PARADOX 27

What is people’s oldest memory?

The memory of falling asleep while listening to a lullaby, the memory of going to kindergarten while holding a parent’s hand, or perhaps the memory of seeing a younger sibling for the first time… It’s likely something like that.

However, Hanseo’s—Baekgu’s—first memory was far from such things.

The smell of disinfectant, hard iron beds, screams, the sound of pleading, expressionless researchers.

And the children who were endlessly discarded.

Discarded if they failed to manifest as a Guide, discarded if they couldn’t endure the experiments, discarded if their matching rate didn’t rise.

One becomes accustomed to the fact that the child who fell asleep right next to you is nowhere to be seen the next day. The remaining children feel relieved by the fact that they weren’t discarded and strive to prove their own usefulness.

In that way, a child who knows neither how to interact with others nor how to read letters comes to handle Guiding energy more skillfully than any experienced Guide.

‘I was useless in my past life, but I’m benefiting quite a bit in this one.’

Radiation Guiding is a method of guiding an Esper by releasing Guiding energy externally. It’s easy to say, but quite difficult to actually do. Especially in the case of novice Guides with little experience in Guiding, it seemed to take a considerable amount of time to get the hang of it.

During Guide training, Hanseo had intentionally pretended to be clumsy, yet he still received praise from the instructor for having good intuition. Then again, for Hanseo, Guiding was as familiar as breathing. No matter how much he pretended to be clumsy, there would have been a difference compared to the real thing.

Anyway, for that reason, whether it was Radiation Guiding or Contact Guiding, Guiding—regardless of the type—was the thing Hanseo felt most confident in.

‘There is exactly one method I haven’t tried, though.’

Well, since there will be no reason to do that with Guiding Jeyi, it should be fine.

Hanseo pulled out the energy steadily without hesitation. Invisible, intangible energy began to fill the sealed room. He gathered the extracted energy carefully so that it wouldn’t just scatter and sent it toward Gu Jeyi.

Hanseo approached the side of the bed where Gu Jeyi lay. Even with Radiation Guiding, the narrower the distance between the Guide and the Esper, the better the effect. It’s a principle that can be explained simply if you think of a Guide as a diffuser.

The stabilizer must have been incredibly potent, as Gu Jeyi did not open his eyes even though Hanseo approached within a very close range. However, unlike his motionless body, the figures on the watch screen were constantly changing.

“…”

And Pyo Myeongho was also watching that scene.

Ordinary people who live lives far removed from Awakened individuals tend to either excessively overrate or disparage Guiding. Some thought of the relationship between an Esper and a Guide as romantic, while others cursed Guiding as being lewd.

Speaking from the perspective of an involved party, Pyo Myeongho clearly viewed Guiding as a medical act. It was the same even for Insertion Guiding, which could only be described as sex. Because that was not a physical or emotional exchange, but merely an act intended to save a person’s life.

Therefore, Pyo Myeongho watched Yeo Hanseo’s Guiding with an extremely cold gaze. Isn’t it only natural for a guardian to keep a close eye on a doctor treating a patient? Furthermore, Yeo Hanseo was a novice who had only recently awakened as a Guide. Even if the matching rate was high, there were unsatisfactory points to fully trusting and entrusting him.

Lest a clumsy Guiding might stimulate Gu Jeyi and cause an accident, Pyo Myeongho watched the Guiding with eyes as sharp as a hawk’s. However, it didn’t take long for his face, which had been stained with wariness and suspicion, to be colored by a different light.

The figures that had been fixed at 86% began to change rapidly. 85%… 83%… 79%… The lower the figures dropped, the more color returned to Gu Jeyi’s pale face. It was a sight that even inspired a sense of wonder, like watching a statue made of plaster turn into a human.

Pyo Myeongho could only be purely impressed.

So this is a Guide with a 98% matching rate.

‘It’s like a panacea that only appears in things like Wuxia novels. And the way all Espers desperately want it is the same, too.’

Comparing it to the Wuxia novels he was once obsessed with, Pyo Myeongho watched Gu Jeyi’s condition recover at a rapid pace. To think that the thing he had wished for so long was this easy. At the moment his joy was turning into a strange sense of futility, Gu Jeyi’s eyelids slowly lifted.

“Jeyi…”

The moment he was about to call out in welcome.

The next thing happened in an instant.

“Ugh!”

A pained groan erupted from Yeo Hanseo’s mouth. Gu Jeyi had reached out his hand to seize the Guide standing beside him. Whether his reflexes were decent, Yeo Hanseo pulled his body back almost simultaneously, but he couldn’t avoid it completely.

A hand as large as his physique seized the slender wrist.

Crack.

A sound like a branch breaking rang out.

“Aagh…”

“Jeyi!”

Pyo Myeongho—who had assumed that if either of the two were to cause an accident, it would surely be Yeo Hanseo—turned deathly pale in an instant at the accident his nephew had caused. The emergency button, where is the button? While fumbling along the wall, Pyo Myeongho’s hands shook weakly as he searched for the button that, when pressed, would fire a powerful anesthetic in a gaseous state.

However, separate from his trembling hands, Pyo Myeongho’s head was spinning to understand this situation. Before long, he confirmed that there was no focus in Gu Jeyi’s eyes. Surprisingly, Gu Jeyi was still in an unconscious state.

Could it be an overload? However, the figures displayed on the watch were much lower than when he had first come out of the Gate.

‘It’s not an overload. But then why…?’

In the meantime, he saw Yeo Hanseo striking Gu Jeyi’s arm with his other hand, which was struggling and had not been caught. It was unfortunate, but to an Esper of Gu Jeyi’s caliber, that was an attack less effective than a tickle.

In Pyo Myeongho’s field of vision, the image of Gu Jeyi tightly clutching Hanseo’s broken hand entered. It was as if a snake had seized its prey. He seemed to show a will to never let go.

Pyo Myeongho suddenly realized. Gu Jeyi’s action was not aggression. It was…

“Gu Jeyi! Wake up!”

At that moment, his fingertips felt the hidden button. At the very moment he was about to press the button, Gu Jeyi’s focus suddenly became sharp.

“…?”

An air of bewilderment, as if he didn’t understand this situation, flashed across the man’s face. A flustered voice flowed from his parted lips.

“…Yeo Hanseo?”

“Augh.”

When his hand was finally released, Yeo Hanseo groaned faintly and slumped to the floor. Pyo Myeongho took his hand off the button and hurriedly approached to check on Yeo Hanseo. Even a non-professional who wasn’t a doctor could see that the condition of Yeo Hanseo’s wrist was serious. It would be strange if it weren’t broken.

“…”

Gu Jeyi’s gaze scanned Hanseo slumped on the floor, Pyo Myeongho, and the isolation room where they were, in order. As if he had finally grasped the situation, he furrowed his brow and stepped down from the bed.

Kneeling on one knee, Gu Jeyi apologized in a low voice while inspecting Hanseo’s wrist with his eyes.

“I am sorry. Because of the stabilizer… I thought it was a dream.”

Despite the apology, Yeo Hanseo’s complexion became even paler than before. Trembling while holding his broken wrist, it looked as if he were thinking, ‘You tried to kill me in your dream?’ He seemed to firmly believe that Gu Jeyi had attacked him.

But Pyo Myeongho knew that wasn’t the truth.

Espers instinctively feel goodwill toward Guides. As if they know they are beings who will remove their pain and allow them to live on. Unless it was a state of being out of control called an overload or a rampage, Espers did not attack Guides even in their unconscious state.

When an Esper’s goodwill flowed in an unhealthy direction, problems such as stalking or confinement occurred. However, it was the same in that the root of it was ultimately goodwill. Unless it was something like being their parents’ enemy, no Esper truly intended to harm a Guide.

It was the same for Gu Jeyi. What he had done to Yeo Hanseo in his unconscious state was not an attack, but something a drowning person might do to someone who came to save them.

To hold on with all one’s might, pleading for their life.

However, one couldn’t defend the person who caused the injury in front of the person who was hurt. Pyo Myeongho suppressed his desire to make excuses on Gu Jeyi’s behalf.

“We must go to the hospital first.”

However, the hand stretched out toward Yeo Hanseo could not reach and stopped in mid-air. Pyo Myeongho, seeing that Gu Jeyi, made the first move.

“I’ll carry him!”

Normally he would have used telekinesis, but no matter how much it was Gu Jeyi, it would be difficult to properly control his strength in a situation where a stabilizer strong enough to put an elephant to sleep had been administered. Pyo Myeongho, who carefully picked up Yeo Hanseo, began to run.

“Hanseo, hang in there just a bit!”

Just then, a small, faint voice could be heard from his arms.

“…Foot.”

“Foot? Your foot hurts too?”

Did he get hurt when he fell earlier? Pyo Myeongho, clicking his tongue, began to run even faster.