(BL) Taming the Field Guide-Chapter 107: Some things just can’t be avoided

Brent didn’t think that he would be able to convince Aunt Dina that easily, but it was. Or, well, he shouldn’t get that cocky.

Kellen coming out safely, and with Gwen also safe, was what really toned down her protectiveness. It only took 24 hours and the tight vice-like grip that she’d had on Brent loosened slightly. It was when Brent was going over the location of where the executor of the estate was located.

He was an Esper, and a lawyer. Similarly to Rene from the Nemesis Guild, he was also a Physical Strength Esper. Brent didn’t have to be a genius to figure out why lots of Physical Strength Espers went into the field.

For one, it proved that they were not just their muscles. They were also smart, incredibly so, and were also hard to push around. The Esper also happened to be in cahoots with his grandfather for a very long time. Brent hadn’t spoken to him in person, but had spoken to him over the phone.

He had insisted, and had forced his brother to let them talk. He would not go further with any of the plans that his brother had formulated until he heard Brent’s voice, and that he was safe.

So, at the very least, the man wanted things to be legal. That was something that Brent could work with, because if everything was to go the way that his brother wanted, Brent had to sign the papers in person, in front of the executor and a lawyer, before he could get his hands on the empire that his grandfather had grown.

His brother was finally going to face the consequences for his actions. He probably knew it was coming, and he probably knew that it was going to come from Brent. Otherwise, why would he try to kill him?

Aunt Dina still hovered, still had her Lieutenants keep him company, but the air didn’t feel as stiff. Didn’t feel as tense as before. Brent felt like he could loosen a few buttons on his shirt now that Kellen was out, and Brent kept his gaze glued to the t.v.s to watch the news unfold.

Any scrap was good, and it was especially good when he caught sight of Sergei for the first time.

All this time he hadn’t seen him. Hadn’t even gotten a scrap of him, but in one of the videos that had been blurrily filmed from the front lines Brent caught a scrap of him. He was with Kellen, Rhys and probably Taylor from the way that the brunette hair was in a ponytail. From the shotty footage, Brent could see that he was...alright.

He was alright.

It was a relief, something that Brent kept to himself. He had no shame in the fact that he was interested in Sergei’s condition. He had no shame in the fact that he was interested in Sergei. However, Sergei had been out of view as the main S Class on the front lines so there wasn’t any news about him until now. Sergei often went without any footage of himself, but this was an extraordinary circumstance.

Brent had needed to see him, even if he couldn’t see him in detail. He saw that his eyes were glowing, he saw that he was standing upright. He saw that he was breathing, and that was good enough for Brent.

There was another reason why Brent didn’t let anyone know he was trying to look at how Sergei was doing. The reason was that Kellen? Who was also caught in the footage? Kellen had not looked okay in the footage.

Kellen had been huddled against Rhys, tucked away was more accurate of a thing to call it. He had two legs, that was clear, but his upper body was masked. With how blurry the footage was, Brent couldn’t tell what condition Kellen was in. It was a scary thought, so he often spent his time scanning over any little scrap of Kellen that he could see.

Aunt Dina and the others weren’t much better. Everyone was worried about Kellen, so Brent kept his thoughts to himself where it concerned Sergei. Though, he had a feeling he wasn’t able to keep it all to himself. One of the Lieutenants, the youngest of the group Zaria Tracer, seemed to be watching Brent with an expert eye.

She seemed to be able to tell that Brent was worried about someone else from the front lines, but she didn’t tell anyone. Or, at the very least, didn’t tease Brent about it at all. It did keep Brent on his toes, and meant that he focused on the task at hand.

In the days since Kellen had been spotted, and Aunt Dina had been informed by Kellen’s Mom and Dad that he was coming back to the city, Brent and the other Lieutenants had been in contact with the lawyer. For obvious reasons, the lawyer was good at keeping things confidential, and since he was hearing from Brent and he wasn’t with his brother, it wasn’t hard for the lawyer to connect the dots.

They didn’t set up a time for the meeting but they did set up a day. After all, they were all aware that his line was probably bugged by the very same person that they didn’t want showing up. Without setting up a time, and with how busy Brent’s brother always was, he wouldn’t stake out the place. At least not personally, and if he used Guild members from the Chronos Guild, well, they weren’t his to order around.

That right belonged to Brent.

It was going to be some very stressful few days for Brent, and thankfully, Aunt Dina was allowing Brent to drown his sorrows in liquor. It was the only way he was able to get some sleep at the moment. Otherwise, his mind would be racing too much and he’d stay awake and stare at the ceiling, listening to the Espers outside of his room moving around furniture so that Colby wouldn’t attack him in his sleep.

It was clear that Lieutenant Parker, a rather sound voice of reason for an Esper, didn’t approve of Brent’s choices. He was a bit like Kellen in that regard. Only he spoke softly, not bluntly, and stood by like a disapproving shadow when Brent did decide to drink.

Most of the other Lieutenants just joined him while he drank, but Esper Parker, a man who he had met at a party, stood by, shaking his head, even sighing sometimes. It was a rather good show for Brent, and only encouraged him to drink more.

Lieutenant Harris, the charming man who was this Guild’s Pamela, even made the drinks for Brent. It was a pity move, done by an Esper who was as flirtatious as Brent was, but Brent didn’t have it in him to flirt back. Too many things were going on, and honestly?

He had a feeling he would start an international issue if he did anything with anyone right now. Brent felt a small drop of sweat slide down his spine at even the thought.

God, it was so damn attractive that Sergei was so quiet, yet so possessive. Brent hadn’t seen it in full blast yet, but he’d felt it. He’d always felt it, but not in a sexual way initially. They hadn’t started that way at first.

Brent had first noticed it when he was working. The contracts were a good first indicator. Even Rhys, who loved Kellen, didn’t offer them as great of contracts as Sergei did. Brent was sure that Kellen didn’t notice, probably never would since he was so in love with the man, but Sergei rewarded loyalty very well.

All of the first contracts that Brent received from the Nemesis Guild had been good. Very good, but they had only gotten better and better as Kellen and Brent continued to work with them. In the three years that Brent had been by Kellen’s side, they had probably done...god, what was it? Like 400 contracts with the Nemesis Guild?

They were a good Guild, a powerful one, and the gate that they owned was in high demand. While they had their own people, Brent and Kellen were experts, and they had slowly become experts in their gate too. Plus, while Sergei and the Nemesis Guild had a lot of resources inside of their own gate, they did need things from the gates on the front lines as well. Especially the more dangerous gates that Brent specialised in.

The gates that showed up, got cleared, and then disappeared. The little blips into terrifying worlds that get your blood pumping. Where at a base level, you had to be B Class or higher as a Field Guide to even be able to work in them.

That was one of the reasons why Kellen didn’t work in fluctuating gates. He couldn’t, and that was why it was Brent’s job. Brent had just enough talent to be able to pull it off, and the more that Brent was able to do it for the Nemesis Guild, the better the contracts that Brent was offered.

They raised both contracts, and that told Brent a lot about the Nemesis Guild as well. As much as Kellen was known here, he had been a C Class Guide at the time. Most people didn’t value C Class Guides as much as they should, especially someone like Kellen.

That was not the case with the Nemesis Guild. It was one of the things that had gotten Brent interested in the Captain. Again, not because he was attracted to him or had that kind of intention. That hadn’t even crossed his mind.

Brent was just curious about what kind of Esper ran their Guild like that? One that didn’t care about Class all that much, just that you showed results. Never, in Brent’s lifetime, would he have thought the pale ghost of a man covered in tattoos and piercings would be the man who ran the Nemesis Guild.

The pale ghost who haunted the front lines. That was what the less than kind Espers on the front lines said. Never did the Guides speak ill of the Captain of the Nemesis Guild. That was enough of a reputation for Brent to shiver.

He had known to avoid the man as soon as he found that out. Nothing good would come out of Brent interacting with Sergei of the Nemesis Guild. If all the Guides liked him, Brent needed to avoid him. He’d already gotten Kellen wrapped up in his shitty life, even if the man hadn’t known anything at the time. He didn’t want to get another nice person mixed up in his shit.

Brent had continued doing what he normally did, avoiding Sergei in a subtle way that didn’t let anyone else catch on, including Kellen. He ran into him once or twice, but he was polite. Respectful. Showing a Captain the respect they deserved.

Strangely, every time that Brent met Sergei in person, the contracts got even better. Brent wanted to protest, wanted to point it out to Kellen, but Kellen had looked Brent directly in the eyes and told him that he was doing a dangerous job, and Sergei had enough money to fund three Guilds.

Brent should just shut up and accept it.

Brent had wanted to laugh at that time, wanting to tell Kellen that he came from a home that had enough money to run several cities, but that would have destroyed the reason why he had run away for anonymity in the first place. So, he’d sucked it up, remained polite, and watched as the numbers on each contract grew.

It was almost a relief when Kellen finally confided in Brent that he had wanted to leave the front lines. Finally, Brent could reasonably refuse working with the Nemesis Guild because he didn’t have his partner with him. Brent didn’t realise that Kellen had pegged him for who he was and who he liked in the time that they had been together on the front lines. That came out when Kellen warned Brent against his sister.

Brent felt his face warm. Shit. He shouldn’t be thinking about this right now. He needed to worry about what was going to happen if he ran into his brother at the lawyer’s office, not reminiscing about the past. What was done was done, and now...

Now everyone had a job to do.