The Voice and the Monster
"Yes, my wish is—"
"Consider it granted."
At Do Geon's unhesitating reply, Baek Yeo-eul stepped over the access-restriction line strung across the floor. She couldn't tell whether the silence around her was thick enough to choke on, or whether she simply couldn't hear anything at all—every scrap of her attention locked on Han Yi-hyeon.
One step at a time. The distance was clearly a long one, yet strangely it shrank fast. The haze seeping from Han Yi-hyeon, who knelt motionless with his head bowed, undulated right before her eyes.
It wasn't as if she had never seen an Esper on the brink of a rampage. Even though it was a sight she had witnessed countless times over the past five years, she could tell from the air alone—the way it prickled and stabbed at her skin—that Han Yi-hyeon was a different breed entirely.
Baek Yeo-eul weighed her options.
'Should I run?'
For the first time since becoming a Guide, the thought surfaced: ah, I really could die here. Startled by her own mind, she snapped alert and shook her head hard. There was exactly one thing Baek Yeo-eul could do right now—guide.
She took a deep breath and finally pried her reluctant feet forward. The black haze, churning with a low hum, seemed to know she was the one who could quiet its master; it parted to clear her a path and ushered her toward Han Yi-hyeon.
It was almost as if the haze had a will of its own.
As it swept past her ankles, Baek Yeo-eul squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. She wanted this damn thing gone, and fast—the desire burned in her chest.
Closing the remaining distance at a pace far quicker than before, she stretched her hand out toward Han Yi-hyeon's back and seized a firm fistful of the white hair the black haze had shrouded dark.
Baek Yeo-eul was the luckiest of the unlucky. It was the sort of thing you'd say of the best-looking among the ugly—a backhanded compliment, but unfortunately an accurate one.
'What the—?'
The moment guiding began, her strength was siphoned away in one long pull. As if it had been waiting for exactly this—like a wanderer who had scoured the desert for an oasis tasting water at death's very door.
An 89% compatibility rate made for a far better match than Baek Yeo-eul had imagined—so much so that Seo Joo-hwan's warnings about severe Guiding Rejection Syndrome felt like a lie.
At the same time, the black haze swelled and heaved as though it might burst. Like a beast roaring with joy after finally slaking its thirst—the sight crawled goosebumps across her skin.
"Looks like it's working? Wow, so that's what an 89% match rate looks like?"
Do Geon couldn't answer Hwang Tae-seon.
To be precise, he agreed with him—but something felt wrong about saying so. Do Geon's heart was pounding, thud, thud, out of step with itself.
Baek Yeo-eul, meanwhile, was thinking that the black haze filling her vision was like a black hole. Up close, it was grotesque—and every bit as beautiful. Its movements were impossibly fluid, and it snagged the human gaze with a strange, unshakable pull.
Like a beautiful flower luring prey close before devouring it.
Then a premonition struck her mind like a bolt of lightning: if this went on, everything would be swallowed whole. Instinctively, Baek Yeo-eul tried to pull her hand from his hair.
[No—.
——Let go.]
That voice again.
Baek Yeo-eul's eyes went wide. The mysterious voice that had tormented her so relentlessly during her last field deployment.
[—Right now!]
With the enormous shout ringing through her skull, the focus drained from her eyes.
Her hand was still locked around Han Yi-hyeon's hair, and her strength kept pouring out of her without end.
This much should have been more than enough—and yet, as if determined to rob her of even a single grain of power, the black haze scraped her energy up by the fistful.
The ground shuddered.
Do Geon, recognizing that something was deeply wrong, felt his unease climb higher and higher.
'This is….'
The moment he understood what that unease was, Do Geon shot forward without a flicker of hesitation. A blade of sharp wind carried him to Han Yi-hyeon's side in an instant.
The black haze caught sight of the intruder, stopped its writhing, and lunged at him.
"Guide Baek Yeo-eul! Snap out of it!"
He carved through the black haze, calling the Guide's name, but no answer came.
Damn it. Do Geon bit out a low curse and reached out, wrapping an arm around the unfocused Baek Yeo-eul's waist.
BOOM!
This trembling of the earth hadn't come from Han Yi-hyeon. This was—
"A monster has appeared!"
A monster.
Han Yi-hyeon had rampaged.
Not just South Korea—the entire world turned its eyes to the rampage of an S-rank Esper. And because it was Han Yi-hyeon, of all people, the partnerless Esper, the uproar burned far fiercer than it had for any rampage before.
The media frenzy stayed white-hot for a full ten days. The controversy showed no sign of settling, and wherever people gathered, Han Yi-hyeon was all they talked about.
Every eye fixed on headquarters, which kept its mouth firmly shut. Only about half a month after the rampage did headquarters finally hold a press conference to announce its official position. Standing before the reporters was Do Geon.
The journalists found it curious that the man at the podium was Do Geon, Director of the Guide Protection Center, rather than a headquarters executive—but the question died quickly.
Do Geon announced that a Guide compatible with Han Yi-hyeon had appeared, and that she had stopped his rampage.
It was like pouring oil on flames that had never even dimmed. A compatible Guide appearing for Han Yi-hyeon was an enormous story in itself—and that Guide's rank was neither A nor B, but C.
Nothing official was said about the compatibility rate, but rumors of a rate above 70% made the rounds until the speculation was all but reported as fact.
People went wild over the unprecedented event, drowning it in attention, while at the same time digging into the identity of the C-rank Guide enjoying this staggering honor.
The media was plastered wall to wall with every manner of speculative article chasing the unanswered question.
"Information is leaking out."
There had been plenty of witnesses to the first matching. They had cracked down hard, but there are rats wherever you go.
"It's such an unusual occurrence that it isn't just one or two of them. Wouldn't it be better to simply disclose Guide Baek Yeo-eul's identity publicly?"
Seo Joo-hwan's suggestion was a reasonable one.
There was a limit to how much digging could be contained. There was nothing stupider than burning your own house down to exterminate cockroaches that hatched and crawled out again no matter how many you caught. As Seo Joo-hwan said, publishing her identity on the official site would be the more comfortable option for both sides.
"Denied."
But Do Geon, gripping his gun and settling his stance toward the target, shot down Seo Joo-hwan's opinion without an instant of hesitation. Only Espers and Guides of B-rank or higher ever had their identities posted to the official site.
The reason was simple: the Anti-Government Forces were forever eyeing Guides with hungry, predatory intent. The government had a duty to protect them.
And they were going to post the identity of the Guide of S-rank Esper Han Yi-hyeon—a person of prime interest to the Anti-Government Forces—on a public site? It would amount to running an advertisement: come and take her.
"Even so, as long as Guide Baek Yeo-eul remains Esper Han Yi-hyeon's partner, the Anti-Government Forces will keep trying to approach her. It would be the better choice for us to take responsibility and guard Guide Baek Yeo-eul thoroughly—"
BANG!
A gunshot cracked through the range, and the target that had stood far downrange came gliding forward.
Smoke still curled from the hole punched dead center in the head of the human-silhouette target.
Seo Joo-hwan tensed without meaning to, swallowing the groan that slipped out as his eyes darted.
One hundred meters. That was the distance to the target. Watching Do Geon train for the first time in ages, Seo Joo-hwan wetted his dry lips with his tongue.
Awakening as an S-rank Esper transforms the body itself. And yet Do Geon, putting a round through a target a hundred meters out with the naked eye and no scope of any kind, was nothing short of a monster even among S-ranks.
Do Geon reloaded, then slowly raised the gun again.
"Is that the consensus of your departments?"
"…Yes, sir."
Though the muzzle was trained on the target and not on him, he couldn't shake the illusion that it was pointed at his head. Caught out for relaying the department heads' meeting conclusion word for word, Seo Joo-hwan nodded half a beat late.
"I'll consider it."
BANG!
Do Geon's upper body swayed faintly with the recoil, then settled back into place. Another hit, of course.
It was a question that needed time to decide. Which option would fetch the greater profit—judged by the criteria Do Geon always set when he made his calls.
"And the Guide?"
Do Geon took aim.
"She still hasn't regained consciousness."
No name had been spoken, but Seo Joo-hwan knew exactly who he meant and answered without missing a beat.
"We can't determine the exact cause, but we suspect aftereffects from the guiding."
Most Guides who guided an Esper on the verge of rampage blacked out. What was more, Baek Yeo-eul had only just woken from a week of unconsciousness at the time—and so she had slipped back into a coma.
"And Esper Han Yi-hyeon…."
Do Geon raised the gun, opening his mouth to order Han Yi-hyeon brought in—then stopped dead mid-sentence. He could already predict the answer.
"The thing is, Esper Han Yi-hyeon absolutely refuses to leave Guide Baek Yeo-eul's side."
Having guessed the rest of Do Geon's sentence, Seo Joo-hwan spoke with his eyes squeezed shut, quietly smothering the sigh that threatened to burst out of him. Perhaps because it was the first proper guiding of his life, Han Yi-hyeon would not leave Baek Yeo-eul's side.
Do Geon's brow drew tight. He had summoned him again and again over the past several days, and Han Yi-hyeon hadn't budged an inch.
Do Geon lifted the arm he had let falter. Unlike before, he didn't even grant himself time to aim.
BANG!
"Understood."
"That concludes my report."
Do Geon lowered the gun without so much as a glance at the target. Seo Joo-hwan watched the target glide closer. A hit.
"Switch to free training mode."
S-Rank Esper Do Geon — Identity confirmed. Initiating free training mode.
Before the free training mode could activate, a transparent protective barrier descended in front of Seo Joo-hwan, who stood near the entrance.
Do Geon stripped off his training jacket to put his body through its paces in earnest, revealing the harness strapped over the solid frame beneath his shirt.