Chapter 42
Chapter 42
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Eyelids (15)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
Tobrun was a city located a day's travel directly north of the capital Kingsland—a city so close that calling it an extension of the capital wouldn't be an exaggeration.
After all, it had basically been a makeshift forward base thrown together seventy years ago during World 2, just to somehow hold back the undead horde pushing toward the capital.
"Huh, I'd heard that Tobrun in World 3 had changed a lot...."
Professor couldn't close his mouth at the extravagant display of wealth unfolding before his eyes.
The city walls were layered with multiple magic circles that looked dangerous even at a glance, though slightly inferior to those in other cities. Applying magic circles so meticulously and inlaying them with mana-infused materials was something only dwarves could achieve. Not a single one was missing across the entire wall, and the craftsmanship was evident in details like the ballistae mounts and watchtowers—making it impossible to guess the cost.
'No way... What the hell happened over the past seventy years for Tobrun—that giant trench of a place—to change this much?'
He'd heard bits and pieces from the community: Watch out for prices in Tobrun, it changes drastically once you enter the mage tower, buildings shoot up like cornstalks, etc. The map showed houses crammed into what used to be a bald mountain of a town, so he'd imagined it as a rapidly developing refugee camp. Back when he played, it was a pitiful city struggling to turn shantytowns into farmland. Getting assigned as lord there was basically a demotion.
Well, plans were going awry from the start. Scaling the walls was out. As he scanned for any overlooked entry point, he spotted a bird flying by get zapped by electricity and flames from the wall, plummeting as instant fried chicken. The soldiers below caught it with gleeful familiarity. Sticking to the wall would clearly end the same way.
"That means the only option is through the main gate...."
Professor glanced down at his body.
Blood-soaked noble ceremonial clothes little better than rags.
A disheveled beard and hair.
A threatening frame over two meters tall.
Skin glistening red.
Glowing red eyes.
- Jokasss: Guards who let something like that wander around should be executed for dereliction of duty.
- Take a Look: Exactly. It's not just suspicious—it's a whole different species. Best case, troll half-breed. If it were me, I'd grab it the second I saw it and throw it in the torture chamber.
No wonder there were over ten guards at the gate. The thief he'd sent ahead to spread rumors had done his job well. With talk of a talking mutant attacking, a bulk like this approaching the gate?
'Even I'd shoot first and report later.'
So much for waltzing in through the front door politely.
"Forcing my way in isn't impossible.... But then I'd be hunted all over the city?"
That defeated the purpose of coming to the city. Scratch that option too.
Tricky from the get-go. Walls impregnable, brute force out, front gate leading straight to the torture chamber....
"Wait. Torture chamber?"
Professor eyed his forearm, which had started twitching intermittently.
'Come to think of it, isn't this pointless?'
He hadn't exercised since last night, no injuries either, so regeneration had stalled for a while. His body was getting itchy, and without workout conditions, he'd considered self-harm....
"Why not just get captured? It's not like I lack the strength to escape."
- Jokasss: ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: A solution I couldn't even imagine ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
- Deer Drug Please: But torture sounds pretty rough? Even with pain reduction trait, it doesn't erase the agony of shattered bones and carved flesh, right? Or has Professor finally started turning pain into pleasure?
"Not that.... How to put it. I've just gotten used to pain without the fear?"
It still hurt. Hurt like hell, but you know how it is—getting stabbed in the gut brings pain plus the thought 'I'm dying,' draining all strength. Deep wounds always come with terror of loss. Thoughts like 'I'm gonna die,' or 'How do I live without fingers?'
But after so many limb-severing injuries, that sensation was gone. Just pure sensory pain from a severed arm, fading quickly as it regenerated. So not masochism. Absolutely not.
"Anyway, normal torture won't even register as pain, so let's give it a shot."
Decision made, Professor stepped out from his hiding spot in the bushes and strode confidently toward the gate.
***
Thud-
Rustle!
Thud-
"Eek!"
A long line snaked in front of the gate due to strict identity checks.
"Th-that thing! Light in its eyes!"
"A monster!"
"Mutant!"
*Hmm~ Such kind folks.* Somehow they knew Koreans were impatient and parted like the Red Sea with every step he took.
Piercing the crowd like Moses' miracle, Professor reached the temporary guard post at the gate.
"Eek, what is it! Why's it so nois—....!"
"Hahaha. Sorry about this. Seems like it's because of me...."
Professor greeted the guard with the most innocent yet intellectual smile he could muster.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm a mercenary who escaped from Turan. Mind if I enter the city?"
***
Creak— Slam!
"It entered!"
"Agh!"
"You monster bastard! Think we're idiots? Daring to set foot in Tobrun! Stay put in there until the mage arrives!"
"Ughhh! Captain! Jackson still hasn't come to!"
"No doubt that damned monster pulled some trick. Wait it out! Even if I have to cut it into hundreds of pieces, I'll make it lift that curse!"
*....I was just smiling nicely....*
He'd hoped people might give him a pass if he acted human enough. This world had dwarves, elves, beastkin like ketzi and werewolves—why not someone like him?
So he doffed his hood and beamed. The guard fainted on the spot, mustered his dying strength for a death-knell bell-ring. Then the tensed guards poured out at the sound, pummeled the unresisting him, bound him tight, and tossed him in the guardhouse cell.
"Ughhh, you really laid into me. Two minutes till regen...."
Monsters were monsters, alright. Broken bones all over? No big deal.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: No matter how I think about it, doesn't it seem like he enjoys getting hit?
- Deer Drug Please: Bet he kept the broken blackjack handle to smack himself with its tendons?
- Take a Look: Common for wasteland loners to go mad, but maybe Professor twisted that way?
"Cut it out, seriously!"
Clang clang clang!
"Monster! Shut your trap and stay quiet! Mage is coming soon!"
"Hey, Gary! Don't approach the monster! Who knows what sorcery it'll pull!"
Misunderstandings piled up as time dragged on endlessly.
***
Rattle! Creak—
Clang clang clang!
"Hey, monster! On your feet!"
"Cough! Hm, uh.... What. Already time to get up?"
"Damn, lucky bastard. Sleeping in a cell. But your leisure ends now! Once the mage confirms you're a monster, heh heh heh... We'll carve out your eyelids so you can't even blink!"
Professor yawned, nodding vaguely to the soldier's rant.
'Guess city folk aren't in full panic. They're holding off without confirmation, just locking me up.'
"Mage! Over here!"
"Hmm.... Is it really a talking mutant? Even regular mutants could break these bonds, but it came quietly...."
From the soldiers' actions, the newcomer seemed to be the mage. But that voice sounded awfully familiar?
Moments later, the mage appeared, revealing the owner.
"This is...."
"Ah, long time. Saw you a few times in the lab, right?"
A mage in blue robes with serpentine eyes—one of the ones from Count Mandalius's basement who'd eagerly participated in the experiments.
'I figured the mutant researchers would rush here at news of a talking mutant!'
Sure enough, barely two hours after capture, someone came from the famously sluggish mage tower.
"How's Isaac doing? Kinda disappointing. We were together nearly a month, showed you everything."
"....Better not waste words. If you want to live."
"Ooh, scary! Someone might think you're dying to let me go!"
Sharp words flew. No love lost, so no hot air.
"Um.... Mage? Do you know what this monster is?"
"Monster..... Seems there's a misunderstanding. This isn't a monster. Just someone whose appearance changed a bit from.... cooperating with mage tower experiments. Guards, stand down."
At the 'not a monster' declaration, the soldier panicked. Understandably—imprisoning a mage's collaborator as a monster in a mage's city.
"W-We’ll release him right now!"
"....No. Wait."
The snake-eyed mage smiled faintly at the bound Professor.
"This man committed a grave crime against the mage tower and was doing forced labor. Bind him like this and send him to the Leadflow faction's mage tower."
Professor writhed indignantly, bellowing fury at the mage!
"You bastards! Used me up and still not enough? Damn it! If not for these ropes....!"
"The criminal harbors grudge against the mage tower and lies constantly—ignore him and escort to the tower ASAP."
"Yes, sir!"
After ordering the soldiers, Snake-eyes knelt to meet the struggling Professor's gaze.
"Surviving that hell. I'll give you credit for tough luck."
"Ptoo!"
The phlegm from Professor's mouth splattered the mage's face. Wiping the sticky spit with his sleeve, the mage's expression chilled.
"You ignorant fool.... See you at the tower. I'll dissect every bit—how you survived Turan with that unstable body, how you've stayed conscious till now."
"Eeeek! I'll curse you! Curse you mage bastards till you die!!!"
Ignoring the raging Professor, the mage chatted briefly with the soldiers and exited slowly.
Even after the mage left, the soldier on guard duty watched the screaming Professor for a while, then sighed knowingly, fetched a hunk of bread from the cabinet, plated it, and approached.
"Pretty much get it. Marked by the mages, huh? That hideous look's their doing too."
Clunk-
He set the plate before the toppled, bound Professor and continued bitterly.
"Tobrun looks like a fine city on the surface, but it's rotten inside. Everything's under mage tower control. Lord's just a figurehead. Defenses rely entirely on magic circles, economy flows through their channels. Merchants can't defy them. They lord it over us, so underlings like us follow or get exiled."
The soldier—Gary the jailer—sat before the cell, spilling his guts. It was his duty. This hideous man was probably normal once. Since joining the guard, traces of inexplicably vanished city folk all pointed to the mage tower. But every report got burned or ignored from above. Brass deliberately overlooked the tower's filth.
The city was rotten. He was a guard in that rotten city, father to two kids.
"Sorry. I'm.... powerless...."
Tap tap.
Someone gently patted his slumping, sniffling shoulder. *Yeah. At least someone gets how I feel.*
"Sniff! Thanks. Someday, I'll expose this city's corruption to the world.... Huh?"
Wait. Only him and that hideous guy here. Then who....?
The startled jailer whipped around to find Professor, munching bread in one hand, patting his shoulder with the other.
"Thanks. That's just how the world works."
Crack!
"Gack!"
"Sshhh. Sleep a bit, you conscientious jailer."
Choking the jailer unconscious through the bars, Professor kicked aside the severed ropes, gripped the iron bars with both hands, and yanked.
Creeeak! Grunt! Creak!
"Perfect! Bodily freedom and perfect identity acquired!"
Shoving the remaining bread in his mouth, Professor grabbed his belongings from the corner.
"Now my identity's perfectly 'escaped convict.' Even publicly certified by a mage tower mage as a long-time 'human' collaborator—absolutely not a mutant!"
Exactly. This was his goal from the start.
'News of a talking mutant? Mutant researchers—specifically the count's lackey from the Leadflow mage tower city—would come running.'
And now that guy had testified 'this isn't a monster,' securing his identity proof.
- Highway Nacho Man: Whoa, when did you plan that far?
"Well, even if I snuck into the city with this body, normal life seemed impossible. So I thought, 'Who in the city can vouch for my identity?' Rolled it around, and boom—mage tower guys. They'd drag me off gladly. They don't know I've gotten this strong, so figure they'd toss me in an old bathtub like before. Escape midway—and bam, 'fugitive' status, stable as hell.
Guards will hunt the tower's prestigious 'collaborator' hard. Wanted posters everywhere, people get used to 'fugitive (human) Professor's' face, not 'monster Professor.' Yeah.... Like this—"
Packing up, he carved [Off to Find Life - Professor] into the desk with the jailer's dagger.
"Posters'll have my name too. Folks who know me will clear my name? Easier to find me."
As he cackled through the explanation, chat exploded in disbelief.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: All hail. *clap*
- Take a Look: Can't not respect this.
- Jokasss: I admit it. Breaching one gate nets all that. Right—plain entry means monster treatment everywhere with this face, but as a known fugitive, at least underworld ops viable.
"That's what I aimed for. I'm underworld-bound in this city anyway."
Creak—
"Huh—Gary? Not shift time yet, why're you— Mmph!"
"Oh, not Gary—fugitive. Fugitive~ Remember Professor the Fugitive~"
Whispering politely into each soldier's ear he passed exiting the cell, Professor melted silently into the darkening streets.
***