RAVEN Ch 2

“What?”

Renault furrowed his brows, openly displaying his displeasure. Yet the young man simply curled the corners of his mouth upwards, unfazed. He didn’t even lower the piercing gaze aimed at Renoir, instead, his curious blue eyes sparkled as if they were a priceless gem.

“I don’t think I heard you correctly,” Renault said.

This guy looked barely in his early twenties. To hear such words from someone like him, approaching thirty, was unbelievable. Hoping that his ears had deceived him, Renault stared the young man down.

The young man narrowed his eyes slightly. Truly, his eyes shone with an unsettling beauty. Unfortunately, what followed from his lips was far from beautiful.

“I said you’re an Esper so damn hot I want to swallow you whole. Especially your eyes. Just looking at them makes me wanna….. ”

“This bastard’s insane.”

Words that would befit a street thug spilled from the lips of someone so strikingly beautiful. It was only natural for Renault to throw aside all pretenses of politeness and shoot back a sharp retort.

Seeing a stranger, one likely of lower rank than himself, brazenly sexually harassing him was infuriating beyond measure.

“Who are you affiliated with?”

“None.”

“What?”

“I just got here a few days ago, so I don’t have an affiliation. If you’re curious, you can ask next time we meet. Or I can at least tell you my name?”

Every word he spoke was just enough to make Renault want to grab his neck. Swallowing his insults, Renault clenched his fists tightly.

“Sigh… forget it. I don’t need that. Get lost.”

“I mean, why not? You should be curious.”

“I said I don’t need it. If I see you again, you’ll really be dead.”

His fists trembled with the urge to smash the brat’s smug face, but the appointment time was looming. With a click of his tongue, Renault turned away, deciding to extend a last measure of mercy. After all, in this place, the 13th District, he would inevitably meet this insolent Esper again. Teaching this little punk a lesson later would be easy enough.

“Dying isn’t all that bad, you know. So… how are you gonna kill me?”

Yet the rookie, seemingly thinking this was a joke, took a step closer and babbled nonsense. As the distance closed, a suffocating presence pressed down on him, and Renault instinctively widened his eyes in surprise.

It wasn’t just the difference in physique. His sensitive nerves detected the young man’s aura. Dangerous. Yet stepping back would bruise his pride. Gritting his teeth, Renault lifted his gaze sharply.

“But, let me tell you something… I think you’re gonna like this more.”

The young man suddenly leaned in close, brushing his lips near Renoir’s ear, and ran his fingers lightly over the back of Renoir’s hand. The motion was overtly suggestive. First, he had verbally harassed him, and now he was doing it with his fingers.

Caught off guard, Renault froze, his spine stiffened. The instant the young man’s fingertips touched his skin, a tingling current shot up his hand.

His vision flashed white. Even though it was only the back of his hand being traced, barely a sexual advance, it was enough… what was this feeling?

Startled by the sensation, Renault hastily shook his hand away. The young man’s fingers lingered awkwardly in the air, proof of what he had just done.

“This bastard, what the hell is he doing?!”

His voice rose involuntarily. Renoir’s sharp eyes trembled with anger. At last, the young man smirked and took a step back.

“Curious?”

The young man asked in response, laughing lightly, teasingly. Renault bit his lips, then turned around.

“Enough. Get lost.”

The lunatic wasn’t worth dealing with. Though his blood boiled, Renault strode on as if unaware.

“You should be more curious, though,” the low voice clung to his ear as he walked away.

“Next time, it’ll take your breath away.”

Just like the fingers that had traced his hand, the sticky, lustful voice seeped into his ear. His shoulders involuntarily tensed, goosebumps rising along his skin.

“This crazy bastard…!”

At the brink of losing the last of his patience, Renault stepped forward aggressively. Appointment or no, he had to teach this uneducated brat a lesson with his fists. Sensing this, the young man swiftly stepped back, hands in his pockets, with a mischievous smile.

“You look pretty hot when you’re angry, you know?”

“You bastard! Won’t shut up?”

Renoir’s expression radiated deadly intent, and the young man stumbled backward, keeping his distance, his charming smile still intact. The contrast between his horrid behavior and elegant appearance only made Renault more irritated.

“All right, the bastard’ll shut up for now. See you, darling!”

He nodded brightly and turned the opposite way, walking off as if nothing had happened.

Renault glared at his tall, graceful back in disbelief, then turned away irritably.

What a crazy bastard.

Not only had he brushed shoulders with a stranger, he had been sexually harassed as well. Anger flared with every step, his brow furrowed harshly as he tried to rein in his fury. With every stride, his ragged breathing scattered across the hallway.

Before he could face an even more miserable test, he had already encountered a far worse bastard. Muttering curses under his breath about sheer bad luck, Renault flung open the door and stepped inside.

***

[Renoir, please take a seat. The test will begin shortly.]

Renault walked with his back rigidly straight, almost obsessively so, his face openly displaying sheer exasperation.

“Damn matching rate test.”

[Understood, Captain.]

“Uh, yeah.”

The military doctor giving instructions inside scolded him lightly, but Renault sat down as if he didn’t care. He was so accustomed to this that, the moment he sat, he automatically positioned his head and arms in the machines surrounding him.

[Have you met the guide, by any chance?]

“Why would I?”

[They just finished the test and left. I thought you might have run into them.]

“Just now?”

At the word just now, Renault ground his teeth. The brat with the youthful face who had brushed shoulders with him before entering came to mind. No way. No way.

“Don’t tell me… that tall, pretty-faced bastard with zero manners was the guide?”

[Apparently they’re S-rank. Even as an Esper, their physique leaves nothing to be desired. As for their personality… it’s, well, unique.]

The doctor’s voice didn’t register properly. It hit him like a punch to the head. The damn test he was currently taking… was a matching rate test with that insolent brat?!

“I’m not doing it.”

Renoir, now completely indifferent to the test, tried to get up immediately.

[We’ll begin.]

Ignoring Renoir’s protests, the doctor delivered the mechanical instructions with efficiency. Escaping from the machines surrounding him on all sides wasn’t going to be easy. Soon, the low hum of the machines began to buzz in his ears.

Damn it. He ground his teeth, but there was nothing to do except slump his restless body into place. There was no way to back out now. Even if he tried to flee, he’d be caught again. The only option was to remain still, for the moment.

After all, this was a mandatory matching rate test. The results wouldn’t differ much from usual. Renoir, murmuring a self-reassuring mantra, closed his eyes without smoothing the wrinkles between his brows.

No need to overthink it. All he could do was hope the tedious, time-consuming test would end quickly, clenching and unclenching his fists in silent frustration.

***

“98.7%. An unprecedented matching rate.”

Dr. Megan Jin, the chief researcher at the Esper-Guide Laboratory and Renoir’s longtime friend of ten years, waved the paper in her hand. The flapping sound of the sheet felt like a thunderclap. In contrast, Megan’s face shone brightly, as if a decade-long weight had been lifted.

“Congratulations. You’ve finally found your match.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“The crazy thing is your matching rate. Wow, 98.7%! Rounded up, that’s 99%! Absolutely insane. Doesn’t this deserve a headline somewhere? Ninety-nine percent, can you believe it? At this point, isn’t this a soulmate sent by God?”

“Don’t round it up. And if you say ‘soulmate’ one more time, I swear….. ”

Renoir’s previously composed face twisted fully into anger. It was one thing to have a 98.7% matching rate with someone, it was another entirely that the person happened to be the brat who had made him furious at first sight. This wasn’t a soulmate, it was a cosmic joke.

“You didn’t rig it, did you?”

Renault asked sharply, unable to trust it. Megan’s eyes sharpened even further.

“Rig it? Are you saying the matching rate was falsified? If it could’ve been faked, would I have let you waste thirty years of your life?”

“You would’ve sold me off if you could’ve.”

“You know me too well.”

Megan’s nod, devoid of denial, left Renault feeling utterly dismayed. He had known the matching test results were genuine, yet accepting them was another matter entirely.

“You’ve long passed the time when you should have had a dedicated guide. And now you’ve got an unheard-of 99% matching rate. With an S-rank guide, no less. Do you understand? S-rank guide! When an opportunity like this comes along, you grab it, don’t go whining about being full!”

Megan was genuinely frustrated. Renoir, however, was equally displeased, so a constructive exchange was impossible.

“Don’t act high and mighty while trying to dump the problematic S-rank guide who ended up in the 13th District on me. I’ve said countless times that I don’t need a dedicated guide. The Center’s the one who ignored me.”

“That brat’s matching rate is worse than yours, true. That’s why they couldn’t find the right Esper, they weren’t kicked out! And how long are you going to keep refusing matching tests, insisting you don’t want a dedicated guide?”

“Until I die.”

“You’re going to keep spouting childish nonsense? Do you think you’re a three-year-old? Listen, you’re almost thirty, damn it, almost thirty!”