The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

Aisha did not know what he meant by her little followers until she saw them.

Vesper, Kane, and Sabel were inside a room with several others on the highest floor of the building they were in. They looked like little puppies lost in the jungle full of hyenas and lions, shivering and lowering their heads into their chest while wishing they could dig and bury themselves into the ground.

One raucous man with red hair and hooped earrings had his arm curled around Kane’s shoulders. He held a glass of alcohol and amiably said, ”Young man, you’re a Guide, right?”

Kane nodded, then shook his head, undecisive.

Reassured, the man with red hair patted him and laughed, ”Good! Once you graduate in the future, come and join our organization. We won’t treat you horribly.”

”Vince, what are you talking about? He’s a D-rank.” One man with a barrel-like chest and a long beard tied into a braid and secured with black gems threw a piece of trash at him. ”We can’t let a D-rank join us.”

Vince, the red-haired and third-in-command of their fleet, effortlessly dodged the thrash thrown at him. Then, he rolled his eyes and replied, ”Idiot. Keep saying that and all the Guides in this galaxy will run away from us!”

”That’s right!”

”Don’t discriminate against lower-rank Guides!”

”Fuck, don’t jinx us, Elias! Apologize!”

The long-bearded man named Elias touched his beard. Despite the food and cups thrown at him by his shipmates, he did not fly into rage, accepting their criticism by taking a huge swig from the bottle of alcohol instead.

Then, he looked at Kane, scoffing unapologetically. ”So what? Isn’t it true? All the Guides we employ or take into our ships either abandon us on our deathbed or try to kill us themselves. Even the Commander didn’t find a Guide who could’ve guided him. All of us here are the rejects of the universe. So, why should I agree to accept him into our ship?”

His words silenced the complaints of his shipmates. Because they were a notorious criminal organization known for many evil things they or they might not have done, the Sentinels on their fleet have suffered greatly at the hands of Guides.

They couldn’t forget their deceased shipmates who were backstabbed by the Guides they were matched with by the Association or employed. This was also one of the reasons why their Commander never let a Guide do mental guiding on him, relying on other methods the Association Chief Master gave instead.

In their entire fleet, only a few Guides have ever joined and stayed in their organization. Most of them were relatives or family of the other shipmates they could trust.

The room fell silent instantly. They were reminded of their fallen brothers and sisters who were betrayed and slain by Guides.

Vince took a glance at Amar, who did not stop Elias from speaking and picking up a glass to drink, then sighed. He took his arm off Kane, but paused suddenly while his eyes were glued to the back of Elias, who was still grumbling about how Guides were the worst being in existence.

The other people inside the room who were across from Elias also noticed. Even those who sat beside Elias sensed something and turned to look behind them.

Instantly, they flinched and froze.

Several steps away from where they were, their Commander, who had suddenly disappeared earlier, had returned.

But he did not come alone.

Beside him was a young woman who had her face half-covered. She stood very close, or rather, their Commander stood close to her with his frame towering behind her. The pressure emanating from him was suffocating and ferocious.

They were all familiar with this kind of pressure. Their Commander only radiated the same pressure when he was not pleased with something, and before he blew up an enemy’s ship.

”What? Did I say anything wrong?” Elias noticed the others becoming silent. They stared at something behind him, yet he was unsure what they were staring at.

What he did not know was that Nykos controlled his pressure so that it filled the entire room, but it did not reach Elias. Only an SS-rank Sentinel like him could have full control of their pressure to this extent, without even a leak or making their target unaware of their potential demise.

Elias finally asked, sensing the change in his shipmates’ expressions. He forced out, ”The Commander’s behind me, right?”

Vince nodded.

Elias sighed in relief. ”Why are you all so tense then? It’s like you saw a ghost!”

He shifted in his seat, turning to look at their Commander to greet him. But his mouth only opened, and no voice came out. Elias finally saw what made them all look like they’d stepped on their tails.

”Commander.”

Nykos’ face was emotionless, but that only made Elias’ grip the bottle in his hand tighter in terror for some unfathomable reason. He didn’t even know why their commander was upset or why at him.

Elias’ gaze fell on the young woman beside their commander, surprise coloring his face.

Nykos ignored them and led the young woman to where Amar sat. He asked, ”How’s tracking him?”

Amar glanced up, frowning at the sight of Aisha, but he still replied honestly, ”I’m halfway done. But I’ll need a medium to get an accurate guess.”

”What do you need?” Nykos was already used to this, so he asked him this.

Amar did not take his eyes off Aisha before he said, talking to her, ”Do you have anything that your older brother left behind? Something that he has used frequently.”

Aisha shook her head. Everything Zenick owned was left behind at the Novalis family mansion. She hadn’t brought anything of his with her on her way here. And who would have any thought of bringing anything that belonged to him anyway—

”I have.”

At the last second, she stopped the thought.

She produced Zenick’s bracelet, which she almost forgot, and handed it over.

Amar did not accept it quickly like she expected him to. Instead, he looked at Nykos as though he was asking permission. Only when Nykos gave a small nod did Amar take it from her hand.

Nykos’ second-in-command inspected the bracelet for a few seconds. Then, he nodded in satisfaction before standing up, heading toward the other corner of the room where a necklace was transfixed in the air, shining with specks of silvery-dust lights around it. Below the necklace was a map of the Association’s floating island.

Aisha’s eyes lingered on the map for a second before she turned away. Inwardly, she was shocked to find that the map contained even more details of the island than the publicly known map of the Association.

But considering that Nykos had told her himself that they had someone who had the tracking ability, this didn’t surprise her as much. Still, it was reassuring to know that her search for Zenick was getting close to being over.

”Have you eaten?” Nykos’ question took her off guard. He had already gestured for someone to serve her a plate of food. There were a lot on the table, foreign and local delicacies. Though they still possessed that uncanny appearance that made her hesitate to eat anything from this world.

She quickly responded with a shake of her head.

Her gaze then fell on her three classmates who were flanked by Nykos’ men on each side. They also looked back at her, eyes wide with different emotions filling them. Kane and Sabel were more accepting and reasonable. They were both probably too shocked that she was acting very familiarly with the boss of a criminal organization that the empire feared.

But Vesper’s expression was what made her sigh. His eyes held the same sort of emotion as a gossipmonger, eager to catch a scandal.

Suddenly, she had an urge to drink headache medicine.