Becoming the Guide of the Mysophobic Villain? Absolutely Not! - Chapter 309

There were about a dozen beds and people there. Fortunately, or perhaps not, they were all female Guides.

The eyes that had been glaring as the door opened softened immediately upon seeing me. They must have already known about my presence.

“Get in there!”

I almost stumbled as they threw me inside, but someone quickly caught me. She was a tall woman with long black hair that made her pale skin appear even whiter and sickly.

Are you okay?

She mouthed the words. Before I could answer, the heavy iron door slammed shut behind me.

I instinctively knew that the door, and indeed all the doors in the hallway, were designed to be opened only from the outside.

***

“It’s been a long time since we had a newcomer.”

As expected, the Guides already knew I was coming.

“The last one to arrive was Donna.”

Donna was a girl with short red hair and a freckled, round face that made her look very young. It looked like she was kidnapped and brought here right after manifesting as a Guide.

To identify newly manifesting Espers and Guides, the Center conducts regular check-ups on all citizens across Arteon.

In Donna’s case, she was unlucky. She was discovered by Espers Outside the Line before she could undergo the check-up and was brought here.

“Since then, we haven’t heard any news from the outside world.”

The woman who explained this was named Helga, the same woman who had caught me earlier when I nearly fell. Judging by the atmosphere, she seemed to be the informal leader of the Guides in this room.

Instead of showing any territorial behavior, the Guides were overly kind to me. They eagerly introduced themselves, telling me their names, how they ended up here, and what they did before their capture, even without being asked.

Helga, it turned out, was the first to be brought here. She had been here so long that she had given up counting the years.

“Ah, a few days before I was taken, I read an article about the groundbreaking ceremony for a giant clock tower in the heart of the capital.”

The moment I heard that, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

The clock tower, now a landmark of the capital, was built sixteen years ago.

This meant that Helga had been living in this windowless place without seeing a ray of sunlight for sixteen years.

Sixteen years. Helga looked to be in her early thirties at most. How had she endured more than half her life here? I was already finding it hard to cope after just two days.

“What’s your name?”

After everyone had introduced themselves, Helga asked me gently, with a warm smile that suggested I didn’t have to answer if I felt uncomfortable.

“My name is Rose…”

I answered readily. I wanted to talk to someone, anyone. I felt I couldn’t withstand the surge of negative thoughts otherwise.

“I used to be a civil servant.”

Though it had been a long time since I quit, everyone had shared what their lives were like before manifesting as Guides, so I ended up saying that.

“A civil servant? But you’re a Guide?”

The Guides were instantly curious, finding my profession unexpected.

Before the Center was established, it was unheard of for Guides to have jobs. If they did, they were likely to quit quickly. If it became known that someone had manifested as a Guide, they could be kidnapped by Espers without a trace.

It was that kind of era.

“Yes, I’m a deviant Guide whose guiding works sporadically… I lived an ordinary life as a non-ability office worker until I accidentally guided Lord Claude, and my identity as a Guide was revealed—”

“That monstrous bastard…!”