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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Materialization Type
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“Let me ask you something. How is just blocking attacks supposed to be training…?”
“Ah, I’ll tell you when we’re done.”
“…”
“So just endure it.”
…Can’t I just hit him once?
Helios figured that, aside from whatever he was learning from this guard, he wouldn’t have any teeth left by the time he got out of this prison.
He ground them every time he saw the damn guard!
He could see light gathering in the guard’s hand. Before long, flames erupted from his fist.
“Elemental type. The ability to imbue Kia with an element. Fire, water, lightning, earth… it even includes psychokinesis. Since they don’t need to use their bodies, they’re often slender.”
“…I know that much,”
“You do? How clever.”
Was he mocking him? But Helios couldn’t afford to be complacent any longer.
A fist wreathed in flames flew at him, and Helios once again had to protect his abdomen using only basic Kia.
If he didn’t want to burn to death, he had to endure!
‘This crazy bastard!’
And so, Helios blocked the attack once more and exhaled.
*Cough, cough.* Gathering all the unfamiliar Kia he could muster gave him a throbbing headache.
“Next up, materialization type.”
The attacks continued.
“This is any ability that either imbues an existing object with Kia or creates a new object entirely out of Kia.”
A spear made of Kia materialized in Mint’s hand.
“Since it has a moderate connection to physical ability, they tend to be in good shape even if they’re a bit smaller than the enhancement types, and they often have vivid imaginations or excellent manifestation skills.”
This was the moment Helios’s gaze sharpened the most.
*Crash!*
Of course, the fact that he was sent flying by the spear was no different than before.
“Alright. Let’s end it here.”
“*Pant, pant.*”
Helios gasped for breath, staring up at the sky as he lay on the ground.
Suddenly, a cascade of brown hair flowed into his vision like rain.
A pale, gentle, yet ordinary face was smirking.
It seemed to be the first time he’d seen a proper smile from him, but for some reason, Helios couldn’t look away.
‘…For a man, aren’t his features a bit too delicate?’
He snapped out of the strange thought.
“Hey. Why are we stopping? There are still two types of powers left.”
That was right. There were a total of five types of abilities for wielding Kia.
He had only been attacked with three of them.
“Oh, that?”
“…”
“Well, the remaining ones are ‘mental type’ and ‘miscellaneous type,’ and you definitely can’t defend against the mental type right now.”
Something was strange.
As far as Helios knew, when a person awakened their Kia, they could use at most two of the five types of powers.
“The mental type is the ability to use Kia to brainwash others or read their thoughts and emotions. I’m not particularly fond of it.”
“…”
“Because anyone born with this trait is invariably insidious or a son of a bitch.”
A single person could not wield multiple powers. This rule was absolute.
“…You too?”
“Be careful.”
But… hadn’t this guard already used three different powers?
“…Then the last one. Miscellaneous type.”
Mint clasped her hands behind her back and smiled brightly.
“This is, as the name suggests, a trait that includes all abilities that don’t fall into any of the preceding categories.”
She happily admired the man sprawled on the ground. Ah, he really is quite handsome.
“Curious about my ability?”
“…”
Looking at beautiful things lifts one’s spirits.
Even someone as jaded as Mint could distinguish between beauty and ugliness.
“I happen to be a miscellaneous type. I can use a little bit of every power.”
That was a lie. Mint could use all the abilities freely.
She was the woman who had risen to the very top of this hellish prison with that power alone.
“It’s not very useful, but it’s perfect for teaching a clueless novice like you, Prisoner Helios. You’re the type to die quickly.”
“Who’s… going to die…”
Helios ran a hand through his hair as he lay there.
It was true that right now, he felt so powerless he might as well be dead.
*Rustle.*
He heard the sound of fabric shifting.
Helios flinched. He had felt a hand touching his hair.
When he slowly opened his eyes, he saw Mint crouching down, her hand outstretched.
“…Hey?”
“Not ‘hey,’ Sir Garet.”
“It seems you have no intention of memorizing it. How stubborn.”
Helios was about to lose his temper, just as he had when Mint had poked the frown lines on his brow a while ago, but for some reason, he couldn’t move a muscle.
Because the hand touching his hair was incredibly gentle.
He had such an ordinary face, so why?
The eyes looking down at him were kinder and gentler than any he had ever seen.
Helios held his breath without realizing it.
“A servant told me you’re not supposed to pull someone’s hair like that. I really did mean it as a compliment, you know.”
He reflexively recalled Mint’s actions from the other day when she’d “congratulated him on his survival” by yanking his hair in a way that felt more like torture than a simple tug.
This was a different motion from back then.
“It has certainly been a long time since I’ve touched someone gently.”
Her voice was faint, but beneath its dryness, there was a sense of hollowness.
For some reason, even her tone had become as gentle as her touch, and Helios couldn’t say a word for a while.
He felt as if the atmosphere would shatter if he uttered a single word.
“Just listen while you’re lying down. And answer my question.”
“…”
He’d said he was his dedicated guard.
But even to Helios, who knew nothing about this prison, the guard’s behavior was peculiar.
He was a sinner, here because he’d committed a crime.
Moreover, Helios’s crime was a heinous one.
Protecting such a criminal when punishment would be more fitting.
And even taking the time to teach him like this?
…Just what kind of person are you?
Who are you?
The first face that came to mind was his father’s.
The man who had treated his young self as if he would kill him at any moment, yet demanded the strength and composure befitting the heir to a duchy.
That face quickly faded away.
“Of the three attacks you blocked today, which one was the easiest to defend against? Or even just one that felt more manageable.”
“…”
Helios thought it over carefully.
He had awakened the Kia he’d failed to grasp despite a lifetime of effort right here.
But even after awakening it, he knew nothing of what came next.
The guard hadn’t been wrong to call him weak. Now was the time to soak up every bit of helpful instruction this guard offered.
This was his chance, now that no one knew who he was.
“‘Materialization type.’ That was the easiest.”
“…”
“When you attacked with the spear and sent me flying, it was a little easier to breathe compared to the other attacks.”
At his slightly softer tone, Mint tilted her head.
Mint recalled her life on Earth from a distant past, a life she now had to struggle to remember.
“Usually, attacks from someone with the same ability are less effective. That’s because you have the same type of power.”
Why did this remind her of the time a stray neighborhood cat had approached her for food for the first time?
Perhaps memories and feelings she thought she had forgotten still lingered faintly.
“Ah, so…”
“That’s right. Prisoner Helios, you are a materialization type Kia user.”
Meanwhile, Helios finally understood why Mint had beaten him senseless without a word of explanation, and he let out a sigh.
“You crazy bastard… If you were going to tell me, couldn’t you have used an easier method…?”
“Hm?”
Mint’s head tilted.
“Learning with your body is the fastest way. Thanks to that, you found out right away, didn’t you?”
“…Are guards just born without common sense?”
“The other guards might have some. Just not me.”
“Then what about you?”
“I’m in the process of learning.”
…It wasn’t like he came from the middle of nowhere, so what did he mean he was learning common sense?
Helios assumed Mint was just spouting nonsense to avoid answering and showed his usual displeasure.
Of course, Mint didn’t care one bit.
“Congratulations. You’ve discovered your ability.”
Of course, Mint had known from the beginning what kind of trait the male lead possessed.
There was no way Helios could have known this.
If he had, he would have thrown a fit on the spot.
“…Do you get called a lunatic often?”
Helios stared at Mint for a moment before bursting into laughter.
It was a laugh born from a sense of futility and absurdity that had built up until it exploded from his throat.
“Of all the crazies I’ve ever met, you seem to be the craziest, Sir Garet.”
His long eyes crinkled into thin lines, accentuating the distinct beauty mark beneath them.
