The Emperor’s Guide

A depressed man waiting for a miracle… finally gets exactly what he believed in.
I am a depressed patient—but strangely, I’ve always been positive.
I believed that someday, life would give me a “jackpot.”
Something absurd and life-changing.
Winning the lottery.
A miracle.
A sudden reversal of everything.
Or in this world—becoming a Guide, a rare existence who can connect and stabilize powerful individuals.
So I kept living.
Quietly.
Stubbornly.
Waiting for my turn.
And then it really happened.
“Mr. Kim Jeong-ha… the Guide match is confirmed.”
I was happy.
No—I was truly, genuinely happy.
Because it felt like, finally, my life had meaning.
Like everything had started to fall into place.
Until I was kidnapped.
By the Emperor of another country.
“Damn it. A psychopath like you is my soul Guide.”
He looked at me like I was something irritating he couldn’t throw away.
I wasn’t the one at fault for being mentally ill.
And I definitely wasn’t the one who chose to become his “soul Guide.”
So I said it plainly.
“Hey. You can’t just kidnap someone and insult them because they’re mentally ill. In this situation, guiding is going to be extremely uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.”
“Ha. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you guide properly—regardless of how you feel.”
He smiled.
But it didn’t feel reassuring.
It felt dangerous.
Almost amused.
Now I’m trapped with an Emperor who claims I’m his only match…
and a power I barely understand.
If this is the jackpot I waited for my whole life—
then why does it feel like I’ve just stepped into something far more terrifying than luck?