By Zephyria 
※ This chapter contains multiple violent depictions of physical disfigurement. Please be aware of this when reading.
Fortunately, contrary to my worries, he didn’t hit me directly. I could see the storm of emotions gradually subsiding as he regained his composure. He was still terrifying, but the giant had regained his peace of mind.
No matter how angry he was, the country would be more important than venting his anger. If I died, the negotiations would be over, and everything would be finished. It would only give Actan another reason to never back down from the war.
That’s why I was sure that I wouldn’t die, even if I got hurt a little. But if the commander let his emotions get the better of him, it would all be over. Would a warrior who had lost his reason care about the safety of the country?
“I’ve never heard rumors that the Second Prince is mute.”
A low growl, like that of a beast, scratched at my eardrums. I shuddered involuntarily and lowered my head.
“You’re just trembling like a newborn foal.”
I tried to be as harmless and weak as possible, trying not to provoke them. I didn’t have much longer to live anyway, but that didn’t mean I wanted to die from torture.
But here was the problem. Was it because the tension was so high? Or was it because I was racking my brain so hard that it was smoking? I couldn’t elicit any emotional response at all.
I was a prisoner, and if I stayed like this, they might become suspicious. There was a limit to how much I could tremble…
Then the man lifted my chin with something like a poker. As my head was forced up, I tried to feign a frightened expression, but it was too difficult. As soon as I relaxed my tension, I kept reverting to a blank expression.
The moment my head was lifted and my eyes were about to meet the man’s, countless scenes flashed through my mind. In order to escape the crisis, I unconsciously searched my memories and even remembered things I didn’t want to think about.
There was no one to see me here anyway. No one knew me, and any disgraceful behavior was permissible. Besides, they were all going to die anyway.
“……”
“……”
In an instant, tears welled up in my eyes and streamed down my cheeks. Tears fell incessantly, as if pouring out. I realized for the first time that I could cry so well.
As I became more and more overwhelmed, the memories became clearer. The emotions, the sensations, the smells, the sounds, the air of that day… everything came back to me vividly.
“I…”
I didn’t even think about what to say, but my mouth opened naturally.
“I… I was wrong.”
“……”
“Please, spare me…”
The desperate cries and sobs echoed chaotically in my ears. As soon as the poker that had been holding my chin up fell, my head dropped down. The tears that fell in response soaked the cold stone floor.
“This is absurd. I wondered what kind of crazy bastard would come to the battlefield and start drinking.”
“I’m sorry…”
“……”
“Please, spare me…”
Now I was even hiccuping. When was the last time I cried like this? Except for when I was a newborn baby, which I didn’t even remember, I probably never had.
I could hear people mocking me around me, but I ignored them and focused on pouring everything out.
“Strip the skin from his back and whip him. Collect his blood in a golden wine glass and send it to Khalifa. It is a tribute from the barbarians to the great Rahan.”
Crying made me feel a little better, so I just kept wailing louder.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
Pain, when sustained, eventually becomes something you adapt to.
Even if flesh is torn and burst and blood splatters, once it exceeds a certain level, you give up. The pain doesn’t go away, but if you give up, at least your mind becomes at ease.
I once saw a phrase somewhere that said you can do anything if you set your mind to it, and it was true. Even in the same situation, depending on how you set your mind, it could be hell or heaven.
“……”
A whip fell on the bright red flesh that had been precisely and thinly sliced with a sharp blade, as if filleting it. I fainted, woke up, and days passed like that. It would be a problem for them if I died, so they didn’t inflict fatal wounds.
But that didn’t mean they were being lenient. I simply wasn’t dying, but my back was already permanently damaged.
I felt terrible pain all over my body, but my mind was strangely at peace.
“……”
What was this? Why did I feel so refreshed even though I was in such a miserable state? Every time I came to my senses, I couldn’t help but wonder.
I felt so refreshed that even though it hurt so much that my mind was flickering, I was almost okay. I even had the crazy thought of staying for one more day because of the unprecedented, refreshing feeling of having my insides cleared out.
But unlike my healthier mental state, my body was at its limit. If I got hit a little more, I wouldn’t be able to move. If that happened, my plan would fall apart, so I slowly prepared to escape.
“Hek… eugh…”
I ignored the strange sound, which I didn’t know how many times I’d heard, and examined the metal cuffs around my wrists.
Was it because I was acting too weak? Or was it because I was young? I wasn’t restrained very thoroughly. I looked around and roughly broke the bones in my wrist to get out of the shackles.
When I stepped on the ground, an indescribable pain covered my entire body. I stood there for a moment, waiting for the wave of pain to subside.
“Keuek…”
As I closed my mouth and took deep breaths through my nose to calm myself, I faintly heard a moan. Was it another prisoner? I kept hearing it periodically.
I put my dislocated wrist back in place and grabbed the sword and poker hanging on the wall. I moved quietly without making a sound, looking around.
I had roughly guessed from the sound and echo of walking down the stairs to this point, but it wasn’t a very large space. Below what appeared to be the exit was a slightly wider hall, where various torture devices were placed. On either side of the narrow hallway were a total of ten doors, five on each side.
I came out of the first door closest to the exit. Since I had to kill the torturer before I left anyway, I checked that there was no one outside and looked inside the door.
But strangely, all the rooms were empty.
“Keuk, keuek… hek…”
I checked the last place where the sound was coming from. I could see a familiar back through a small hole that was probably made to check on the prisoners inside.
It was the torturer who had filleted my skin and whipped me. He was grabbing someone’s leg on the floor and kept moving his body. Next to him, I could see about a dozen people huddled together, trembling.
I watched them for a while, wondering what they were doing, and then opened the door.
Creak.
The sound of rusty metal scraping. It was quite loud, but no one looked at me.
I slowly walked to where the torturer was. Underneath him, a pale, blue corpse that looked as if it was already dead was being shaken helplessly.
“……”
Whether their hair had been forcibly shaved, they were all bald. They were all naked, their faces were swollen, and they were missing fingers or limbs, so I couldn’t even tell who was who. The people, who looked like lumps of murderous intent, were huddled together, muttering like they were broken.
“Please kill me… please kill me…”
The torturer was still moving his hips, apparently unaware that I had entered because he was so engrossed in raping the corpse.
“Hek, heh…”
I realized that the moans I had been hearing were not from the prisoner, but from that bastard. I couldn’t stand listening to it anymore, so I cut off the torturer’s limbs. The disgusting moans turned into a sound like a pig being slaughtered. But it was still just as unpleasant to listen to.
I left the wiggling bastard on the pile of garbage and turned my head.
These men, who were probably soldiers of Actan, seemed to have had their minds and bodies so broken that they couldn’t be recovered.
They just kept repeating the words “Please kill me” and tried to find the furthest corner. I tried to think of a way, but my head wouldn’t work.
I was about to kill them all with a single stroke to minimize their pain and leave, but I still heard moans. I turned my head and saw that the torturer was still alive.
He glared at me with bloodshot eyes and made a strange noise. I grabbed him by the hair and left the basement together. He was light, so it wasn’t particularly difficult to carry him.
“…to bring the prince…”
As I slowly climbed the musty stairs, I faintly heard a voice. Without hesitation, I threw the poker I was holding in a straight line.
As the sharp, thin metal pierced his heart, the heavy body fell to the side, revealing another man. As his widening eyes confirmed my presence, his arm moved to grab the sword at his waist.
I threw the torturer I was holding to obscure his vision and quickly ran forward. The man accurately cut the torturer, who was only left with his torso, in half with his huge greatsword. Before the blood and guts could even spill out, I had already arrived within his reach.
I swung the sword I was holding and stabbed it deep into his side, then cut it out. The man was glaring at me as if he wanted to kill me, but his arm had not yet returned from the recoil of cutting the torturer. The blade passed through his back, long and wide.
“Keuek!”
The man’s vision lowered as his knees buckled from the fatal wound. He would die if I left him like this, but I didn’t know what variables might come into play if I didn’t end his life for sure.
I put my hand on the other side of his head to support it firmly, then stabbed the sword straight into the man’s temple.
I couldn’t use my vision widely because I was climbing the narrow stairs. I quickly turned my head, wondering if there were any enemies left that I hadn’t seen. But fortunately, the surroundings were quiet.
“……”
The tension that had been soaring to the top suddenly released, and my stomach churned. I panted several times to hold it back, but eventually I grabbed the wall and lowered my head to vomit.
No matter how much I threw up, there was nothing to come out because I hadn’t eaten anything.
Why was my stomach suddenly churning like this? Was it because I ran too fast?