By Zephyria 
Still, it had to be Vasily. As expected of a monster who cleared dozens of Gates overnight as soon as he was recruited to Korea, the Gate was conquered quickly. I glanced at my smartphone to check the time. It felt like barely an hour had passed…
I quietly observed the situation outside. It seemed Vasily hadn’t come out yet.
Since Vasily, an S-class Esper, had gone in, he probably handled most of the monsters by himself. If that were the case, there would be no injured people and no one requesting temporary guiding.
That meant today’s work would be over once I guided Vasily. I’d just hold him for a moment and send him away quickly. Then, I’m going home.
“P-please… I need guiding…”
Just as I was clenching my fists in determination, an Esper entered the waiting room asking for guiding. I glanced over, thinking it was Vasily, but it was a face I had never seen before.
I quickly looked away. I would have to guide Vasily soon anyway, so it was better to save my energy.
“Hmm… I think my matching rate is too low… Is there anyone here who can provide guiding?”
However, the temporary Guide who had stepped forward to try guiding the Esper seemed to have a mismatched matching rate. I glanced at the other Guides, who looked annoyed, and let out a deep sigh.
I wanted to save my energy, but… Vasily hadn’t come out of the Gate yet, and as the youngest, I suppose I should be the one to do it.
“I’ll try.”
I stood up, volunteering reluctantly.
As I approached, I saw the Esper breathing heavily. He wasn’t injured, but he truly seemed to need guiding.
At this rate, he must have been in bad shape even before entering the Gate… It’s impressive he held out until the conquest was over. I held his hand for a moment to test it, and fortunately, the guiding seemed to work.
“The matching rate seems to fit. I’ll provide the guiding.”
After sending away the temporary Guide who was hovering nearby, I held the Esper in a brief embrace. Judging by how quickly his wavelength was settling, it seemed he would calm down soon with just a bit of guiding before Vasily arrived.
Or so I thought…
‘…This bastard.’
The hand that had moved to my waist began to grope my body suggestively. He even tried to slide his hand inside my clothes.
There are occasionally some guys who lose their minds like this when receiving guiding while in a poor state. I endured it and endured it again, and finally, as I turned my head to give him a warning, I saw him pushing his lips toward mine. Without thinking, my fist flew.
Thwack!
Crash!
With a crisp striking sound, the Esper fell backward. All eyes focused on us at the loud noise.
The moment I caused the accident, a wave of regret rushed over me. What if the Esper, furious to the core, jumped up and attacked me? I instinctively took a stance to prepare for the ensuing attack, but the fallen Esper didn’t budge.
Looking closer, he had passed out. Did I happen to hit him in a bad spot?
“Sigh…”
It must have landed squarely on his face. Dammit…
It’s already a headache. Technically, I wasn’t the one who started it, so it shouldn’t escalate into a major problem, but the thought of dealing with annoying complaints made my head throb.
Then, a voice came from behind.
“I was going to help…”
I hurriedly turned around at the sound of the deeply sunken, chilly tone.
“I guess my help wasn’t needed.”
Vasily.
The corners of his lips curled up slightly. Contrary to his smiling expression, the gaze he cast down at the unconscious Esper lying on the floor was so cold it felt as if it could freeze the air.
While I stood frozen for a moment by Vasily’s ice-cold expression, he brushed past me and grabbed the fallen Esper by the hair, lifting him up. The unconscious Esper was hoisted up, limp.
I looked away as I saw blood trickling from the Esper’s nose.
“So, what should I do with him?”
“What? What do you…”
“Should I just freeze his head? Or should I crush it?”
Hearing his question asked so nonchalantly, I experienced a moment of cognitive dissonance. Exactly three seconds later, I understood what I had heard and was horrified.
“W-what on earth…”
With a stiff face, I hurriedly looked around. Fortunately, because of the commotion caused by the Esper I had punched into unconsciousness, the others didn’t seem to have heard Vasily’s words.
I quickly approached Vasily and stopped him in a low voice.
“Are you insane? There are so many people watching; are you planning to kill him?”
“Ah, is it because of the people? Don’t worry. Nothing that happened here will leak out. I’ll just process this as if he died inside the Gate.”
Watching Vasily treat a human being like an object and speak so calmly, a memory from the past suddenly surfaced.
He was right. Vasily had committed countless murders, but not once had those acts ever come to light. The Association and the state had stepped in personally to bury them thoroughly.
Just as Vasily had said, most of his victims were disguised as accidental deaths within the Gate. With the annual Gate mortality rate on the rise, people harbored no doubts about Espers killed by monsters.
I felt like someone was actually going to die at this rate. No, after killing the Esper, he might even kill all the temporary Guides here just to shut their mouths.
I hurriedly grabbed Vasily’s arm to stop him.
“That’s enough! It’s over without any incident, so isn’t that fine!”
“What do you mean ‘no incident’? Just from what I saw…”
“Put that man down! Now!”
“I’m disappointed.”
Thud.
Vasily let go. The Esper fell helplessly to the floor, released from his grip.
Sigh…
I felt relieved that I had managed to prevent a murder for now, but then I saw Vasily staring at the fallen Esper as if he were an insect. His silver-gray eyes were frozen cold.
Yes, this was the kind of person Vasily was. A walking killing machine who viewed human lives as nothing more than ants. Because of the normal conversations I’d had with him recently, I had forgotten for a moment. This guy is not the same as me. He was no different from a monster inside a Gate.
That was why I had avoided Vasily so desperately. Since I had been his Guide, I must have been nothing more than a trivial tool to be used and discarded.
“Well, let’s deal with this later… Do you want to go have dinner together?”
Slap.
Without realizing it, I brushed Vasily’s hand away. In that instant, the Vasily of the past overlapped with the one before me. As his hand tried to touch me, goosebumps broke out all over my body, and my body moved on its own.
“…Guide Kwon Gi-dam-ssi?”
Vasily seemed a bit surprised when I brushed his hand away. However, I had no room to worry about his reaction, as I was struggling to calm my trembling body.
I barely managed to open my mouth.
“Do not touch me.”
My voice trembled pathetically. To the point where the Vasily from six years later would have mocked me with a cold expression if he had heard it.
“I would also appreciate it if you didn’t come to receive guiding from me in the future.”
I continued speaking without meeting his eyes.
Silence fell, and a tense atmosphere began to swirl around me. I could feel a chill slowly emanating from Vasily. I stiffened my entire body and swallowed hard. It was a signal that his mood was sinking.
After a long silence, he asked.
“Why are you angry?”
“…”
“I don’t understand why Guide Kwon Gi-dam-ssi is angry with me.”
Of course you don’t. You’ve probably never had human emotions to begin with.
I had learned that over the six years I spent as Vasily’s Guide. No matter how hard I tried to change him, Vasily’s cruel nature would never disappear.
As cold and cruel as his ability to freeze everything without mercy, so was Vasily’s personality. Far from feeling pity or compassion, he couldn’t even empathize with the sorrow of others. As if living entirely alone in this world, Vasily had lived while drawing a line between himself and others.
After returning to the past, seeing Vasily converse with me normally, I had harbored a sliver of hope. Since I had already experienced him once in the future, I wondered if I could change the Vasily from before he was matched with me. That’s what I thought, but…
I realized only now that it was all a vain expectation.
The man standing before me now is a man who takes a human life without blinking an eye. I saw the image of him from six years later, freezing everyone who hindered him simply because they were annoying. I wanted to believe otherwise, but that was Vasily’s true self.
Unable to look him straight in the eye, I opened my mouth, pretending to be calm.
“You will never know, for the rest of your life.”
And I forced out one more sentence.
“So, please never appear before me again.”
Having barely finished my words, I turned around. A sharp gaze flew from behind and pierced me, but I didn’t look back and walked out of the tent.
A cold wind brushed my face, and chilly air seeped into my lungs. Then, I realized belatedly. My body was trembling pathetically.
Wrapping my arms tightly around my shivering body, I looked up at the sky. Today, the sky was exceptionally clear, without a single cloud.
I quietly closed my eyes.
An inexplicable sense of disappointment enveloped my entire body.