It was a call from the Center. And not just any call — a direct line from the Center Director himself. Startled, Eugene silenced the watch alarm and turned around.
"Whew. Nothing to do but face it head-on, I suppose..."
Judging by the circumstances, there was no doubt Eugene Langford had spent three years masquerading as him. But unlike his transmigration, when he'd known in advance the evil deeds committed by Langford because he'd read the novel, now everything was unpredictable. Changing into a crisply pressed uniform, Eugene bit his lip.
If only the memories from when Langford had been in this body were in his head. But it seemed that, with the change of soul, all the past memories had evaporated and vanished. Eugene sighed and set off.
"Now, the director's office is..."
Eugene traced through old memories to find his way. Fortunately, there was a directory in the Center building, so finding the director's office wasn't difficult. A few guides in the Center lobby gave him puzzled looks as he studied the directory intently, but he didn't seem to come across as too suspicious.
In any case, having barely managed to locate the director's office, Eugene went up to the top floor of the building. The director's office wasn't a place just anyone could enter, even among guides. Only team leaders and above could come and go freely — and Eugene, too, made it up to the top floor where the director's office was without any particular restriction. From this, Eugene could surmise that his current self held a rank of team leader or higher.
As the only S-rank guide in Korea, and considering his background, reaching the position of team leader or above within three years wouldn't have been difficult. He'd drawn up a similar blueprint for himself when he first entered the Center, after all.
The only thing that bothered him was that it had been Eugene Langford, not himself, who'd achieved that advancement. He knew all too well what could happen when a socially bankrupt thug got seated in a high position.
"Team Leader Kwon, the director is waiting for you."
"...I see."
The director's secretary approached and spoke in a stiff voice. When Eugene nodded and answered without thinking, surprise spread across the secretary's previously rigid face. Eugene did his best to ignore the reaction and stepped into the director's office.
"Hello, Director."
The moment he entered, Eugene bowed his head toward the director. To him, lacking the memories of the past three years, the director was a distant figure. Back then, Eugene had been nothing more than a guide freshly admitted to the Center, and the director was, quite literally, the head of the entire Guide Center.
"Oh, oh, yes. Come in."
"..."
Lifting his head, Eugene stared fixedly at the director. He was a little different from the figure in Eugene's memory, which surprised him.
Jeong Yo-seop, the Center Director, a former S-rank guide.
He'd retired from active duty now, aged and drained of his guiding energy, but in his prime he'd been a guide representing the Republic of Korea. Thirty years since the gates opened, a man who had rendered brilliant service through those grueling years. That was, no doubt, how he'd become the head of this enormous Guide Center.
Eugene had thought the man's face was rather pale and his impression somewhat frail to begin with, but the man before him now was beyond merely pale — he was blanched white as a sheet. Eugene sat across from the director and decided, for now, to gauge the atmosphere.
"You don't drink coffee, Team Leader Kwon, so I had black tea prepared."
"Uh..."
"They said it was a good tea, so I had it brought in specially... is it to your liking?"
Eugene's gaze turned to the teacup set before him. The mere mention of black tea was enough to make bile rise in his throat now.
The setting of the novel he'd transmigrated into was a medieval fantasy. Unfortunately, coffee hadn't developed there, and the nobles drank nothing but black tea day after day. And among them, Eugene Langford was a black tea fanatic everyone knew about.
Eugene, by contrast, didn't much care for black tea. It wasn't that he hated it, but if he were going to drink something, he preferred coffee over tea. Yet after transmigrating into Eugene Langford's body, he hadn't been able to drink a single sip of coffee. To avoid being exposed as a fake, he'd gulped down black tea like water — and later, just the smell of it made him nauseous. The black tea had surely played a solid part in his decision to return to his original world.
"I'm sorry, but could I ask for coffee instead?"
"What? Coffee?"
"Yes."
The director stared at Eugene with a puzzled look. It was a natural reaction — all this time, Eugene Langford wouldn't have even tried to touch the unfamiliar drink. Showing behavior too different from Langford's would seem strange, but Eugene no longer wanted to drink so much as a single mouthful of black tea.
"Ah, yes. Bring some coffee over here."
Fortunately, the director seemed to think Eugene was throwing a fit as usual. Flustered at first, he hurriedly told the secretary.
He keeps watching my reactions way too carefully. A team leader was still no match for a Center Director, so why...
But it was too much thought to spare when the coffee he hadn't had in ages was calling to him. When the secretary brought the coffee, Eugene first savored its aroma. The fragrant scent of coffee lingered at the tip of his nose.
Ah, this is it.
How hard it had been all that time, unable to drink coffee. Black tea had caffeine too, but the amount was significantly lacking, and the taste wasn't nearly as intense. Eugene fully enjoyed the coffee he hadn't had in so long.
"Ahem, so. Team Leader Kwon."
"Yes."
Made generous by a single cup of coffee, Eugene answered in a leisurely tone. Eugene Langford or not, right now he just wanted to savor this joy in full.
"Th-the thing is. The contamination level of Alpha-1 Team has gotten dangerous."
"...Alpha-1 Team?"
Eugene, who'd been downing the hot coffee one gulp after another, blinked his eyes wide.
Alpha-1 Team was a military unit composed entirely of S-rank espers. A special battalion that had corralled the country's handful of S-rank espers into one place. The nation's strongest unit, closing countless gates that ordinary units couldn't handle and annihilating terror groups causing trouble as unregistered awakeners.
He'd received ample education about them before entering the Center, so Eugene knew of them well.
Come to think of it, he didn't yet know much about the guide team Eugene Langford had built, but he'd have been leading a guide team himself, so he'd have been working alongside espers.
Don't tell me the counterpart for that work was Alpha-1 Team?
Thinking about it, he was the country's only S-rank guide, so even with a somewhat low matching rate, being assigned to Alpha-1 Team — packed with S-rank espers — made the most sense. Eugene nodded to himself in understanding.
"You're telling me to provide them with guiding?"
"Uh, yes. If you could possibly..."
"I'll do it."
"If there's anything you want... what?"
The director, who'd been clasping his hands together and stringing his words along rapidly, startled and blinked his eyes wide.
Is a guide saying he'll do guiding really something to be this shocked over?
It was absurd, but for Eugene Langford, it was more than plausible. Even in the original, he'd tried to jerk around the S-rank espers whose contamination levels couldn't be lowered without his guiding. What Langford had done to the Alpha-1 espers over these three years — the thought was already grim.
"Really? You'll do the guiding? Without any compensation?"
"...Yes."
The director asked one question after another in astonishment. Just what had Langford been demanding all this time? Rather than brightening at Eugene's answer, the director's face only grew more anxious, at a total loss for what to do.
"But by any chance... which guiding do you mean?"
At the incomprehensible question, Eugene frowned without meaning to. Guiding was guiding — what else was there to it? Surely guiding hadn't changed in the three years he'd been gone. Struck with doubt, Eugene asked again.
"What do you mean by that?"
At that, the director explained, flustered.
"No, it's — you said before that plain guiding wouldn't do, that it had to be sex— X-guiding. So..."
"What?"
For a moment, he thought he'd misheard. Eugene blinked stupidly. But the director's thoroughly cowed face remained unchanged. He didn't look like a man telling a lie.
This crazy bastard...
Sex-X-guiding, also called penetrative guiding, was a type of guiding where the effect grew stronger the deeper the physical contact. Literally, it was guiding through the act of sex — whether by inserting part of the esper's body into one's own, or the reverse.
Now, thirty years since the first gate opened, high-intensity guiding was strictly regulated — permitted only in emergencies where an esper risked rampaging, or between paired partners — all to protect the human rights of guides. And yet Eugene Langford had ignored laws like that entirely, trying to have his way with the bodies of S-rank espers.
"About what I said back then... please just forget it. The guiding I'm proposing to Alpha-1 Team goes only as far as contact guiding."
"Oh, really? Truly?"
"Yes."
Pressing a hand against his throbbing head, Eugene gritted his teeth.
He could tell in an instant just how far into the dirt his honor had been dragged because of this madman. His reputation among the espers would be at rock bottom, too. There were plenty of beasts among them, but most weren't like that.
"By the way... were there any espers who accepted my previous proposal? I don't quite remember."
Eugene asked, half-hoping.
If there was an esper who'd accepted Langford's proposal and done penetrative guiding, then there was a high chance his own body wasn't chaste.
"Ah, no. If there had been, at least a few of the numbers would've been more stable..."
"I see."
The director's expression turned gloomy again, but Eugene was relieved. Fortunately, thanks to the Alpha-1 espers being decent people, no sordid rumors seemed to have arisen.
