Chapter 135
“Vivi!”
Enoch, who had been watching from a distance, rushed over to support Viviana.
“Kido Beatrice, what the hell are you doing?!”
I looked at Enoch who was screaming at me, his face flushed, with an expression that said ‘and what of it?’
“I hit her with a canteen.”
At my answer, Enoch raked his fingers through his red hair with a dumbfounded expression.
“…Were you always this violent and vulgar?”
“I just never used to need to do it with my own hands.”
Because Clara had done all the beating for me.
I recalled the sensation of sparks crackling from the control collar and rubbed my neck.
When I raised the canteen, which was now considerably heavier thanks to my weapon enhancement, Enoch flinched and hunched his shoulders.
“So all those times you were perpetually sick, wheezing and playing the delicate flower—it was all an act?”
“I’m still delicate and fragile. Maybe she’s just weak for a 10s leader?”
At my words, the 10s block prisoners eyed the unconscious Viviana with open doubt.
Enoch raised his voice as though arguing his innocence before a jury.
“No matter how jealous you are, enough is enough. We were never married, and it was nothing more than a political arrangement. Causing havoc out of spite for not being chosen[1] is utterly pathetic.”
Did he think this was a jury trial?
He was going to regret using the word ‘chosen.’
Across the way, Leah and Deneb had been watching, and were so annoyed by Enoch’s speech that they grimaced and threw punches at the air.
Since Enoch was Number 6, one rank higher than Clara, even she couldn’t bring herself to intervene and could only watch with a grim expression.
Riding the momentum, Viviana raised her voice.
“They don’t call her the mad dog of high society for nothing! Sowing discord and framing people are her specialties? She’s the very picture of a villain who uses people when convenient and discards them.”
I shrugged, my face expressionless.
“Everyone here already knows that. You’re the only one taking hits in a public opinion war. This is prison, you know? Learn to read the room.”
Since nothing was landing at all, Viviana bit her lip in frustration.
Enoch’s gaze shifted toward the prisoners wearing the same gray-green uniforms as mine.
“Number 40, you’re in the same 40s block. Why didn’t you stop her?”
Caught in the sudden crossfire, the 40s block members shrank back. The new 40s block leader who had arrived after the Winner’s Tournament stepped forward hesitantly.
“My apologies. We’re not even in the same cell, and we’ve been busy with work… I’ll make sure to discipline her properly.”
“Kido, you’ve been secretly tormenting me like this forever. I’m not going to sit here and take it alone like an idiot anymore. I know how to get angry too, you know?”
Viviana, barely conscious again, launched straight into her routine: the downtrodden victim who’d finally found her voice after enduring relentless bullying.
Number 40, after listening to Viviana’s account, seized my arm.
“Number 49, you wretched creature! Get down and apologize at once!”
“Kido doesn’t bully the weak! She IS the weakest one here! Besides, she saved me!”
Suddenly, Eliza appeared like a prince wielding a cleaning brush, planting herself in front of me. Wait, was she actually trying to defend me?
“Regardless, cheating is still cheating. Even if it was a loveless political arrangement and broken engagements happen all the time, it’s morally wrong.”
Viviana, rubbing her swollen forehead, seemed to recognize Eliza.
She smirked, lifting the corner of her mouth.
“Ah, Number 48? You’re royalty from Duelern, aren’t you? I saw your trial before I was brought here. You also agreed to marry the Crown Prince despite knowing he already had a lover, all in the name of a ‘national union.'”
Eliza bowed her head with a sorrowful expression.
“That’s right. And I’m being punished for it now. I failed to understand how the Saintess must have felt at the time. But shouldn’t you at least acknowledge that what you did was wrong?”
Eliza always spoke the truth.
But when the powerless speak the truth, they tend to get beaten for it.
Apparently struck where it hurt, Enoch made a displeased face and jerked his chin toward Eliza.
Receiving the signal, the 40s block leader switched targets, grabbed Eliza by the collar, and hurled her.
“KYAAAH!”
“Who told you to butt in, you worthless thing?! The rest of you, stop gawking and give her a proper attitude adjustment!”
The menacing 40s block prisoners advanced on Eliza, who had crashed to the floor.
Many of them were unfamiliar, so they must have been freshly arrived inmates.
I could see the handful of prisoners who had survived the Winner’s Tournament quietly slipping toward the back.
‘Those bastards. They hadn’t bothered to brief[2] the newcomers that messing with me was inadvisable.’
‘Why does she keep sticking her nose into other people’s business…’
I pressed my lips into a tight line as I watched Eliza.
In most novels, the nosy but righteous characters always turn out to be secretly overpowered.
Or they suddenly manifest hidden strength right when a crisis hits…
In any case, sunshine girl Eliza clearly did not qualify.
I could see Clara about to step in, unable to hold back any longer.
If she did, she’d end up in a rank-advancement fight with Enoch, and given that he outranked her, avoiding serious injury would be difficult.
I couldn’t afford to let my subordinate get hurt.
“People keep forcing me to reveal my hidden powers. I was trying to live quietly like a reclusive master[3].”
Translation Notes
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[2] ↩
[3] ↩
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