fence, Luca couldn’t even imagine that Chris felt revulsion toward Guiding itself.
He only felt faint guilt that he’d had to force contact Guiding for the other’s safety and public safety.
Luca stood up from his seat.
“We’re not very compatible. So always be careful. There’ll be limits to what I can help you with.”
Each time he saw Chris, his physical condition had worsened further. The drop was steep even among the Espers Luca had encountered so far.
Since it had been that way from the first time he saw him, he had no choice but to judge that Chris’s ability itself was on the unstable side. Therefore, the longer the stay on the Winter Continent and the more difficult Chris’s stabilization became, the more tense Luca grew.
Perhaps on the June Continent with many Guides, but on the November Continent where he was alone, returning an Esper who had entered the Rampage stage to normal would be impossible.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
The blunt man, awkward at expression, nodded his head earnestly. That’s why Luca’s eyes kept going to Chris. More than any other Esper with only a glib tongue, it seemed like all the words such a man handed over would contain weighty sincerity.
That would probably be a precious emotion beyond price.
Since his life had nothing to show off except awakening as a Guide and being discovered at an early age, Luca coveted such valuable things.
Affection received from a decent, outstanding man like Chris felt like it would elevate him to a more precious and valuable existence.
Chris stepped outside Northern Light’s branch without noticing the longing gaze the other person sent.
He was sorry to Luca, but that characteristic soft scent was hard to endure. He kept recalling the scent from Gentle Poison and Guiding Delight. That phantom smell (phantosmia) that obsessively chased Chris’s sense of smell to the point of seeming compulsive made his heart sink.
As if waiting for Chris’s agitation, the Guiding Delight in his coat pocket made a rustling sound. His fingers that had carelessly slid over that candy wrapper tensed.
The sensation of the foil crinkling was felt vividly at his fingertips.
Just one, wouldn’t just one pill be okay?
That much wouldn’t need to worry about addiction and he could feel comfortable…
Perhaps because of the nauseating lingering sensation of Guiding, he felt a more intense temptation than when he first encountered this scent. It was a kind of rebound.
Chris pulled his hand out of his pocket. Even knowing it was a crazy thought, he couldn’t believe he’d been swept up in that impulse for a moment.
It’s a means he mustn’t even attempt unless it’s truly the very last resort. No, even if it’s the last, he mustn’t touch this.
Hadn’t he learned what drugs were and what results they could bring? Though it’s said most drugs don’t work on Espers, Chris remembered that his body had shown a violent reaction from the moment he smelled Guiding Delight and Gentle Poison.
Looking at just the circumstances, there was a high probability that he before losing his memory had been exposed to Guiding Delight or Gentle Poison.
Putting away the unpleasant assumption, Chris headed toward his destination.
Though he’d checked the destination on his terminal in advance, the alleys of the 4th Ward, where residential areas and commercial districts were mixed, were complicated. It seemed even harder to find his way than in the 13th Ward with its completely abandoned factory district.
It was still midday and there were quite a few people coming and going. It was among the most bustling of Aurum’s various wards.
Who would have thought drug dealing would take place in the back alleys between people going to and from work and buildings that stood relatively decently?
As the saying goes that secrets are harder to find the more you hide them in obvious places, he thought perhaps the drug dealer had targeted that loophole. Rather than many people coming and going to a wasteland with nothing, it would be safer to bring customers into side streets off main roads where people come and go all the time.
Between old, aged buildings, new buildings protruded like misaligned puzzle pieces. Chris moved his steps into that landscape captured in one frame, discordant yet unavoidably so.
Unlike the back alleys of the abandoned factory district, the back alleys of Aurum’s 4th Ward were considerably clean and orderly.
Chris, who had already familiarized himself with the map by displaying a hologram beforehand, arrived at his destination without even showing signs of getting lost.
‘Is this it?’
Thinking he’d arrived faster than expected, he saw a building with a well-maintained exterior. However, there were prior customers.
People in dark-colored clothes surrounded the building. Some had turned their bodies toward the inside, making it look less like gatekeepers and more like a siege to prevent someone inside from escaping outside.
Something flashed from the half-broken upper window as if a flash had gone off. Since lightning couldn’t strike from a clear sky, it was definitely an Esper’s power.
‘White Night?’
The only organization on the November Continent that would chase after drug dealers like that and have that much manpower was Yuri Sobolev’s.
Therefore, Chris decided to hold his breath and watch the situation.
Chris, who had changed only his ears to a wolf’s, concentrated his hearing toward that direction as much as possible.
He felt footsteps echoing along the stairs of the abandoned building. How much time had passed? The door opened and a yellow-eyed man and a black-haired man walked out.
“… … Sobolev-nim… the drug dealer… from the 13th Ward… to the 8th Ward…”
Because he’d kept his distance to hide his presence, their conversation couldn’t be heard properly. However, the yellow-eyed man was clearly reporting to the black-haired man.
‘Sobolev…!’
The man called Sobolev-nim had black hair. Chris confirmed that the other person was a man with a rather rough impression, not a slender beauty like Yuri.
Even from this distance, his broad shoulders and height were no ordinary matter.
A black-haired, tall man.
It matched Yuri Sobolev’s description too.
Chris’s heart pounded. His physique was so different that it would be impossible to mistake him for the Yuri Magnolia he knew.
Then, as if feeling the gaze, the black-haired man turned his head. Chris hid his body by a hair’s breadth.
Whether because of tension or because he’d confirmed that Yuri Sobolev and Yuri Magnolia were separate people, his heart beat fast enough to get sick.
Their voices grew a bit louder. Chris quietly listened.
“By the way. Where did the hound our boss raises go?”
At the voice sneering while mentioning ‘boss,’ Chris recalled the yellow-eyed man. He was rather lacking in formality for addressing the organization’s leader.
“Please stop.”
“If Danil were still here, I wouldn’t be the only one running around until my feet hurt like this.”
Chris’s face became serious as he listened to the conversation the two were having. Though grumbling in a frivolous tone, the weight contained in the words he uttered was no ordinary matter.
‘Did Chris Danil really go missing? It’s not a smokescreen from Yuri Sobolev’s side?’
Though Northern Light’s side had already been half-convinced, this was cross-verified through the statement of someone presumed to be from White Night’s side. For a harvest obtained while searching for the drug dealer he was chasing to find Yuri Sobolev, it was decent.
When his companion drawled, the black-haired man presumed to be Yuri Sobolev snapped.
“Shut up.”
“Always telling me to shut my mouth.”
“Try being really quiet.”
That low tone held power that couldn’t be ignored.
“Because I think someone’s here.”
Silence descended in an instant.
Chris held his breath and tensed his leg muscles. Ready to bolt at any moment.
“That way. Chase them.”
The fishy voice seemed to carry the smell of blood that hadn’t even been spilled.
“Woof!”
The man who barked as if possessed approached the direction where Chris had been eavesdropping while holding his breath, as if running.
The moment he judged he’d been caught, Chris quickly curled up his body then dashed toward the outside of the alley. Something white flashed. That very light that had struck down inside the building. Feeling the smell of burning from behind, he thought an ability user using lightning was chasing him.
He dodged the lightning that had been chasing him playfully by truly a hair’s breadth. The other person clearly thought of this chase itself as amusement.
He could see bright light just ahead. It was the end of this alley. Chris grew urgent.
Not because the exit was right before him.
“Well then—”
It was because of the pursuer who wouldn’t hesitate to block his escape route.
Chris felt white lightning strike his body. He couldn’t avoid it this time.
In that instant, a panorama flashed by. Though he’d awakened having lost all memories, Chris had experienced truly many things during this short time.
Above all, Yuri, Yuri Magnolia. He wanted to see him.
Because it was an emotion not yet ripe, he hadn’t even tried to put it into words. Since they’d met in passing during the mission, he thought they could part that way. But the fact that if he was hit by electricity like this and dragged to White Night he’d never see Yuri again became despair and covered Chris.
‘Please!’
Moving his legs with his eyes tightly shut, Chris thought desperately.
