I narrowed my eyes before giving a small nod. Ian, wearing his usual falsely polite smile, sat down beside me.
“You’ve been looking busy lately. Mind if I ask what you’ve been up to?”
“Aren’t you already aware? You said you were tailing me.”
I replied coldly. It might have sounded like he had stopped following me since he didn’t know my whereabouts, but I had a feeling that wasn’t the case.
If he had actually stopped watching me, he would have responded to my message. Instead, he had been completely avoiding me for days.
“Let’s be precise with our wording. Tailing implies secretly tracking someone. I was providing security for you, with full protective intent.”
“Whatever it was, I told you in my message to stop doing it.”
“Ah. I recently lost my phone. So you really did try to contact me?”
So he hadn’t seen my message. Or, more likely, he was pretending he hadn’t.
“If I had known, I would’ve taken it for repairs.”
His expression of regret, as if he had truly been unaware, was utterly insincere.
“Whatever. So are you saying you continued tailing me under the guise of security?”
“No.”
That answer was unexpected.
“Guide Gu Sa-weol is quite famous. Rumor has it that a different security Esper was assigned to you, so I felt reassured and took care of my own business. But today, I noticed you were alone.”
Just now, he claimed he wasn’t following me.
Then how did he know I was alone today?
“Where is that security Esper now?”
“The gate.”
“And my security?”
“They just stepped out for a bit. Said they’d be back soon.”
We had stopped using psychological intimidation to provoke creature transformations after the first day. If attacks continued exclusively targeting C-Class mental-types, the Center would eventually launch an investigation.
I had been wondering how to monitor the suspect who lived in the Branch C dormitory when I heard that they had joined the subjugation team for the D3 sector gate.
Yugeon had gone to the scene, saying something absurd about luring them out with blood.
I was worried he’d do something ridiculous again, but he had left so suddenly that I didn’t get the chance to hear his full plan.
Since I didn’t have clearance to approach a gate before its destruction, I had been waiting at the Center.
“Neglecting their duties, aren’t they? Leaving an S-Class Guide alone in a dangerous place like this.”
“As if a creature would suddenly show up in the middle of the Center.”
I replied flatly.
Sure, there had been a chase in the park outside the dormitory a while ago, but that was late at night with no one around.
Right now, I was surrounded by Awakeners.
Even if a creature did appear, it would be subdued in an instant.
“There are things scarier than creatures.”
I glanced at Ian, as if waiting for him to elaborate. His expression turned mischievous.
“Cremons.”
“…….”
“Who knows if one is lurking among us right now?”
This bastard was messing around again.
“Your delusions are getting out of hand.”
“Who knows? Maybe it’s not just a delusion.”
Ian smirked in a way that made my skin crawl.
“Yeah. It is.”
I dismissed him, refusing to engage any further. But he added something even more absurd.
“Sometimes, I wonder if Cremons will become the final rulers of humanity. It’s not entirely impossible, theoretically speaking.”
I turned to glare at him, already expecting nonsense, and he took the opportunity to continue.
“Cremons are perfect beings, possessing both the supernatural abilities of Espers and the regenerative powers of Guides. And they retain human intelligence. If they regularly drink blood, they can use their abilities without any limitations.”
“Needing to drink blood to survive is a limitation.”
“Even so, the requirement of consuming ‘the blood of any living organism’ is much less restrictive than an Esper’s dependency on a Guide’s wavelength.”
He was only saying that because he wasn’t considering society’s perception.
A Cremon’s real limitation was that they could never fully integrate into society.
They had intelligence, allowing them to wield their powers in more versatile ways than creatures, and they were potentially superior to both Awakeners and ordinary humans.
But because they were feared and reviled, it was impossible for them to build a system based on trust.
If Cremons were ever to rule humanity, the only way they could do so would be through absolute fear and brute force—by establishing a dictatorship founded on terror.
As history has shown, dictatorship may appear strong at a glance, but it is an inherently unstable system.
Suppressing and oppressing those who oppose power inevitably breeds resentment among the majority.
A dictatorship must constantly monitor and eliminate dissenters, but how long can a regime sustained purely on distrust truly last?
Eventually, it turns into a chaotic mess where people devour one another.
“Are you a Cremon sympathizer?”
Saying that Cremons could be humanity’s final rulers was enough to raise suspicion about his beliefs. Ian often entertained dangerous theories, but this was the first time his words genuinely made me question his ideology.
“Of course not. I simply enjoy discussing interesting debate topics.”
As always, he slipped away like a snake. I had no idea why he constantly invited suspicion upon himself.
He kept insisting that he wasn’t the culprit and that I shouldn’t doubt him.
At this point, I knew he was deliberately provoking me.
But was it just because he enjoyed my reactions, or did he have another reason? It was getting outright annoying.
Regardless of his provocations, the investigation had stalled.
Frustration was creeping in, and I was starting to lose my cautious approach.
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to push things a little further.
I wouldn’t mind seeing him flustered for once, instead of always being the one getting aggravated.
I unpinned the Center emblem from my uniform and ran my finger lightly along its sharp edge before pressing it firmly into my palm.
“What are you doing?”
Ian furrowed his brows at my sudden self-inflicted wound.
I dragged the sharp edge across my palm, letting a bead of crimson blood drip down.
“Want a taste?”
I stretched out my hand casually, as if it were no big deal.
Ian let out an incredulous chuckle.
This was what Yugeon had planned to do at the gate with the mental-type Esper.
He hadn’t intended to be this blunt about it, but the purpose was the same.
If he were a Cremon, he wouldn’t be able to resist the scent of warm, exposed blood.
Even if he wasn’t, I wanted him to be irritated—wanted him to feel as if he was being tested like a potential suspect.
As if meeting my expectations, Ian still had a faint smile on his lips, but it was far from an amused one.
I held my hand out unwaveringly, watching as his expression slowly drained away.
A cold glint flashed in his ice-blue eyes.
We stared each other down as if locked in a silent battle—until, without warning, he grabbed my injured hand and brought it to his mouth.
“Then I won’t refuse.”
“……!”
His tongue flicked out between his teeth and traced the length of the wound.
A sharp sting spread through my palm.
I had only meant to provoke him, but he was licking up the blood as if he didn’t want to waste a single drop.
His tongue, long and deliberate, pressed against my skin like a serpent.
But there were no sharp Cremon fangs. No beast-like golden eyes.
Cremons didn’t just lick like this.
When I tried to pull my hand away, Ian tightened his grip, refusing to let go.
“That’s enough. Let go.”
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“It’s not.”
He finally let go—but not before pressing his lips firmly against my palm, as if stamping a seal.
Then, as if relishing the last traces, he flicked his tongue across his lips and adjusted his slightly crooked glasses.
His expression was composed, as if he had done nothing inappropriate.
My palm throbbed. When I clenched my fist, a tingling sensation shot up my entire arm.
What a truly insufferable man.
“Then why provoke me? You’re practically inviting trouble.”
“You take things to a whole new level.”
“You started it, Guide Gu Sa-weol.”
I couldn’t even argue.
I had rushed into this out of irritation, and now it felt like I had fallen for my own trap.
“It tastes better than I expected. You do know that blood carries traces of its owner’s wavelength, right?”
A small amount of wavelength always lingered in blood—it was something even the most skilled Guides couldn’t control.
Ian saying that it tasted good meant he had sensed that wavelength.
Realizing I had unintentionally guided him made me feel even more disgusted.
“You won’t catch the culprit like this. Instead of chasing them, you need to lure them out.”
Of course, he knew what I’d been up to lately.
“Got any ideas?”
“Wave something in front of them that they won’t be able to resist.”
The culprit was after me. More specifically, my blood.
They wanted to drink it and attain immortality.
But to achieve that, they would have to consume vast amounts of endlessly regenerating blood.
And if they succeeded… what would happen to me?
I didn’t need to think hard to picture the outcome.
“You’re suggesting I gamble my own life?”
“That would be the most effective bait, but it’s too dangerous. Something else would be better.”
“I could’ve told you that.”
Did he think I was doing this because I didn’t know that?
I had hoped he had a real strategy, but all he had to offer was useless criticism.
Then, suddenly, Emily’s words resurfaced in my mind.
“The culprit already failed once. They’ll be analyzing their mistakes and approaching more cautiously next time.”
Emily had said the culprit would be investigating the reason for their failure.
Right now, the most tempting bait for them was proof that I was a Cremon.
I couldn’t reveal it myself, but I could bait them into approaching someone who knew my secret—Emily or Baek Yugeon.
Emily had lower combat ability, so Yugeon was the better choice.
But even if they were given convincing information, would the culprit dare approach Yugeon, an S-Class Esper?
There were some uncertainties, but it was worth considering.
One thing was certain—offering my blood like this definitely wasn’t the way.
* * *
Yugeon returned to the Center before sunset. His clothes were stained with red blood—whether it was his own or a creature’s, I couldn’t tell.
“It was just a D-Class, right? Why are you this injured?”
Since the plaza was still crowded with people, he leaned in close to my ear and whispered discreetly.
“I told you. I was going to lure them in with blood.”
“So? Did it work?”
Yugeon stepped back slightly, flashing a sly grin without answering.
Did someone really fall for that ridiculous trick? No way…
