I Captured the Enemy Who Tried to Kill Me - Chapter 7
No guide in this novel’s world would be able to calm that energy.
I was a veteran Guide, and I could sense the energy of all the guides present here.
It would be impossible for them.
They might even hasten the rampage.
“Your Grace, are you feeling unwell?”
Just then, a magician who bravely approached spoke to me.
Oh dear, it seems my expression management failed to the point where even someone who doesn’t know me well noticed.
“No, enjoy the banquet.”
Without noticing how disappointed the magician was as they awkwardly moved away, I turned my gaze again.
The Emperor was gone.
‘Where did he go?’
Ah. I saw the tail of the Emperor’s formal attire disappearing through the right exit.
And the Emperor’s knights, who were vigilantly maintaining the atmosphere as if nothing had happened.
I felt as though an invisible branching point had risen before me.
‘Should I ignore this and return? Or should I follow the Emperor and confirm how this situation resolves?’
My heart pounded heavily.
That energy was too frightening.
But what if things don’t follow the original story?
What if no guide appears to calm that power?
‘He’ll go berserk.’
And everyone will die.
Horribly.
Must I experience that pain once again?
I felt my vision turning white.
Perhaps I was falling into panic.
‘Status window, status window, aren’t you working?’
Despite how terrified I was, the status window remained frustratingly silent.
The status window remained silent, forgetting its habit of seizing control of my body whenever it pleased.
In the end, I had to make a choice.
Fortunately, with all attention focused on the Emperor, no one was looking at me.
‘If I’m going to act, it must be now.’
After staring intently at the exit where the Emperor had disappeared, I carefully began moving toward another exit.
Moving this way would allow me to exit in the direction the Emperor had gone.
‘Please.’
Oh, really. I hope this isn’t the worst decision. Please.
This was just the desperate struggle of a common civil servant Guide who wanted to safely live her second life.
***
Kaisis knew he wasn’t in his right mind.
‘What did they feed me?’
It was a damnable mistake.
Even though he knew there were those who harbored fantasies about high-ranking Awakened Ones who couldn’t find suitable Indojas, he had let his guard down for a moment.
Hillaria.
Duke Ariel.
It was because that woman had done something uncharacteristically conspicuous.
He had fixed his gaze on Duke Ariel tightly holding that child’s hand, because it was so absurd.
The sharp exchange that followed was the same as usual, but his attention remained focused there.
‘Luias.’
His brother was his sore spot.
Looking at that child naturally reminded him of his mother.
Though hateful, she was still his mother.
Even though she avoided him and only clung to his brother, even though his brother happened to be a magician, family was the last human tie he couldn’t let go of.
He tried to be a supportive older brother to his poor sibling, who had lost both their mother and his ability to speak. It wasn’t easy, but he tried.
That’s why the head of the magicians who took his brother as a hostage and treated him coldly was all the more irritating.
But what was that?
That gentle hand holding despite the cold expression, his brother blushing with a smile.
When she bent her knee to meet his eyes, Kaisis had momentarily forgotten the irritation and pain that always surged.
‘Huh?’
He thought the Duke, that woman, had finally gone mad.
“I’m… not in my right mind.”
The fact that he was remembering that impossibly vibrant red hair meant he was truly going insane.
“Ugh!”
His heart constricted painfully.
His vision distorted.
The terrible power swirling around him crushed his insides, pouncing at this moment of weakness.
‘How pathetic.’
The reason he had been desperately suppressing with all his soul was on the verge of snapping.
If he let this burst out, if he fully released it, he would find relief.
‘Ha…’
He knew. He would be freed from the pain that had followed him all his life with every breath.
His vision turned red. No, it shattered into blue fragments.
Could this really be the end?
“Kuk. No… don’t.”
In that moment, Kaisis gritted his teeth.
His brother was still in the banquet hall.
He needed to get away. Get far away.
From himself, from this monster.
But this cursed power, as always, wouldn’t listen to him.
The destructive impulse that had been flickering consumed his mind.
And something, it seemed like something had touched him.
In his darkening vision, he couldn’t remember anything, but it felt that way.
***
I’ve never believed in God, but right now, I want to beg anyone to please save me.
Kaisis had collapsed at the end of the corridor as expected.
The Awakened Ones and Indojas guarding the banquet hall, not daring to approach the Emperor, would probably be aware of the situation but unable to come close.
And I.
I was standing before him.
‘Mother of God.’
My teeth chattered as if I’d been thrown out naked in the middle of winter.
What on earth was I thinking, following him here?
Feeling the vicious energy pulsating dark blue, I trembled like a novice.
‘That’s really…’
It was a miserable sight I had never witnessed in my 10 years as a Guide.
It was frightening and terrible.
At the same time, I felt a fleeting pity.
‘He’s not crazy, how on earth has he endured this?’
As a Guide, I didn’t exactly know the pain espers experienced.
I never felt the Guide’s instinct or psychology that supposedly made one want to quickly calm down rampaging espers.
That was because I had only seen those who would vomit and roll their eyes at the mere touch of my hand, so such feelings were nonsense to me.
For me, guiding had always been a series of rejections.
But at this moment, that damned Guide instinct or whatever it was began to stir.
I wanted to heal him.
I wanted to calm him.
Even though I knew that since I wasn’t the sunshine protagonist, this esper might also recoil and reject me like all the others if my power reached him.
It was a strange sensation.
The man who couldn’t even open his eyes, struggling like a petrified statue to contain his overflowing power, seemed…
Pitiful.
‘I knew it.’
Despite his cold and unpleasant face, I knew he had been enduring terribly.
But regardless of such feelings, this was completely different from when I had glimpsed his energy before.
‘Just touching him might drag me in.’
An ordinary guide might faint upon contact or have their heart stop from being completely drained.
The power beginning to unravel for a full-scale rampage was suffocating just to look at.
‘Can I… can I handle this?’
My confidence plummeted.
Even though I had become an S-class Guide, this was beyond standard.
My frozen feet seemed to urge me to flee from this place immediately.
But.
If I leave?
Even if I take his hand and then push him away and leave, we would both regret it.
There was no good option.
As I hesitated, unable to make a decision.
“Go… away.”
That’s when it happened.
The man who was staggering and completely collapsing opened his eyes.
His hazy blue eyes stared directly at me.
‘Did he recognize me?’
No. That wasn’t it.
But he didn’t look away either.
My thoughts stopped as if my heart had been pierced by a spear.
The man didn’t call out to me. He didn’t say anything coherent.
His quivering lips couldn’t form a proper sentence, but the moment our eyes met, I was already running toward him.
‘Oh, damn it!’
Even though my heart constricted painfully as waves of power crashed into me the moment I supported his collapsing body.
I couldn’t turn away from those eyes that seemed to desperately plead, ‘Save me.’
So don’t remember this, human.
This is just like the mindset of firefighters putting out an urgent fire.
Just that level of sense of duty!
You need to know how exceptional this is for me!
I whispered.
“Please, don’t.”
With my eyes tightly shut, I held the large man fully in my arms.
“Don’t remember any of this.”
Mustering all my strength, I pushed the man into an open room and decided to accept the violent power of the rampaging esper in a way I had never attempted in my life.
So.
With my eyes tightly shut and my head moving.
A kiss. A meeting of lips. An exchange of breath.
“Ah.”
It was a strange feeling.
The soft, warm sensation of lips.
The cold, raging feeling that stung as it penetrated through the skin.
The brightly glowing blue eyes of the rampaging esper stared with piercing clarity, desperate to identify who stood before him.
‘This person will push me away, too. He’ll throw me aside.’
As I resigned myself to self-mockery, he grabbed my arm.
“…!”
He didn’t push me away.
He pulled me closer obsessively.
Determined to prevent any chance of my escape.
‘Ah!’
Fierce breath invaded between our lightly pressed lips.
It was a kiss that threatened to consume me whole.
His power also crashed in madly.
‘He… didn’t reject me.’
The sight of an esper desperately pulling me closer, wanting my power for the first time in my life, was indescribably shocking.
Especially since it was this unpleasant man.
‘He didn’t deny my power.’
Perhaps I felt relieved.
Without realizing it, I placed my arms on the broad shoulders of the man who was hungrily pressing his lips against mine.
It seems I pulled him closer to make it easier to accept his power.
More. I’ll absorb more and calm you.
Because I’m a Guide, and you’re an esper.
That was the last thought I could properly form.
