I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison

“HELLO, Sir Garett.”

The attendant introduced himself as ‘Billy’, then he glanced at Sergeant Cain. He came to deliver a message without being asked.

“Sergeant Stephen told me to send the prisoners back to the main building. And Sir Garrett, he asked you to come see him.”

“Ah, I see.”

While the attendant and Garrett were talking, unfamiliar guards approached the new prisoners. Soon, all prisoners except Helios left. Sergeant Cain hesitated but eventually left with his subordinates.

“Just wait and see, you damn newbie.”

Sergeant Cain’s expression was harsh.

“Stephen, that cunning fox must be behind this! I won’t let it go…!”

However, the target of his anger didn’t notice his enraged expression. Only a few of his subordinates noticed it.

“Prisoner Helios.”

Helios slowly raised his head at the calm voice calling him. He had a tired expression, but upon closer inspection, his gaze showed no signs of weariness. Mint found such eyes appealing.

‘It was a pair of eyes that can survive for a long time.’

Mint liked anything that could survive for a long time. Ordinary people died too easily. Naturally, as the male lead, he would’ve succeeded in such a small trial even without her help. And so, Mint felt content.

“Hey, earlier… Ah!”

Helios was startled while trying to speak. A hand grabbed his chin violently and pulled it closer. When he looked up, Mint, wearing the disguise of Garrett, was very close to his face.

“It’s not ‘hey’, it’s Sir Garrett.”

“….”

“It would be nice if you could remember the name of your assigned guard.”

Mint chuckled lightly. Helios couldn’t take his eyes off her intense gaze. Her hand messed up Helios’ hair.

“Very well done.”

“….”

Helios involuntarily opened his mouth. At first, it was undoubtedly a warm and comforting sensation. But it didn’t take long for him to realize that it was an illusion.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Mint’s hand kept moving, either pulling or caressing Helios’ hair. The purpose was unclear, whether it was pulling hair or messing it up. And it hurts.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“Praising you.”

Was this what they call a firm hand?

“It’s stated in Guard Manual Section 7, ‘Attitude of Guards Towards Prisoners’. Appropriate praise and rewards can be effective in taming prisoners at times.”

“What kind of praise is this?!”

“Oh dear.”

One thing to note here was that Helios was much taller than Mint, who was disguised as Garrett. Mint had slightly increased the height of the virtual character ‘Garrett’ to avoid movement restrictions. As a result, when she grabbed Helios by the chin, so he had to go down and bend his back considerably. Whether Mint didn’t like how she was holding Helios’ head or not, she narrowed her gentle eyes.

“Oh, I don’t like this.”

With a light touch, Mint lightly tapped Helios’ leg, and his leg collapsed effortlessly. He ended up kneeling.

“Ah, finally.”

Helios was bewildered. What is this?

“…What are you doing?”

“It’s the appropriate height for patting. You’re too tall.”

Helios was speechless with astonishment.

“Let go! You shouldn’t treat people like this… like a dog!”

“That’s not entirely wrong. We call prisoners ‘dogs’ here. That’s the correct answer.”

“Let go!”

Mint looked at Helios and pressed his head firmly.

‘What should I call this feeling? Cute?’ Mint thought.

Because of Helios’ struggling, he seemed quite… cute. Could a person’s head be this soft? Or perhaps nobles were different after all. Moreover, despite coming to an unclean prison, a fresh scent emanated from him. Mint found it fascinating and pressed his head firmly. Helios, who was resisting, couldn’t remove Mint’s hand.

Helios was secretly surprised. Even though he was exhausted and in a weakened state, he couldn’t remove one hand when there was such a big difference between their size?

‘It doesn’t seem like he’s using strength,’ Helios thought. Not to mention, there was no flash of light like when she saved him from violence before. In other words, Mint didn’t seem to be using Kia like last time. Of course, this was Helios’ misconception. Mint was indeed using a faint amount of Kia.

“Oh well, Prisoner Helios. Just accept it quietly.”

“You… What kind of power…?!”

“That’s right, that’s right. Your hair feels really nice.”

“Shut up!”

Well, at this point, Helios was still a beginner who had just started to sense Kia. He couldn’t defeat Mint’s power. When she thought so…

Whoosh!

Mint’s eyes widened for a moment. Helios broke free from Mint’s hand and grabbed her wrist, appearing as if he was overpowering her due to his back bent forward. Mint was surprised. Even if she didn’t exert much power, she was still using Kia.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop?”

‘This guy… must be something else.’

Mint blinked her eyes. Her hand felt warm from his touch. Of course, the heat hadn’t cooled down yet.

“I’ll keep my promise. Since you survived, I’ll teach you how to make a shield,” Mint said, her lips curling into a small smile.

‘Promises must be kept, after all.’

With a thud, her body which had been pushed down was now on top. Helios felt a jolt in his knees, and suddenly he found himself kneeling and sitting back down. Against his will, he lifted his head.

“This guard aspires to be someone who earns trust through promises and rewards.”

Mint, wearing the disguise of Garrett said with her gloved hand hovering close to Helios’ chin.

“And I don’t like cowards.”

“…!”

Although there was no hand gripping his chin, he definitely felt his chin being lifted—it was undoubtedly Kia.

“I wish my dear assigned prisoner would listen well.”

Mint said with a grin. Now, grow quickly, child. You’ve got a lot to learn.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

I am an excellent guard who keeps promises and offers trust with rewards. At least, that was how I’vee resolved to appear. It takes effort to become such a guard. First, I wake up in the morning and read the manual. Lately, I’ve been changing my routine a bit and reading the manual summary given by Sergeant Stephen as well. He provided some useful information from time to time.

※Note!
Sergeant Cain, responsible for the lowest rank, is a serious ‘old fogy’. However, a newbie guard must be able to assert their opinions properly. Pretend to follow orders while subtly doing things slightly differently or expressing your own opinions! Then you’ll see interesting things happen!

I read advices like this.

※Caution!
Sergeant Cain, responsible for the lower rank, has a nasty temper. When he use his Kia, take cover in the left room!

There were some useful pieces of information written. There was even a detailed and strikingly similar story about the warden.

‘A new guard would likely find this information useful.’

Yet, the information was useless for someone between two to four years into their career.

‘What kind of person is he?’

For a moment, I was puzzled by the question, but I quickly lost interest. My goal was to elevate the protagonist to the top of the tower. So, now that the male lead has entered and a month has passed, a new routine has been added to my daily life.

“Do you know what a Kia is?”

“…?”

There was a trial on each floor of the tower once a week, so a month passing means there have been four additional trials. Naturally, the male lead passed the subsequent tests easily and reached the fourth floor. In reality, the lower rank floors were easy once you grasped the knack. The only difference on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors was the type of animal encountered.

“What is Kia?”

“…It’s the energy source that constitutes this world, the source of power spread throughout the world.”

“Good, you’re not a complete idiot.”

“Even after hearing the same thing for a whole month, if you still don’t know, you’re truly dense.”

He replied with a mocking tone, “If I knew all I would hear for a whole month was boring theoretical lessons, I’d want to strangle myself and go back in time.”

“Suicide in prison is prohibited.”

“….”

Helios raised an eyebrow. His expression looked uncomfortable. After observing for a month, the male lead turned out to be an intriguing human. Disliking this and that. Uncomfortable no matter what he does. Therefore, she concluded that since he hates everything, she’ll just do anything.