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Lately, I had been thinking that my body felt a bit tired.

“You haven’t had a fever or felt dizzy or anything like that?”

“I think I might have… or maybe not.”

But in fact, looking back, there hadn’t been a single day since I started this job that my head and body weren’t tired. Since getting older, I had been living day by day as if just barely surviving. After work, I would pass out as if fainting, and when morning came, I would become a zombie who only had its eyes open—I had been regularly living the routine of an extremely ordinary office worker.

“But isn’t it hard to see just that as a manifestation symptom?”

“That’s true. However, there are occasionally people who manifest with just that. It seems your case is like that as well. You see this graph here? This is the guiding wavelength. This wavelength doesn’t usually come out of normal Espers. You’re well aware of this, right?”

The doctor belonging to the Center’s medical wing continued the explanation with a good-natured smile. From that eye-smile, I could even catch a glimpse of a firm will that would not accept any objections.

Graphs do not lie. And that graph came from an expensive guiding meter that was brought in at a high price from the US, for which a rental fee of 3 billion won was paid every year.

In the past, they used a somewhat crude method of gripping a stick-like handle and measuring the guiding through the wavelengths coming from the hands, but that machine supposedly uses high-frequency current to stimulate the guiding energy inside the body and measures the amount escaping outward, or something like that.

Anyway, it was said to reflect cutting-edge science and technology, producing the most precise and accurate results among machines currently existing on Earth.

And I am currently in the middle of denying the results that machine brought out.

“But… but I’m an Esper.”

That’s right. I am an Esper. And an S-class mental-type Esper, one of only three in the country at that. Thanks to that, I entered the Center without any other options and have worked as the Center’s servant all this time.

“Mister, when was the last time you received guiding?”

Guiding? When did I receive guiding… I only remember my secretary being persistent about having to set a guiding schedule.

“Just a moment.”

I took the scheduler out of my pocket and checked the guiding schedule. Since I’ve had a lot of work lately, I probably would have received it about a week ago as a matter of course.

…But why isn’t it there?

“Uh…”

With a low groan, I flipped a few more pages forward in the scheduler. Only then did I see a day checked in red.

“It seems like… a little over a month ago.”

“You must have been working while continuously consuming guiding during that time; what about pre-rampage symptoms?”

The sound of the doctor’s typing grew faster. I had a strong feeling that my case would be permanently preserved in the Center’s basement archives as a unique case.

“There were… none. Probably.”

“Hmm, then it seems the guiding had already been leaking out little by little since then.”

Unbelievable. No matter how busy work was, how could I stupidly miss that cycle? It was absurd even to me.

Normally, if my physical condition got even slightly bad, I would think about going to get guiding, but for the past month, truly, truly not for a single moment did the thought of guiding occur to me. As an Esper, it was practically a dereliction of duty.

I do carry a rampage controller, but what if guiding had been depleted and I had rampaged without even noticing?

“Well, from now on, you won’t necessarily have to go to receive guiding. Since you’ve become able to do guiding yourself.”

“Then is it… like I’m self-charging with my own guiding?”

“Yes, well.”

“So you’re saying I’ve become a perpetual motion battery now?”

“Metaphorically… I guess that would be it?”

Wow. I’ve achieved something that no scientist in this world has managed. My body is a perpetual motion battery. To be able to infinitely charge myself.

It was maddening. Doesn’t this mean I’ve become a slave who can be worked to the bone without even being fed?

“By any chance, because of this, my workload won’t significantly increase or anything unreasonable like that, right?”

“Ah, regarding overtime, you will follow the Guide Labor Act. For Guides, overtime is strictly limited to maintain guiding quality.”

That was the only tempting thing I had heard so far.

“Actually, since it’s the first time in the history of the Republic of Korea’s Center that a ‘Multi’ has appeared, I think the details will come out as a result of a meeting.”

“…I see.”

“Furthermore, since you are in a state of being imprinted with another Esper, it’s exceptional in many ways.”

“I… guess so.”

Crazzzzzzy. I swallowed a curse inside.

What’s the problem? Everything from one to ten was a problem.

First of all, I originally had no intention of imprinting with anyone. If possible, I wanted to just suck on guiding drugs until I died and die lonely in my solitary room. It’s a bit of an extreme expression, though.

And secondly, I only just now found out that I became a Guide. Actually, this is the most absurd part.

Finally, thirdly, the Esper who imprinted on me is Kang Juha. He is an S-class combat-type Esper who ranks within the top five in the entire Republic of Korea Center, and he is the person who returned only three months ago and actually filled out a ‘Resurrection Report.’

For the record, I was the one who filled out that report for him.

I went to the trouble of saving that crazy guy, and instead of repaying the favor, he committed the terrible act of imprinting!

༘⋆

3 months ago.

I was having a very, very, very busy day, same as usual. First, as soon as I got to work, I downed a cup of iced americano, stopped by the interrogation room to perform information gathering through light interrogation of the prisoners the proud Esper troops had caught, and then took a walk around the Center grounds to cool my heated head.

The Center, which was pointlessly and damnably big and wide, was good for walking around while lost in thought. While walking leisurely like that, I caught the eye of the Director of the National Security Bureau who was looking out the window, and I ended up drinking red bean tea in the Director’s office.

Ah, of course, up to this point, there was no special meaning. We just played about three rounds of Old Maid on the condition that we wouldn’t read each other’s thoughts. I preferred playing Old Maid while reading thoughts, but sometimes it wasn’t bad to feel like an ordinary person like this.

And just when all three rounds had ended in my victory.

Ringggg— Ringggg—

The internal phone in the Director’s office rang like crazy, making a noisy sound. The Director threw down the joker card he was holding and picked up the receiver.

“Yes, this is Shin Hyunjoo, Director of the National Security Bureau.”

Soon, he looked at me with a face that had turned pale.

“Why? Did something happen?”

It must have been a short business call, as the phone was cut off quickly.

“…They say Esper Kang Juha is back.”

The news I heard immediately afterward was truly shocking.

“Kang Juha? …That Kang Juha? The one I know? No, how can that person come back? They said he must be dead.”

Kang Juha. The Special Operations Force (SOF) including him were annihilated while trying to block a route to stop supplies flowing to the anti-allied forces in an allied operation centered on the Sonora Desert in Mexico, because they got caught in a Gate.

Calling it annihilation, the truth was that they were in a state where their identities could not be confirmed. Because a Gate opened in the middle of the desert, tornadoes and gusts of wind were so severe around it that it was difficult to even approach from the outside, and in the center where the influence of the wind decreased, there was a key base of the anti-allied forces.

Since the US, which was practically the core of the allied forces, gave up first, South Korea lost a large number of major personnel before they could even do anything. Among them, the biggest loss was losing Kang Juha.

But that Kang Juha came back?

“It’s been half a year since he went missing!”

It was nonsense. Even if he somehow broke through that Gate, the anti-allied forces would have been lined up outside! There’s no way they would have let Kang Juha go easily. Even if they didn’t know the face of the South Korean Center Director, they would have memorized Kang Juha’s face.

If such a Kang Juha had returned, the Center should be happy and celebrating, but… they contacted the National Security Bureau Director’s office?

This… smelled suspicious and very ominous.

“…Don’t tell me Kang Juha found out the Center abandoned him and says he’s going to kill everyone here?”

According to the rumors I had heard well enough, Kang Juha was a person more than capable of doing that. Perhaps he even had the ability.

“Should I evacuate now?”

When I asked while pointing at the door, Director Shin shook his head with a troubled face.

“Why are you being like this, making me nervous. I’m scared. This place isn’t going to explode, is it?”

“I don’t think he’d even have the energy for that… They say he suffered internal injuries so severe that he must have rampaged dozens of times.”

“…Pardon? What does that mean?”

How can one rampage dozens of times? Even if he’s an Esper, is that something a human body can endure?

“They say he was carried in with his whole body in tatters, but the energy of the rampage still remains, so he was moved to the special treatment room in the basement of the medical wing… and an emergency support request came to us.”

I quickly brushed myself off and stood up. At times like this, it was best to act quickly.

“Oh boy, you’re going to have a hard time… Then I’ll just head back to my office now…”

“Where are you going? You have to go too.”

“Yes? Where am I going?”

“To the special treatment room, obviously.”

“Ayy, what am I that I would go to such a scary place?”

What a scary joke, really…

Going near an Esper who had already rampaged dozens of times was an act of suicide. If an Esper on the verge of rampaging is a time bomb, the current Kang Juha is a bomb with a broken timer. Literally a state where it wouldn’t be strange for it to go off at any moment.

To put it bluntly, if you’re unlucky, the moment you open the door to the special treatment room—Boom! You could explode and die instantly.

“You’re not speaking seriously, are you? I’m not even a Guide… Even if I go, I won’t be of any help.”

What reason would there be for a mental-type Esper to be needed for an Esper who is on the verge of death due to the aftermath of a rampage? If it were a Guide, maybe, but I was of no use at all. So naturally, I thought there was no reason for me to go there…

Somehow, Director Shin’s thoughts seemed a bit different from mine.

“They say Kang Juha’s brain is all melted now, so he’s practically a wild beast. He’s in a state where he’s refusing everything, treatment and guiding.”

“…”

Ah, seriously, please.

“Right now, you’re the only one in the Center who can take care of his mind.”

I’m screwed.