The One and Only Guide - Chapter 11
While Jian couldn’t afford to let her guard down completely, she found Axion’s response to be surprisingly inadequate.
Her choice of a makeshift hunger strike seemed to be without much thought. Although she had no alternatives, she hoped that her defiant act would hold some significance.
Axion’s cautious approach confirmed her suspicion. With this, Jian’s tension, which had been raised to the fullest just a moment ago, was now relaxed.
With this confrontation, Jian felt like she now knew what the Guides of the Awakening Center were talking about before. Espers would do anything to please their Guides. Everyone had attested to that.
While Jian hadn’t experienced it herself, she had seen many Espers desperately seeking approval from their Guides. Some Guides would even take advantage of this power dynamic, although she had never witnessed it the other way around.
With a relieved heart, Jian instinctively assessed Axion’s waves.
He appeared worried and concerned, but what he really wanted might be guidance. Given the fluctuations in her condition over the past few days, he might have sought guidance again.
Jian contemplated whether this meal was just an excuse for that purpose.
But why should she provide guidance? She had no intention of playing along with such an obvious ploy.
Jian pointed towards the door.
“Get out.”
“Can’t you at least have some soup? You might collapse without eating anything.”
Jian snorted as if to say, ‘Collapse? Who, me?’
It didn’t matter whether she didn’t eat for a few days. She’d been through much worse without eating. This wasn’t her first time going without food, and it certainly wouldn’t be her last.
In this era, after the creation of Gates, survival kits for ordinary people were widely available. Jian had one too, even though most of it had been taken away from her during her enforced baths. She managed to keep a few emergency ration pills.
They might be no bigger than a fingernail, but they were advanced emergency food that could keep a person alive for a week. She had about six of them.
Thanks to this, Jian could completely forget her hunger for the past three days. She felt nothing but a mild sense of emptiness in her stomach. In fact, when she saw the food Axion brought, she had no appetite at all.
In other words, the situation was ripe for staying as resolute as a huge boulder.
“I told you to get out.”
“I beg you. Just a spoonful of soup…”
“I won’t eat it.”
Jian’s answer was quick and without hesitation, and this made Axion wear a gloomy expression. He couldn’t let her starve herself to death. He was torn between his concern and his desperation.
“What should I do… for you to have a meal?”
“Have you not heard a single word until now?! Just, please—leave. I don’t even want to look at you!”
When Jian snapped back, Axion was just lost and speechless. Jian was about to say even more things, but at the sight of him like this, Jian closed her mouth. Axion looked as if he had lost the entire world.
She wondered if she should actually feel sympathy for such a beautiful albeit pathetic-looking man.
She once heard that if a beautiful person was sad, the person looking at them would be sad as well, and it seemed to be true in this case. Jian had never seen such a fitting expression on a big, burly man’s face.
Handsome people could use their appearance like this.
But still, she was kidnapped by the likes of him. No matter how good-looking he was, she couldn’t just eat that. It’s ridiculous.
Just as she was starting to pity the guy, Jian came back to her senses. This was because Axion’s waves became unstable.
“You…”
It was no illusion. His waves were becoming increasingly violent and precarious. This was undoubtedly a precursor to a rampage.
To make matters more confusing, the man in front of her was now shedding tears.
What the hell? Could a few words from her really make him cry like this?
“I understand that you find me uncomfortable. But please, at least eat something…”
Regardless of his pleas, the important thing right now wasn’t that. This man seemed oblivious to the fact that he was on the brink of a rampage.
Jian approached him, gripping his collar, and firmly placed her hand on his ear and throat, desperately trying to calm the turbulent waves.
The question of why she should guide him had become insignificant in the face of the impending disaster unfolding before her.
She couldn’t just stand by and do nothing while an Esper was on the verge of a rampage.
As soon as Jian touched him, Axion froze. Jian couldn’t help but burst out angrily.
“Are you insane? If you kidnapped me because you needed guidance, you should have asked for it before things got to this point. What were you doing all this time? Do you want to go on a rampage now?”
