“Are we still good friends? Right, Jin?”

 

“…Yeah.”

 

“Thank you. Thank you, Jin. I’ll do better. I won’t act like a brat anymore. I promise.”

 

To Jin, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, Ruern made a promise.

 

The long, agonizing period of one-sided love—of crying alone because the feelings were never returned—had been safely overcome.

 

But the feelings toward Jin had only grown deeper, carving out a vast swamp in the deepest part of his heart.

 

Ruern had finally learned how to skillfully conceal those emotions.

 

This was no longer some innocent, budding crush.

 

After countless nights of thinking of Jin while touching himself, then despising himself for it, only to repeat the same thing the very next day—he had come to a realization.

 

‘I want to touch her. I want to hold her. I want to kiss her.’

 

And even more secretly, even more deeply…

 

The time had finally come to put those dark, insistent, lurking thoughts into action.

 

Only ten days remained until the barrier would officially be removed.

 

〈The barrier should have already been taken down long ago, but Moribelle stubbornly insisted on keeping it up until Jin’s birthday.〉

 

Once the barrier between him and Jin disappeared, they would be able to embrace each other naked and have much thicker, more intimate conversations with their bodies.

 

When that time comes… maybe it would be okay to let Jin know about the existence of this swamp inside him. He could let Jin dip his feet in slowly.

 

Gradually draw him deeper until he couldn’t climb out on his own.

 

Once his entire body was submerged in the swamp—by then, Jin would be completely, irreversibly his.

 

So yes—he could wait longer.

 

He could endure more.

 

🦋

 

Finally, the barrier in Jin’s guiding room had been removed.

 

Ruern had to put in considerable effort just to calm his racing, excited heart.

 

“Your wavelength today is…”

 

“A complete mess, right? I pushed myself a bit too hard today.”

 

Ruern giggled as if it were nothing, explaining that he’d gotten cocky because telekinesis had become so much easier lately—nearly causing a disaster in the process.

 

“You must’ve gotten a serious scolding from the Guild Master again, huh?”

 

“Of course. He basically asked if I had a death wish and tore into me.”

 

Jin knew all too well how obsessively Guild Master Theodyn of Odyssey had babied and overprotected his nephew in the past.

 

Until now, even as an S-class esper, Ruern had been a minor and was therefore kept out of frontline combat.

But starting this year, as an adult, Ruern had to finally pull his own weight. 

 

Naturally, Theodyn must still be burning with anxiety, unable to relax for even a second because of his nephew.

 

It was only natural he’d get chewed out after recklessly overreaching—ignoring his worried uncle’s feelings—and nearly getting himself killed in a dangerous moment.

 

Still… he had come back safely from the gate, and he should have received guiding from the guild guide as well. 

 

So why was his wavelength so razor-sharp and completely wrecked?

 

“You’re an S-class, and this is the best guiding you can get from the guild guide? There’s no way the Guild Master would’ve sent you here in this condition.”

 

Ruern felt a pang of guilt.

 

He could have received plenty of guiding, but he had refused it and rushed straight to Moribelle instead. He no longer wanted guiding from anyone else.

 

He would drive himself to the absolute limit—again and again—then come to Jin, who would worry over him and give him the most perfect, breathtaking guiding. 

 

Why on earth would he bother with someone he didn’t even want?

 

He hated how other guides stirred up his desires. 

 

Feeling lust toward someone he didn’t care about only felt disgusting.

 

“I’m still not being sent on really life-threatening combat missions yet. So naturally, my turn gets pushed back a bit, you know.”

 

He lied smoothly, his tongue moving with practiced ease, but Jin didn’t suspect a thing.

 

“Really? Still, next time, try asking the guild guide to give you a bit more. Even just 10 minutes—hell, even 5 more minutes—would keep it from getting this bad. Your guild has an S-class guide too, right?”

 

“Yeah, but I think our compatibility is really off. Every time I get guided by them, I feel awful. Sometimes it’s so nauseating I want to throw up.”

 

It was extremely rare for an esper to feel discomfort—or even outright pain—instead of pleasure during guiding due to poor compatibility with a guide, and for the guiding efficiency to drop as a result.

 

Even if Ruern had, unfortunately, fallen into that vanishingly rare category, it made no sense for it to happen with every single one of the six guides in Odyssey.

 

If he truly had such terrible luck, there was no way Guild Master Theodyn would just sit back and do nothing. 

 

He would have moved heaven and earth to recruit a different guide.

 

There were plenty of counterarguments Jin could have made, but he chose to keep his mouth shut, drawing on past experience.

 

Whenever the topic of compatibility came up, Ruern never missed the chance to blatantly emphasize how much he wanted to have a special relationship with Jin.

 

He knew very well how exceptionally good their compatibility was—that was exactly why he kept pushing it.

 

Of course, now that Ruern had passed puberty and matured somewhat, he no longer burdened Jin emotionally the way he used to.

 

Even so, Jin still felt a lingering discomfort in one corner of his heart, which left him constantly on edge.

 

“Jin… can you touch my forehead today? My head hurts especially bad…”

 

“Does it? Anywhere else hurting or feeling off? Come sit a little closer first. Let me take a proper look at everything.”

 

Ruern folded his large frame carefully so that Jin’s hand could reach his face comfortably. He had said “forehead,” but he positioned himself so that his cheek pressed fully into Jin’s palm.

 

The sensation of that small, warm, soft palm cradling his cheek was pure bliss.

 

If only this hand were touching not his face, but somewhere else…

 

He had thought that once that damn barrier was finally gone, he could reach much deeper right away.

 

Yet Jin still hadn’t changed—still only held his hand or occasionally stroked his face during guiding.

 

A surge of frustration and irritation rose in his chest, but Ruern quickly steadied his breathing. He had already waited years—what was a little longer?

 

Now that he was an adult, there was nothing left to hold him back.

 

🦋

 

A gate opened in the modest, serene front courtyard of a small church on the outskirts of Sector 2.

 

As observed, it was an A-grade gate. The espers from five guilds—including Odyssey—and the SAA had no trouble subjugating every single monster.

 

Even after the boss monster was killed, the gate showed no signs of closing.

 

It looked like it was going to turn into a “Latent Gate”, a term used to refer to gates that have entered a potential dormant phase; monsters can reappear at any time.

 

According to data collected so far, the chance of monsters reappearing from a Latent Gate was only about 1%, and even then, it only happened after a minimum of 5 years had passed.

 

Since ownership of Latent Gates belonged to the SAA, which managed them, the SAA could spend roughly the next 5 years harvesting various resources from the Latent Gate for research purposes.

 

Additionally, many guilds wanted to use Latent Gates for gate-adaptation training for beginner espers, so the SAA could also generate additional revenue by charging for entry permits.

 

The SAA staff who had come along with the collection team were already beaming with wide smiles, imagining the future profits.

 

“It’s a shame the church doors will have to be closed now.”

 

Kevin, who had peeled off his gloves—thick with monster bodily fluids—and tossed them into the waste bin, glanced over at the church.

 

The small front courtyard was bustling with a total of seventeen guiding domes set up by the five guilds and the SAA, along with the espers who had finished combat and the SAA personnel.

 

“My mother used to love taking walks here, so it’s a bit of a pity. Oh, right—Kevin, I actually had something to brag about.”

 

While nodding at Kevin’s words, Marcelo began loosening the high-collared combat suit around his neck, then let out a low, sinister laugh as he grinned wickedly.

 

Kevin shuddered at the sight and instinctively took a step back.

 

“Why are you laughing like that? It’s creepy. Unless you got guiding from Jin Guide, there’s nothing that could possibly—…”

 

“I did. I got guiding from Jin Guide.”

 

“What?! For real? Seriously? Like, actually for real?”

 

Kevin’s eyebrows shot straight up in shock before drooping again in pure envy.

 

“So that’s why you were bouncing around like crazy today? I was wondering why your body looked so unnaturally light… Damn, Marcel—how was it? Is the rumor true? Was it insane? Is it really the absolute best guiding? Aaaah, when the hell is my turn coming?!”

 

Kevin and Marcelo belonged to different guilds, but since espers from various guilds often fought together on the same gates, they inevitably ended up becoming close no matter what.

 

Talk of Jin—who had become something of an iconic guide to every esper—came up as naturally as exchanging casual greetings whenever they met.

 

Back when Jin was a minor, everyone could understand why the number of guiding sessions was limited.

 

But now that he was an adult, the number still hadn’t increased much, so espers were constantly on edge, obsessively checking their devices out of sheer habit.

 

You never knew when a notification might come, saying it was finally your turn.

 

Getting guided by anyone was good, of course—but meeting someone as legendary as Jin was what every esper prayed for with clasped hands.

 

It required perfect timing.

 

And now that Jin himself had become an adult, deeper and more intimate guiding was fully possible, which only made the reservation competition among espers fiercer and fiercer.

 

Kevin had already mostly given up after the unbearably long wait with no confirmation in sight.

 

So when he heard that his close friend Marcelo had finally gotten to meet Jin and receive guiding from him, the jealousy twisted his guts into knots.