The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 483: Guard Duties

In the end, Lane returned to the ballroom with Damien. Although his preparations weren’t complete, and he didn’t really feel like going back to the boring gala, he still did. For Damien’s sake. If he said that he didn’t want to, Damien would probably assume that Lane wasn’t actually okay, no matter how much he claimed that he was, and worry unnecessarily.

And excessive worrying shortened people’s lifespan. Since the two of them were going to get married (eventually. Lane might not have proposed yet, but he was quite confident that Damien would say ’yes’), Lane had to ensure that the man would lead a long life. He couldn’t have his spouse dying prematurely, now could he? That would be... not nice.

Also, the wrinkles. The more Damien worried, the more his frown would deepen, and that would lead to him developing wrinkles. That was another thing Lane couldn’t allow, as Damien’s future husband.

So, in order to avoid it and show that he was truly fine, he followed Damien back to the ballroom, sticking by his side this time. Not that it made the event any less boring, as Damien was busy talking to foreign officials, but at least Lane had something pleasant to look at.

The rest of the evening passed by uneventfully. Just walking around, talking to people (or mainly listening to Damien talk, as Lane couldn’t be bothered to participate in those dull conversations), sipping champagne, and eating snacks from the buffet. The Allens, just like Damien, were busy talking to foreign delegations, mainly the members of other prominent Guilds, and didn’t come bother Lane or Damien again.

Well, it probably would have been weirder if they did. After all, both they and Lane were living in the Capital. If they had to use some of the limited time that they had for the gala, and the summit in general, to talk to each other, rather than to people whom they rarely got an opportunity to interact with, it could suggest that perhaps their family bonds weren’t so tight, to put things nicely. Otherwise, no matter how busy they were, they would make time to see each other every now and then, or at least make a call, no?

At least that’s what Lane assumed the Allens’ line of thought was. It just made the most sense.

Or, it could also be that the Allens thought that publicly displaying their ’care’ for Lane wasn’t important enough to waste any more time on their son. Lane wouldn’t be surprised if that were indeed the case.

Either way, they left him alone (for now), and that was all that mattered. Not that he was bothered, or hurt, or anything by their fake treatment... But he simply didn’t know how long his patience would have lasted if his parents did approach him again. Their actions were just so unnerving and disgusting that he might not have been able to hold himself from snapping at them and making a scene...

Nothing happened, though, and the gala eventually ended, late into the night. Lane and Damien returned home to take a short nap, before returning to work early in the morning, even before dawn. None of the lectures, conferences, or other events took place so early, but the Association, since they were hosting the summit, had a lot to do behind the scenes...

Such as ensuring the safety. Guard the hotel and the Eldenveil, inspect the city and the Restricted Zones, make sure that nothing was out of place... The Allen Guild might have been in charge of the summit’s security, but that didn’t mean they were doing ALL the work. Just... most of it. They still had to include the Association’s members in their plans, so that the Association wouldn’t look incompetent in front of the foreign dignitaries. Even if the Allen Guild took care of most of the security and everyone knew it, the Association needed to have at least some of their members in uniforms among the guards. Damien had been spared from this, since as the ’golden child’ of the Association he had to be shown off in public, but Lane wasn’t so lucky.

The first day, he spent most of it guarding one of the conference halls, and listening to discussions that threatened to make him fall asleep from how boring they were.

The second day, he was guarding the hotel perimeters. Still boring, but at least he was walking around, so it was a bit better.

The third day, he was stuck in one of the lecture halls again. Listening to the speeches about... laws and regulations regarding the Awakened, as well as various protocols for dealing with reactivating dungeons. Could it get any worse?

The fourth day... was when the tournament was about to start.

Also, Blanc’s plan was about to be put into action. They had deliberately timed it like that, since during the tournament, the Allen Guild and the Association’s attention would be focused on the Eldenveil, and should be slower to react to anything going wrong elsewhere. This gave the secret organization more freedom to act with a lower risk of getting caught.

Lane wanted to see how it went. Although he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the plan or anything, it still aligned with his goals. On top of that, he wanted to keep an eye on it to make sure that Blanc didn’t go above what they had agreed on.

However...

He couldn’t.

There was no way for him to watch what was happening, not even from a distance, not even by checking for any updates on his phone.

Because on the fourth day... Lane had been assigned to the Eldenveil.

And not just for the fourth day, but for the duration of the whole tournament, from the main event, to the later supplementary games. Of course, he wasn’t technically on duty the whole time, but he was supposed to be ’on standby’. Waiting in the dungeon, ready to assist in case something went wrong. He couldn’t even go home to sleep, and had to stay in the Emerald Manor, one of the hotels in the Eldenveil, located near the Gate, instead. Naturally, he wasn’t the only one, as there were many other Espers and Guards assigned this task, both from the Allen Guild and the Association, including seven other members of the Association’s elite team, but still.

Lane had a bad feeling about it. Something... was about to happen.

Was this where the Allens would make their move? It seemed like an odd choice on their part... After the previous year’s events, everyone was particularly on edge about the tournament. ESPECIALLY since it was taking place in a high-ranking dungeon. One that had already expanded TWICE before.

Not that they had much of a choice in terms of the location - the tournament involving monsters couldn’t exactly be held outside a dungeon for safety precautions, as well as the potential risks of causing Manaforming to the outside environment. And it was hard to find a dungeon as nice as the Eldenveil close enough to the hotel in which the summit was held so that the commute wouldn’t be an issue. A lot of people had to travel back and forth between the hotel and the tournament’s site, after all, so too large a distance would pose a logistical problems - but...

The place itself wasn’t the main issue. The main issue was that after the accident on the previous summit, the Association and the Allen Guild were expected to ensure the maximum safety for the tournament. That’s where they would suffer the heaviest backlash if anything were to happen... And for the Allens, who were extremely concerned with their reputation and status, that would be a true shame.

Then again, it was unlikely that an event on the same scale as with the dinosaur monsters would happen. The Allens didn’t have the ability to do it even if they wanted to, since they didn’t have access to the Fertilizer. It was more likely that there would only cause a smaller incident, aimed primarily at Lane, and maybe a few other people as collateral damage... After all, if their son was the only or one of the very few victims, people would likely feel more sympathetic towards them rather than criticize them extensively. Besides, who knew? Perhaps they had a plan that would allow them to frame Lane for the accident that was supposed to take his life...

...Or it could also be that it was just a distraction, while the real trap was being set elsewhere.

Regardless, Lane had no choice but to go. On the morning of the fourth day of the summit, he grabbed his spatial bag full of equipment, spare clothes for the following days, and snacks prepared by his boyfriend (with love). Then, he kissed Damien goodbye in front of the Headquarters, and together with Arlo, Cora, and five other members of the elite team, headed to the Eldenveil to meet his doom.

Or not.