The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving novel Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Who Could Resist?

Aisha stepped out of the imperial palace grounds, the cool night air brushing against her skin as she walked down the wide stone path leading away from the towering gates. The chaos from earlier—Nykos’s sudden appearance and the emperor’s unsettling proposal—still churned in the back of her mind, but she kept her expression carefully blank as she walked.

A few steps in, she felt it. That subtle shift in the air told her a presence was trailing just behind her, careful and quiet, but not subtle enough for someone who had survived years hunting and being hunted by things far more dangerous than a man.

Perhaps, they weren’t even trying to hide their presence from her at all.

"You can stop hiding now," she said without turning around. "I already know it’s you."

There was a pause, then the soft sound of footsteps closing the distance. Zeke emerged from the shadows cast by the palace’s outer wall, falling into step beside her as though he’d been walking there all along.

Neither of them spoke for a while. The street lanterns flickered along the road, casting long, wavering shadows across the cracked stone where cleanup crews had been working since the explosion. Aisha kept her pace steady, aware of the man walking a comfortable stride away from her.

"Were you waiting for me?"

"... I was."

"Why? Is it because you were worried?" she finally asked, glancing sideways at him. "Or because you wanted to know what the emperor wanted from me?"

Zeke didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was even, without hesitation. "Both."

She almost smiled at that. She’d expected him to dance around the question, to give some diplomatic non-answer the way people who wanted something usually did. Instead, he’d simply admitted it.

"Well, I’m not going to tell you," she said.

He nodded once, accepting her answer without argument, without the faintest attempt to pry further. It was, she thought, one of the few honestly refreshing things about him.

They passed a group of imperial guards clearing debris from the earlier explosion, stone and shattered glass piled neatly to the side of the road. The guards straightened at the sight of them, offering quick, wary bows before returning to their work. Aisha watched them for a moment before speaking again.

"What happened after I left?" she asked.

The damage was far more than she had expected.

Zeke’s gaze flickered toward her, then forward again, toward the dim outline ahead. He recalled what happened earlier.

After Aisha’s figure disappeared through the door leading to the emperor’s residence, the corridor fell into an uneasy hush. Nykos remained where he stood, watching the space she’d vacated with an unreadable expression, before that familiar, lazy smirk crept back onto his face.

"You actually gave her a gift?" Zeke asked, arms crossed, his voice flat with disapproval.

"And what’s wrong with that?"

"Don’t tell me you don’t understand what it means. Giving a gift like that—to a woman right after her engagement’s been dissolved. Everyone in this empire knows what that signals. Especially between a guide and a sentinel."

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