Please Don’t Sponsor the Guide - Chapter 101

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Adrien’s life was starting to feel like a new level of hell each day.

She’d never thought her existence was this miserable before. Duty and responsibility had always defined her life, and even the overwhelming, almost burdensome talent she possessed—she could live with it.

Her father’s death and her cold, distant mother had been manageable, too. Even the hypersensitivity, the pain from guiding depletion, had become something she could get used to over time.

She’d survived seven years on the battlefield, always making it back from one crisis after another. Adrien had let herself believe things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Maybe that’s why disaster had swept in so aggressively this time.

“Things are pretty gloomy—at your house and here, too, huh?”

Charlize’s joking tone made Adrien look up. The other woman sat across from her, maintaining a steady radiation guiding.

Charlize’s guiding felt different than Linton’s. Instead of making her nauseous, it almost gave Adrien an allergic reaction—the sensation was itchy and irritating, but at least it wasn’t sickening.

“There’s a man at my house losing his mind, terrified I’ll actually become your exclusive guide, and here, we’ve got a woman depressed because one junior officer who isn’t even her assigned partner hasn’t woken up in a week.”

“…He’s my subordinate. Of course I care.”

“Maybe you’re just the light of justice, but you’re really no good at lying, you know.”

Adrien couldn’t muster a reply, and just looked away.

She understood that Charlize was trying to lighten the mood, but she just didn’t have it in her to play along. It had been a week since Samuel Norah had been injected with that illegal esper enhancer and fallen unconscious.

Adrien hadn’t slept since that day.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that moment again—Samuel convulsing violently, like he was going to die right there.

She was forced to relive her childhood over and over, forced to watch the man she loved die from afar, unable even to hold him. Her clenched fists left deep, bloody crescents in her palms.

“But at least because Samuel stepped in, we even have the luxury of waiting for a miracle, right?”

“……”

“They say it was a concentrate, twenty times the usual dose of the black-market stuff. If you’d been the one injected, you would’ve gone berserk on the spot. The city would be rubble.”

Rationally, Adrien knew Charlize was right. If she’d been the victim, the result would have been a catastrophic, uncontrollable rampage.

But none of that mattered unless Samuel woke up. That was the only comfort that would matter.

“Has Dr. Alex said anything new?”

“Nothing. Nobody knows how this stuff will affect a guide—nobody’s ever studied it.”

“Sigh. Not like you can run human trials, huh. So they’re just mixing guide blood or energy with the enhancer and seeing what happens? Any results?”

“Nothing so far.”

“…Please don’t lose hope, Commander. Samuel wouldn’t want to see you like this.”

Adrien nodded listlessly. She knew Samuel would be sad to see her falling apart like this, but she couldn’t pull herself together.

She just wanted to be selfish for once. Sometimes, she even wished Samuel would wake up just so he could scold her for falling apart.

As she sat there in a daze, she saw Charlize suddenly rise to her feet and bow deeply.

“And I’m sorry, too. Let me apologize in the Major’s place.”

“Charlize, you don’t—”

“If the Major had been at the scene that day, things might’ve turned out differently. And as a dedicated guide, it’s my responsibility if I wasn’t there for my partner.”

Robin, the ‘ignore’ esper major, and Charlize’s romance was infamous across the empire. He’d had every advantage—rare powers, top-level rank, a clear path to success—but he’d chosen the military, chosen to stay by her side. Everything about his life revolved around Charlize.

Adrien looked at her. The way Charlize did everything for the person she loved reminded Adrien of someone else, too.

“…The major is already taking responsibility, and you are too, Charlize, so don’t blame yourself. Sit down.”

Adrien gestured at the faint trace of guiding she could sense from Charlize.

“That’s more than enough to keep us both occupied right now.”

* * *

But in truth, it wasn’t nearly enough.

The only reason she saw Samuel reflected in Charlize at all was because of the way Charlize carried herself—gentle on the surface, but incredibly strong inside.

Adrien’s feelings, though, were steadily spinning out of control.

If she could, she’d gladly have thrown Major Robin into Samuel’s hospital bed in his place.
He was the only esper with that rare ability in the entire empire—nobody could demote or discharge him.

Instead, Adrien used every ounce of authority she had to punish him in any way possible.