Beyond The Control

Chapter 72

His brow, which had just relaxed, furrowed again. His temper made him want to smash everything in sight.

The retired Guild Master had all but relinquished guild duties, only appearing for urgent or major matters. The Vice Guild Master filled this void. Having been the Guild Master’s pair for a long time and even becoming his spouse, the Vice Guild Master was the undisputed highest authority.

If such a person mentioned team restructuring, it was likely to be implemented sooner or later. The problem here was that the Vice Guild Master had been known to trust and support Yoon Hyun-tae from before.

Rumor had it that it was the Vice Guild Master who ordered the scouting team to bring in Yoon Hyun-tae, and also placed him in Team 3 with the oldest team leader.

At that time, Kim Kwang-in was skeptical. While the Vice Guild Master was very difficult to deal with and seemed fundamentally incompatible with him, her fairness to everyone was commendable. It was hard to believe that such a person would show interest in a specific individual.

But the rumors became reality. Yoon Hyun-tae, assigned to Team 3, became the protagonist of a shocking promotion to team leader in just three years after joining. As dissatisfaction was building up due to this apparent obstacle to his grand future goals, that incident finally occurred.

“I… I want to form a pair contract with Esper Yoon Hyun-tae.”

An A-class guide with a matching rate of over 70 percent, appearing after a full 5 years. But she didn’t choose him. Despite the dissuasion and persuasion of all related parties, she chose Yoon Hyun-tae as her pair Esper, who had a matching rate in the late 60 percent range. Even Yoon Hyun-tae refused at first, but in the end, the two became a pair.

From that moment, his feelings towards Yoon Hyun-tae transformed into 100 percent hatred.

Until then, Yoon Hyun-tae had merely been an annoyance. When he saw articles praising Yoon Hyun-tae’s character, he would scoff. When Yoon Hyun-tae clashed with high-ranking executives, he would applaud. When Yoon Hyun-tae took in that worthless half-awakened dual awakener, he clicked his tongue at his foolishness.

But losing a guide was a different matter entirely. Like other Espers, Kim Kwang-in had been desperately waiting for a pair guide since the moment of his awakening. An Esper’s desire for a high-matching guide was difficult to explain in words, and no matter how busy he was, he never missed a matching rate test.

After three years, a guide finally appeared who met the conditions… and Yoon Hyun-tae, with an even lower matching rate, snatched her away. His rage was understandable.

In that sense, Yoon Hyun-tae was even lucky. If his skills had been just a little bit different from his own, rather than being roughly equal, he would have somehow managed to take Yoon Hyun-tae’s life during a team joint operation, disguising it as an accident.

Quite some time passed, and Kim Kwang-in also got a pair guide, but his hatred for those two bastards remained like sediment. Occasionally, when he encountered the two on the third floor corridor, his emotions would boil like wildfire, hard to control.

The one consolation was that the executives who pursued practical benefits highly valued his worth. Therefore, he desperately wanted the position of the next Guild Master even more. He was counting the days until he could somehow drive Yoon Hyun-tae into a deadly situation, cripple him, or remove him from his sight, even if it took several years. But then, out of nowhere, talks of restructuring emerged, and he heard that the Vice Guild Master was backing Yoon Hyun-tae. It felt like a bolt from the blue.

“Please go up first. I’ll contact you again later.”

Somehow managing to maintain a masked expression, he sent the deputy director up first, and a few minutes later, Kim Kwang-in also got out of the car. At a glance, he might have looked no different from usual, but even the elevator mirror couldn’t be fooled. Blood vessels in his eyes were bursting from suppressing his anger, and the muscles in his tightly clenched jaw were bulging.

In the end, his patience didn’t last long. Sitting on the sofa in the team leader’s office, snorting like an angry bull, he screamed and started throwing and breaking everything within reach.

“Aaargh! Aaaaargh!”

It was such a violent outburst that it could have penetrated the soundproof walls, but no one dared to open the door and ask what was wrong. They knew that if they poked their heads in, they might get their skulls cracked by whatever Kim Kwang-in was throwing.

It was commendable that even in the midst of this, he didn’t use his Esper powers for fear of leaving a blemish of disciplinary action on his record. After a while, Kim Kwang-in sat back down on the sofa and caught his breath with deep breaths. With his hands clasped together, he began to think somewhat rationally. Yet his pupils still gleamed with madness.

Eliminating or fatally injuring Yoon Hyun-tae was still a distant goal. He could try to seize an opportunity, but in that case, he had to be prepared to suffer just as much damage himself. If that happened, they would both be ruined, and some undeserving bastard would reap the benefits.

“Then, instead of directly harming Yoon Hyun-tae, what methods are there to bring him down?”

Kim Kwang-in leaned back on the sofa, unclasping his hands. The answer came quickly.

Yoon Hyun-tae’s position was ‘team leader’, the same as his own. In other words, if something occurred that greatly disrupted the team and he failed to handle it properly, he couldn’t escape responsibility even if the Vice Guild Master or the Guild Master backed him.

“How to disrupt the team?”

This was even easier.

A team member becoming disabled due to the team leader’s misjudgment or mistake.

Or.

“…A team member dying.”

The target?

The face of one person among the ragtag members of Team 3 appeared in his mind. At last, Kim Kwang-in’s lips, which had been set for a long time, curved into a vicious smile.

Soon after, he lowered his hand to his waist. Using his device that had miraculously survived intact, he called someone.

At the same time, the third-floor corridor where the guide room was located was bustling with many people. Already, about a dozen Espers were anxiously waiting, and as the elevator doors opened, another group of Espers appeared.

“Excuse me, could you move aside a bit?”

“Huh? Oh, s-sorry.”

It was literally just a request to move aside a little, but Jeon Hyeon-wook stood up abruptly, apologizing. The Esper who suddenly lost their seat gave him a bewildered look but didn’t bother to stop Jeon Hyeon-wook.

Moving to a corner, Jeon Hyeon-wook glanced up to check the guiding waiting list monitor. His face was quite pale, but his pupils showed no particular abnormality.

But at this point, it might have been better if his eyes were red. He had been pushed back in the guiding priority list three times for not being urgent, and now he had been pushed back again. He had been sitting in the waiting room chair for well over an hour.

However, he didn’t dare to question the staff or cause a disturbance. No matter how slow-witted or stupid he might be, he was well aware of his position here.

While B-class was a rank that could receive decent treatment, unfortunately, everything was relative. Here at Sunrise Guild, the proportion of rare A-class Espers was significantly higher compared to other guilds. As a result, B-class or C-class Espers often found themselves pushed back in the guiding priority list.

Jeon Hyeon-wook was a prime example of this. He had the highest matching rate of 64 percent with Choi Young-sun, an A-class guide, and was fortunately assigned to Team 6 where she belonged.

But Jeon Hyeon-wook learned within just a few hours that this luck meant nothing. As the saying goes, yesterday’s comrade is today’s enemy – even if they fought together on the battlefield and returned together, there was no mercy when it came to guiding. The A-class Espers who went on missions with him always took priority for guiding, and Jeon Hyeon-wook came after them.

Later, even that became a luxury. While most guides took pride in their profession and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities, there were some who didn’t. The guides in Team 6 looked down on the naive Jeon Hyeon-wook and often ignored his guiding requests even when there were no other waiting Espers. For the same reason, he was left out in the cold today as well.

As he sat there feeling dejected, the face of one person suddenly came to his mind. It was Lee Su-hyeon.

He always greeted him with a warm smile, spoke kindly when offering him a seat on the sofa. Above all, he couldn’t forget the moment when he first truly became aware of his existence.

“Hello. Would it be alright if I guide you?”

“Huh? What?”

“Our matching rate is quite high. I’m available right now.”

Looking at his pretty smiling face, Jeon Hyeon-wook could only blink in surprise. No one had ever told him that it was possible to request guiding from guides in other teams, so he had always assumed that guiding should naturally be received only from the team’s guide. Even while doing this obvious thing, Kim Young-hoon had always acted as if he was doing a great favor.

Anyway, Lee Su-hyeon’s presence felt like a treasure that had fallen from the sky. Moreover, he was even more compatible than Kim Young-hoon, who was now gone, giving him a sense of fulfillment he hadn’t felt in a very long time. That day, Jeon Hyeon-wook felt like a whole new world had opened up to him, to put it a bit dramatically.

But happiness that comes by chance also disappears quickly.

Recently, Lee Su-hyeon had become Song Ji-hyeok’s official pair guide. This meant that unless there was an emergency like a dungeon break, he could no longer receive his guiding. And that wasn’t all. Holding hands for guiding, kissing – all of that would be impossible from now on.