The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 475: Family Issues

Chapter 475: Family Issues
Naturally, closing the laptop achieved absolutely nothing, aside from Clara’s eyes narrowing with suspicion. She had already seen it, and Lane couldn’t make her unseen it. Well... Technically he could attempt to do it, since Clara was an A-rank, so with a little bit of effort, his hypnosis ability should be able to work on her, but...
Lane glanced towards the kitchen, from where the clinking of the cookware was coming.
Damien would most likely not approve of Lane hypnotizing his sister. Even if it were only to make her forget about the SD card and its content.
But...
"What’s that all about?" Clara demanded to know, her voice sharp. "Are those the Allen Guild’s plan for the summit? Are you... Are you making your sister smuggle confidential files?"
As expected, once she found out something she considered to be even remotely suspicious, Clara decided it was perfectly reasonable for her to grill him about it.
Even though it was none of her business. She was just Lane’s future in-law.
In-law through HER BROTHER, not Lane’s sister.
He clicked his tongue, annoyed. After spending a big chunk of the day in his father’s proximity, his patience was wearing thin. He really didn’t have enough left to deal with Clara...
Did Nyla have to name the folders with such obvious descriptions? If it weren’t obvious at a glance what they contained...
Then again, it would be unfair for him to blame her. The card was password-protected, and even with the hint, only people who were very close to Lane would have been able to guess it. Aside from Damien and Nyla (and, of course, Lane himself), most likely no one would have been able to figure it out, certainly not anyone from the Allen family. Neither would Clara. It was Lane’s fault for opening the card right in front of her...
And Nyla had taken a big risk, trying to deliver the information to him. For that, Lane was extremely grateful.
The only problem now was...
Lane glanced at Clara, clicking his tongue once again. "First of all, I am not making Nyla do anything. She decided to do it on her own," he snapped at her. "Second of all, those are our family issues, so stay out of it."
"Family issues?" Clara furrowed her brows in response. "Those are clearly the Allen Guild’s confidential information!"
"And I’m... part of the Allens." Lane scrunched his face in disgust. Saying this always left such a sour taste in his mouth...
And yet, it still wasn’t enough for Clara. "But you’re not a part of the Allen Guild."
"I’m Lane ALLEN, and the ALLEN Guild belongs to the ALLENS. Which part of it don’t you understand?"
"Just because it’s your family’s business, it doesn’t mean you have the right to all of it! As far as I know, Miss Nyla is still the heiress... And you’re just a Field Agent in the Association."
"Yes, Nyla is the heiress. And the heiress herself decided to pass the information on to me. What problem do you have with it?"
"This..." Clara opened her mouth and closed it several times. She wanted to argue back, but every argument she came up with, she understood was invalid before she could say it out loud...
Lane had a point. Since Nyla, the heiress, passed the information to Lane, there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Technically. It was just that... The way it had been done bothered her. If Nyla had just normally handed the SD card to Lane, then Clara wouldn’t have questioned it at all. But secretly sliding it into the pocket, so that no one could see? And not even Lane’s pocket, but Clara’s?
...Wait... Had Nyla approached her just for that? To deliver the SD card to Lane without anyone knowing?
Her expression faltered at the realization. However, she soon shook her head, pushing those thoughts away.
"What do you even need it for?" she muttered, forcefully turning her attention back to Lane. "The Association must have received a copy of the plans as well. We might not have access to it, but there’s no need for us to. The higher-ups will assign us tasks accordingly..."
"Well, you might not need it, but I do."
"What? But why?"
"Why do you think?"
Clara furrowed her brows, annoyed and confused in equal measure. "I’m asking because I don’t know."
Lane let out a long sigh in response. "For my own safety."
"...What?"
"Why do you think I’m not a member of the Allen Guild?"
"That’s obviously because..." Clara was about to spout some insults, but then she paused.
Why indeed. A while ago, she would have said something along the lines of ’because they didn’t want a good-for-nothing like you’... But she already knew that couldn’t be it. Lane was not a good-for-nothing, as she had originally thought. He was an A-rank Esper, an extremely competent one at that, skilled both in scouting and fighting. He might have been frequently lazing around at work, but that was only during the inspections. On the raids, he was one of the most dedicated team members. For the Association’s Field Agent, that perhaps didn’t mean much, since most of their work consisted of inspections, but for Guilds, who went on the raids and fought monsters all the time, Lane seemed to be a perfect candidate for a member...
It was only his personality that left a lot to be desired, but that was unlikely to be the issue here. After all, the Allen Guild also employed Austin Moore, her and Damien’s father, so it was clear that they didn’t care about their members’ characters. In Clara’s eyes, Austin was still worse than Lane, by far, since Lane hadn’t cheated on Damien or left him with a lot of debt and ten kids to raise...
Not yet, at the very least.
Now that she thought about it, she hardly knew anything about Lane or his past.
"Why..." she opened up her mouth, about to ask something... Before she could say anything, though, Damien appeared at the door.
"Dinner’s ready. You should come to eat."
"Right." Lane put his laptop aside, and got up, leaving the room without looking back, more than glad that he had been handed a way out of the situation. While he had been the one to mention his safety and ask why she thought he wasn’t in the Allen Guild, it was just on the spur of the moment. He had done it without thinking, because he was annoyed, mentally tired, and, to be honest, kind of over it. Not in the mood to think of any excuses that would shut Clara up.
But, at the same time, he didn’t want to elaborate on it either. Even if it could potentially have gained him Clara’s sympathy and gotten her off his case, at least for a while, if not permanently, Lane didn’t want to recount his pathetic past to her. Even to Damien, he had done it only to explain his abilities and why he had ended doing what he had done. There was no way he was explaining anything to Clara just because she knew that Nyla was passing him confidential information.
He’d much rather just hypnotize her instead, if necessary. Even if Damien was going to be angry at him for this.
"Wait..." Clara was about to chase after him, but Damien stopped her.
"Clara. A word."
Clara pressed her lips. Damien hadn’t said anything yet, but she already knew what it was about.
"Fine. I’ll keep quiet," she agreed, albeit a bit unwillingly. It wasn’t as if she was going to do anything about it anyway, she was just trying to figure out what was going on. And stop whatever Lane was doing before he got his sister or her brother in trouble. There was just one thing she needed to know. "Do you know about any of this?"
"Yes."
"About why he needs the plans?"
"Yes."
"What about his relationship with his family? And the Allen Guild?"
"Yes, I know everything. So just trust me, alright?"
"I do trust you... It’s him that I don’t," Clara muttered in response. She dropped the subject, though, and went to the bathroom to wash her hands before dinner.
Left alone, Damien closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before letting a long sigh.
In truth, he lied a little bit. He was quite certain he didn’t know EVERYTHING. About Lane’s past with the Allens, or what the plans were, perhaps. But he had a feeling that Lane was still hiding a lot from him, and said feeling had been growing stronger recently. Especially after the conversations about the conspiracy theories he had overheard... He couldn’t mention any of this to Clara, though, or anyone really, as it would have only made the situation worse.
He shook his head, chasing his doubts away, and returned to the dining room. For now, he decided to trust Lane, and wait until the man opened up to him. Surely, whatever he was hiding couldn’t be THAT bad, could it...?