Guiding the Male Lead out of His Trauma - Chapter 27.1
When I met Acteon again four days later, he looked much better than I’d worried he would.
Despite being subjected to who-knows-how-many tests and examinations during his isolation—far more than anything I’d experienced—he actually seemed healthier than he had on the day of the entrance ceremony.
“How are you feeling?”
Still, it seemed better to ask him directly rather than just observe silently.
Yet when he saw me, he froze up completely, unable to answer at all.
“Are you still not feeling well?”
“That’s… not it.”
Surely nothing happened to him during isolation, right?
After I’d risked my life to stabilize him, if something had gone wrong, I might actually be angry.
He looked fine, but I wondered if maybe something really was wrong, so I took a step closer…
And he immediately widened the distance by exactly the same amount.
“…….”
“…….”
And then I took another step.
“…….”
Once again, he widened the gap the same way and spoke.
“…I really am fine.”
I don’t buy it.
But it seemed he didn’t want to tell me even if he was sick, so maybe I should let it go for now.
Or maybe it wasn’t his physical condition, maybe it was something else entirely.
‘Well, just a few days ago, we did… kiss. Even if it was for guiding, it’d be uncomfortable.’
Especially since Acteon had just turned twenty.
It wasn’t strange for him to have no immunity to that kind of physical contact.
It would be weirder if he wasn’t awkward about it.
“Your isolation period is over now, right?”
“As long as I don’t cause any more trouble. I think so.”
Acteon deliberately answered in a joking tone.
So, he was aware he was being awkward.
But the conversation quickly fell silent again, and only after noticing that did he manage a faint smile.
His attitude was so different from before the guiding that I honestly didn’t know how to interact with him, which made me feel awkward too.
He was probably just as unsure of how to deal with me.
‘I knew he had feelings for me back at the mansion, but… won’t this just make things harder for him?’
Transcendents and Guides both have to interact with many Awakened due to their abilities.
‘This time was an exceptional situation, so that much close contact was unavoidable, but…’
Normally, just holding hands would suffice, but if he thinks every guiding is always going to be like the first time…
No, I should correct that misunderstanding.
“You’re not hoping for something like that to happen again, are you?”
“No. I’m fine now.”
“How can you be so sure? You felt it too…”
I trailed off mid-sentence.
On the day of the entrance ceremony, that surge of mana in the auditorium.
It was obvious someone had deliberately tried to sabotage Acteon’s second awakening.
No one had uncovered who did it or why, or what they were after, so we should be vigilant, but Acteon seemed unusually calm.
“And I think I know who did it. But that person probably won’t try the same thing again.”
“…You know?”
His words, so at odds with his calm appearance, made me instinctively question him.
The hallway was deserted, emptied of cadets after class, just the two of us.
The reason we’d met was trivial.
First-year students started their first class on the floor just above, so naturally, we’d run into each other as I came down the stairs, and one thing led to another.
Despite the content of our conversation, Acteon only stared intently at me with wide eyes, so unlike myself.
“You seem surprised that I know.”
That’s true. It could look suspicious.
I realized why he was looking at me like that.
Just a year ago, I was nothing more than a regular cadet who’d undergone her first awakening and become affiliated with the military academy.
Not even of noble birth, just an ordinary commoner.
My access to information and environment were extremely limited.
If Acteon had identified the same person as the cause of the recent incident, he’d probably be confused as to how I could possibly suspect that individual.
I was thinking of Crown Prince Sibellin.
The war hawk who had used the Mana Stone War to rally his support base and was a key architect and initiator of the Awakened Management Law.
‘It would be difficult for someone like me, with such limited information, to have any resentment toward the crown prince.’
But I had already seen it, how this world would unfold, through the story in my head.
Acteon and Millia definitely had a happy ending.
But in that ending, the war hadn’t ended.
If anything, it was clear from the circumstances that things only got worse.
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