The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 299: Frustration

Damien left without Lane. He really did. Despite all of Lane’s whining and sulking, he still went on inspections alone. With the mark left by Lane that was impossible to hide, but with the man staying behind at home.

That’s not how this new life of his was supposed to look. Sure, it was Lane’s own fault that he couldn’t go - he had whole FOUR WEEKS to get that passing score - but still.

He couldn’t help but grumble about it even when he plopped down on the sofa, sipping on a super-sweet drink he had ordered, and turned on his console to get a little break after his fifteen-minute ’study’ session.

But he couldn’t enjoy the game at all. With the image of Ethan trying to butter up to Damien as they walked around some beautiful, scenic dungeon...

CRACK!

All of a sudden, his controller stopped working.

Well, no wonder. It somehow ended up crushed into pieces in Lane’s SS-rank Esper’s hands.

"...How useless," Lane muttered, tossing the broken pieces of plastic and electronic circuits aside onto the couch.

There was no way he could endure the wait that way. Just thinking about that sleazy Guide sent by the Allens...

Gritting his teeth, Lane pulled out his phone, trying his best not to crush it as well - not that he cared if his phone got ruined, he could always buy another one, but that would take some time. And Lane didn’t want any delays. He scrolled through the contact list on his second SIM card, the one he used as the Boss of the secret organization, and dialed Vulcan’s number.

"Send me the list of all the uncleared dungeons we have in the Capital area," he said as soon as the call connected. "As soon as possible."

"Ugh, Boss... We’re currently in the middle of training. I think it would be better if Blanc handled-"

"I need YOU to do this for me," Lane interrupted the man as soon as the name ’Blanc’ got out of Vulcan’s mouth. "It shouldn’t take that long, now should it?"

"Uh... Yes, of course. I’ll get to it immediately..."

"Good," Lane nodded his head, and disconnected.

He knew that he was being unreasonable, but he didn’t care. The last thing he wanted to do right now was to deal with Blanc. They still hadn’t come to any agreement regarding the issue earlier... It couldn’t go on together, Lane knew he had to proceed with their plans soon... Blanc nagged him (politely) about it, Diana reminded him to keep his focus on what was important long-term, and even all of his other subordinates hinted subtly in their reports that it was the right time to make their next moves...

But Lane really didn’t want to think about it right now. Not today. At least not until he had dealt with Ethan...

Ten or so minutes later, his phone pinged. The list compiled by Vulcan had arrived. Since they kept track of all their activities, it wasn’t so hard to do... In fact, Lane could do it as well, if he logged into the database. It was just that he was too lazy... That is, too busy drinking his liquid sugar of a coffee to bother with it.

Besides, one of the perks of being the Boss was that you could order people around to do tedious tasks for you, no?

He scrolled through the list, settling on a B-rank dungeon in the suburbs. It was only recently purchased, still untouched, so Lane would have plenty of targets to release his frustration on... That is, monsters to fight. He made a quick call to the official Leader of the Guild who owned the dungeon, grabbed his spatial bag, and jumped in his car, heading to the site.

The terrain inside the Gate was of a mountainous region, with crisp and cool, refreshing air, a nice change from the rising heat of the summer that was quickly taking over the Capital in the outside world. As he was alone inside - ignoring the laws both by fighting monsters without the Esper license, as well as entering a dungeon without any Guide to accompany him - Lane removed his mask and hood, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. He stretched his back, and was about to move forward, ready to face the monsters that should be lurking somewhere nearby...

When he paused, remembering what Damien had told him earlier.

...No, not the ’You can’t go fight monsters in dungeons without the license’ part.

Just the ’study at home’ part.

Of course, Lane was obviously no longer at home... But should he at least attempt to study? He’d feel guilty toward Damien if the man asked him about it later.

Reading the notes while he was busy fighting naturally wasn’t an option... But during the past two weeks, Damien had tested all sorts of study techniques on Lane.

And one of them was learning through listening.

Lane reached into his spatial bag, taking out his phone and the sport earpod case. He put the earpods in his ears, scrolled through his playlists...

And a moment later, Damien’s low, calm, serious voice sounded out inside his ears. The sentences he was saying were incredibly boring - it was a recording of Damien reading Lane his notes out loud - but at least the voice itself was very pleasant and soothing. The corners of Lane’s mouth involuntarily went up on their own...

Now he would be able to say that he was studying!

Lane twirled the twin daggers around in his hands, took a deep breath... and charged forward, down the unbeaten, rugged mountain path. It didn’t take long before he spotted some monsters, jumping around on the rocks. They tried to run away, startled, the moment they saw him - seems that they were not the aggressive type - but they didn’t get far before Lane reached them, slashing them with his daggers without any hesitation.

They were all monsters anyway, aggressive or not. And while Lane would have preferred more of a challenge... What he needed right now was something, anything, to slash and destroy, just to release the steam and all of his pent up frustration...