Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Raise Your Hand If It Hurts - 1
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My steps toward the clinic were light.
That was all well and good, but an eerie silence hung over the surroundings.
Wonderfentanyl territory wasn't usually all that rowdy to begin with, but even accounting for that, it felt strangely quieter than normal.
And then, a little more time passed, and I reached the front of the clinic.
"Hm."
My body, seasoned from rolling in the shadows, was instinctively sending me a warning. A warning that something out of the ordinary was happening.
Suspicious.
The moment I opened the clinic door, assassins waiting in ambush would swarm me—that kind of premonition?
My hunches in this area were rarely wrong, so I quietly gripped Trivi.
For the clinic to be this quiet was downright bizarre.
Wonderfentanyl was overflowing with patients. Yet, as if under some kind of control, there wasn't a soul around.
And above all, the fact that Tyr and Dodo weren't waiting for me at the door was odd too.
Who might be the enemy dropping by at a time like this?
Here to retrieve Cheshire Cat, maybe.
Yeah, probably something like that. With my hand on the clinic door, I muttered,
"Coming in~"
But even as I said it, I only turned the knob slightly, without opening it.
"Open it? Or not? Go in? Or not?"
If anyone else saw this scene, they'd think I was stark raving mad.
But there are moments in life when you have to go a little crazy to survive a crisis, and this was one of those moments for me.
"Open it? Open? Gotta open it. On three, then. One, two, two and a half, half of two and a half. Tough call. Open? Or not?"
After repeating that madness about three times, I added one final line.
"Who said anything about opening? I'm just gonna bail."
KABOOM—!
Instead, the door burst open roughly from inside the clinic.
At the same time, two Wonderland operatives charged in like bullets.
I quickly stepped back and nodded.
"Knew it."
Wonderland's queen, Dnia.
Dnia wasn't the type to nicely watch her pet cat—which she cherished like a favorite toy—get snatched by someone else.
So she'd sent her underlings, but I wanted to tell Dnia, You messed up.
"If you're pissed, you should've come yourself."
Don't they know her grunts aren't a match for me?
I twisted my body and swiftly pulled the trigger, firing two shots straight at their foreheads.
"Gahk!"
"Keurk?"
Confusion etched on their faces, as if they had no idea what had hit them, but their bodies still surged toward me from sheer momentum.
But how strong can a body without power be? I kicked the near-corpse away.
With a thud, they crumpled to either side. Now they were proper corpses.
"Out. Can't treat the dead."
I dragged their bodies out the clinic door, wiped the blood from my face with my arm, and walked down the clinic hallway.
"Dodo."
"Tyr."
"Cheshire Cat."
I called their names for no real reason. Naturally, no replies came.
Did Cheshire Cat take down Tyr and Dodo?
Nah, she wouldn't have regained that much strength yet.
Dodo might speak a bit clumsily, but she was no fool.
She'd have dosed Cheshire Cat right on the line—enough to keep her alive but too weak to cause trouble.
Or maybe Tyr betrayed us and sided with Cheshire Cat.
That had some plausibility. She was a genius with buildings but dumb as a rock in other areas.
"Time to check it out."
But thinking it over, I was already drenched in blood from head to toe, which was seriously annoying. I'd just finished a bath...
"Change clothes."
I ducked into the storage room to swap into some patient garb, when I locked eyes with a maid in a white gown.
I calmly asked the trembling maid,
"Why are you here?"
She held up one finger, pointing to a shelf lined with medicines.
"Get meds?"
She nodded. Too scared to speak, apparently.
"Who?"
She pulled a bloodstained trump card from her pocket. Wasn't hard to figure out.
"Why do they need meds? They're not the ones getting treated."
She grabbed a vial of Loikitarmin.
"Ah."
It clicked. Loikitarmin was a torture drug. Explained why the maid was shaking like a leaf.
"Where's everyone?"
She pointed up with one finger, jabbing the air three times. Top floor, then.
"You run. I'll take this."
I pocketed the Loikitarmin and calmed her down.
I'd assess the situation once I saw it with my own eyes. For now, I still trusted Dodo and Tyr.
Or more precisely, I trusted my own strength and track record. They'd have every reason to trust me too.
So if someone laid a hand on Dodo and Tyr, they wouldn't be sending them back in one piece.
That would be insulting me, the one who'd named those two Elbalom executives.
Stairs or window?
The dilemma didn't last. My gaze was already on the window.
CRASH—!
A skilled kick shattered the glass, and I landed on the third-floor hallway.
"Entrance."
There they were. In the operating room.
On the operating tables lay Tyr, Dodo, and Cheshire Cat, side by side, bound tight.
Bruises all over their bodies—they'd taken a real beating.
"You... you think you'll get away with this, nyang? You'll regret it, nyang!"
Cheshire Cat bellowed, but the other operatives just snickered.
Come to think of it, there were quite a few of them. Ten, at least?
"Thought we came to rescue you? Useless pets get abandoned."
They giggled as one continued.
"Well... truth be told, Lady Dnia is overflowing with love, like the Queen of Hearts should be. She even keeps useless pets. But."
THUD!
"Hurgh!"
The man punched Cheshire Cat in the gut. She hacked and wheezed.
"...pets that don't show loyalty get ditched. Embezzling, huh? Your underlings spilled everything. Just had to lop off a few fingers, and they sang like birds."
"N-No betrayal, nyang!"
"Then explain yourself."
"This world made it so I had to betray—it betrayed me first, nyang!"
I was pondering when to bust in, but the sheer absurdity made me stand there watching their exchange.
THWACK! THUD!
The man hammered Cheshire Cat's gut repeatedly. Each time, she writhed in agony.
"K-Keurk! Hngh! I-It hurts!"
"Lady Dnia said if you begged and cried, she'd have us bring you back alive. But you? You're done."
"Kyaha! Kyahahahaha!"
Suddenly unhinged, Cheshire Cat burst into mad laughter. Then she spat right in the man's face.
"Why should I repent? I've lived my whole life with betrayal, nyang! This time, I'll betray death itself, nyang!"
In other words, she was just gonna die. Crazy bitch.
I clicked my tongue, then locked eyes with Tyr.
I waved hello. Hi.
But suddenly, Tyr yelled,
"Y-You're here at last! Your plan's busted, you bastards! From now on, Florian's in charge!"
Her shout caught me off guard too, and all thirteen pairs of eyes turned my way. At least Tyr hadn't betrayed us.
The guy who'd been pounding Cheshire Cat's gut asked me,
"Who the hell are you? Florian or whatever? They've been calling for you."
"Patient."
I pointed blatantly at my patient gown sleeve.
"Bullshit."
"Doctor."
"Moron."
But the backlash came from elsewhere. Dodo and Tyr, strapped to their tables, started thrashing like mad.
"Aigoo! Lord Florian! Save me! This sucks!"
"Sucks?"
"Yeah! This sucks! Save us already! Ain't that hard. You gonna talk like that? We were loyal—where's the perks? Perks!"
"Fix your mouth."
"Gotta live to fix it! Save us, please!"
I nodded. Planned to anyway.
Oh yeah, I'd grabbed two tools. I pulled out the Ermetilene hammer—that had been Cheshire Cat's.
"Wanna fight? You sure you can handle it?"
"Easy."
Before he could react, I hurled him onto the operating table.
BOOM—!
Impressively, the table held up. Worth the investment.
"Now, patient."
"......?!"
The man's face went blank in an instant. Eyes screaming he couldn't believe he'd been taken down so easily.
I never get tired of that look.
"If it hurts, raise your hand."
CRACK—!
I smashed his skull with the hammer.
It burst like a watermelon with a splat, the cranium shattering. No surprise, with Ermetilene construction.
"Told you. I'm a real doctor."
Nine patients left to treat.