Chapter 1: The Useless Guide

A loud alert rang through the whole place, and everyone inside the room abruptly stood up. It was a red alert.

“Damn, a red alert again? How many is it this month?” An annoyed voice rang, but there was also a hint of frustration in his tone.

“Come on, don’t complain, everyone! Evacuate immediately!” said a woman’s authoritative voice, and everyone followed her while grumbling.

In the enclosed premises, they couldn’t really hear or see what was happening outside. However, the impact could be felt in the ground and in the way the wall trembled and shook, an indication of an intense battle outside.

Their footsteps sounded in the area before they arrived at the relatively safe area, as they claimed. At the end of the crowd followed a somewhat listless man, whose eyes were somewhat half-lidded as though he were always drowsy.

He had long, black, ponytailed hair that reached his shoulders. With his pale complexion, he appeared delicate-looking. If not only because of the gloomy air around him, then he was really a pretty boy.

“Ayen! Can you walk faster?” yelled an older woman, dragging his wrist.

Someone sneered at the side, “If he wanted to die, then let him, useless dumbass.”

“Hey! He can hear you.”

“So what? I even want him to hear.”

“Stop talking and walk, damn it!” reprimanded their leader, who was a woman in her thirties and a B-class guide. Her standing among the guides present was evident. After all, a higher-class guide like her was not common.

Ayen was still almost expressionless and even appeared sleepy, not offended in the slightest, while being dragged by someone. He could hear them, but so what? He had long accepted his circumstances, and he didn’t feel any emotion anymore toward those who mocked him.

They soon arrived at the room and instantly formed a group according to their clique. As for Ayen, he didn’t care where he stood or sat at all; even if he was dragged around the corner, he still didn’t have a reaction.

“This is still a yellow zone, right? What the heck is up with these red alerts this month?” a man who was slightly smaller and more delicate looking complained.

Ayen only glanced at him for a moment, recognizing him as an upperclass C-class guide who was already an imprinted guide, before slumping himself into the ground and not caring anymore.

“That’s what I’m saying, but the team leader said that the association had yet to determine any issue.” A woman’s voice responded; it was the older woman dragging Ayen, her name was Keeran. She was a D-class guide and was always pestering Ayen and putting up with him.

His half-lidded eyes swept the room slightly before returning to his side. In fact, if no one looked closely, they might think he was already asleep.

Ayen’s boring and always expressionless face pissed off a lot of people, especially those guides who hated him for no particular reason. Perhaps they were annoyed, he wasn’t paying attention to their mockery and bullying antics.

“They can’t determine an issue? That’s bullshit, looking at the increasing attacks of monsters, it’s obvious there’s something wrong!” The crowd began to discuss this and grumbled at how blind the central government was and at the headquarters for not paying attention to this yellow zone.

As a yellow zone, it was still a relatively peaceful zone; monsters may run rampant and some dungeons could appear, but they were in a considerable range that the Espers active in this zone could handle. After all, as a yellow zone, the highest rank in this zone was only B-class Esper.

The higher-ranking Espers were assigned to those far more dangerous zones, and even some S-class Espers were in the forbidden zone. In those zones, no city was allowed to be built. In the world, there are only four known forbidden zones.

Ayen listened to their conversation, leaning his head against the wall behind him. He didn’t have any intention of inserting himself into their conversation.

From the five years that he was working in the field, and as he was assigned to this zone a year ago, Ayen was basically a loner. His personality had long since changed, and he didn’t have a friend. Even Keeran, who was always pestering him, wasn’t his friend but at best an acquaintance.

He was already used to being alone.

They stayed inside for almost an hour before the alert was cleared, and it was declared that the monster attack had been dealt with by the active Espers. Everyone sighed in relief before they became busy.

As guides, after the espers were finished with their tasks, then it was their turn to take care of their assigned espers. Some that were already imprinted checked their espers, while those guides that were not had a list of espers under them.

It only took a moment for the number of people inside to drop to just a few regular civil servants and him. Even Keeran had to go to work. Since, espers that have only just finished a fight and had their energies depleted in combat had a chance of losing control and their esper energy being chaotic, they needed a guide to calm their abilities.

In a way, espers couldn’t live without their guide; otherwise, they would be devoured by their own esper energy. While it was the same for guides whose existences were made for espers, they both have an extremely close relationship with each other and some kind of dependency.

Ayen was the only guide left. If not for his guide uniform, after all this time, no one would even suspect that he was also a guide. He didn’t bat an eyelid as the normal old and young civil servants looked at him, their eyes filled with different emotions. Some were pity, some were mockery, and some were not bothered.

However, Ayen almost heard their thoughts; it was the usual that he had grown accustomed to.

“Useless Guide.” It was clearly written on their faces, and Ayen had long grown numb to it.

He, Ayen, the lowest-ranking E-class Guide, was indeed a useless guide.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep