DBOFS 15

Chapter 15

A few minutes ago.
Harris didn’t miss the chance when Jade severed the wizard’s wrist and launched a relentless attack.

Boom, crash—!

The ceiling of the castle collapsed entirely from the impact, and the wizard crumpled as if he had met his end.

“…Huff.”

Harris clutched his chest, panting heavily.

He had used the sudden surge of power far too abruptly.

His heart pounded as if it might burst, and the heat of excitement hadn’t subsided even though it was all over.

His sharpened senses extended beyond his field of vision, detecting even the tiniest speck of dust.

That’s how he knew.

‘Gone.’

If the wizard had died, there should’ve been a corpse. But even the traces of magic had vanished—completely erased.

‘It wasn’t the real body.’

It was expected. When summoning through his abilities, it was more fitting to summon a puppet resembling an intelligent being rather than a true sentient lifeform.

A replica, not the real one.

And yet this mere puppet, summoned incompletely, dared to challenge him.

As far as Harris knew, only one magician was capable of that.

The Master of the Mage Tower, Elysius.

One of the people he must absolutely kill.

‘What a shame.’

The regret of not killing the real one turned into a chilling hatred.

And at the end of that hatred, there was always one man.

Duke Godwin.

Norman Hendricks Godwin.

Harris’s biological father—who had gone to such lengths to build this castle just to kill his own son.

Above the shattered fortress walls, the dark blue dawn sky and scattered white stars became visible.

He hadn’t seen them in years while imprisoned.

Yet Harris’s crimson eyes couldn’t linger on them for long.

“…Ugh.”

Back when he wore the suppressor, he constantly suffered from headaches. Now, the pain was so intense he wanted to split his own skull open. It felt like thorns were stabbing deep into his eyes.

[It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.]
[It’s because of that bastard. Because of him!]
[Duke Godwin.]
[That bastard who deserves to be torn apart!]
[Kill him!]

Yes, he must die.

Harris smirked. The whites of his eyes, wrapped around bright red irises, were now laced with visible crimson veins.

It was a terrifying smile.

Duke Godwin.
He would be the first offering in Harris’s newfound freedom.

Just as he moved his feet—

“…Jade?”

He saw her.

More precisely, he witnessed a piece of debris fall toward Jade’s head.

But she didn’t even seem to notice. She sat there blankly, dazed and motionless.

In that moment, the murderous frenzy evaporated.

His body reacted before his mind.

Black energy surged from his outstretched hand and blasted the rubble away.

His legs, rushing forward in panic, brought him right in front of her.

“Are you insane?!”

He only realized he was yelling once his head felt like it was boiling.

‘She was doing so well dodging on her own, and now she’s just zoning out like this?!’

Is she out of her mind? Does she have a death wish?! He was about to yell—

But he stopped.

Her eyes—there was no focus in them.

Tears streamed down her cheeks like rivers, her expression sorrowful, pitiful—like a trampled flower.

Once again, Harris only noticed his hand had moved when his fingertips brushed her tears.

The cool dawn air quickly chilled her wet cheeks, but new hot tears kept flowing.

“…Sir Harris.”

It was then.

Jade’s lost gaze finally found him.

Her long, thick lashes sparkled with tears like a crown, and her blue eyes beneath shone like stars.

“It worked… just like I said, right?”

Before he could ask what she meant, Jade staggered.

Harris instinctively caught her. Though his instincts rejected physical contact with anyone, his body moved on its own—

“…!”

The heat of her skin was not normal.

‘She’s burning up.’

She was fine earlier—even after escaping the prison and shooting the monster—but now, suddenly?

His confused thoughts quickly found an answer.

“You… guided me?”

Even Harris knew that guiding could have negative effects on the Guide too.

Especially if the Esper being guided was as powerful as he was—it would be even harder.

“…!”

As soon as the word “Guiding” came to mind, Harris realized that everything around him had gone quiet.

The cursed voices that endlessly whispered hatred had vanished like candles doused in water.

His headache too.

The mind-splitting pain had vanished without a trace, and his overly sensitive senses were now tuned solely to Jade’s breathing in his arms.

His boiling power had calmed.

“Ha…”

It was the first time in his life he had felt peace. And Harris knew who had given him that peace.

“…Jade.”

Now he understood. Why she had collapsed so suddenly.

‘Even to the end… she tried to guide me.’

Why else would she have held on until he reached her, only to pass out the moment he touched her?

And why did his symptoms vanish the instant they made contact?

“…Why?”

He asked quietly, in a daze.

“Why are you doing this… for me?”

Of course, there was no answer from someone who had fainted.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t know the answer.

A Bonded Guide.

A special relationship between Espers and Guides—one where they recognized each other upon contact with their wavelengths, even before making eye contact.

It was said the once-whole soul, split in two, found its match only in the other—like a destined pair.

‘If you’re truly my Bonded Guide…’

If she recognized him at first sight—if that’s why she had been so kind—

‘Then… I can understand.’

But not everything made sense.

Her ramblings about him being a “prophet” were a whole different matter.

People like Harris, who not only rejected Guides but were also repulsed by their presence, were said to have “Guide Insensitivity.” It was widely believed those Espers almost never found their Bonded Guide.

They usually died young—consumed by their own powers, becoming uncontrollable monsters.

And now, out of nowhere, she’s his Bonded Guide?

Thump. Thump—
His heart pounded loudly.

‘Could this be some instinctive euphoria from touching my Bonded Guide?’

If Jade hadn’t fainted—if she could hear his thoughts—she would’ve screamed.

It’s just leftover adrenaline from the battle!

And I collapsed not from guiding, but because today has been one hell of a day and I’m exhausted to death!

I’m not your Bonded Guide—you’re completely misunderstanding this!

But Jade was unconscious. And the truth was buried in silence.

Harris, drowning in the misunderstanding born of silence, gently lifted Jade into his arms.

Unaware of the object glimmering faintly in her clenched fist.

* * *

“…”

Elysius opened his eyes.

The destruction of his carefully made puppet affected even his real body.

“Cough…”

Blood sprayed from his mouth as he coughed. His brain felt like it had been stirred in sewage.

“Cough, cough…!”

After a long fit of coughing, Elysius raised his pale face.

The final message sent by the puppet was short.

[Duke Godwin’s son, the Esper of “Void,” has escaped.]
[A possible escaped test subject was also spotted.]

The memories that came with the message were fragmented and chaotic. Elysius sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“Sigh…”

Of course, the second part was far more important than the first. He didn’t care if Duke Godwin’s brat escaped or not.

‘I already extracted everything I needed from him.’

His ability: Void.

It was interesting—but unfortunately, not something Elysius could extract or reproduce.

But if the escape was made public, Duke Godwin would surely start pestering him.

—Sir Elysius! Tower Master!

Unfortunately, a transmission from the Mage Tower came in at the worst moment.

‘Annoying.’

He tried to cancel it, but his hand, still shaky from the earlier trauma, accidentally answered the call.

—Something terrible has happened!

Sebrick’s voice thundered in his ears. Elysius swallowed a sigh.

Hearing news he already expected was such a bore.

After lazily listening to the update on the tower’s situation, Elysius asked:

“So… what now?”

—The light has returned… but it’s smaller and dimmer than before…

‘He’s tricked us.’

That brat from the Godwin family must’ve pulled something.

Perhaps transferred his suppressor to another magic-bearing creature and left it behind in the underground prison.

‘It’s not impossible. The controller was designed to be usable by magic bearers anyway.’

Maybe he locked someone else in there.

Elysius instantly deduced the truth, but pretended not to know.

“Then it’s probably still there. Maybe it’s sick. Leave it.”

—What? But…!

“Don’t bother me until you hear from Duke Godwin.”

—Tower Master!

The flustered voice continued, but Elysius hung up without hesitation.

He had more important matters to attend to.

‘The escaped test subject.’

In the fragmented memory his puppet had sent before being destroyed, something pink had appeared briefly in his vision.

“…”

Hair the color of flower petals wasn’t that rare.

Long ago, when the Fairy Prince married a princess of an old kingdom, fairy blood spread across the human realm.

Their descendants had colorful hair, like flower petals, and it had long become common even among commoners.

‘But if she’s a test subject…’

A glimmer returned to Elysius’s previously bored eyes.

He had always been interested in the ancient fairy tribe. Because they were hard to obtain, he had no choice but to experiment on their descendants—but most didn’t last long and had to be discarded.

If the test subject his puppet found was the one he had been searching for…