PMEVBO 68

Palet was waiting outside the closed audience chamber.

“To see the Pope in my lifetime…”

And for His Holiness to even call my humble name… Perhaps I’d used up all my luck to enjoy this honor. Was that why I’d been especially unlucky until now?

Then, naturally, the memory from five days ago surfaced. Without a doubt, that day was the most unlucky day in Palet’s 25 years of life.

After resolving the escape commotion involving Prisoner Number 1004 and returning, the guard instructor immediately began selecting guards to be assigned to the 9th floor. He said two new recruits would be assigned to the 9th floor, but surprisingly, one position was filled right away. There was a volunteer.

It was Eve, who had sneaked out alone and returned while the training officer was away.

However, aside from Eve, no one else wanted the 9th floor. Faced with this, the training officer made an extreme choice. He scanned the roster and simply picked someone at random. As a result, Palet was assigned to the 9th floor. Even though he himself had hoped for the 1st floor.

Unlike other floors housing well over a hundred inmates, the only prisoner confined to the 9th floor was prisoner number 1004. That didn’t mean the workload on the 9th floor was light, though. It was because the number of guards assigned to the 9th floor was significantly lower.

‘…Just look at how dozens of new recruits are assigned to other floors, while only two are assigned to the 9th floor.’

Because the 9th floor required minimal staffing, the guards assigned here were all busy. New recruits were no exception. Palet had to work the early shift today, and to make matters worse, he was also tasked with handling the transfer of Prisoner Number 1004.

Actually, someone had offered to take over transporting prisoner number 1004 for Palet. It was Eve. While it was welcome news to hear, the instructor happened to call for Eve at that moment. In the end, transporting prisoner number 1004 fell to Palet. It was lamentable.

‘Come to think of it, Eve… that guy is really peculiar…’

Not only did he volunteer alone for the dreaded ninth floor that everyone else avoided, but he also wanted to take charge of the medication duties and transfers for a prisoner notorious for being ruthless.

‘Is he the type who enjoys seeking out hardship…?’

Palet couldn’t fathom why someone like Eve would choose a prison guard position. It seemed meaningless for someone like him to rot away in this dreary prison alongside the inmates.

‘With a face and body like that, he could live his whole life without ever getting his hands dirty…’

He was inwardly lamenting Eve’s beauty, which wasn’t even his to claim, when the visiting room door opened.

Palet reflexively turned his gaze and saw Prisoner Number 1004 walking out of the room. He couldn’t help but gasp.

Palet had never properly looked at his face before. The man was too terrifying, his crime was the infamous ‘Hayut Massacre,’ and he’d even attempted an escape. But the man he now saw, without meaning to, looked nothing like he had imagined. 

He was tall enough that Palet had to look up, but so thin that his frame seemed even more frail than his own. His hair, cut haphazardly like an animal’s mane, glowed ashen gray under the orange-tinged hallway light. His face, sculpted like porcelain, seemed somehow more sacred than the Pope he had just seen. Even though he was clad in a prisoner’s uniform, shackled, and barefoot.

Then, the man turned his head toward Palet. His pupils, shimmering amber in the light, were impossible to discern. Perhaps offended by his transfixed gaze. Prisoner Number 1004 suddenly extended a hand.

‘I’m going to get hit……!’

Palet crouched down as he closed his eyes.

Yet no matter how much time passed in that state, he felt no pain. Peeking cautiously through narrowed eyes, he saw Prisoner Number 1004 standing there, expressionless, one hand outstretched. He was holding the Tali cord connected to the restraint collar around his own neck.

‘Ah, he wants me to take it…?’

Palet hesitated for a moment, then cautiously extended his trembling hand. The instant his fingertips brushed the man’s palm, his breath hitched.

Prisoner Number 1004 obediently handed the cord to Palet. It seemed his guess had been correct after all.

Only then did Palet straighten his body. As he stared at the Tali cord handed over by the man, a soft voice reached him.

“…Why aren’t you going?”

“I’m… I’m going…!”

His voice cracked high in panic. Palet hurried his steps.

Prisoner Number 1004, whose crime was the infamous Hayut Massacre, and who had attempted to escape just days ago. The fact that he had to escort such a prisoner alone to the visiting room had left him no room for complacency earlier. So he hadn’t realized until now…

‘Now that I think about it… I feel like I’m doing something I shouldn’t.’

He knew it was a precaution to smoothly subdue prisoners who caused trouble. Even so, the sensation of holding something like a leash and dragging a person along hit him quite intensely. He genuinely worried he might start developing strange tendencies if this kept up.

Palet kept unclenching and then clenching his hand unnecessarily as he walked. Meanwhile, Prisoner Number 1004 followed quietly behind him. Perhaps because he was barefoot, Palet could barely hear his footsteps. Palet stole a quick glance at him out of the corner of his eye. Only then did he notice the wound on his neck.

Through the long, vertical gashes, blood that hadn’t dried glistened. In that moment, he recalled the hand that had handed him the Tali cord just moments before.

The dark red, dried blood clinging to the ragged edges of torn fingernails.

‘Then those wounds on his neck… Could he have scratched himself like that…?’

To scratch his own flesh so viciously like that… he clearly felt no pain. By any normal standard, it was grotesque and horrifying. Yet strangely, he felt pity before revulsion.

‘Palet, you’re mad…’

The other was a monstrous fiend who had killed hundreds. To feel sympathy for such a monster. 

I must be completely insane.

‘It’s all because of that face that seems to have a story….’

A madman mass murderer looks like that? The world is truly unfair.

Before they knew it, they had arrived in front of Cell 1004. Palet entered the cell with Prisoner Number 1004 and securely fastened the Tali cord to the wall. He stepped out of the cell and locked the door behind them, and fatigue hit him like a wall.

“Ah, I want to go back to the dorm and sleep too…”

…Why did I have to get the early morning shift today?

He envied his roommate, Eve, who was probably lying in his dorm bed right now, fast asleep.

***

‘If you say you want to get out of here, I’ll make it happen.’

The Pope said that to me. But I shook my head.

‘There’s no need.’

My voice came out calmer than I expected.

The Pope didn’t add anything else. He just stared at me with an inscrutable expression, then told me to go ahead and leave. That was it.

Did I make the right choice…?

The thought wouldn’t leave my mind the entire way back to my cell.

For now, there shouldn’t be a problem. The target of praise is Iser right now. …But what if the next target is someone outside the prison? Then, I might regret today’s choice.

Actually, now isn’t the time to worry about that…

(1/3)D-0

(20h 13m 2s)

…Because I couldn’t even predict how the immediate quest would turn out.

D-0(20h 13m 1s)

D-0(20h 13m 0s)

D-0(20h 12m 59s)

The time limit was shrinking, yet there was nothing I could do right now.

In the cramped cell, I felt an illusion of water rising around me. I felt helpless and anxious, like someone about to be drowned alive. I felt like I was going mad. I was chewing on my innocent index finger.

Beep—!

Beep—!

Beep—!

──────【 System Error 】──────

Unexpected intervention detected.

‘████’ temporarily gains authority.

Player’s location is fixed to

‘Cell 1004’ by ‘████’.

─────────────────────

“Hah.”

I was already going crazy with anxiety, and now ████ was messing with me too.

That ridiculous location lock message suddenly gave me an idea.

The only way to temporarily disable the location lock: the Guidance skill.

…By now, its cooldown should be over.

The thought reached that point, and I manipulated the status window as if possessed.

──────【 Guidance 】──────

Guiding ‘Player’ to ‘Where XXX Hayut is’.

─────────────────────