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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Vicious Methods
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It wasn't a difficult task.
"You were born with a talent for two types of Kia."
"Huh?"
I'd tell him what his talent was, and then create an 'environment' where he had no choice but to use it.
See? Simple, right?
"*Sob, sob, sniffle. Sniff.*"
I sat at the base of a tree, chin in hand. My gaze drifted to Ged, who was standing nearby.
"Hey."
"Y-Yes! Big Bro! You called?"
"Does he always cry that easily?"
"Ah..."
Ged glanced at Seth, who was squatting in a corner by a tree and sobbing his heart out, and gave an awkward laugh.
"He's... a little... timid."
"Is that so?"
Ged quickly returned to his spot.
Ged's spot was in front of a tree wrapped in iron plating. For the record, I was the one who put the iron there.
Ged scowled and started punching the iron.
It must have hurt. Still.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
*'Such a cheerful sound.'*
As I yawned, a quiet whisper reached my ears.
It was Ged whispering to Helios, who was standing nearby.
*'He can whisper all he wants, I can still hear everything.'*
I closed my eyes, pretending not to notice.
"Hey, Helios."
"What is it?"
Ged's deep voice and Helios's pleasant one alternated.
"About... the training. Has it always been like this?"
"Like this?"
"No, I mean the way he made Seth awaken his power!"
A sound like a scoff or a dry laugh escaped with Helios's exhale.
"Ah, you mean his vicious methods?"
Listening in, I tilted my head.
*'Vicious?'*
I recalled the moment I made Seth awaken his healing Kia.
"I need a volunteer."
"What kind of volunteer? To help Seth? I'll do it, Big Bro!"
Now that I'd decided to whip Ged's group into shape, heading to the 23rd floor immediately was out of the question.
If I didn't raise their abilities, they would soon hit a wall and be unable to climb the tower any further.
Since Ged had readily volunteered, I took him aside and told him what we were going to do.
"A-Are you really going to do that? Really? For real?"
"Don't worry. Nothing will go wrong, and I'll take full responsibility."
"Ugh..."
Then I brought Ged back in front of Seth and made him bleed.
Seth's eyes widened at the sight of the red drops of blood dripping to the ground.
"Kia comes out more easily the more desperate you are."
"W-Wait a second..."
"For your information, if you don't heal him, your friend will die."
Of course, that was an exaggeration. The wound wasn't fatal.
I just used a little trick to make it seem like he was bleeding more than he was, which made Ged's face turn deathly pale.
And Seth, who finally burst into tears, awakened his healing Kia that day.
*'A material-type summoning ability.'*
Seth's healing method was to summon creatures that could heal.
It was a fairly rare ability.
*'I think there's someone with a similar ability at the heroine's temple.'*
Of course, it didn't end with the awakening. We moved on to other training.
When it comes to Kia, you have to push forward right after awakening it.
"Alright, next up is a fracture."
"*Waaah!*"
"Okay, now a burn."
"*Aaaah!*"
"Next is frostbite."
"*Hic, sob, sob...*!"
And just like that, I improved his ability.
"So, you've been going through this kind of training alone all this time, Helios? My goodness..."
"Get away from me, will you? You're being weird."
"Hah, I almost shed an unmanly tear!"
"You already did."
"That wasn't a tear! It was an overflow of camaraderie. Can you feel my affection?"
"I don't need it."
Listening to Helios and Ged's conversation, I found it a bit strange.
I only used Ged on the first day. After that, all the injuries were on my own arm.
Developing Kia is similar to learning a new skill in a game.
For example, if you learn a 'slash' skill with a sword, it means you can also 'stab'.
In other words, if you can heal a stab wound, you can also heal burns, cuts, and frostbite. It's best to learn the sensation for all of them at once.
"Stop it. What's all this?"
"Hm? Right. We're done with everything we needed to learn anyway."
"..."
As of today, Seth had succeeded in healing the major types of injuries. He'd gotten the hang of it. Though for some reason, he was still sniffling today.
A few days ago, on the day Seth learned his healing Kia, I led the entire group to the 23rd floor.
And then.
I threw them in with the order to protect Seth, who had used up all his strength healing.
*'This is how you build teamwork.'*
People grow stronger in a crisis.
And they overcame it just fine, didn't they? What's so vicious about that?
"Hey, Seth, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, *sniffle*. I'm okay..."
"Hang in there! Let's get through this together like men! Tell me if it's too hard."
"N-No, it's fine. If I can get stronger and be helpful, even through these vicious methods..."
And strangely enough, a certain sense of camaraderie seemed to have formed between Ged's group and Helios.
But it seemed to have been born from them uniting against me, their common villain.
*'Isn't this a classic case of 'biting the hand that feeds you'?'*
Well, as long as their skills improve, I don't really care.
The stronger Helios's companions became, the higher the chance—and the faster the pace—of Helios reaching the top and becoming the leader.
"An opening!"
Helios, who had been concentrating with his spear, suddenly dodged to the side.
A dagger made of Kia embedded itself where Helios had just been. Then it was silently absorbed.
Into the shadow of Brett, who had dropped down from a tree.
"Hahaha, that was a miss? And it was my finishing move, too."
Brett approached with a wide grin and held out a hand. The moment Helios reached out to shake it...
...a gleaming awl shot toward Helios.
Helios's spear struck Brett, and by the time he came to his senses, Helios was pointing the tip of his spear at Brett, who was lying on the ground.
*'A spear isn't his ideal weapon, but he wields it well.'*
Brett's ability, like Helios's, is a material type—the ability to create weapons.
However, because he was also born with a slight talent for the elemental type, his ability fused into creating weapons from shadows.
I was the one who taught him that, though...
I stopped watching Brett and narrowed my eyes slightly.
"Amazing, aren't you? And I thought you'd only just awakened your Kia. Hahahaha!"
Brett took Helios's hand and got up.
Brett's ability is akin to that of an assassin.
That's why I had Brett train to aim for Helios's vital points.
Helios, on the other hand, was trained to defend against or subdue Brett's critical attacks, no matter when they came.
For the record, on the day I sent them to the 23rd floor with an exhausted Seth, Helios and Ged's group managed to clear it.
*'I didn't know Helios had leadership qualities, too.'*
Truth be told, I hadn't taught them anything about coordinated attacks, so I did have to step in at the last moment to prevent them from being wiped out.
But they cleared over eighty percent of it on their own.
And yesterday, they cleared the 24th floor as well.
Starting tomorrow, it's the 25th floor's turn.
*'But the 25th floor...'*
While I was lost in thought, I felt a faint, tingling sensation at my temple.
"Too weak, Haira."
"..."
Haira uses a mental-type Kia, so she can't train carelessly with the others.
*'It's the kind of ability that can easily drive someone mad if they lose control.'*
I handled her attacks personally.
*'If I get the chance, I want to ask about Ramona and Deril, too.'*
I had left them all behind, but one thing still bothered me. I looked up at the sky.
There stood the massive tower, looking as if it would pierce the heavens.
From the 25th floor onward, it won't be easy.
* * *
"Hand."
Evening. After dinner and rest, the only things left on the schedule were roll call and lights out.
When I looked up, Helios was holding his hand out to me.
He must have just washed up; water dripped from the ends of his silver-white hair.
A towel was draped around his neck, and the buttons on his prison uniform top were mostly undone.
It was a different look from his usual neat-freak attire.
Instead of giving him my hand, I tilted my head.
Above the three beauty marks, the droplet of water clinging to the corner of his eye was also strangely alluring.
"Come to think of it, I've never seen you wash up, Master."
"Ah, I go when you're asleep. They don't call me a guard for nothing, you know?"
"More nonsense."
In truth, I didn't really need to wash, since I could always use Kia to keep my body clean.
And I had no desire to use the men's communal facilities.
"Oh, is it because you had to go through all the trouble? Or were you displeased that I wasn't wet?"
"What nonsense are you..."
If that's what you want. Before Helios could finish his sentence, water began to drip from my hair.
I had summoned water above my head and let it fall.
"Mm, it's damp."
"Of course it is. Hurry up and dry it..."
"Ah, I should."
It had been too impulsive. I slicked my hair back with one hand while unbuttoning my soaked top with the other.
