Under wing

"Sob! Sob! Sob! Can you promise me something?"

"..." 'Why are you sobbing if you want to ask me something? I am not your boyfriend anyway. Who are you acting like that for?' Cyril thought to himself.

But he still calmly patted Rian on his shoulder and asked, "What is it? What do you want? Stop crying and tell me."

"Sob! Sob! Cyril. No, no, Brother Cyril, please take me under your wing, alright?" Rian blinked his watery eyes in front of Cyril and even pouted like a little puppy.

Cyril was speechless as he did not understand what happened or what this young man was thinking at all. 

He frowned. He first pried open Rian's clutches from his arm and heaved a sigh of relief before asking him, "Take you under my wing? Do I look like a gangster to you? What do you mean by that?"

Weirdly enough, Rian did not speak another word. He continued to pout at him and blinked his eyes pitifully.

Cyril sighed, "Fine, do whatever you want." It was not like Cyril had never taken anyone under his wing before.

Because he was the heir to a multinational company, there were many people who tried to curry favor from him and many whom he had really taken care of.

Since he was inside a prison, he felt his prideful world suddenly crumbling in front of his eyes.

He was still trying to adapt to the changes in his new life. He wasn't sure of his own safety yet. That was why he hesitated to 'take Rian under his wing', but since the young man looked determined, he let him be. 

It is not like he won't be able to take care of a silly youngster.

"Yayy! Thank you, Brother Cyril!!" Rian's watery eyes suddenly brightened, and he jumped around like a little monkey around Cyril.

After being around this ball of energy for the past couple of hours, Cyril was gradually getting used to his antics.

So, he wasn't affected by his jumping around and calmly carried on with his work. 

Since he was setting up a stall - despite a very small-looking one - he had a lot of work to do.

"Brother Cyril, what do you want to eat? I will use my points to buy you the meal," Rian smiled as he asked. He looked really happy while addressing Cyril as Brother.

Cyril looked at him and then slowly scanned Rian's system prices for the food and then looked at the prices in his system.

As he had expected, the prices varied.

Rian's prices are more than Cyril's. Even though he did not understand how the system worked clearly, he was slowly trying to learn all the small details.

He shook his head, "You can pay for the meal if you want, but don't buy them using your system."

"Huh? Why, Brother Cyril? Is something wrong with my system?" Rian tilted his head sideways in confusion and asked innocently.

Cyril did not understand why this man looked more and more like a dog as time went by.

Anyway, Cyril can't say that the prices in Rian's system were higher. Otherwise, the fact that he could see his system stats would be exposed.

Even though he trusted Rian, there were some things that he wouldn't want to reveal to anyone to be on the safer side.

So, he did not speak a word about the system, as he said, "No. Let's try to get our food for a cheaper price if possible."

"Huh? How, Brother Cyril?" Rian tilted his head to the other side in confusion and asked innocently.

'Will you stop acting like a cute dog already?' Cyril wanted to shout at him. Of course, he stopped himself.

His lips twitched as he patted Rian's shoulder and shook his head, "Let's go."

"Hmm? Where are we going?" Rian asked, but Cyril decided not to reply.

He wanted to save his brain cells for better use, instead of using all of them in explaining to this little monkey here.

Rian looked confused, but he followed Cyril like a loyal puppy.

Cyril felt like he was taking his dog on a walk. If Rian had a tail, would he be wagging it right now?

He suddenly realized he had once again used some brain cells because of Rian and stopped looking at him.

He had to concentrate on observing his surroundings first. This is the place he is going to stay for a month. He had to understand the ins and outs of this place so that he could use each and every detail for his gain later.

As they walked along the path, they saw many dens. Almost all the dens had no doors. Since there were only men in the entire place, no one cared if they had doors or not.

Anyway, they don't need any 'privacy' and if someone comes against them, they are sure that they can deal with their enemies easily.

Just as Cyril observed during his first-ever queue, almost everyone in this prison was muscular. There were a few lean men like himself and Rian, but they could be counted on his fingers.

Everyone trained their bodies well enough to protect themselves. 

The dens were of different sizes and shapes.

But they could see that most of the dens here had only one inmate per den. Very few dens had more than one prisoner.

Cyril could guess that the single ones were in this ward from the moment they entered this prison, while the ones with more than one had moved here slowly by leveling up from Ward 1 or Ward 2.

After living in other wards, they realized that it was wasteful to get a den by themselves, so they did not repeat the mistake and started to share with the ones they got to know.

But the ones who just arrived were different. They thought that they had enough points, and they could afford a den to stay there. They had yet to realize that once they leveled up, they had to leave this place again.

Cyril observed these but did not care much about other people's affairs, and he wouldn't get involved. It is just that observing these details had been a habit that he incorporated in himself since he was a child.