If not Jay, who could change his appearance, tails would be caught a hundred out of a hundred times.
“……Yes.”
Knowing this fact well, Jay nodded with a slightly displeased face. Though he had the ability to transform freely, he couldn’t like entering dangerous areas. Jay was someone whose tendency was to prioritize protecting his own body above all.
Still, since getting himself out was his specialty, he didn’t refuse the order that came down from his direct superior.
“Ahmed, and Skild, receive guiding.”
Yont took out the scheduler on his terminal and designated guiding for the two while speaking. Ahmed stood up from his seat first.
While Skild waited for her turn, Jay and Federico scattered to rest.
Yont was also one of those who remained in place. He tapped his terminal while lost in thought.
‘This is troublesome.’
Chris’s disappearance weighed on him more heavily than Gillian’s or Aparna’s disappearances. In fact, it was absurd for a newly hired rookie to enter Team Crow, and moreover to be dispatched to the November Continent. Though he’d shown remarkable results, in the end this was an agent whose first official mission this could be called. Chris’s memories were even in an unstable state.
Yont was a veteran with diverse experience, and had no intention of coming to the Winter Continent where mafia lurked with such a rookie.
But orders came down from above. To have Chris Northern Light join the team and carry out this mission.
Though he thought he couldn’t understand the thinking of those above, Yont followed that order. Chris had done his work very well throughout. Until just recently, he’d even admired the superior’s eye for boldly employing an agent with special circumstances and background.
However, Chris had ultimately fallen into danger.
Yont absolutely couldn’t be optimistic that he’d return alive. This was the land of that infamous Yuri Sobolev.
‘Since an agent directly dispatched by order has gone missing like this, Rosenhower-nim will be dejected.’
Yont was truly regretful. Both that a promising agent would lose his life like this, and that Rosenhower, who could be called the spiritual pillar of the Esper Union, would blame himself for driving a young talent he’d noticed to death.
‘Come back alive, Chris.’
For a young person, and moreover for someone who had only about two years of life memories, Chris was seasoned, and his quick responses often shone in various moments.
Yont prayed that this time too, that ability would lead Chris to escape.
“I’ll be going.”
As if she’d received a call message, Skild stood up from her seat. Yont curtly nodded to her.
Skild strode toward the guiding room. Though she’d been blind from birth, since she’d input the internal structure into her terminal the day she first arrived at the branch, it notified her with vibration when she approached walls.
Moreover, she was an Esper with keenly developed senses, so she benefited from that. Though she couldn’t distinguish objects far away, she could sense and avoid obstacles right in front of her at least.
It was the result of constant effort.
Arriving in front of the guiding room and going through a scan, Skild entered inside. She could feel a sweet scent like cotton candy. Perhaps because Luca had guided Ahmed earlier, it seemed the afterglow lingered around the area. Skild, whose perception was more developed than most Espers, often felt a distinctive scent or atmosphere in places where guiding had occurred.
“Hello.”
Skild greeted and sat down. Luca didn’t bother to stand up and pull out a chair for her. It was because he’d learned Skild’s tendencies during the past several meetings.
“I’ll begin guiding.”
Fatigue was embedded in Luca’s voice as he immediately resumed guiding. It seemed he’d expended a lot of concentration on consecutive guidings. This was why guiding received later was uncomfortable. Perhaps because they were in a position of being protected from the harsh external environment, guides were generally fragile and lacked patience.
A slight regret slowly melted into the sweet sensation transmitted from their touching hands. It was a sensation similar to lying still on a trampoline while small rabbits hopped around nearby. It gently wrapped the ends of taut nerves and eased the stiffened body.
‘Ah.’
I feel like I can live.
Feeling the sweet scent grow stronger, Skild gradually soaked into this comfortable happiness. Though he was a low-grade guide, the compatibility wasn’t bad, so the satisfaction was high compared to the insufficient guiding.
An alarm flowed from the pre-set clock that the meeting with the guide would end in five minutes. While swallowing her regret and checking if her energy had properly stabilized, the other guide suddenly spoke to her.
“Isn’t that person coming? Chris-ssi.”
“Ah, Chris is……”
Skild trailed off, feeling a bit awkward. Luca’s face hardened as he sensed something ominous.
As the guiding energy fluctuated, Skild swallowed a sigh. Though she couldn’t see Luca’s face, she could feel through their clasped hands that he was tense.
“I-I’m not trying to pry into mission details or anything. It’s just that when we last met, he was experiencing energy imbalance. So it seemed like he’d run short on guiding soon, but there’s still no news……”
Luca began to explain at length.
News from outside tended to arrive late to the space where guides stayed. There was no reason to suspect the guide in the first place. They were people who lived under stricter surveillance than the Espers who came and went from the building. There was no opportunity itself to join hands with the mafia or leak internal information.
She was just worried if it was okay to bring up such a story and shake the fragile guide’s heart.
After hesitating for a moment, Skild opened her mouth.
“Agent Chris has gone missing.”
Hearing this, Luca’s face turned pale.
***
8) Dying from lack of blood due to severe bleeding. Or such a death.
9) Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose 10) Slang referring to hallucinogenic effects from drugs. The phenomenon of seeing painful and frightening hallucinations.
Chapter 7. The Color of a Naked Man
Let’s escape.
Chris came to a conclusion. He had to run away from here.
His gaze quickly examined the cable ties. Though they were bound in multiple overlapping layers, it wasn’t impossible to try untying them. If he misjudged his strength, his arms might fracture, but now was the time to attempt even risky moves. Half-hearted hesitation led to failure.
The reason he wanted to escape from here as quickly as possible was none other than Yuri’s guiding.
He felt like he’d become addicted.
Every time he came and went, and every time he poured guiding energy into him, Chris was repeatedly shocked.
He’d never received guiding to this degree before. Normally, guiding at Northern Light consisted of a guide pouring out energy for a set period of time and then ending.
Until experiencing Yuri, Chris hadn’t known he could absorb this much guiding energy. The guiding that rushed in like pouring water into a bottomless jar intoxicated him with an endless sense of elevation.
At the same time, the pleasure that followed each guiding session was taming Chris. At first, it seemed countless worries and thoughts remained, but his brain was gradually becoming soaked in guiding. Thinking long-term became difficult, and only the desire to stay here grew.
As the guiding repeated, Chris could understand what the “leash” Yuri mentioned was, as his desire to escape became choppy and faint.
He was afraid of Yuri.
Because it seemed he’d never be able to receive guiding from any other being again.
He had to run away before being tamed further.
Chris brought his arms forward. Fortunately, his arms weren’t tied to the chair. The shoes he was wearing now had no laces, so he couldn’t saw through the cable ties to break them.
Bowing his head, Chris bit the cable ties with his teeth and tightened them harder. He could feel the texture of the cable ties, which had already bound his arms quite firmly, digging into his flesh as if to cut it.
Chris’s blue eyes gleamed coldly after repeating the same task several times.
‘I’ll finish it in one go.’
If he hesitated clumsily or was reluctant to apply force, he’d only injure his bones. Injuries in a situation where he needed to flee were fatal.
After finishing his simulation by moving his arms back and forth several times, he raised his arms upward with his clenched fists touching each other. The muscles in his arms tensed and the fabric of his shirt grew taut.
Chris, who had raised his hands to an appropriate height, pulled them down toward his stomach in one swift motion. With a snap, the cable ties that had been strangling his wrists burst off.
“Phew……”
Once the restraints that seemed impossible to escape were released, Chris checked the condition of his wrists. Though they were sore, he didn’t feel significant pain. Fortunately, though red lines had been drawn, he hadn’t suffered fractures or abrasions.
After massaging his freed wrists several times, Chris untied the cable ties that had bound him to the chair legs and stood up.
Straightening his disheveled clothes, he moved in the opposite direction from the door Yuri used to come and go through. He’d definitely heard something like wind sounds from this direction.
