Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: The Eve of the Storm (3)
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It was just an ordinary day.
I woke up as usual, exchanged morning greetings with Diana.
Sat at the same table with her and ate breakfast together, just like always.
Nothing special, but savoring these little everyday moments had a positive effect on my mood.
Even after showing my face, I ate with my helmet on.
"H-Huh, just in case other guests barge in..."
Diana seemed even more cautious than I was.
Anyway, after breakfast came teatime.
I drank the milk coffee Diana poured me without a second thought.
I stared blankly into space at the sudden status window.
"W-What's wrong?"
I turned my blank gaze to Diana.
Diana had put her baby milk into the coffee, yet she looked at me as if asking what was wrong.
Her hand fidgeting with the plate, unable to meet my eyes properly.
Diana was pretending not to know.
It was similar yet different from last time when I drank the milk latte.
Back then, I had asked her myself if she could give me her breast milk. It was a chance to gain stats for free—I couldn't pass it up.
This time, Diana had served the milk latte herself.
Of course, it was probably the breast milk she'd expressed in the Arachne's Miracle changing room, but still...
'...Isn't this basically her tacitly permitting me to have her breast milk?'
My mind went blank for a moment.
"H-Huh, doesn't it taste good?"
"...No."
I slurped down the breast milk coffee again.
The nutty, sweet flavor of the milk flooded in, along with the thick, matured scent of a fertile female.
The concentrated essence secreted by a woman of childbearing age for her future child.
Sorry, kids, but I'm claiming this first.
"I could have this every day."
"...H-Huh, r-really...?"
"The coffee flavor actually gets in the way a bit. The milk tastes so good I'd rather just drink it straight."
"......"
Diana's face flushed red in an instant as she bit her lower lip and bowed her head.
"...I-If more milk comes in next time... I'll make some more..."
"......"
The expressed milk was all gone now.
All that was left was for her to produce more.
In the awkwardly embarrassing atmosphere, I expressed my approval with silence.
'Ha. What a great Labyrinth city to live in.'
After drinking Diana's breast milk coffee, I headed to the guard post early in the morning.
I walked the hour-and-a-half distance, familiarizing myself with the surroundings, and gazed at the massive walls stretching out ahead.
The wall dividing the noble district from the explorer district.
'First time seeing it up close like this.'
The guard posts were divided among the east, west, south, and north walls, and the one I was visiting was for the eastern explorer district.
As I approached, a guard who had been scanning the area gasped, straightened her back, and smartly shouldered her spear.
"W-What business brings you here?"
The fresh-faced female guard stiffening at the sight of me had a tense expression, trying to hide her nerves.
Her rigid eyes scanned my muscular frame warily.
"Hey. You, come out."
"Eek. Sorry!"
Another female guard, unable to stand it, shoved the newbie aside and stepped forward.
"The helmeted man... Balkan, right?"
"Yes."
"Show me your explorer ID."
The entry procedures went quickly.
"Junior Explorer Balkan. Confirmed. I'll take you to the squad leader. Follow me."
Following the guard's guidance, I entered the guard post. Straight ahead from the entrance was a staircase leading underground.
The damp, humid underground air hit me.
Clang!
The moment I stepped down, a harsh metallic sound echoed.
I turned toward the noise.
A bushy-haired woman was staring at me through the iron bars, smirking.
Her restraints clashing against the bars had made the sound.
"Ignore her. They're lawless scum who're no use to the world even if they stay alive."
"Hehe. Hee. Us?"
Clang! Clang!
The bushy-haired woman kept banging the bars with her restraints.
"She's throwing a fit for food. Starve 'em a few more days, and they'll know their place."
The bushy-haired woman froze at those words. Facts must hurt.
"W-Wait—! I was wrong—"
The guard didn't even glance back and pressed on toward her goal.
The underground felt like a cramped prison.
No walls for privacy—perhaps because human rights were a luxury for lawless folk—just open black iron bars blocking them off.
Meaning the guards passing the corridor and I were fully visible to them.
"Gasp! A dick!"
"Male over there! Don't just go—give me one turn! Please! I beg you! I've been rotting here for a year already! Can't even masturbate with these restraints!"
Ignoring the lawless ones reaching out and ranting from both sides wasn't easy.
The guard ahead bowed her head apologetically.
"...Sorry. Most guards are women, so this hasn't been an issue until now..."
"It's fine. I'm used to it."
"...Pardon?"
"Nothing. Let's hurry."
The lawless ones, pent-up with sexual frustration and going berserk, shoved their arms through the bars and flailed wildly.
Thud.
One lawless woman's finger grazed my arm.
"Nngooh...!"
"Th-That bitch! She came just from touching a man!"
"Fucking slut. Keep your hands off."
"...Gasp! What the hell are you rubbing on my finger! Get off!"
"...All of you, four days no food."
The guard harshly punished the lawless ones who had started fighting among themselves.
We proceeded down the corridor, and another staircase appeared.
"From here on, they're lawless folk on par with mid-level explorers. Safety's guaranteed, but... stay alert just in case."
I nodded and descended straight to the guard post's basement level 2.
Gathered mid-level equivalents meant fewer inmates than level 1, and it was quiet.
We reached the destination without further trouble.
"Ah. You've arrived. Must be unfamiliar here—thanks for coming."
The guard squad leader, who had been peering beyond the bars in the corner of level 2, greeted me.
"Seeing a new world was interesting enough."
"Glad you see it that way. Normally I'd offer coffee from upstairs, but these bitches started freaking out at dawn."
The squad leader turned back to the figure beyond the bars.
Following her gaze, I saw a rabbit-headed beastkin and a plain-looking woman.
"Hiiiik...!"
The woman who freaked out in terror at the sight of me was Blaz clan's executive Gurumimi.
And.
"...You've come."
The woman looking up at me with polite yet fearful eyes was Rayhem, the mad grad student harboring 10 years of resentment.
Why the hell had this bitch summoned me all the way here?
Rayhem stared at the man before her.
A massive build packed with muscle, amplified by the intimidating helmet.
The moment she saw him, traumatic memories surged, pressing down on her mind.
The unidentified monstrosity that appeared on floor 5, mercilessly torn apart by his axe.
Rayhem and Gurumimi had witnessed it while captured.
And in his axe swings, she saw not a man, but a beast—or a terrifying predator.
That battlefield was seared into their brains.
"Huff, huff..."
Rabbit beastkin Gurumimi gasped in terror at the sight of Balkan and dropped her eyes to the floor.
"So. Why'd you suddenly call me here?"
At Balkan's question, Rayhem glanced at Gurumimi before looking up at him.
"I know how to wait. Ten years exploited under that vicious professor taught me that."
Rayhem unwittingly used polite speech.
Instinctively cowering before a predator.
"Waited so well you turned lawless, huh. Whatever, not my business. Get to the point. No time to waste here."
"...Haha. Before that."
Rayhem nodded toward the squad leader and other guards.
"Ha. You telling us to scram?"
The squad leader laughed incredulously, but Rayhem stayed silent.
If no statement came, the squad leader was the one who'd suffer.
"...Sorry to leave you with this. They're nasty ones—be careful."
"It's fine. Just make the reward generous."
At Balkan's reply, the squad leader's group moved away from us.
They kept a safe distance for any contingencies, but voices wouldn't carry.
'...Fuck. What is this?'
By now, an odd sense of déjà vu crept in.
Balkan couldn't understand why Rayhem insisted on talking alone.
'What's this bitch gaining from this? Why drag me in specifically?'
Grad student habits? Impossible to read her thoughts.
"You. What's your goal?"
"Nothing particular, but..."
Rayhem spoke right away.
"I know how to wait. Enough patience to rot under one person for nearly ten years. And my sentence is under ten years."
Not all lawless got extreme punishments.
Rayhem had mitigating factors.
Rayhem explained her background to Balkan in detail.
Academy-trained illusion mage.
Arpo Professor's ten-year pet slave in labyrinth ecology.
She'd offered her research results, earning him fame, and he'd used it to create relic artifacts, etc.
Balkan, listening quietly, waved his hand.
"So? What do you want? Super competent you had a professor backer, and he's trembling without you, gonna bail you out on bond?"
"Could be, but that's not what I meant."
Better suicide than going back under that professor.
Rayhem had seen huge potential in Balkan's actions in the labyrinth.
Piercing her illusion magic, which few had ever broken, in one go. And that fearsome martial prowess.
Even as a Junior Explorer now, he'd soar someday.
But she'd committed a crime and ended up here.
Against the wrong opponent, too.
She'd made an enemy of the one who would soar.
Sentence: around ten years.
In that time, he might not just soar—he could rule the skies.
Overthinking? Maybe. But Balkan's image shredding the monstrosity still haunted her.
Ten years from now, emerging from this hellhole prison.
Could she, who had opposed him once, live unscathed?
Wouldn't he, remembering the grudge, rain down endless revenge, making normal life impossible?
Rayhem glanced up at him.
Through the helmet slit, eyes brimming with chilling intimidation stared down.
'This guy will absolutely retaliate.'
Her survival instincts rang alarm bells.
One way to survive.
When her sentence ended, ensure the man who'd grown influential in the Labyrinth city held no anger toward her.
And to calm his wrath, she'd have to heap merits to soothe him.
Conveniently, she had a card to play.
"How about crushing a lawless clan for free?"
"You bitch...!"
Gurumimi beside her gaped at Rayhem in shock.
"...Oh?"
At the betrayal unfolding before him, Balkan smirked coldly.