Chapter 87: Guiding off the clock
"Hey, where’s Gunther?" Kellen asked the question that had been burning inside of him as soon as he realised that the man wasn’t here. Hill glanced up at Kellen, before glancing over at Casper. Casper answered.
"He’s away with the ’older’ recruits for about a week. There was some tension between the new recruits and the older ones since neither of them had gone to the front lines yet. He should come back right in the middle of everything." Casper, who had been organising some papers, wouldn’t look up at Kellen. Quietly, he muttered. "Hopefully, with an attitude change." Hill snorted, but held her tongue for once. Kellen, who had a sneaking feeling still that the two were involved somehow, said nothing either. There was no reason to antagonize Casper when it was clear to him that he was upset about how Gunther was behaving.
"Should I send Brent over to see if he can help you guys with any info about the front lines?" Kellen asked, glancing over at where Brent and his parents sat. His Dad noticed, and waved. Casper hummed.
"Sure, why not? I’m not going to be able to leave the area for a while, so I’ve put my assistant Caleb in charge down in the Guiding Division." Casper’s eyes widened and he looked up at Kellen. "Oh, we weren’t able to talk about what you wanted to when you came to my office earlier. Was it anything important?" Casper asked, and Kellen shook his head.
"No. I realised that my whole reason for being here might be put on hold because we didn’t get the rights to the gates, so don’t worry about it." Casper stared at Kellen like he had two heads. Hill stopped what she was doing so she could do the same.
"What on earth are you saying, Kellen? We will always need Field Guides, whether or not we get this gate. There will be more gates in the future. The reason we want a Field Guide department or division or whatever you want to call it, is because we want our own Field Guides. Ones you’ve trained, cause you’re one of the best." Hill said, her voice holding a hint of anger.
"Isn’t Kellen the best?" Casper asked, confused, and Kellen shook his head.
"There is no way I’m the best. It isn’t like there is a competition for Field Guides." Kellen said. Hill’s eyes lit up.
"We should do that! We should host something like the Esper games, but for Field Guides!" Kellen laughed at her enthusiasm.
"What the fuck would they test? How fast can you carry the dead weight of an unconscious Esper? How to tie knots? Identifying plants?" He shook his head, chuckling, while Casper slowly began to nod.
"That...actually might be a good idea. I mean, the Captain is already well known worldwide, so advertising wouldn’t be too hard to do. I’ll suggest it to Pamela once she’s had some rest and see if she thinks it might be a good idea." Kellen thought that they were being ridiculous even considering something like that.