Chapter 101: The Day Before the Storm (3)

Chapter 101: The Day Before
the Storm (3)

It
was a day like any other.

I
woke up and said good morning to Diana as usual.

I
sat at the same table as usual with Diana and we ate breakfast
together.

It’s
nothing special, but enjoying the simple things in life has a
positive effect on your mind.

Even
after showing my face, I ate with my helmet on.

“Ho,
just in case other customers barge in⋯”

For
some reason, Diana seemed to be more cautious than me.

Anyway,
after eating, it was time for coffee.

Without
thinking much, I drank the milk coffee that Diana served.

[Diana
Ordia’s breast milk]

[Random
stats increase by 1 due to Diana Ordia’s ‘Curse of the ■Milk
Climax ■Tat
de■■]

[Strength:
(11+10) → (11+11)]

[Nam
Soo-Jin LV.23]

[Stamina:(8+11)
Strength:(11+11) Dexterity:(10+10) Wisdom:(1+4) Finesse:(2)]

[Stat
Bonus from Stat Drain: +1 Stamina, +1 Strength, +1 Wisdom]

[Free
Points: 0]

I
stared blankly at the status window that appeared out of nowhere.

“What’s
wrong?”

I
turned back to Diana.

She
stirred her baby milk into my coffee and looked at me as if something
was wrong.

Her
hands fidget with her plate, and she can’t quite make eye contact.

Diana
pretends not to notice.

A
similar yet different situation to the last time I drank a milk
latte.

That
time, I asked if I could breastfeed myself. It was a free stat boost
and an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

This
time, on the other hand, Diana served herself a breast milk latte.

Sure,
it was the milk she’d pumped in Arachne’s miracle locker room, but it
was ⋯!

‘⋯Isn’t
that, in effect, tacit permission to serve her own breast milk?’

I
was stunned for a moment.

“Hmm,
do you not like the taste?”

“⋯No.”

Oops.

I
sipped my breast milk coffee again.

The
savory, sweet flavor of breast milk and the rich, aged female smell
washed over me.

A
concentrated liquid secreted by a woman of childbearing age for the
child that will one day be born.

I
apologize to the children, but I must preempt them.

“I
could eat this every day.”

“⋯hmm,
is that so⋯?”

“Yeah,
but the coffee flavor kind of gets in the way. I like the flavor of
the milk so much that I just want to eat the milk.”

“⋯⋯”

Diana
blushed for a moment, biting her lower lip slightly, and bowed her
head deeply.

“⋯Ma,
if there’s milk next time⋯I’ll
make it again⋯”

“⋯⋯”

The
milk is gone.

Feeling
strangely embarrassed, I gave a silent affirmation.

‘Ha.
A labyrinth city where it’s nice to live.’

***

I
drank Diana’s breastmilk coffee and headed to the guardhouse in the
early morning hours.

I
walked for nearly an hour and a half, familiarizing myself with my
surroundings and gazing at the massive walls that stretched out
before me.

The
wall that separates the noble district from the explorer district.

‘This
is the first time I’ve ever come this far,’ I thought.

The
guards are divided into branches along the massive wall that
separates the east, west, south, and north sections, and I was
visiting the eastern explorer’s guard.

As
I approached, the guard, who had been looking around, straightened
her back and straightened her spear with a grunt.

“What
brings you here?”

The
blue female guard at the front of the wall stiffened as she saw me.

She
must be new, because her face hid her nervousness as her eyes scanned
my muscular body warily.

“Hey.
Come out here.”

“Uh.
Sorry.”

The
other female guard shoved the newcomer out of the way.

“Are
you the man in the helmet⋯Mr.
Balkan?”

“Yes.”

“Show
me your explorer’s badge.”

The
process went quickly.

“Junior
Explorer Balkan. You have been identified. I’ll escort you to the
platoon leader, if you’ll follow me.”

The
guard led the way into the guardhouse, and after walking straight
through the entrance, I could see the stairs leading down to the
basement.

The
dank, humid air of the basement hit me like a ton of bricks.

-Kaang!

A
harsh clang rang out as soon as I stepped on it.

I
turned my head toward the source and saw a bushy-haired woman glaring
at me over the bars, the corners of her mouth twitching upward.

The
clanking of the bars against the restraints on her wrists was the
source of the sound.

“You
can ignore them. They’re outlaw scum who won’t do the world any good
if they stay alive.”

“Hee-hee.”

-Bang!
Bang!

The
bushy-haired woman continued to hit the bars with the restraints.

“She’s
whining for food. If I starve her for a few more days, she’ll come
to her senses and realize her place.”

-Boom.

The
big-haired woman stopped. It must have been true.

“Now,
wait-! I was wrong-”

The
guard didn’t look back, but continued on to her goal.

The
basement reminded me of a cramped prison cell.

Human
rights were a luxury to the outlaws, and there were no walls for
privacy, only a gaping black grate separating them.

This
meant I could see the guards walking down the hall and myself in
plain view.

“Hmph,
cock!”

“Hey
male, don’t just go away, just give me one, please, please, I’ve been
rotting in here for a year already, I can’t even masturbate because
of the restraints!”

So
it wasn’t easy to ignore the outlaws who were throwing their hands up
and screaming at me from both sides.

The
guard in front of me bowed her head in embarrassment.

“⋯Sorry,
sir. The guards are mostly women, so this hasn’t happened before⋯”

“It’s
okay. I’m used to it.”

“⋯Yes?”

“Let’s
go.”

The
outlaws, who were having a seizure because they couldn’t release
their pent-up lust, forced their arms into the bars and swung.

-pop.

One
of the outlaws’ fingers lightly touched my arm.

“That
little punk! I had a full orgasm and peed my pants just from touching
that guy!”

“Bitch.”

“⋯Four-day
fast for all.”

The
guards chastised the outlaws for their sudden behavior.

Further
down the hall, another set of stairs appeared.

“From
here, the outlaws are comparable to mid-level explorers. I can
guarantee your safety, but I want you to be on guard just in case.”

I
nodded, and we descended to the second floor of the guardhouse.

It
was much smaller and quieter than the first floor, probably because
of the number of intermediate level outlaws.

This
time, I reached my destination without incident.

“Ah.
Welcome, this must be a strange place for you.”

The
guard platoon leader greeted me from the corner of the second floor,
peering over the bars.

“I
think I saw a world I didn’t know, so it wasn’t too bad.”

“I’m
glad you think so, sir. Normally I’d have to serve you coffee
upstairs, but the bitches started freaking out this morning.”

The
guard platoon leader turned her head again to the figure beyond the
bars.

Following
his gaze, the rabbit-headed man and a plain-looking woman came into
view.

“Hiiii!”

The
woman who immediately convulsed with a frightened expression upon
seeing me was Gurmimi, an executive of the Blood Clan.

“⋯You’re
here.”

The
woman who stares at me with an ostensibly polite but fearful
expression is Reichem, a crazy graduate student who holds a ten-year
grudge.

Why
the hell did she call me all the way here?

***

Reichem
stared at the man in front of her.

A
huge body filled with muscles and a helmet that added to his
intimidating appearance.

As
soon as she saw him, a paroxysm of memories pressed on her mind.

A
man who was mercilessly tearing apart an unidentified monster that
appeared on the 5th floor with an axe.

Reichem
and Gurmimi had been captured and witnessed the scene.

And
as he swung his axe, they saw a figure more like a beast than a man,
a terrifying beast.

The
scene of the battle was burned into their minds.

“Hoo,
hoo, hoo!”

Gurmimi,
the rabbit woman, exhaled in horror as soon as she saw Balkan, her
eyes falling to the ground.

“So.
Why did you suddenly ask me to come?”

Balkan
asked, and Reichem looked away from Gurmimi for a moment before
looking back up at him.

“I
am a woman who knows how to wait. I was exploited for ten years by an
evil professor.”

Reichem
nodded in respect.

Unconsciously,
she crouched down in front of the predator.

“You
waited long enough to become an outlaw, but that’s none of my
business. Tell me what you want, I don’t have time to waste in a
place like this.”

“⋯Haha.
Before that.”

Reichem
glared at the guard platoon leader and the rest of the guards.

“Ha.
Are you telling me to get lost?”

The
guard platoon leader laughed with glee, but Reichem remained silent.

If
she wasn’t going to make a statement, it was on the guard platoon
leader.

“⋯I
apologize for entrusting you with such a task. They’re a bad bunch,
so be careful.”

“It’s
okay. Just make sure I get paid well.”

At
Balkan’s reply, the platoon of guards moved away from them.

They
left a safe distance between them, just in case, but no sound of
conversation could be heard.

‘⋯Shit.
What the hell?’

At
this point, Balkan had a strange feeling.

Balkan
didn’t understand why Reichem wanted to talk to him alone.

‘What’s
the point of this asshole? Why is she trying to drag me into this?’

Maybe
it was because she was a graduate student, but he didn’t know what
she was thinking.

“You.
What’s your purpose?”

“Nothing
in particular, but⋯”

Reichem
spoke up immediately.

“I’m
a woman who knows how to wait. I had the patience to rot under that
bitch for at least ten years, and my sentence is no more than ten
years.”

Being
an outlaw doesn’t come with a mandatory death sentence.

For
Reichem, there were mitigating factors.

Reichem
filled Balkan in on her background.

She
was an illusionist from the Academy who worked as a slave under
Professor Arpo, a labyrinth ecologist.

Professor
Arpo, who built up quite a reputation with the research results she
dedicated and even succeeded in creating relic artifacts by
supplementing them.

Balkan
threw up his hands.

“So.
What, you’re telling me that you’re so talented that you have the
backing of a professor, and that without you, the research would
suffer, and that she’d bail you out?”

“Maybe,
but that’s not what I was going to say.”

‘I’ll
kill myself if I have to go back under that professor’s thumb again.’

Reichem
saw great promise in Balkan’s behavior in the Labyrinth.

The
way he’d seen through her illusionary magic so easily recognized by
the few enemies, and his terrifying power.

He
may be a low-level explorer now, but one day he will soar while she
is
here to pay for her sins.

Her
sentence was ten years and in that time, he could have soared and
reigned in the sky.

It
might seem like a leap of faith, but Reichem could still see the
image of Balkan tearing at the abomination.

Ten
years from now, when she emerged from this horrible prison could
someone who once antagonized him live a normal life?

Wouldn’t
he remember his grudge and unleash all sorts of retribution that
would make a normal life impossible?

Reichem
lifted her head slightly and looked up at him.

Behind
his helmet, a pair of spine-chillingly menacing eyes stared down at
her.

‘This
means retribution.’

Alarm
bells went off in Reichem’s survival instincts and there was one way
she could save herself.

In
order to not incur the wrath of the man who would grow into a man of
considerable influence in the Labyrinth City after she served
her sentence and to appease his wrath, she would have to do
everything in her power to make him feel better.

However
there was one card in her hand.

“Wouldn’t
you like to take out a whole clan of outlaws?”

“Hey,
you asshole!”

Gurmimi,
who was beside her, looked at Reichem in disbelief.

“⋯Hmm?”

Balkan
laughed bitterly at the betrayal in front of him.