I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 176

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 176

It wasn’t laughter born from joy to begin with.

Of course, Helios had prepared another device in case Mint stepped on the escape route.

But looking at her, he couldn’t help but think first that it was hard to guarantee whether it would work.

On one hand, a hollow laugh escaped him.

From the moment Mint escaped the room, he immediately noticed her movement.

At that time, while every nerve in his body stood on edge, he also thought that what was bound to come had come.

He had always thought that his Master wouldn’t be imprisoned forever.

“If I catch you?”

“What?”

“Then when will you let yourself be caught again? No, will you even let yourself be caught?”

“…”

“Even if I someday surpass you and oppress you with force, would you truly accept it?”

Mint met the distrust in Helios’s eyes. It seemed to turn black as ash and scatter away.

The moment Helios confined Mint, he had made up his mind. That the moment she escaped the room, he would rush there without delay and block her path.

What if he said he would die if she left? Would she hesitate even once? Would she look back?

He had countless thoughts.

Why, when he had finally gotten her in his hands, when she was in his space, was he not satisfied?

Why was he tormented by anxiety?

Why couldn’t you and I have a healthy relationship?

Helios now knew the reason.

Master had left too easily. She had truly left without leaving behind a single trace of regret.

That memory had collapsed Helios’s foundation. It felt like he was still drifting in the ocean depths with no support.

Even now, in this moment when he faced the Master he had longed for so desperately.

Helios’s lips trembled.

Proudly, coldly, coolly. Nonchalantly, and calmly.

He had practiced countless times.

That he would never show a weak, crumbling appearance in front of you.

But.

It had been a meaningless resolution.

“…Master, I love you.”

Mint’s eyes widened slightly.

Helios’s confession wasn’t that of someone filled with excitement, but rather like a reminiscence spoken calmly yet trembling before a cliff, like a final will.

“…But if it continues like this, I’ll have to live forever with the anxiety that you might leave at any moment.”

Helios touched his own face.

Even at this moment, he should be holding onto Master so she wouldn’t leave.

Even if he had to use force…

“It’s alright.”

But for how long?

“However, there will probably be days when things aren’t okay.”

Helios realized.

What he truly feared wasn’t simply Mint leaving and running away again.

The things he had thought about because he feared that departure.

“Even if it means killing you, crippling you, or taxidermying you—doing whatever it takes to keep you by my side.”

Helios’s lips trembled slightly.

“…Isn’t that something only a criminal would do?”

He knew. From the moment he had subdued and confined her, he was no different from a criminal.

And it wasn’t as if he had lived infinitely righteously for the past three years either.

But he wanted to love the person he cherished and loved most in a good way, in his own way.

Because he treasured her so much, he hoped that nothing distorted or broken would mix murkily into that love.

Even though betrayal had pushed and pushed him until he became someone drowning in obsession at the edge of a cliff.

Even in that moment, he.

Because he loved her completely.

A stream of water flowed down his cheek.

“I don’t want to do to you what my father did.”

Mint’s eyes trembled finely.

“Now I understand. I was suffering. Even while keeping you captive.”

His gaze as he looked at her while shedding tears was pitiful. Yet also resolute.

A terribly stubborn face.

It was once a face she had loved. Because it was admirable how he stuck to his justice without breaking under any circumstances.

But that face seemed to be saying it was okay to leave now.

For the first time in her life, Mint felt a sense of crisis caused by another person. The sensation of someone else pushing her away.

It was a dizzying yet unpleasant sensation.

“I, Master, you…”

“Helios.”

Mint approached Helios with her hand still dripping blood.

She reached him in an instant and firmly grasped the hem of his clothes.

For the first time in her life, an anxious voice caused by another person flowed out.

Mint herself didn’t recognize it.

“If you’re thinking of spouting nonsense about giving up on me, you’d better shut that mouth for a moment.”

“…”

“I don’t want to turn your precious mansion into ruins.”

Her Kia still wouldn’t come out as she wished. Nevertheless, Mint’s aura was threatening.

Mint discovered unbroken stubbornness in Helios’s gaze.

She bit her lips tightly.

“How should I bind myself to you?”

“…”

“What would make you feel at ease?”

It wasn’t as if Mint was entirely pleased with this pursuit, this confinement.

It was sweet only because the person who did it was Helios.

She wished to be free, but on the other hand, when Mama’s funeral ended, she was also someone with clear goals.

It was a path she would walk alone, and she thought she wouldn’t keep anyone by her side.

But she knew she would go find Helios.

“What would make you feel at ease?”

Mint realized. She was annoyed at her disciple who dared to try to let her go. Even if that wasn’t it, she was angry at him for not chasing after her.

She felt like she could burst with anger at any moment, but seeing his face crying so pitifully, she felt too sorry to hit him.

Did you spend countless hours crying and grieving like this?

“…I’m sorry.”

The apology she had been repeating to herself finally reached its owner.

Mint gripped his clothes tightly as if they would tear.

“No matter what, this apology will never be as sincere as you want it to be.”

If she went back to the past, she would make the same choice.

So she could never give Helios the apology he desired.

“Because that’s the kind of person I am.”

“…”

“I don’t know how to apologize. I don’t even know if I’m sorry.”

Mint reached out and cupped Helios’s cheeks with both hands.

The tears that hadn’t quite fallen from his eyes streamed down.

They were like gemstones. Something she had wanted to possess.

“But I thought about what would be needed to keep you from crying.”

From the moment I walked in here with my own feet, I gave up the most important thing and came to you.

Helios.

“I’ll give you myself.”

Helios’s eyes widened slightly.

Mint watched with satisfaction as the stubbornness in his eyes began to waver.

His lips, which seemed like they would never open, twitched and then slowly parted.

“…How will you give yourself?”

Mint recalled the mark that Hades had placed on her. The Kia mark he had branded so he could know Mint’s whereabouts wherever she was.

Though it didn’t work properly because Mint’s power was stronger.

“Bind me to you.”

Mint declared.

“Let’s place a curse on me so I can’t go anywhere. So I can’t leave you.”

Helios’s eyes wavered.

It was something his kind and good nature couldn’t accept, but he would waver.

Of course, Helios wasn’t as good as Mint thought, but it was also Mint who had made him this way.

In any case, Mint exploited that moment of wavering.

“You don’t need to know the method. I’ll teach you.”

This is how a capable master should be used, isn’t it?

Mint grabbed his face and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.

A blissful satisfaction filled her.

“I’m yours.”

She had drifted for so long. She was a wanderer floating without direction.

The subtle feeling she had when Pontos, her oppa, said “welcome” was probably because she realized she was a soul drifting without a place to belong.

“In return, give me you and your life.”

I will put down roots in you.

While playfully blaming you for drawing me in when I could have lived well alone.

“Or try saying you love me.”

Yes. I understand.

“Yes.”

This feeling of wanting to be caught by you willingly, even if you don’t beg me not to leave.

“I think I love you.”

So it was love.

Mama, it seems your daughter who was called a monster could also do something like love.

Mint pulled him close once more and kissed him.

Soon strong arms wrapped around her waist, and Helios embraced her as if to overpower her, responding to the kiss while falling even deeper.

Rustle, rustle.

The buttons on Mint’s clothes came undone one by one.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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