By Zephyria 
“Ah! You must be the new Guide who was supposed to come today, right?”
Just as I was contemplating whether to get back on the elevator I had just stepped off of and go back down, an employee passing through the hallway spotted me and approached.
They looked to be around my age, with a bright and energetic face. Believing that the vision of death by overwork I’d seen briefly was just a hallucination, I nodded and answered.
“Yes, I am C-Class Guide Kwon Gi-dam. I’m starting work in the Temporary Guide Department today.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m B-Class Guide Jo Woo-yeon. Shall we head inside for now?”
Looking at his kind smile, I reassured myself that it had been a mistake. Right, maybe the people here just exceptionally love coffee.
Striving to ignore the ominous signs piled up at the entrance, I followed the employee guiding me inside.
Assigned to the same team as Jo Woo-yeon as soon as I started work, I exchanged greetings with my teammates and underwent another wavelength test.
Since wavelengths are unstable immediately after awakening, the test was performed once more for accuracy, but naturally, there were no significant changes. After confirming there were no issues with proceeding with work, the formal training began.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam-ssi, since your guiding spectrum is wide, you’ll mainly be handling Espers that other temporary Guides cannot guide.”
“Does that include high-ranking Espers as well?”
“You’ll be assigned according to your rank, so don’t worry too much.”
I asked just in case, but Jo Woo-yeon gave a light laugh and shook his head. As expected, this workplace has a basic level of common sense. I grinned, pleased.
I received a brief explanation of the duties from Jo Woo-yeon and watched him perform guiding. Temporary guiding was ridiculously simple. It was nothing more than performing contact guiding while hugging an Esper for about an hour in a single-room guiding room. And after that, all I had to do was write a guiding log.
Is that really all?
It was so simple that it was actually baffling. Of course, guiding requires physical strength even if you’re just holding hands, so it’s a bit tiring once it’s over. However, after spending my time rolling around in Gates, fighting battles where life and death were on the line, I couldn’t quite adjust to just sitting still and guiding.
I really feel that escaping from being Vasily’s Guide was the right choice.
Receiving combat training under Vasily’s direction every dawn, fighting monsters inside Gates, and then having to provide guiding once the conquest was over… Even thinking about it now, it was madness.
The morning consisted of simple job explanations and observing temporary guiding, and I started working immediately in the afternoon.
As Jo Woo-yeon mentioned, most of the Espers assigned to me were C-Class or lower. Guiding low-ranking Espers was easy. Even before returning to the past, I was an all-around S-Class Guide with high matching rates with most Espers. I had spent my whole life guiding only picky S-Class Espers; compared to that guy, this was a piece of cake.
However…
The work of a temporary Guide was busy, busy, and busy again.
I’d heard rumors for a long time that they were short-staffed, and it seemed those weren’t lies; even on my first day, I was assigned so many Espers that I far exceeded the recommended guiding quota.
After spending the whole day guiding like a guiding machine, I returned home almost like a corpse once working hours ended. No matter how light the contact guiding was, the sheer volume was immense, and my strength was drained until my stamina hit rock bottom.
Normally, I wouldn’t feel anything even after guiding this much, but perhaps it was because of the suppression chip. Moreover, maybe due to the chip implanted in the back of my neck, I suffered from fever and severe headaches after guiding. By the time I finished work and got home, I was so immobile that I had to take some strange medicine and lie down.
“Ah… I’m gonna die…”
I managed to endure the first few days, but repeating this for a whole week was nothing short of hell.
Even though it had only been a week since I started working, I felt like I was going to die of overwork. I deeply regretted dismissing temporary guiding as easy. Even now, I was staggering to work while pouring fatigue recovery drinks into an empty stomach, but it felt like I would collapse soon.
I can’t go on like this. I needed a plan.
Before I even sat down at my desk after arriving at work, I poked my head over the partition. Sensing someone’s presence, Jo Woo-yeon looked at me and flinched upon meeting my haggard gaze.
“Gi-dam-ssi? Do you have a question?”
“You’re going on a Gate dispatch tomorrow, right?”
As soon as the word ‘dispatch’ came out, Jo Woo-yeon’s expression darkened sharply.
“Yes… I feel like I just went not long ago, but it’s already my turn…”
“Can I go instead of you?”
“What? On dispatch?”
In an instant, my colleague’s voice brightened.
Jo Woo-yeon’s face lit up. The reason he was so delighted was likely because ordinary people extremely dislike going near Gates.
The area around a Gate is dangerous for ordinary people, and occasionally, if a monster escapes, there are always one or two casualties. This was one of the reasons why being a temporary Guide affiliated with the association was unpopular. Because the accident rate was quite high, there was an atmosphere of avoiding business trips even here.
Good, seeing Jo Woo-yeon’s reaction, it looks like he’ll bite the bait immediately.
However, his face, which looked as if he would accept my proposal at any moment, darkened again.
“Gi-dam-ssi, you might not know since you haven’t been, but Gate dispatch is hard… Once the Gate conquest begins, injured people are constantly carried out… You have to guide them while heading to the hospital… People die right before your eyes, and if you’re unlucky, monsters pop out.”
“I know. But I really want to go. Would that be okay?”
“But…”
“Please. I applied to be a temporary Guide because I wanted to go to the field.”
I spat out the lie with a smiling face. Of course, for someone like me who had rolled around in Gates every time, saying I wanted to go to the field was a complete lie.
Ugh… Jo Woo-yeon couldn’t make a decision easily. It was a tempting offer, but he seemed uneasy.
“Alright…”
After agonizing for a long time, he finally nodded. He likely felt reluctant to hand over work to a newcomer, but the temptation had been too hard to resist.
Throughout the explanation of the duties I would be taking over, Jo Woo-yeon couldn’t hide his increasingly brightening expression. Beside my colleague, who was happy about not having to go to the Gate, I also felt a great sense of relief.
When I was Vasily’s Guide, I often saw temporary Guides at the Gates. Most of them just yawned with bored expressions and retreated faster than anyone else once the conquest was complete.
According to Jo Woo-yeon’s explanation, after arriving at the Gate, I only needed to provide light contact guiding to Espers who requested it. If a seriously injured person appeared during the conquest, I would have to perform emergency guiding while heading to the hospital, but if not, I could leave work immediately after the conquest ended. He even said that the next day, I could just rest at home and submit a simple report.
Well, since deaths occur frequently and monsters jump out at any moment, it would be a daunting task for Guides who have never been near a Gate. To me, it couldn’t be a more comfortable job.
Most Gates that open in Korea are low-rank, so unless it’s an exceptionally large Gate, the conquest ends in a single day. There’s no need to work overnight. Since I remember the large Gates that would prolong the conquest period, I just had to avoid those when applying for Gate dispatch.
Ah, just imagining it already feels relaxing.
I feel like I can finally breathe. Waiting outside the Gate until the conquest is over might be boring, but it’s better than struggling.
I clenched my fist.
Yes. It’ll be much easier than spending all day guiding like a guiding machine. As long as I’m not unlucky enough for a monster to escape, it’s practically like taking a short vacation.
This time, it’s the start of a life of luxury!
* * *
The very next morning, I headed to the Gate as soon as I opened my eyes.
At the crack of dawn, I took a shuttle bus to the Gate with other Guides in front of the Guide Association. Since it was my first dispatch, a senior was attached to me for formality to explain things.
“You said it’s your first time today? Did you hear what you’ll be doing there?”
“Yes. I heard I should provide short guiding to Espers before they enter the Gate, or provide guiding to emergency patients until they arrive at the hospital.”
Although I had never been to a Gate as a temporary Guide, I had received a brief explanation from Jo Woo-yeon yesterday and had watched them from afar with envy, so I roughly knew the role I would be playing. The senior asked a few questions and, deciding there was nothing more to tell, quickly ended the explanation.