The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 413: Kind of Pointless

Chapter 413: Kind of Pointless
Ethan wasn’t deaf.
He hadn’t been asleep either. He had heard everything that had happened in the bedroom loud and clear, as could be seen from the ashen look on his face.
Lane couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
A nice way to start a day, indeed.
They all got ready and headed out for breakfast in peace, without bringing up the subject. Lane was naturally tempted to tease the Guide with subtle (or not) innuendos, but he gave up on it, for Damien’s sake. As for Ethan... Yes, he might have heard everything. And yes, having sex while on the mission was inappropriate...
But, so what? Even if he ed them, it’s not like they would suffer any real consequences. They had done it at night, during their break time, and it had no effect on their mission, so the Association would be willing to turn a blind eye to it. They wouldn’t be the first nor the last to have sex during work hours anyway, as it was an open secret that Espers and Guides sometimes got intimate during their guiding sessions in the private rooms at the Headquarters. The Association members were already overworked and underpaid, so they deserved to be given at least some liberties. Perhaps it would have been different if Frank Bowen were still their Section Leader, but...
Currently, that position was occupied by Anthony White, who, unlike his predecessor, wasn’t hostile towards Damien out of fear that the younger and higher-ranking Esper would replace him. At most, he would lightly scold Damien, and remind him to be more mindful in the future. Not necessarily by never doing it again... But rather by making sure that he wouldn’t get caught next time.
Ethan was aware of it as well. With that in mind, what was the point in even trying to complain? The only thing worth doing was to the incident to Clara, in hopes of inciting her to go annoy Lane...
But even that had failed. Although Clara’s face darkened, her brows furrowing in disapproval, in the end, the only thing she said was, "Why were you sleeping in Damien’s villa?"
And even when Ethan tried to explain, citing all the safety reasons and so on, Clara didn’t seem interested. Completely ignoring the fact that all of this had happened because Lane had gone to Damien’s villa first!
Unable to secure even Clara’s support, Ethan had no choice but to give up and let it go...
***
Despite how well the day had started, not everything was meant to go equally great. After breakfast, Gia announced that they would be joining them for the inspections starting today.
It wasn’t that she suddenly was any less annoyed about having to waste her time like that, or that she gained interest in the tedious tasks that the Association members had to complete. However, once she realized that this assignment was likely a test that Miles prepared for her, she had to follow the team and try her best to be attentive. She was an ambitious person, and didn’t want her future prospects to be compromised in any way, not even in the slightest.
No matter how boring of a task she had to complete to earn her place.
The inspections were far worse than she could have expected, though. They were constantly walking, then stopping, taking Mana fluctuation measurements, then walking again... Often wandering back and forth to get to some of the more remote places. They even had to board small boats and sail on the lake, to measure Mana fluctuations there...
Was it necessary? Probably not. If the Mana fluctuations in the lake were above the norm, their devices would have been able to pick up on this from the shore as well. But the protocol dictated that they should take measurements at every spot marked in red, and Damien was hell-bent on following the protocol, no matter how redundant it was...
And that wasn’t the only redundant thing he was doing. Lane hadn’t noticed it at first, since he didn’t really pay any attention to the inspections, but now that they were next to each other on the boat...
"Why are you taking so many measurements?" he couldn’t help but ask.
He may have held all the rules and protocols in deep disregard, unlike his boyfriend, but after ’working’ for the Association for so long, he was naturally familiar with how the inspections were conducted. Taking a few measurements in one spot was indeed required, but that was done by a few team members taking a single measurement each... This way, they had results from multiple devices, which was reliable, as it ensured that there were no mistakes caused by potential device errors. There was no need for a single person to take multiple measurements, as it would only slow them down...
But that was exactly what Damien was doing. Now that Lane thought about it, their progress did seem a little slow, so that must have been why...
Damien briefly glanced at him, before turning his eyes back to his device. The screen displayed the number 0.000015%. Well within the norm. However, Damien still pressed the button again after noting it down.
"We need to be more cautious here," he explained. "Since this dungeon has already expanded twice."
"Ah."
Well, that made sense...
...Or not.
At least to Lane it didn’t.
"Eh, you worry too much," he shrugged his shoulders, leaning against the side of the boat, and swirling his finger in the warm lake water out of boredom. "It won’t expand."
"It might."
"Naaah."
"How can you be so sure?" Damien lifted his brows, glancing at Lane once again. "Do... you perhaps know something I don’t?"
He lowered his voice so that it was almost inaudible, so much so that the people on other boats wouldn’t be able to hear them. But Lane’s heart still almost stopped. He blinked, paused for a moment...
The reason that he was so sure of it was simple - the two previous expansions had been caused by the Fertilizer he had planted. But he hadn’t planted any more Fertilizer since then, definitely not in the Eldenveil, so how could there be a third expansion?
There couldn’t, that’s how!
He couldn’t tell Damien about it, though, at least not yet. So, he just shrugged his shoulders, quickly coming up with the explanation,
"Well, all the readings are within the norm, no? So, it should be safe."
Damien let out a sigh, shaking his head, and put his Mana fluctuation device away, reaching out to grab the oars instead.
"Even if the readings are fine now, it doesn’t mean that they won’t change..." he said.
That... was a valid point. He and Lane had already personally experienced the dungeon expansion twice while being inside the dungeon in question... Three times, if they were to count the S-rank dungeon with dinosaur-like monsters during the summit. Each of those times, the Mana fluctuations readings were fine when they had entered, suddenly starting to rise when the Wall was about to start receding... So, Damien was right that they couldn’t tell for sure what might happen.
But that would also mean...
"Aren’t those extensive inspections kind of pointless, then?" Lane asked, resting his chin on his hands, as he watched the water ripple as the boat cut through its surface. "We can measure all we want, and who’s to say that the dungeon won’t suddenly reactivate right after we leave it?"
Damien didn’t respond. Not because he meant to ignore Lane... But simply because he didn’t know what to say.
Lane was right. Based on their observations, there was no way to predict that a dungeon was about to reactivate, at least not too long in advance, not with their Mana fluctuation measuring devices. This made their extensive inspections look like a complete waste of time and resources... Even more so than they had been before the first dungeon reactivation that they had observed. They might as well have just entered the dungeon and taken their measurements at the Gate before moving on to the next one.
In fact, now that Damien thought about it, the best solution would have been to shorten every inspection to taking measurements right at the entrance, and increase their frequency instead. This way, even if they wouldn’t be able to predict a dungeon’s reactivation, they would at least be able to discover it before it became overpopulated, leading to a dungeon break... After all, reactivated dungeons weren’t much different from the new ones. Unless they were located inside a Forbidden or Restricted Zone, where the environment was partially Manaformed, the monsters wouldn’t rush out of the Gate without a reason...
It wasn’t his call to make, though. Even if he realized how pointless their current manner of conducting inspections was, all he could do was to follow the protocol. Once they got back, he would inform his higher-ups about his thoughts and observations...
But in the end, whether they would take them into account and update their regulations was entirely up to them.