Chapter 27: Not A Normal Way

Lumi just kept following Evan’s pace. Even though he wasn’t walking particularly fast, his long legs naturally carried him farther with every step, leaving Lumi struggling to keep up and looking slightly dragged along behind him.

But the moment they reached the end of the hallway, Evan suddenly stopped.

Lumi nearly bumped into his back.

She looked up at him and noticed that he was staring at someone standing nearby, completely absorbed in the tablet in his hands.

"Kiss..."

Lumi blinked.

That voice... It sounded familiar.

The man slightly tilted his head, then replayed the video on his tablet.

"Kiss..."

Lumi’s eyes widened. She finally remembered.

’That voice!’

Her face slowly turned red as she looked at Evan, who had already started walking toward the man.

Evan stopped in front of him and slapped a hand against his shoulder. "Are you a pervert?"

Darian flinched from the impact.

"Ouch!" He rubbed his shoulder and immediately raised his tablet defensively. "I am just observing and studying..."

"Studying what?" Evan frowned.

"The incident." Darian turned the tablet slightly toward him. "Your Rampage, the Guiding response, the abnormal fluctuation in your energy, and—" His eyes dropped briefly to the screen, "the kiss... of course." He smirked, obviously teasing.

Evan’s expression darkened.

Darian quickly cleared his throat. "Scientifically."

Lumi stood a short distance away, staring at them.

"Oh..." Darian blinked and smiled when he finally noticed Lumi.

"Miss Pei..." He pointed at her, looking her up and down with curiosity. "Wah... seeing you this close, I can actually see the difference. She really is—"

His words were suddenly muffled when Evan covered his mouth and pushed him back into the room.

"Mm—!"

Evan released him only after pushing him a few steps inside, then immediately turned around and walked back toward Lumi.

Without saying anything, he gently reached for her hand and brought her inside.

"Sit..." His eyes pointed toward the couch on the right side of the large VIP room.

Lumi obediently followed his gaze. Before sitting down, she looked around the room, only then noticing that there was no one else inside except the man from earlier.

Darian straightened his clothes after being shoved aside and walked over with an easy smile.

"Darian." He held out his hand toward Lumi. "Darian Voss, Young Master Caesar’s adjutant."

Lumi hesitated for a moment before reaching for his hand. But before their hands could meet, Evan reached out and pulled Darian’s hand away.

Instead, he took Lumi’s hand himself and shook it once.

Darian stared at their hands. Then he looked at Evan and back at Lumi.

A slow smile spread across his face.

"Ah... my apologies, Young Master." He raised both hands innocently. "I didn’t realize the Empire’s top Sentinel had this possessive side."

Evan’s eyes narrowed. "Darian."

"Yes?" Darian grinned like a child who had just discovered something amusing.

"Can you stop?" Evan’s brows furrowed.

Darian’s smile widened. "Yes, Young Master."

He obediently walked over to the opposite couch and stood beside it, although the amused look on his face made it obvious that he had no intention of letting Evan forget what he had just done.

Evan ignored him and took a seat on the opposite couch before clearing his throat.

Lumi sat quietly, her hands resting nervously in her lap as she glanced between the two men.

"I—I really am not the one who—"

"I know..." Evan cut her off and held out his hand toward Darian.

Darian immediately understood and handed him the tablet.

"You—You know?" Lumi blinked in confusion.

Evan nodded as he placed the tablet on the table.

"Yup. Since I arrived, I noticed it was you because of..." He pointed toward her hair. "The short hair."

Lumi stiffened, blinking several times.

’So, he knew from that moment? But why? Why didn’t he expose it from the start?’

Evan leaned forward and played the part of the recording where he had grabbed her by the neck during the ceremony. "Here..."

Lumi leaned closer to look at the tablet and arched her eyebrows.

"Yes?" She genuinely didn’t understand what he wanted her to see.

Evan paused the recording. "When I grabbed you."

Lumi blinked. "When you... choked me?"

Evan nodded. "You were already Guiding me."

"What?" Lumi stared at him in disbelief. "How..." She tilted her head in confusion. "That’s kind of... wild—err, I mean... rare..."

She gulped, realizing she had used the wrong word.

But Darian had already chuckled from the side. But Darian had already chuckled from the side.

"It was indeed wild, Miss Pei. Who knows... maybe our top Sentinel has a rather interesting side even when he’s in Rampage..."

Lumi blinked. ’Interesting side?

Darian’s grin widened when he noticed her confusion. "You know... who would have thought our top Sentinel would prefer to be Guided that way..."

"Huh?" Lumi became even more confused.

"Darian..." Evan glared at him sharply. "Can you stop? I believe she could Guide me just through skin-to-skin contact."

Darian nodded, "I was just trying to ease the tension in her expression."

"Skin to skin?" Lumi asked.

"Yes, Miss Pei." Darian crouched down and leaned over the table to open the analysis he had made after observing two of Evan’s Rampages. His expression finally turned serious. "After he touched you..."

He tapped the screen, bringing up several graphs showing Evan’s Sentinel energy fluctuations. "His energy didn’t immediately stabilize, but the pattern changed."

Lumi leaned closer, trying to understand the lines moving across the screen.

"Before he touched you, his energy was still rising. It was unstable and spreading outward, which is what normally happens when he enters a full Rampage." Darian pointed to the first section of the graph. "But the moment he grabbed you, something strange happened."

"Strange?"

"His energy stopped spreading."

Lumi’s eyes widened slightly.

Darian switched to another graph. "It didn’t decrease. That’s important. Instead, the fluctuation began to change direction, almost as if something was pulling it back toward him."

Evan remained silent beside them.

Lumi stared at the screen. "So... that’s what we call Guiding?"

"That’s what we’re trying to determine." Darian looked at her. "Because according to every medical record we have on you, you shouldn’t be able to Guide at all. And actually..."

His finger tapped against the graph. "This isn’t entirely Guiding. Or, at least, not the normal kind."

Lumi’s eyebrows slowly rose. "Not normal?"

Darian nodded. "A normal Guide uses Guiding energy to enter a Sentinel’s mental space and stabilize their power. We can detect that energy, measure it, and even see how much of it is being used."

He glanced at Lumi. "But you have none."

Lumi lowered her gaze to her own hands.

"Yet Evan’s power responded to you anyway," Darian continued. "That’s the part we can’t explain."

Then he changed the chart once again.

"And this one is different..." His finger pointed toward another set of readings. "This is when you were kissing him."

Lumi’s face immediately turned red. "K-Kissing?"

Darian nodded, completely serious this time. "Yes. Look at the fluctuation here."

Lumi leaned closer despite her embarrassment.

"Before the kiss, his energy was already starting to stabilize, but the moment your connection became stronger..." Darian traced the sudden change on the screen. "It dropped almost instantly."

Lumi stared at the graph. "So... the kiss really did help?"

"It did more than help." Darian glanced at Evan. "It was the first time we’ve seen Evan’s Rampage shut down that quickly without external intervention."

Lumi’s eyes widened. "Oh... really?"

She then gulped before looking between the two men.

"Then, how about the slap?" She looked at both of them innocently, waiting for the answer.

Because if the slap worked just as well as the kiss, she would much rather keep slapping him.