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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: My Type is My Master
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“Boss, you’re not shy with strangers, you’re just picky about their faces.”
That’s what Deril said to me once, after I’d told people not to come greet me because I was shy for a leader.
You like pretty things more than you think, she’d said.
I thought she was wrong back then, but seeing this now, maybe she was right.
As I was thinking this, I was met with a surprising side of Helios.
He had approached me before I knew it.
There had been a reasonable distance between us, but he closed it and bent down slightly.
His eyes were like those of someone observing an inanimate object, a work of art.
“...Is this a dream?”
If he came back from washing up to find his master gone and some woman sitting there, it was understandable that he would think so.
And I hoped he would.
I smiled faintly.
It was a whim.
‘Am I your type?’
That’s what I mouthed to him.
“...!”
Helios’s eyes widened slightly.
Then, as if vexed, his brow furrowed deeply, just like always.
“You’re not my type.”
His rebellious voice pricked my ears.
Helios had a handsome voice to match his face, one that often drew attention.
The male lead, who possessed all the qualities people adored, tossed out sullenly.
“My type is my master.”
…Hmm?
I tilted my head.
Even I, with my distinct lack of common sense, knew.
That wasn’t a normal thing to say, was it?
But my rational side whispered at me to finish what I had intended to do, as if nothing had happened.
My right hand soon touched Helios’s cheek. It was only possible because I was floating in mid-air.
The focus vanished from Helios’s startled eyes.
I caught him as he fell and laid him on my bed, just as I always did.
“Everything you saw was a dream. A dream you won’t even remember.”
It was a light suggestion.
I didn’t like using mental-type Kia, but a suggestion like this was better than tampering with his memories.
Then I picked up the bracelet that had fallen on the floor and put it on my wrist.
Soon, the mayfly reappeared in the room.
“Good work, Siri.”
The Kia, which had melted away in my hand, replayed the Warden’s voice as vividly as a recorder.
‘That old buzzard packed it full of nagging. How annoying.’
After listening to the whole of his crotchety message, I flopped down on the bed next to Helios.
Today will be the first and last time you see my real form.
“Sleep well.”
I gazed at his handsome face for a long while before closing my eyes.
It was a face you could never get tired of looking at.
If I kept looking at him like this, I felt like I’d be able to picture it with my eyes closed even after I got out.
And his personality had so many quirky facets. It felt new, even when I was looking right at him.
* * *
The next morning.
Mint was awakened by a scream.
Though she appeared to be in a deep sleep, she could always wake at the slightest footstep or presence.
And what she saw was the sight of her disciple, who had shot bolt upright and was drenched in a cold sweat.
What’s with him?
“What, did you have a nightmare or something?”
The face that slowly turned to her was deathly pale.
No, I thought it was pale, but…
*Fwoosh!*
The moment he looked at Mint, his face turned beet red. Mint was momentarily reminded of a tomato.
‘A fever?’
Is he sick? Then he can’t go to the 30th floor.
Mint’s thoughts were befitting of a master who preached ‘Tower life over real life’ to Helios.
“Are you sick?”
“No, not at all…”
“Then why is your face like that?”
At her nonchalant question, Helios clutched his face. He could feel the heat himself.
Helios finally managed to speak.
“...You said you had a sister, Master?”
It was an odd question.
Though puzzled, Mint nodded.
“Her, her hair color, did you say it was brown?”
Without hesitation, Mint nodded again.
“That’s right.”
“I see…”
“Why do you ask?”
“...”
Silence followed. Mint decided she was unlikely to get an answer.
Just as she gave up and was about to get up, a hesitant hand grabbed her shoulder.
Helios’s lips parted slowly.
“...I don’t remember it well, but I said something strange in my dream.”
“Really? Sounds like you had a nonsensical dream, not a nightmare. Forget about it.”
“I want to, but…”
Helios wet his lips.
He couldn’t remember the dream as a whole. But one particular phrase stuck out.
He was sure he had said it.
“My type is my master.”
Helios stared at Mint for a moment, then made a complicated expression, as if he felt wronged, or perhaps relieved.
“No, hah.”
He spoke with difficulty.
“It was a terrifying dream… because it was the truth.”
At last, he seemed unburdened.
At the same time, his pale cheeks only grew redder.
“They say dreams are the opposite of reality.”
Though he said this, Helios squeezed his eyes shut.
It was unbelievable, but it seemed he had to accept it now.
His sexual preference.
Helios had been determined to escape this place, take revenge on his father, and return to the ducal house.
The end of that thought led to a certain conclusion.
‘...The ducal line will end with me.’
And Mint, who had inadvertently changed a perfectly straight man’s sexual orientation, could only tilt her head in confusion.
“Get up. Time to train.”
“...Damn it. What the hell is wrong with my taste!”
“It’s too soon for you to be going crazy.”
“Damn it!”
Chapter 5. Hello? I am ‘That Guy’
It was definitely worth contacting the Warden, even if it meant reverting to my original form.
The Warden’s reply was this:
—Hah, quite the talent you’ve got there. To think you managed to send this. Try to cause a little less trouble, eh?
The Warden’s message, which began with nagging, finally gave an answer to my question at the end.
—Just as you heard, the master of the 100th floor has changed.
This much was what Sergeant Steven had told me. That someone had taken the leader’s position.
The important part came next.
—But there’s a problem. The current leader didn’t take the position through normal means. We’re investigating, but… there was an abnormal intervention.
There were usually two ways to become the master of the 100th floor.
Passing the 100th floor’s trial when the previous leader is dead or the position is vacant.
My being stripped of the leader position for being absent for so long fell under this category.
The other way was to oust the existing leader and take their place.
In that case, you had to kill the leader to become the next king of the Tower.
—The previous leader, ‘Clark,’ is still alive. He’s crippled, but alive.
Clark was the man who had become the leader after me.
He was one of the more moderate prisoners. The image of a scholarly face with glasses flashed through my mind.
‘The predecessor isn’t dead, yet a new king was born?’
It was strange.
Judging by the change in the Tower’s difficulty, it meant the Tower had acknowledged the new leader’s qualifications.
—It’s an unprecedented event. For a new master of the 100th floor to emerge when the previous one isn’t even dead.
The Warden said the prison’s top brass was discussing the matter because of this.
Is it right for Niflheim to acknowledge this case?
The Warden continued, explaining that the difficulty had changed because the new leader was, for now, qualified.
—For now, we’ve called in the new head and are in negotiations.
The leader is granted a certain status even by Niflheim’s high command, including the guards, and negotiations are sometimes held.
‘Negotiating with a prisoner, what a joke.’
But this place was less a simple prison and more a kingdom of its own.
Of course, the Warden’s voice as he mentioned the negotiations didn’t sound very pleasant.
‘It seems he’s not at all fond of the new king who caused this strange incident.’
In any case, he said the difficulty would soon be changed to a more reasonable level.
—Tsk, but given his personality, I can’t make any promises. You know what that means, right?
The Warden’s message concluded with those words.
—You, of all people, know what mission failure means, Mint.
In the end, he was telling me to carry out the mission on my own, no matter what happened.
‘Well, that was my plan anyway.’
The bald Warden might seem hot-tempered, but he was a man who had reigned like a king in this place for half his life.
There was a certain type of prisoner that a man like him detested.
‘Just who the hell caused such a ruckus to become the leader?’
It was surprising even to me.
To become the leader without the previous one dying. What could he have done?
Besides, the Warden never did tell me which prisoner had become the new leader.
This meant one of two things.
Either the prisoner was such a crazy lunatic that it wasn’t worth knowing.
‘Or…’
Or telling me would interfere with my mission.
