Chapter 10. Andrea
Chris stopped abruptly as he stepped outside the door.
When Chris woke up at Northern Light, he was calm despite having lost all his memories. He hadn’t actively sought out his past either. After receiving a diagnosis that he was healthy enough to leave the hospital room, he immediately began training as an Esper for Northern Light.
The only thing the reawakened Chris obsessed over wasn’t memories of the past or present, but Guiding alone. It seemed he believed that if it became known he was an Irregular, Northern Light wouldn’t value him highly. His training peers couldn’t even guess he had suffered memory loss until he mentioned it first, and even after discharge, the doctor observing Chris’s prognosis found his adaptability remarkable.
The reason Chris could quickly find his balance was largely thanks to belonging to a stable organization. Just by layering the already established rules and their methods onto his body, Chris could pretend to be a normal person—or even better, a competent Esper.
However, the crime committed by Northern Light, the organization where he felt such belonging, left Chris stunned.
He knew that an organization that large couldn’t always do only the right things. In a world where humans live together, there’s more gray than black and white, and it’s not always possible to move according to set rules.
But actively committing crimes and covering them up as an organization—wasn’t that a different story?
Disillusionment rushed through his veins.
At this rate, even hiding the imprinting phenomenon seemed suspicious.
‘When I came to the November Continent, Yuri Sobolev was supposed to be the villain.’
Drug producer, human trafficker, Guide exploiter…
But once he entered the game, White Night didn’t fall into any of the categories Chris had thought.
How many of the justifications Northern Light used to publicly declare Yuri Sobolev an enemy and blockade the November Continent were actually true?
“Oh, you’re still here.”
Chase Dalton approached with his yellow eyes gleaming. He wore a good-natured smile, but Chris remembered this man endlessly pouring praises of his younger sibling into people’s ears. And testing him by running electricity through the door handle to see if he’d touch it first.
“The boss said we can let you out now and told me to help you prepare.”
Chase muttered as he swept his gaze up and down Chris.
“Hmm… My clothes would be too small for you, so it’d be better to borrow Logan’s.”
Logan?
The man he’d mistaken for Yuri before. He’d run into him before going to the addict section with Yuri.
“You saw him in Section 4 last time. The tall, black-haired guy next to me.”
Listening to Chase’s words alone made it feel like they’d just happened to run into each other on the street. Yet Chris had risked his life running from Chase.
Chris swallowed a sigh, recalling the golden current that had approached within inches, as if to snatch his ankle.
“Since you don’t remember, I’ll warn you in advance—Logan is a scary man.”
Chase chuckled.
“The boss dislikes touching people, so he prefers guns over hand-to-hand combat, but Logan rips people’s heads off with his bare hands.”
With that calm face, he rips people’s heads off.
No wonder he’d felt such an oppressive presence when he briefly saw him in front of the drug dealer.
“…Is he an Enhancement-type Esper?”
“No. A B-rank Guide.”
That would be impossible at Northern Light.
However, Chris was gradually getting used to how White Night operated. Though it worried him, it didn’t repulse him.
“If he’s a Guide, does that mean he fights ordinary people rather than Espers?”
“No. He’s more effective against Espers? If the physique is decent and the opponent isn’t a long-range attack type, it’s better to have an experienced Guide fight than deploy a mediocre Esper. If the matching rate is high and bare skin touches, they’ll wet themselves and their legs will give out.”
He was Gwen’s twin brother, but seemed like a completely different person from his sibling in every way except their face.
“Even aside from that, they have to worry about contact, so it’s also good for capturing alive rather than killing.”
“He is tall and has long limbs, so he’d probably have an advantage in close combat.”
“Right. He’s just like a bear. Not a slow bear though…”
Chase chattered on. But it was much more bearable than before. Back then, he had no idea how much energy had been drained in such a short time.
“Logan was originally a scrawny little kid too. Time is a scary thing.”
Was he this small? Chase frowned as he indicated Logan’s height when they first met with his hand.
Watching Chase talk about the passage of time with a face that looked similar in age to Logan, or perhaps even younger based on appearance alone, created quite a sense of dissonance.
“Here, this one.”
When he knocked on the door, a deep voice came from the other side.
“Who is it?”
“Chase and the puppy.”
Chris ignored Chase’s teasing words. He felt that reacting to them would only please the man. The room’s owner seemed to have similar thoughts, as something like a sigh could be heard from beyond the door.
Logan opened the door and revealed himself. Perhaps because the bangs he’d had up before were now down, compared to his large build, he gave an impression of being neat rather than menacing.
He was certainly almost as tall as Chris and had a similar build. He looked convincing enough to pass as an Esper at first glance. This was his first time seeing a Guide like this. Even Luca had a slender, willow-tree-like feeling, didn’t he?
“We came to borrow some clothes. The boss said we can let him out now.”
At those words, Logan stepped aside. Chris entered the room with the feeling of passing a gatekeeper.
The room was almost empty to the point of being desolate, with no particular furniture besides the bed. The only thing that caught the eye was a display cabinet taking up one wall, filled with all kinds of alcohol.
As the two entered, Logan closed the door, went to the nightstand beside the bed, and picked up the glass that had been sitting on it.
“Were you having a drink? Oh, whisky?”
His voice was so loud you’d want to hit mute if he were a speaker. Logan shook his head, and when his eyes met Chris’s, Chris realized he was thinking the same thing and nodded.
Seeing him greet him plainly in return, Chris had a feeling that he’d gotten along reasonably well with this side in the past. At least it was better than the fussy Chase.
“The closet’s over there.”
Chase, who went in the direction Logan pointed, rummaged through the closet as if he’d come to a pajama party. Logan leaned diagonally against the wall, tilting his glass as he watched what he was doing.
“This is too formal. This is also formal. That’s also formal…”
The more Chase flipped through the clothes hanging in the closet, the more his brow furrowed. Actually, to Chris’s eyes, they all looked like the same clothes.
“Wow… How can completely different clothes all look so similar?”
Chase uttered words that were either admiration or sarcasm, seemingly thinking similarly to Chris.
“If he goes out wearing this, people will recognize from a hundred meters away that he stole Logan’s clothes.”
“Open the one next to it.”
Logan, holding his glass, gestured with his chin.
Chase opened the sliding door next to the closet half-doubtfully. Chris was surprised by the parade of various weapons spread beyond it.
Combat knife, jungle knife, karambit, machete, jamadhar, balisong, kukri, ballistic knife, rondel dagger, jack knife…
Not a single gun was visible, but all kinds of blades were packed tightly in place. This side was more colorful and worth seeing than the closet.
And below that was a paper shopping bag that gave off a somewhat disparate feeling.
Chase realized why Logan had told him to open this side and immediately picked up the shopping bag. The man who checked inside grumbled.
“The boss already prepared something, so why did you tell us about the closet?”
“It’s fun.”
Logan replied with the most deadpan face in the world.
“Now that you’ve gotten what you wanted, get out.”
Taking a sip of whisky, Logan returned to the bed.
“You really do have a bad personality. We’ll be going then, see you tomorrow.”
Chase grumbled in a soliloquy meant for Logan to hear.
Chris wanted to see more of Logan’s collection but meekly accepted the sin of accompanying Chase and was chased out into the corridor. Chase thrust the shopping bag into Chris’s arms.
“There are shoes here, clothes too, let’s see… There’s even a hacked terminal.”
“A terminal?”
Chris looked at him with a slightly surprised expression.
“You weren’t the only Northern Light agent who infiltrated the November Continent. Sometimes items get released to the black market… If you have that, you’ll be able to receive contact from this side. Oh, of course you can connect to Northern Light’s network too, but I don’t recommend it.
“They’ll have figured out all the dispatched agent terminal codes, so the moment you connect, they’ll immediately realize you’re a traitor.”
