The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 50: Now What?

Lane brushed back his hair with a heavy sigh, staring at the dark ceiling.

So he died. Although he decided to survive for the time being, he failed in the end. Well, Noah’s body was really frail, after all. Despite the quick medical intervention, it seems it wasn’t able to withstand the poison...

Lane’s hand slid down from his forehead, covering his eyes.

For some reason, he couldn’t get Damien’s face out of his mind. That distraught, desperate expression he had when he fished Lane out of the lake... How would he react when he came to the hospital, only to find the man dead?

But what was Lane supposed to do? Send him a message from a fake number, "Just so you know, I’m still alive, so don’t be too sad?"

Yeah, right. There was no way. If he did that, he would only be confirming Damien’s suspicions that he can move to a different body after death. Of course, it wasn’t how it actually worked, and it still wouldn’t give Damien any clues about Lane’s true identity, but...

The best thing right now was for Lane to stay quiet, and let this whole ordeal end. No matter how Damien felt, he would eventually move on...

Lane’s face twitched. For some reason, he had a sour taste in his mouth.

Annoyed by the unexpected, unpleasant sensation, he jumped out of bed, and headed to the kitchen. If he felt sour, then what could possibly be better than something sweet to fix that? He had to grab some snacks anyway, since his stomach had been grumbling ever since he woke up.

He took out a tube of his favorite strawberry ice cream, grabbed a spoon, and threw himself on the couch, turning the TV on to check the news as he enjoyed the treat.

As expected, most of the channels were all about the recent dungeon break. It was a huge event, after all. In the recent years, dungeon breaks only happened in rural areas, where Gates sometimes went undiscovered for long... But not in the densely populated areas. The last time Gates erupted in the cities was eight years ago, during the Guides’ strikes. Ever since then, everything had been so peaceful that people grew lax and complacent...

And now they were all shocked, with two dungeon breaks, as well as the Eldenveil massacre, all in one summer, and in the Capital where so many top Guilds had their headquarters.

Lane watched the news without much interest, paying only minimum attention. The speaker was mostly repeating things he already knew or could have guessed himself.

The hypnosis, water monsters, possibility of an underwater Gate... The number of casualties unknown... Then the information about the area under the lockdown - they closed down everything within the distance of 1000 feet away from Lapis Lake, and even 500 feet away from the riverbank. A dam had been placed on the river, to stop the monsters from spreading, but for the safety measures, the access to the area had been temporarily cut off.

It was quite an interesting decision on the Association part. Placing the whole river under the lockdown pretty much split the Capital in half, paralyzing the traffic. With the river, all the bridges were naturally inaccessible as well... Even the subway lines were closed down. In order to cross to the other side, people would have to go all the way around the Lapis Lake.

It was a major inconvenience. People had to commute, after all, go to their workplaces and homes... If the lockdown turned out to be unnecessary, the Association would be flooded with complaints...

Of course, if they didn’t do it, and then there was an accident, they would also be blamed.

There simply was no way to win.

Lane couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking about what a headache that annoying Section Leader must have had, trying to deal with it all. Would he be able to hold onto his current position through it all? His predecessor...

All of a sudden, Lane caught sight of something on screen, and he flinched, dropping his spoon. He froze for a second...

But in a blink, he was already grabbing the remote, and quickly changing the channel.

He sat in place for a good while, with the remote still in his hand, still pointed at the TV, his eyes looking at the screen, but not even processing what he was seeing. His breathing was weirdly shallow, but he barely notices.

"...What the hell," he muttered to himself, blinking a few times, as he finally returned to reality.

What was with this reaction?

All he had seen was some footage from the scene in front of the closed-off area, taken earlier in the afternoon. There wasn’t anything special going on. Not that it would make any difference, even if the most dramatic shots of monsters devouring people were to be shown. Lane had seen all sorts of things already, in person at that, so none of that would make any deeper impression on him now...

And yet, catching a glimpse of Damien caused such a weird reaction. The man’s shoulder was bandaged in the footage, so it was past the incident with Lane, but not much later, as the sky was still bright. Damien was only visible in the background, as he commanded a group of people from the Association, in full focus, his brows furrowed as always.

Lane let out a heavy sigh, leaning back on the couch. Handsome as Damien was, Lane didn’t want to see his face right now. It only reminded him of that distraught expression, which made him uncomfortable...

His eyes twitched.

Really, what was he doing? He couldn’t help but scoff, half annoyed, half amused at his own behavior.

Did all that identity switching drive him mad?

He turned the TV and tossed the remote to the side. No longer in a mood to watch anything, he finished his ice cream in silence, before jumping off the couch.

There were more important things to think about than Damien. He would be able to check up on the man soon enough anyway, once he got back to the Association under a new identity, if he was truly worried about how his former Team Leader was holding on.

Just check up, of course. Cause this time, Lane was determined not to give him any clues, even if it meant he had to cut on sweets a bit, at least in public...

Before that though, he had to make a little trip. There were some things he had to take care of.