I couldn’t shake the shock for a moment, then I pulled myself together. Right. Who cares about grade. As long as I don’t match with Vasily, that’s all that matters.
I soothed myself with that, patting my own chest. It’s not like I’ll be C-class forever—just until Vasily gets a new guide.
‘First, I wait.’
Once some poor sacrifice shows up to become Vasily’s guide in my place, I can take the chip out and get tested again. Then I’ll escape the fate of being his guide and return to my original grade at the same time.
I didn’t know when that would be, of course, but I could only believe it wouldn’t take long. When an S-class esper gets a guide, the media plasters it everywhere, so all I have to do is wait quietly.
After a few simple tests and a short wait, an Association employee came to see me.
“Hello, Guide Kwon Gidam. Congratulations on awakening as a guide.”
An Association staffer in a neat suit politely handed me a business card. Seeing that, I drifted for a second into the past.
Six years ago around now, I’d felt like I could fly. But what mattered wasn’t basking in nostalgia over things long gone.
Focus on what’s ahead. Tense, I took the card and waited for what came next.
“While you were unconscious, the Association ran a match-rate test. We’ve brought profiles centered on C-class espers with whom your match rate came out high.”
Thankfully, I didn’t hear Vasily’s name. Looked like I hadn’t matched with him.
I let out a visible sigh of relief and accepted the profiles. But before I could even look them over, the staffer spoke again.
“Guide, would you be interested in working as an Association temporary guide?”
I blinked at a familiar term. Temporary guide… that had to mean those Association guides I saw every time we went to a gate.
“A temporary guide?”
“Yes. A guide affiliated with the Association without an exclusive contract with a particular esper. According to your test, Guide Kwon, your match rate measured high with most espers. In particular, with most C-class espers, your match rate exceeded fifty percent, so we’d like to recommend the temporary guide track.”
As I listened to the explanation, I rubbed the dull ache at the back of my neck where the chip sat. Maybe because I was originally an S-class guide, my match rate still came out high with most espers despite the chip.
It scattered my waves, but not enough to affect this?
“‘Temporary guide’ might sound unfamiliar, but it isn’t much different from a normal guide. You’ll stay at the Association and provide guiding to espers who don’t have guides; aside from occasionally being dispatched near sites where gates open, it’s nearly the same.”
“Mm…”
Seeing me hesitate, the staffer hurried to add:
“Since you’ve just awakened as a guide, how about building experience here while you look for an esper to sign an exclusive contract with? Many do end up forming an exclusive contract with an esper they meet while working as temporary guides.”
I thought for a moment. I’d seen them often enough whenever we went to gates, so I had a general idea of what temporary guides did.
As the staffer said, their main job was guiding espers without guides. The difference from regular guides was that they could be dispatched to locations where gates opened.
Of course, they didn’t enter the gates—just waited nearby and provided guiding to espers who requested it.
“Given the risk of field dispatch, this is the guaranteed starting salary.”
The staffer carefully wrote down and showed me the starting pay for temporary guides.
The deliberation didn’t last long. Once I heard the salary, my mind was made up.
“I’ll do it.”
For someone who suffered and died after meeting the wrong esper, temporary guide sounded like a pretty good job. If I dove into an exclusive contract with some stranger and met an esper like Vasily, my death-and-regression would have been for nothing. Better to choose temporary guide, even if it felt a little unfamiliar, than shoulder that risk.
And the highest level of guiding temporary guides perform is, at most, mixing tongues, and even that only happens with mutual consent; if I think of it as mouth-to-mouth, it’s doable without issue. Since I was originally S-class, most of the time a hug would be enough.
Having to make the occasional trip when a gate opens was a bit annoying, but for me—someone who’d gone in and out of gates daily—waiting near the entrance felt as cozy as home. Plus, I could earn more as a temporary guide than as an exclusive guide to a C-class esper.
Good. When I heard I’d awakened as C-class, I thought I was screwed, but I guess life doesn’t only ever go downhill.
I immediately started the discharge process.
Typically, those brought in with awakening agony wake up within half a day, but apparently I’d been out of it for two full days, unlike normal folks. The doctor, calling it unusual, recommended I stay one more day, but I refused and discharged right away.
The reason was easy to guess. Probably the suppression chip. Or the mysterious pill I took after implanting it.
Back home, I read through the temporary guiding job manual the Association staffer had given me.
The main duties were providing guiding to espers without guides, and occasionally being dispatched to wait at gates that opened within our jurisdiction. A few unfamiliar tasks showed up too, but most of it was well within what I could handle.
Honestly, whatever it was, it would be better than what I’d done as Vasily’s guide. Violent, coercive guiding and training for fights against monsters. Above all, the best part was that I no longer had to guide him.
After the job manual, I reread the warnings that had come with the illegal chip.
“Side effects: dizziness, nausea, headache, fatigue… why is this list so long?”
The side effects went on and on in tiny, cramped letters. The more I read, the more I felt a headache blooming already.
On the back, there were instructions for the pills. At most once per day. When you run out, you have to buy more—ordering info included.
“Three million won for a month…?”
The price dragged a curse out of me. These tiny pills were a hundred thousand won apiece. Because it’s an illegal chip, huh. Can’t even tell what the base ingredients are, and it’s filthy expensive.
For espers who pull in hundreds every time they enter a gate, this amount is nothing. Not for me. Damn it, looks like every cent I earn is going straight into pills.
“Guess I’ll have to grind like a dog…”
Barely escaped Vasily, and now it’s money trouble. It was a night of heavy sighs.
***
Starting work today.
I only got a week off. I’d wanted more time after being wrung out by Vasily right up until regression, but my bank account was empty thanks to buying the chip, so that wasn’t an option.
No regrets about spending my entire savings on the chip. Without it, I’d have been Vasily’s guide again for sure.
Before leaving, I rubbed the back of my neck. Maybe the trauma from suffering under him hadn’t faded; whenever I felt anxious, checking the chip was still there had become a habit.
Tap.
My fingers felt the slight bulge. The implant site was still a bit raw—the skin reddened and swollen where the chip sat.
Thankfully, my hair covered it so it didn’t stand out, and if you didn’t touch it, you’d never notice. As long as no one touched the nape of my neck, I could keep it secret for life.
“Well, not like that’s going to happen.”
I shrugged and headed out.
When I came out of the subway, the Guide Association was right across the way. A little smaller than the Esper Association beside it, but still big enough for a core national institution.
‘Always crowded, this place…’
The Association bustled with people as usual. I slipped through the throng and went inside. I handed my guide registration card over the reception desk and was told to take the elevator up with a temporary access badge.
While I waited for the elevator, I watched the numbers change slowly.
First day, but I wasn’t that nervous. Compared to going to see Vasily, my steps were downright light. A workplace where my life wasn’t at risk felt a little unfamiliar—and exciting.
Just then, the elevator arrived and the doors opened. As soon as I got in, I checked the floor directory posted on one wall. An entire floor was being used for the Temporary Guiding Department.
Thinking, ‘The team’s bigger than I expected,’ I got off on the fourth floor where the department was. The first thing that greeted me was the smell of fragrant coffee.
And next, boxes of recovery drinks and coffee stacked like mountains.
“…Should I turn around?”
I suddenly saw a future where I died from overwork.