DPGR 143

As Dojin’s abilities improved, his anxiety also began to fade.

“Wouldn’t it be better to cut back on training a bit and get some counseling instead?”

Jiho, who had been waiting for the right moment, seized the opportunity to recommend counseling to Dojin.
He even started nagging, saying mental stability would help in combat, and Dojin couldn’t ignore that opinion.
The threat that followed the nagging was surprisingly sharp, too.

“If you don’t get counseling!”

“…If I don’t?”

“We’re sleeping in separate rooms!”

The way he glared, eyes wide like an angry sparrow, saying they’d sleep separately, what? Separate rooms?

It was a threat he’d heard once before, and it made him laugh.
Jiho being so feisty was cute, and it was funny and amazing how precisely he knew Dojin’s weaknesses.

“Hahaha!”

“Don’t laugh!”

Jiho seemed to think he was being made fun of, biting his lip and puffing up in protest.

After laughing as much as he wanted, Dojin had to soothe the thoroughly sulky Jiho and promise, pinky swear and all, that he’d go to counseling.

***

As February began, the snow gradually let up. Still, the temperature didn’t rise, and an unprecedented cold snap swept in.
Aside from the way the white snow began melting into slush, it was a day like any other.

The Alpha Team set out with the Theta Team to clear a mid-sized A-rank dungeon.

‘Something’s off with their teamwork.’

Dojin eyed the Theta Team suspiciously.
It had been a while since they’d worked together, but the Theta Team was clumsier and more disjointed than he remembered.

In fact, five espers had recently defected from Theta, so the mood was understandably unsettled.
Dojin had picked up on that immediately.

‘I’ll need to look into what’s going on later.’

Even so, the dungeon raid wrapped up without any major issues.
What they’d thought was a regular dungeon turned out to be a dual dungeon, which made things twice as hard, but thanks to Dojin and Jihye’s reawakening, their power had grown significantly and they pulled it off safely.

“Whew…”

Dojin emerged from the dungeon looking exhausted.
Jiho, following close beside, looked at him with concern.

“Hyung, are you tired? Want me to guide you?”

“No, I’m okay. It’s not because of the guiding…”

He trailed off, casting sidelong glances at the Theta Team espers clustered a little ways away.
Over there, the captain and vice captain of Theta were arguing.

“Hyung?”

“Ah… it’s nothing. Let’s do the guiding at home.”

“Okay!”

The snippets of conversation he caught didn’t sound good. Monsters. The Final Dungeon. The fear of death.

Everything else could be overlooked, but openly bringing up the final dungeon like that in public seemed a bit reckless.

‘What if a civilian overhears?’

Clicking his tongue internally, Dojin handed the artifacts and notes they’d obtained in the dual dungeon to the waiting staff.

He pointed toward the noisy Theta group and said,

“Someone should step in over there.”

“Sorry? Ah…”

The staffer, seemingly aware of the situation, looked uneasy.

“I’m concerned about word of the Final Dungeon leaking.”

“Hmm… I’ll try saying something.”

The vague response made Dojin’s brow rise slightly.
But he quickly decided it wasn’t his problem and shook his head, turning back to Jiho.

“Guide Jiho.”

“Can we go now?”

“Yes. Let’s go home.”

“Hee…”

Jiho grinned sheepishly. Dojin shook off the lingering discomfort and focused on the person in front of him.
Since they’d cleared a dual dungeon, they’d be given a full day of rest.

Some might scoff that it was just one day, but to Dojin, even that was a blessing.

“I suddenly feel so tired and worn out.”

“Really?”

“I think I’ll need Guide Jiho’s help.”

“…!”

“Shall we take a shower together?”

He leaned in close and murmured low into Jiho’s ear.
Then, as Jiho’s cheeks immediately flushed red, Dojin gently caressed them with a satisfied smile.

If he wanted to peel Jiho out of his clothes all day, he had to move quickly.

“Let’s hurry.”

***

After spending the entire day tumbling around in bed with Jiho and feeling deeply satisfied, Dojin had fully recovered his condition and went to work at the center.

“Oh! Captain! Your face is totally glowing!”

“Mm, well…”

“Haha! You’re basically a newlywed!”

Dojin let the usual teasing go in one ear and out the other as he settled into his office and reviewed the dungeon assignments scheduled for Alpha Team.

Meanwhile, Jiho headed to the training room with Geonwoo and Sena to practice radiant guiding.

‘I really don’t like radial guiding…’

Dojin didn’t like the idea of Jiho guiding other people.
Of course, since it was radiant guiding, there wouldn’t be any physical contact, and Jiho planned to conceal his ability as much as possible, so the espers wouldn’t even know who was guiding them.

But still, what he disliked was what he disliked.

Even so, putting emotions aside, he agreed with Jiho’s point that his guiding would be needed when they entered the Final Dungeon.
So even though it made him uncomfortable, he couldn’t stop Jiho.

‘Well, doing radiant guiding is basically a foregone conclusion at this point… It’s better to start practicing diligently now so he doesn’t lose control on the field.’

Geonwoo and Sena had also just begun practicing with Jiho’s help, since there was no telling when or where radiant guiding might become necessary.

Jiho shared his own tips and techniques with the two of them while also training himself to better control his guiding energy.

One of the causes of Jiho’s previous outbursts had been his inability to properly manage the amount of energy he was releasing.

Dojin, seated at his desk, spent a while lost in worry over Jiho before snapping himself out of it.

‘Yeah, what’s the point in worrying? Guide Jiho is an adult.’

I should just focus on my own work.

He pulled together his scattered focus and got to work clearing out the backlog of paperwork.

But it wasn’t long before his concentration was broken by a call from Kwak Jiheon.

“…Yes, Director. This is Baek Dojin.”

Suppressing a sigh, Dojin leaned back in his chair as he answered. The chair groaned under his weight with a loud creak.

After a moment of silence, Jiheon’s voice came through the phone, and Dojin shot upright.

“…The dungeon’s emergence time has been confirmed?”

***

Inside the Center’s conference room.

Only Kwak Jiheon, Dojin, and Jiho were present as they started a video call with center directors from around the world.

This emergency meeting had been called because the last clue had been discovered in a dual dungeon cleared in the UK.

—<Are you absolutely certain there’s no margin for error? A fortnight, it’s much sooner than expected.>

—<Can adequate preparations be made in just two weeks? What’s your view, Mr. Baek? You’ve experienced it before, so I imagine you’d know best.>

A foreign director spoke quickly in English. Dojin lifted his brow and answered in a voice lower and deeper than usual.

“<I’ll need to hear what the current training status is before I can say for sure. Two weeks is probably cutting it close, but it’s not such a short time that it’s impossible. Still, if you’re feeling that uneasy…>”

The only one sitting idly in the room was Jiho.

He could only sit quietly, watching Dojin and Jiheon converse with the foreign directors in a language he didn’t understand.

‘So, there’s only two weeks left until the final dungeon?’

He recalled the quick explanation he’d gotten on the way to the meeting.

Two weeks. Just two weeks.

The rising voices of the foreign participants on the screen sounded like complaints about how little time that was.

While Jiho used his instincts to piece things together, the meeting shifted toward more constructive discussions.

“<We can’t avoid raiding the Final Dungeon. So let’s stop whining like children and start deciding which espers and guides each country will send.>”

Jiheon’s blunt words made some of the foreign directors grimace or scowl outright.

Jiho just thought, Grandpa must’ve said something rude again.

—<Fine. There’s no restriction on the number of people who can enter the Final Dungeon, correct?>

“<That’s correct.>”

—<Then how about this?>

One participant proposed sending in as many of the strongest as possible and ending the raid in a single push.

Another countered that the raid should be split into two or three teams to account for the risk of failure.

Voices clashed as people firmly stuck to their own views, each insisting they were right.

As the arguments grew louder and more heated, Jiho’s shoulders began to shrink inward.

It was bad enough that he couldn’t understand what anyone was saying, and now they were all yelling with veins bulging in their necks, of course he felt uneasy.

Noticing Jiho’s state, Dojin reached out.

“Guide Jiho. It’s okay. Come here.”

“Huh? B-but…”

“Come on.”

He pulled Jiho to his feet and seated him on his lap, wrapping his arms around him to calm him down.

The foreigners can see us!

Jiho turned red with embarrassment, fidgeting anxiously.

But most of the people on the screen were espers or guides themselves.

They knew well how espers treated their guides, so none of them reacted to Dojin’s gesture.

As the meeting continued, Jiho’s body gradually relaxed.

Then someone on the screen spoke up, saying they wanted to hear from Dojin and Jiho.

—<What was it like before? I’d like to hear from the two of you, Baek Dojin and Seo Jiho.>

Hearing his own name so suddenly, Jiho blinked in confusion.

Dojin, sensing Jiho stiffen all over again, gently stroked his back. After a slight pause, he answered.

“<…In the first life, we sent in as many people as possible all at once, but it didn’t go well.>”

—<What was the problem?>

“<There were too many people. It got out of control, and with no coordination or teamwork, it just became a mess.>”

—<I see. And what about the second life?>

“<The second… I died before reaching the Final Dungeon in that timeline, so I have no memory of it.>”

The way Dojin spoke English sounded a little different from what Jiho was used to.

His voice was deeper, with a rich timbre that almost tickled Jiho’s ears as it flowed from his throat.

He suddenly felt a fresh kind of awareness toward Dojin.

Right as Jiho nervously toyed with his fingers and clutched Dojin’s sleeve, Dojin glanced at him, and brought him into the conversation.