The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 318: Empty-Handed

Chapter 318: Empty-Handed

For the first time ever, Lane stayed in his seat until the end of the exam.

The reasons were two. First, he was waiting for an opportunity to cheat... Which never arrived. As for the second...

He was trying to fill in the exam sheets earnestly.

He, Lane Allen, was actually sitting quietly in his seat, reading the questions, and trying to recall the correct answer.

Well, perhaps ’quietly’ wasn’t the best word. Lane was tapping his fingers on the desk, playing with his (Damien’s) pen, shifting around, tugging on his pastel pink hair, and occasionally even clicking his tongue... Which had earned him a lot of sharp glares from the examiner, as well as some annoyed glances sent in his direction by his fellow exam takers. But, since technically Lane didn’t do anything wrong - he was just a bit agitated, that’s all - the examiner couldn’t ask him to leave. Especially since Lane was a high-ranker who had already signed a contract with the Association. The Association was always short on high-rankers, so Lane was valuable to them... Thus, as long as he didn’t try to cheat, the examiner only reprimanded him, reminding him to be more mindful of others.

Either way, because he had stayed in his seat, mulling over the questions and glancing around furtively until the last minute, he didn’t get to hand his exam papers to the examiner ahead of time, as he usually did. He only handed it over with everyone else, which meant that the examiner didn’t have the time to check his answers right away...

And Lane had no choice but to return to Damien empty-handed.

Damien was still waiting in the lounge, reading something on his laptop, with a cup of black coffee next to him, half-finished, and a selection of sweet snacks waiting on the table, all untouched. The coffee was his, of course - he sometimes liked to drink black coffee when he worked - while the sweets were for Lane. Although he had been seemingly engrossed in his work, the moment Lane stepped into the lounge, he immediately lifted his head, meeting Lane’s eyes.

He was quite surprised, actually. Based on Lane’s prior behavior, he had expected the man would return a long time ago... To think that he had lasted sitting in the quiet exam room for so long...

Damien thought it could be a good sign.

Or at least that was what he hoped for.

"How did it go?" he asked, closing his laptop.

"I don’t know," Lane shrugged his shoulders. He plopped down on the seat opposite Damien, and reached out to grab one of the snacks. Without asking, he opened a bag of chocolate candy, and tossed a few pieces in his mouth. The chocolate melted on his tongue, its sweetness helping him relax, and relieving some of the mental fatigue he felt after the long exam...

Damien furrowed his brows, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I don’t know yet. I stayed until the end, so I don’t have the results. The examiner said that they should be up by the evening..."

Damien paused, thinking for a moment. It was indeed different from before. Each time Lane had taken the exam in the past, he had returned with his exam sheets, all already marked. It was already surprising enough to hear that he was only back after so long, and now he even said that he had been taking the exam until the time was up? Was it because he had been answering the questions, or...

Because he had been scheming something?

Even if he was, though, it was clear that he couldn’t have succeeded. He seemed tired, and somewhat displeased. It might not have been obvious to anyone else, but Damien could tell. If Lane had successfully cheated, he would have been pleased with himself...

Honestly, Damien didn’t know what to think. On one hand, he was glad that Lane didn’t cheat - although he was willing to turn a blind eye to his boyfriend breaking the rules or even violating the law, he still didn’t approve of it. The less wrongs Lane committed, the happier Damien was - on the other... He wanted to pass the exam finally.

Even if Lane had to use some underhanded methods to do that.

Not that he didn’t believe in Lane’s abilities, quite the opposite. Lane might not have been academically gifted, but he was not a complete idiot either. And while the Esper exam was rather difficult, it wasn’t aimed at lawyers or other highly educated people, but at the Espers who wanted to work in the Awakened field... Damien was convinced that as long as Lane put some effort into his studies, he would pass the test without much issue. The biggest challenge in his learning journey was his attitude.

However, judging by Lane’s unhappy mood, he could tell that even though Lane had stayed in the exam room for so long, he was not confident...

And Lane indeed wasn’t confident. Although he had recalled some of the information, and had been able to answer some of the questions based on his memory of the recordings he had listened to while fighting monsters... It still wasn’t enough. He had only listened to the notes over the past three days, after all, and he hadn’t been focusing on them, they were only some background noise... Thus, many of the exam questions still left him feeling clueless, and he had no choice but to guess randomly.

It was what it was, though. Now that he had left the exam room, it would be hard for him to alter the results. Nearly impossible, without leaving any traces. Even if he tried to deploy one of his spies in the Association to help him, it would only make things messier for him...

So, he had no choice but to wait for the results. After taking Damien out for lunch, they both returned home. It was Damien’s rare day off, so he used this opportunity to do some household chores, doing laundry and cleaning the apartment, while Lane lounged on the couch, playing games, and refreshing his profile in the Association’s system...

It was only late in the evening that the page finally updated.