A drop of red blood splattered against the ground, and countless gazes converged on it.
Tae-ha, the focus of all their eyes, kept his composure and went on issuing directions for the scene.
“The Horyeong Guild can take the northern sector and clear it out. The rest falls to the Horyeong Guild as well, so just adjust the Barrier User assignments.”
“Um... Guildmaster Ryu Tae-ha.”
The leader of the Hasung Guild, standing across from Tae-ha, cautiously held out a handkerchief.
“You're bleeding.”
The space beneath Tae-ha's nose was stained red where his nosebleed had started. As if he hadn't even noticed the blood flowing, Tae-ha only now reached up to touch his upper lip.
There was more blood than he'd expected. As he pressed the handkerchief beneath his nose, a rare shadow fell over his eyes. At the weary look on Tae-ha's face, one no one had ever seen before, countless people cast him glances colored with concern.
“Please go and rest, even just a little. We'll take responsibility and hold the scene.”
“There aren't many S-ranks left anyway, so we're more than enough.”
Tae-ha said nothing and only wiped away the blood. There was a limit to how well his ability could mask his exhausted complexion, and red threads of blood stood out vividly in the whites of his eyes.
It was only natural, given that he hadn't slept soundly in over a week. On top of that, ever since Da-woon had vanished, Tae-ha hadn't so much as drunk water, devoting himself entirely to the search.
“Guildmaster Ryu Tae-ha.”
Nam Seok-gwan, the leader of the Horyeong Guild, returned from surveying the scene and called out to Tae-ha. He, too, had been searching for Da-woon.
Tae-ha regarded Nam Seok-gwan, who had come back alone, with an emotionless gaze and made to continue giving orders. But Nam Seok-gwan took the tablet PC out of his hands.
“I heard you've had nothing but guiding medication since yesterday.”
Nam Seok-gwan signaled with his eyes to the people crowding around, sending them back to their posts. Watching Tae-ha's reaction, they returned to their original positions one by one.
“You need to rest now too, Guildmaster Ryu Tae-ha. Go and at least close your eyes for a while.”
“A member of my guild has gone missing. Do you think I could sleep?”
Tae-ha smiled faintly and used his telekinesis to pass his tablet PC over to a supporter.
Eighteen hours had passed since Da-woon disappeared. In that time, a specialized search team had been assembled to comb every sector. Tae-ha, too, had pushed himself, multiplying his duplicates to look for any trace of Da-woon, but he hadn't found so much as a single strand of hair.
Where could he have gone? What bastard would dare.
“If you keep on like this, you'll be in danger yourself, Guildmaster Ryu Tae-ha.”
Nam Seok-gwan stepped in front of Tae-ha as he tried to move to the next sector. He looked fine on the surface, but Nam Seok-gwan sensed instinctively that Tae-ha's mental state had crumbled no less than Yeo-ul's.
“I fully understand your worry for Esper Jung Da-woon. We've already requested support from the civilian search teams, so for now let's leave it to them and-.”
Kuung!
Just then, a new gate tore open high in the sky. Along with an ear-splitting noise, a swarm of fairly large monsters came pouring out.
“All you need to do, Guildmaster Nam Seok-gwan, is hold the scene.”
Tae-ha glanced toward the rampaging horde of monsters. With his bloodshot eyes and a perfunctory smile, he opened a teleportation gate in midair. At his attitude of handling his own affairs himself, Nam Seok-gwan's expression hardened.
“Do you even have a plan?”
Nam Seok-gwan blocked Tae-ha's path once more. He wasn't asking only about Da-woon.
“A high-intelligence monster with an estimated rank of S or higher has even appeared. We can't just sit on our hands like this any longer.”
Everyone had been trusting Tae-ha's word alone, waiting only for the head of the Beastmen to appear. But there was no sign of the Beastmen, and the situation only grew more dire.
“You know what a gate explosion means, don't you?”
In any country where a gate explosion incident occurred, a gate rift would form before long. This incident was like an omen, a warning of the gate rift that would arrive in the future.
Because of it, they'd missed their chance to ask their allied nations for help. Very few countries would risk coming to the aid of a nation that had suffered a gate explosion. The risk was simply too great to willingly set foot in a danger zone where a gate rift was all but certain.
“I'm not telling you to rest for your own sake, Guildmaster Ryu Tae-ha.”
Nam Seok-gwan laid a hand on Tae-ha's teleportation gate, turning it to stone, and fixed him with a blunt expression.
“I'm saying it because if you fall, there's no hope left.”
He meant for Tae-ha to see it through to the end and protect the nation. Not to needlessly ruin his body over the shock of losing a cherished guild member, just as he'd assured everyone he wouldn't.
Tae-ha quietly studied his own gate, now turned to stone, then shifted his gaze to Nam Seok-gwan. His bloodless lips traced a smile that looked stamped out by a mold.
“Has there been even one thing I've said that I failed to keep?”
His golden eyes, drained of their luster, looked at Nam Seok-gwan without wavering. Nam Seok-gwan, who had handed over the domestic number-one ranking to Tae-ha, knew his achievements better than anyone.
Since Tae-ha had taken the head seat in the grand conference hall, gate incidents had dropped by half, and his reckless promise to suppress every S-rank gate that had frequently struck civilian areas within a year, he'd kept in a mere six months.
And he treated all his accomplishments as a matter of course. As if they were nothing remarkable. As though he were merely following a destiny that had already been set.
“I fully understand your concern.”
Tae-ha lightly shattered the stone Nam Seok-gwan had made and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Even so, trust me. It'll all be resolved.”
Just shut up and follow my lead. At the words he added in a low voice, Nam Seok-gwan fell silent.
With a parting “Keep up the good work,” Tae-ha conjured another teleportation gate. Just as he was about to step into the pitch-dark gate, this time a different voice held him back.
“Hyung!”
Ryu Jin, who had appeared alongside a teleportation Esper, came running to Tae-ha. At the sight of Ryu Jin dressed even in a Guide's field uniform, Tae-ha swallowed a sigh.
“What kind of place do you think this is, coming here?”
He'd told him over and over to stay at the lodging. Tae-ha weakly took hold of the arm of Ryu Jin, who had defied his words and come out to the dangerous scene.
“Is it true Esper Da-woon was kidnapped?”
Ryu Jin asked in a trembling voice, even while watching his brother's reaction. He'd been on standby in the Guiding Room all night when he happened to hear the news about Da-woon and bolted out.
“Why didn't you tell me? Why would you hide that, hyung!”
“I knew full well you'd worry. What would be the point of telling you?”
Tae-ha pulled Ryu Jin into his arms and led him toward the teleportation gate. But Ryu Jin shook off his hand and stepped backward.
“Of course you should've told me. I'm his assigned Guide.”
“Jin.”
Looking down at Ryu Jin, whose eyes had welled with tears from hurt and worry, Tae-ha cupped his cheek.
“There's no time for this right now. Hurry back to the lodging.”
At the firmness in his voice, Ryu Jin's eyes grew even more wet and glistening.
“No. I'm staying here too.”
Saying he'd do field guiding, Ryu Jin grabbed Tae-ha's hand. At the same moment, seeing Tae-ha's wavelength clinging to him like a sting, his eyes went wide with shock.
“Hyung... why is your wavelength like this...?”
Tae-ha's wavelength was a mess. His brother's wavelength, always as calm and ordered as the sea, was so severely twisted that it caused pain to Ryu Jin, a Guide.
“H-how could you not come to me in a state like this! You should've come straight to me!”
Tae-ha forcibly embraced the shouting Ryu Jin and stepped into the teleportation gate. Holding his squirming body tight, he moved Ryu Jin to the lodging.
“Calm down, Jin.”
Bursting into tears, Ryu Jin clung to his brother and released his guiding. With his arms wrapped around Tae-ha's neck, Ryu Jin began guiding, his face contorting completely. It was because Tae-ha's tangled wavelength delivered an unfamiliar pain.
“You don't have to. It's not serious.”
Tae-ha stroked down Ryu Jin's back and pried him off by force.
“Medication is enough to bring it down. It just spiked for a moment.”
“Do you think I'm an idiot, hyung?”
Even as he shouted in reproach, Ryu Jin didn't stop guiding. But radiant guiding alone had not the slightest effect on the tangled wavelength.
“I'm a Guide too. Not some stupid little brother who can't do anything, but a Guide!”
Ryu Jin's voice rose higher. Even just brief contact guiding with Tae-ha had cold sweat beading on his forehead. That was how bad Tae-ha's condition was.
This is why he's keeping his distance. Even knowing the reason his brother refused his guiding, Ryu Jin didn't back down and pressed on.
“Take the guiding. It's not a state that'll settle with medication alone, so take it now before you go!”
“I said I'd come to you when I needed you, didn't I?”
“You need it right now! Stop being stubborn, hyung!”
“Jin, please.”
Tae-ha rubbed his weary eyes and leaned a hand on the back of the living room sofa.
“There's no time for this. You know the situation's bad too.”
Faltering at his brother's exhausted expression, one he was seeing for the first time, Ryu Jin clenched his fists tight.
“Because I know... that's why I'm saying I'll help.”
“Staying somewhere safe is how you help me.”
Using telekinesis to seat Ryu Jin on the sofa, Tae-ha unclenched his balled fist and pressed a tissue into his hand.
“Stay at the lodging. Don't do anything.”
Ryu Jin's lips trembled. After looking down at him for a moment, Tae-ha coldly turned away. Right now, finding Da-woon came first for him.
“...Hyung.”
Behind Tae-ha as he conjured a teleportation gate, Ryu Jin, who had been watching him, finally burst into sobs.
“Don't go....”
Bound in place by the faint sound of weeping, Tae-ha stopped his steps. Ryu Jin covered his face and poured out tears like a child.
“You promised... you'd take my guiding....”
Unable to shake off that heartrending sound, Tae-ha tilted his head toward the ceiling.
A sigh he didn't let out pooled behind his clamped lips.
