Guide.
They were a sedative, a purifier, and a healer—created solely for people with supernatural powers.
“They said the name came from ‘one who guides.’”
In short, Guides were indispensable.
There was only one way these Guides calmed, healed, and purified superpowered individuals:
Guiding.
To put it simply—physical contact.
Of course, it wasn’t just that. The longer and deeper the contact, the more effective the Guiding became.
The setting of the story was a dystopia. Disasters and threats loomed constantly.
And as crisis brings about change, the people of this world awakened to supernatural powers in response to their surroundings.
Those who awakened such powers began doing things ordinary people could never attempt. Over time, they became dominant beings—ruling over others.
You can probably guess how these inhuman beings treated the Guides.
“Poor Adrian.”
He was truly an unfortunate protagonist—not only because of his powers.
“His family died tragically when he was young. He struggled just to survive. And if that weren’t enough, once his hidden power awakened, he was tormented by superpowered people…”
As a result, Adrian came to deeply resent them.
Especially the S-Class, the strongest of the superpowered—known as Transcendents.
His hatred for them only grew stronger, even after he escaped their grasp.
This was the reason Adrian lived hiding his identity afterward.
Yes, Adrian was a “hidden-power” protagonist!
But unfortunately, he never managed to flip the script between predator and prey. He remained on the run—until he died.
“And then he returned to the past.”
That’s right. Adrian was the protagonist of a returning-revenge fantasy!
The hellish life in his first timeline was merely the setup for a refreshing, vengeful second life.
In that first life, Adrian feared the Transcendents—thought of them as lunatics.
But upon returning, Adrian retained all their secrets and weaknesses in his memory.
“I will never suffer and die miserably again.”
Adrian, reborn, was no longer the timid man he used to be.
Using his true power and future knowledge, he took down his enemies one by one.
Eventually, even the Transcendents who tormented him bowed before him, and he rose to become the most powerful figure on the continent…!
“Yeah, it was so good.”
<The Terminal Genius’s S-Class Regression Life>
Western fantasy setting, dystopia, dungeons, system windows, and Guide lore! It was a medley of all the trendiest elements in one webnovel.
I had started it just to kill time, but with the rapid-fire satisfying plot, charming characters, and most of all, the intense bromance—it completely pulled me in.
“Right, there was so much bromance, perfect for rotten readers like me, hehe.”
The story had many charming male characters, and the dynamic between them and Adrian was to die for.
My favorite of them all was the shadowy duke—Harris Godwin.
Unlike Adrian, who began life at rock bottom, Harris was born the only legitimate heir to the Godwin Duchy.
But that didn’t mean his life was any better.
His birth mother died not long after he was born, and his father rejected him.
Was it grief over losing his wife? Or perhaps…
“If it weren’t for you…”
No, he didn’t just reject him—he abused him.
Sadly, that pitiful childhood was only the beginning.
The real torment began when Harris awakened his powers.
First Awakening.
Unfortunately, Harris’s young body was too weak to handle such overwhelming power.
Engulfed by dark energy, Harris screamed in pain, as if his body were about to explode.
“Aaaagh!”
The Godwin family was the second-most powerful household in the empire—rich and influential.
“They even had royal blood through marriage ties to the imperial family.”
With someone like Harris—a Transcendent—being born into the Godwins, they should’ve been thrilled at the thought of ruling for another century.
But the Duke of Godwin despised superpowered people.
Powerful people are usually old-fashioned and conservative, right?
At the time, people like Harris were appearing across the continent.
This was nature’s way of preparing for the upcoming apocalypse, but society rejected them fiercely. Many had died due to accidents caused by uncontrolled abilities.
“They’re worse than beasts! They should all be executed!”
The Duke always spoke like that.
And now his only son had awakened as one of “those monsters.”
“You are not my son. You’re a monster!”
He had already hated the boy for “killing” his mother during childbirth.
When Harris collapsed from his First Awakening, the Duke restrained him with power-suppressing magic tools and locked him in a dungeon.
“M-My lord! You mustn’t! If something goes wrong, the young master…”
If the First Awakening failed, the person’s internal mana could implode and kill them.
The more powerful the person, the higher the risk.
“F-Father… cough! Please…!”
Being in pain is one thing. Knowing you’re truly about to die is something else entirely.
With death staring him in the face, Harris forced his bloodshot eyes open.
His limbs were bound by magic restraints. His whole body boiled with fever. His tiny hands trembled as he barely managed to clutch his father’s hem…
“Let go!”
But the Duke brushed off his son’s hand in disgust and turned his back.
A mother who was gone.
A father who denied him.
The boy’s desperate screams echoed through the dungeon, but no one came to save him.
“Poor Harris…”
Even I, the reader, felt deep sympathy. Yet Harris’s own father showed none.
“Get that monster out of my sight! Now!”
He didn’t stop there. Just seeing Harris disgusted him. He couldn’t even stand having him on the estate.
So Harris was sent far from the capital—to a crumbling old castle in the Godwin Duchy.
No—more precisely, to the castle’s underground prison.
Since he couldn’t kill him outright, the Duke decided to lock him away and let him wither.
But Harris didn’t die.
After awakening, his body gained a tenacious survival instinct.
So the Duke devised another plan.
“Let’s find a Guide—those tranquilizers for superhumans.”
If he couldn’t kill the boy, at least he’d control him.
But unlike Transcendents, Guide abilities were hard to detect. Finding one was like catching a star.
Of course, the mighty Godwin family could catch stars.
Multiple times, in fact.
But none were compatible with Harris.
That only made the Duke hate Harris more.
“That thing is a monster. It cannot inherit the Godwin name!”
And so, Harris was erased—locked away in the dungeon, stripped of the wealth and glory he was born to.
“Why be afraid? He’s stuck with magic restraints.”
“Y-Yeah. As long as we stay out of range, it’s fine…”
Even the castle staff treated Harris like a prisoner—forgetting he was their master.
They gave him only minimal food and necessities, stole his valuables, and pocketed the rest.
That was how the rightful heir of the noble Godwin family lived—in misery.
Still, they feared him when he raged.
So to appease his episodes, they purchased slaves for him to “consume.”
They misunderstood his rampages as bloodthirsty cravings.
And this is when the protagonist—Adrian—finally appears.
After discovering he was a Guide, Adrian was captured and sold into slavery while trying to escape a violent Transcendent.
“Ugh, does this world have nothing but tragic kids?”
One a monster locked in a dungeon.
The other, a slave offered to that monster.
When Harris, in a wild frenzy, met Adrian—the sedative he never knew he needed—he experienced his first-ever Guiding.
“God, even if you removed the ‘bro’ from bromance, that scene alone would’ve made it a romance. I still cry thinking about it.”
I highlighted it in red (Harris’s color) and purple (Adrian’s color), and read it over and over again like I was licking the words off the page.
Yes, I loved that scene. I wanted to see it in person.
But… that didn’t mean…
“You can do it, Jade!”
“Believe in yourself!”
“Yeah! Believe in your hidden power as a Guide—!”
“Believe my ass, you lunatics!”
That didn’t mean I wanted to be in the damn scene myself!
I screamed while gripping the iron bars.
“How many times do I have to say it? I’m NOT a Guide!”
And the problem?
I’d fainted.
Of course, I thought I’d just woken up from a super vivid fangirl dream. “Wow, what a realistic fandom fantasy,” I had thought.
But the same dungeon greeted me again when I regained consciousness.
The other slave newbies cheered as soon as I opened my eyes. “She’s awake!” “Hurray!” They sparkled with joy, and I stupidly smiled back and said, “H-Hurray…?”
I thought it was still a dream.
But then—
“Come on, Jade! Do your Guide thing and calm down that monster!”
—when I heard that load of crap, I couldn’t laugh anymore.
“Jade? Guide??”
What nonsense was that?
Before I could even protest, a pair of purple eyes locked with mine.
“Yes, Jade.”
Adrian. The vengeful king of retribution.
He smiled coldly and said,
“I’m so glad you’re a Guide.”
“What? No, I’m not, YOU—cough!”
Before I could get a word out, Adrian jabbed a pressure point on my neck.
I couldn’t speak at all.
“Mmph!”
And just like that, Adrian—along with the other slaves—dragged me off somewhere.
In a corner of the vast underground dungeon, like the labyrinth of a Minotaur, I saw it.
That ominous, roiling black energy.
“Is that… Harris?”
