It was Jin who spoke first, before Simon could.

 

“I’m not saying this because I’m ashamed of coming from District 4. Everyone has their own circumstances, after all. It’s just… I know exactly how other people look at District 4. Even when I’m just staying at home, I can hear the things people say.”

 

A small, worn-out corner of a house. 

 

Left alone while her parents went out to work, the child had grown up listening to her whole life to drunken, drug-addled people passing through the residential area of District 4, spitting out the unfair and filthy realities of society.

 

When that thought crossed Simon’s mind, he found it difficult to open his mouth right away.

 

But Ivan, resting his chin on his hand, looked at Jin as if what she was asking for was nothing particularly difficult.

 

“I’ll find you a private tutor. One who teaches only you. You don’t have to go to school. And friends… they aren’t really necessary either.”

 

Ivan hadn’t been able to attend school properly either—his parents, unable to accept that he had an incurable illness, had dragged him through every possible treatment. 

 

To Ivan, who had been taught by private tutors, the concept of having “friends” had never really existed.

 

He had never once thought of that as sad or inconvenient.

 

It was simply nice to have, but not having them was fine too.

 

Probably something around that level.

 

Only after hearing Ivan’s blunt, matter-of-fact answer did the tension finally drain from Jin’s tightly pressed lips. 

 

A faint, soft smile appeared.

 

She had been so expressionless that Simon had half-wondered whether she even knew how to smile—but apparently not.

 

This might actually be the most she could express happiness.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Having said that, Jin turned her head and looked up at Simon with clear, guileless eyes—as if to say that today’s business was now finished.

 

The look almost felt like a quiet urging: Hurry up and do the next thing.

 

Simon let out a small, fond laugh at how cute she looked acting that way, then left the office together with Jin.

 

For a long time afterward, the image of Jin—her especially small frame and her dry, dull black hair that spoke of chronic malnutrition—remained burned into Ivan’s vision like an afterimage.

 

🦋

 

The Morivel headquarters in District 1 was a fairly large building consisting of a total of 14 floors, 4 basement levels, and 10 above ground.

 

Floors B2 through B4 were parking lots, while B1 housed a quite spacious fitness center and Pilates room.

 

The first floor contained the reception desk, a waiting area for guests, staff offices, and a break room. The 2nd to the 6th floors were thirty guiding rooms.

 

The 7th floor was reserved exclusively for Morivel-affiliated guides and staff: it had a movie theater, a beauty room with an on-site esthetician, and a massage room staffed by professional physical therapists.

 

Jin’s residence had been prepared on the 8th floor of the Morivel headquarters.

 

On that floor were twelve rooms that affiliated guides sometimes used when they grew tired of staying at home or in hotels.

 

They were mainly spaces for short stays—days when guiding had been especially exhausting, and they couldn’t even be bothered to move, days of terrible weather, or days after small, casual parties among colleagues.

 

Since even a single guide’s commute or outing required several bodyguards to accompany them, there were times when the constant presence felt terribly cumbersome.

 

The rooms on the 8th floor served as a place where such guides could rest comfortably and at ease.

 

Among them, Simon had given Jin the largest and sunniest room, and had redecorated it in bright, cheerful tones.

 

Since Ivan lived in the same building, it was only natural to keep the still-underage child close by.

 

Ivan’s office was on the 9th floor, and the penthouse he used alone was on the 10th.

 

Though there seemed to be only one floor between the 9th and 10th, multiple overlapping security measures made the actual separation feel equivalent to about three floors in a normal building.

 

The headquarters originally went up to only the 9th floor; the extension began two years before Nikolai and Ashlyn retired.

 

They had passed the position of representative to their son while leaving behind an impregnable fortress of a penthouse—as though bestowing a final act of grace.

 

That was also why a small, private elevator connecting the office and the penthouse had been installed.

 

Jin’s room came with a luxurious bathroom, a dressing room, a small study, and a reception parlor.

 

All the furniture had been replaced with pieces scaled to fit her small frame.

 

Afterward, an enormous quantity of books filled the study.

 

Simon, who had never particularly cared about furniture or clothes, felt quite a sense of pride when he saw Jin quietly smiling at the sight of the bookshelves packed full.

 

Watching her sit at the study desk and begin stacking the books she intended to read, Simon placed an assortment of all kinds of snacks on the desk before finally returning to his own office.

 

Completely unaware that Jin would never touch those snacks.

 

🦋

 

“Jin?”

 

As soon as Simon returned, Ivan lifted his gaze from the documents.

 

“I just came from confirming she’s reading.”

 

“Reading?”

 

“Yes. She has zero interest in clothes or furniture or anything around her, but the moment she saw the bookshelves packed full, she actually smiled a little.”

 

Ivan rubbed his stiff brow and sank into the sofa, recalling the events of the morning.

 

They had finished registering Jin’s identity yesterday, and early this morning, he had taken her to undergo the Esper aptitude examination.

 

After the basic tests—blood draw, Esper response measurement, and so on—they were waiting for the results when, for some reason, the staff members conducting the examination suddenly began exchanging startled looks and murmuring among themselves. 

 

Now and then, they would glance furtively toward Ivan and Jin.

 

Ivan sat side by side with Jin in the waiting area, calmly watching the scene. He waited in silence to see when the staff—who were nudging each other and clearly trying to decide who would have to go over and speak—would finally muster the courage to say whatever it was.

 

Just as his patience was about to run out, one of the male staff members approached hesitantly and, with visible difficulty, opened his mouth.

 

“Um… Representative Freud. Would it be all right if we conducted a more detailed examination of Miss Jin? The readings are… not ordinary. Since this is her first test as well…”

 

“What do you mean by ‘not ordinary’?”

 

“Ah, well, it’s just that…”

 

The staff member did his very best to explain as clearly and earnestly as he could.

 

Ivan listened, gave a rough nod, then turned to Jin.

 

“Jin. What do you want to do? Want to go through with more tests? If you don’t like the idea, you don’t have to.”

 

Jin, who had been sitting perfectly still no matter what was said, finally lifted her head.

 

“I’ll do it.”

 

She answered readily, as though there wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation required.

 

Ivan turned back to the staff member.

 

“Will any of it hurt?”

 

“Ah—no! We’ve already done the blood draw; the remaining tests won’t hurt at all.”

 

The flustered employee received a sharp look from Ivan that clearly said don’t do anything stupid. 

 

A warning in advance never hurt.

 

The moment the man met Ivan’s heterochromatic eyes, he flinched as though he had seen something horrifying, quickly dropped his gaze, and hurriedly led Jin away.

 

Ivan ended up waiting another full hour and a half.

 

While handling urgent work on her tablet, Jin hadn’t even realized how much time had passed.

 

The staff member who belatedly brought Jin out was sweating profusely and glancing nervously at Ivan far more than necessary.

 

“The tests are all finished for now, but analyzing the results will take a bit more time. I’m sorry.”

 

Waiting longer wasn’t really the issue, but Ivan felt a slight unease creeping in.

 

It reminded him of when he himself had undergone testing as a child—how the results had come out so late in exactly the same way.

 

The first worry that surfaced was, What if this small child has the same defect as I?

 

“Then please send the results in writing. The child is tired and wants to go back now.”

 

“Yes, yes. We’ll send them as quickly as possible.”

 

After returning to Morivel with Jin, they each focused on their own tasks again. 

 

About two hours later, the test results finally arrived.

 

From the moment Simon received them, checked them first, and reported Jin’s results to Ivan, Ivan’s mind had been a tangled mess ever since.

 

The exact mechanism by which someone awakens as a Resonator has still not been fully uncovered.

 

All that was known was something along the lines of, “Certain genes abnormally resonate with each other, causing a mutation that leads to the awakening of special abilities.”

 

Even now, the question of what further mechanism divides Resonators into Espers and Guides remains a persistent headache for countless scientists and doctors.

 

At best, the theory that genetic factors play at least some role has been gradually gaining more support.

 

His ordinary parents had given birth to two S-class Espers. Though one died, the remaining one was defective.

 

In any case, Jin’s parents were both renowned as exceptionally skilled among A-class Guides.

 

So the fact that their daughter was a Guide wasn’t particularly surprising in itself.

 

It was just that she wasn’t an ordinary Guide.

 

“Jin doesn’t know the results yet, right?”

 

“Yes. We haven’t told her yet.”

 

“Okay. I’ll tell her myself tonight. After that, it’s only right to ask what she wants to do and give her the choice.”

 

Simon nodded.

 

Jin was, astonishingly, an SS-class Guide.

 

There was a reason why the examination staff had requested more detailed precision testing and why it had taken so long for the results to come out.

 

Even in the government-run SAA (Special Abilities Authority), there were only two SS-class Guides in total.

 

Up until now, there had never been a single SS-class Guide who operated outside of government oversight.

 

Excluding any freelance S-class Guides, of which there were none, even if you searched through every single Guide belonging to the SAA, the 42 Guilds, and all the Guiding Houses combined, the total number of S-class Guides didn’t even exceed 35.

 

It was already shocking enough that two SS-class Guides existed in the same era—now a third had appeared. 

 

The amount of attention that would soon pour toward Jin was going to be overwhelming.

 

And on top of that, Jin was only fourteen years old.

 

Of course, since her registered identity had been adjusted to make her thirteen, it would shock people even more once the truth came out.

 

Once she reached the legally recognized age of adulthood at twenty, she would also have to begin insertion guiding. 

 

That was when officially sex-accompanied guiding would be permitted.

 

When they had reduced her age by one year during identity registration, Ivan hadn’t thought much of it at the time.

 

But now, looking at the result of her being an SS-class Guide, he felt it had been an extremely wise decision.

 

By delaying her official age by one year, the period during which she would be overworked and exploited would also be pushed back by that much.