The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 451: Because of You

Huh?

Lane blinked, staring at Damien, confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked, furrowing his brows.

"Why did you join the Association?"

Lane tilted his head. "Well... Didn’t you ask me to?"

Joining, or rather remaining at, the Association was one of the conditions Damien had given Lane when Lane had first admitted to some of his previous possessions, partially revealing his ability. It hadn’t strictly been a condition when Lane had fully revealed his identity, but Damien had definitely said that he wanted Lane to join. Lane remembered it clearly.

So why was Damien now suddenly asking him about it?

"Not now. I mean before... Before we first got together," Damien specified.

"...Ah."

Right.

Lane had never properly explained that to Damien, had he?

Of course he hadn’t. Because the reason he kept joining the Association under various identities... was closely related to the secret organization. It had all been so that he could enter multiple inactive dungeons and plant Fertilizer there. Doing so by going on the inspections with the Association was the simplest and easiest way. Not only was there no risk of getting caught trespassing, but it also guaranteed that the time period between planting the Fertilizer and the next inspection would be the longest, preventing the Association from discovering any anomalies in time.

In other words, Lane’s past ’employment’ choices had been tied to the part of his life that Damien was still unaware of. And Lane couldn’t explain any of this to him, not yet, not knowing Damien’s views...

But he couldn’t just leave Damien’s question unanswered either. He had to at least give him some excuse.

Lane glanced at Damien, trying to quickly come up with something.

"...Would you believe it if I said that I joined the Association because of you?" was what he eventually settled on.

"Because... of me?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Yeah," Lane nodded his head. "I saw you on the news when you were transferred to the Capital, thought you were hot, and wanted to try to seduce you... Well, to put it simply, I wanted to sleep with you." He paused, his lips stretching in a proud smile. "And, as we both know, I’ve been very successful at it."

Damien went silent for a while.

It wasn’t entirely impossible. Knowing Lane’s past habits, it wasn’t that unbelievable to assume that he would be willing to go that far to pursue one person. The stakes weren’t high for him, anyway: he was doing it as a completely different person, so he didn’t have to worry about the consequences. He was already rich, with at least a few great streams of income, thus money wasn’t his concern either. He could just join the Association for a while, flirt with whomever he wanted, and then dip when he got bored with it.

And he HAD hit on Damien pretty much as soon as they had met. Even when Damien had initially rejected him, trying to keep the professional boundaries (and avoid the trouble he had instinctively felt that Lane, or ’Evan’, would surely bring with him), Lane kept on trying, pushing the boundary without taking things too far, and slowly winning Damien over...

However.

"Then, what about after that?" he asked, his brows furrowing as he spotted the hole in Lane’s story.

"After that?"

"You know... With Noah, Aidan, and Xavier..."

"...Ah."

Lane pressed his lips tightly. He hadn’t thought that far.

That’s right. His excuse might have worked when it came to his identity as ’Evan Greene’, since Damien didn’t know his full history of possessions... But it fell apart when it came to ’Noah’ and ’Aidan’, since Lane had been trying to avoid Damien back then. With ’Xavier’, it could have still been explained, since the man had already been a member of the Association when Lane had possessed him, but Noah and Aidan were newbies... Aidan had awakened right before Lane had possessed him (with his help!), while Noah had been just a civilian. In the Awakened world, they had both been blank slates, with no contracts binding them...

Lane could have literally done whatever he wanted, and it wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows.

And yet, he had decided to join the Association again. Except that this time, upon joining, he showed no intent of flirting with Damien... He had still joined his team, but that was only because a good opportunity presented itself, which allowed him to skip on the Basic Guide Training. And once in the team, he acted indifferent towards Damien, choosing to flirt with Arlo instead, out of boredom...

No wonder Damien was suspicious and wasn’t buying it.

There were cons to having a smart boyfriend, it seemed. It was difficult to maintain any secret identities.

"Never mind." Eventually, Damien let out a sigh, dropping the topic. He finished packing the leftovers and the Smokeless Campfire, and got up. "Let’s go. We have a job to do."

They were on the first watch duty. Now that the camp had been set and everyone had eaten, it was time for them to guard it well, so that the rest of their team could sleep.

"Eh? Ugh, Damien, wait!" Lane scrambled up from the ground, trailing behind the man. "This is... I mean, well..."

He bit his lip, not knowing what to say. He hadn’t been able to come up with any excuses just yet...

But he couldn’t just leave it like that. Once again, they weren’t yet at the stage where they could have marital arguments!

Damien stopped in his tracks, letting out another heavy sigh, and glanced at Lane over his shoulder. "It’s not the best time for that sort of conversation."

"...Hmm?" For a moment, Lane was confused. Did Damien read his mind or something? That couldn’t be... Even if he were to have such an ability, Lane outranked him, so he wouldn’t have been able to use it on him...

"Ah." He gasped, as he finally realized what Damien had meant.

They were in a dungeon, with their team. Although now that Ethan was gone, they didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to listen in on their conversation, they still had to be careful. Even when talking in low voices, as they had been.

Besides, just like Damien had said, they had a job to do. And for Damien, that alone would have been enough of a reason to cut their conversation short.

Lane twisted his mouth with displeasure. He still didn’t like it, leaving their ’chat’ this way, without easing the tension first... In the end, though, he just shut his mouth and obediently followed Damien to the edge of the camp.

He was already in enough trouble as it was. He didn’t want to make his situation any worse...