Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Spilling the Tea on the Party's Collapse
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Whack!
"...Huh?"
I'd just yanked my axe free and was about to charge at the woman, Deluna, when the sudden commotion left me standing there with my mouth agape.
"...Uh, um?"
Kakchi herself looked stunned after getting slapped across the cheek.
"Phew... Densi. Telling them to run? What kind of nonsense is that? Makes us sound like the bad guys, doesn't it?"
Deluna gazed down at Kakchi with a refreshing smile.
Then she grabbed Kakchi by the collar, yanked her head up, and started slapping her cheeks hard.
"If you keep talking like that, what am I supposed to do with my reputation?! Huh?!"
Whack, smack! Thwack! Pow!
The sharp sounds of palms striking cheeks soon turned into full-on punches.
A refined groan of "Urk, guh" echoed through the tense corridor.
No one could even think to move amid the chaos that had erupted out of nowhere.
"How are you still the same after slaving away under me for over a decade? Get your head straight already."
Ptooey!
A glob of spit landed on Kakchi's cheek. Her face was bruised and swollen around the eyes, but she didn't even try to wipe it off before passing out.
"Oh dear, Big Sister. Didn't you go a bit too hard on the girl?"
"Nah. That's what slaves are for. Vesta handed her over to me for exactly this kind of thing."
"Fair point."
The armored women flattered Deluna, who had just beaten the crap out of Kakchi.
I quietly assessed the situation while watching them dust off their hands and chat among themselves.
There were seven of them.
Deluna—the woman I'd seen at the Explorer's Union—Kakchi, and five other armed fighters with weapons drawn.
'Deluna's the leader of that pack, the rest are her lackeys, and Kakchi's her slave? Who's Vesta?'
I didn't have the full picture, but that's what I pieced together from the fragments.
I couldn't care less that Kakchi was getting her ass handed to her like a dog in the dog days of summer. Just another beating, nothing more.
The only thing bugging me was why they'd put on this little 'show' right in front of us.
"Eek..."
I soon found out. A terrified voice leaked from behind me.
Jermi, you idiot. He'd fallen hook, line, and sinker for their village drama.
When people see someone getting the shit beaten out of them right in front of their eyes, their thinking instinctively freezes up.
Frozen thinking paralyzes the brain, limiting you to basic thoughts and reactions.
Your body tenses and locks up, or you blurt out something stupid like Jermi. Just those two options, enforced.
So the woman had staged this farce to ramp up the tension and pressure us psychologically.
I nudged Jermi's heel with mine. He finally sucked in a breath.
"Hng..."
Deluna noticed and flashed a sly grin.
More precisely, she was eyeing me all sticky and intense.
What the hell did that smile mean? Fuck. Was this what getting eye-raped felt like?
If I were a woman, I'd probably be pregnant right now. Gave me the chills.
"Sorry about the commotion~ She used to behave back in the day, but now she's got a big head and won't listen. Slaves these days..."
Deluna bowed her head politely, hands clasped together, sounding genuinely apologetic.
On the surface, she seemed like a polite, sweet lady.
If we weren't in the Labyrinth and it was our first meeting outside, I might've bought it wholesale.
But after seeing her brutal true colors just seconds ago, my expression hardened instinctively.
"I'm Eli, by the way. Since we've crossed paths like this—"
'Why the fuck does everyone I meet pull this shit?'
I ramped up my guard, watching her casually drop a fake name.
"Doesn't feel like a great meeting. Let's just go our separate ways."
"..."
Deluna's face stiffened at my curt reply.
"That fucking male dares interrupt Big Sister while she's—!"
"Enough."
The lackey who'd bristled and stepped forward shut her mouth at Deluna's command.
"You're right. In a dangerous Labyrinth like this, you never know what might happen. Shall we look forward to our next meeting? We'll go first."
"Do that."
We hugged the corridor wall as tight as we could. They stuck to the opposite side as they passed.
"See you next time."
"..."
"No greeting back, huh? Fine, whatever."
They kept eyeing me until the end as they moved on.
Our two parties crossed paths and drifted apart. Soon, they vanished from sight.
Even pressing my ear to the ground, I couldn't hear footsteps or vibrations anymore.
"Th-they're gone... Phew..."
Jermi let out a sigh of relief once they were fully out of view.
Too bad, but it wasn't time to relax yet.
"Those sneaky bitches. Nothing sneakier."
"Huh?"
"They haven't left. Those fuckers."
"What?! For real?!"
My senses still picked them up.
Right at the fuzzy edge of my perception, they'd stopped moving and were just waiting.
'The beastkin from before breezed right past, but these ones are obsessed.'
Makes sense. Their eyes had been off from the first moment to the last.
'And context points 99% to it being about the slave thing.'
Getting tangled up could mean anything. As long as I didn't end up a limbless living dildo slave, I'd call it a win.
"Incoming."
After a long pause, they turned around and started heading back our way.
Heading straight on like this, we'd still have a good distance to the escape portal.
The fighters' levels averaged 4 to 6, excluding Deluna.
I'd be fine, but Jermi would get caught for sure.
Part of me considered ditching him, but he'd been more reliable than expected.
In a world with no one to trust, stacking allies—even one more—was smart.
Stat-wise, he was decent too. Like a slightly stronger, smarter goblin. Easier to stomach that way.
We had a brief window before they returned.
"Jermi."
"Yes, Big Brother! I'm ready!"
"Good. Then strip."
"...Pardon?"
Jermi blinked dumbly, asking again. What was there to tilt his head about? He heard right.
"Strip. Everything."
"Densi, are you insane? Huh? Fuck, how much trouble have you caused us just now?!"
Thwack!
"Kehuk!"
An armored woman's fist slammed into Densi's gut. But they kept pounding away, anger unspent.
"If you hadn't told them to run, we'd have bashed 'em and made slaves out of them ages ago. Tch!"
Densi felt the weight of a boot grinding her head into the floor and let out a bitter smirk.
"Huh? Smirking? The bitch is smirking?"
Smack! Thud!
The beating continued, but Densi's smile only grew.
'Your punches don't hurt at all...'
Just one or two months ago, those fists had made her tremble. But after someone's 'etiquette training,' her tastes had warped—pain no longer registered as pain.
"That's enough."
At Deluna's order, they froze like puppets with cut strings.
Deluna stared silently down at Densi for a moment, then crouched to bring her face close.
Densi flinched away from her gaze without thinking. Conditioned fear.
"You knew that guy, didn't you? The one in the helmet."
"...!"
'How?'
Densi's mind raced with the question. She'd never mentioned him—how did she know?
"Knew it. After over ten years as your master, you think I can't read your face?"
Deluna sneered incredulously and continued.
"He seemed pretty tough. Why'd you suddenly act out of character? You're not the type to feel guilty about enslaving others.
Gets me curious. Why tell him to run when you always obeyed orders like a good dog, even if you hated it? Huh? Spill it. Didn't want him ending up a slave like you?"
"..."
Pat. Pat.
Deluna stroked the head of the bowed Kakchi.
Just like an owner praising a pup to coax behavior.
And their actual status wasn't much different.
Densi had been abandoned by her parents, sold to slavers, and lived as a slave for over a decade. Deluna was her owner.
"When'd you meet him? The only time I let you off the leash lately was sending you to the first floor for newbie training—and you came back alone. Was it then? Or before? Speak. Now."
"..."
Densi stayed silent.
Deluna's questions had her own head spinning too.
'Why did I tell him to run?'
First meeting, she'd planned to enslave him.
Sell him off to pay her own slave debt and start a new life.
Hell, she'd even thought about raping him. A guy with that body and face—perfect for popping her cherry. How do you even hold back?
But he'd curb-stomped her instead, then subjected her to that brutal 'etiquette education' disguised as violence. Something dormant inside Densi had awakened.
Throb.
Her solar plexus burned hot where he'd hit her.
Her mind cleared. The answer was simple.
"Not gonna answer?"
Whack!
Densi's head snapped to the side. Her cheek stung.
But it barely hurt anymore.
A faint pleasure even tingled through her.
Though compared to his, it was less than dirt under a fingernail...
"Whatever. We can drag the reason out of you back outside the Labyrinth. Looking forward to it. I'll toss you in your favorite punishment room when we get back."
Deluna dusted her hands, stood, and shifted her gaze from Densi to the fighters.
"We've vented enough. Good wait?"
"Yes. We've put enough distance without losing them—they'll think we just passed by. Perfect time to strike while they're off guard."
"Nice. Can't see the helmet guy's face, but that body's top-tier merchandise... Spearguy's mid-to-high grade too. Solid haul for the first floor."
"Heading for the escape portal on layer two? Means we can gauge their skill. And they're men. We can handle it without you even stepping in, Big Sister."
"Perfect. This slave hunt's gonna be fun."
Deluna grinned ear-to-ear, fantasizing about the profits outside. The fighters cautiously asked,
"Big Sister, um... just maybe..."
She clocked their flushed faces and knew exactly what they wanted.
"We fuck 'em after we catch 'em, obviously. No damaging the goods, got it?"
"Kuh! As expected from Big Sister!"
They spoke as if victory was already theirs, drooling over the sweet spoils of the raid.
'Idiots...'
In that moment, only one person there thought they'd lose.
Deluna's group retraced their steps slowly, stealthily stalking their prey with muffled footsteps.
The fighters' eyes were already rolling back at the thought of satisfying their lust.
And as they passed the goblin wall where they'd faced the men...
"P-please, spare me! Sisters!"
A naked man staggered toward them.
Deluna eyed him warily.
'...That's the spearguy from before.'
His clothes looked forcibly torn, fresh scratches marred his skin, and he had no gear or spear.
"...Looks like the others got to him first."
"Watch yourselves from here on."
The upper Labyrinth crawled with slave hunters snatching weaklings and men to sell.
Just two guys—plenty tempting for other hunters.
"Hic... Hiccup... Y-you're really scary... D-did you come back to save us on purpose?"
"Uh, y-yeah..."
The man hugged the lead woman and blushed.
To womb-brained creatures, the sight was enough to shatter rational thought.
The fighters, brains half-melted by lust already, ignored Deluna's warning and couldn't peel their eyes off his body.
But Deluna, standing a bit farther back...
'...Huh?'
A sense of wrongness.
Observing the scene, an intense unease washed over her.
'What is it? This feeling... I've sensed it before...'
Like stumbling into a spiderweb. Walking right into a trap.
"Ahem. So, slave hunters chased you?"
"Yes. Hic... They took all my gear, food, clothes... Hic."
People's thinking freezes at bizarre scenes unfolding before them.
Frozen thinking paralyzes the brain, limiting to simple thoughts and actions.
Body tenses, or lust-blinded women fixate solely on the man's body.
It narrows perception to a pinhole.
"M-my party member... Hic, they dragged him off... I-I barely escaped..."
"F-for real?! Where! Where are those bastards now!"
Familiar somehow. Yet off.
Deluna waited amid the nagging dissonance for the silent man to speak.
Finally, his mouth opened.
"Right here."
Shluck!
Deluna couldn't even scream as she stared at the axe buried in her neck from behind.
"Peekaboo."
The man seemed to grin from inside his helmet.