The two did not answer and continued to stare at him. A foreboding feeling suddenly crept into him, and Ayen's heart began to beat so fast again.
The nervousness and tension he had felt returned.
They would not pursue him over this matter... Right? There was no way that was the case. Despite the rising panic inside, Ayen gathered his composure.
He wanted to say something more, but doing so had a possibility that his real emotions would show, and he did not want that. Especially in this situation.
"How can it be a useless discovery?" Devion, who appeared to have recovered from his surprise, exclaimed, his eyes even lit up.
No, don't get excited.
For the first time, Ayen had the urge to slap the smile off his face.
Khal appeared calmer, but his gaze held a certain emotion that made Ayen even more unsettled.
Did he make a mistake? Was confessing cleanly not the right call? Ayen's mind became chaotic at once. Suddenly, his mind seemed to stop functioning, and he could not give him a possible solution to retreat into the battlefield he created.
"I'm an E-rank Guide." Again, as though that was enough to prove a point, Ayen held onto this unstable rope as long as he could.
Usually, that was enough to disgust Espers as soon as they heard that. Ayen had been humiliated countless times because of this rank.
So, why... These two did not have the same reaction as they did? Instead, they look like they did not mind.
"I'm an E-rank..."
"Yeah, I heard it the first time." Devion's grin spread, and his eyes now glistened with anticipation. "Khal... he said he's E-rank, right?"
Ayen frowned at him and shifted his eyes towards Khal, who was also watching him like a hyena. That gaze made him uncomfortable, but at the same time, the urge to do something was slowly gnawing at him.
The compatibility pull began messing with his mind.
"E-rank... huh,"
Khal sat at the small table and faced Ayen, who had begun fidgeting without him knowing. He glanced at it, and so did Devion, and so the two exchanged glances.
After nodding at each other, the two did not speak again for a moment. It was as though giving Ayen a breath to calm himself down.
Ayen did not know their intentions, but it worked, and his rationality slowly returned; he was at least capable of having a conversation.
It also helped that the two were not like the mad espers who began forcing on the guide, considering these two had not undergone a guiding session for years.
"Ayen," Khal was the one who started the conversation, perhaps because he had the calmer and most assuring tone out of the three. "Can we talk?"
Ayen looked at him and also at Khal, who now put a chair beside Khal, expression unusually normal. He did not know why the two were acting like this.
Still, he nodded. It was better to get this over with.
"You're an E-rank Guide and assumed even if you can sense our wavelengths, it's useless."
Ayen nodded again and also found it odd why Khal had to repeat the obvious. That was how it worked, wasn't it? His confusion must be written on his face, as the two Esper chuckled, and so made him frown harder.
"Is there something wrong?" He could not help but ask.
"Not really," Devion answered him this time. "That's how it works... at least in regular situations." His tone did not carry the air that it usually had.
Ayen tilted his head; the word 'huh' seemed to float inside his mind. This made his indifferent expression look absolutely ridiculous for once.
Khal even smiled seeing that. Devion looked at Khal and then back at Ayen. "The two of us are the only recorded SS-class Espers in history."
Ayen nodded; that was widely popular knowledge. Why bring that up?
"How did they know of it when there was no precedent?" Khal asked.
This made Ayen think, but he answered. "They measured your rank?"
The two snorted almost simultaneously. Ayen stiffened. Was his guess wrong?
"They can't even measure S-classes properly," Devion criticized. "Also," he smiled meaningfully at Ayen, as if realizing this point as well. "Our wavelength appeared different from normal espers and is probably the reason no guides had ever sensed them."
It's over. Ayen dug the hole for himself. If he knew, he should have acted ignorantly even if he accidentally connected with Khal.
"Of course, except you." Devion sounded so excited that Ayen almost shut his eyes and buried himself on earth and escaped through that.
"We're not measured as SS-classes initially," Khal chimed in by this time. Smiling knowingly, "We're measured as E-classes."
Like a bomb, these words exploded in his ears, and Ayen's mouth parted in surprise. The two laugh again, loving his expressions, which were unlike the usual.
"How could that be possible?" Ayen could not keep his curiosity in check and so did not mind being treated as a clown.
"Of course, no one believed that measurement in the institute. Devion and I awakened and became famous almost at the same time. Without measuring our ranks, it was obvious that we're S-ranks. SS-ranks were not yet introduced then."
Ayen also remembered it when he was still in... Well, he heard two new S-ranks were introduced at the same time, and two years later, they were both hailed as SS-ranks, shocking the world.
He never remembered them being introduced as E-classes at all.
"Putting us as E-classes because of the rank measurement was out of the question."
"We've beaten up S-rank monsters alone, so," Devion boasted at the right opportunity.
Khal nodded. "So the institute made an exception and declared us as S-ranks instead. Then, an SS-rank monster appeared, and we killed it. Through that, the institute had managed to discover the same characteristics of our mana and wavelength, which had similarities."
Concluding with that, the two fell silent again. As if giving room for Ayen to process and consider the possibilities with them.
Inherently, espers and guides had different wavelength characteristics and differed in how they measured and manifested. With Espers, it was more obvious, as they could wield supernatural powers, but a guide was more subtle; only Espers could feel them.
"Why did you tell me this?"
Of course, Ayen knew. He was not dumb. Yet, he did not want to acknowledge it himself. He would not immediately think that his rank might be false and that the measurement had only failed to decipher his wavelength.
It was as though his years of suffering were for nothing. The humiliation, insults... They were real. Thinking he might be S-rank or SS-rank because their words mean nothing.
Those did not magically disappear. Ayen would not jump for joy that from now on, his life would change and be for the better. So suddenly.
Maybe his life would change indeed, but for the better? He was not sure about that yet.