By Zephyria =======
“……Shit. Is it that day already?”
〔My clock is accurate. If you don’t take your medicine, you’ll go into heat. This place is crawling with muscular male pirates…….〕
“Stop! I get it, so shut up.”
Silver cursed as he pushed himself up. He rummaged through his belt pouch and pulled out a small glass vial, shaking it. The tightly packed pills rattled against the inside of the glass. He let out a sigh. To think he had to take this religiously once a week.
Silver took a pill from the vial and swallowed it. Putting the vial back, he lay down with his arm as a pillow and spoke listlessly.
“Starry eyes. Am I really… that?”
〔Asking again, purrr? To answer you once more, you are likely a mutant.〕
〔You said that even after hitting puberty, standard physiological indicators, including nocturnal emissions, barely appeared. A genderless tendency during one’s teens is a representative characteristic of male mutants.〕
〔You said your father used to lift your covers every morning and often yelled at you, calling you a eunuch, right? That was an overreaction to your genderless nature.〕
It felt like he was listening to a story about someone else. He was so bewildered that he had actually become numb to it. ‘Turns out I’m a male mutant who can get pregnant’—this was just too much!
“Look, no matter how I think about it, Old Lady Erem is the cult leader of a group of pleasure killers, right? Ice Armor Warrior was completely fooled by that old lady and consistently paid her huge sums of money. That bastard didn’t even hide his respect for her in front of me. So…….”
Silver clung to the weeds at the edge of the cliff. Starry eyes didn’t hesitate to lift a large front paw and make an ‘X’ sign.
〔I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but that basement was likely a medical facility. You, being illiterate in medicine, mistook it for a pleasure torture chamber of a killer.〕
〔If Erem were a killer, she would have kept that basement meticulously tidy. Stohl’s judicial system may be lacking, but an ‘orphanage director who enjoys pleasure killing’ is something that would incite public outrage. If rumors spread, warriors from surrounding tribes would have stormed in with axes long ago.〕
〔Rumors that the orphanage doubled as a mutant research institute had been circulating under the surface for a long time, and it likely enjoyed great prestige. The reason your father donated huge sums without suspicion was probably because it was that trustworthy. It was the only hope for curing his son’s disability.〕
〔There must have been another reason for trying to offer the Attendant to Erem. Your father seemed to believe the Attendant was Thunder. Didn’t he compare the Attendant to a hero or Thunder from legends? He probably expected that if he provided a rare mutant specimen, Erem would put more passion into your treatment. Parents with disabled children try their best to get on the doctor’s good side.〕
Hearing that explanation made Black Weasel seem even more pathetic. It would have been better when he believed an evil spirit had possessed Wolf and was trying to kill him. This is just too despicable, you bastard. You tried to kill someone else’s son just to save your own? How did you manage to kick the bucket without leaving me a single shred of room to make excuses for you?
Silver stared blankly at the night sky. A memory opened its door.
It was about six months after Black Weasel’s death when he went to see Director Erem. Silver had burst into the director’s office, kicking the door open. Director Erem, who had been tilting a teacup at her desk, froze and stared at him.
‘Old Lady Erem! You know Black Weasel, right? That bearded bastard who kept funneling huge sums of money to you!’
Silver screamed at the top of his lungs. Director Erem set down her teacup with trembling hands.
‘Who is that? I… I don’t know.’
Silver’s mind went blank. She doesn’t know? Even this crazy old lady is claiming she doesn’t know Ice Armor Warrior?
‘Are you kidding me?’
His reason snapped. Silver grabbed Director Erem by the collar across the desk. He lifted the elderly woman right up and slammed her onto the floor.
‘Help! A madman is abusing an old woman!’
Director Erem wailed. The caregivers rushed in, startled, but Silver didn’t even blink.
‘Did you think I wouldn’t know anything? You wicked old lady! You probably tortured and killed the orphanage children in the basement too! There must be piles of children’s bones buried in the mountain behind this place!’
‘What are you talking about! He’s crazy! Save me!’
‘Shut up, you old hag!’
Silver grabbed Director Erem by the hair and dragged her toward the shed. He violently shook off the caregivers who tried to block his path and hold onto his limbs. On the day he witnessed a coachman moving body bags, Silver had gone down to the basement while the man was away. What he saw then: dark brown organs preserved in glass tubes. Dried ones, fragmented ones, sewn ones. On the wall, various knives, awls, and scissors.
He kicked open the iron door of the basement. Silver shoved Director Erem inside.
‘Are you still going to deny it? You murderer!’
‘That… I admit it, the research corpses were obtained through dishonest means. But everyone does that… I’m not the only one…’
Director Erem collapsed and sobbed uncontrollably. The caregivers quickly stepped in front of Erem.
‘What are you doing! Stop this outrage against the Director!’
One caregiver stepped forward.
‘I think you’re misunderstanding something, but this is a research lab and operating room. It’s a medical facility!’
‘Do my eyes look like egg yolks to you? Those knives! The organs in the glass jars! The bloodstains!’
Silver pointed at the killing tools hanging on the wall.
‘Now I see you’re all in on it. You and the old lady, are you witches who fled from Atania? Is the old lady your cult leader! You crazy witches who enjoy pleasure killing!’
‘No! We are medical professionals who save people!’
The caregiver raised her voice.
‘The knives on the wall are dissection and surgical tools. The organs in the glass jars are research specimens, and the bloodstains are from surgeries and dissection practices. This is a place to heal and study the human body, not a room for killing and torture! The Director is a recognized medical scholar from Atania!’
Silver paused for a moment. In the midst of his frantic excitement, it felt as if his foot had suddenly tripped. Something was wrong.
Did I… misunderstand?
Old Lady Erem is a medical scholar? A doctor?
If what they were saying was true, there was only one reason for Ice Armor Warrior to frequent this place.
Did that bastard have a chronic illness he never told me about?
Silver’s entire body turned cold. This was something he truly had not imagined.
Was it an incurable disease? Was he suffering from a sickness that no medicine could cure? Damn it, was he a man who would have died soon even if the Attendant hadn’t cut his throat!
‘That guy…’
A dazed voice, even to Silver’s own ears, leaked out.
‘Where was he hurting? What disease did he have…?’
The surroundings fell silent. The caregivers only exchanged glances and said nothing. Eventually, Director Erem stood up. She smoothed her messy hair with both hands and straightened her back.
The old woman’s eyes scanned Silver. From top to bottom. From bottom to top. It was a gaze as sharp as a knife peeling away skin.
‘The person called Black Weasel. The one you say provided me with huge sums of donations.’
Director Erem’s tone was clear.
‘Is he your father?’
Silver did not answer. Director Erem’s eyes narrowed. Once again, that gaze—the gaze that felt like skin being peeled by a knife—scanned Silver’s entire body. Finally, a smile played on the old scholar’s lips.
‘This place, you see.’
Director Erem looked Silver straight in the eye.
‘Is where parents come because of their child’s chronic illness.’
Silver became even more confused. What is she talking about now?
Director Erem took a step closer.
‘Innate constitutions, innate defects, innate disabilities. Children born with a fate to eventually shatter like a cracked jar, despite appearing perfectly fine on the outside.’
Silver’s heart thundered and his whole body chilled. It was the physical reaction that occurred when intuition sent a warning signal. A premonition flashed that he was about to receive a terrifying sentence.
Director Erem took one step, then another, closer.
‘Parents knock on this door hoping to change their child’s fate. If your father provided me with huge sums…’
The old scholar’s tone was as flat as if she were reading a medical report.
‘If there is an illness, it would not be your father’s, but yours.’
It felt as if poison were spreading through his veins.
If there is an illness, me?
Me?
〔Erem said it would be fine as long as you take your medicine on time.〕
Starry eyes’ voice pulled Silver out of his reminiscence. The cold, dark basement, the old scholar’s cold sentence, and the smell of blood vanished like smoke.
〔Purrr, you are simply suffering from a somewhat peculiar disability. Don’t take it too seriously. It’s already been over half a year since you turned twenty, and you’re exactly the same as before.〕
87 – Hell Execution Order