The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 304: Rigged!

Ethan lifted his brows when he saw Damien appear by the compatibility testing rooms the next morning.

Because Damien didn’t come alone, of course. He had a pink-haired, sticky pest... that is, his boyfriend, by his side. Attached to his arm. Practically dragging the man along, as Lane seemed to have suddenly forgotten how to walk, and was slowing them down significantly.

And they were almost late because of that. It was already 9:29 when they finally stumbled their way to the matching rate assessment room’s door.

"Good morning, Team Leader!" Ethan smiled at Damien. He didn’t greet Lane, but he acknowledged his presence by asking, "Has there been any schedule change? I thought that I was only to be tested with you today..."

"Why, do you not want to be tested with me?" Lane snapped at him, but he was quickly shot down by Damien."

"Lane won’t be tested with you," he said firmly. There was no way he was going to agree to Lane and Ethan being tested together. After all, while Ethan seemed to be currently after Damien, that didn’t change the fact that he and Lane had history... Although Damien knew that it was all in the past, and that Lane wouldn’t do anything, he still didn’t like the idea of the two of them having guiding sessions together. "He’s only here... to keep me company."

"Ah, right. Take Your Boyfriend to Work Month, was it?" Ethan nodded, before sending Lane a mocking smile. ’So what if you came along? You won’t be able to do anything!’ was written all over his face.

It made Lane’s eyes twitch, as he squeezed Damien’s arm tighter.

The worst part of it all was that... Ethan was right. At this moment, there was nothing Lane could do...

Except perhaps destroying this whole place and burying Ethan deep in the rubble, but he had a feeling Damien wouldn’t appreciate that.

"In that case... Team Leader, shall we start?" Ethan turned back to Damien, mockery on his face morphing back into a perfectly polite smile.

"Yes, of course. Is everything ready?" Damien looked at the machine operator to confirm, and the man nodded his head.

"Yes, everything is set up. Team Leader Lennox, Mr. Wagner, please come in."

"Well then, see you after the test," Ethan smirked at Lane...

But Lane showed no intention of letting go of Damien’s arm. "I’m coming with you."

"What? Lane, I get that this is your boyfriend, but don’t you think you’re being a bit... unprofessional and inappropriate?" Ethan tried to protest.

To his surprise, though, Damien said, "It’s not against the rules. He can come inside, as long as he doesn’t interfere with the test."

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. But in the end, whether Lane came in or not made no difference, so he didn’t try to argue any further, and just stepped inside, and took a seat at the machine, in the seat designated for a Guide.

Damien joined him shortly after, taking the opposite seat. Lane had to finally let go of his arm then, albeit unwillingly... And proceeded to stand right by his side, and staring intensely at the liquid Mana stone in the basin, as if he wanted to evaporate it with his eyes.

...Unfortunately, he had no such ability. There was no way for him to intervene in the test, not unless he stuck his hands inside the basin... But then the test would be just considered invalid and would have to be retaken. It would do nothing but delay Damien and Ethan’s test by a few minutes. So, instead of engaging in such a pointless action, Lane just bit his lip to suppress his chaos-causing instincts, and observed in silence as the two men disinfected their hands and placed them in the gel-like liquid, starting the test...

Lane was so focused on observing their hands, making sure that Ethan’s fingers didn’t so much as brush against Damien’s hands (even though they would have to hold hands sooner or later. Even if their compatibility was too low for Ethan to become Damien’s main Guide, he was still his designated Guide on the team, and would be the one to take care of Damien’s guiding when they were out in the field), that he completely forgot to look at the numbers on the screen.

It was only when the machine operator exclaimed, "93!" that he snapped out of it.

"...What?" he lifted his gaze, his eyes wide.

"93%! Congratulations!" the man repeated.

Lane pushed him out of the way, grabbing onto the screen with his both hands. It couldn’t be, it absolutely couldn’t...

But it was. No matter how much he looked, the numbers on the screen didn’t change. Damien and Ethan’s matching rate was 93%. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

"Impossible..." Lane muttered, his eyes wandering around as his mind was practically spinning.

There was just no way...

"We need a re-take."

"What?" Ethan scoffed. "Why, because you can’t accept it? How ridiculous."

"Um, Sir, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid we can’t do that," the machine operator agreed with him, dusting himself off after scrambling back on his feet from his earlier fall. "Unless there’s a legitimate rea-"

"I’ll pay," Lane interrupted him. "I’ll pay for the test, so just shut up and do your thing, okay? I have to make sure it wasn’t rigged in any way."

Rigged? The operator appeared in equal measure shocked and offended by this accusation. Why would he even do something like that in the first place?

Of course, Lane’s suspicions were not improbable. There were several ways to rig the test. It wasn’t something that was purposely done, as there were normally no benefits to faking the compatibility, any wrong results were typically the result of some mistakes... But it was still possible to alter it, so Lane had to confirm.

"Let’s go to the storage room," he said to the machine operator. "I pick the Mana stone we will use."

"Lane..." Damien let out a heavy sigh, hoping to reason with his boyfriend...

But it was no use. Lane had already made up his mind, and was unstoppable. "Don’t ’Lane’ me," he said, before rushing the machine operator. "Let’s go, we don’t have the whole day!"

"...Quite a troublemaker, isn’t he?" Ethan commented, as he and Damien were left alone. Then, when Damien didn’t respond, he added, "If he keeps it up, he’ll end up dragging Team Leader’s reputation down..."

"That’s not something you should concern yourself with," Damien cut him off sharply.

To which, Ethan put on a sad smile. "I’m only looking out for you, Team Leader..."

"There’s no need."

Ethan sighed, shaking his head, but he didn’t carry on any further. Especially, since a moment later, Lane and the test operator returned with a tank of fresh liquid Mana stone, handpicked by Lane and examined with his Mana Scan ability, as well as the keys to another room - after all, there was a chance that the problem lay not in the Mana stone, but that it was the machine settings that were rigged!

The machine operator prepared everything under Lane’s vigilant eye. Although Lane himself had no experience in conducting the tests, he participated in them so many times through all of his possessions, that he knew fairly well how it all went. He observed as the machine operator wiped the basin, filled it with liquid Mana stone, then turned the machine and set everything up... All this time, he stood with his back turned to Ethan, his grey eyes shining with azure light - that was to make sure that the machine operator, who was also an Awakened, didn’t do anything with his ability to rig the test!

Just as they were about to start, Ethan suddenly spoke up, "Wait a moment."

"What? What is it?" Lane snapped at him, impatient.

"I want to be tested with Lane first," Ethan smiled.

"What?" Lane lifted his brows. "Why?"

"You’re an A-ranker, so it would be good for us to know our compatibility, no? I’ll pay for the test."

"Well, fine. Whatever you want," Lane shrugged his shoulders. "But first, you and Damien..."

"No, I want to take the test with you now. Then, we can go pick up a fresh Mana stone for me and Team Leader."

Lane rolled his eyes in response. "Why are you being so problematic? I’ve already prepared everything for your re-take, let’s just get this over with first!"

"Why does it have to be now? We can do that next!" Ethan insisted. "Or... Is there some reason why you want me and Team Leader to be tested NOW, with this particular Mana stone?"

..."Ugh," Lane groaned. He tossed and turned in his mind for a while, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with any reasonable justification...

And Ethan was an S-ranker, Lane’s hypnosis ability wouldn’t work on him!

So, he had no choice but to plop down on the Esper seat. "Fine, have it your way, then!"

...Really, what a rotten luck.

After he had managed to rig the test by polluting the Mana stone with his guiding, now his efforts were all wasted on his own test with Ethan!