Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: The Manufactured S-Rank
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The guild members hurriedly changed the subject.
"Ah, right! Didn't you say you're sitting out the next gate expedition? I heard an extra S-rank is joining."
But it didn't take long to realize that was the wrong topic to bring up.
Seo Yun-ho's eyes had ignited with killing intent, going beyond mere sharpness.
"Fuck, if it's an S-rank, don't tell me it's Yeon-woo—"
"Crazy, my bad! Not that guy—Yi Ro-un the Esper! You know that young kid tied down by the higher-ups?"
"Ah, him?"
Seo Yun-ho furrowed one eyebrow.
The manufactured S-rank. That was the label attached to Yi Ro-un.
For a long time, the government had been trying to produce higher-grade Espers.
Even with defenses built around the safe zones, no one knew when a gate crisis might strike.
Before the Great Cataclysm, it was nations—not guilds—that held power.
In that more militaristic era, human experiments on Awakeners had been conducted multiple times in secret, under the guise of "re-awakening experiments."
The subjects were mostly orphans who'd lost their parents to gates, so they never drew public attention. But it was common knowledge among high-rank Espers.
Amid countless failures, rumors swirled that Yi Ro-un was a rare success case.
"That Yi Ro-un kid didn't seem all there either. Haven't the higher-ups learned shit after the Doi Hyun incident? The guy turned around and massacred everyone after his re-awakening."
"Hey, if we're going by that, good luck finding anyone sane among those who crawled through the districts. Yi Ro-un's tame by comparison. Way too tame—the problem is he doesn't talk at all."
He'd heard Yi Ro-un had been confined under the higher-ups' oversight due to his special abilities, but even so, the guy had barely any words and seemed to lack any sense of self.
Yi Ro-un was like a doll that didn't even consider escaping, simply obeying the higher-ups' orders.
Seo Yun-ho recalled him with a grim expression.
"So what? He's just a dog doing the higher-ups' bidding."
"Hey, hey—even if you could live without laws, it's not easy for someone locked up since childhood to just walk out now. There's the contract debt too. You know how they dress up human experiments as 're-awakening research' and slap massive debts on them from childhood under the guise of investment?"
"Can't he get help from a guild? Places would line up for that ability."
"No, it's the psychological hang-ups... Ugh, forget it. Why am I even explaining this to you."
A bird caged since birth won't fly out the moment the door opens.
But Seo Yun-ho was from lawless Q District, someone who'd clawed his way up from rock bottom alone. It was no wonder he couldn't understand Yi Ro-un blindly following orders without a hint of rebellion.
'Just keep those two apart...'
He worried it might stir up needless trouble. If something bugged him, he could just tune it out—but Seo Yun-ho couldn't stand by and watch.
His bad blood with Yeon Woo-jin hadn't started any differently.
Hebe Guild members still regretted not stopping that fateful encounter between Seo Yun-ho and Yeon Woo-jin.
But contrary to their desperate hopes, exactly one week later, Seo Yun-ho came face-to-face with Yi Ro-un.
"...Why the fuck is this guy here?"
Of all places, at his regular cafe—with someone completely unexpected.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "...Why the fuck is this guy here?"
It was the first thing out of Seo Yun-ho's mouth after visiting the cafe for the first time in ages.
At the end of his gaze sat Yi Ro-un, hooded up with a large covering and his face masked.
Unlike Seo Yun-ho, who scowled like he'd seen a ghost, Yi Ro-un merely glanced at him as if at a stranger before turning his eyes back to me.
"Ro-un, do you know Seo Yun-ho?"
"Hey, like the kid's gonna answer just 'cause you—"
"...Don't know."
"—answer?!"
Seo Yun-ho whipped his head between me and Yi Ro-un, then fixed his bulging eyes on me.
Yi Ro-un, who'd been blinking vacantly, abruptly stood and positioned himself in front of me.
Seo Yun-ho narrowed his brows in utter disbelief.
"Huh... What the hell is this?"
Luckily, there were no customers. Outwardly, it looked straight out of some melodramatic affair—I just quietly stared off into the distance.
To explain how we'd ended up here, we'd have to go back two weeks.
—Two weeks prior.
I'd received a request from a Center management staffer.
"...Take care of the kid?"
"No, Guide Kim Yu-jeong. Esper Yi Ro-un is a full-fledged adult. We'd like to request a one-on-one session."
The staffer added that his basic training was already complete, and that my guiding skills were strong enough that no extra hands-on practice was needed.
"Of course, you'll continue the theoretical lessons as usual."
Every trainee had mandatory education hours they needed to fulfill within the term.
The staffer wanted to swap my remaining practice slots for sessions with Yi Ro-un.
"So, you're saying I should guide Esper Yi Ro-un during that time?"
If so, I planned to refuse—for his sake.
Forcing guiding on someone with an aversion to contact was no different from violence. Unless it was life-or-death, there were guiding agents as an alternative.
Generally speaking, when dividing Awakeners into strong and weak based purely on power, Espers were the strong ones, Guides the weak.
That was the common view, and I'd accepted it myself.
Yet the image of Yi Ro-un trembling after the reverse guiding had struck me as... weak. Even though he outranked all the Espers I'd practiced on.
The staffer shook their head firmly.
"No. Just spend time with him like last time."
Last time had just been soothing him and feeding him snacks.
"Esper Yi Ro-un doesn't converse with others. But he spoke smoothly with Guide Kim Yu-jeong, so that's why we're asking. Just for the education period, and you'll receive full support pay."
So, basically chat instead of work? Sounded easy.
After a moment's thought, I accepted.
It was a government agency making the request—hard to turn down—and it wasn't bad for me either.
It replaced class time with no scheduling conflicts, and guiding was at my discretion anyway.
Plus, I couldn't shake the image of that frightened boy.
The first day of our sessions.
"Hi, we met before, right?"
"......"
"Not sure if you heard, but we'll be meeting periodically for a while. When works for you?"
"......"
"...Hate talking? How about Morse code?"
The first day ended with me talking to myself.
Even though our chance first meeting had involved introductions and casual speech, Yi Ro-un was utterly silent now. Had that been a dream?
On the second day, I showed up loaded with desserts.
Even Wild Kingdom YouTube said food was king for bonding. He'd shown interest in candy, so probably liked sweets.
"Hi, eaten yet?"
His intricately carved, jewel-like purple eyes turned my way.
As his head swiveled toward me, his slender, deer-like neck emerged from the loose knit sweater.
I thought I glimpsed faint scars, so I squinted for a better look—then our eyes met.
I hurriedly averted my gaze and pulled out the desserts I'd brought.
"Figured you like sweets, so I brought a bunch. I run a cafe, by the way. Swing by sometime."
Theory classes mentioned that long-term guiding agent use often dulled taste buds as a side effect.
And most affected Espers ended up craving sour or sweet flavors.
"Red ribbon box has meat pies—new fruit sauce and nuts. Blue ribbon's our shop's bestseller, kua pie; it's on the sweet side. And those are jam cookies."
Yi Ro-un's patterns boiled down to two: gazing out the window or curling up on the sofa to sleep.
He seemed to love sunbathing—always claiming the window seat first—but sitting so still and unmoving, he sometimes felt less like a person and more like a doll.
Apathy, panic attacks, and a contact phobia that was deadly for a guiding-dependent Esper.
People hit mental stress limits and turn lethargic. Everything feels exhausting, so they cut actions and sleep more.
I looked away so as not to burden him while he ate. That's when my eyes caught the file on the corner table—papers about the assigned Esper.
I'd gotten it the first day but hadn't opened it. I'd heard the basics from staff, and it wouldn't detail his trauma anyway.
Flip, flip. My mechanical page-turning halted midway through.
⚔ ESPER PROFILE ⚔ 👤 Name: Yi Ro-un (20) ⚡ Awakening: Esper 🔮 Type: Defense/Support 🏢 Affiliation: Center (National) ⭐ Rank: S-rank ⚠️ Notes: Strong aversion to physical contact. High reverse guiding risk during guiding. Guiding agent: α4 (no abnormal reactions). Low risk if no contact. "...?"
Maybe I need to see an eye doctor.