By Zephyria 
“Run!”
With one child on my back and the hand of a young boy in my other, I ran. However, I could feel the chill approaching from behind, closing in rapidly.
“Ack!”
Just then, the boy tripped and fell. Without even a moment to ask if he was okay, I scooped him up and started running again.
I could feel the precious lives of the two children against my back and in my arms. But at this rate, even running at full speed, we would soon be swept away by the ice storm.
I grit my teeth. If this continued, not only I, but the children would be in danger.
“Vasily Kairov!”
I screamed his name desperately, as if driven by sheer desperation. I prayed that my voice would reach his ears.
The name I shouted loudly echoed in all directions.
“It… it stopped…”
And then, as if by magic, the ice that had reached right behind us stopped.
A cold chill brushed against my cheek. The tips of my hair had frozen slightly, crumbling into fine pieces the moment I touched them. If I had been just a second slower, my entire body would have frozen solid.
The moment I realized the ice had stopped right before my eyes, the strength left my legs and I collapsed to the ground. The children, terrified, began to cry.
I let out a hollow laugh, but in truth, I wanted to cry. I thought I might actually die this time. Calling Vasily’s name had been a gamble. If my voice hadn’t reached him, I would surely be frozen cold by now.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
When I asked in a worried voice, the children barely managed to nod.
I took deep breaths, trying to steady my ragged respiration. Because I had been running at full speed for so long, my lungs stung and my heart beat so fast it felt as if it would burst.
While I was calming my startled heart, I heard the sound of ice cracking under boots behind me.
“I heard a familiar voice, so I came to see…”
The sound of footsteps, slowly crushing the ice, grew closer.
“Why are you in a place like this, Guide Kwon Gi-dam?”
Vasily appeared with a frigid expression.
“Didn’t you clearly say you would wait in a safe place?”
Vasily was obviously in a foul mood. There wasn’t a hint of a smile on his lips, and his gaze was as cold and sunken as ice.
“I… I will explain.”
“Go ahead.”
Vasily flicked his arm. A mass of ice swept past me rapidly, followed by a dull thud behind me. Breaking into a cold sweat, I looked back to see a monster that had been stealthily approaching from behind, dead and impaled by a sharp shard of ice.
“You’d better have a reasonable excuse that I can accept.”
I gulped.
Vasily was truly angry. Since my regression to the past, this was the first time I had seen such blatant rage.
Vasily loathed it when his orders were defied. He had told me to wait quietly in the safe zone, yet I had blatantly ignored that and crawled into a death trap, so there was no way he would be in a good mood.
If I didn’t give an answer he liked, would I end up like that monster? Normally, I might have tried to talk back a bit, but the children were here.
Seeing the monster killed by a single gesture from Vasily, I hid the frightened children behind me and looked up at Vasily with tense eyes. His gaze was frozen cold. It felt as if he might freeze me right where I stood.
I caught my breath and spoke calmly.
“When I arrived at the safe zone, I was told the children had disappeared. So…”
“Children, huh…”
Cutting me off, Vasily looked at the trembling children behind me with a chilling gaze. Without realizing it, I instinctively blocked his line of sight, shielding the children.
“You came all the way here just to save things like that?”
“…Yes.”
“And if I hadn’t heard your voice, Guide Kwon Gi-dam, you intended to die here?”
“…”
I couldn’t say anything. In reality, if my voice hadn’t reached Vasily, I would have died here.
“I thought it was fascinating that there was a Guide who fights monsters… but it turns out you’re just a Guide who’s dying for a taste of death.”
Vasily spoke with heavy sarcasm. Cowering, I swallowed hard and asked him.
“I don’t understand why Esper Vasily is this angry.”
“You don’t understand…”
“…”
“I think it’s Guide Kwon Gi-dam’s turn to think about it.”
Vasily suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Ugh!”
He gripped me so hard that a groan of pain escaped my lips. As I was forcibly pulled up by my arm, the terrified children burst into tears behind me.
“You’d better think about what you did wrong by the time I return.”
Vasily whispered into my ear through gritted teeth. The voice, filled with rage, sent shivers down my entire body.
Immediately after, Vasily roughly shoved my arm away. I staggered for a moment but managed to keep my balance and didn’t fall.
Just then, other Espers appeared. It seemed they had rushed over after being contacted by Vasily. As soon as they spotted him, they saluted formally. Vasily glared at me with a cold gaze and then ordered the Espers.
“Take him.”
“Yes, sir!”
Without looking back at me again, Vasily disappeared into the ice-covered forest. The Espers escorted the children and me back to the safe zone.
“Oh my! My baby!”
“Grandmother!”
A warm smile touched my face as I watched the heartwarming reunion. I had saved the lives of two precious children. It was something that had weighed heavily on my mind, so I felt as though I wouldn’t be plagued by nightmares anymore.
However… the thought of Vasily returning soon didn’t make me feel great. And the site manager, who was muttering beside me with a face as pale as a ghost, was also concerning.
“I’m dead… I’m dead… Now I’m…”
I felt a bit sorry since it was my fault.
I’m sorry, I’ll try to soothe him somehow…
I looked toward the distant mountain range. As if reflecting Vasily’s mood, the ice covering the entire mountain was more violent and sharp than usual.
The ice, which had been growing as if to swallow the mountain, rapidly expanded its range and then finally stopped. That probably meant there were no monsters left. If so, it meant Espers would soon be deployed to clean up the site, and Vasily would return here.
“Sigh…”
“Haa…”
The site manager and I let out a deep sigh simultaneously.
‘How should I soothe him…?’
In the past, whenever Vasily was in a bad mood, I was dragged to the bedroom and couldn’t come out for days. Since I’m not Vasily’s dedicated Guide now, it wouldn’t escalate to that worst-case scenario, but…
Should I try to coax him by offering to provide guiding every day for a while? Even though our matching rate was only 4 percent, Vasily seemed to quite like my guiding. If so, I might be able to negotiate a little.
How much time had passed? Before I could fully organize my thoughts, I saw Vasily approaching from afar, radiating a freezing aura. I couldn’t even gauge how bad his mood was. The ground froze wherever his feet touched.
I need to prepare myself. Even I, who had survived under him for years, felt nervous and afraid.
Vasily pushed past the numerous people expressing their gratitude and stopped right in front of me.
“So, have you thought about it?”
I gulped. It felt as if he had returned to the cold Vasily from before my regression. Tense, I carefully brought up the answer I had prepared before he arrived.
“I am sorry for not keeping my word about waiting in a safe place.”
“…”
“Leaving the safe zone despite knowing it was dangerous was also…”
Is this not working? I peeked at his reaction as I continued, but Vasily’s frozen expression remained unchanged.
It can’t be helped. I’ll make the offer to provide as much guiding as he wants every day…
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, Vasily grabbed my arm and began heading somewhere. Was he dragging me to a secluded spot to dispose of me?
Terrified, I tried to stop him somehow, but he didn’t budge. Seeing this, an old trauma began to weigh down on my entire body. Overwhelmed by fear, I couldn’t speak, and my body froze stiff.
The place I was dragged to while held by the arm was where the association vehicles were waiting.
“To the association.”
“Yes, sir!”
Vasily ordered the Esper standing by the vehicle. We climbed into the backseat without a word and sat side by side in silence. I quietly watched his mood. The freezing atmosphere was uncomfortable.
“…”
I felt like I should say something to soothe his mood, but the deeply ingrained fear crushed me, leaving me unable to utter a single word. My body trembled like a broken doll. Even as I squeezed my cold hands tightly, the shaking only grew worse.