The Esper Grand Duke Wishes For Purity - Chapter 4
Espers subdue catastrophe, and Guides subdue the pain of Espers.
That simple premise didn’t apply in this harsh, terrifying land. Heejae had fallen into it alone. He couldn’t even guess where he’d lost Ha Sehyeon, who always protected him.
To properly explain this entire absurd situation, he had to start from that day. The day Seon Heejae dropped into this world—into this insane novel—and became ‘Ren Snow’. That incident.
Ha Sehyeon disappeared. The SSS-class Esper Ha Sehyeon. My Ha Sehyeon.
Heejae stared blankly at the blinking cursor on the laptop screen. He had nothing to write. People kept telling him that Sehyeon was dead, but he refused to accept it.
There was no proof, after all.
He was practically Ha Sehyeon’s soulmate. Yet they wanted him to write down everything he knew about Sehyeon’s death? Wasn’t that demand itself unreasonable?
Above all, that man couldn’t possibly be dead. Because he was Ha Sehyeon. A world in which Ha Sehyeon was dead while Seon Heejae remained alive didn’t make sense.
Heejae moved the cursor, tapped the backspace key gently, erased ‘death,’ and replaced it with two letters—‘missing.’
After three hours of sitting blankly, Heejae finally began typing, causing the eyes of the Guide Bureau Director sitting opposite him to brighten.
He needed to fill in the answers on the questionnaire to meet the Director’s expectations. But facing the empty white screen, he suddenly found himself asking a ridiculous question—did he truly know anything about Ha Sehyeon at all?
The repercussions from the death—or rather, disappearance—of an SSS-class Esper were enormous. The immediate breach in the capital city’sGate defenses was significant enough, but what interested the general public the most was:
Why had someone as perfect as him died?
No—why had he disappeared in the first place?
Heejae pressed his fingers firmly against his temples, where sharp pain flared up. It felt like something was throbbing under his thin skin. Each throb made his eyes sting.
‘…I’m curious too.’
Unprecedented ranking, a flawless environment, battle skills praised as genius-level, perfect looks, and physical condition… all these descriptors belonged to him.
Yet such a person hadn’t returned from a mere D-rankGate—one he could effortlessly clear on his own.
The Esper Bureau headquarters concluded that he had chosen to vanish along with theGate. It meant suicide.
“No… No. I said it’s not.”
“Heejae.”
Ignoring the desperate call from the Director, Heejae kept his head down, clutching it tightly. It felt like his skull was about to shatter. He couldn’t accept this utterly impossible situation.
What had he been doing when Ha Sehyeon disappeared? Heejae quietly recalled.
At that moment, he had been leisurely reading at home as usual. His small hobby was to send donations to fan communities that regularly posted novels featuring him and Ha Sehyeon as characters.
Heejae sponsored almost all authors on the community site. He bought every piece of fanart they produced, acquiring everything available.
Just after generously donating a large amount upon seeing an announcement about the start of Part 2 of his favorite novel, <Under the Goddess’s Star>…
“What the… ah!”
Suddenly, a sharp, stabbing pain pierced his chest, causing him to look down. It felt as though someone had stabbed him with an awl, yet not a drop of blood flowed. Moments later, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
It was pain triggered by Ha Sehyeon’s death—no, his disappearance. He later learned that such incidents occasionally occurred when an imprint broke. Apparently, it wasn’t a common experience.
Anyway, that day, at a young and healthy age, Heejae experienced a pain comparable to a heart attack. It felt as if someone had reached into his throat and twisted his heart. That was how he later described it.
When he awoke, he was in a hospital bed. Ha Sehyeon had been missing for a full week, and he himself had lost his Guiding abilities.
And now, as time had passed…
He was seated in a dark interrogation room, being urged to write down why Ha Sehyeon had chosen death.
Why did Sehyeon hyung disappear?
Because his celebrity life with 100 million SNS followers was exhausting?
Because his flawless wealth and appearance made depression catch up with him?
Because he grew sick of theGates that reopened endlessly, no matter how many he closed?
Or maybe…
“Let’s stop, Heejae. Please, now stop torturing me… Let’s stop here.”
Because the guiding he gave him the day before was so awful, so utterly shitty?
“Haa…”
The Guide Bureau Director sitting across from him let out a deep sigh. He had been testing his patience ever since Heejae sat down three hours ago. For a while now, he’d wished he could directly enter Seon Heejae’s mind if it were possible.
“Heejae. I know you’re confused and hurting. I understand your heart is suffering a lot because Sehyeon left so suddenly like that.”
“…”
“But the more you keep silent and hide things, the worse public opinion will become.”
“…”
“If it’s too hard, just write down what people want to hear. Heejae, that’s how you’ll survive.”
“…”
“You’re precious to us too. Everyone working on the scene knows it’s absolutely not your fault that Sehyeon died.”
Heejae clenched his fists until his fingernails dug into his palms.
“Director. Hyung must’ve been really angry.”
“What?”
“That’s right. How angry he must’ve been to do this to me…”
Heejae smiled bitterly.
“How could he screw me over like this?”
