Episode 1.
‘Ahh…… In the end, like this……’
Seoyul felt his body growing heavier and blinked.
It had been ten years since he began living by making illegal guiding drugs to pay off the gambling debts his father had left behind. For seven of those years, he had been forced to make guiding drugs while practically imprisoned.
He had harbored much resentment once, but now that the man was dead and gone, he had steeled his heart. He had thought that if he could just pay off the debts, he could finally grasp the freedom he had longed for.
In his youth, because of his father’s violence, and after coming of age, because of the debts his father left behind, he had never once lived his own life.
‘Yul-ah. You have to be happy.’
They were the last words his mother had left him, she who had never lost her smile even through all of that.
Seoyul thought it was because of those words that he had been able to endure until now. He had wanted to fulfill the final wish of his mother, who had passed away after a life of nothing but hardship.
‘I thought there wasn’t much left now……’
He had thought he could see the end. What a foolish thought it had been. To think that a C-rank would be fine after supplying that much…….
Why had he thought he would be okay? Because the organization members said they were okay? Because he thought he would be different?
Those foolish days were simply pathetic and full of regret.
‘Really…… am I going to die like this?’
A musty smell rose through his fading vision. He was meeting his end in a room that was still dark and rotting.
If it had at least been the small room where he lived with his mother, would things have been a little better?
‘No.’
It would not have been. This was a result stemming from a wrong choice to begin with.
‘If I was going to die like this……’
Yes. Seven years ago.
Back then, when there had been more freedom than now.
That day when he had bitterly regretted not taking that hand, which might have been his last hope.
‘I should have grabbed it without fear……’
Seoyul slowly closed his eyes, leaving nothing but regret behind.
* * *
Korean Ability Management Association.
It was the name of the official government agency that comprehensively managed Espers and Guides, who were classified as ability users.
Espers and Guides could only belong to either a guild or the association after passing through here.
Of course, the higher their rank, the more they preferred guilds, and the lower their rank, the more they preferred the association. Thus, the majority of ability users affiliated with the association were those who valued stability over high rank.
But there were always exceptions everywhere.
There was an S-rank Esper at the association as well. The only problem was that he was the biggest troublemaker across all centers.
"Cha Doun!!"
Today, as always, the voice of Seoul Branch Center Chief Cha Munjin shook the building.
"How long has it been since I called you, and you’re only crawling in now?! Are you getting cocky because you’re the only S-rank in the association or what?!"
He was well aware of the chronic side effects of Doun’s guiding deficiency, but seeing that nonchalant expression, as if it were someone else’s problem, made his blood boil.
He acted that way even though he clearly knew what he was being called for.
"You don’t know why I’m calling you?!"
"I know. That’s why I came like this."
Doun shuffled over and buried himself in the sofa. His face scrunched up involuntarily as the headaches and tinnitus he had long suffered grew stronger once again.
He wondered if it wasn’t time to get used to it by now, but it only grew worse over time, and the headaches were becoming entrenched in a serious state.
‘Is there not much time left now?’
Well. He had endured quite a lot with a body that had never once received proper guiding.
It had been a whole seventeen years since awakening as an S-rank at age nine. That he had been able to endure this long was entirely because Cha Munjin had cherished and cared for him like a son.
"Sigh…… I’m aging because of you. Aging."
"That’s just what sons are like."
"Maybe I should tear you off the family register right now."
Munjin clicked his tongue, saying words he didn’t mean. Doun, who had lost his parents at a young age and awakened as an S-rank Esper, had been a worrisome existence then and now.
Losing both parents at once must have been a huge shock, but the world changed once more when he awakened as an S-rank.
The child had to endure a barrage of spotlights from everywhere, unable to even compose his own heart, with empty eyes.
Because an S-rank awakener was that significant of a matter.
"Do whatever you want, tear it or not. Just hurry up and get to the point."
Doun tossed out the words as if annoyed and pressed firmly on his temples. Doing so gave him the illusion that the pain would ease a little.
"What. Head hurts again? What about the guiding drugs I gave you before?"
"Dunno. Didn’t even register in my liver, so I didn’t take them."
"Hey, you brat. You should still take them!"
Munjin burst into anger and shouted.
"If guiding doesn’t work, you should at least take medicine! What are you trying to do by not taking them at all just because they’re not effective?!"
"Ah, do you think my stomach is infinite? I have my limits when it comes to taking things too."
"You said you didn’t take them at all, you brat!"
"……"
At Munjin’s nagging, Doun quietly turned his head. He knew Munjin was saying all that for his own good.
With a body that didn’t even respond to guiding, shouldn’t he at least take pills to get even a little better?!
Fortunately, the pills showed some effect little by little, which was why Munjin was making such a fuss.
‘Honestly, isn’t there only one pill that even works?’
Guiding drugs were usually made periodically by Guides visiting the association. So every guiding drug had a Guide’s number written on it, and their effects varied wildly.
The problem was that the drugs’ effects were too minute. No, it was safe to say they were practically nonexistent.
Guides often fainted because of Doun’s violent energy, and the drugs were ineffective in their own right.
‘They basically want me to die, that’s what.’
So what if he was one of the few S-rank Espers in the country. He was useless because he couldn’t receive proper guiding.
"Sigh. Here, take it."
Munjin let out a deep sigh and threw a transparent bottle. Seeing that no number was written on it, it was an illegal guiding drug circulating on the black market.
"Oh. You got it?"
"Yeah. You punk!"
"Is it okay for someone called a center chief to handle illegal drugs like this?"
Doun said that, but he quickly opened the lid and poured the contents in. As the liquid traveled down his esophagus, a Guide’s energy swept through his entire body and began to spread.
"Sigh……"
His violent energies began to stabilize faintly, and he felt his tinnitus and headaches seem to calm down slightly.
But it was so minute that it didn’t make much of a difference. With this level of effect, at best it was C-rank. It was an absurd performance for an S-rank like him to feel any effect from, but this was the only one that showed even this much result.
In other words, this illegally circulated drug was Doun’s true lifeline.
"This one’s big. Looks like they have a lot of kids they’re holding too."
Munjin threw him a chip containing information and spoke.
"The operation details are in there, so review them quickly. The organization is big, so there are a lot of people—make sure not a single one gets away."
"Especially the Guides, right?"
"……Yeah. Especially the Guides."
In a normal situation, they should target the organization members who made and distributed illegal guiding drugs. But that was for other teams.
Currently, there was only one type of mission Doun was deployed on. Namely, raiding illegal guiding exchanges and rescuing Guides.
Among those, Doun was responsible for rescuing the Guides. Every single one of them without exception, just as he had said.
"Why does the only medicine that actually works have to be on the illegal distribution circuit?!"
Munjin thumped his chest as if his anger would explode.
"Be grateful it even exists."
"Talking easy again. You’d better pray this one really has an owner this time. You’re really in danger now."
"I know."
He said that, but Doun wasn’t particularly afraid of death. If living was this hard and painful, what was so scary about dying?
Even while conversing so calmly, his body, which had not received guiding for a long time, was screaming out everywhere.
He was simply enduring well, and because there were those who would suffer more than him if he showed it, he was only pretending to be fine.
‘If it weren’t for Cha Munjin, I probably would have died long ago.’
Munjin had been twenty-nine when he met Doun, adopted him as his own son, and started raising him like his own child. At an age not much different from Doun’s now, he had taken charge of an S-rank child afflicted with rampancy.
And yet, he had been so utterly devoted to him.
So Doun had always been grateful, but perhaps because he had fully grown up, it was quite difficult to express those feelings.
"Yeah. I’d better get better quickly so Uncle loses less hair too."
Doun raised the corners of his lips mischievously. As always, Munjin flared up and shouted.
"Hey, brat! Why are you bringing up my hair here?!"
"Didn’t you say your hair loss was because of me? What are you going to do if you go bald? You haven’t even gotten married yet."
"Hey! It’s not that bad yet?! And I’ll get married whether you tell me not to or not!"
He, who was worried about hair loss these days, yelled and fussed, flying into a temper. Having confirmed that, Doun opened his mouth with a faint smile.
"As your son, I can’t let my father go bald. I’ll be back."
As he waved his hand lazily and left the room, Munjin immediately shouted after him with a flushed face.
"This time, make sure you find your Guide!! Got it?!! You hear me!!"
As if it were that easy?
Doun shook his head, thinking that Munjin only nagged more as he got older.