Jasmine turned toward him immediately.
Her face had already brightened at the sight of her fully synced BeepAir, and something warm stirred in Oleander’s chest when he saw her excitement.
"Are you really that excited to test your compatibility with me?" he teased.
His tone was confident, but beneath it was a hope he didn’t dare show too clearly.
Every compatibility test they’d taken before had produced the same disappointing numbers. Eleven percent at best.
For years, that number had been enough to make their relationship impossible on paper.
And now, after everything that had happened tonight, a small part of Oleander wondered whether the miracle Jasmine had somehow stumbled into might finally change that.
Jasmine nodded enthusiastically.
"Swipe up on your BeepAir and select compatibility scanning," he instructed.
She followed his directions.
A translucent blue screen appeared before her, and Jasmine happily pressed Compatibility Scan.
A radar-like compass materialized on the display and began rotating.
Please wait...
...
...
Beep.
Name: Oleander Barlon
Status: S-Rank Sentinel
Calculating compatibility...
...
Beep.
Compatibility: 86%
Would you like to establish a guiding contract?
"Impossible!" Professor Hatthon’s voice echoed through the room.
He grabbed his hair with both hands, staring at the screen as though the number had personally offended everything he’d learned in his career.
Then he rushed toward Jasmine and seized both her hands.
"You really are a miracle!" he exclaimed. "What happened tonight may be one of the most important discoveries in Hesperia’s history. Jasmine... thank you. Thank you for awakening a second time. Thank you for being here."
His grip tightened around her hands.
Jasmine looked at him.
Then at the other four professors.
They were smiling at her now.
Even Oleander was watching her with an unusually soft expression.
Jasmine felt strangely uncomfortable beneath all those eyes.
She understood what they saw when they looked at her.
A rare phenomenon. A valuable research subject. A discovery that might change what they knew about Guides.
But this was the first time anyone had ever thanked her simply for being there.
She didn’t know what to do with that.
At least this world is nicer than my old one.
"So, will you bind the contract with Oleander?" Robbin’s cold voice broke the moment.
Jasmine looked back at the screen.
"Eighty-six percent between an S-Rank Sentinel and an E-Rank Guide?" a middle-aged male professor said, still staring at the results. "This is going to make headlines. But if her mental energy is still only E-Rank, she can’t even enter a D-Rank polluted district safely. How does this compatibility make any sense?"
Oleander stood from the chair and cleared his throat.
The corner of his mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.
For the first time, the impossible number on the screen gave him something he’d wanted for years.
If Jasmine became his contracted Guide, there would finally be a practical reason for them to stay together. Even his father would have a harder time objecting to their marriage later.
"That won’t be a problem," Oleander said calmly. "I can shield her while I’m on missions."
"But that would drain your mental energy two or three times as much as usual if the Guide can’t protect themselves," Robbin argued.
Oleander’s faint smile disappeared. His gaze sharpened.
"I said, that won’t be a pro—"
"No."
Jasmine cut him off.
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked at the compatibility screen again, completely unfazed by the stunned expressions around her.
"I won’t bind a contract with him."
Silence filled the room.
Jasmine calmly continued,
"I’ll only make a contract with a Sentinel whose compatibility is above ninety percent."
***
It was already late when Jasmine and Oleander finally left the Sentinel Bureau’s spaceship-like office.
Jasmine followed a few steps behind him as they made their way back into the dormitory. Every time she caught up and started walking beside him, Oleander would quietly pick up his pace until he was ahead of her again.
It had become a pattern.
"Are you serious?" had been the last thing Oleander said before shutting himself up for the rest of the walk.
Even the instructions to follow him had come from Professor Hatthon, who had told Jasmine that she’d been assigned a dorm room directly across from Oleander’s.
Jasmine closed her BeepAir after checking it one more time. She’d kept the radar function running in case another Sentinel appeared within range.
So far, only Oleander had shown up on the list.
The elevator chimed and opened. They stepped inside.
Jasmine’s gaze immediately fell to the bag hanging from Oleander’s right hand. Her food was still inside.
"That food will taste better while it’s warm," she said. "You can heat it up before you eat."
Oleander remained silent.
Jasmine watched him through the reflection on the elevator wall.
His brows were drawn tightly together, as though he’d been personally assigned a problem he didn’t want to solve. His lips had flattened into a thin line, and every now and then they twitched like he had a sentence waiting behind them that he was refusing to release.
His entire face seemed to be saying:
Do not disturb. Emotional maintenance in progress.
Jasmine sighed.
His negative energy is contagious.
"Are you angry with me?"
Oleander didn’t answer.
"You were perfectly capable of talking and smiling with everyone earlier," Jasmine continued. "Did I do something wrong?"
Still nothing.
Instead, Oleander lowered his head and stared at the marble floor as though the answer might be hiding between the tiles.
Jasmine’s patience began to thin.
"Does this have something to do with your spiritual realm?" she asked. "I know you told me not to touch anything carelessly, but that boy was strangely close to drowning in water that barely reached my knees. I just followed my reflex. Was that wrong?"
Oleander let out a quiet scoff.
"Do you even know what right and wrong are anymore?" he muttered. "Your brain is wrecked."
"No. I don’t know." Jasmine answered without hesitation. "And you might be right. My real brain may have already been eaten by zombies now."
She turned toward him.
"So tell me. Why does my judgment keep telling me that something is bothering you? And why do I feel like I should apologize?"