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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: A Hidden Talent
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It was a whisper, so quiet only Helios could have heard it. His hand, having resisted her power, still trembled.
And yet, as he held me, his gaze remained unshaken.
“Well now, are you going to hit me?”
“……”
Helios soon released my hand and slowly rose to his feet.
“That won’t happen.”
His voice returned to normal as he averted his gaze.
“True.”
I suppose the day Helios hits me will never come. By the time he reaches the top, I won’t be here anymore.
“You can get up.”
I gestured to Ged and his crew, who were hesitantly getting to their feet.
* * *
“You all, over here.”
Ged and his companions, half in disbelief, slowly approached Mint.
Though a small commotion erupted when Mint, tired of waiting, used her disc to shove them forward.
They sat down meekly before Mint.
“Hold still.”
“……Master, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m sizing up your candidate companions.”
Helios watched Mint. She was staring intently at Haira and Brett.
Her gaze was so intense it looked as if it could pierce right through them.
He felt a little displeased.
Doesn’t she always look at me like that?
Helios flinched at the thought.
What am I thinking?
About the person I share a room with?
Crazy. Being in this prison must be messing with my head.
As Helios tapped his cheek with his fist, he realized Mint was doing something slightly different from how she usually looked at him.
‘Light?’
For a moment, a strange golden light had definitely flickered in Mint’s eyes.
“Hmm……”
“What is it?”
In response to Helios’s question, Mint simply shook her head slightly.
Her calm, expressionless face made Helios recall the Mint from moments ago.
—*Don't be alarmed. I'm just transmitting my memories to you.*
The moment Haira used her ability, Helios had heard a voice echoing in his mind.
He was then rapidly fed Haira’s experiences and explanations.
Afterward, Mint’s demeanor as she crushed Ged’s group with sheer force was truly chilling; she seemed to feel nothing at all.
That’s right. Even with an aura that suggested she could kill someone at any moment, her face was completely devoid of emotion.
As if she were simply carrying out a duty.
And the fact that she wore such a gentle face doubled the bizarre feeling born from the dissonance.
‘And yet…’
It wasn’t unpleasant, nor was it uncomfortable.
To think she considered it an attack on me and got angry on my behalf…
‘I’m getting ahead of myself.’
While he was lost in thought, Mint straightened up.
“Tsk…”
She clicked her tongue, ignoring Helios’s puzzled stare.
Mint was feeling a mix of slight admiration and astonishment.
‘What a jackpot.’
These people Helios chose as his companions.
Well, it was a combination of her little test to see Helios’s reaction and the righteous protagonist being unable to ignore people in distress, but still.
In a word, the people he chose were a ‘jackpot.’
Unlike her brief glance before, a closer look revealed every detail.
The funny thing was, every single one of their abilities…
‘They’re perfect to be used for the protagonist’s benefit.’
This must be fate, too.
As befitting the protagonist of this world, every single one of his choices were ingredients that would yield the best results for him.
The protagonist had surely chosen them out of pity and a sense of responsibility.
‘Is this why the righteous hero always wins in stories?’
But Helios is the protagonist of a grimdark story who’s supposed to turn evil, so justice shouldn’t have anything to do with him.
Ah. Or is he ultimately righteous because he gets revenge on bad guys?
“Let me be clear, I’m not very merciful.”
“Th-that’s fine!”
“Me too!”
“Haha. It would be an honor for someone like you to take us in. I’ll keep calling you Big Bro.”
“……”
Haira bowed deeply to Mint, a gesture of apology.
But Mint had already forgotten about it.
In truth, she hadn’t even felt much anger. Just a slight sense of displeasure, perhaps?
“Let me tell you in advance…”
The kind of displeasure that comes from someone messing with a person under your control.
“The person you’ll be following as your leader isn’t me, it’s him.”
Mint pointed to Helios, and all eyes naturally turned to him.
Helios wore a bewildered expression.
A moment later, they were lined up in the clearing. Helios stood on the left, and Ged’s group on the right.
Mint was sitting leisurely on a tree stump when Ged, who had approached at some point, cautiously eyed her.
“Um, Big Bro…”
He flinched when Mint raised her gaze but pressed on earnestly.
“Should we call you Master now, too?”
“No, I’d rather you didn’t.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because I have no intention of being your master.”
“……”
“Call me what you’ve been calling me, not Master.”
“Yes, Big Bro…!”
“He’s the only one who can call me Master.”
“Ah…”
Ged and the others felt a strange twinge for a moment, but it was fleeting.
“Oh, and Haira. Don’t try poking at Helios to provoke me like you did earlier.”
“Yes, I understand. But what’s the relationship between you two? Just a master and disciple? A guard teaching an inmate?”
“Something like that. Helios is all I have.”
“He’s essential for me to get out,” Mint said nonchalantly.
“Touch him again, and I won’t let it slide.”
“Yes…”
This was their last chance. They had to cherish it.
“You only get one, so you should cherish it. Your life, that is.”
“……”
At Mint’s words, everyone naturally turned to look at Helios.
For some reason, though he’d done nothing wrong, Helios felt his ears begin to burn.
“……You’ll see once you’re around her, but my master tends to lack common sense.”
“What’s this? Why are you suddenly making me out to be some senseless person?”
“Isn’t it because you say things in a misleading way, Master!”
“What did I say?”
Helios opened his mouth to speak, then just rubbed his face instead.
Haira glanced between the two, quickly reading their dynamic.
‘…Is one of them still unaware?’
Of course, she was completely off the mark.
“More importantly… let’s start with some healing, shall we? Let me be clear. The first reason I took you in was Helios’s will.”
“……”
“The second is because of him.”
Mint pointed a finger at one person. The chosen one (?) was none other than Seth.
Seth, who had remained silent except when the others were speaking, was startled.
“M-me?”
Seth pointed at himself, bewildered. His name was Seth Galligan.
Judging by his charges alone, he was a villain for the ages.
He had been implicated in a national drug case, taking the fall for his organization’s boss and ending up here.
However, having spent his entire life being abused and doing nothing but manufacturing, he was rather timid.
“Yeah, you have a healing ability, don’t you? Go on, heal them.”
He was startled to hear something from Mint that he’d never heard in his life.
“What? B-Big Bro. Me? A h-healing ability? This is the first I’ve ever heard of it…!”
Even among Kia users, those with healing and recovery abilities were rare.
So much so that such people were deemed sacred, gathered, and managed by the temples.
They were generally known as priests or healers.
But him, a guy who only ever made drugs, having a healing ability?
“Oh, you didn’t know yet?”
“M-my ability is elemental k-kinesis… and a very weak one at that.”
Seth had always believed he’d survived this long only because he’d had a good companion in Ged.
Seth clutched his long hair, on the verge of tears.
With his youthful face and fair skin, he looked like a rather pretty boy, or perhaps a young man.
“Ah, so you can’t use it. That’s fine.”
“Wh-what?”
Watching this unfold, Helios felt a familiar sense of foreboding.
“There’s nothing impossible in this world. I’ll make it possible for you.”
* * *
A few days later.
Truly, there was nothing impossible in the world.
It was only a matter of not having found a way to make it possible.
This saying might not hold true elsewhere, but in this prison, it was practically the truth.
And so, I ultimately made Seth awaken his healing ability.
