By Zephyria 
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam, today…”
Thinking it might be better if he were mentally prepared, Vasily turned back to warn Gi-dam in advance. However, what met Vasily’s eyes was Gi-dam, staggering and gasping for breath.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam? What’s wrong?”
“I’m just… a bit dizzy…”
As Vasily caught the swaying Gi-dam, a faint scent of blood brushed past the tip of his nose.
Vasily lowered his gaze toward where the familiar smell of blood was coming from. As expected, blood was seeping through a tear in his pants.
“You’re hurt.”
“Ugh… when did I get hurt?”
“I’ll wash off the blood first.”
While Gi-dam muttered, looking down at the wound, Vasily grabbed the hem of his pants and ripped them right off. Although the combat suit was made from the tough fur of monsters, it tore as easily as paper, exposing one of Gi-dam’s legs.
Flustered, Gi-dam shouted, asking what on earth he was doing. Instead of answering, Vasily took out the disinfectant he had brought and poured it onto Gi-dam’s thigh.
“Agh!”
As the liquid, several times more potent than ordinary disinfectant, seeped into the wound, a pained groan escaped Gi-dam’s lips. The leg he was barely using to keep his balance trembled violently.
As the blood was washed away, the affected area was revealed to be swollen and purple. It seemed monster’s blood had already entered the wound.
Tsk, Vasily clicked his tongue shortly and knit his brows.
“Stay still. I need to freeze the wound.”
Cool fingers brushed against his thigh. By the time Gi-dam felt a stinging pain and looked down, a thin layer of ice had already covered the wound.
“Once we leave the Gate, let’s go to the hospital first.”
“…Understood.”
Gi-dam nodded weakly.
Vasily quietly turned his gaze deeper into the Gate. Only the last monster remained. He had intended to slowly enjoy the sight of Gi-dam fighting, as much as he felt it was a waste to end it…
But in this state, Gi-dam couldn’t face a monster. Getting out of the Gate and receiving treatment was the priority. As for the monster remaining deep inside, he could simply freeze it along with the Gate.
Vasily picked Gi-dam up in his arms.
“I-I can walk on my own.”
“If you move, the poison will spread faster. Unless you want to spend the next few months in a wheelchair, stay still.”
The only saving grace was that since they were weak monsters, the toxicity wasn’t strong. He would likely recover after spending a few days in bed.
Gi-dam resisted for a moment, but there was no way he could struggle with a body that could barely stand. Holding the now-quiet Gi-dam in his arms, Vasily began to retrace their steps.
From deep within the Gate they had left, a chilly air was emanating. Since this was an abnormal phenomenon, Gi-dam seemed to realize that Vasily was taking some kind of measure and fell silent.
Gi-dam was excessively quiet. Come to think of it, the body in his arms seemed to be getting warmer.
Looking down at Gi-dam in his embrace, Vasily saw him blinking. His eyes were hazy, perhaps because his temperature was rising due to the toxin. He seemed to be on the verge of losing consciousness.
The sound of shallow, wheezing breaths reached his ears. Yes, it would be better for him to just sleep. Being awake would only be painful.
By the time the Gate exit came into view, Gi-dam had already drifted into unconsciousness.
* * *
Gi-dam had only fainted briefly and his condition wasn’t critical, so after receiving an antidote and a simple examination at the hospital, he was moved to Vasily’s private room.
Vasily looked down silently at Gi-dam, who lay on the bed of the private room with an IV in the back of his hand, still unconscious. Beside him, the Attending Physician, who was checking Gi-dam’s condition, spoke up.
“I urged you so many times that he needed rest, yet is it true that you took Guide Kwon Gi-dam into the Gate?”
When Vasily looked at the Attending Physician with a cold gaze, the man shut his mouth. However, the frightened physician’s silence lasted only a moment before he spoke again.
“I’m asking just in case… surely you didn’t intend to bring back his memories by giving him a shock?”
“I didn’t particularly have that intention.”
As Vasily denied it calmly, the Attending Physician looked at him with an even stranger expression.
He reacted this way because he didn’t know that Gi-dam was accustomed to entering and exiting Gates. If he knew that Gi-dam personally fought monsters, the Attending Physician would have been desperate to see it for himself.
If Vasily revealed that fact, the physician would stop glaring, but Vasily had no intention of sharing information that only he knew with others.
The Attending Physician sighed and continued.
“As you know, Guide Kwon Gi-dam didn’t collapse solely because of the monster’s blood. His stress levels were high, and his immune response has dropped significantly.”
“…”
“If you keep pushing him like this, his body won’t be able to take it.”
The Attending Physician’s words were sincere.
Having been Vasily’s physician for several years, he knew well how difficult things must have been for Gi-dam. To have gone to a Gate with that Vasily, while in a weakened state after just waking up and confused from memory loss… it was a wonder he hadn’t collapsed sooner.
“What do you plan to do if his memories return at this rate?”
“I wonder…”
Vasily trailed off.
He wasn’t worried about Gi-dam’s memories returning. He believed the reason their relationship had been dysfunctional from the start was Gi-dam’s fault for hiding the fact of his regression.
Therefore, he had done nothing wrong. If anything, Gi-dam was the one who should be walking on eggshells.
“I’ll be going now. From now on, absolutely do not take the Guide even near a Gate. To take someone who is already confused from memory loss into a Gate… Sigh…”
The Attending Physician muttered softly and left the private room.
Though the nagging voice had vanished, Vasily remained by Gi-dam’s side.
“Ugh… hng…”
Gi-dam groaned in pain all night as his fever rose. Watching him toss and turn on the bed, Vasily quietly placed his hand on Gi-dam’s forehead.
As the cold skin touched him, Gi-dam rubbed his forehead against Vasily’s palm as if drawn to the coolness.
It was strange. Regardless of Gi-dam’s condition, he had intended to receive guiding today, yet the moment he saw Gi-dam struggling with a high fever, that thought vanished without a trace.
To think that his heart felt tight just seeing Gi-dam rely on him, rubbing his face against his hand like a child.
“Truly strange…”
Just then, Gi-dam’s eyelids slowly lifted.
Blinking and staring blankly at the dark ceiling, Gi-dam soon noticed the hand on his forehead and shifted his gaze.
Discovering Vasily sitting in the darkness, he bolted upright, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
“Why are you here?”
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam collapsed.”
“That’s why I’m asking why…”
Gi-dam trailed off as if he couldn’t understand. He had thought it was strange before, but why was Gi-dam so wary of him? Naturally, it didn’t feel good.
“My Guide collapsed; am I not allowed to worry?”
“If you were worried enough to care that I collapsed, shouldn’t you have just not taken me to the Gate in the first place?”
“I suppose… that would work.”
Vasily had naturally expected that Gi-dam wouldn’t come out in perfect condition if he entered a Gate. However, that was something that had to be accepted. Through the process of getting hurt and recovering, Gi-dam’s body would gradually become accustomed to the Gate.
But seeing Gi-dam lose consciousness and suffer from a fever strangely shook his heart. To the point where he thought it might be better not to take Gi-dam into the Gate at all.
When Vasily quietly agreed with his words, Gi-dam frowned and asked.
“Did you eat something wrong? You weren’t originally this kind of person.”
“What is my personality like?”
“You treated people like insects and didn’t care whether I was hurt or not, did you not?”
“You know me well.”
That was why he found it strange himself. Instead of thinking Gi-dam was pathetic for collapsing, he had felt a faint sense of worry.
“You won’t have to enter a Gate for a while, so rest easy.”
“…Are you serious?”
“Thinking about it, I think Guide Kwon Gi-dam is right. It would be better not to overdo it until your body recovers.”
Gi-dam’s expression crumpled subtly. Since his face had darkened every time Vasily suggested going to a Gate, Vasily thought he would be happy to hear this, but it seemed that wasn’t quite the case.
With his mouth firmly shut, Gi-dam looked somewhat confused.