The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 238: Slime Fight

"...Are you sure it is alright?"

"Why wouldn’t it be?" Lane closed his eyes with delight, stuffing a whole spoonful of custard and whipped cream in his mouth.

"Well, they’ve been at it for half an hour now..." Damien pointed out.

"True," Lane nodded solemnly. "I might have underestimated them a bit."

"Shouldn’t that be enough?"

"Enough? For destroying the food you made me?" Lane lifted his brows. "As if! Even if they went on at it for hours, that still wouldn’t be enough!"

However, Damien wasn’t convinced.

"RELAX," Lane sighed, putting the spoon down. "Look at them, they’re barely even hurt!"

That was true. Because they were still all covered up in red slime, the bandits spent more time sliding around than actually hitting each other. They suffered more damage from falling and bumping into others than from any punches! And as they were all Espers, such injuries wouldn’t keep them bed-bound for too long, if at all.

"And besides. If we were weaker, then we would have ended up beaten up and robbed. Or dead! So what do you feel sorry for?"

Damien opened his mouth, only to close them again a moment later. Even he had to admit that Lane had a point. He still didn’t like it, and thought that hypnotizing the bandits to make them fight each other wasn’t the right thing to do, as it crossed the line of self-defense... But just letting them go wasn’t a good idea either. As far as Damien was concerned, arresting them would be the best...

The problem was how to do it. They couldn’t just call for reinforcements, and they didn’t have a vehicle big enough to transport them all to the Association, and even if they did, turning them in could pose some problems. Because how were they supposed to explain their offense? That the men attacked them in the Forbidden Zone? Then they would be admitting to breaking the law themselves! And while Damien was willing to accept the consequences, he didn’t want to drag Lane down together with him (even though it was Lane who brought them into the Forbidden Zone in the first place)...

"That’s why no one should enter Forbidden Zones," he muttered under his nose.

Hearing that, Lane couldn’t help but roll his eyes. "It’s not because of Forbidden Zone that they’re like that. And also not because they are Awakened. You can find people like that everywhere. People have always fought each others, stolen and killed, and committed all sorts of crimes. And always will. That’s how this world is."

"But it shouldn’t be."

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Lane shrugged his shoulders and stood up, dusting off the crumbs from his pants. "Want to go for a swim in the lake before we head back? I want to wash off all this blood."

"Alright." Damien agreed, and collected the empty dishes and the ruined blanket back into his spatial bag. Although he was mostly clean, aside from a bit of blood that got on his clothes when Lane carried him, he would much rather prefer they didn’t smell of monster blood and smoke the whole way back to the Capital.

"But... Are you just going to leave them like that?" he asked, pointing at the group of men, still fighting in the slime.

"Hmm? Why not? It’ll wear off eventually."

When they all faint. Probably. Lane didn’t specify how much they were supposed to beat each other up, so he wasn’t quite sure himself.

But it didn’t really matter, so before Damien had time to raise any protests, he grabbed him by the waist, and carried him to the lake in the East part of the Zone. It was a bit cold at this time of the year, but monster-free, apart from a few species coming to the shore to drink and wash up.

Half an hour later, they were both clean and refreshed, ready to return. However, something still bothered Damien as they flew (or, well, ran, to be precise) through the skies toward the bunker where Lane’s car was parked.

"...Will those two be okay?"

"Those two?" Lane lifted his brows.

"The two men who entered the Zone with us."

"Who knows? It’s their problem."

"But it’s us who let them in, so if something happens to them, isn’t that partially our responsibility?"

"Oh, come on," Lane rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue. "They’re adults, they can make their own choice! We didn’t really help them, just didn’t stop them. And besides, you don’t even know who they are. They could very well be serial killers on the run, for all that we know!"

Damien furrowed his brows. "What makes you think that?"

"I don’t know. It’s just that a lot of people who come to Forbidden Zones are criminals. Not all of them, but quite a few are."

Lane even employed some of them. Like Blanc, for example. He moved to Forbidden Zone No. 74 because he was wanted by the law, with an arrest warrant placed on him for Awakened crimes, which could put him in jail for years, if not the rest of his life.

"But not all of them are," Damien still didn’t let go. "They could very well be normal people, who just wanted to awaken so they could earn better money..."

"But they went into the Forbidden Zone, so they are criminals now, no?" Lane joked, making Damien finally go silent.

They passed above the bandits, still struggling in the red slime, then above destroyed fields they passed through before...

"FINE." Eventually, Lane let out a heavy sigh. Damien’s silence was the final argument that convinced him. "Let’s check up on them. But, we’re just going to take a look, and if we don’t find them in an hour, then we’re leaving, okay?"

At Lane’s words, Damien visibly relaxed. "Alright," he agreed, his arms wrapped around Lane tightening, squeezing the man gently in a hug. Maybe he was being unreasonable, since as Lane earlier pointed out, even if they hadn’t done anything, the men would probably find their way into the Zone sooner or later... But he’d feel much more at peace if he knew that his and Lane’s actions weren’t what brought them to their deaths.