The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 86

⟦ Gate ⟧

First appeared 70 years ago ⭢ Changed over time and began tempting people

“…Changed… and tempting?”

I didn’t really understand what that meant.

As soon as I muttered it, the Director answered.

“Let me give you an example. You know why we prioritize clearing A-rank and B-rank gates, correct?”

“Cha Eunhwi once held me down and explained it all. If you leave A-rank and B-rank gates alone, monsters can eventually come out.”

“Correct. If we ignore them, civilians will die. So espers go inside. That, too, is a form of temptation.”

“…I guess that’s true.”

That was exactly why espers had no choice but to enter gates.

When I nodded, the Director silently continued writing on the paper.

⟦ Gate ⟧

First appeared 70 years ago ⭢ Changed over time and began tempting people

A-rank and B-rank gates eventually release monsters ⭢ Espers enter to stop them

Civilians begin getting pulled inside ⭢ Espers enter to rescue them

Headquarters creates control systems and devices to fix gate locations ⭢ Gates with irregular wave patterns begin appearing

Espers continue dying ⭢ Guides appear and balance begins to stabilize

After writing that much, the Director looked at me and Guide Lee Muhwan in turn.

“There is a saying. That guides are gifts sent by God for espers.”

“….”

My face stiffened at that ridiculous nonsense that had ruined my childhood.

I could feel Yeon Dogyeong and Lee Shinra glancing at me. If they had any sense, they knew when I had started feeling uncomfortable around them.

But I can’t show it too much right now….

Honestly, at this point, I felt like I could just admit I had regained my memories and let everything explode. But I decided to keep enduring it.

The reason was simple. I hated when they approached me, bringing up our childhood.

As I took a slow breath, I heard someone else breathing across from me.

Guide Lee Muhwan’s expression looked just as sour as mine. He clearly hated that phrase too.

Any sane guide would.

I spoke first.

“Director. Hearing that makes me feel extremely unpleasant.”

“Same here. I almost swore just now. Please be careful with your wording.”

“I’m only saying that such a perspective exists. It is not my personal opinion. Do not misunderstand.”

The Director rarely looked flustered as he shook his head.

Lee Muhwan and I stared at him bluntly.

So what does that have to do with anything?

“…On average, about fifteen gates appear worldwide every day. Hundreds of thousands have appeared, and hundreds of thousands have been cleared. Yet they continue to form. And after time passes, they appear again. We don’t know why. We don’t know the cause. Espers just keep going inside to fight. Again and again.”

That was true. Even discovering that gates emitted waves—and learning to guide them to specific locations—was already impressive.

The Director added that note to the paper and tapped his pen against it.

“But isn’t it strange? Why is it that only espers can see the ‘voice of God’? Why do those notifications display the number of deaths inside and the fastest clear time? It’s almost as if someone is betting on it.”

His dry voice made me flinch.

Dogyeong and Shinra used to play racing games with time attack and speedrun modes.

Time attack meant clearing within a set time. Speedrun meant competing for the fastest record.

Calling it a bet… suddenly it really did feel that way.

“…Who is ‘someone’?” Dogyeong asked quietly.

“We don’t know. This is still just a hypothesis. But if something truly is treating espers and gates like a game, then perhaps it did not know about guides at first.”

“That makes sense. Before guides appeared, espers died much earlier. The ESP Association was formally established only after guides were confirmed. Then squads were organized and gate raids became systematic.”

“Correct. Even if clear times grew longer, safety became the top priority. In the past ten years, even A-rank gates have had almost no deaths or severe injuries. From the perspective of those ‘betting,’ a peaceful and steady match would be boring. Killing guides would make it entertaining again. And the way to identify guides…”

“Guiding, right?”

The Director nodded.

“Just as humanity learned to detect and concentrate gate waves, whoever created the gates may have found a way to detect guiding waves. That is why, until guiding occurs, they cannot distinguish espers from guides.”

The fog in my head slowly began to clear as his explanation stacked together.

It sounded insane.

And yet it fit together too perfectly.

He wasn’t finished.

“If this hypothesis is correct, then the sudden appearance of integrated gates also makes sense. They would be traps designed to kill more espers.”

The page was now completely filled with writing. It made me dizzy just looking at it.

Seo Jaeyeon gave an awkward laugh.

“Director… you must read a lot of novels.”

“This is not my personal theory. It is an opinion circulating within the Association. It sounds absurd. Like something from a novel or film. But seventy years ago, wouldn’t gates, espers, and guides have sounded just as absurd?”

“…If we look at it that way, it’s suspicious that we suddenly learned the dead might be saved. And that Guide Yoon Hyeya returned alive. You’re saying all of it could be bait?”

Lee Muhwan’s lips twisted.

I had believed I survived peacefully inside the gate because I was lucky. Because God pitied me.

But maybe that wasn’t true.

“When I was inside the gate, I sometimes saw cracks that seemed to lead outside. At the time, I didn’t even know what they were. I was too confused to approach them. But thinking back… maybe I was being used.”

If I had stepped through one of those cracks, the world would have exploded with headlines.

A guide thought to be dead is alive.

Some people might have wondered—

Maybe others who died inside gates are still alive too.

That thought would pull them in.

Again and again.

Until they died.

The Director kept repeating that this was only a hypothesis. But instinctively, I felt it.

There was a very high chance it was true.

…I heard something I shouldn’t have.

I just wanted to live peacefully and happily.

Now it felt like that would never be simple again.

I looked around.

No one looked well.

Yet after finishing his long explanation, the Director seemed strangely relieved.

Maybe because he finally shared what he’d been carrying alone.

Everything felt complicated and distant, like I was floating outside my own body.

But there was one thing I understood clearly.

“So in the end… guides’ lives are threatened because of espers.”

I hadn’t chosen to be born a guide.

How could this be fair?

At my hollow murmur, the three men to my left—and the one across from me—flinched.