The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 231: Can I Join?

"Ahem, so!" Lane cleared his throat, his eyes directed at the traffic lights, even though his mind was completely elsewhere. "Those dungeon raids. When are you going to go on them?"

"As soon as possible. I’m planning to enter the A-rank Gate on Wednesday, and I’ll try to arrange for a different team to take on the B-rank Gate, so that it wouldn’t affect our trip."

"A-ah, so soon?" Lane pressed his lips, thinking. Well, it made sense, since it’s been a while since they appeared... And as far as Lane could remember, he only instructed Blanc to excavate the resources as much as possible, while leaving the monsters to breed. After a few months of no hunting, it wasn’t surprising that the population grew... Lane must have received some reports about it as well. It was just that he had been so preoccupied with other stuff, that he must have missed it.

Ah, what a shame.

"Uhm, Damien, say..." he glanced over at his boyfriend, curving his mouth in a crooked smile. "Do you think I could..."

"The light is green."

"...What?"

"The light had changed, you should go," Damien pointed out.

Lane turned his eyes back to the front. Indeed it had. He sighed, and started the car.

"...You were saying?" Damien asked, lifting his brows, when Lane went silent, just driving.

"Ah, right." Lane tapped his fingers on the wheel. "Say, would it be possible for me to join you?"

"Join me? On the raids?"

"Yeah."

"That..." Damien paused for a moment, thinking. "That won’t work, there’s not enough time. You don’t have an Esper license, after all. You would have to pass the exams first, then join the Association and become a Field Agent... But even then, you wouldn’t be able to join my team as an F-ranker. And even if you revealed your rank, we would need to negotiate your plea bargain first before you would be able to commence work..."

’...Right.’ Lane pursed his lips, annoyed. Getting anything done was so overly complicated when you had to follow the rules. Damien had a point - F-ranker could never join his team, even if Lane managed to get his license done in time. Even if Damien specifically requested to have him on the team, it would never be approved, not by Section Leader Bowen, and not by anyone else, as it would be seen as just a waste of money. Why pay F-ranker for joining a high-ranking team, when he wouldn’t be able to contribute much?

It was perfectly reasonable, of course, and if Lane were in their position, he would have done the same, but that didn’t mean he was any less annoyed.

"Then what if I..." he started, but bit his tongue almost immediately.

"What if you...?"

"Ah... Wait, what was I saying?" Lane furrowed his brows, pretending to be so focused on the road that everything else slipped his mind. He pulled over, finding himself a parking spot near his restaurant of choice, and once he stopped the car, he just sat in place, thinking for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Uh, I can’t remember."

He was actually going to suggest ’what if I joined as someone else’, but he knew better than to say it out loud.

The first rule of his deal with Damien was that there would be no more possessions, after all. Lane had every intention of going along with it. But old habits die hard, so it was only natural that when dealing with a problem, such an option came to his mind.

"Well, anyway," he said, shifting the topic a bit as they got out of the car. "Did the Association seize the rights to those Gates yet?"

"Not yet. The Guilds have yet to respond to our inquiries, and the scouts will be sent on Monday to assess the situation."

On Monday, huh? That wasn’t a lot of time, only two days, but if he contacted his subordinates soon, perhaps they could clear the dungeons a bit, to ensure they couldn’t be forcefully seized. Luckily, the Guilds were sensible enough not to voluntarily hand over the rights without his explicit permission, even if postponing the transfer could result in extra charges.

Of course, that was only in case the dungeons were assessed to be on the verge of a dungeon break. If they could bring the monster population down to an acceptable level, then the Association wouldn’t be able to do anything for now, thus postponing Damien’s raids... freēwēbnovel.com

The corners of Lane’s mouth raised a bit. "So it’s not set in stone yet."

"No, but smaller Guilds lack the resources to maintain an uncleared high-ranking Gate for so long. If they haven’t been able to do it till now, it is most likely they won’t be able to hold onto it," Damien explained.

Which was something Lane knew very well, much better than Damien, being in the field for years. Still, he just smiled mysteriously. "I have a feeling this time will be different."

"...A feeling, huh?" Damien furrowed his brows, glancing at Lane suspiciously. Judging by how confident the man sounded, he must have known something more. "Are you perhaps familiar with those Guilds?"

"Well... You could say that." Lane’s smile widened. "Let’s just say... I made a few secret investments."

A bit more than just ’investments’, but there was no need to go into any details right now.

Damien looked at him for a moment, and asked, "Does it have anything to do with those dungeons?"

Lane couldn’t help but chuckle. As expected, Damien caught on fast.

It wasn’t that big of a deal though, so he simply admitted, "Yeah. I arranged for them to buy the rights, so that they would later relinquish them to the Association. I wanted to go on raids with you, you see."

For a while, Damien remained silent, until eventually letting out a sigh. Normally, he’d scold Lane, saying something along the lines of dungeons not being playgrounds...

But didn’t Lane already know that all too well from his past experiences? It seemed that he just had a few screws loose in his head, which wasn’t something simple lecturing could fix.

So, instead of reproaching the man, he simply asked, "Then what about the raids?"

"They’ll probably be postponed, yeah," Lane nodded his head. "Sorry about that."

"I don’t mind." Damien shook his head in response. He wasn’t just saying that, he truly did not care. After all, unlike Lane, he wasn’t excited about the prospect of fighting monsters. He was just doing his job.