(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Alone and Attacked

Pamela opened the door for them, and Kellen gave one last glance behind him to look at the Captain and Hill. Hill gave him a thumbs up, and the Captain did as well. Their actions didn’t hide the fact that they were worried about the Guide. It was only his second press conference, and he’d stubbornly insisted on doing it alone. Anyone would worry.

Nodding, he turned around and he shared a look with Pamela before she opened one door for them. The blinding lights of the camera washed over the two of them, and Kellen took a deep breath in. Looking past Pamela, he could see the stage. It had the same background with the Guild’s logo all over it, but there was only one small table, and a chair.

A chair sat at the base of the steps, where Kellen assumed Pamela would be since Kellen had said he wanted to be alone. Pamela motioned for him to move forward, and swallowing, he did. Kellen felt his body shake as he took the first step, and when he glanced over at the group of blinding lights and cameras, a hush fell over the room.

Making his way up the three steps, Kellen grabbed the chair before sitting down. He couldn’t smile, he was too tense, and he was trying not to panic. You’ve got this. Just be honest, but like an Esper.

"Guide Woods will be willing to take any of your questions, but he also has the right to reject anything he doesn’t want to answer. I am only here to facilitate this conversation, since he was the one who wanted to have this press conference." Murmuring started up again in the room at Pamela’s words, and Kellen was actually quite impressed with how her voice carried.

He clenched his hands against his thighs, and Kellen was already regretting that he’d told the Captain he was going to be fine on his own. He wanted to hold his hand. The regret didn’t last long though, since he didn’t want the Captain to face the hostility he could feel in this room. "Now, we’ll move down the line. First question."

"Why did you do what you did in the video?" Right to the point, huh? Kellen sighed.

"I did it because I was the best person in the room to do it." He answered, and that only stirred them more.

"What do you mean by that?" It was the same person, but when Pamela went to open her mouth to chastise them, Kellen shook his head.

"Well, I’m not sure if the video gave you a good look, but I wasn’t the only one in the room who was angry."

"Are you aware of the rumours that the victims will be suing you?" Kellen scoffed. He couldn’t help it. Victims?

"Victims? Is that what those fucking idiots are calling themselves now? They are not the victims, in fact, they should be worried that they will be sued. And not by me, to clarify. They did something much worse than having a few bruises."

"You speak as if you did nothing wrong here. Are you not remorseful for hurting others? Or are you only doing a press conference because you got caught?" Kellen clenched his hand under the table, trying to keep his cool. He knew they were going to be stubborn. He needed to keep his emotions in check.

"I am sad to see that you have already been poisoned by their honeyed words." Kellen glanced at the cameras around them, licking his lips. "Let me make something very clear. Before this situation came to pass, I had actually heard a rumour from an Esper that some Guides were threatening to not guide Espers if they weren’t at the same Class level as the Guide. It was potentially implied that they could also not be guided if they said or did something that the Guide’s didn’t like.

At the time, I didn’t think things would come to a head so quickly, so I didn’t rush getting the word out. I did speak to Lieutenant Casper about it, but with the new gate, and the Guilds working with the D.E.C. to manage it, it unfortunately took us all by surprise. We didn’t think it would escalate so quickly, and we were wrong with how deep this truly went. When we heard the news, my fellow Field Guide and I rushed off to help prevent the Espers from surging."

Everyone knew this, but it was clear that the idiots didn’t fully understand it. Kellen stared at the captive audience he had. He sighed. "Does anyone remember the protests before and after the act was passed? You don’t have to answer, I’ll do that for you. The group that was against the Guiding Act at first? It was the Guides themselves. They were the biggest protesters. This was because none of them wanted to be known, because as soon as you were known, you had a chance to be taken, imprinted, and abused. It wasn’t until the government started enforcing the rules that things began to change.

The government started treating the Guides as humans, and that all stemmed from a giant PR stunt that they had done. After that, Guides began to be perceived differently in the public eye, which meant that Espers couldn’t get away with their treatment of Guides anymore. Knowing that there was a huge PR stunt, what is the modern image of Guide now?" He asked. When no one answered for a moment, he raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, someone who smiles and offers a gentle hand? Someone who’s delicate and kind?" Kellen nodded, smiling.

"Right. But in the back of your mind, you know that’s not all Guides, right?" Murmurs of agreement around the room. "You know that Guides are people, and they aren’t just objects that provide guiding. Everyone knows that Guides are very important for society. We wouldn’t be able to get by without them.

Some view Guides as the group that are keeping Espers in line. There are many out there who view high Class Espers as monsters, and the Guides who guide them as holding their leash, keeping them in line. It isn’t even the government who first put this Guiding Act in place who are in control anymore, but the Guides themselves. The ones who 40 short years ago were powerless."

Kellen could tell that there was an uncomfortable air in the room now. Kellen laughed. "Don’t worry, I’m not trying to suggest anything by my statement, I’m just saying that’s how some people view the current relationship between Espers and Guides. Now, given that we’ve seen this shift, why do you think that there is a group of Espers who hate Guides?"

"Because they don’t want to be owned by anyone." It wasn’t the same people who were answering his questions, which made Kellen a little happy. He smirked. He hoped that this went well, even if it felt like he was lecturing them on Guide culture. Hell, maybe someone hadn’t done that before.