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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Warmth
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“I won’t die. Never….”
The voice of a child echoed in her ears. It was her own younger voice.
The voice that had muttered to itself while locked in solitary confinement on the day she’d hit someone. The sleepless nights vanished in the blink of an eye.
Yes, I have to admit it.
“I understand.”
“…What kind of strange nonsense are you about to spout now?”
That my disciple is a frail, soft, normal person. And a weak one at that.
“My master has a certain look when he’s about to say something nonsensical. And that is, right now…”
“Want me to put you to sleep?”
Helios’s mouth snapped shut.
Minte wasn’t looking at Helios.
“Want Mama to hold you?”
Someone she didn’t particularly want to remember was smiling beside Helios.
“It’s okay. Having a nightmare isn’t something to be scared of.”
“No, wait. Who said I had a nightmare?”
“Nightmares melt away in the warmth of a person’s body.”
Helios closed his mouth again.
“Someone told me that.”
For a brief moment, an expression both pained and softened flickered across Minte’s face.
Helios wondered why that fleeting look was so memorable. Because it was human?
Because it came from an insipid and somewhat strange human who would likely say, “Oh, really? Can’t be helped,” even if the world were to end tomorrow.
“They said nightmares are weak against warmth.”
“Who on earth?”
At Helios’s muttered question, Minte smiled faintly.
“Mama?”
“Your mother?”
“Something like that.”
“……”
“Wow, that’s a terrible look you’re giving me. Like, ‘A person like you had a mother?’”
“What…! Who made a face like that?”
“Well, you’re not wrong. She’s dead.”
Helios was dumbfounded. He hadn’t said a word, yet he’d suddenly been turned into a degenerate son.
“Now, now.”
Because of that, Helios couldn’t resist the force with which Minte pulled him.
By the time he came to his senses, the two of them were lying together on the cramped prisoner’s bed.
“…Let go of me! It’s too small!”
A flustered Helios struggled.
“There, there. Time for sleepies.”
“I said, let go!”
“Yes, yes. I’m too tired for a lullaby.”
“Fuck!”
Minte’s hand pressed firmly against his chest.
“There, there. Even the baby’s cursing sounds sexy.”
“Fuck! I’ll kill you! Let me go!”
Helios thrashed about like a madman, infuriated by Minte’s behavior of spouting nonsense with her eyes closed.
But despite his large frame, he couldn’t move an inch.
‘You cheater…!’
This brute of a master had resorted to using Kia to subdue him.
Once his struggles ceased, Minte began to pat his back.
When Helios repeatedly cried out that it was too small, she even used her Kia to widen the bed.
…She was annoyingly, pointlessly competent.
“*Yawn*, what a troublesome disciple.”
“……”
“Get some sleep. Don’t you know the saying, ‘Physical strength is national power’?”
“……”
“Ah, right. That’s not a saying from around here, is it?”
After muttering nonsense for a while longer, Minte closed her eyes.
Silence fell.
*Thud.*
Helios squeezed his eyes shut. Minte’s head was leaning on his shoulder.
The tips of her still-damp hair touched him. The moisture only made his throat feel drier.
“Haa…”
A languid sigh escaped him.
He looked down to see Minte sleeping, her breathing soft and even.
She looked young, almost childish.
It was hard to believe she was older than him.
The warmth of her body against his made it feel as though her usual demeanor, so cold it seemed her blood was made of ice, was a lie.
“Why…”
Helios murmured, his eyes cast downward.
Come to think of it, he had never been this close to another person’s warmth.
His mother, who had despised his father, ran away as soon as he was born.
The nanny who raised him, following his father’s orders, had placed a dagger in his hands instead of a rattle.
The only thing his young self could hold onto was the cold, hard bars of his cradle.
Nothing changed as he grew up, and it likely never would have.
He never thought a person raised like this could live as a proper adult.
He might have lived his entire life alone.
The irony was that the place he first felt warmth was in a prison cell, in a penitentiary filled with the world’s worst criminals.
Helios slowly closed his eyes.
…This was wrong.
Yes, this was already wrong.
He had been trash, and he would never be able to stop the strange feelings that filled his imagination.
He would never be able to forget the warmth of today.
“…It’s your fault.”
Helios muttered, his voice full of resentment.
Then, he carefully turned to face her sleeping form.
‘Do I have to… admit it?’
Yes, she was the one who had offered this kindness that wasn't quite kindness.
So why was he the one agonizing over it?
He should just accept it as it is.
His elegant face gradually flushed red, but the sleeping Minte was none the wiser.
Of course, she would wake up with a poke, but Helios had no intention of doing so.
Strangely, the longer he watched her, the more his heart began to beat with a steady rhythm.
And before long, he drifted off to sleep.
* * *
“Maintenance time, you mean?”
The next day.
Today was the day Helios and Ged’s party were to ascend to the 29th floor.
The fact that they cleared floor after floor in a single attempt, in trials where it was normal to fail, had made Helios and Ged’s group a minor topic of conversation among the prisoners.
Of course, since they were still low-rank, it was only a topic among their peers.
No, to be precise, Helios was regarded with a bit more caution for having beaten a Mid-Rank/Grade 3 prisoner.
“Yeah. The entire Tower has gone into maintenance.”
Before me was Sergeant Steven.
The sergeant had his chin in his hand, a look of interest on his face.
‘Maintenance for the Tower.’
No prisoner could enter during maintenance. Everyone was forced to rest.
‘Why now?’
It was certainly something to focus on.
“Judging by your face, my successor has figured it out too.”
“Yes. Going into maintenance means… the leader of the prisoners has changed, doesn’t it?”
It was only natural to think so, as Tower maintenance meant that the leader of the Tower had changed.
The highest rank. And the king of the prisoners.
There was a reason the leader of the Tower had so many titles. It was because of the incredible things they could do.
“I’m impressed every time I see you. How did you memorize that entire boring manual? You really are ambitious.”
“……”
“Well, anyway. Yeah. It’s kept quiet, but this is the Tower’s way of letting us know. The leader has changed.”
It was strange.
‘After I gave up the leader’s position, someone else must have taken it.’
And the next leader was the Top-Rank/Grade 1, the master of the 96th floor.
He was a man who had always been ranked 4th overall.
I knew he was hiding his true strength, and when I heard he had become the next leader, I accepted it without suspicion.
Besides, for a prisoner on the highest floors, he had a moderate personality, so I thought it was for the best…
A leader doesn’t change so easily. Usually, it only happens when someone strong enough to defeat the boss emerges.
That meant someone had defeated the leader and become the next chief.
“Who is it this time?”
“Would you even know if I told you? You’re still a fledgling.”
“…That’s true.”
“Hey, don’t just agree so readily, successor. I don’t know yet either. But I think it might be a woman this time? Man, everyone here is scary.”
I tilted my head.
Who could it be?
“But you know, there’s something strange about it…”
However, since it wasn’t directly related to Helios climbing the Tower, I let my interest wane.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely unrelated, so I had to stay sharp.
‘The content of the Tower’s trials will change a bit.’
I don’t know why or when this Tower came into existence, but I know its functions all too well.
I clicked my tongue.
I could see what was coming.
Unfortunately, my prediction was not wrong.
* * *
A few days later.
The maintenance ended, and the Tower’s doors opened.
Helios and Ged’s party flinched the moment they stepped inside.
“A red wheat field…?”
When they entered the 29th floor, a landscape completely different from the previous floors awaited them.
While everyone else was bewildered, I was the only one calmly observing our surroundings.
Red.
‘The new leader must really have a thing for blood.’
The faces of a few female prisoners from the 90th floor and above naturally came to mind.
“You’d all better be on your toes. The boss on this floor will be completely different from the ones before.”
At my relaxed words, everyone turned to look at me. As always, I had no intention of telling them everything.
An unexpected situation would be good training, after all.
