Chapter 23: Ch 23: Like a Guard Dog

"Alan, stop trying to resist the water. Just come in here and wash off. It is not that difficult."

Noah sighed as he tried to pull Alan behind him. But the esper refused to come into the water with him.

In the end, Noah had no choice but to leave him behind and clean up alone. But Alan was not even willing to allow that much.

He gripped Noah’s wrist tightly before growling at the water in front of him. He clearly had something against the water.

"Alan, are you scared of the water? Does it smell weird? I don’t think I have ever heard of this dungeon’s water being contaminated."

Noah whispered the last words as he looked at the clear water in front of him. He could not see anything wrong with it, but Alan was clearly reacting differently.

’Maybe it is something only espers can sense? Ugh, I really wanted to clean up.’

In the end, Noah gave up on his bath because of Alan and followed after the esper.

He was almost sure that Alan was making him walk in circles, but somehow, the esper guided them out of the cave just fine.

Noah almost cried when he saw the sun shining on his face.

"Finally! Freedom! Now, let’s find our way back to the academy..."

Noah grabbed Alan’s wrist to tug him along, but the esper stood frozen. His sharp eyes were looking around at first, almost as if he was searching for something.

It took Noah two seconds to sense the presence approaching them as well, and he took a defensive stance in front of Alan.

’Should I attack? Or should I wait for Alan to make a move? I don’t want to hinder him in case he decides to take action...’

Noah was busy thinking of his next move when the person hiding in the bushes decided to show themselves.

It was their teacher, and seeing him made Noah calm down.

[Sir, we found the missing esper and guide. I will be escorting them out now. I don’t know what condition they are in, so I will check now-]

The teacher approached them and reached to check Alan first. But Alan took a step back and growled. At the same time, he wrapped his arms around Noah and pulled him closer.

It seemed as if his fight-or-flight response had been triggered, and the teacher flinched at this.

"Student Alan, it is fine now. Please let that guide go. We will get you professional guiding once we are out of here. Do you understand?"

The teacher tried to reason with Alan, only for Alan’s growl to get louder. The trees around them uprooted themselves before flying toward their esper teacher.

Luckily, their teacher was an S-class esper as well, so he was able to dodge the attacks, but he was much slower than Alan at using his powers.

It resulted in the teacher getting hit, and he fell down, only to be slammed into by a tree.

Noah watched this with a blank expression before it registered in his mind what was happening, and he immediately grabbed Alan to make him stop.

"Alan, you need to stop hitting our teacher. He did not do anything wrong!"

Noah gripped Alan’s wrist as he pulled his hand down. The esper surprisingly let him and even let out a surprised yelp.

At that moment, Alan looked more like a puppy than Noah had ever seen anyone look before. He could even imagine Alan’s drooping ears and wagging tail.

But as bad as he felt about this, he knew he needed to stop Alan before he killed someone.

"Now, let’s calm down, Alan. There is no need to kill our teacher. He came here to help us out. Can you be a good boy and allow him to come closer and help us?"

Noah asked, and Alan frowned at his words. But he ultimately decided that fighting was of no use. So, with a suspicious glance at their teacher, Alan chose to surrender.

They slowly approached their fallen teacher, and he looked at Noah with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Teacher-"

"I have a tranquilizer with me. Here, take it and knock that esper out. He is clearly not in his right state of mind."

The teacher looked disgusted, but he had earned this reaction after being slammed into the ground again and again. He had also gotten lucky because Alan had no desire to kill him this time.

Noah nodded as he grabbed the offered syringe and looked at Alan’s calm expression. He could sense the violence underneath that mask of cheerfulness, and it made Noah flinch.

He was going to betray Alan’s trust, but it was important that he did.

"Alan, I hope you forgive me for what I am about to do."

That was all the warning Noah gave Alan before he jammed the syringe into Alan’s neck at a safe spot.

His time in the medical labs had made him an expert at giving such injections, and it helped that Alan did not move when Noah injected him.

Alan looked at him with a betrayed expression, but that was the last thing Noah noticed before Alan’s eyes closed and he fell asleep.

The tension began to bleed out of Noah’s body, and the man who had been trapped under the tree somehow managed to push it away.

"Ugh, what a nightmare. We were lucky that the esper listened to you. But you had better keep your distance from him now. Espers are quick to imprint on guides, even low-level ones. And we don’t want any accidents to happen."

The teacher warned him. His words sounded simple, but Noah could hear the warning in them.

He was being told to stay in his lane and not dream of too much...which he had every intention of obeying.

"I will be careful from here on. This time was a mistake, and I will make sure this does not happen again."

Noah promised. But little did he know that he would not be able to keep his promise even one day later.