The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 129: Preparations

Chapter 129: Preparations

It wasn’t just Damien who was busy, his whole team was as well. Every day, from morning till evening, they were out and about, inspecting dungeons, with hardly any time to catch a break... They found five more high-ranking Gates that reactivated, or expanded would be a better term.

So, busy.

The good thing about it all was that at least Lane finally had more opportunities to plant the Fertilizer. The bad? That he had no private time with Damien...

Well, it could be considered a good thing as well, in a way. At least Damien couldn’t try to question him about ’Lane Allen’ again. Because, although the topic was dropped that way, Lane had no doubt that it was still on Damien’s mind. With Lane on his side all the time, however, it was bound to naturally slowly dissipate - after all, if Lane was ’Xavier’ morning till night, how could he possibly be someone else... Right?

And just like that, in a blink of the eye, New Year has passed, and the time to depart arrived.

"Our flight is on Thursday at 11:50 AM," Damien reminded as he held back Lane, Arlo, and Lucy after returning from yet another day full of inspections. Out of their whole team, only those three were joining him on the summit - there were other more important people who also had to go, and the Association couldn’t send dozens of people as their delegation. "You can have Wednesday off to prepare. We’ll meet on the airport at 9:30 AM. Make sure not to be late."

The last sentence was, of course, directed at Lane. Damien gave the man a long, pointed look, which Lane pretended not to see, acting all innocent.

He was going to be late though. Disregarding Damien’s reminder, he knew he was going to be late... A few days late, to be precise.

After all, he had, ahem, an extra body to transport. And he couldn’t just stuff his real body in a suitcase, even if he wanted to. So how could he possibly go with everyone else?

No, Lane had other plans. But that was for Damien to find out later...

He returned to his apartment, and the first thing he did was to check his - that is, Lane’s - phone. He had been doing so for the past few days, even brought the phone to Xavier’s place so that he wouldn’t have to switch all the time... And finally, he got what he was waiting for. A message from Ava.

Without even bothering to read it, he instantly dialed her number. "Hey! Back from a dungeon?" he called as soon as she picked up.

There was a brief silence, as Ava was taken aback by the unfamiliar voice. "...Lane?"

"Yeah, who else? Just didn’t have time to switch. Anyway! Are you going to the summit this year?" Lane got straight to the point.

"I... am... Why?" On the other end of the line, Ava’s voice was full of hesitation and suspicion. There was no way Lane was asking just out of curiosity, he had to have something in mind.

And her suspicions were soon confirmed, when Lane asked, "Fly with me, what do you say?"

"...With you? You’re going?"

"Yeah!"

"As... Not as Lane, right?"

"Yeah, which is why I could use some help. It’s too far, so I need to fly both bodies, otherwise the connection would break." Lane cracked open a beer, as he lounged on the couch.

Ava fell silent again. She was so quiet, that Lane had to glance at his phone to make sure that the call was still connected.

"Ava? Avy? Babe? You’re gonna go with me, yeah?"

"...Is it really necessary? I was supposed to go with my team."

"Oh come on, it’ll be fun!"

"More like a huge inconvenience," Ava muttered.

And she was right. Lane couldn’t fly straight to country K, where the summit was, since he couldn’t risk being spotted by anyone, especially not anyone from the Allen Guild. So he would need to take a roundabout way instead...

"Hm," Lane hummed, unable to disagree. "But you’re still come, right? I’m your bestie, right?"

"Ugh!" Ava groaned. "Fine! I will!"

"Thank you! You’re the best! I’ll book our flights and send you the details later!"

"You’d better get me some good samples for that."

"Sure will!" Lane laughed, ending the call. He could get by without Ava, of course, but it was safer with an extra person to watch over the bodies as he swapped. It would have been even better if he could get one more watcher, so that there was someone with BOTH of his bodies at all times... But, there was no one else he could trust with that.

With Ava agreeing to help, he could finally book the tickets, three seats, on a flight bound to country B, only three hours after the flight he was supposed to take with Damien. He would still have to settle his real body somewhere, and then get to country K, so he couldn’t depart too late.

’But country B...’

Lane paused for a moment, his fingers hovering over the keyboard.

There was nothing special about country B, at least as far as Lane was concerned. However, next to country B, there was country H, and THAT Lane cared about a bit more. Or rather, there was a particular hidden Gate there, that was quite important to Lane...

Since he was going to be in the area, then it’d be a shame not to stop by for a short visit. Who knew when next he’d get such a chance? He was going to be late to the summit anyway, so a day or two extra shouldn’t make much of a difference.

And he really wanted to go. They haven’t seen each other in like what, ten years?

Having made up his mind, he logged into his private account, and sent an email to Ariana, who was the gatekeeper of the dungeon, just to give them heads up about his visit.

With this, he was all set and ready to go. Well, technically he still had to pack for the trip, but there was still a lot of time left... He could just do it the evening before, and it should be alright... Right?