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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: The True Villain
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I still vividly remembered him screaming and cursing at me when we first met, so I wasn't entirely convinced.
Helios pulled me closer.
“I told you I don’t have any prejudices. Just do it.”
If he said so, then so be it.
It wasn’t like I had any other choice.
“Oh, would you prefer it if I closed my eyes?”
“……J-Just stop talking nonsense and do it.”
“Is this your first time?”
“……”
Helios glared at me. Was it wrong to ask?
“Too bad. I get to be your first.”
Good heavens. I had imagined the original story changing many times, but I never thought something like this would change, too.
I delayed no further and lowered my head.
“Sorry.”
That was probably the last shred of my faintly remaining conscience speaking.
“It’s my first time too, so deal with it.”
Soon, our lips met. They felt soft.
‘How many seconds do our lips have to touch?’
Isn't the standard for a "kiss" too vague?
On the previous floor, when I met the condition and cleared it, I felt the movement of Kia.
‘Will just pressing our lips together not be enough?’
I parted my lips slightly. Helios, lying beneath me, flinched. The next moment, his lower lip parted further.
A large hand came up behind my neck and pulled me in sharply.
I had naturally sensed his movement, but having expected nothing out of the ordinary, I was uncharacteristically flustered.
I fell right on top of Helios’s body, and our lips locked even more deeply.
‘This aggressive?’
My mouth was blocked, so I couldn't speak. Helios pressed in deeper.
I could feel his inexperience, yet he kissed me as if he wanted to devour me.
Our breaths tangled together. He wasn't skilled. Even so, a strange, ticklish feeling stirred deep inside me.
That was the beginning.
The disciple who learned far too quickly seemed to adapt in an instant, though we had only just pressed our lips together.
My shoulders tensed slightly as his hand instinctively ran down my spine.
I couldn't even remember the last time I'd felt so breathless.
I was a little flustered. Because it felt better than I’d expected.
The prisoners here always chased pleasure. Violence, drugs, and other lewd, sexual things.
It couldn't be helped. They were just trying to survive in this limited space.
And among them, I was a dry, unfeeling person with no needs or desires.
The only thing I had was the will to live.
I slowly closed my eyes. I'd never understood why people in this hellhole made lovers and got into fights of passion.
But now, I could understand it a little.
Helios's body flinched.
Because I had moved closer.
I closed my eyes. Then when I opened them, Helios had his eyes closed.
‘……He’s beautiful.’
Where the light fell. His silver-white eyelashes trembled slightly.
He somehow looked like a saint, accepting and enduring something beyond his limits, yet the mole under his eye added the sensuality of a fallen one.
Helios followed my lead and opened his eyes.
Our different-colored eyes met in midair. I could feel our bodies, pressed tightly together, growing hot.
I had only tried to pull away for a moment to breathe, but Helios chased after me with a thirsty expression.
I felt our positions change. Before I knew it, I was the one lying inside the glass coffin where Helios had been.
The coffin, filled with flowers, was quite soft.
The difference in our strength was clear, so I could have resisted, but this time, I didn't.
“You… started this.”
Because it felt good.
“……It doesn’t matter what you are anymore.”
I didn't know what Helios meant by that. I wasn't curious, either.
The breathless feeling made my eyes keep closing.
My hand roamed over Helios's back. Perhaps from all his rigorous training, his muscles were firm and well-defined.
I traced the taut muscles of his back, then grasped his solid shoulders.
We stayed like that for a long time before finally pulling apart.
Harsh breaths passed between us. Helios was panting like someone who had been running for a long time.
When I looked up, I saw his face, completely flushed, with tears clinging to the corners of his eyes.
“……What a sight.”
“What are you talking about?”
I lightly grabbed Helios's clothes and channeled Kia into them. My power changed his outfit.
It was a uniform.
I'd done it without much thought, but it suited him better than I expected.
“Ta-da. Now you’re a prince, too.”
“……”
I thought this was probably what a future, older version of him would wear.
I gently caressed the back of Helios's neck.
“Baby, did you enjoy that?”
“……Who are you calling baby?”
Annoyed, Helios gritted his teeth and pressed against me again, so more time passed.
And it was only after a good while that I sensed something was wrong.
‘Why isn't the floor clearing?’
Helios had been able to leave the glass coffin ever since our positions switched.
It seemed the condition for Helios to be freed was indeed a prince's kiss.
Helios and I walked down the path back to where Ged and the others were.
“Hyung-nim!”
Ged ran up to me in a single bound, then tilted his head.
“Huh, Hyung-nim? Why are your lips swollen?”
“I know, right?”
He looks fine, so why am I the only one like this? It must be because a certain someone, for whom it was a first, went wild biting, sucking, and nibbling, wasn't it?
Our eyes met, and Helios looked away. The back of his neck, visible behind his collar, was bright red.
“A huge mosquito bit me.”
“A mosquito?”
“A-Are there mutant animals here too?”
“Hmm, I think it's a little different from that.”
“……”
“It was cute, though.”
“……A-A mosquito is cute?”
Seth took a step back from me, a look of slight disgust on his face.
“Are you scared of mosquitoes now too? Haha.”
“Y-You don’t understand, Brett. Do you know how vicious mountain mosquitoes are?!”
Brett laughed and teased Seth, while Haira gave my lips a strange look.
I ignored them and scanned our surroundings.
“We've seen the end of the fairy tale, but the floor isn't clearing.”
On the floor with Seth's object of fear, the condition was to seal the murderer.
“Hmm, Hyung-nim. Could there be a hidden boss?”
“I don't sense anything in particular.”
“M-Maybe there’s a-another condition?”
Maybe. I thought we just had to see the fairy tale's ending, but I guess not?
“Or maybe this isn't the real ending…”
“The real ending?”
Actually, the fairy tale doesn't just end with a kiss. There's one more part.
“They got married and lived happily ever after?”
“Ah.”
“Then are you saying Hyung-nim and the boss have to get married or something?”
“Huh? Haha. Ged, what are you talking about? Why would Hyung-nim and Helios get married? The prince has to marry the princess, the protagonist.”
“Ah, well, actually, the boss was at first…”
“Ged.”
Helios shot him a murderous glare, and Ged quickly shut his mouth.
Thanks to my thoughtlessly changing Helios's clothes in the glass coffin earlier, it seemed no one but Ged knew he had become the ‘princess’.
“Wow, my lips are itching to tell.”
“……”
Helios's glare shifted to me. But when our eyes met, he looked away.
He's back to being a teenager.
It seemed Helios and Ged's group didn't know the story of Snow White, so they weren't much help.
“Should we have a makeshift wedding?”
To think I'd even get married in the tower.
Just when we couldn't come up with a good idea, I whipped my head around.
‘Killing intent?’
My body moved on its own.
I kicked off the ground and ran. I could feel Helios and Ged's group following me, though they were confused.
“Huh, isn't this where that invisible wall was? We can get in now?”
“You're right… It was blocked before.”
“Haha, maybe the boss appeared over there?”
“Be quiet. What if you jinx it, Brett?”
But unfortunately, Brett's words became reality.
In the spot where Snow White's glass coffin had been.
A person in a black cloak was standing on the shattered pieces of glass.
‘Of course…’
It seemed this wasn't a floor we could pass so easily.
* * *
“……My child, where are you.”
The person in the black cloak looked around and spoke in a mournful voice.
Ged's group flinched in surprise.
“I-It talks?”
“The boss can talk?!”
“What's everyone so surprised about? This isn't the first time!”
