CH 31

“Yes…”

“The moment you manifest your abilities as an Esper, that’s the same moment that you have to get used to the pain. Unless your exclusive Guide comes to relieve your pain, you should never rely on another Esper’s Guide or the Saintess.”

“Guide?”

“That’s right. You must have read about them in history books.”

“Ah, yes. I remember.”

“The Guides have disappeared from the country before, but the Saintess has come.”

“Is she a Guide?”

Ciel tried to gauge how much he could tell his younger brother, who had only just left the detached manor.

“Yes, you can consider her to be a Guide. Still, just because she’s a Guide, you can’t automatically assume that she’s a good person.”

“Why? How come? But she’s the Saintess.”

At his younger brother’s remarks, Ciel felt his throat closing up. Yes, in the past, he also thought the same thing and trusted Seo-yoon so recklessly.

Any citizen of the Stern Empire believed in the God, Asteras.

And because the saintess was God’s daughter, it’s only natural to think of her as His extension.

But that should not be the case.

Everyone had overlooked two important points—that the saintess had come from a different dimension, and that she had the ability to go back there.

For the sake of the Stern Empire, it must be kept in mind that you’d have to follow her to another dimension, if the situation calls for it.

And so, in the past, Ciel had followed the saintess to another dimension under the emperor’s decree.

The emperor had summoned him one day. The emperor heard from a priest that the saintess had another ability—the ability to reopen the dimensional gate. He also heard that she had been going back and forth between her homeland and the Stern Empire.

Since it was like that, it was no different than saying that the empire’s one and only Guide could disappear at any given time once again.

But at the same time, you could also say that perhaps there’s another Guide in the saintess’ hometown?

If other Guides could be brought to the Stern Empire, then Ciel himself, and the imperial crown prince as well, may be able to live in peace.

Complacent as he was, Ciel had approached the saintess and followed her through the dimensional gate. At first, the saintess’ favor was with him, and she gladly helped him.

However, things changed soon enough. Besides that, the saintess was the only one who could open the dimensional gate.

And, an unexpected complication arose from another revelation—that the saintess did not have much lingering affection for the empire.

Being a witness to this, Ciel instinctively knew that she would no longer help him.

His prediction was right, and he found that the saintess was not just an individual, but someone who was bound to a group.

It was much more complicated and difficult to deal with an entire group rather than just an individual. And more than that, it wasn’t just any group but one that’s important enough to be backed by the government, and with power encompassing the entire country.

At that time, Ciel had no choice.

In a place like Korea, which was so utterly different from the Stern Empire, Ciel had no one to trust and rely on.

Besides that, it had also been difficult for him to adjust because he came from a class-based society.

He was born into his position as the firstborn son of a duchy in the empire. Inevitably, he was an arrogant, aristocratic man, and he took all of that for granted.

Korea, on the other hand, was not a class-based society in the way that he knew. Still, however, it was a class-based society in its own right.

Espers and Guides were thoroughly graded by class, and many executives lived above them. These executives were generally politicians and soldiers, all of whom were ordinary people with no abilities, but nonetheless treated Espers like weapons.

Espers and Guides were their weapons and shields against the monsters.

Ciel did not think that he would ever feel resentful against those people, but rather, they tried to lock him up and surrounded him with such fences—all because of how fearful they were of his abilities.

In the end, they resorted to creating weaknesses against him just to control him.

The saintess was one of those weaknesses.

And, it was only a matter of time before she became one of them.

However, Ciel did not intend to keep being on the same side as the saintess.

She hid something that she could have said honestly from the very beginning, and she still went on to bring him to Korea with the intention of using him.

At his remembrance of the past, Ciel gritted his teeth.

The empire knew less about Espers and Guides compared to Korea. So, it was there that Ciel learned, for the first time, about how Espers and Guides could imprint.

Imprinting could be done when both the Esper and the Guide felt the same way for each other. However, it’s also true that imprinting could be forced.

He once met an Esper who was brought in for experiments, having to be hooked up to many different machines. He had been forcibly imprinted with a Guide he did not wish to be imprinted with.

And, Ciel had also nearly been forced to imprint with the saintess, Seo-yoon.