Chapter 204: Ch 204: Shifting the Blame - Part 3

Daniel waited until Noah had turned his attention towards the kitchen before leaning closer to Alan and lowering his voice.

"What exactly are you doing?"

Alan glanced at him with a confused expression before following his gaze towards Noah. The other guide was busy preparing a small plate of snacks for them, completely unaware of the conversation happening behind him.

"I am trying to score some brownie points with Noah beforehand. After all, I want to become closer to him."

Daniel’s expression immediately darkened.

"Stop it."

Alan raised an eyebrow at him and crossed his arms.

"Why? It is not like I am doing anything wrong. Noah already thinks something is wrong with you, and if you keep acting like this, he will be less suspicious when we eventually have to tell him everything."

"You are making it sound like you are manipulating him."

"So what if I am? You need to stop treating Noah like a kid. If he is being manipulated, it is because he wants to be."

Alan spoke calmly, but Daniel still looked annoyed.

"You should not be trying to get Noah on your side before we even know what is going to happen. He needs to be his own person-"

"And what do you think we should do instead? Keep hiding everything until he finds out on his own?"

Daniel did not answer immediately, causing Alan to take his silence as an opportunity to continue.

"We both know Noah is going to find out eventually. You cannot keep pretending that everything is fine, especially when your body is changing because of the experiment. Noah is a high-grade guide. He already noticed something was wrong with you, and he will notice again if you keep acting strangely."

"So does that mean you should get him involved-"

Alan let out a sigh and looked at Daniel like he was a pitiful soul who could not see the truth.

"He is already involved. He picked up the call meant for you, so they know he is here as well. He will be in trouble if we are caught."

Alan lowered his voice even further as Noah began walking back towards them before he continued to speak.

"I am saying that we should keep him in the loop enough that he does not feel betrayed when the truth finally comes out."

Daniel frowned at that logic, but he knew that Alan was right. And that was what irritated him. He did not want Alan to be right.

"You know what Noah is like. If he thinks we are hiding something from him because we do not trust him, he will start blaming himself. He will think he did something wrong and that we are trying to push him away."

Daniel’s expression changed slightly, and he let out a curse under his breath.

That was exactly the kind of thing Noah would do.

"He already thinks he is the reason we keep getting into trouble. If we suddenly reveal that I underwent an experiment without telling him, he is going to think that he should have stopped me somehow."

Daniel sighed and nodded to show that he understood what Alan was saying. He had made up his mind a few seconds ago anyway.

"Then what are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting that we let him see that we are not abandoning him. I, for one, am not going to give him the option to abandon us either."

Alan looked offended as he thought of Noah abandoning him, and even Daniel felt slightly panicked before he assured himself that Noah would never do that to them.

"What are you two talking about? Care to share with me?"

Noah asked as he walked towards the pair with homemade dessert. He placed it in front of Daniel and Alan, who stopped speaking and flashed him a smile.

"It is nothing. We were just talking about how much our job sucked. Honestly, I wanted to quit all the time. But those jerks won’t take no for an answer, no matter how much I tried to get them to leave us alone."

Alan sighed, and his eyes glazed over.

Noah felt sorry for him, and he patted his shoulder in order to tell him that he understood.

"It must have been hard for you all this time. I hope you will start feeling better soon. Unfortunately, work is not something you can leave behind just because you want to."

It felt ironic for Noah to be saying this, especially since he had run away from his own work in the Labs. But he did not want Alan and Daniel to make the same mistake as him.

They both nodded at his words, and dinner finished. Noah decided to take a small walk after dinner to clear his head, but the pair instantly insisted on coming along.

But this time, Noah decided to put his foot down and tell them no.

They pouted but decided to stay back. This was for the best now.

...

"Sir, we have locked the location of Esper Alan and Guide Daniel’s devices. Would you like us to retrieve them?"

Someone asked over the comms, and their leader spoke instantly.

"Don’t go by yourself. Send Ethan to retrieve them, since the chance of them attacking a fellow unit mate is relatively low."

"But sir, Esper Ethan is still-"

"So what if he’s injured? We are not asking him to fight or anything. Send him and his partner esper to bring those two back. No matter how strong Esper Alan is, even he won’t be able to fight against two espers."

The comms became silent after that, and the esper who contacted his reporting officer let out a sigh.

He was not looking forward to what was going to happen soon.

He could already imagine the chaos that would follow once Ethan found them, especially since neither Alan nor Daniel seemed willing to return quietly.

And unfortunately, he was certain this was only the beginning.