The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 441: Admitting Guilt

"Haha. You’ve got me," Lane let out a chuckle.

It was a dry chuckle, not an amused one, and his eyes constantly dodged to the side, avoiding Damien’s gaze out of guilt, but still.

He admitted it. He was indeed the culprit.

"Haah..." A heavy sigh escaped Damien’s throat. He closed his eyes, rubbing his furrowed brows.

"You knew about the tunnels underneath."

It was a statement rather than a question, but Lane still nodded his head to confirm. "Yeah."

Since he was confessing, then he might as well go all the way and admit to everything (everything regarding this incident, not EVERYTHING everything, of course). It couldn’t get much worse, now could it?

"And the spider monsters below," Damien asked, or rather said, again.

"Yeah."

"When we entered the caves... You didn’t want me to explore them because of the risk of the collapse."

"Yeah, more or less."

It was mainly because Lane didn’t want to notice anything... The rockfall wouldn’t have happened without Lane’s intervention, but the wall of rocks HAD looked dangerous. If Damien had seen it, he wouldn’t have let anyone bathe in the pond, not without securing the wall with their abilities first. And that would make it much harder for Lane to...

"You caused the collapse with your abilities."

"Mn. That’s right," Lane nodded again. He still didn’t dare to look at Damien, though. Although their conversation seemed calm on the surface...

It wasn’t a good kind of calm. Rather, a defeated and helpless kind. Like the acceptance stage of grief: coming to terms with reality and that you have to live with it, but not necessarily being ’over’ it.

And that made Lane feel even worse, his stomach queasy. He tossed another fry into his mouth, but that didn’t help at all.

Honestly, it would have been better if Damien were angry at him. Anger was easier to respond to than... whatever it was.

"You... could have saved Wagner," Damien asked his final question.

"Well... About that..." Lane dragged his voice a bit. "Technically I could, but... That would land me in a lot of trouble, no? If I exposed that I have more abilities, I mean..."

Damien didn’t say anything to this. Yes, if Lane had exposed his other abilities in front of Ethan, that would have caused a lot of issues. Damien would have still done it if he were in his place, but knowing Lane’s family situation, he could somewhat understand why Lane would consider it not ’worth it’. However, at the same time... He was also aware that with his skills and experience, Lane should have been able to easily save Ethan without blowing his A-ranker cover, if he really wanted to.

But Lane didn’t want to, and that was the problem.

"B-but, hey! He’s alive, isn’t he? We all survived!" Lane added, trying to defend himself.

It was pointless, though. Yes, everyone was alive, but Damien could tell that if Lane’s plan had been fully successful, it wouldn’t be so... Ethan would have returned as a corpse.

If he had even returned at all.

Damien rested his elbows on the table, hiding his face in his hands. He had gotten his questions (mostly) answered, but...

Now what?

Lecture Lane?

’Hey, Lane. You might not know it, but attempting to murder someone is wrong. It doesn’t matter if you do it yourself, or throw someone to the monsters to be devoured. I don’t approve of your actions.’

As if that would do anything! Obviously, Lane was well aware that it was wrong, and that Damien wouldn’t like it, that’s why he hadn’t told him about his plans beforehand. And, honestly, pointing that out to him didn’t seem quite right, considering that Lane’s own parents had done pretty much the same thing to him countless times when he had been a mere teen...

But then what, should Damien just let it slide? If it were anyone else, Damien would have reported them to the authorities so that they could be dealt with according to the law, but...

An attempted murder warranted a prison sentence. And the punishments were always more severe for the Espers, especially the licensed ones. And Damien... didn’t want Lane to have to go through that. Even if Lane deserved it, Damien was selfish in one aspect, and that was that he wanted Lane to stay by his side. Of course, that didn’t mean that he was fine with Lane doing whatever he felt like, but...

His idea was to guide Lane to a better lifestyle. Making a law-abiding citizen out of him would be hard, but perhaps, with patience and the right approach, Damien could at least stop Lane from doing things that were morally wrong...

The problem was, he didn’t know how. It’s not like he had ever done anything like that before, and Lane... was a hard case to crack.

"Uh... Damien? You should eat, the food is getting cold." Lane gently pushed a box with the nuggets Damien’s way, trying to change the topic and break this uncomfortable atmosphere.

Damien looked up from above his hands, glancing at the nuggets, then at Lane. Lane was no longer as nonchalant as before, but appeared somewhat anxious, waiting for Damien’s response...

"You can finish it all. I’m full."

"But... You’ve barely eaten?" Lane pointed out, but Damien already pushed his chair back and stood up.

"I’m not hungry. You can eat, I’ll go take a shower first."

Then, he walked out of the dining room, leaving Lane alone.

It was truly just this. He had no appetite, so he didn’t want to force himself to eat. And since he didn’t know what to say to Lane, he decided to take a shower first, hoping it would clear his mind a bit. Not to mention, although he could bear with it, sitting in his dirty clothes, covered in dried blood, wasn’t comfortable at all...

That’s why he left. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see or talk to Lane, he just needed a moment to himself.

...But Lane, left alone at the dinner table, didn’t interpret it that way.