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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Request
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“Ged.”
Helios whispered, right on cue. I gave him a surprised look.
“…You were looking at me like I was a stranger.”
“Me?”
I tilted my head. Whatever.
In any case, the man who appeared was the one with the shaved head who’d been with Helios on the 20th floor.
In fact, they were together not just on the 20th floor, but on the 21st and 22nd floors as well.
Which meant he was pretty skilled.
Of course, he got horribly injured on both the 21st and 22nd floors, but as long as you get out of the Tower, you heal up completely. So what was the issue?
Because of this, some prisoners go mad or suffer from phantom pain. But they didn’t seem to have that problem.
So, that meant Ged hadn’t come alone.
“Good afternoon, Helios.”
Besides Ged, there were two other men and one woman.
All of them had been with Helios since the 20th floor.
The woman was Haira, someone I knew well.
“Haha, Big Bro is here too?”
Despite his hearty greeting, he grew hesitant as he approached, watching me cautiously.
Not Helios, but me.
‘I did see them sticking together on the 21st floor.’
As both Helios and I stared in silence, Ged shuffled closer.
“I saw your amazing feats, Big Bro. You’re a true man.”
I still didn’t answer, observing them instead.
Unless there was a special reason, I saw no need to exchange words with them.
I wasn’t a leader anymore, and they weren’t new prisoners who needed a friendly guide.
“It was truly incredible skill…!”
“What was so incredible?”
Ged’s face lit up at my response. I had only answered, but he looked honored.
I was used to seeing such faces from the prisoners under me, so I waited quietly. Ged continued to speak.
“Th-that, that giant… swatter…?”
“A flyswatter.”
“Yes! The way you caught the bugs with it! It was very impressive. And the way you even swung it while yawning was truly…!”
He saw such a minor detail in the middle of all that chaos? I guess my judgment wasn’t wrong.
He was quite skilled.
‘Hmm, if he’s trained well, maybe the 70th floor? No, the 80th?’
I don't have a mirror, but if I could see myself now, my eyes would probably be gleaming for a moment.
“Ah, come on! Captain! Stop peering into people whenever you feel like it, it’s creepy!”
“The way your eyes glint is like a ghost's...”
Being able to handle all types of Kia meant I could use even the most trivial abilities.
I could use ‘Mind’s Eye,’ an ability belonging to the ‘Mental’ category, which allowed me to see a person’s talent.
‘Entered Niflheim, and my grab-bag of talents was born~.’
I finished examining Ged while humming a now-faint Korean commercial jingle in my head.
His innate potential was certainly enough to reach the 70th or even the 80th floor, but.
‘But for this guy, it all depends on who teaches him.’
That's only possible if he receives proper training.
‘He has an ability that hasn't awakened yet, and he can't learn that on his own.’
What a shame. I clicked my tongue to myself and turned away.
“The golden flyswatter was truly, so moving! All the bugs were flattened without exception…!”
At the mention of ‘bugs’ again, Helios’s face turned pale.
“Stop…”
“Huh? Helios? Why do you look so pale? Are you sick?”
“…It's a sickness that will be cured if you shut your mouth.”
“Oh my, a sickness! A small illness can get much worse in this place. You should get some rest quickly…”
Ged was clearly clueless.
Completely failing to understand Helios's plea for him to shut up, Ged worried about him with a naive expression.
‘But as his voice rose, he started glancing at me.’
I couldn't tell if he was perceptive or just clueless.
But with a naive face like that, he could still be a serial killer. This was that kind of place.
‘Pretending to be clueless at the right times is a skill in itself.’
Regardless, I tossed a comment at the pale-faced Helios.
“Weakling.”
“…I don't want to hear that from a master who catches 'those things' with a flyswatter.”
So touchy.
“You're supposed to catch bugs with a flyswatter, what else would you use? Oh, and how was my mosquito net?”
“I don't want to remember!”
As I said, mutated insects appeared on the 21st and 22nd floors, and I, out of boredom, made a mosquito net with my Kia to catch them.
“Ta-da, Helios. Look at this. A mosquito net~”
“G-get that away from me!”
I showed it to him in the middle of a battle, and the sight of him recoiling in horror was quite memorable.
‘Am I… enjoying this?’
Am I enjoying Helios's flinching, frowning reactions?
It had been so long since I'd enjoyed anything in this prison that my emotions felt faint.
The feeling of enjoying something.
‘His face is certainly not bad to look at.’
Someone gently raised their hand.
“Excuse me, Big Bro… are you talking about the giant net you made on the 22nd floor?”
A man of average height with long, straight hair that reached his waist like a woman's spoke up.
He had a pale, androgynous face, and his serious tone didn't quite match his youthful appearance.
‘His ability is Materialization? And among Materialization types...’
“Ah, I-I'm Seth Galligan, Big Bro!”
“I didn't ask.”
When our eyes met, I saw him hurriedly straighten his back.
‘Hoh, this one has even greater potential.’
Having just seen Ged's potential, the potential of this youthful man I was now looking at was even more special.
“I'm Haira. I don't have a last name.”
And then there was the brightly smiling Haira.
The last man standing spread his hands with a friendly air.
“Ah, is it introduction time? I'm Brett Boehmer. Hahaha. Nice to meet you, Big Bro. I've been wanting to talk to you.”
“…”
So what.
This man named Brett, who introduced himself last, had very sharp eyes.
No, let me correct that. They were sharp in a sly way.
As if he knew it himself, he was smiling with his eyes narrowed to slits.
‘People like him always cause trouble.’
Since I was already looking, I checked him out too.
Oh my. This is…
“Master.”
My view was filled. Helios, blocking my path, frowned.
“You have quite varied tastes, don't you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You don't discriminate by gender?”
“Move.”
I gave him a gentle push, but Helios didn't just slide back, he stumbled and fell with a thud.
Helios looked dumbfounded.
“What was that for?”
“I know, right? What was that for? Why'd you fall over on your own.”
“…”
No matter how much he's destined to become the strongest later on.
“…That weird look again.”
Is it really okay for the male lead to be this weak? I looked at the newbie with pity before turning away.
“Your business.”
“Y-yes? Big Bro?”
Ged answered hesitantly, as their representative. I thought Haira would be the best speaker here.
“Well, I, I…”
Whether he was the representative or just the one who drew the short straw, everyone fell silent when Ged opened his mouth. Soon, with a determined expression, Ged shouted loudly.
“Please teach us too, Big Bro!”
“Th-that's right. Big Bro, I know it's shameless, but… could you teach us!”
“We're begging you.”
“Hahaha.”
The people who came with him followed Ged's lead and bowed their heads one by one.
“What is this…”
I heard Helios's slightly flustered voice. He seemed a little tense for some reason.
“…”
When I didn't answer after a long while, it was Helios who glanced at me cautiously.
The others were still bowing, not having raised their heads.
“Master.”
“What?”
“…Aren't you going to answer?”
An answer?
“Don't want to.”
“What?!”
Ged hurriedly straightened up.
“I said I don't want to.”
Why does he look so shocked?
“Why that expression?”
“Huh?”
“Just because you ask doesn't mean I have to say yes, right?”
So why does he look so flustered?
“B-but, I heard that you were originally a guard, Big Bro…”
“And?”
The rumor that I, a former guard, had become a prisoner was circulating, which wasn't strange. It was true, after all.
“Th-that you took great care to protect the new prisoners.”
“That's not a reason for me to teach you, is it?”
“…”
In truth, I wasn't unaware of why they were pleading like this.
‘As they climb floor by floor, they must be feeling the approach of their limits more and more clearly.’
Besides, the ones with potential or the quick-witted ones would have already been invited to various fams.
‘If anything, the surprising part is that Haira is here.’
Did Ramona and Deril not invite her to their fam?
‘Her ability, her quick-witted way of handling things... she's exactly the type Ramona likes.’
Ramona liked Kia users who knew how to use their abilities with a hidden agenda.
After all, her own ability was ‘Poison.’
In any case, this was the time when people started forming groups.
Or they would have seen those who had a solid safety net, whether by joining a fam to learn or train during break times, so it was a time to feel envious.
‘In reality, what you see isn't everything.’
