The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 224: Hungover

The room fell back into silence, as Lane ended the call. But, there was no time for it now, so Lane threw Damien a tentative glance. "You’ve heard everything, right?"

"Yes. You need to go now, then?"

"Mn. Unfortunately..." Lane looked into Damien’s eyes, then at the man’s reddened lips, and let out a sigh, dragging himself off the bed, albeit unwillingly.

"Should I go with you?" Damien offered, but Lane immediately shook his head.

"No, it would only make things worse at this point. I sneaked out using my abilities, you see, so from their point of view, I should still be inside the building... It would be hard to explain how I managed to get past the guards, and I don’t want to raise any suspicions."

"...Alright then," Damien nodded his head. Although he still had a lot of questions, it wasn’t the best time for that, so he only asked, "When... will I be able to see you again?"

"Well..." Lane paused, dodging Damien’s gaze. "I would like to say ’soon’, but honestly, I don’t know. But I’ll message you later, so we can stay in touch!"

"I promise to keep you updated?" he forced on a smile, pulling the man closer for a goodbye kiss.

"Make sure you do. And... stay safe."

Lane let out a short chuckle. "I will!"

And with that, he was out of the door, his cloaking activated, and charging ahead at full speed. He stopped right by Ava’s building, approaching with caution, but luckily, there was no one watching the windows. After all, an F-ranker couldn’t just jump out from the 17th floor, so it wasn’t a viable escape option for Lane.

Or so they thought.

Lane landed on the windowsill, and using his abilities, opened the window from outside, sliding in. As soon as he got inside, he heard it. The doorbell, the banging on the door, and Gia’s voice, yapping.

Ugh. Of course, they had to send the temperamental one. If it were Savannah who came, it wouldn’t be such a big problem.

But there was no point complaining about that now. Lane just shook of his shoes, tousled his head hard, and went over to the fridge, grabbing a beer and downing it in a few gulps. Then, he adjusted his clothes, making them look messy - there were still Damien’s, but whatever, the Allens’ probably wouldn’t notice? - and finally opened the door, yawning widely.

"Damn, what the hell?" he muttered, wincing as if his head hurt. "What do you want?"

"What is wrong with you?" Gia looked him up and down with disgust.

"Rather, what is wrong with you? Let people sleep!"

"It’s afternoon!"

"So?" Lane rubbed his head.

Instead of answering, Gia just scoffed. "How much did you even drink to be so out of it not to wake up for so long?"

"None of your business." Lane winced once again. "Can you shut up now? Your voice is so annoying, my head might split!"

"Tsk!" Gia turned around, wanting to storm out, only to stop after a few steps. No matter how much she wanted to leave, she couldn’t. She was on the mission assigned by the head of the family, after all!

"Are you just going to stand there?" she snapped at Lane, turning back to him.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do? You haven’t even told me what you’re here for."

"I’ve been yelling about it ever since I came!"

"Well, I’ve been asleep, so I didn’t hear!"

"You-!"

Catherine’s personal assistant, accompanying Gia, decided it was finally time to intervene, and stepped in. "You are being summoned back to the Allen family mansion," she explained in Gia’s stead. "Immediately."

"Oh." Lane paused, yawning once again. "What for?"

"You’ll find out once you’re there."

"But I don’t wanna. I’ve just left yesterday!"

"It is non-negotiable," the assistant calmly said, unmoved by Lane’s whining. Then, as if trying to convince the man not to be difficult, she added, "Wouldn’t it be better for you as well to get over it soon, so that you would be left alone?"

"Hmm." Lane pursed his lips, pretending to think.

Of course, he knew he had to go, and he didn’t intend to drag it out too much. He was just being a bit difficult because he was annoyed. The Allens had interrupted his ’bed time’, after all! But, the assistant had a point, so eventually, he let out a sigh.

"Fine, I’ll go."

He put his shoes back on, threw on a jacket, and got out, following the assistant, with Gia still staring daggers at him. Well, that was the norm, they could never get along.

They got into the car, and drove through the city toward the Allens’ mansion. Gia threw a few verbal jabs at him every now and then, but all of her attempts were promptly ignored, as Lane closed his eyes, leaning against the window, pretending to doze off. He wasn’t actually sleepy at all, but he wanted to use this time to finally organize his thoughts after his conversation with Damien.

So he was supposed to start openly living as an Esper, huh? In his real body. Or at least try to - it still wasn’t certain how things would work out. First of all, he needed to contact Diana, and perhaps visit her in person again if possible, to inform her about his ability...

No, wait. Perhaps that should be the ’first of all’. His ability. What was he even going to report?

It wouldn’t be Possession or Plunder, that’s for sure. From what he said, it didn’t seem like Damien expected Lane to reveal the truth to the Association. He could naturally change his mind later, after giving it more thought, but at least for now, that wasn’t one of the conditions. So, instead, Lane would just report one of the abilities he plundered as his own...

The problem was, which one? He had so many great abilities, that it was hard to pick one! Not all of them were equal - some of them were still low-ranking, so they had to be crossed out, unfortunately... But he was still left with a few to choose from. It should be something that would allow him to pass for a high-ranker, and it should be useful in combat, so that Lane could have fun during dungeon raids... But it also needed to be compatible with Damien’s team, and...

All of a sudden, Lane lost his balance, as the car door he was leaning against opened.

"Get out." Gia tapped her foot impatiently, standing outside.

Lane blinked twice, shifting his gaze from his cousin to the mansion looming behind her. He didn’t even notice when they arrived. With a heavy sigh, he unfastened his belt, and stepped out.

Let’s get this over with.