Reborn as an A-Rank Guide: Trapped By The Crazy Sentinels

"Outward expansion... space colonization?"

Mikado gave a quiet laugh. "Imagination is beautiful. Reality is cruel."

"What we still cannot break through is the lock on our own genes."

Alion did not understand.

"Even with cryogenic hibernation technology and exploration vessels, searching the vast emptiness of the universe for another habitable planet is like looking for a needle in the ocean. More importantly, human beings are fragile."

"We require oxygen, temperature, and water in precise proportions. Any toxic atmosphere, radiation, earthquake, or stellar explosion... any of them could wipe our species out in an instant."

"Alion, humanity has evolved far too slowly."

Even after migrating to Terra, they had never been able to sever the connection to Earth’s wasteland.

Alion watched Mikado in silence. Why was the commander saying all of this to him today? Was he implying that human evolution could somehow be artificially accelerated?

The genetic engineers had worked for over a century just to create a relatively livable "Eden" on Terra.

Mikado stood before the window, gazing out at the magnificent purple nebulae of the Martian sky, and spoke with deliberate weight:

"Humanity needs higher ideals."

Then he abruptly changed the subject. "The Reid family appears to be making certain new moves in the Parliament."

They wanted to reclaim control over the military.

A faint, mocking light flickered in Alion’s eyes. "After what happened, their family is simply deluding themselves."

Mikado did not share that confidence. He had been suppressed by the Reid family for many years before finally climbing to the position of Supreme Commander. No one was more vigilant or cautious than he was.

"The ancients had a saying that remains true: careful sailing keeps the ship safe for ten thousand years. Have your people keep a close watch on them. Report to me the moment anything unusual occurs."

After all, the Reid family’s eldest son—the one who had been convicted and exiled—was still alive.

As long as that terrifying monster continued to draw breath, Mikado would never be able to sit comfortably in this seat.

Alion gave a crisp military salute. "Yes, sir."

Mikado studied the man standing before him—a face so flawlessly handsome it bordered on unreal. "Alion... how many years has it been since I brought you back from the lower-city recycling station?"

"Reporting to the Commander: twelve years."

Mikado nodded. "So you are twenty-five this year."

Alion could not guess what Mikado intended. He lowered his dark lashes and answered with perfect deference. "I have never forgotten the kindness the Commander has shown me."

Mikado’s memory drifted back to that day.

In a scrapyard piled high with discarded android parts and wreckage, a thirteen-year-old Alion—an abandoned clone product—had been kneeling barefoot in the mud, clutching a torn and filthy stuffed bear and weeping.

He was about to be sent for crushing and used as fertilizer for crops.

Mikado had only one child. Out of a subtle sense of pity, he had taken the boy in—but adoption had been the full extent of his generosity.

He had carefully molded Alion into a ruler as cold and ruthless as himself, turning the boy into his most capable subordinate.

Yet Mikado was growing old, while Alion’s ambition and ferocity were beginning to surface more clearly.

He was a dangerous, bloodthirsty wolf who could never truly be controlled by anyone.

"Yuna is already twenty. You know she has feelings for you, don’t you?"

Alion remained silent.

Mikado placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yuna’s temperament may be willful, but that simply means she needs a husband capable of restraining her. I will set a date for your marriage as soon as possible."

Alion looked at the hand resting on his shoulder. A flicker of mockery slid through the depths of his eyes.

His voice remained soft. "Commander, I am only a clone. I am not worthy of the young lady."

Everyone knew clones could not reproduce.

Mikado, however, simply smiled, as though the matter were of no real consequence.

"That’s not a problem. Yuna will bond with other sentinels later. You only need to serve as the first husband."

The statement was truly beyond belief.

He—a 3S+ sentinel—was expected to bond with a C-level guide, accept an empty title as principal spouse, and then raise the children she produced with other men.

A C-level’s meager mental strength was as insignificant to Alion as an ant. He would be better off simply injecting a few doses of suppressant himself.

The gulf between their ranks was an unbridgeable chasm.

Moreover, he felt no attraction whatsoever toward Yuna. He even found the musk-like scent of her guide pheromones unpleasant.

On top of that, Yuna’s reputation was notoriously bad. She took pleasure in toying with and tormenting sentinels. She was not even married yet, and already kept a large number of private lovers on the side.

Binding with her would mean the complete ruin of the rest of his life.

Alion had never held any interest in matters between men and women. He had long prepared himself to grow old alone.

"Commander, there are many sentinels far more suitable than I. And... have you asked the young lady for her opinion?"

At present she regarded him as an enemy.

Mikado detected the refusal beneath Alion’s words. The smile vanished from his face in an instant.

"Alion, I have always held you in high regard. Otherwise, I would never have kept you at my side for so many years."

The emotional card, once played, left most people at a temporary loss for words.

It was true. Without Mikado, Alion would have long since vanished from this world.

Yet after raising him like a dog for so many years, did Mikado truly still see him as nothing more than a dog to be summoned and dismissed at will?

Alion understood perfectly well. Mikado intended to use marriage to bind him permanently to the interests of the Williams family, ensuring he would remain forever at the commander’s disposal.

Mikado was waiting for an answer—and that answer could only ever be affirmative.

After a brief silence, Alion looked up and offered Mikado a polite smile.

"Of course I have no objection... provided the young lady is willing."

Mikado’s expression brightened with satisfaction. "Rest assured. She will agree."

Whether she agreed or not, Mikado would make certain she did. He was only consolidating his own position. Whether his daughter actually liked Alion was irrelevant.

To him, Yuna was merely a tool for winning loyalty and securing alliances of interest.

As for Alion—already destined for a solitary, unfulfilled life without effective mental guidance after the bond—he mattered even less.

When Alion left the study, the handsome lines of his face were already shadowed with darkness.

He knew Yuna would cry, rage, and threaten suicide rather than accept the bond. That suited him perfectly. But Mikado would not grant him much time.

Before that happened, he needed to add fuel to the fire and completely extinguish Mikado’s foolish, self-serving plan.

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