By Zephyria 
Before I knew it, the conversation had ceased, and silence settled in.
In the quiet stillness, Vasily’s body, leaning against me, grew heavier. I couldn’t hear his breathing because of the noisy insects chirping all around, but it seemed he had fallen asleep.
Seeing that the suppression chip was starting to grow hot, it felt as though an hour had passed since I began the guiding. Despite this, Vasily showed no sign of waking up.
“Should I let him sleep a bit longer…?”
He wouldn’t be able to sleep properly while the conquest continued. If he fought monsters for a whole week without any rest, his condition would deteriorate quickly, so I thought it would be better to let him close his eyes for a while.
I decided to hold out until the suppression chip was just about to overheat, and then wake him when it became truly unbearable. After that, getting a bit of his blood before sending him back into the Gate shouldn’t cause any problems.
Listening quietly to the sound of the insects, I carefully wrapped my arms around his broad back.
* * *
Vasily left for the Gate around dawn.
I kept delaying waking him, telling myself to guide him just a little more, until I finally shook him awake as the sun began to rise. Unlike me, who had spent the night wide awake, Vasily looked quite refreshed after sleeping comfortably while receiving guiding.
Naturally, due to the prolonged contact, the back of my neck felt like a ball of fire. Only after I drank his blood as soon as he woke up did the heat subside.
Before entering the Gate, he looked back at me as I saw him off with a haggard face. Then, he left, leaving only a word that he didn’t know when he would be able to come out for guiding again.
That afternoon, several exhausted Espers came out of the Gate for supplementary guiding. I lingered, wondering if Vasily might be among them, but that striking silver hair was nowhere to be seen.
I approached an Esper who had just started receiving guiding from a temporary Guide and asked softly.
“By any chance, has Esper Vasily not come out?”
The Esper flinched upon seeing my face and then shut his mouth with a troubled expression. Right… that’s right. I had momentarily forgotten my situation.
The people here were strictly tight-lipped even in places where Vasily wasn’t present. I understood their feelings; I wouldn’t want to lose a perfectly functional tongue either. Moreover, since Vasily was the type of man who actually followed through on his threats, they would be even more cautious.
In the end, I gave up on getting an answer and stepped aside so the Esper could receive guiding comfortably. Turning around to look at my surroundings, everyone except me was in the middle of guiding. Feeling that even sitting in the corner might be a hindrance, I quietly stepped out of the tent.
“He’s not outside either…”
Seeing that he still hadn’t shown himself, it seemed Vasily hadn’t come out with the others. I lingered near the Gate for a bit, but fearing I might look like I was waiting for him, I walked back toward the tents.
Vasily emerged from the Gate again on the night of the third day of the conquest.
“Ugh!”
After tossing and turning for a long time due to the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, I had barely fallen asleep when a massive object crashed down on top of me. Struck by a bolt from the blue in my sleep, I pushed away the unidentified object while clutching my aching ribs.
“Wa-wait… Could it be Esper Vasily?”
“…”
There was no answer from Vasily, who lay prone on top of me without moving a muscle. Instead, as if he were about to fall asleep at any moment, he wrapped his arms around my waist and closed his eyes.
“Esper, please get up for a moment. I’ll give you proper guiding somewhere else. Please?”
Flustered, I tried to coax him. Perhaps my persistent voice was irritating, because after much persuasion, Vasily reluctantly pushed himself up.
Since he looked extremely exhausted upon facing me for the first time in two days, I brought a cot and led him outside. The process was quite noisy, so I felt sorry for the others who were sleeping.
Along with the sound of rolling wheels, the footsteps of two people echoed between the dark tents.
We arrived at the empty locker room and turned on the lights. As soon as my vision cleared, the first thing that caught my eye was my hand, stained red.
“What is this…?”
Did I get paint on me while moving the cot? For that, the texture was too light and spread too easily. Wondering if I would recognize it by smell, I brought my fingertips to my nose. In that instant, my body froze at the sharp scent of blood hitting my nostrils.
It’s blood?
Seeing that nothing particularly hurt, I hadn’t injured my palm while moving the cot. If so, there was only one possible source for the blood.
I whipped around and asked Vasily, who had been quiet until now.
“Are you hurt?”
“Just a scratch.”
“There’s this much blood, there’s no way it’s just a—”
I hurriedly checked Vasily’s condition.
The suit jacket near his left shoulder was torn and stained red. Judging by the spread of the blood, the bleeding didn’t seem severe… but it was too early to be relieved, as he might have used his ability to staunch the wound.
I began to undress Vasily to check the injury.
I pushed aside the jacket and pulled at the tie. Vasily didn’t stop me, so I was able to easily undo the shirt buttons. As I pulled the collar back, a wound covered in ice appeared.
There was a deep laceration on his shoulder. To anyone, it was clearly a wound inflicted by a monster. It was an angle where his shoulder could have been torn off if things had gone wrong.
“Does an S-class Esper get hurt even in a low-grade Gate like this? And how on earth is this ‘just a scratch’!”
“I let my guard down for a moment.”
“Let your guard down? Unless you got hurt on purpose…”
While arguing, I suddenly noticed something strange. I frowned and asked.
“…Is this because of me?”
There was no way Vasily would be hurt by a monster of this grade. Normally, he would have dealt with it before the monster could even get close.
If so, there was only one possibility. Because he wasn’t receiving proper guiding, he tried to minimize his use of abilities, and in doing so, he got injured.
“Because my guiding is ineffective, did you get hurt while trying to refrain from using your abilities?”
“Perhaps…”
It was an ambiguous answer, but it wasn’t a denial. I fell silent. Even without Vasily saying it, I already knew the answer. That the reason he was hurt was because he hadn’t received proper guiding from me.
I bit my lip and clenched my fists.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll get the first aid kit from the Guide’s waiting room.”
I walked out without looking back.
To think he got hurt while saving his abilities because my guiding is weak. I felt an unbearable sense of patheticness at my own incompetence. Never had my pride been more wounded than today.
Damn it, this is all because of the suppression chip.
I pressed hard against the back of my neck. My nails dug into the flesh, and a stinging pain surged. But there was no way I could remove the suppression chip embedded deep in my skin.
“Sigh…”
My chest felt tight, but treating the injured Vasily was the priority. I inhaled the cold air deep into my lungs to clear my head.
In the waiting room where everyone was asleep, I quietly grabbed the first aid kit and returned to the locker room. Vasily was waiting for me on the cot, sitting in the exact same posture as when I had left.
Seeing Vasily like that, the facts I had been overlooking began to surface in my mind one by one.
Even after he started receiving guiding from me, his condition hardly improved. The reason he brought me to this Gate was likely because it would be difficult for him to endure without guiding for a week.
Before the regression, Vasily could sufficiently hold out for about a week without guiding. Unless it was an S-class Gate, he never got hurt. Ultimately, this meant that all the responsibility lay with me, who had become incompetent after having the suppression chip implanted in my neck.
“…I’ll wrap your bandage.”
Holding the first aid kit, I carefully approached Vasily.
As Vasily released his ability, the ice melted, and the blood that had stopped began to flow again. I applied pressure to the streaming blood to stop it and poured disinfectant over it.
The strong disinfectant must have stung as it seeped into the wound, yet Vasily’s expression didn’t change once. Rather, it was my face, knowing that pain, that contorted severely.
I placed a cloth over the wound and wrapped a bandage over it. Vasily, who had been watching quietly, spoke.
“You’re experienced.”
“Emergency treatment was included in the job training I received from the association when I was a temporary Guide.”
“You’re quite proficient for that. You don’t even seem surprised to see blood.”
Of course I wouldn’t be. Before the regression, it was a daily routine to wrap bandages around my own body as soon as I came out of a Gate. Since I had occasionally wrapped bandages for Vasily as well, I couldn’t help but be used to it.
“It’s done. Is it uncomfortable to move?”
“No. This should be fine even when I go back into the Gate.”
“Then please lie down now. I’ll guide you.”
Watching Vasily lie down on the bed, I was glad I had brought the cot. Because the cot was small, half of Vasily’s legs hung off the edge, but it would still be better for him to rest lying down.
To proceed with the guiding, I took off my upper garment and approached the bed.
“The bed is narrow, so please excuse me.”
However, a single-person cot was far too narrow for two adult men to lie together. Left with no choice, I lay down on top of Vasily, overlapping our bodies.
As I wobbled unsteadily, unable to keep my balance, Vasily wrapped his arm around my waist to keep me from falling. I adjusted my posture and leaned my body against his chest, avoiding his injured shoulder.