The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

But she didn’t.

This has to be a dream.

She glanced in front, where people lined up, staring at her with strange looks in their eyes. The nurse, who had held on to her leg so tightly that her previous attempt to jump and wake from this dream was prevented, stood among these people.

”I’m saying we should really send her to a mental hospital! I’m still shaken by what just happened,” complained the nurse, who finished explaining the situation before these people entered the room.

Before anyone could respond, they heard the patient reply.

”Not the mental hospital. Send me to the morgue.”

Since she was already dead, it was the perfect place. A corpse shouldn’t roam around with the living. Besides, since they so kindly want to send her somewhere, the place where dead people crowded in would be a perfect fit.

”Enough with the joke, Miss Aisha.”

A doctor stepped forward and gave her a stern look.

”This is a hospital. Doing that horrendous act should be the limit. You should think about the consequences of your actions and how they would affect other people.”

”Are you listening?” the doctor snapped when the patient in front of him turned to look at the window.

Then, she turned to face him.

Pointing a finger at herself, she said, ”You’re talking to me?”

”Who else am I talking to, Miss Aisha?”

Her eyebrows furrowed. The irritated doctor was shooting a glare from behind his eyeglasses as if he didn’t want to spare a second on her nonsense.

”I don’t know.” She shrugged. ”My name’s not Aisha.”

”Haa...”

”See? We should start looking for a mental hospital! I can’t take this any longer!” the nurse threw her hands out as if tired of this already.

The doctor, who sighed, stepped forward until he was standing right next to the bed. He looked down at her and hostilely said, ”If you’re not her, then who are you? Is this your new tactic to deceive people into running away from taking responsibility for your actions? Playing an amnesiac patient?”

She stared back at him and spoke in a level tone.

”You must be tired, too, doctor. Why don’t we wrap this up? You can go back to where you came from. While I’ll go and wake up from this dream. It’s that easy.” She peeled off the blanket from her body and stood up. ”Well, then.”

The doctor scoffed, like he didn’t buy her words at all. He stared at her, crossing his arms with an attitude that clearly said ’fine, let’s see what you’re going to do next,’ and watched.

But not even a few seconds later, his expression tightened.

The patient, whom he was mocking just now, suddenly crouched low and jumped. She easily climbed up the window, and before anyone could do anything, she disappeared from their sight.

They clearly removed the stool she used to climb to get to the window from the room. How the hell did she reach the window with just a jump? Wasn’t she just a useless and weak guide?

But this was no time to be thinking.

The patient, they were specifically told to keep in the hospital room, escaped.

But in an unconventional way.

No, she just went right out the window.

”Get someone to check outside!” The doctor finally showed alarm on his face. He hurried to the window and looked down.

From below, the patient was lying on the ground, and blood was already pooling around her.

The passersby who were around stared in shock, horrified by what had just happened.

***

A while later.

She tried all methods to wake up from this dream.

She pinched herself, jumped from the window, and sustained even more injuries from that incident.

Yet, she still didn’t depart from this place.

Was she trapped here?

A new nurse was assigned to her. This one didn’t look at her with a dismissive or mocking expression.

”How are you feeling today, Miss Aisha?” the nurse asked while sitting on the chair beside the bed.

There it was again.

A name that wasn’t hers.

”I’d feel fine if you untied me.”

Ever since that incident, the hospital took it as a responsibility and security measure that she didn’t do any drastic action by making her wear a straitjacket.

The nurse smiled gently at her. ”I can’t do that.”

”I won’t jump,” she reassured the nurse. There’s no point in doing that since that failed miserably.

But the nurse didn’t relent on her request.

She sighed, knowing what they were thinking. A madwoman. A suicidal maniac. Who would trust her words?

So, she pointed to her neck. ”Then, take this collar off? I feel like a dog with this around my neck.”

”That is also another type of safety measure. It keeps data on your mental state and reports to the headquarters for any changes,” the nurse repeated the same line she had heard before when they first attached the collar around her neck. ”As a Guide yourself, it is absolutely necessary to keep your mental state in check. Especially after what happened. So, the collar stays.”

The nurse made a point of showing she didn’t want to continue this discussion by turning her back to her.

There was no changing the nurse’s mind.

Falling silent, she stared blankly at the ceiling.

She released a sigh and closed her eyes to shut the world around her.

But the nurse’s next words kept her awake.

”It’s a bit late,” the nurse began. ”But I heard you were saying you don’t remember anything. Is that really true?”

”I didn’t say that. I remember everything.”

”Really? Then, why did you say your name isn’t Aisha?”

She opened her eyes and calmly stared at the nurse. ”Because that’s not my name.”

”Then, what is your name?”

”That...” she fell silent.

It should’ve been easy to say her name. It was a name she was born with and had been using for a long time. So, why can’t she remember it?

The memories inside her were still intact. She could still remember the day the world was still normal before it was torn apart. How she survived for several years. How she lived lesser than an animal just to survive.

And how she died...

So, what was her name?

Shaken by the newfound knowledge, she felt the thread of consciousness snapping. Her body started to break into cold sweat and tremble.

Her vision blurred, fading slowly.

”Miss Aisha!”

”Miss Aisha!”

Before darkness swallowed everything, she heard the nurse call out a name that wasn’t hers.

It was a few hours later that she woke up, facing unfamiliar faces. Though it was the same place.

It still gave her an awkward and uncomfortable feeling waking up in an unfamiliar place and with unfamiliar people. There was no way she could adapt quickly. Absolutely no way for her to accept everything as her new reality.

She still wanted to cling to her past. It was much easier to think this was all just a prolonged dream.

Of course, as a novel reader, she didn’t deny the possibility of transmigration.

In novels, the protagonists would die in their original world and wake up in another world and body. They were given a cheat pack as a beginner so they could walk through their paths unhindered. Usually, it was the memories of the body they possessed. Sometimes, they could acquire both the memories and another ability.

But why did she have none?