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

These Sentinels’ mental seas were in disastrous shape. Who knew how many years’ worth of accumulated filth and toxic psychological debris had been left to fester inside them?

Orion frowned, caught in the delicate crossfire between sharp discomfort and intoxicating relief.

The deafening static and chaotic noise that had roared inside his mind day after day began to recede. His painfully overextended mental domain—the very source of the agony that had pushed him to the brink of madness—slowly unraveled, letting his raw, frayed nerves relax for the first time in years.

Bunny worked away like a diligent little bee, happily executing her role as a mental custodian, completely oblivious to the long, scaly shadow quietly descending from the rainforest canopy behind her.

”Hiss—”

The sharp, rasping rattle of a snake made Bunny freeze in her tracks.

She turned around slowly.

An enormous white cobra had reared its body upright, its dark hood flared as its slender, black forked tongue flicked rhythmically toward her. Its heavy coils were patterned in deep red and charcoal, the scales reflecting a cold, oily sheen under the misty canopy light. A pair of crimson eyes stared down at her, terrifying enough to send a sharp chill straight down her spine.

Bunny vaguely recalled a snippet of lore from her academy training: when a female Guide entered the mental domain of a serpentine Sentinel, there were usually only two possible outcomes.

Either the beast tried to mate with her...

Or it swallowed her whole.

Cold sweat broke out across Bunny’s forehead.

Stay calm. Snakes generally didn’t strike humans without provocation. As long as she didn’t make any sudden movements and backed away slowly, she should be fine.

At least, that was the theory.

Until the massive reptile glided effortlessly down from the mossy branch and began winding its thick, muscular body around her calf.

Tighter.

And tighter.

The sheer constriction was intense enough to leave flush red marks against her skin.

Panic flared in Bunny’s chest. Such predators didn’t give second chances—a single drop of their venom could kill an elephant in minutes. With her delicate frame, one bite would have her attending her own funeral before she even realized she was dead.

Cold, smooth scales scraped over her ankles. The cobra raised its triangular head, locking its gaze directly onto her face.

Then, to Bunny’s utter shock, the terrifying predator began swaying its upper body from side to side in an oddly rhythmic, graceful dance.

Bunny blinked in confusion.

What was happening? Was she supposed to pull a bamboo flute out of thin air, sit cross-legged in the swamp, and start chanting some mystic tune?

Wait! It’s performing a courtship dance!

The serpent finally concluded its elaborate performance, blinking its large, luminous eyes at her as if eagerly awaiting an evaluation.

”Hisssss...”

It almost sounded as though it were asking: Female, will you mate with me?

Bunny stood frozen in silence.

Apparently, cross-species romance wasn’t exclusive to ancient mythology and snake demons.

Fearing that an outright rejection might provoke a lethal bite, she cautiously extended a trembling index finger and tapped the top of its broad head.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

The cobra seemed overwhelmingly pleased with the little head pat; its slit pupils even narrowed into relaxed, contented lines.

Then, Bunny felt a strange, prominent pressure against her leg.

She lowered her head to look.

Sure enough, an unmistakable, vibrant red V-shaped marking had bloomed across the front of her calf—the undeniable sign of a Sentinel’s territorial claim.

Bunny’s head throbbed with an immediate headache.

It took a considerable amount of quiet negotiation to placate the overly affectionate snake before she was finally able to untangle herself and sever the neural link to his mental sea.

Back in the physical room, Orion sat with his head bowed, his face cast entirely in shadow.

”Orion?” Bunny asked, her voice laced with worry.

The man’s breathing had grown heavy and labored, his chest rising and falling in ragged, shallow gasps. His shoulders and abdomen were locked rigid, as if he were desperately trying to suppress an overwhelming physical reaction.

Throughout his body, the latent mental threads she had just untangled were churning wildly once more.

Bunny noticed the sudden shift almost instantly—and then her eyes widened in shock as her gaze dropped lower.

Was that... genuinely possible within normal human biology?! This young man had truly been blessed by genetic modification. She had never seen such an erection before.

Oh, no.

She had only intended to cleanse his mental sea and lower his instability metrics. She hadn’t anticipated that dropping those barriers so rapidly would trigger such a violent physical recoil.

Orion had never experienced a Guide’s touch before. Deprived of guidance his entire life, his body was reacting violently to the sudden release of years of suppressed, primal instincts.

While Bunny knew very little about a Sentinel’s mating cycle, she knew enough to recognize the danger: if an acute heat spike wasn’t managed properly, it could shatter his mental sea all over again.

Although Bunny was in her twenties and had experience dating men, her face still flushed a furious, burning crimson. She nervously twisted her fingers together, utterly mortified of what could happen next.

”Um... could you... handle that yourself?”