The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

”Really?” The young woman exclaimed.

Aisha’s gaze fell on her.

”Ah... I didn’t mean anything.” The young woman cleared her throat before thrusting a hand out to her. ”I’m Cece. What’s your name?”

Inwardly, Cece couldn’t help but feel a bit shocked. After all, she had been given five hundred to just tour her around Sector Nine and bring her to Sweet Bliss. Yet this young lady still has more money?

She looked Aisha up and down carefully. Cece soon heard the young lady’s reply.

”Aisha.”

Cece nodded and smiled. ”Beautiful name. Though... why does it sound familiar?”

Aisha didn’t respond.

Her name wasn’t even that rare. But after the annulment ceremony was broadcast throughout the empire, it would be hard for anybody not to hear it. Finding her name familiar was only natural.

Fortunately, Aisha’s face was covered right now. Otherwise, Cece would have recognized her already.

”Let’s go.”

”Ah?” Cece belatedly followed behind her. ”Wait!”

***

”What is this place?”

Standing at the front of the bustling street, Aisha’s three classmates were stunned by the sight before them.

They had convinced themselves to follow Aisha to uncover what kept her distracted, and had somehow ended up in this place.

But this... wasn’t this an adult’s playground?

”Why would she come here?” Vesper asked, eyes widening at the wide expanse of skin that the ladies on the balconies were showing.

Kane shook his head. ”I don’t know. Isn’t this why we came here to find?”

”Vesper, can you follow her scent?” Sabel asked.

”You can’t?” Vesper turned to her.

Sabel replied, ”I can only smell several meters away from where I am. You’re an A-rank, so you should be able to do it better than me.”

Vesper nodded and closed his eyes to concentrate his sense of smell. Sentinels have unusually heightened senses. Some ended up having more advantage in their sense of sight or hearing. Vesper was more adept at his sense of smell. And it was the thing he was most proud of, being an A-rank who couldn’t perform his ability as a sentinel.

There were hundreds of scents around the street. He had to narrow it down and only focus on what he thought belonged to Aisha. This may have sounded easy, but Vesper’s head was throbbing in pain already. There were too many to sift through, and sometimes, he’d end up getting distracted.

”Damn it... they have something tasty over there.”

”Focus, idiot!” Sabel almost smacked his head out of pure muscle memory. Thankfully, she held back before it could land.

Trying to locate a single person’s scent was not only difficult, but also extremely dangerous. If Vesper wasn’t careful, he could end up with a sensory overload.

Fortunately, Kane could sense when he would have a hard time and had already placed a hand on his back. A soothing sensation went past his hand onto Vesper’s back, easing up on the overload that he was feeling.

”Found her!” Vesper announced.

”Where is she?”

”She’s over a hundred steps away from us.”

Kane patted his back and said, ”That’s enough. You can stop using your senses to locate her.”

Vesper opened his eyes and exhaled through his mouth. After taking a few seconds to calm himself down, he said, ”It was a good thing I smelled the same meat we ate earlier from her. I would’ve been confused and not located her if not for that!”

Sabel rolled her eyes at him. ”You almost got misled by the food here.”

They started to walk amongst the crowd.

But not even ten steps into the street, they were already noticed by the ladies on the balcony.

”Oh? There are more youngsters tonight.”

”Girls, look at those two handsome young men.”

Vesper and Kane froze, glancing up at the woman who had just winked at them. Upon seeing the two of them looking over, the other women sent them air kisses and curled their fingers to call them over. Some even boldly squeezed their breasts to show their ample cleavage.

Sabel was frustrated by this and smacked them. ”Don’t get distracted!”

”Hey, miss, are they your lovers? Come, come, let me teach you how to win them both!”

”I’m not coming over!” Sabel glared at the woman. ”And they’re not!”

But the response she received was amused laughter coming from the ladies from the brothels and the passersby.

Puffing her cheeks, Sabel pushed her two male classmates forward.

”Say, why do you think Aisha came here?” Vesper suddenly muttered, still affected by the sight of beautiful women being interested in him. ”Was I right in the end?”

Kane snapped out of his daze much quicker than Vesper and asked. ”What do you mean?”

Sabel rolled her eyes and explained, ”He’s talking about her being heartbroken. Vesper thinks Aisha is seeking some comfort by coming to this place.”

Kane’s face took on a different color. His ears and neck reddened as understanding dawned on him.

There were brothels who doesn’t only employ women to offer services to their guests. Some men have also joined in this type of workforce. And from what he heard from his older sister, they were quite raking in some money.

”D—don’t jest around! You think Aisha’s that kind of person?!”

Vesper and Sabel looked at each other before shaking their heads. They didn’t say a word, yet they felt pity towards Kane, who acted mature and smarter than them, but still so innocent.

They continued moving forward and finally reached the spot where Vesper last located Aisha.

”They stopped here briefly,” Vesper informed them.

Sabel also inhaled and frowned. ”And she’s not alone. She’s with another woman.”

”Can you locate where she went next?”

Sabel turned to Vesper, who was better than her at this.

Vesper nodded and closed his eyes again. Kane stood next to him just in case he needed some support.

But then...

Not even a few seconds later, he went into his senses to locate Aisha. At first, he was doing well in locating her this time. There weren’t as many people around. He still felt a slight ghostly pain in his head, but he could bear it.

Until he froze upon a new scent.

However, this scent was different. It smelled dangerous and familiar.

He started trembling and stammered, ”Why... why is...”

”Vesper?” Kane hurriedly placed his hand on him.

Sabel quickly stood in alert, scanning the surroundings for any threat.

Vesper cut off locating Aisha, and he quickly grabbed Sabel and Kane to hide in a corner.

”Hide, quickly!”

”What?!”

”Wait...”

But they were already pulled behind a wall of an establishment.

Vesper breathed. He looked much more shaken than before. Blood oozed from his nose, dripping along his philtrum and lips down to his shirt.

”Vesper!” Sabel wiped the blood from his face and worriedly stared at him.

Yet Vesper looked disoriented, eyes wide open.

Seeing him like this, Sabel had to force herself to slap him. The pain woke him up, snapping him from whatever had happened to him.

Now that he was clearly thinking, Kane asked, ”What happened?”

Vesper’s body shook. He opened his mouth, then closed it a few times, unable to even correctly say the words.

Finally, his voice escaped his lips.

”That man... Why is he here?”

”Who?”

Kane and Sabel frowned.

”The man at the restaurant last time!”