(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 58

Chapter 58: The Date from Hell (part 2)

While it was openly known that the Guiding Centers all competed against each other for popularity and government subsidy, it wasn’t known publicly that there was bad blood between Guiding Center A and Guiding Center B. For the most part, Guiding Center C stayed it its own lane, and so did the other Guiding Centers, but Guiding Center A had it out for all the others. They were, in Kellen’s opinion, elitist, and he couldn’t understand why any Guide would want to work for them. But Kellen kept that opinion to himself, since his Father had worked there before meeting his Mother. That, and a lot of his friends from guiding school wanted to go there as well. Actually, it wasn’t a lot, all of them wanted to go there.

Kellen knew he’d always been unusual, since even back then he was determined to go to the front lines, but he still had no idea what drew people to that horrid place. Anything lower than B Class was treated like dirt, while B Class was treated as the average, and A Class was treated like the standard. It didn’t matter your Class, you were never treated like you were worth anything. Kellen hated those kinds of establishments the most. At least at Guiding Center C you knew you were selling your body, while at Guiding Center A you weren’t told you were selling your soul.

With all that being said, Guiding Center A had taken a strong dislike to Guiding Center B ever since they overtook them in the popularity vote. Kellen, and all of the other Guides who worked at Guiding Center B, knew they would never overtake them in the efficiency ranking, and in fact they often hovered around 3rd, or 4th place. When it came to the popularity vote?

Guiding Center B won without it being a close competition.

Turns out, people like it when you treat them well, not like shit.

Guiding Center A, a Center that never wanted to be less than, hated that. While Guiding Center B, threw a pizza party every time the results came out. They took it all in good fun, and were grateful that the Espers that visited them thought of Guiding Center B so highly. It also meant that Guiding Center A’s monopoly on the government money was no more, and it had been this way for a couple of years now.

So when Kellen finally spotted the group of Guiding Center A Guides, a wave of apprehension washed over him. He straightened up from where he had been bent over, sorting through a pile of canned food that might be salvageable to watch them approach.

He could tell that it was a blended group of Guides from their uniforms. Like the Guilds, all Guiding Centers had different uniforms. While Guiding Center B had gone the medical route, and preferred for their Guides to wear pale yellow nursing scrubs, Guiding Center A had modelled theirs after the former D.E.C.’s Guide uniforms. They had to wear black dress pants, and white dress shirts. What made them really stand out was the fact that they wore coloured vests that showed what Class of Guide you were speaking to. A Class were blue, B Class were green, C Class were yellow, D Class were pink, E Class were brown, and most insulting, F Class were white. You could barely tell that they worked at the Guiding Center.

Another quiet way to discriminate against certain Guides was the fact that some Guide’s had silver buttons, while others had gold. If you had gold buttons, you were more likely to get better Espers, while if you had silver buttons, you were likely to get the harder to deal with Espers. That wasn’t anything confirmed, but all Guides were gossips. Even if Guiding Center A stated that it wasn’t true, everyone knew they were just covering their asses.

So Kellen, recently contracted to the Saturn Guild, stood, staring at the clean Guides who approached. They were clearly coming from the direction of Guiding Center A, and even from the pile of rubble he was on he could pick out the several higher Class Guides with them. They also had a few C Class and D Class Guides, but for a group made up of about 15 people, only one or two of them were the lower Classes. Kellen had to hide how his face wanted to contort with disgust, so he turned to face the Captain. He wanted to know what he thought of the whole situation.

The Captain had a neutral expression on his face. He watched the group of Guides moving towards the search and rescue members. He finished what he was helping with before coming to stand closer to the group. Kellen watched him dust himself off as the Head of the group, the Manager of Guiding Center A, approached him.

"Captain Thatcher. I wasn’t expecting you to be here. You seem so busy these days, flaunting your powers." Kellen felt her gaze roam over the group around the Captain. Kellen wiped his face with the back of his hand, aware he was probably smearing grime all over himself as he did so. He didn’t really care what she thought of him. "Do you need guiding? Guide Davidson is here and would be happy to assist you." Guide Davidson was a pretty little thing in a blue vest, just like the Manager was. The only difference between the two was the fact that she had a half jacket on, symbolizing that she was the Manager of the Center, not just a Guide working there. Kellen wasn’t even worried about the way she had clearly dismissed that he was there, because in fairness to her, he had stripped out of most of his Guiding uniform and almost looked like he was one of the search and rescue members. Almost. If he didn’t know that she personally knew his Mom and Dad, he would have bought it.

"Oh, he’s perfectly fine, Guide Thompson." Kellen came over towards the two powerhouses, a smile on his face. He ignored the fact that Guide Davidson had frowned at the sight of him, along with the other A Class Guides. The Manager gave him a tight smile.

"Ah, Guide Woods. I didn’t...see you there. You blend in so well with the regular riff raff." She chuckled, and Kellen joined her. He moved closer to the Captain, who seemed surprised at the openly hostile interaction. He hadn’t seen Kellen behave this way before, even on the front lines. If Kellen didn’t like someone, he told them outright and didn’t play these kinds of games. In fact, if the Captain was honest with himself, he didn’t think Kellen was capable of doing so.

"Well, I can understand how you wouldn’t be able to spot me. You have such narrow vision. Tell me, does Guiding Center A cover going to the optometrist?" Her jaw tightened as Kellen smiled at her. He’d gotten good at that when he had to practise for his interview.

"I didn’t realise that Guiding Center B had speech therapy sessions. You’ve gotten so good since I last spoke to you." She retorted, and Kellen raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, how kind of you to notice. We really did have everything a Guide could need at Guiding Center B. Too bad I had to leave once I found my pair, otherwise I would have been more than happy to stay." The Captain cleared his throat.

"Was there a reason for you coming with a group of Guides, Manager Thompson?" He interjected, wanting to stop the Guides from fighting. He worried that Kellen would break the woman’s arm or neck by accident. She huffed, upset at being interrupted while Kellen had a serene smile on his face.

"We wanted to thank all of the Espers who came to help us in our time of need. We know we were the first to be targeted, and since everyone is helping out the general public, we only thought it was fair to offer our assistance as good members of society." Kellen wanted to hurl.

"You know that lots of the Espers here are from the Nemesis and Peach Guild, right? Did you think about what the Guide’s from those Guilds would think?" She smirked.

"Relief, obviously. Who wouldn’t want to take a break from guiding Espers?" Kellen was stunned by her words. He never viewed guiding the Captain as that kind of a chore, and it amazed him that she had the balls to say it with several Guides and Espers in hearing range. When none of them got upset, Kellen was even more shocked.

"Well, it isn’t my place to decide what to do with your kind offer, so all I can do is suggest you go speak with a young lady called Ms. M. She’s in charge of everyone who isn’t from a specific Guild." The Captain informed Manager Thompson whose lips twitched slightly.

"Oh? What direction is that?" Kellen couldn’t believe she expected to get escorted by the Captain. She was clearly fishing for it. Kellen clenched his fist, rolled his eyes and grabbed the Captain’s hand in his own. The Captain was stunned at the open show of affection, especially since it was unlike the touches Kellen had been giving him over the last several hours.

"If you follow along the destroyed road, you’ll be able to spot the search and rescue tent. Ms. M doesn’t leave there." Kellen told her warmly, which only made her narrow her eyes. She crossed her arms, opened her mouth, closed it, before opening it again.