I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 25

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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 25

Anyway, it has nothing to do with me, doesn’t it?

The Warden’s order that promised my release—nothing else mattered besides that one thing.

‘…Though I have no regrets.’

I lifted my foot and stomped down with a thud, causing the floor to crack and cave in.

Ged and Seth’s faces turned pale, excluding Haira and Brett.

It was an easy and simple method for intimidating weak bastards.

“If you understand, get lost.”

“B-Boss!”

“Garret.”

“…Yes?”

“That’s my name.”

I’m not your boss. At my additional words, his innocent face turned into a tearful expression.

“I don’t know what you were trusting when you approached me in the first place. You saw how I deal with annoying things, didn’t you?”

The bugs on the 22nd Floor—at my additional words, Ged’s face turned ashen.

The Fighting Spirit I had slightly revealed probably played a part as well.

“If you’re going to leave anyway, go to the West Side of the Rest Area. There’s a decent guy there.”

“…”

“If you’re lucky, you might meet a good Master there.”

The reason I said this was purely because of Haira alone.

Anyway, I felt slightly indebted for not being able to take care of her properly at the end while being the Boss.

“Wherever we go, no place will accept us, will they?”

It was Haira’s voice that stopped me as I was about to turn around.

When I looked back, even Brett had a slightly disgusted expression, but Haira alone had a calm face.

‘She really is the type of talent Ramona would like.’

I was slightly impressed, but that was the end of it. There was no reason to show any more kindness or goodwill.

“That’s not my concern, is it?”

I felt several surprised gazes watching me speak politely to Haira, but that was all.

In the end, the four people led by Ged went back.

Ged looked dejected and gloomy even from a distance.

“…You seem like a villain.”

Helios muttered while looking at their retreating figures. I was puzzled.

“Helios, if you mutter that quietly, do you think I won’t hear you?”

“I said it for you to hear.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

I expected grumbling about how it wasn’t a compliment to come back, but an unexpected question returned instead.

“…Why didn’t you ask for the reason?”

“What do you mean?”

“They say no one will take them in anywhere.”

“Ah.”

So our Male Lead was concerned about them. I finally understood.

That his frowning face this time wasn’t due to his usual displeasure, but because he was feeling uncomfortable.

I blinked my eyes.

“Why should I listen to that?”

“….”

I let out an “ah” and smiled slyly.

“Disciple, you seem to have forgotten. This is a prison.”

Where prisoners gather.

“So here, being called a villain is a compliment. The worse you are, the longer you survive.”

* * *

The reason why no one would take in Ged’s Group anywhere.

Mint wasn’t particularly curious about or wanting to know this reason, but she soon learned it in a way she hadn’t wanted to know.

She had just finished dinner with Helios and was heading to the rest area.

Since evening rest time was shorter than lunch time, she was urging Helios to move quickly.

Unfortunately, because it was crowded, she had chosen a different path than usual.

‘Oh no.’

The dull sounds that came as soon as she turned the corner weren’t particularly unfamiliar.

Thud, thwack! Thud!

No, Mint had already known there was a fight from the moment she entered the corridor, but she didn’t know who was involved.

“You vermin!”

Do you know this?

When you hit a person, it makes a sound similar to hitting a wheat sack filled with wheat and some air.

The ones being beaten were Ged’s Group.

Brett was already collapsed over there.

Ged and Seth were earnestly protecting someone while getting beaten.

Mint found it surprising. The one they were protecting was Haira.

“Acting all manly. Khaak, ptui!”

“Just hand over that woman, will you? You’re worse than cockroaches.”

“Hey hey, just kill them.”

“Ah, no way. The guards in our block are sensitive these days. Get dragged away for killing one vermin? That’s a loss, a loss.”

“What…”

Mint’s eyes met with Haira, who was lying under the men protecting her, desperately looking up.

Her face was desperate.

“Help, please help me!”

It was a completely different expression from when she had spoken with a calm face during the day.

“….”

Was it just bad luck?

To accidentally encounter bad guys who only target low-level prisoners?

The more Mint stared with an expressionless face, the more Haira looked back with desperate, venomous, and poisonous eyes.

As if she would never forget if they didn’t help.

“Promise Mama, dear. That you’ll help people in trouble.”

Mint briefly recalled an old memory.

The person called ‘Mama’ who had been her backer.

“Hey, I’m older than I look, you know? What’s with calling me Mama?”

“Won’t you help?”

The memory that had surfaced didn’t fade away, and overlapped with Helios’s voice.

She turned her head.

“Why?”

“What do you mean why… They asked for help over there.”

Helios had an expression of incomprehension.

Why wouldn’t you help when you have the power?

They had become acquainted, albeit briefly.

However, Mint tilted her head with an unreadable expression.

“Hmm, a sense of responsibility? Or perhaps shallow sympathy?”

Helios frowned.

Mint found that frown that appeared every time quite fascinating. If he kept frowning like this all the time, he’d get wrinkles before being released.

“I can’t cause trouble.”

A dull sound echoed. Passing prisoners whistled and cheered excitedly.

“I’m a guard. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“…”

“I’m a person for you.”

Helios felt a tingling sensation at his fingertips.

Why did this person, who was a guard yet claimed to be his master, always stare at him so intently?

Born into a noble ducal house but having never received proper love or warm gazes, it was distressing for him.

In the midst of all the commotion, he could only see his master. He could only hear that voice, youthful yet clear for a man.

“I’ll only care about you.”

His lips felt parched.

“And the only thing I want to care about is you alone.”

He wanted to complain as usual that this or that, weren’t they the same thing, but his lips wouldn’t part.

He didn’t quite like this inexplicably tense feeling. It felt like his own body wasn’t under his control.

What snapped him back to reality was a sharp scream.

“Kyaaaah!”

Even during their argument, Ged’s group’s misfortune continued.

Helios hurriedly turned his head away.

“So you’re not going to help?”

Mint found Helios’s urgent expression truly fascinating.

It was an expression rarely seen except when he was in crisis during training or tense in the Tower.

“You can help them yourself.”

“….”

“I didn’t raise him weak enough to get beaten up by those bastards.”

“…Who said anything about raising anyone.”

Helios turned his back without hesitation.

“If Master wasn’t going, I was planning to go myself.”

He retorted with a sulky tone.

Watching Helios’s back as he strode away, Mint suddenly remembered something.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t specifically taught him methods for dealing with multiple people yet?

“Kek, who the hell are you!”

“….”

“Huh, look at this. Isn’t that the famous guy?”

“Oh oh, that’s right! Looking at his face, it’s him!”

Helios’s first move was quite good.

‘His senses have developed from facing swarms of bugs.’

Truly remarkable talent. To grow this much just from fighting for his life.

Since bugs are group creatures, his instincts would have become even sharper.

‘Are the ones attacking him Lower Grade 1 or Middle Grade 3?’

In fact, the memory that had begun to surface upon seeing Haira’s venomous expression still lingered in one corner of Mint’s vision.

“I don’t want to. Do you know how many people are in trouble? Why should I help them?”

“Then let’s do it this way.”

Helios fought better than expected.

But in Mint’s eyes, he was still just a rookie who had barely reached the 20th Floor.

“Noob.”

Mint muttered expressionlessly.

“Only as far as you can reach. Only where you can extend yourself. Help people within those limits.”

“Everyone here is a criminal, so why?”

“Because you have to live here.”

In Helios’s hand was a clumsily summoned spear.

Helios was Material Type but weak at creating and summoning materials.

‘He has no choice, since he doesn’t know what weapon suits him best yet.’

Since Helios, who had already been receiving attention knowingly or unknowingly, had intervened, all the prisoners’ gazes turned toward him.

She could feel Ged’s Group, who had barely escaped, leaning against the Wall and catching their breath.

“I hope you don’t forget your humanity.”

Mint ignored the memory that surfaced.

She had decided long ago not to think about things that gave her headaches.

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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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