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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: A Practical Lesson
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“Pretty rookie? Follow me, now. This senior will show you a good place.”
Mint quietly looked at Grogi, then toward the main building visible in the distance.
The Tower's trial was over. After returning to the main building and a brief period for cleaning up, it would be dinnertime.
Mint urged him on, but Helios couldn't move.
‘What is this power?’
Because something was pressing down on him.
Psychokinesis. It was a power Helios was feeling for the first time.
“Inmate Helios. If you linger any longer, you'll really be late.”
“...”
Just as Grogi was about to lose his patience and lash out, Mint nonchalantly strode over and pulled Helios by the arm.
‘Wh-what?’
Grogi was flustered.
Moving so calmly while being crushed by psychokinesis?
From the 70th floor of the Tower onward, a single moment of carelessness could lead to death.
He felt a looming sense of warning.
‘Th-this is strange. Just what is that guard...?’
It wasn't a force that a mere rookie guard could withstand.
In the brief moment Grogi broke out in a cold sweat, Mint was calmly assessing the situation.
‘He doesn't seem like he'll just let us go.’
Besides, for him to be acting so boldly in front of the Tower, someone must be backing him up.
That person was probably Sergeant First Class Kein.
‘Did the Warden say not to make too much of a scene?’
The only one whose face she could recognize was that guy, Grogi.
As for the others, sensing their power, they were about intermediate level.
It wasn't unusual for high-level inmates to form their own 'family'—a 'fam'—and move in groups.
They were, in a word, gangs and thugs who ran rampant inside this prison.
Mint finished her assessment.
“Inmate Helios, what are you doing just standing there?”
Helios flinched in surprise. Strangely, the moment Mint grabbed his wrist, his body felt lighter.
“...Right.”
He even found himself wishing Mint wouldn't let go, before snapping back to his senses.
“Stop right there.”
Grogi glared with bloodshot eyes and extended his hand.
An immense force pressed down on the two of them.
“Tsk, who does a nobody guard think she is, interfering? Ugly thing!”
This was a place where, at times, inmates stronger than the guards existed.
Unfortunately, moments like these were the only times the relationship between guard and inmate was reversed.
But Grogi was overly tense.
What in the world is this feeling?
He grew anxious, unable to pinpoint the source of this ominous feeling.
“What are you doing? Cut that bastard down, now! Get her out of my sight!”
“Yes, Big Bro!”
Since Mint and Helios were both pinned by Grogi's psychokinesis and couldn't do anything, dealing with Mint would be as easy as eating cold stew.
Or so they thought.
Mint effortlessly dodged the approaching swords and fists.
“Sh-she moved...?”
Mint grabbed an approaching hand and snapped it.
“Kuaaaargh!”
She had confirmed it in the manual.
“Inmate Grogi. Attacking a guard is a serious offense.”
When an inmate defies a guard's order and resists—
“It's a crime punishable by summary execution.”
*Thump!*
As if she'd been waiting, she grabbed the arm of a person rushing from behind and forcefully twisted their wrist.
“Die!”
The hand of the inmate holding the sword moved on its own, plunging the blade into his companion's back.
“Aaaargh!”
The inmate with the sword in his back collapsed to the ground.
“What, what, what is this! Why isn't it working!”
Grogi frantically tried to crush Mint with his psychokinesis.
But Mint simply brushed off the psychokinetic force pressing on her shoulders by raising a hand and patting them a few times.
“Inmate Helios.”
Helios could only dart his eyes toward Mint. It was all he could do with the psychokinesis pinning his body.
*Thud, thud.*
“Watch closely.”
But Mint was as calm as a fish released into water.
“Whether inside the Tower or out, this is not a place governed by common sense. You will face countless trials ahead.”
“...”
“And this is one of them.”
Grogi tried to shout something.
‘M-my voice... it won't come out...!’
Even just moving his lips was agonizing.
He couldn't believe it.
He was someone who had climbed to the 80th floor of the Tower.
To think that he, who had even broken through the 82nd floor not long ago, was now being crushed by a power that left him helpless!
To his astonishment, the power pressing down on him was the same as his own ability: 'psychokinesis'...
‘Go away, go away!’
The approaching guard with her slender frame was as terrifying as a gatekeeper of hell.
He had overcome countless life-or-death situations to get this far, but he had never once imagined an end like this.
The expressionless guard was terrifying.
“...!!”
He struggled to move, but his body wouldn't budge.
Finally, Mint reached him and raised her hand.
“Time for a little flick.”
Helios held his breath.
The 'one blow' Mint delivered next was by no means something that could be described as a 'little flick'.
She had only flicked her hand lightly, but blood spurted from the man's head.
What was even more chilling was that Mint showed no expression or reaction throughout the entire act.
As if she were just doing her job.
Mint's combat boot was stomping on the back of the fallen Grogi's hand.
Mint belatedly recalled one thing.
That among the filthy, despicable degenerates who had a weakness for pretty things, there was one named 'Grogi'.
He was the type to kidnap anyone weaker and prettier than him, regardless of gender, and torment them to their breaking point.
Soon, his screams echoed loudly across the clearing. Mint watched nonchalantly.
“Attribute-types generally use their hands as a medium for their power, so you have to destroy them completely.”
The slow whisper was a gentle lesson for Helios.
Helios's mouth went dry.
Is this enough? Mint glanced at the momentarily hesitant inmates.
Her eyes narrowed to slits.
“Now, let's stop—”
The moment she was about to say they should go back, a sword grazed her cheek.
Mint turned her head, but there were only the frozen inmates.
‘Wh-who threw that!’
‘Which crazy bastard was it!!’
Grogi's followers were frozen stiff. With their leader taken down like that, there was nothing they could do.
And yet, someone had thrown a sword. Mint's cheek was cut, and blood was trickling down.
“Ah, I... let. my. guard. down.”
Mint muttered.
Her voice was stiff, as if she were reading from a book.
Then, she slowly extended a hand.
“From now on, this will be 'self-defense' to protect a guard's body.”
Something blue formed in Mint's hand.
Seeing the object, Helios blinked.
“...A broo, m?”
Soon, Helios witnessed an unbelievable sight, one he couldn't trust even while watching with his own eyes: a broom beating people up all by itself.
The broom displayed truly incredible martial prowess. Even when the inmates came to their senses and fought back with Kia, none could stand against it.
Until the very last person had not just fallen, but passed out.
The broom beat them up with remarkable thoroughness.
Watching this, Mint was smiling.
“Did you see all that?”
“...See what, exactly?”
“Your 'Material-type' Kia. Its final form is creating an ego weapon like this.”
“...”
“A weapon that moves on its own.”
Helios swallowed his words.
“This instructor happens to be an Etc-type. I can use a little bit of every power.”
...You said you could only use a fraction of every ability.
Helios swallowed his breath, his thrill, and a faint, unfamiliar emotion spreading within him, and remained silent.
“Your cheek.”
That was all he could manage to say.
Even though it was just a small sound, Mint seemed to hear it and raised a hand to her cheek.
“Are you okay?”
Mint gently rubbed her cheek, then smiled brightly.
“Fighting is worth it, after all. I even get to be worried over by my student.”
“...”
She expected Helios to scowl in displeasure once again and offer his usual words of denial.
But Helios's lips parted a few times before he slowly opened them.
“That's right. I'd rather my master not get hurt.”
“...”
Mint blinked.
He had called her 'master' and acknowledged her.
Instead of looking at her, Mint saw the man looking slightly away, covering his mouth with the back of his hand.
His neat, handsome eyebrows and his radiant face, despite being a mess of sweat and dirt.
Then, her gaze shifted.
Mint's eyes lingered for a long time on his ears, which alone had turned a shade of red.
“Inmate Helios. Seeing how red your ears are, you must be running a fever.”
