The Guide Played Her Role as a Stand-in a Little Too Well - Chapter 18
From the thickened golden tips, a dark bronze color shone like earth.
Hedonia narrowed his eyes and glared at Robert before him.
“Don’t be mistaken. It’s not for the child, but for me.”
His arrogant words, which drowned out Robert’s concerns, instantly froze the air in the room.
Standing confidently in his place, Hedonia was a king ruling over everyone.
Robert instinctively knew.
After this awakening period, Hedonia would become a legendary guide surpassing him.
From the beginning, he would become a powerful figure who could control espers in the palm of his hand.
Excitement surged through his entire body.
Yes, he had tamed and resigned himself to Hedonia for this moment.
“Are you taking your medicine properly?”
Hedonia hesitated.
The words Robert had just uttered weren’t about Karina’s blood.
He was referring to the medicine I had been taking since the moment my primary sign manifested.
“Even if I refuse, you still put it in my food.”
Hedonia muttered under his expressionless face.
“…”
In the uncomfortably quiet silence, Hedonia once again reminded himself of his hatred.
Hedonia muttered in a low voice.
“I want that child’s blood to be purer than anything.”
A glimmer of madness shone in Hedonia’s eyes as he spoke after a moment.
Eventually, Robert acquiesced.
“…Fine, I understand.”
How Karina managed to reignite Hedonia’s desire for life remains unknown.
But does it really matter?
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter.
As long as the puppet becomes what it needs to be.
As long as he returns to life and becomes the guide who illuminates the family.
That has been my lifelong wish since the moment Hedonia was born.
* * *
After concluding his conversation with Hedonia, Robert quickened his pace. Esban must have been waiting for him.
“Sorry for the delay, Es…”
Knock, knock.
After announcing his arrival, Robert quietly entered the room. He found Esban blinking as he had just woken up.
It was only natural that his gaze followed the hands Karina and Esban were holding.
Esban realized where his gaze had landed, and in his confusion at still holding the hand, he quickly withdrew it.
“Oh, this is…”
He wanted to explain, but he had no excuse.
After all, he was the one who had grabbed the woman who was about to leave the room just now.
“How dare…”
Robert, eyebrows furrowed, glared at the sleeping Karina as if he could kill her.
“This is my own doing. Please don’t be too angry.”
Esban, with a trace of conscience left, murmured in a melancholic voice.
Robert sighed and asked,
“How are you holding up mentally?”
Deeply startled, Esban realized how clear-headed he was and was filled with joy.
Ever since returning from the dungeon recently, or rather, in the past few days, he had been plagued by headaches every day.
He had been worried that he might eventually lose his mind as he felt himself gradually descending into corruption.
Until yesterday, his worries had deepened along with his sleepless nights, but now they evaporated like drops of water on hot pavement.
Glancing at the soundly sleeping Karina and then turning his head away, Esban rose from his seat and bowed his head.
“It seems the guiding scheduled for today won’t be necessary after all.”
Since there was a limit to the total amount of guiding a guide could perform at once, the espers had to schedule their turn to receive guidance.
Esban’s decision was a considerate gesture as an esper who knew that in two days Shaelock would seek Robert for guidance.
Shaelock had recently closed a gate that had appeared in the south and was suffering from mental corruption as a result.
Robert furrowed his brow.
“Is that so?”
Esban had never declined guidance before, which made this decision unusual.
It was a change brought about by Karina, a change Robert didn’t appreciate—a needless change.
Robert regarded Esban with a curious gaze.
“…Well then, that’s fortunate.”
Robert bid Esban farewell with a nod and appropriate salutations.
Returning to the room, he looked at Karina with concern; she was still asleep.
Despite not checking on Karina’s condition through Esban’s touch, the effectiveness of Karina’s guidance was evident from her expression.
Even though it was an unconscious act of guiding, the purification given to Esban was quite remarkable. It reminded him of his mother’s guidance.
‘It was a perfect guidance,’
But he wasn’t bad at guiding himself.
Robert quickly brushed aside thoughts of himself and focused on Karina. It wasn’t an incorrect statement.
He possessed the talent to achieve complete purification with minimal contact with people.
But he couldn’t become a genius like his mother.
Was that all?
As his body and mind weakened with age, the total amount of guiding he could perform was gradually decreasing.
Yet, even that was the only option for the Espers.
There was simply no substitute.
While people were accustomed to being directly rescued by and seeing the faces of Espers, guiding was different.
Even when manifesting as guides, many died without proper care.
It was intentional negligence, all part of the plan for the Duke Apharantes to become the sole noble family for Espers.
Everything was prepared, even up to Hedonia’s Awakening Ceremony, but…
His face contorted mercilessly.
‘Bold of you to cross the line first,’
Karina shattered it to pieces.