Striding forward, he entered the corridor side marked in red on the hologram Chris had seen.
It was a place where only the most severe among addicts were kept.
There were no beds. It would be troublesome if they rolled off while suffering from pain and fractured a bone or got a laceration somewhere.
At first, he’d laid soft mattresses connected on the floor, but the speed at which they were dirtied with all kinds of filth was faster than the speed of disinfecting them. So in the end, he laid thin sheets and laid people on top of them.
Those crawling, moaning, and dying here were all Espers.
Not knowing that the poison would strangle their own necks, among those who crawled into the rehabilitation center soaked in Guiding drugs, half lived, but the other half died.
Of the surviving half, those who succeeded in rehabilitation didn’t even reach half of that again. Nevertheless, Yuri endlessly pushed Espers into the treatment room.
For Yuri, Espers were beings whose lives or deaths he didn’t care about. No, he detested them to the point where there was even a time when he thought it would be better if they all disappeared. This was an emotion that had taken root deep in his soul. The moment he tried to pull it out, everything that constituted the human called Yuri would shake.
He released Guiding energy in the middle of the room. Most fainted at the peace that rushed in at the end of pain. However, a few looked toward the direction the energy flowed from with loosely opened eyes.
If they had the strength to stand up, some of them would run over and cling to Yuri. They would scratch his legs, grab his ankles, and bring their mouths to chew and swallow even his flesh.
It was also a scene he’d actually seen until he found out how much energy he needed to release to make them unable to move a muscle.
When Yuri, who went to pour Guiding energy on addicts at that time, returned with injuries, Chris secretly followed.
He burst out the moment Yuri was about to be bitten and strangled the breath of the Esper who crawled over and attacked like a zombie with telekinesis.
For Yuri, who had controlled his access because it would be troublesome if he brought a normal Esper planning to release Guiding energy and they went crazy and attacked, it was an unexpected incident.
‘Why do you repeat hurting yourself? Can’t you just kill them all?’
It was a question Chris threw while stepping on the fainted Esper, choking.
Chris, who remained a beast unable to become human living an isolated life, had only Yuri in his world. He had no awareness that Espers were his kind and only divided the world into humans who harmed Yuri and humans who were helpful.
Yuri didn’t correct that young beast’s blindness.
He just took Chris in and out of this room from then on. Chris endured Yuri’s Guiding each time and tied the Espers crawling toward him in place.
The wounds remaining on his body clearly decreased, but he was mentally devastated. The younger him despised and detested Espers… and feared them.
What Chris called self-harm was right. Nevertheless, Yuri continued releasing non-contact Guiding in the room where addicts were kept. Anyway, ordinary Guides couldn’t help them. Guides who didn’t have Chris Danil like Yuri would be thoroughly chewed to the bone in the gap between crazy Espers.
Work he’d done reluctantly at first in suffering gradually became familiar. Later it became so numb that it changed like the routine of an owner taking a dog for a walk.
Yuri, who learned through Chris how important something called imprinting was, always released Guiding in the room where the worst addicts were gathered.
How many would survive among these? And how many would become his dogs and volunteer to cooperate with White Night’s purpose?
If he picked just one person from this room, they would rip open their belly and lie down, volunteering to become Yuri’s second dog. But Yuri didn’t think he’d ever get used to walks with another dog.
After Chris disappeared, Yuri recalled the day he first passed through this dark corridor.
The shadow following behind disappearing was just empty, but when nothing happened even after finishing Guiding and coming out of the treatment room, Yuri realized something.
That he didn’t need Danil anymore.
That even without the dog that followed behind with heels slightly raised, killing even its breathing for fear of getting on his nerves, he could make any number of Espers kneel at his feet even without it protecting him.
Even though he’d gained power no other Guide possessed, his heart sank desolately.
The smaller Chris’s empty seat was, the easier it would be to fill it—it couldn’t help but be ridiculous.
“Sweet nightmares.”
Yuri left the room, leaving a farewell to the Espers who jerked their bodies but couldn’t get up.
Now he’d regained Chris halfway. If he just fixed his broken mind, they could go for walks together.
Yuri’s steps crossing the corridor full of gloomy treatment rooms were the lightest in recent days.
**Chapter 9. White Night**
“Isn’t my younger brother nice? It’s not even a difference of a few minutes but he calls me hyung. What if the midwife was an old woman with a bit of forgetfulness and remembered the order she received the babies wrong…”
The entire way, Chase rambled on and on. Especially about his younger brother Gwen, he seemed like someone who could talk endlessly.
His mouth wouldn’t rest at all, so Chris became a bit fed up. Though no memories of the past came to mind at all, he didn’t think his past self would have liked that man either.
Chris, who learned about the imprinting phenomenon, was so confused that he forgot his original purpose of finding an organization member from the rehabilitation center. Now that Chase’s chatter was added on top of that, he even thought he might actually be a psychic-type Esper.
“This way.”
Whether he saw through such Chris’s insides, Chase, who grinned, stopped in front of a door and knocked.
“Come in.”
Yuri’s voice was heard from inside. Chase stepped aside and politely gestured toward the door.
Feeling suspicion from that excessive attitude, Chris jerked his chin.
“You open it.”
“…You don’t fall for it.”
Chase grumbled that it would have been a bit thrilling if he’d touched it directly, then turned the doorknob. Judging from that attitude, he was convinced that if he’d grabbed it, his hand would have tingled to a degree that static electricity would seem cute.
“You don’t fall for it then or now.”
Eyes that felt cunning sparkled, then soon curved sharply drawing a smile.
“I’ll aim for the next opportunity, so be on guard.”
Chris ignored him and walked inside. Yuri was sitting in a chair processing documents. Chris, who saw him wearing glasses for the first time since waking up at White Night, froze in place.
It was hard to recall the man who had seemed delicate and a bit neurotic. Especially when thinking that was his vain delusion.
At the sound of the door closing behind him, Chris snapped back to his senses.
“You called for me.”
“Yes.”
When Chris opened his mouth, Yuri, who finally put down the document he was reading, said.
“How does it feel to confirm I’m not as much of a villain as you thought?”
“…I don’t know.”
“Well, it would be hard to judge seeing just one facet.”
The eyes narrowing beyond the glasses were cold.
After pausing for a moment, Yuri asked.
“Do you still want to return to Northern Light?”
Chris shut his mouth tight.
“If that happens, I have no intention of letting a traitor live.”
It was a voice that sounded like sharply cutting paper. In the end, it meant to offer his neck if he was going to Northern Light.
Chris, who organized what to say to Yuri, opened his mouth.
“I felt there’s a discrepancy between the world I’ve known and the facts I learned here.”
Northern Light was hiding something. It was also Northern Light’s system that ultimately created a wall between Espers and Guides.
Chris became curious why they hid the imprinting phenomenon, and whether they used Guides’ safety as the reason.
“I want to properly confirm that.”
“So return is on hold for now.”
Yuri muttered as if more interested in the result than Chris’s motivation.
“You’d be happy if I let you loose like this, but I’m not that soft. I’ll permit outings and investigation, so meet a psychic-type Esper and receive a restriction.”
“There are psychic-type Espers here too?”
Chris was a bit surprised at Yuri’s words. If there was something Northern Light valued as much as Guides, it was psychic-type Espers. Though there were security-related issues, the place psychic-type Espers were used most importantly was the communication network.
The Union found out that psychic-type Espers each had unique wavelengths and could resonate them. And through that resonance, they succeeded in restoring the circuits humanity of the old era used. The footage of the moment when communication was first attempted from the June Continent to the May Continent and succeeded was shown in the largest plaza of Joon City.
It was the first signal flare of restoring lost civilization.
With this as a turning point, many things changed. Civilians who had great hostility toward Espers until that time didn’t want to lose the restored communication network and changed their attitude toward Northern Light. Northern Light, which had been making efforts in various ways to improve perception of Espers, gradually increased their influence in society using this as an opportunity.
“…There are. Psychic-type Espers.”
Yuri answered in a desolate tone and brought his hand to his earpiece.
