Chapter 9
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Humans, by nature, never rest on what they have and always crave more. Every guide inevitably harbors illusions about their first imprint partner.
Even someone as practical as Samuel Norah was no exception once he saw the admired Light of Justice right before his eyes.
‘…Get a grip, Samuel Norah.’
He forced himself to erase the shimmering blonde esper from his mind.
There was no way his sponsor was Adrien Brillante. If it were her, she would have had better options—likely a collateral branch of the Brillante family.
He tried to console himself by thinking it would be an honor to be related to that person, but it did little good.
“Thank you for telling me.”
Samuel bowed to the senior who brought the news and hurried away as if escaping. The lingering attachment still shadowed him.
* * *
“Hello. I’m here to collect a letter addressed to me.”
“Name?”
“Samuel Norah.”
The clerk handed over a letter without a word. Samuel felt a flicker of nervousness. He swallowed dryly and turned, tearing open the envelope.
To be precise, the mail came from Samuel’s home. Since the sponsorship was under a false name he created for his younger sibling, he couldn’t apply to view sponsor information himself.
This small deception was to protect his sibling—a common trick among commoners.
The long war with enemy nations, followed by the rise of monsters, often left people homeless. Without noble sponsorship, even feeding oneself was difficult—a phrase that circulated almost jokingly.
So it was natural for such workarounds to arise.
The risk of being caught was low. High-ranking nobles had no real way to know how many insignificant commoner children there were or their genders.
Samuel’s eyes scanned the letter’s dull official header for the sponsor’s name.
“…Ah.”
He sighed as if something had been pulled from deep inside. His trembling hand stopped, unable to believe the words he was reading.
[We hereby provide the requested sponsor information from the Sponsorship Association.
Sponsoree (Requester): Sammy Norah
Sponsor: Adrien Brillante]
‘…There can’t be another with the same name.’
Foolishly, that thought came first. But it was impossible. No collateral branch would dare use the Brillante heir’s exact name.
Samuel’s neck turned red. Without knowing his expression, he bit his lip—thinking that would hide all his feelings.
He felt ungrateful. Since meeting the radiant Adrien Brillante, he had secretly, and quite often, wished his sponsor was her.
His imagination was sparked by the fact that the hero frequently graced newspaper covers was from the same family as his sponsor.
And today, the dream became reality.
Expressing thanks to a sponsor was not about feeding his own desires. Though he knew this, he couldn’t cut off the wildly growing vines of imagination.
‘Would she accept my guiding?’
The common knowledge that espers don’t refuse guiding had long vanished from his mind. He wanted to meet his sponsor immediately.
With a red face, Samuel hurriedly left the post office.
* * *
“Ugh…”
The battalion commander’s office, with curtains fully drawn, was pitch black. Time seemed to flow much faster here than the flickering sunset outside.
Adrien was panting in the darkness. Her uncomfortable tie and top button had long been undone like a wanderer. Her body was drenched in cold sweat.
“This is crazy…”
She had turned off all the lights, drawn the curtains, and closed every door. Yet, every sound in the building, every tiny light peeking through cracks, overwhelmed her.
Her ears felt as if they would burst from the noise, her eyes dazzled as if about to explode.
Sounds and lights imperceptible to ordinary people assaulted her entire body. The sensitive esper senses were now pathologically hypersensitive to the point of agony.
‘I shouldn’t have pushed myself.’
Adrien was suffering from severe guiding deficiency.
It was because she had urgently dealt with a sudden outbreak of monsters. The incident delayed her inauguration and rapidly worsened her condition.
Unfortunately, there was no guide capable of handling Adrien at the scene. High level or not, Adrien was very particular about guiding.
Espers felt stability and thrilling pleasure from guiding. But Adrien never experienced all guiding as euphoric like other espers.
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