The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 132

Nam Woojin, who was standing in front of the crack, shouted with a huge smile on his face.

“Awesome! It says we cleared the Gate!”

“S-So we can go through this, right, Noona? We just have to go through, right?”

“Yeah. Once we get out, we’ll return to the place we were originally at. Um, originally, I suggested clearing this place and exchanging information, but I wasn’t much help. Since things turned out like this, let’s forget about that and just do me one favor, okay?”

I had confidently said that I could clear the Gate by myself, but in the end, I hadn’t been able to do it properly. I felt a little embarrassed, but before I could even finish speaking, all three of them spoke up.

“What are you talking about, Noona! We’re alive because of you!”

“Honestly, I was the only one who wasn’t any help!”

“No. If you hadn’t been here, Minseok wouldn’t have been able to heal me.”

Their voices overlapped, but I could still understand what they were saying. From their expressions, I could tell they weren’t just saying it to be nice.

‘Well, okay. I couldn’t clear the Gate, but I did help them a little, so there’s no need to be humble!’

I shook off my awkward feelings, smiled casually, and pushed each of them forward by the back.

“Thanks for saying that. Let’s talk about the rest after we get out.”

The ground was still shaking, and there wasn’t anything inside worth taking with us anyway.

Park Minseok, Nam Woojin, and Han Yeonwoo passed through the crack in that order, and I followed without hesitation.

My vision wavered slightly, and after the sensation of passing through a curtain, the stuffy air filled with smoke and heat instantly became cool and refreshing.

I wanted to take off my mask because it smelled like something was burning inside, but I didn’t know what the situation outside was like. I lowered the hand I had unconsciously raised and blinked.

The scenery around us was the same as before we entered. The only difference was that it had been the middle of the night inside the Gate, while outside, the sun was setting.

But that wasn’t what mattered right now.

‘Why…… is no one here?’

Not only the three people I had sent out first, but also the Esper who must have cleared the Gate was nowhere to be seen.

When I turned around, the crack I had just come through quickly shrank to the size of a coin before disappearing.

Standing on top of the quiet pile of ruins, I stared blankly and blinked.

“What the heck is going on……?”

It wasn’t just the people who were gone. Nothing was left behind, including the bicycles and belongings they had brought with them.

Only a few seconds had passed between when I came out and when they had supposedly come out, and considering their personalities, it was realistically impossible for them to disappear without leaving a single trace in that short amount of time.

As I blankly looked around, I suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.

I had experienced something similar before.

‘When I barely escaped the Forest of the Lying Fairy…….’

Back then, I had been confused because the scenery around me had changed so much, but the fact that I had come out of a Gate only to find myself in a situation I couldn’t understand was the same.

After looking around for a long time with an uneasy expression, I sighed and removed the mask and gauze covering my face.

I had no idea what had happened, but I couldn’t stay here forever when I couldn’t find the answer by thinking about it alone.

The sun was setting, so finding a place where I could safely spend the night was the priority.

As I walked quickly, I also sorted out the mess in my head.

‘It’s not like I lost anything, anyway. I learned quite a lot from them inside the Gate.’

The only thing that bothered me was that I hadn’t been able to ask them not to tell anyone about me.

At first, I hadn’t said anything because I thought they would feel grateful and cooperate with me if I cleared the Gate myself. After that, we were too busy avoiding the flames for me to bring it up.

I had even told them that we should talk after getting out because I planned to grab them right away and ask them.

I never expected things to turn out like this.

Still, all three of them had easygoing personalities, and Han Yeonwoo was especially smart, so I decided to trust that he would keep it hidden on his own.

‘From now on, I need to be more careful.’

The survivors of the Association, as well as Han Yeonwoo, Park Minseok, and Nam Woojin, were good people.

But just as I had thought over and over, I had also firmly reminded myself that I had only met such people because I had been lucky.

‘And I shouldn’t trust myself too much…….’

Yeah. In fact, this was the most important thing.

Without realizing it, I had been too confident in myself. The only things I had that set me apart from other people were my improved physical abilities and a bag that restored supplies.

Of course, against Non-Awakened people, those things were more than enough. But inside a Gate, I was nothing more than a Guide who had simply become a little mutated.

‘If that Esper hadn’t shown up, I would have been trapped for at least ten days, even if I was lucky.’

And that was assuming I gathered the supplies that replenished in my bag every day and used them all at once, while also getting lucky.

Whatever else happened, I decided that when it came to anything related to Gates, I needed to act more carefully and conservatively.

Just before the sky became completely dark, I found a relatively safe place.

It was a room at the far end of the first floor of a half-collapsed motel. The entrance and nearby area were covered in a thick layer of dust, and there were no other traces, so it seemed like no one came here at all.

The windows in the other rooms were closed, giving them a stale smell, but one of the windows in this room was broken, so it was naturally ventilated.

Even though it was dirty from having been abandoned for a long time, I was only staying for one night anyway. There was no need to clean it.

I pulled the blanket off the bed, spread out my own blanket, and lay down. I let out a tired sigh at the thick smell of dust.

‘If I had stayed at the headquarters, I’d probably be having dinner, taking a bath, and resting by now.’

I felt uncomfortable thinking about my body, which was dirty from running away from the Divine Tree and deliberately covering myself in ash.

I knew there was a saying that leaving home meant having a hard time, but I never expected something like this to happen from the very first day.

Still, once I slept and woke up, my clothes would be clean and my bag would be replenished, so I figured I could wash my hair in the morning.

‘It would’ve been nice if my body were restored too, not just my bag and clothes.’

If other people found out, they would probably criticize me for being shameless, but after living outside, I had realized just how difficult it was to maintain hygiene, so I couldn’t help wishing for it.

Thinking that I needed to find some kind of solution for this too, I closed my eyes.

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Wow, we finally made it out……!”

The irritating smoke and burning smell that had been choking their throats and stinging their eyes disappeared in an instant, revealing a bright sky and the familiar ruins.

Park Minseok, who came out first, spread his arms and cheered. Then he turned around and grinned at Nam Woojin and Han Yeonwoo, who followed him.

“Hey, even our bicycles are still here. Looks like nobody came by.”

Not only the bicycles, but their bags and everything inside them were untouched.

Relief came along with happiness, but when no one answered, Park Minseok turned around with a sullen expression.

Then he noticed the anxiety on Nam Woojin and Han Yeonwoo’s faces and muttered,

“Why isn’t Hyeya Noona coming out?”

Could something have happened in that short amount of time?

No sooner had he finished his worried muttering than someone fortunately came out of the crack.

The faces of the three brightened at the same time, but surprise soon spread across them.

“Captain!”

“Captain?!”

The person who came out wasn’t Hyeya, but the Captain.

Only then did they realize that the Esper Hyeya had mentioned was the Captain.

They wanted to run over and hug him immediately because they were so happy to see him, but that feeling lasted only a moment.

When no one else came out of the crack, uneasiness began to creep over them again.

“Hey, Han Yeonwoo. Where’s Hyea Noona? Wasn’t she following right behind you?”

In the end, Nam Woojin turned to Han Yeonwoo and asked.

But the person who reacted first to those words wasn’t Han Yeonwoo, the one who had been asked.

“……Hyeya?”

A man with bright yellow hair casually ran a rough hand through it and looked at Nam Woojin.