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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Mama
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It was a surprise, as everyone had assumed that person was this floor's boss.
After all, while the mannequin-like entities on the 29th floor had spoken, their voices were bizarre, like something out of an old gramophone.
Their tone was as immature as a shouting child.
Even the voice from the dartboard had felt unsettlingly inhuman.
But this person spoke with a perfectly human voice.
“……”
Helios alone was staring at Mint. Something, he thought, was very wrong with her.
She was a person who never showed any expression besides a smile, yet something was subtly different now.
It had started the moment the boss began to speak.
Soon, the boss, who had stood with its back to Helios and Ged's party, removed the hood of its cloak and turned around.
The party was stunned, each for a different reason.
Because the boss's face was the most human-like of all the imitations they had seen so far.
“Whoa, that's a real p-person.”
“Haira, is the boss using its glamour ability again?”
Haira slowly shook her head.
“No, I don't think that's a variant using glamour… And I know that person.”
To Haira, who had played the role of the 'mirror,' it was a familiar face.
“That's the 'queen' from this fairytale. The new queen…!”
“Gasp, th-then. Is she like the murderer from the 30th floor?”
Haira turned to Helios.
As the leader, he always decided their course of attack. But Helios wasn't interested in the boss's identity.
Rather, his gaze was so fixed on one place that he couldn't pay attention to anything else.
*What is it?*
Following Helios's gaze, Haira froze.
At the end of his line of sight was Mint.
Mint was wearing an expression Haira had never seen before.
Rage.
Yes, that was rage. Just looking at it sent a chill down her spine.
“Excuse me, have you seen my baby? I'm looking for my baby.”
It was strange. The queen Haira had seen looked like an ordinary noblewoman, but this figure was different from the one she'd just seen.
She had the face of an ordinary woman. Perhaps in her late thirties or forties. She had a kind-looking face, and on her forehead was a peculiar scar shaped like a trident.
The boss looked at the party and smiled sadly.
It was chillingly human, terrifyingly real.
“If you see my baby, will you let me know?”
“……”
“‘Mama’ is looking.”
As soon as those words were spoken, an immense malice and black Kia poured out from the boss.
*Tsk.* Helios heard a click of a tongue. He and Ged's party were sent flying backward.
“Ugh…!”
When he came to his senses, he found himself collapsed a great distance away.
And floating before them was a familiar golden disc.
“Ugh, Big Bro again?”
“No, more importantly, wh-what was that just now?”
“Haha… I've still got the chills.”
It was a colossal power, unlike anything they had ever felt. The entire party knew it instinctively.
That this was not something that should have appeared on this floor.
“Maybe it's because he was the target?”
“Seems like it.”
Helios bit his lip. He wanted to help, but he couldn't.
The fact filled him with a sense of powerlessness.
Of all places, it had to be here, where he had just experienced the greatest happiness of his life.
“This is a first for me, too. I'll just have to endure it.”
Helios clenched his fists.
He knew the gap between them was clear, but for once, he wanted to be of help to his master.
Mint would never admit it herself, but she was generous.
Theirs was a relationship where she gave endlessly, and Helios only received.
He felt anxious. Their relationship would end the moment Mint decided to stop, or if she simply disappeared.
*Will she get angry if I step in here?*
*No, I'll tell her when we get out of the Tower. That I want to train more. To get stronger…*
“Captain!”
“Helios! To your side!”
Helios, who had been lost in thought while gazing endlessly at the distant Mint, finally sensed it.
It was already too late. The boss was standing right beside him.
The boss grinned from ear to ear.
Seeing the hand approach right before his eyes, Helios felt a sense of doom.
***
“‘Mama’ is looking.”
Mint was bewildered. Flabbergasted.
*And here I thought this was just another floor to pass through.*
*To think the one person I least wanted to see would be materialized right before my eyes.*
The Kia of the Tower's 33rd floor must have created this after peeking into her psyche.
Because there was no way the person before her could be an object of fear for Mint.
“Where could my baby be?”
Just as Mint expected, the boss was configured with a skill level matching her own.
However, the Tower had only seen the abilities of Mint in her 'Garet' guise, and since Mint was hiding her true skills, it was more than manageable.
The only problem was that the balance of power was a bit precarious.
*Can I fight while perfectly protecting them?*
She had sent Helios and Ged's party flying backward, but even that distance felt precarious.
*At this point, I'm starting to want to see the face of whoever is running this show.*
She was getting to the point where she wanted to see the face of the son of a bitch who set this insane difficulty.
The boss before her was a figure Mint knew well. The person who had been the master of the Tower when Mint was a child.
The master of the 100th floor, two generations before she took the title, so to speak.
“Baby, baby…”
Of course, the real person hadn't been someone who'd lost their mind and spoken like this.
It had only materialized the face; the floor's Kia clearly hadn't been able to properly peer into her mind, failing to construct a personality to match.
The problem was its martial prowess, which allowed it to handle the golden discs she summoned without issue.
*What should I do…*
*Should I use all the power I can in this shell of Garet?*
*It'll be a problem if my true form is revealed.*
Even while having these thoughts, Mint moved her body skillfully.
The moment her fist slammed into the boss's face was when she realized something was wrong.
*What the hell.*
The instant her fist landed true, the boss split in two. Mint was dumbfounded.
*What kind of 33rd-floor boss uses a cloning technique?*
Entities in the Tower using special abilities was something that shouldn't happen until at least the 50th floor.
Mint gritted her teeth.
One of the bosses had already headed for Helios.
She tried to rush over after directing all her golden discs toward the boss she was fighting, but.
The boss's power held Mint in place.
Mint, who was already feeling a surge of rage, was slowly reaching her limit.
The appearance of a boss arbitrarily wearing the guise of 'Mama' was grating enough.
But the moment the boss that had rushed toward Helios reappeared, gripping his neck in one hand.
“Baby, baby. Mama is looking for you…”
The thread snapped.
“Bullshit.”
Mint let out a short laugh.
A green light, not the gold she used as Garet, began to gather in Mint's hand.
It was a mint-colored light, the same as her hair—a bluish-green.
“You're saying things that would make the real 'Mama' laugh from hell.”
What was about to happen couldn't be helped. She couldn't fight a boss of similar strength while also protecting Helios from death.
Her eyes met with Helios's, whose own were fluttering shut as his consciousness faded, his neck still in the boss's grip.
Helios seemed to be saying something with his eyes, but she couldn't understand it.
“Baby, baby… Let's go together…”
“Who the hell created something so disgusting.”
The green light in Mint's hand gathered and formed a shape.
It was a long rifle.
Mint expertly gripped the rifle and aimed it at the boss.
Raise the weapon. She lifted the rifle.
Aim. She zeroed in with the sights.
“Mama thinks it's a wonderful weapon. Shall I show you?”
She steadied her breathing.
Without twisting or snatching at the firearm, she identified her target.
*BANG!*
Standing fire. Mint's rifle belched green smoke.
A single shot.
Just one shot, yet the 33rd-floor boss evaporated without a trace.
The lingering smoke wafted from the rifle, like the aftermath of a real gunshot.
“Go to hell.”
Rifle still in one hand, Mint watched the boss disappear without batting an eye.
Until the boss, which had taken the form of someone who was both her savior and a person who had selfishly died, had vanished completely.
The rifle slowly faded from Mint's hand.
Over by Ged's party, the golden disc she had sent earlier would have shielded their eyes.
And all that remained.
“*Cough, cough!*”
Was Helios, who had fallen to the floor, letting out a series of harsh coughs.
