The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 136: Roommates Again

Chapter 136: Roommates Again

They’ve walked through the hallways, just the two of them, toward the rooms, so Lane could refresh himself and leave his bags - not that he actually needed to leave the bags, since they were all in his spatial bag, and thus didn’t get in the way, but since Damien offered, Lane just went along with that.

"Your room number is 2005. Here’s your room card," Damien handed off the plastic card to Lane.

"Hmm." Lane glanced down at the card briefly, and stuffed it in his pocket. "Mine? Or ours?"

Damien’s fingers reaching for the door handle faltered. "I... Yes, ours." He paused for a moment, hesitating. "I’m sorry, I decided the rooms without asking you first... Is that alright?"

Lane had to press his lips tightly to stifle the chuckle threatening to escape his throat.

Was that alright? Did Damien seriously ask him that? Not only was the answer obvious, but also, it wasn’t their first time sharing the room? They did so in the Eldenveil as well. And back then, Damien didn’t take his opinion into account at all! Well, Lane knew exactly why the man did so back then - and it wasn’t for any dirty reason or anything like that - but still.

He didn’t answer immediately though, and instead, got closer to Damien, so close that he could feel his body heat. And that familiar scent of herbal shampoo.

"Hmm, I don’t know..." His voice trailed off. "I won’t make a problem out of it, of course... But I hope you’re planning to compensate me for that?"

Damien’s face flushed at the sexy tone of Lane’s voice, and he pushed the door open with a wide swing, instantly stepping into the room, and pulling Lane with him by the arm.

They were still in public, after all! Lane should at least TRY to maintain some minimum propriety!

"Why didn’t you tell me you were coming today?" Damien asked, once they were both inside, with the door shut.

"I just wanted to surprise you." Lane clung close to the man again, his trailing around on Damien’s chest. "What do you say, wasn’t it nice?"

"...If I knew, I would have picked you up."

Of course. Lane knew, which was precisely why he had to keep his arrival a secret! If Damien were to come to the airport, it would be much easier for him to notice that something was not right... And after the whole fiasco back in the Capital, Lane really didn’t need any more issues right now!

His fingers trailed down lower and lower, getting dangerously close to Damien’s hips. They never got a chance to wander too far though, because just as they got to the belt, they were promptly captured in Damien’s tight grip.

"How is your family?"

"All good, all good," Lane shrugged his shoulders, withdrawing a bit. For now. As he already noticed, there was only one bed... So he’d have plenty of opportunities to try to take things further at night. "It wasn’t as serious as we originally thought, so we settled it quickly, and I caught the first flight."

"Anyway!" he quickly changed the topic, before Damien had a chance to ask any uncomfortable questions. "What’s the schedule? Is there anything interesting going on today?"

"There are a few lectures we are planning to attend. You can stay in the room, however, if you’d prefer, rest after the journey before the gala tonight."

Oh?

"The gala?"

"It’s the official opening of this year’s summit, so it would be best for everyone to attend, even though it’s not compulsory."

So it was tonight. Lane had quite a lot of luck, to make it just in time. While nothing bad would happen if he were to miss it... It was a great opportunity to check out everyone. While it was always quite busy, crowded and bothersome - or at least Lane assumed it always was, even though he had only attended twice so far - all the important guests would be present. And so, most likely, would the man from earlier.

He curved his mouth in a wide smile. "Okay! I’ll take some rest now then!"

"Alright." Damien nodded his head. "Are you hungry?"

"Nah, I’ve already eaten, thanks!"

"Alright then, I’ll leave you alone now. If you change your mind, you can call the room service. There are also some snacks in my bag, feel free to treat yourself." Having said that, Damien left the room, closing the door behind himself.

There were indeed a lot of snacks, sweet snacks, as Lane soon found out. A whole big bag of them. Homemade cookies and protein bars, as well as store-bought candies and lollipops, primarily strawberry flavored.

All untouched.

Well, that was to be expected. Damien typically didn’t eat that kind of stuff. Even the protein bars he made for himself were quite plain, unlike those that he prepared for Lane.

Taking out one of the plastic containers with chocolate chip cookies, Lane couldn’t help but smile. Being in a relationship really came with a lot of unexpected benefits...

Soon, he shook his head though. It was not the time to think about that. He took out his laptop, and logged into his private account, into the database of all the foreign Awakened created by his underlings. There, he searched up the profile of Molzen, a leader of a secret Awakened syndicate active in several countries, including country K. His main ability had something to do with liquid manipulation - any specifics were unknown - and his estimated rank was S...

Lane scrolled through all the photos available. His face wasn’t visible on any, of course - just like Lane and all the top Awakened working under him, the man also made sure to always wear a mask whenever he was active as ’Molzen.’ All the clues Lane had were his silhouette, his eyes - only visible on two blurry pictures - and a scar on his hand, partially visible on one photo through Molzen’s torn glove.

"Hmm." Lane rubbed his chin, staring at the scar. He didn’t get a good look earlier, but it really seemed awfully similar...

Well, it wouldn’t be all that odd for Molzen to attend the summit. Many Awakened active in secret organizations led double lives, joining the Guilds or government organizations. It must have been the case for Molzen as well, since he got himself a pass...

Still, Lane couldn’t help but feel unsettled by his presence. Perhaps he just casually came, with no special intentions, but... Molzen was simply unhinged!

And, coming from Lane, that meant the man had to be really bad.