Chapter 99:
The government had intentionally sent Seo Jae-yi to Mount Taebaek after separating her from Baek Joo-won.
She couldn’t let this slide.
Airok, demanding an explanation, glared at her, and Seo Jae-yi nodded.
“That’s right. And they also condoned Gong Ju-hyun being illegally experimented on. Or rather, they were the ones who orchestrated it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Airok asked, startled by Baek Joo-won’s words.
Seo Jae-yi briefly explained what had happened at the Center.
“Those crazy bastards!”
A string of curses erupted from Airok.
“You’re just going to let them get away with it?! We should burn off all their hair and shave their heads!”
She would love to shave their heads and throw them into a wildfire, as Airok suggested, but unfortunately, immediate revenge was impossible.
“I can’t act without solid evidence. They’re the government. If I mess up, they’ll spread rumors about me having mental problems because of my shortened lifespan.”
The current government enjoyed high public support, while she was an S-rank Esper on the verge of overloading, suffering from Guiding deficiency.
It was obvious whose side the people would take.
“Evidence, evidence. That reminds me, I have a question.”
Baek Joo-won asked Seo Jae-yi.
“Kim Yoo-sung mentioned something to that Jang Woo-seok idiot. About the government conducting human experiments on you. And that you have evidence.”
“…”
“And seeing your reaction at the Center today, I understand what he meant. Is that why the government is treating you, an S-rank Esper, with such disregard?”
Seo Jae-yi frowned at his unexpected question.
Why would Kim Yoo-sung bring that up…?
She didn’t want to talk about it, but she had to admit it.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I was going to tell you if you decided to go to the Center. To tell you to reconsider because the Center is a dangerous place. But you chose me, so I didn’t say anything. It’s not a pleasant story.”
She had thought it was too sensitive a topic for someone who had lived as an ordinary person and then suddenly awakened as an S-rank Guide.
“Now that I know, you can tell me.”
“I want to hear it too!”
Airok, who had been trembling since the word “experiment” was mentioned, popped his head out of the bag.
She couldn’t hide it anymore, so Seo Jae-yi nodded.
“It all started when I was eleven.”
And so began a not-so-pleasant story.
It started with the sudden death of her father, a B-rank Guide.
A white and black funeral home.
What had she been thinking back then, an eleven-year-old Seo Jae-yi, in that colorless space, as if even color had vanished with her father’s death?
She had been quiet, not crying or asking where her father had gone, even though she was at an age where she should have.
His early departure wasn’t a surprise. She had had a strong premonition ever since her father, who had awakened as a Guide four years ago, divorced her mother.
She later realized that the premonition had been a sign of her impending Awakening as an S-rank Esper, but she hadn’t known it back then.
“It’s okay, Jae-yi. You have your aunt.”
Seo Hye-ryeong hugged Seo Jae-yi, who was quiet and tearless. She cried in her place.
Later that night, Seo Jae-yi carefully slipped out of her aunt’s arms, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion, and sneaked into the funeral hall next door.
Song Ji-hyun.
Seo Joo-il’s paired Esper, the one who had killed him, was lying there.
The cause of his death was Reverse Guiding due to Song Ji-hyun’s overloading.
She had regained consciousness after draining all his energy, but it was only temporary.
She couldn’t bear the fact that she had killed her Guide. She took her own life, saying she was already dead without her paired Guide.
It was a tragedy. But it was also a common occurrence in the world of Awakened individuals.
The colleagues who came to pay their respects were saddened, but they also seemed somewhat indifferent, as if they were used to it.
That sight was etched into young Seo Jae-yi’s mind.
Two years after the tragedy…
Seo Jae-yi, who had always been different from other children, awakened as an S-rank Esper, as expected.
“Hello, Esper Seo Jae-yi.”
They took her away from Seo Hye-ryeong, her guardian, under the pretense of protecting a minor Awakened individual and brought her to the Guiding Center.
Not to the bright, cheerful world aboveground where children played, but to the white, sterile basement.
And there she met him.
Park Jung-soo, the A-rank Guide obsessed with research.
“You’re amazing, being the youngest S-rank Esper. And your ability is impressive too. But you’ll have difficulty controlling it at your age. You might hurt people if we leave you like this, so I’ll help you.”
A manic grin appeared on his gloomy face. His eyes, gleaming with an unsettling intensity, scanned her entire body.
White walls, white ceiling, white lab coat.
Thirteen-year-old Seo Jae-yi realized that this place was no different from the cold funeral home where her father had been laid to rest.
Just as they had slowly drained the color from her vibrant father, she would also be stripped of all color here.
Her premonition was correct.
Life at the Guiding Center was tedious.
They had initially acted like kidnappers trying to lure a child with candy, but they gradually revealed their true colors when Seo Jae-yi didn’t try to escape and behaved obediently.
The candy rewards disappeared, and scars started appearing on her underdeveloped arms.
To strengthen her body, which was too young to handle her S-rank ability, to accelerate her ability control, to enhance her power even further.
There was always a plausible reason for every experiment, and she, a child with poor ability control, had to endure all the unreasonable experiments.
It didn’t take long for the researchers to start treating Seo Jae-yi not as an outlier S-rank Esper, but as an obedient test subject.
A few months passed, and she was forced to participate in a couple of dungeon subjugations because the researchers wanted to observe her using her ability. And that was when she met him.
Kwon Yi-soo, Korea’s first S-rank Guide.
“Hello, Pretty Oppa.”
In the cold, lab-like room where she was confined.
Seo Jae-yi, sitting on the bed, waved at Kwon Yi-soo, who was wearing a school uniform.
“I heard you’re suffering from Guiding deficiency.”
Kwon Yi-soo asked after staring at her for a while.
She was indeed suffering from Guiding deficiency, even at a young age, because they were conducting experiments without providing her with proper Guiding.
An ordinary Esper would have been clinging to Kwon Yi-soo, the S-rank Guide, by now.
But the young Esper was enduring, smiling serenely, as if she wasn’t in pain.
“Guides die if I make even the slightest mistake.”
“So you’re enduring all this crap even though you’re an S-rank Esper?”
Because everyone would die if you went on a rampage?
Seo Jae-yi was impressed by his blunt words, which didn’t match his neat appearance.
This oppa isn’t trying to deceive me like the others. He even looks as disgusted with this place as I am.
She felt like he was different from the others, who were only taking away her colors.
“I heard you’re the Guide with the highest Matching Rate with me. Then can you teach me how to prevent harming my Guide?”
So she asked.
But Kwon Yi-soo didn’t seem to like the question.
“Are you planning to live like this forever? An S-rank Esper who can do anything she wants?”
“Pretty Oppa, you seem to be mistaken. What are Guides? They’re the ones who save Espers. So there are no Guides here. Not for me.”
Everyone was hurting her, not saving her. To Seo Jae-yi, everyone here was just a human taking away her colors.
“But if you help me, you’ll become a Guide to me. So if you teach me, I’ll never hurt you. I promise.”
Would he remain a Guide to her, or would he become just another human like the countless others here?
Seo Jae-yi gave him a choice.
Unaware of how her question would affect him.
“…Okay.”
Kwon Yi-soo’s expressionless face changed. It seemed like he was smiling, and at the same time, it seemed like he was crying.
It was a complex expression that young Seo Jae-yi couldn’t understand.
And so, they made a promise, a promise no one else knew about. They received Guiding whenever they were allowed to meet, and Seo Jae-yi slowly learned how to prevent harming her Guide.
It was something she wanted to do, but to others, it looked like Kwon Yi-soo was taming her with Guiding.
The Guiding Center, unaware of the truth, was pleased, and rumors about Kwon Yi-soo hating Seo Jae-yi slowly spread.
But Kwon Yi-soo didn’t care, and Seo Jae-yi didn’t bother to correct them.
Time passed, and she turned fifteen.
Seo Jae-yi discovered the Guiding Center’s terrible secret.
“Is the brainwashing still incomplete?”
A strange voice reached her ears, sharp enough to pierce through even soundproof walls.
A man in a suit was standing behind the transparent wall. The gold badge on his lapel shone brightly in that colorless place.
Park Jung-soo, unaware that Seo Jae-yi could hear him, answered,
“She’s still young, even though she’s an S-rank. It’s not that easy.”
“China and Russia already have successful cases. They deliberately provided young S-ranks to make brainwashing easier. Shouldn’t we be seeing results by now?”
Brainwashing, young S-ranks, results, and a badge that only National Assembly members could wear.
Seo Jae-yi understood everything instantly.
The government was supporting the experiments on Awakened individuals that were being conducted openly at the Guiding Center.
And the experiment being conducted on her wasn’t just simple Esper research; it was an attempt to create Espers who would be eternally loyal to the country.