I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 35

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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 35

“I won’t die. Absolutely not….”

A child’s voice reached his ears. It was his own young voice.

The voice that had muttered when locked in solitary cell after hitting someone. The sleepless nights quickly disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Right, I should acknowledge it.

“I understand.”

“…What nonsense are you about to spout now.”

That my disciple is a fragile and soft normal person. And that he’s weak.

“Master has a certain expression when spouting nonsense. That’s exactly….”

“Want me to put you to sleep?”

Helios’s mouth snapped shut.

Mint wasn’t looking at Helios.

“Should Mama hold you?”

Someone he didn’t particularly want to remember was smiling next to Helios.

“It’s okay, having nightmares isn’t particularly scary.”

“No, wait. Who said I had nightmares?”

“Nightmares melt away with human warmth.”

Helios closed his mouth again.

“Someone told me that.”

For a brief moment, an expression that seemed both pained and softened crossed Mint’s face.

Helios wondered why that fleeting expression remained so memorable. Because it was human?

Because it came from someone so dry and strangely detached that they’d probably say ‘Oh, really? Can’t be helped’ even if the world ended tomorrow.

“They say nightmares are weak against warm things.”

“Who exactly?”

At Helios’s muttered question, Mint smiled slightly.

“Mama?”

“Mom?”

“Something like that.”

“….”

“Wow, what a terrible expression, like you’re wondering if someone like me even had a mother?”

“What…! Who made such an expression.”

“Well, you’re not wrong though. She’s dead.”

Helios was dumbfounded. He hadn’t said anything, yet suddenly became an unfilial child.

“Come on.”

Because of that, Helios couldn’t resist at all against Mint’s pulling force.

When he came to his senses, two people were lying together on the cramped prison bed.

“…Let go, it’s cramped!”

A flustered Helios struggled.

“There, there. Let’s sleep.”

“Let go!”

“Yes, there there. A lullaby would be too much since your brother is tired.”

“Damn!”

Mint’s hand pressed firmly against his chest.

“There, there. Baby’s cursing voice is quite sexy too.”

“Damn! I’ll kill you! Let go!”

Helios thrashed about like a madman at Mint’s behavior of spouting nonsense with her eyes closed.

Despite his large frame, he couldn’t move an inch.

‘How underhanded…!’

This ignorant master had ultimately subdued him using Kia.

When his struggling stopped, Mint patted his back.

She even used Kia to widen the bed when Helios kept shouting that it was cramped.

…She was annoyingly and uselessly competent.

“Yawn, what a troublesome disciple.”

“…”

“Just sleep. Don’t you know that stamina is national power?”

“…”

“Ah, right. That’s not a saying from here.”

After muttering nonsense for a while, Mint closed her eyes.

Silence flowed.

Thud.

Helios squeezed his eyes shut. Mint’s head was leaning against his shoulder.

The tips of her still-damp hair touched him. The moisture made his throat feel dry instead.

“Haa…”

A languid sigh escaped from him.

Looking down, Mint was sleeping with steady breaths.

She looked young and childlike.

It was hard to believe she was older than him.

Her body temperature was warm, making it seem like a lie that she sometimes acted so coldly he wondered if her blood was made of ice.

“Why…”

Helios muttered with downcast eyes.

Come to think of it, he had never been in contact with another person’s body temperature like this.

The mother who bore him ran away as soon as he was born because she hated Father.

The nanny who raised him gave him a dagger instead of a rattle on Father’s orders.

Only the cold, cold cradle post that young him could grasp.

Nothing changed as he grew up, and it would have remained so in the future.

He never thought that someone who grew up like this could live as a proper adult.

So he might have lived alone his entire life.

The irony that the place where he felt warmth was a prison cell, where the world’s worst criminals gathered.

Helios slowly closed his eyes.

…Wrong.

Yes, it was already wrong.

He was trash, and he would never be able to stop the fantasies that made him feel strange emotions.

And he would never forget today’s warmth.

“…It’s your fault.”

Helios muttered with deep resentment.

Then he carefully turned his body to face the sleeping face.

‘Should I… admit it?’

Yes, he was the one who arbitrarily showed something that wasn’t even kindness.

Why should he be the one worrying about this?

He should just accept it as it is.

His graceful face gradually turned red, but sleeping Mint couldn’t know.

Of course, a light poke would wake her immediately, but Helios had no intention of doing so.

Strangely, the more he looked, the more his heart quietly fluttered.

And before he knew it, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“Maintenance time, you mean?”

The next day.

Today was the day Helios and Ged’s Group would ascend to the 29th Floor.

Helios and Ged’s Group, who cleared floor after floor in one go through trials where collapse was normally expected, were a small topic of conversation among the prisoners.

Of course, since they were still low-grade, they were only a topic among those prisoners.

No, to be precise, Helios, who had beaten down a mid-level/3rd grade, was viewed with more wariness.

“That’s right. The entire Tower has entered maintenance?”

In front of me was Sergeant Steven.

The sergeant had his chin propped up with an interested expression.

‘Tower maintenance.’

During maintenance, no prisoner could enter. Everyone was forced to rest.

‘Why now?’

It was certainly something worth focusing on.

“From your expression, it seems my successor has caught on too.”

“Yes, entering maintenance means… the Boss of the prisoners has changed, doesn’t it?”

That was because Tower maintenance meant the Tower’s Boss had changed.

Supreme grade. And the king of prisoners.

There were many titles for the Tower’s Boss for a reason. Because what they could do was extraordinary.

“I’m amazed every time I see you. How did you memorize all of that boring manual? You really have tremendous ambition.”

“….”

“Well, anyway. Yeah. They keep it quiet, but the Tower lets you know. That the Boss has changed.”

It was strange.

‘After I abandoned the Boss position, someone else must have taken it.’

And the Next Boss was upper-tier/1st grade, and the 96th Floor Owner.

In terms of overall ranking, he was always 4th place.

I knew that person was hiding his power, and when they said he became the Next Boss, I accepted it without doubt.

Moreover, for a Prisoner on the Top Floor, he had a moderate personality, so I thought it was rather good….

The Boss position never changes easily. Usually it only changes when someone who can beat the Boss wins.

That means someone defeated the Boss and became the next leader.

“Who’s next?”

“Would you even know if I told you? You’re still a greenhorn.”

“…That’s true.”

“Hey now. Why are you readily agreeing, successor? I don’t know yet either. But this time it seems to be a woman? Man, everyone here is scary.”

I tilted my head.

Who could it be?

“But you know, there’s one strange thing….”

However, since it wasn’t directly related to Helios climbing the Tower, I moderately lost interest.

Of course, it wasn’t completely unrelated, so I had to stay alert.

‘The Tower’s trial content will change a bit.’

I don’t really know why or when that Tower came to exist, but I know its functions all too well.

I clicked my tongue.

I could see the future.

Unfortunately, my prediction wasn’t wrong.

* * *

A few days later.

Maintenance was finished and the Tower’s Door opened.

Helios and Ged’s Group were startled as soon as they entered.

“Red Wheat Field…?”

When they entered the 29th Floor, a completely different landscape from the previous floors awaited them.

While everyone was confused, only I calmly observed the surroundings.

Red color.

‘The new Boss must really love blood.’

Naturally, the faces of several female Prisoners on the Top Floor above the 90th Floor flashed through my mind.

“You’d all better stay tense. A completely different boss from before will appear on this Floor.”

At my leisurely words, everyone stared at me. As always, I had no intention of telling them everything.

Unexpected situations would make for good Training in their own way.

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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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