The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 484: Room Arrangements

Chapter 484: Room Arrangements
"Hooah..."
Lane let out a long yawn, passing through the Gate leading to the Eldenveil. He wasn’t exactly tired, not physically, at the very least - as an SS-ranker, he could go on for days with little to no rest and still be perfectly fine - but the mental fatigue caused by the boredom of the past few days, combined with the cold winter air, left him feeling distracted and sluggish.
However, it all changed the moment he set foot in the dungeon. From then on, his grey eyes sharpened, carefully scanning the surroundings, trying to pick up on any detail that could seem out of place. It all could become useful later, if the Allens made any move against him.
The place had changed a lot from where he had last been there. No more was there the ruined building. The old reception hall had been replaced by a new one, bigger, better, and fancier. The floors and the walls made from rare materials excavated from dungeons seemed to sparkle in the light falling from the crystal chandeliers. The surroundings were a little chaotic, as the technicians were running around, checking the cables and other stuff, to ensure that everything was working properly and the tournament could be streamed outside in real time, but that did nothing to hide the place’s grandeur.
Lane lifted his brow. The Allens truly seemed to have gone all out.
But...
He glanced over his shoulder at the Gate.
There was absolutely nothing around it. No blockade or anything. Just empty space.
Well, perhaps they had to do it that way. After what had happened the year prior, if the Allen Guild or the Association wanted to install a similar gate to what country K had done, they would probably receive a lot of backlash for it. No one cared how great and useful the construction was in case of a dungeon break, when it could also trap people inside. Even if the Association were to try to reassure everyone that they had installed proper safety precautions, which would ensure a similar incident wouldn’t happen in their country, many would still be reluctant to enter the dungeon, causing all the tournament events to flop miserably.
And that was something no one wanted.
"Lane, what are you doing? Don’t lag behind!" Cora’s voice reached his ears, causing Lane to snap out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, yeah." He rolled his eyes, before giving the Gate one last glance, and catching up with the rest of the team to head to the Emerald Manor to check in.
The situation suited him well, all things considered. Without any solid blockade that could stop the monsters, the Allens had no way of stopping Lane from escaping the dungeon if needed. The only thing they could do was to close the reception hall’s door and lower the window shutters, but that could hardly even slow him down. They might have been sturdy, but it was nothing Lane wouldn’t be able to deal with, even just with his ’air manipulation’ ability.
Of course, that only meant that he could escape the dungeon through the Gate, not that there wasn’t any other trap waiting for him, but still. Somehow, that little thing made Lane feel a little more at ease.
When they arrived at the hotel, however, he was up for another surprise. A little more... worrying at that.
"We... all have single rooms?"
He wasn’t the only one surprised. Madison from his team also blinked, staring at the list of rooms in confusion.
"Yes. Only the security guards are staying in the dungeon overnight, therefore we have a lot of empty rooms," the Allen Guild member in charge of the accommodation explained. "Why, is there a problem? Are you unhappy with having a room all for yourself?"
"Well..." the members from the Association’s team exchanged glances. It wasn’t that they were unhappy about it or anything, it was just that...
It wasn’t something that they would usually do. Staying alone in a dungeon, even an inactive one... While it wasn’t against the protocol, that was probably because most of the dungeons didn’t have hotels, or even sheds, so there was no reason to establish a protocol as to what to do in this type of situation. Everyone always camped together, sleeping a few steps away from each other, in tents or in the open air, depending on the weather conditions, and that was it. On the ultra-rare occasions that they had gone to inspect one of the dungeons that had human infrastructure, they usually had shared rooms.
In the end, though, there was no real reason for them to insist on sharing, and one by one, they accepted their key cards, albeit still a bit reluctantly. It just seemed like an odd choice - the more rooms they used, the more cleaning there would be for the staff to do later...
Or maybe not. The resort was closed, after all, and there were no signs of it opening soon. So, it wasn’t as if the rooms had to be cleaned after them. They only needed to be prepared beforehand, and that had already been done, so... There was no need for them to waste the cleaners’ work, now was there?
"Sir? Do you have any issues?" The Allen Guild member smiled at Lane, who was the only person still rooted in place, yet to accept the card.
Lane stared at the woman for a moment, his eyes dark. Unlike the others, who only found the situation a bit odd, he thought it was extremely suspicious. Yes, there were probably a lot of spare rooms for the security teams to use, but normally, the Allens wouldn’t do something so pointless, when they could just toss them all into rooms two or three people per room. The reason why they had done it was likely to separate them... Or, to be more precise, to separate Lane from the others.
’
Should I try to argue about it?
’ A brief thought crossed his mind, but he soon rejected it. Even if he were to do it, and get another person to room with him, the Allens probably had a solution for that as well. He would just be causing trouble for seemingly no reason, and gain nothing in return.
Thus, he let out a quiet sigh, and took his key card. "No. I’m fine."